The Fratellis
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sus
Moderator
People forget The Killers made an El Topo-inspired music video for a song that updates Bowie’s reflective “Time may change me” to a snotty defiant “changes ain’t changin’ me.” “All These Things That I’ve Done” opens with a supplication to God, what first appears to be existential humility (“Is there room for one more son?”) but is quickly unveiled as ambition (“I want to shine on in the hearts of men”). Sure, “I got soul but I’m not a soldier” pushes the track into campy territory, and the video’s mostly play-acting a Jodorowsky-inspired Hollywood set, but it’s at least as good as anything Lana or Matty are doing. At one point Flowers was Gaga-good at melody writing, and the lyrics—well, no one’s saying they’re not adolescent, but the passion of the delivery compensates.
“Mr. Brightside” is as psychologically complex as anything The Strokes put out ("Soma," really?), but that just earns them a cheap slam. Loftus is so busy haranguing the band for their commercial success that he can’t figure out a conceptual frame in which the sexy throb of “Brightside” fits its lyrical content. Naturally he dismisses the package: “[Brightside’s] relentless keyboard ‘n’ guitar racket shuns dourness altogether, as Flowers remarkably makes lines about a girlfriend getting off with some other guy resonate as some kind of weird triumph.”
Cue Mark Fisher doing psychoanalysis on Roxy Music:
[Bryan] Ferry’s sensibility is definitely Masochistic. (As opposed to that of the Sixties, which, as Nuttall, for one, suggests, was Sadean. Compare the Sixties-sired Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”—the Sadist apologizes—to Ferry’s reading of the song—the masochist sumptuously enjoying his own pain—for a snapshot of a contrast between the two sensibilities.)
“It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss” Flowers stammers, adrenaline pumping through the bassline, the combination channeling that weird chemical mix of arousal that gets read as desirable or repelling depending on context.
“Now they’re going to bed” escalates into full-blown sexual fantasy: “But she’s touching his…” Flowers is practically panting, ecstatic, as the pre-chorus kicks in “Chest now, he takes off her / dress now… [it’s] taking control.” Late-night alibis get described in terms of giving head, jealous nausea as a narcoleptic, and the constant promise of overcoming looms: “Gotta, gotta be down because I want it all.” Overcoming connotes surmounting, but it’s equally accomplished through tunneling, a boring straight to the other side. Flowers’ “eager eyes” await opening; revelation is the admission that confirms simultaneously his greatest fear & fantasy.
“Mr. Brightside” is as psychologically complex as anything The Strokes put out ("Soma," really?), but that just earns them a cheap slam. Loftus is so busy haranguing the band for their commercial success that he can’t figure out a conceptual frame in which the sexy throb of “Brightside” fits its lyrical content. Naturally he dismisses the package: “[Brightside’s] relentless keyboard ‘n’ guitar racket shuns dourness altogether, as Flowers remarkably makes lines about a girlfriend getting off with some other guy resonate as some kind of weird triumph.”
Cue Mark Fisher doing psychoanalysis on Roxy Music:
[Bryan] Ferry’s sensibility is definitely Masochistic. (As opposed to that of the Sixties, which, as Nuttall, for one, suggests, was Sadean. Compare the Sixties-sired Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”—the Sadist apologizes—to Ferry’s reading of the song—the masochist sumptuously enjoying his own pain—for a snapshot of a contrast between the two sensibilities.)
“It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss” Flowers stammers, adrenaline pumping through the bassline, the combination channeling that weird chemical mix of arousal that gets read as desirable or repelling depending on context.
“Now they’re going to bed” escalates into full-blown sexual fantasy: “But she’s touching his…” Flowers is practically panting, ecstatic, as the pre-chorus kicks in “Chest now, he takes off her / dress now… [it’s] taking control.” Late-night alibis get described in terms of giving head, jealous nausea as a narcoleptic, and the constant promise of overcoming looms: “Gotta, gotta be down because I want it all.” Overcoming connotes surmounting, but it’s equally accomplished through tunneling, a boring straight to the other side. Flowers’ “eager eyes” await opening; revelation is the admission that confirms simultaneously his greatest fear & fantasy.
sus
Moderator
Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town are a part of that great tradition of gothic overblowness, the rhapsodic songwriting and aesthetic decadence Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler and Queen excelled at. In the music video for “Mr. Brightside,” Flowers wears eye shadow and three-piece suits at an Eyes Wide Shut pleasure carnival, his religious and productive commitments facing off against his dionysian hometown. Wasn’t all this obvious at the time?
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
uh oh we've provoked a full-blown exegetic defense of the Killers
this is why I usually don't in join in luka's needling efforts
everything's having a good time and then in a heartbeat it's spun completely out of control
this is why I usually don't in join in luka's needling efforts
everything's having a good time and then in a heartbeat it's spun completely out of control
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
but again, I respect the commitment
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
jock jams
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
many childhood memories
pretty amusing that a British prog rock act is so intimately associated with Michael Jordan
pretty amusing that a British prog rock act is so intimately associated with Michael Jordan
BTEC Marc Bolan.
shiels
_
we need to pick up this conversation as a thread. I think we need to rebalance things round here
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
nah it's just that this new wave of young guys are all highly educated but short on life experience
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
which shouldn't be held against them in any way ofc
we were all that way at some point
we were all that way at some point
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
they counterbalance it like young people always do with their youthful enthusiasm
luka
Well-known member
When you read that long suspended reason thing do you get the same sense? It's a kind of adapvanced mimicking of music crit prose but it doesn't correspond to any human experience it's just this free floating thing. Really strange effect. Untethered.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
I've known lots of highly educated/short on life experience people (I'm sure we all have) you often get that kind of uncanny valley effect
it's from knowing lots of abstract things but not as much about how human beings actually behave
there's also an upside to it tho, not being tied down by as many preconceived notions as old jaded fuckers like most of us are
it's from knowing lots of abstract things but not as much about how human beings actually behave
there's also an upside to it tho, not being tied down by as many preconceived notions as old jaded fuckers like most of us are
woops
is not like other people
there was crossover too
i saw this guy do this song at 93 feet east no shirt and trucker cap, probably the all time apex or nadir of hipster