I’m a pop whore; I’m not afraid to admit to it. Music to me is the opium of the masses. I accept no snobbery (anymore) in re what is good and what isn’t; if the hoi polloi like it then who am I to judge?
Still (there is always a ‘but’ or ‘however’ in these circumstances, isn’t there?) I can still wax lyrical on style versus substance. Take ‘The Rasmus’s’ latest effort ‘No Fear.’ Musically, whilst not inventive, it sounds good… as long as you fail to listen to the lyrics. It bangs and rolls away like a rock anthem, but when you listen to the lead singer it becomes suddenly awkward and angsty. Not in that good way but rather like the Livejournal musings of a fourteen year-old middle class proto-goth.
(I need to write something about the unnecessary proliferation of analogies, especially since I am hoping that it will cure me of writing sentences that have a ‘like’ in the middle of them…)
Perhaps the context, which I am unaware of, saves it; those of you who think that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is overblown obviously have not listened to the album whence it came; when perfectly situated the song climbs even higher in the echelons of ‘This is the good!’ In the same way, that old musichall favourite ‘My Old Dutch’ moves from sacharine to moving when you realise that it is about a couple, married forty years, going to the workhouses, never to see one another again.
Then again, I suspect ‘The Rasmus’ really aren’t in any particularly bad situation and thus the song is simply nu-rock-goth for the sake of blackness; even blacker, being the raison d’etre of the young these days. Perhaps someone they knew died… It’s possible. Then again, perhaps someone they knew had a dream that someone they knew died. Or maybe someone they didn’t know had a dream someone they knew died and they imagined such a situation and wrote a song about it, a song featuring the lyrics ”Operation Darkness.” It probably wasn’t all that important to the sound engineer; I suspect he (or she) rolled their eyes upon hearing the lead singer lay down the vocals.
I like the pretty background noise.
…
I suspect I should go back to the Twenties for a week or two.