The hipster indie bible has spoken. Spoken in a barely legible way but spoken nonetheless:
“There’s nothing necessarily wrong with a band repeating itself. But because Faith No More have such a long history, and their members are responsible for music in a staggering array of styles, it’s hard not to expect more, to wish that they might in some way top themselves, or at least change direction. Towards the end of “Cone of Shame”, Patton admits, “I’m only happy when I’m pissing you off.” Considering Faith No More’s history of confounding and confronting the listening public and the systems of order which influence it, such a statement could serve as the band’s motto. In that sense, maybe holding something back was the plan all along, and a future Faith No More record (one is said to be on the way) will have something more.”
The writer of the NPR review Adrien Begrand had his say on the review:
Not bothered by the 6.0 P4k gives Faith No More, but wow that is some weak, substandard writing in the review. http://t.co/uUczhPP3bO
— Adrien Begrand (@basementgalaxy) May 19, 2015
Django, I was a bit harsh re the recent Pixies album. It’s not “dreadful” per se, but to me it’s not really up to snuff. I did listen without prejudice, but as a fan of both the band and their various side-projects – aside from a couple of decent songs – it didn’t work anywhere near as well as FNM’s comeback. The remaining Pixies seem pretty tired, as if they’re running through the motions now. A new album maybe should have been something they approached with real enthusiasm a few years ago? Just my opinion, of course.
Leaving aside the music, though, the fact that Indie Cindy is essentially just a compilation of previously released EPs is pretty lame!
maybe the reviewer is a statistician and is just curtailing the 5% outliers tracks at either end of the sample?
v lol XD
Well, actually, if you remove the first and last tracks, as well as the two singles that were released and then remove Cone of Shame, Separation Anxiety, Black Friday and Matador, you’re only left with two tracks that total just 7 minutes. How the hell can Faith No More call that an album? It’s not even EP length!
Ironic how he/she takes issue with the supposed retreads when virtually everyone else is applauding the band for the fresh sound of the album. As for the complaint over the album length… I almost laughed out loud. “Just eight tracks…”
*facepalm*
Right in line with the Onion article ‘Pitchfork gives music a 6.8″ Funnily enough I’ve been waiting for the Pitchfork review over anything just for a laugh. This review, purely for the writing, is inferior to many others we’ve already seen. It’s not the kind of album that you’ll “get” immediately. I wonder how many listens the reviewer has given it to date? I don’t see why you’d cut the first and last tracks off the album. They’re good.
Yeah, odd review alright. It sort of reads as though the reviewer doesn’t really know what she thinks of it yet. I’ve still yet to hear the album myself but I don’t expect to “get” it quickly either – Motherfucker was rather difficult to get my head around at first but I think it’s rather brilliant now.
A couple of little inaccuracies irked me though: no disrepect to the chap but I don’t think anyone would consider Roddy the band’s musical brain, surely that would be Billy? Roddy is generally pretty hands-off on the writing side of things from what I believe. Also, he didn’t start Imperial Teen after FNM broke up, they’ve been going since the mid-90s. And this thing of Angel Dust being commercially unsuccessful? Maybe in comparison to the Real Thing, but it was far more successful than any of the band’s four other studio albums. Maybe these are just things fans would pick up on though.
By the way, @Carlton above, the new Pixies stuff is actually rather good! Well I think so anyway, I find it hard to believe how much of a savaging it got. As a whole album, Indy Cindy is pretty impressive. Worth listening without prejudice!
That Pitchfork review is a pretty poor rushed job, but… well, it’s Pitchfork. I’m actually sort of surprised they gave an album by a relatively well-known band (by their standards) a semi-reasonable mark out of ten. I remember them giving the Pixies zero recently (their new stuff is largely dreadful, but I digress…).
Anyway, I gather that the reviewer doesn’t dislike the music so much as the fact that it’s not quite as groundbreaking as she’d like it to be? Also, she mentions disregarding the first and last tracks so she can complain that the album is too short! Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Most of her comparisons are all over the place too. Black Friday and Sunny Side Up sound like Tomahawk, do they? Not to most fans of both bands, I wouldn’t think. Superhero sounds like Epic? Does she simply mean that patented (Patton-ted?) Gould bass-line which appears in quite a few FNM songs?
A dog’s dinner, then, but it’s been fun ripping the piss out of it. Thanks, Pitchfork.