Thread: Bon Iver
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Old 02-05-2012, 04:25 PM
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Chicago Sandy Chicago Sandy is offline
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I'm not interested in hearing syllables smushed together--it's like an unrelenting onslaught of scat, only with a vocal tone that is less than pleasing. If I want to hear sonic textures and moods I'll listen to instrumental music of whatever genre (rock, folk, jazz, even electronic); if one has nothing to say, why bother singing it? I don't think Vernon's syllables "sound good together;" to me they sound like monotonous undifferentiated asyllabic mumblings.

I think there's also more than a little of the hipster ethos there, which is that cleanly sung lyrics that mean something and making eye contact with the audience are "commercial" and thus to be avoided at all costs lest one be seen as giving in to the Establishment. Same as the punk ethos back in the '70s (but there, any better than primitive musicianship) when the worst epithets one could hurl at a band were "tight" and (heaven forbid) "polished." I think a lot of punk musicians got tired of hiding their instrumental lights under a bushel, and New Wave evolved, which made barebones rock & pop safe for chops again. Maybe the current trend of "atmospheric" pseudo-folk will similarly morph when its singer-songwriters realize that they want their sentiments to be heard and pondered by their audiences.

Those who stopped listening to popular music since 1975, check out Kathleen Edwards, the Decembrists, the Civil Wars, Lucinda Williams, and the current crop of NON-navel-gazing acoustic singer-songwriters (including some who've thrown a bit of electric guitar into the mix) who write interesting lyrics that are neither marshmallow fluff nor soul-baring TMI.
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Last edited by Chicago Sandy; 02-05-2012 at 04:32 PM.
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