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Jan. 5th, 2011 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhondacrockettWell, started on one of my 2011 "goals" last night by listening to one of my albums.
Loss by Mull Historical Society is one of the albums I had played only once before. Considering the title and my vague recollection of depressing songs, there are some surprisingly upbeat tunes. "Animal Cannabus" was my favourite (despite some puzzlement about whether the title is a drug reference or not): a cheerful ditty about leaving home and self-discovery which reminds me strongly of the first four years of university (it also makes me think of animal crackers). I also enjoyed bits of "Watching Xanadu" (the verses), "Instead" (any bit that ended with the line 'Y O U') and "Public Service Announcer" (the chorus). The latter makes me think of the musical jewellery boxes which my cousins had when they were young, with a dancing ballerina figure inside.
But note: I said I enjoyed bits of songs. The songwriter seems to be addicted to repetition: repetition of words, repetition of notes, repetition of bars. And yes, I know that repetition is a vital part of music and of songs in particular. But when you have three or four lines, one after the other, set to the same string of notes in the same rhythm, and then maybe the last word of the line is repeated two or three times, and the supposed 'chorus' has a very similar tune to the verses, and the songs are all in similar keys... well, you start to wonder if the songwriter was unable to come up with enough material for the standard 3-minute format of pop/rock songs and is trying to stretch what he's got.
It doesn't help that the lyrics are of the oblique 'poetical' kind rather than the straightforward 'prosaic' kind - please note: I'm using 'prosaic' to mean 'like prose writing', NOT 'boring'/'commonplace'. With prosaic lyrics, most people can readily grasp the subject matter and emotional drive of the song; you could write the lyrics out in prose format and they would make (mostly) grammatical sense. Poetical lyrics, however, would look like a mish-mash of disconnected nonsense sentences. With poetical lyrics, you either find them evocative of certain memories, certain emotional states - or you don't, in which case you're left puzzling over what the songwriter is talking about. I was the latter for most of the songs on Loss
The instrumental part of the songs tended to be on the thin side too: maybe a quiet acoustic guitar or a piano, hidden behind the sound of the vocalist. It's interesting that "Animal Cannabus" - the one song I enjoyed as a whole - had the thickest instrumental sound on the album. In several songs, the most noticeable instrument was the drums (although that may have more to do with the fact that my CD player only has one dial for adjusting the tone and I had the volume turned down). They seem to be obsessed with bell-sounds in particular: there were lots of chimes, glockenspiels, xylophones, and the more wibbly-wobbly theremin-like sound effects on the keyboard.
I didn't hate it. I can listen to the whole thing without hating any song in particular. It's just dull: too repetitive, too thin-sounding, too vague; it wants to be clever, 'deep' and 'artistic' but it ends up a bit vacuous. Now I remember why I only listened to it the once.
Loss by Mull Historical Society is one of the albums I had played only once before. Considering the title and my vague recollection of depressing songs, there are some surprisingly upbeat tunes. "Animal Cannabus" was my favourite (despite some puzzlement about whether the title is a drug reference or not): a cheerful ditty about leaving home and self-discovery which reminds me strongly of the first four years of university (it also makes me think of animal crackers). I also enjoyed bits of "Watching Xanadu" (the verses), "Instead" (any bit that ended with the line 'Y O U') and "Public Service Announcer" (the chorus). The latter makes me think of the musical jewellery boxes which my cousins had when they were young, with a dancing ballerina figure inside.
But note: I said I enjoyed bits of songs. The songwriter seems to be addicted to repetition: repetition of words, repetition of notes, repetition of bars. And yes, I know that repetition is a vital part of music and of songs in particular. But when you have three or four lines, one after the other, set to the same string of notes in the same rhythm, and then maybe the last word of the line is repeated two or three times, and the supposed 'chorus' has a very similar tune to the verses, and the songs are all in similar keys... well, you start to wonder if the songwriter was unable to come up with enough material for the standard 3-minute format of pop/rock songs and is trying to stretch what he's got.
It doesn't help that the lyrics are of the oblique 'poetical' kind rather than the straightforward 'prosaic' kind - please note: I'm using 'prosaic' to mean 'like prose writing', NOT 'boring'/'commonplace'. With prosaic lyrics, most people can readily grasp the subject matter and emotional drive of the song; you could write the lyrics out in prose format and they would make (mostly) grammatical sense. Poetical lyrics, however, would look like a mish-mash of disconnected nonsense sentences. With poetical lyrics, you either find them evocative of certain memories, certain emotional states - or you don't, in which case you're left puzzling over what the songwriter is talking about. I was the latter for most of the songs on Loss
The instrumental part of the songs tended to be on the thin side too: maybe a quiet acoustic guitar or a piano, hidden behind the sound of the vocalist. It's interesting that "Animal Cannabus" - the one song I enjoyed as a whole - had the thickest instrumental sound on the album. In several songs, the most noticeable instrument was the drums (although that may have more to do with the fact that my CD player only has one dial for adjusting the tone and I had the volume turned down). They seem to be obsessed with bell-sounds in particular: there were lots of chimes, glockenspiels, xylophones, and the more wibbly-wobbly theremin-like sound effects on the keyboard.
I didn't hate it. I can listen to the whole thing without hating any song in particular. It's just dull: too repetitive, too thin-sounding, too vague; it wants to be clever, 'deep' and 'artistic' but it ends up a bit vacuous. Now I remember why I only listened to it the once.
