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Post by bluecanary on Apr 9, 2010 23:06:20 GMT -5
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Post by fouroftwo on Apr 10, 2010 9:53:53 GMT -5
I thought this was interesting:
"When we’re putting things together we’re not thinking how is this song going to connect to the last song. We’re thinking, how can we make this song as different as possible from the last song."
...because in some cases, yeah, there are songs following songs that don't quite mesh together (looking at you, Flood) but in other cases I feel like they go together perfectly. That might be an effect of having listened to the albums repeatedly, I guess?
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Post by bluecanary on Apr 10, 2010 16:09:12 GMT -5
I think that might help explain why they have so many pieces of music that all sound so different when, with a lot of other artists you feel like they are just writing the same thing over and over again. And with TMBG it frequently is the music rather than the lyrics that make the songs so unique. I've always assumed that for a lot of their songs, they write the music first and then find lyrics that go with it, even if they don't make the most sense. Rather than writing out the words then finding the melody. Though I'm sure they do it both ways.
I tend not to notice it so much in terms of albums because I so rarely listen to albums as a whole, but you are right. Most of the songs don't necessarily flow right into each other and then sometimes they just do. Something like Flood is very not-meshy but then I feel like a lot of The Else really does mesh together well. Hmmmm....
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Post by fouroftwo on Apr 11, 2010 13:51:55 GMT -5
The Else is definitely the most "together" album, I think. I know in interviews I've heard Linnell say that it's one of their less cuddly albums because they were working on the kids' albums around the same time (but now I can't find the interview, of course) and I've always assumed that's what he meant. There's a definite divide between the whimsical tracks on Flood (like Istanbul) and the more substantive ones (like Dead), but on The Else it's like they've exhausted all their whimsy. The only vaguely silly song on that album is The Mesopotamians, and even that has some rough-ish edges ("half believing there will sometime come a day someone gives a damn...")
I never thought about the songs in terms of albums until I started to listen to LPs, and now I can't get away from how they flow as a whole.
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Post by bluecanary on Apr 11, 2010 17:40:25 GMT -5
I think the album as a concept is kind of a dying art thanks to iTunes and iPods and playlists. It's a shame really but I admit I am one of the worst offenders. An enormous part of my music collection is "best of" CDs and soundtracks. I don't even personally own all of TMBG's albums because they are all on the computer and I can borrow the boyfriend's whenever I need them.
Oddly, I am much more adapted to the kids records as albums and only certain of the rock albums (Flood, The Else, Factory Showroom, Lincoln and Misc T because those are the ones I actually have on CD in my car).
I have actually seen Linnell make the cuddly comment a few times. At least one of them was in the Electronic Music magazine interview.
Which brings me to another point that you brought up. It drives me crazy that interviews aren't catalogued anywhere. Enough so that I have been planning to start doing it but I don't know the best way to go about it. Perhaps now that we have this here board I can get something together. Any suggestions?
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Post by goodtimes2 on Apr 17, 2010 12:07:09 GMT -5
Cool little interview. I usually skip interview news but this one was a little gem.
P.S: the board's 50th post!
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