What's your favourite Adele song?
- Thread starter luka
- Start date
Same with the Migos vs Keef battles we had on here in 2018-19. I didn't rate that lot post no label II, but they at least managed to evoke an emotion of really base aerobics instructor instant satisfaction.
I can't hate Adele because there's nothing to hate there. It's like talking about bland studied tech house records. yeah ok they do their job and sound crispy clean but that's it.
I can't hate Adele because there's nothing to hate there. It's like talking about bland studied tech house records. yeah ok they do their job and sound crispy clean but that's it.
Why does it need to be disguised in pleasantry though? Why not take it straight to the vein like good heroin. Disguising can also be a synonym for badly cut.
I don't like regular saturday night clubbing though. I much prefer dirty warehouse raving. So of course I'll never understand the post-clubh comedown. I used to go home and get even more hammered and then go into lectures or do web design work. Clubbing with its sunday downtimes never made sense to me, the only time I did that I went to see theo parrish on 2 grams of mdma powder after drinking half a 750l bottle of rum in 20 minutes with a mockney tory bird on the train. then beers+fake absinthe+even more powder at the club it was fucking fantastic but i can hardly remembver any of it all i remember is buzzing well into the next day - no idea if theo's set was any good. But the week after that I kind of realised i could have done that all at home and had a good time so i vowed to moderate my drink/drug intake when i go out, so the utopian aspect of clubbing never grabbed me unless i was really, really =really out of it. No, I want to be deep fucked by sound and brought to the point of orgasm through sheer apocalyptic disorientation and psychosis.
So there were like no sad broken dreams to come down from. usually I'd put on some black dog or 94 era ltj bukem or aretha or whatever. Like, not some kind of radiant E-fuelled afterglow. And also why do you need Dido when you have that one Natalie Imbruglia song anyway. You can just stick that on loop. It perfected the form.
So there were like no sad broken dreams to come down from. usually I'd put on some black dog or 94 era ltj bukem or aretha or whatever. Like, not some kind of radiant E-fuelled afterglow. And also why do you need Dido when you have that one Natalie Imbruglia song anyway. You can just stick that on loop. It perfected the form.
I should know better than to try to engage with you on a topic you've made your mind up to ignore the liminalities of so you can indulge in your own hobby-horses irrelevant to the conversation, but nonetheless:
the point with Dido isn't spontaneous alchemy or unrehearsed performance - it's the sound of everyday, downtrodden misery and frustration. Everyman recognisable misery. The sad recognisation of I deserve nothing more than I get because nothing I have is truly mine. The performance here doesn't require showmanship or authenticity (whether affected or otherwise) because the feelings and sentiments of Dido's music aren't designed to be outsized and powerful, they're resignated and frustrated, the quiet sigh of not anger or lust or frustration but the jaded ennui of missed opportunities and lost potential.
when I use the word "disguised" I don't mean that there's nothing masked there - it's hiding in plain sight, and easy to brush off if you're not paying attention, but blatant in its descriptions of the misery and trudge of post-modern life. The Tesco-mum-listener diss (which, by the way, is a reflection on an imagined audience and not the music itself) allows this stuff to be quietly subversive in a way that Adele or whoever isn't, because the subject matter can be darker than the surface level of glossy sheen and contemporary (then) production lends itself to.
the point with Dido isn't spontaneous alchemy or unrehearsed performance - it's the sound of everyday, downtrodden misery and frustration. Everyman recognisable misery. The sad recognisation of I deserve nothing more than I get because nothing I have is truly mine. The performance here doesn't require showmanship or authenticity (whether affected or otherwise) because the feelings and sentiments of Dido's music aren't designed to be outsized and powerful, they're resignated and frustrated, the quiet sigh of not anger or lust or frustration but the jaded ennui of missed opportunities and lost potential.
when I use the word "disguised" I don't mean that there's nothing masked there - it's hiding in plain sight, and easy to brush off if you're not paying attention, but blatant in its descriptions of the misery and trudge of post-modern life. The Tesco-mum-listener diss (which, by the way, is a reflection on an imagined audience and not the music itself) allows this stuff to be quietly subversive in a way that Adele or whoever isn't, because the subject matter can be darker than the surface level of glossy sheen and contemporary (then) production lends itself to.
Oh I'm not using housewife as a diss. Some of my favourite 70s turkish schmaltzers are archetypical housewife soul. It's more that if I'm looking to music to express ennui, then what's the point of listening to music? Seen as ennui indicates a state of resigned indifference. Furthermore you're kind of proving my point by breaking it down as an outsider, inasmuch as you can self-critically be like look, she doesn't write powerful songs. It's a fundamentally elitist, learned sympathy. What people call ironic listening these days. But she studied music, you can't just brush that off as being irrelevant to the discussion.
The same people who venerate dido are also likely to dismiss rap as lumpen, hooligan music, so I don't think the parallels are irrelevant. Yes, alienation is universal, but there is seeing power in your alienation to oppress or be a bigot, and realising that your alienation is destructive and fundamentally toxic. Hip Hop unmasks this in a way that this very British trend is unable to.
And can we please stop with the hobby horse diss. This is a forum. It by default invites argument.
yeah that's wicked, my cousins are a huge fan. totally artificial.
luka
Well-known member
"It's a fundamentally elitist, learned sympathy."
I could definitely regard a whole range of my spectrum of affect in this way. I wouldn't particularly want to, but it would fit, if I didn't squirm too much.
But I liked Boxed joys writing on Dido. And I don't think he's going to or should surrender.
I could definitely regard a whole range of my spectrum of affect in this way. I wouldn't particularly want to, but it would fit, if I didn't squirm too much.
But I liked Boxed joys writing on Dido. And I don't think he's going to or should surrender.
but what you've done prior to this isn't good arguing. You've thrown post-punk, electro, garage, London and Sizzla at the wall to see what sticks. There isn't anything you're saying here that makes me reconsider my position on Dido or enlightens me on to why you (or anyone else) is actively against it. That's not really a debate, it's wilful disengagement. I don't even want to have The Big Dido & Adele Discussion really (I think Fisher said it best on Dido already).
yes, and you are also conspicuously ignoring why Fisher ignores black music that does (what you perceive Dido to be doing) the same. that is the whole point. Look, Mark had a reactionary streak running through him. I can quote it here:
when I say Dido's music isn't designed to be powerful I think I'm being imprecise here: the performances are deliberately not powerful and within that small, hermetic delivery there comes a certain emotional effect. Or rather the power comes from not being a powerhouse performance. And I don't think it codes as outsider positioning to say that I find those inward-looking lyrics and performances relatable and familiar in everyman recognisable misery.
it's true, look it up!
Yeah, but shook ones, pt2.
luka
Well-known member
He's called Stanley Gavin!