And you really like AWITC, yeah? That’s what I was getting at. With AWITC they leant into the songwriting approach they took with The Pioneers, where the rhythm section has a very different feel (imo) from, say, She’s Hearing Voices or Helicopter and pretty much all the others.
The rest of the album has that classic post-punk rhythm: taut, driving, reliable. More than a backbone, and more like a cage. But fluid still. You can nod your head to a 4/4 beat.* The drum and bass of The Pioneers, by contrast, is stuttery, and the song as a whole is put together more like a collage of cut-ups from different songs. (Gordy described it at the time as “cut-up”)
*So Here We Are is an interesting exception, almost an inversion, where the arpeggios chords take on this classic role of the rhythm section, providing structure to the almost arhythmic drumming, which gives the “colour” ordinarily provided by the melody.
Don’t know if that makes sense. Just trying to find words to describe what to me is a very clear difference. Best just to ignore me.
Found a copy of Intimacy for a quid in a chazza at the weekend, so gave it a go as I’d not heard it before, despite liking the first two albums, and yeah - bit all over the place isn’t it? Some nice ideas and a few good songs, but for the most part seems like a mess that’s somehow both overcooked and undercooked at the same time. Bizarre.
for me it seems like the more ROCK songs are shoehorned in coz they made their name as a rockin’ band but the really good stuff is the more fragile more electronic stuff that they basically ditched when Intimacy flopped. a real shame, i’d have loved to have seen where they’d have gone if it had done well
yeah, the ‘rock ones’ definitely feel like a bit of an afterthought (although not unenjoyable really!), but it’s the more electronic ones I didn’t really get on with tbh - just felt like nice enough ideas, but a little hamfisted on the execution.
I also really got that Foals- esque ‘we made our name doing this one thing that we’re really good at, but to avoid being typecast, we’re moving away from it and doing stuff that just isn’t as good’. I appreciate the swings they were taking, and will never shit talk a band that’s at least trying something new, but all just felt a bit of a loud, hot mess haha.
fair enough, id have thought you’d be more into the electronic-ish stuff. Foals are a funny one for me as i remember they made a big fuss of re-mixing the first album themselves to take all the reverb off and then the second album is soaked in reverb and that went massive and then they turned into a big beefy rock band. weird time for bands
think the electronic elements are just very ‘of their time’ and haven’t dated brilliantly really. only so much over the top glitchy nonsense I can take haha!
i love FUCKING YOU i remember FUCKING YOU really made me laugh
