viXXagers ?

PaulBrewer

Were Villagers robbed by the XX at the Mercury's ?

Was anyone here involved in the Villagers recording ?

novarock

I dont think they were ever going to win it, generally the mercury award goes to somebody that they 'think' is doing something different all round, and not just to the best songwriter, which he definitely is.. If you watched the coverage, what did you think of the BBC heads they were interviewing before the award. I dont think I ever had the urge to hit someone like that before..

Villagers pretty much self produced it in the guitarists home studio from what I know, and managed to come out with something pretty amazing...

PaulBrewer

I didn't watch it !

Aridstarling

The xx was all self-produced too by the way. I didn't think Conor ever stood much of a chance, the album isn't really on a par with either xx or the Foals album. Stunning live, one of my favourite gigs of the year in the Button Factory, but I feel the record let them down. xx was by far my favourite album on the list, but I felt it was a pretty shoddy list. There was four or five albums there that just didn't deserve a place in my book.

novarock

I really dont get the appeal in the XX. I thought their performance was woeful anyway..

Companero

It is just the same half-arsed barely there floaty indy, I-learned to play the guitar 2 weeks ago crap and havent yet realised that saturating everything in reverb is no subsitute for a good song, that you can find on a hundred squillion myspace pages.

It is amazing that only it simply takes a handful of London based journalists to say that it's "humming with gourgeous longing sexuality" and everybody follows suit, and assumes that there must be something in it.

That plus the fact, that as expected they suck live - for which there is no excuse nowadays.

Aridstarling

Companero wrote: »

It is just the same half-arsed barely there floaty indy, I-learned to play the guitar 2 weeks ago crap and havent yet realised that saturating everything in reverb is no subsitute for a good song, that you can find on a hundred squillion myspace pages.

It is amazing that only it simply takes a handful of London based journalists to say that it's "humming with gourgeous longing sexuality" and everybody follows suit, and assumes that there must be something in it.

That plus the fact, that as expected they suck live - for which there is no excuse nowadays.

Dude, chill, you don't like it big deal. Accept the fact that 650,000 others liked it enough to buy it in the last year. Buy it! In this day and age....

It happens to be one of my favourite albums of the last two years and I would consider myself able to form an opinion not based on the ramblings of a mysterious "handful of London based journalists".

As for slagging off their musical ability, that's just madness. They spent three years making that album, every second of it was considered and judged before you threw your golden ears over it. To say that everything is just smothered in reverb is to ignore the careful, spacious production of the entire album. It's a glorious sounding record to my ears; from the use of compression on 'Fantasy' to the epic guitar on 'Heart Skipped A Beat', and the playing of the MPCs throughout is flawless.

You won't find another record like it anywhere. Nothing else has so well combined pop, indie and underground electronic influences. It's given a face and sound to teenage nightlife. It's the same mood and evocation that makes Burial great, but now we have choruses we can sing along to. Isn't it great?

DamagedTrax

xx, weller, foals and bailey rae were the only albums worthy of nomination IMO.

certainly the only ones i got a grasp of any actual songs in. everything else was too intelligent for its own good (cept biffy, but they're a totally differant arguement!)... and ill probably ruffle a few feathers saying this but villagers? really? :-/ definitly not my cup of tea.

xx is a beautifully written indie/pop record with strong songs. it is definitly very stylised and as a cure fan i love it. but you could easily dress it up in a differant flavour of music and the tunes would still stand tall.

did anyone else notice biffy actually dissappear up their own arses live on tv?

jtsuited

Aridstarling wrote: »

Dude, chill, you don't like it big deal. Accept the fact that 650,000 others liked it enough to buy it in the last year. Buy it! In this day and age....

It happens to be one of my favourite albums of the last two years and I would consider myself able to form an opinion not based on the ramblings of a mysterious "handful of London based journalists".

As for slagging off their musical ability, that's just madness. They spent three years making that album, every second of it was considered and judged before you threw your golden ears over it. To say that everything is just smothered in reverb is to ignore the careful, spacious production of the entire album. It's a glorious sounding record to my ears; from the use of compression on 'Fantasy' to the epic guitar on 'Heart Skipped A Beat', and the playing of the MPCs throughout is flawless.

You won't find another record like it anywhere. Nothing else has so well combined pop, indie and underground electronic influences. It's given a face and sound to teenage nightlife. It's the same mood and evocation that makes Burial great, but now we have choruses we can sing along to. Isn't it great?

yeah +1 on this. I'm not a huge fan of the xx, but I think objectively the best band won.
Oh and on the Burial point, his two albums are imo going to be looked back on as being majorly culturally significant in 10-20 years time.
He turned on a whole generation of snobby elitist techno lovers (like me) to the rugged intricacy and potential of 2-step and UK Garage (remember the commercial nonsense we had at the turn of the millenium!).

PaulBrewer

At least reverb is back ..... I like a bit o reverb, me ...

jiltloop

Yeah I'd have to agree on the XX being the best of the bunch. I quite like their stuff and I don't think you can slate their songwriting skills just because the songs sound pretty simple, the fact is they sound better than the competition.

henessjon

reverb


its all cyclic



when will chorus phase be back