Hundredth - Faded Splendor (May 16, 2025) • Page 4

Salivating just thinking about the creative vision

 

Okay, this album is really good. A bit samey throughout but the hooks are undeniable.

 

This rocks

 

Really enjoying this too!

 

Every time a new tool shows up in art, people say it’s the end. Guitars. Synths. Drum machines. Autotune. Digital recording. All of it was hated at first. Now it’s just normal. AI is no different.

Hundredth didn’t replace people. They hired a creative director. They paid someone to use AI with intention. The polarizing reaction is the point. That tension is part of the art.

People saying “this hurts the environment” are ignoring the irony. Traditional production means flights, catering, animal products, water use, and massive overhead. AI removes most of that. If your ethics matter, this method should be celebrated. But it’s not, because people don’t actually hate the impact. They hate the change.

Fear of change gets masked as outrage. That’s what this is. And it doesn’t discourage me. It makes me want to go deeper. Explore more. Create with everything I’ve got.

Whether you agree or not, I’m still down to be best friends. We all care about the same thing. The art.

 

I’d have rather seen grainy videos shot on an iPhone of Chadwick sitting in a coffee shop than the videos I’ve seen for this. A make believe truck floating in the air? A star in a field? It’s nonsensical slop. I’ve seen the music praised time and time again. Not once have I actually seen the art celebrated by anyone but… you. It’s complete ass. Posts like that are what make me reluctant to even engage with the album. Quit pretending there’s zero middle ground between an expensive, full scale production and whatever the fuck this is. “If ethics matter, AI should be celebrated.” Be serious my man, good grief.

 

Dude you’re so far up your own ass it’s hilarious. It all feels so disingenuous especially when you look at the actual content. Is complete garbage and what is really gained at the end of the day by going this route? Think about any that for maybe one second before spewing off a bunch of bullshit trying to sound like a smart person.

Bands can make real videos with real people and those can feel like a genuine effort that reflect upon their art visually, or maybe not maybe it’s just a video of a band playing in a field but at least it’s real and tangible and a person put actual effort into it. You aren’t telling a story with AI. You aren’t making groundbreaking art with AI. You are part of an experiment that is intended to replace real people in their real life jobs, for what at the end of the day? A floating star? A fake truck? Fuck outta here

 

Look at the lyrics, he’s outing the AI stuff:

“I’m just a lowly bastard/the height ain’t worth the hassle”

 

record's good

 

I know this will sound disingenuous because, well, I’ve said my piece on the AI stuff. But this is a really, really boring record. It sounds nice, the textures are pleasant. The songwriting is just so… dull. Really disappointing effort after the leaps forward on Rare and SN

 

This thread bums me out lol

I still enjoy this record a bunch! I think Curve, Big Love, and Blur are my current favorites. Blitz would be a current favorite but I played the hell out of track the last three weeks.

 

Dazzle is such a good song

 

The album is ok but a lot of it sounds like an AI (with the assistance of a prompt engineer with an artistic vision to write new songs) made a derivate version of recent Hundredth songs. Perhaps there some meta commentary there? Some genius subtext on the state of art/AI?


The cover reminds me of starro. I'd love to get an interview with the AI prompt artist to see if they got some inspiration from there.

 

I'd love to tell the AI prompt person* (they're not an artist) to go fuck themselves for being a lazy thief.

 

Putting a starfish made of red sand on someone's face is not achievable in any way through our feeble physical world and limited budgets. I hope you can understand only through the democratization of art through AI can the band have achieved such lofty heights. No more are the starfish album covers for the major label "big guys" It's a wonder how we even had album art before AI. It wasn't even democratized!

Ok I'm done for now. All this AI shit really spoiled this entire album roll out for me.

 

New podcast with frontman Chadwick Johnson went live today, talking about writing and recording the songs, scrapping a full album in 2022/2023, and also the visuals and the use of AI, to name a few things.

Enjoy!

 

Shocking, his entire spiel about AI was a load of nonsense. Gave me even less desire to listen to this

 

"create something out of nothing with limited resources"- Chadwick

Yeah sure that's what AI technology is built on nothing run by companies with limited resources (or rather billions in VC investments and subsidies from trillion dollar companies like Microsoft). I think he just doesn't understand how AI image generation even works.