i love a couple albums with jack's name on them. for the most part those albums i do enjoy a lot were when he was at his most anonymous as a producer. increasingly, i find the artists who work with him have also become more anonymous in the sounds they're chasing. thats just my opinion and perception. also one of the albums i love, folklore, is not a jack record whatsoever and im ridiculously confused when people consider it one.
and that’s kinda the flaw in the blaming lorde part of the argument. she said she had never heard of primal scream. one of the few props i’ll give jack is that i would find it hard to imagine any music reference most users on this site could make that jack wouldn’t immediately know. he is pretty close to an encyclopedic mind with music. which makes it all the more disappointing that he only accesses the most basic elements of any of those references
I've been thinking about how so many albums are more downtempo this year, but I honestly have to connect it with the pandemic. I can only imagine writing music over the last couple years, and I understand why a lot of "happy" music isn't coming out! A lot of artists who have previously made "bigger" sounding music, are stripped back this year (not just Jack-related music) and I think it has to be a reaction to the state of the world
I think this is partly true, but for me what makes the hot take industry insufferable on it is that I find it’s only becoming less accurate over time. I guess one can make the argument that he leaned very hard into the 80s resurgence immediately post Fun. and you can trace a clear line to him now leaning hard into the understated thing, but I find that to be kind of lazy when I don’t personally think this sounds much like Sling or either of them much like NFR (not to mention that his work on the 2020 Taylor records being pretty unlike any of his other work, Gold Rush sounding like Melodrama aside). For the record I’m not calling your opinion here lazy, I agree he has a signature or at least signature moves that show up all over his work. But I don’t think that’s what the “not Jack AGAIN/with them” Twitter discourse is really about, what I’ve seen feels so much more surface level to me.
i'm glad i don't have a very analytical mind when it comes to music production, i can listen like a simpleton and enjoy it without overthinking it. it's bliss!
I mean, just look at Pressure Machine. A significantly more understated album from a band that has often gone for bombast, and a record that Brandon Flowers has said wouldn't exist without the pandemic.
i mean a lot of people dont understand music production on a much deeper level than he was the guy in the studio with her telling her what sounds good. so of course general takes about prodcers are going to be surface level and come across as lazy. i dont think they're completely unfounded though and have tried to express that on a deeper level in this thread.
I don't like the killers at all, so i can't comment on that album. but i understand the album being part of the post-pandemic feeling music
there are always trends in music haha, a few years back it was edm now it's chill vibe music and in 5 years ska revival baby
This is a nice and enjoyable album, but the issue is we all know Lorde is capable of so much more than "nice and enjoyable". Probably not an album I'll revisit very often, but it's fine.
Jack is fine, how I enjoy his work is generally entirely dependent on either the artist in question he’s producing, or the general vibe being shot for on the record in question. I can’t say that I haven’t seen he was producing a record and went “oh jeez idk about this one”, or seen someone suggest an artist I like should work with him (*cough* Phoebe *cough*) and been like “pls no lol”. I was personally very wary of him producing the latest Clairo record when I saw the initial announcement of it and yet lo and behold that’s one of my fav produced records of the year. his quainter stuff tends to draw me in more and his more bombastic stuff can be pretty hit or miss, but tbh I think if I really went through a bunch of pop producers’ bodies of work, I bet I would find they’re just as or more hit or miss for me as Jack. I have yet to listen to this album. may report back when I do, may not. I liked Melodrama enough but there were some songs I had v specific qualms with, and overall the whole thing didn’t make the most lasting impression outside of a couple choice cuts (Supercut!!!!) your initial sentiment was agreeable enough but I made it even more agreeable (to me)
Yeah idk, I was pretty much expecting to be majorly let down by this but I actually thought it was pretty good. It’s nowhere near as good as her last two but nowhere as bad as I thought it would be.