A few friends have written me asking why I don't care for the Arcade Fire album. The answer is that, while I don't think it's out-and-out bad (I'll grant that the songs are pretty well written), I just don't think it's all that interesting. Essentially, it's the same whiny, jingly-jangly pop that's pretty much defined "indie rock" for the past ten years or so, but with a few more instruments thrown in. You know that album where Metallica plays with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra? The Arcade Fire (and Broken Social Scene, and The Polyphonic Spree, and all the other orchestral-rock acts out there at the moment) are just the lo-fi equivalent.
Unfortunately, in fact, taking formulaic indie pop, adding one or two new elements, and then trying to sell it as something other than, well, formulaic indie pop, has become commonplace the past few years. God knows how many bands I've seen the past few years who've been advertised as "post-punk," that turn out to be just unimaginitive garage rock with a keyboard and dancey beats thrown in - and, of course, Strokes-ish matching outfits (probably the most egregious example of this is the absolutely wretched Hint Hint - before I saw them, a friend described them to me as "Gang of Four"-esque; "cookie-cutter emo with a keyboard thrown in"-esque is a bit more apt). And of course, there's the above-mentioned trend, in which bands outfit otherwise so-so songs with horns, strings, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, dogs barking out Jingle Bells, etc. Anything to distract people from the fact that they're listening to the same album they've already heard a hundred times before, from a hundred different bands.
The problem, I'm afraid, is that the sound that's come to define "indie" - nasal vocals, strummy guitar, etc. - is pretty well played out at this point (it is to a 27-year-old fogey like me, anyhow). And ultimately, all the orchestras and keyboards and dance-beats in the world can't save it.
Recently, a friend explained to me Tony Wilson's (founder of Factory Records) theory of musical change, which posits that revolutionary upheaval, in the music world, occurs every 12-13 years. So, given that it's been 12-13 years since 1992, and the ascendance of the current "indie" sound, here's to hoping something comes along soon to wipe away, a la what punk did to arena rock, and what Nirvana did to hair metal, all the Hint Hints, and the Arcade Fires, and every other band beating that nerd-bespectacled, cardigan-wearing, dead horse named Indie.
Comments