Feb 22 2008
Question of the Day
Am I going to break down and buy the Vampire Weekend album? My initial impression is that it’s so cloyingly lightweight that I will barely be able to tolerate it. This is a wine that needs to age a few years, it seems to me.
The other day on Sound Opinions, the guys were discussing the Juno soundtrack, and playing selections. I think they played Kimya Dawson’s “Loose Lips.” she and I were eating lunch and we were like oh fucking eyeroll. What is this hipster nonsense? “Now the Sound Opinion guys are gonna tell us how great this crap is,” I said. Refreshingly, no. As soon as the clip ended, they launched about the same critique, not just at the song (how can you listen to a whole album of that?), but also at Juno itself: “I’m perplexed by the massive fuss over something with such middling artistic merit,” says my new Sound Opinions hero, paraphrased. He was previously on my s-list for calling TV on the Radio the most overrated band of the 00′s, which made me feel distinctively uncool, as music critics are wont to do. Now, of course, we haven’t seen Juno, so maybe it is just wow super awesome or something, but the people falling all over themselves about it strike me as comical themselves. And note to haters: I fucking hated Rushmore, which was borderline unwatchable.
What does this have to do with whether I buy Vampire Weekend? Not much, really, other than that I hear the same ebullient praise coming from the same quarters: if you liked this cloying Kimya Dawson shit, you’ll just love…
I dunno.
I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed by your dislike of Rushmore. For those of us who have been posers and/or losers, it resonates in our sad, tragically hip little hearts.
While I respect Sound Opinions for often delivering on their name, they sometimes provide criticism that smacks of an all-too-deliberate attempt to be the anti-Pitchfork Media. Which is not always a bad thing; just not terribly original.
As for Kimya Dawson…had I listened to her album before I saw Juno, I would have shared your sentiment. But I did see Juno, and grew to love the soundtrack for the healthy dose of rediculous that Kimya brings.
I’m painfully contrarian on some things. It is contrived, and not terribly original on my part either.
And these kids better get off my lawn!