The album’s origins lay in Anthony Gonzalez’s move from Paris to Los Angeles around the turn of the decade. After M83’s fifth studio album Saturdays = Youth made waves in the US’s indie scene, the hype had been steadily building for three years –especially with the heavy amount of press from major indie publications (including this one), French neighbors Phoenix becoming a household name in America, and the slow rise of what was then called “hipster” culture.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez turned 30 throughout the recording of Hurry Up, and those feelings of forgotten youth began to make their way into the content.
Saturdays = Youth’s blend of ’80s new wave, dream pop, and early shoegaze was a major factor in its success, and those qualities were put in even larger focus on Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. As Gonzalez began to dabble in scoring films around 2010, the emphasis on making music that was unapologetically cinematic was speaking to him and audiences everywhere. Everything about Hurry Up had to be epic, widescreen, and ambitious — hence its arriving as a double album with a whimsical, almost utopian title.
For my money, "Wait" is just about the most gorgeous headphone song ever recorded.
Raconte-moi une histoire - the part where she says "Do you want to play with me?" gets me every time because I can hear my kids saying that, and because it is the one line that isn't part of the daydream. I love New Map and OK Pal and Claudia Lewis too.
Re: Music talk Thread
Posted: November 18 21, 9:57 am
by mikechamp
"Achtung Baby" turns 30 this week. If you subscribe to Sirius XM radio, they're playing it a lot on the U2 channel. Here's a deep dive into one of the biggest hits of U2's career:
Why U2's One is the ultimate anthem
One's parent album Achtung Baby came out 30 years ago this week. Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses once said he considered One to be "one of the greatest songs that has ever been written. I put the song on and just broke down crying." In a 2003 special edition of Q magazine, it was voted the best song of all time. It remains a touchstone for the band members, too. "If I was to pick one song which encapsulates everything about who and what we are, it would have to be One," drummer Larry Mullen Jr once told me. "Every time I hear it or play it, it connects."
One is so powerful because of, not despite, its insoluble ambiguity. The rolling beauty of the music means that it is both angry and wounding and warm and healing. It is a painful conversation but between who, and about what, is unclear. It has been variously described as a song about a band in crisis, a marriage collapsing, a father and son at odds, a country reuniting, another country divided, and a quarrel with God, and perhaps it is all of those things. One raises the fundamental question of whether a song's meaning is fixed when it is written and recorded, or whether, provided it is flexible enough, it can continue to acquire new resonances indefinitely. Who gets to say what a song really means?
I love Achtung Baby. Every so often I go back and give it a listen straight through and am struck at how good it is all the way through.
Re: Music talk Thread
Posted: November 18 21, 10:36 am
by go birds
remember when apple automatically installed U2's album on all iphones/ipods? that was weird right
Re: Music talk Thread
Posted: November 18 21, 12:27 pm
by IMADreamer
I guess I'm never going to get the Nirvana thing. Maybe I was just a little too young when it came out? Don't get me wrong I don't dislike it, but I don't love it either. It seems like for the last few weeks I've been hearing a lot, and a lot of people fawning over it as if it's the greatest album ever. I'm also a musician so it double confuses me because a lot of my music buddies are all about it, but I just don't get anything special by it. I'll totally rock out to Smells Like Teen Spirit though.
I guess I'm never going to get the Nirvana thing. Maybe I was just a little too young when it came out? Don't get me wrong I don't dislike it, but I don't love it either. It seems like for the last few weeks I've been hearing a lot, and a lot of people fawning over it as if it's the greatest album ever. I'm also a musician so it double confuses me because a lot of my music buddies are all about it, but I just don't get anything special by it. I'll totally rock out to Smells Like Teen Spirit though.
As someone who can't play whatsoever, I've been enjoying videos like this, I just don't have the ear to pick stuff up like a musician.
Re: Music talk Thread
Posted: November 18 21, 1:50 pm
by BottenFieldofDreams
When I think of Led Zeppelin--I just don't think any other group of guys could have done that. So when I see people walking around in LZ shirts, I get it. Van Halen too (though I don't care for most of it). And Whitney, which I'm seeing a lot of lately.
Nirvana's good. But damn, I'm not sure I should be able to buy their shirt at Wal-Mart in 2021--instead of some other guys in cardigans in the 90's you know? And as I always say, they were a pretty momentary blip in rock music between hair bands and NuMetal. Pretty short revolution. I don't know how many 30th anniversary retrospectives I need to read. They are just as deserving as anyone else. Smells Like Teen Spirit is amazing. Good for them for being the zeitgeisty ones. or maybe not, given Kurt's end.
Re: Music talk Thread
Posted: November 18 21, 5:33 pm
by thrill
The only thing incomparable about nirvana in their era, beyond style/aesthetics, was the drumming. None of the kids who wear those shirts care about the music. It’s just the grunge vibe they’re lifting.
The war on drugs has serious replacements vibes and it might be exactly what I need right now. Very good.
I guess I'm never going to get the Nirvana thing. Maybe I was just a little too young when it came out? Don't get me wrong I don't dislike it, but I don't love it either. It seems like for the last few weeks I've been hearing a lot, and a lot of people fawning over it as if it's the greatest album ever. I'm also a musician so it double confuses me because a lot of my music buddies are all about it, but I just don't get anything special by it. I'll totally rock out to Smells Like Teen Spirit though.
It's the 30th anniversary of Nevermind. I lived through it and for those of us who remember watching MTV just prior to its' release appreciate what that album did. John Stewart hosted a round table on XM with Novoselic and Grohl. He started the conversation by saying that the MTV music awards show the year prior honored Poison, Vanilla Ice and C&C Music Factory - a "band" that basically admits music was being made in a factory. Their impact on music at the time was incredible.
Re: Music talk Thread
Posted: November 22 21, 8:51 am
by go birds
it's kinda funny that when i think of the grunge era, the first album that comes to mind is Aerosmith's Get A Grip