RADAR BROTHERS – The Illustrated Garden
There are many reasons not to like a band. Either their sound isn’t to your liking, they represent an attitude that you find off-putting, or one look at a picture of them and you conclude they’re a bunch of douches. The worst reason not to like a band is because, simply put, they’re boring. Radar Brothers most recent release The Illustrated Garden (set to come out March 23) is — simply put — boring.
Not only does the boredom stain their own work, it puts a bad taste in the mouth of similar, more pronounced artists. They take far too many Elliott Smith and Pinback elements and come off less as their own band and more as some cryptic version of other more mature acts. They’re Media by The Faint without the excitement; they’re The Shins without a sense of age; they’re The Anniversary without any real desire.
I personally hate trashing music; I’ve always thought it was one of those things that’s quick and scores way too much music cred among the so-called Unseen Panel of Hipster Judges. It’s much easier to talk about the things you dislike than the things you do like. There is not much at all that I actually like about The Illustrated Garden. I don’t believe the words of the singer, I’m not convinced the drummer even wants to be in the room when he’s playing his sad little fills and crashes, and I’m almost positive the guitarist isn’t trying at all to make a sound that represents something relatable to the rest of the songs.
Anytime I don’t have anything nice to say about a band I can at least follow it up by saying, “It’s not my style, but it could work for you.” Truth be told, I cannot imagine recommending this band to any fans of any type of music. They have nothing to offer, and anyone who claims The Illustrated Garden is worth listening to is either lying to you or is suffering from some kind of musical delusion.
(Merge Records, PO Box 1235, Chapel Hill, NC 27514)
You’re smoking crack. I picked this up on Itunes today. This is, I think, they’re best album to date, running a close tie or 2nd only to “And the Surrounding Mountains”. The band is WAY more engaged, engaging and exciting than they’ve ever been with the new line up. I don’t get what is so bad about tracks like “Horses, Warriors”, “Quarry” (which ROCKS), “And the Birds” (one of their best) and “Xmas Lights”. I’ve already listened about 6 times and I’m not sick of it yet. I can’t say that about half the crap out there these days — much of which you’ve given positive reviews to. These songs are memorable, which I can’t say about their last album at all, and even less so with “Fallen Leaf Pages”. I strongly suggest you give this another listen. All I can surmise is that someone pissed in your Special K the morning you wrote this. How is the guitar not relatable to the rest of the song? I don’t get it. The licks are well integrated, the keys are lush and beautiful, the new rythym section (did you even do any research on the band? Are you sure you were listening to the right album even?) breathes a lot of much needed life into the band. When you reference the rest of their catalogue here, I can’t help but to think you’ve never even heard the rest of the their catalog. This review smacks of laziness and biased, if not someone just having a really bad day.
PS. The Faint??? Are you fucking serious?
There is also not liking a band because you listened to a few songs, got a gut reaction and turned it off. Sure call it derivative, but its certainly not tasteless. I think you spent a little too much time thinking about how to write a negative review, and not enough time listening to music you are preparing this broken meta discussion for.
How could I not? It’s MY review!
Concerning attitudes and opinions toward music: We do not need to agree on anything. That much is certain, I love the fact that people are able to disagree. You say of the guitar that the “licks are well integrated, the keys are lush.” You and I are clearly not hearing something we agree on as being “Good Music.” I hear slow musical steps that are too dainty to be considered murky and too reflective to be elegant. If you can’t see in your head what the music is doing than you can’t have an honest reaction to it, and I just don’t feel like anything other than sound is coming out of my headphones when I listen to this album. If you listen to this and hear an album that you can’t wait to listen to again and again, than good for you, you have every right to think that way. I’m just making a point, and what do I know? I’m just the digbat who likes writing about music in my free time and has been doing it for some time on the internet and off. You’re a true American for practicing your free speech, and no blog-posting-other-day-job-having-halo-headphone-wearing invisible asshat is going to take that away from you. Having said that I wanted to just talk for a bit about what it means to review music, and discuss art. I urge you to join me in the second half of this post.
Glad to see you’ve made it. Glad, considering you may not have made it to the second half of my initial review of this album. Especially the part where I mention that I hate trashing music. Like I said I find it to be a popcorn way of expressing self gratitude that is too often done to boost egos and not to engage in rational discussion of things. The truth is No one pissed in my Special K the day I wrote this review. Not even the Radar Bros release that really couldn’t muster up the vinegary taste that too many bad albums could leave in ones mouth. The problem with this album is there’s just nothing engaging. I have no reason to keep listening as it trudges down the road like a kid with a broken big wheel. And if your argument is that that is the mood the music is going for, than that’s unacceptable. Melancholy is not an uncommon thing as far as music goes, but for me to not have enough to grab onto upon listening, gives me no reason to engage me in the song at all. Without that, there’s no reason to listen. It’s just zeros and ones being turned into an audible frequency that happens to be plugged into a X amount of dollar music player of some kind. But that’s just my opinion and as long as people don’t long for what is better, art as a whole will be held back as a result.
As far as understanding the rest of the bands catalog is concerned, here’s another thing we have to disagree on. Whatever the band has done in the past is simply that, in the past. If you went to a restaurant and the chef put together you a dish that made you want to vomit, the past dishes made by the chef will not have an effect on what happens to your stomach upon eating. And just so we’re clear, yes I did listen to the correct album. A nice man from Merge Records let me download the album for free.
Also to top off your post script: Yes, Media by the Faint. I’m entirely serious. It’s one of the coolest indie rock albums of the 90’s with energetic, moving and well constructed songs that spark moods and pull the listener in a direction that is elsewhere than where they were before they pushed play. Something that does not happen with the Radar Bros release in question.