I picked this album for two reasons. It makes me feel good, and I think this is the perfect time for it. This is a summer album, and it's possible that it's only a summer album.
Delorean is a Spanish band who have gone through several phases and sounds. They started in a punk rock space for their first two albums, and in present day, are sort of a more traditional indie pop-rock band. But in the sweet, sweet middle is where I appreciate this group the most. Between this album and their EP Ayrton Senna (which I might even like more or equally, but 4 songs so...) I think they perfected their sound.
Subiza is at its heart a dance album, and could by many standards be considered an electronic dance album. In that sense, it does take some open-mindedness to enjoy it from people who don't generally listen to music with those tags. However, it is still a band, with people playing instruments, that just happens to be heavily influenced by the Ibizan dance culture.
In my h opinion, it's beautiful, it's layered, it's unique, and creates a very specific aesthetic. I've been dying to find another band with this sound that doesn't just go for the lowest common denominator. It's probably not a mistake that I'm on an island for the first time in my life and this is the first album I picked, but I'm hoping this sends some positive vibes your way. If not, I love y'all regardless.
I struggled mightily with this album. Simply put, none of it resonated with me. It all blends together, which works if you like the sound that is being created, but to me this is [Insert Earlisms]boilerplate, boring, H&M-style dance pop[/Earlisms]. That means that I totally understand the appeal, but it's really not for me. It's nice background music, I think, for certain people, and who knows - maybe some people worship Delorean like they do Animal Collective or the Talking Heads, but...I'm not sure where this is going. I'm going to stop now.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any songs in particular to point out since nothing really stuck out.
I look forward to your next choice Jay! And that is not intended to sound sarcastic, though I think it does. I really am looking forward to it.
There are parts of this album that I really liked. The instrumentation is nice; dancey piano stabs, distorted vocal samples, some cool synths. My favorite song was Simple Graces. It really stood out from the rest. I liked the use of the ever popular amen drum loop used in a context other than drum and bass or breakcore. I'm actually surprised this one isn't more popular, it has the potential to be a great indie radio hit.
ReplyDeleteAnd now, onto the criticisms. During every listen, I was bored by the fourth song (however, my interest always peaked again at Simple Graces). In a way, I felt like this album's sound was too "crowded". The use of reverb makes it sound expansive, but something about it makes all the different layers sound really in your face (more specifically, in your ears). Having too many instruments playing loudly over each other doesn't work well with fun dance tunes like these. If I heard any of these songs on the radio or a playlist, I probably wouldn't budge.
Overall, I really wanted to like this album, but couldn't get into it.
I first heard this album around the time it came out. This was the time when I first starting to expand my taste in music, so it felt like a breath of fresh air. After only listening to bands like Brand New, a dance album was a definite change of pace that I enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteHowever, now that I have further fleshed out my musical exploration, this album seems to fall a bit flat. No song really differentiates itself from its counterparts. They all have what sounds like the the same beat and the vibe never shifts. This makes it a pleasant background listen, but in a vacuum it leaves me wanting more. The group seems to never build on their ideas and it feels like they wrote one song nine times. The vocalists remind me of the fellows from AnCo, which I think plays a role in me felling let down. It is like Avey and Panda got bored and made a dance album in 30 minutes for a laugh.
I don’t want to sit here and just bash this album. Like I said, it is definitely pleasant to the ears. I just wish there was more. I can understand the appeal to someone living on a sunny island jamming these tunes, like Jay has been. Unfortunately the sun hasn’t been out from behind the clouds in a long time in south Florida, and with it stay my warm memories of discovering this album.
I'm pretty much on board with Parker on this one. I liked some of the synths and Simple Graces was the only song I truly enjoyed. The rest fell flat for me. I felt like a lot of sounds were being explored and used but there wasn't any cohesiveness so it just felt like layer after layer of sounds put together.
ReplyDeleteI get the appeal of the album, it sounds like something I would've liked in my Passion Pitt dayz. I kept on wishing that the next song I listened to would be simpler and more attention grabbing but each track was pretty much sounded the same and none, besides Simple Graces, stood out to me in a memorable way.
All that being said, I really love the album art. It's very ether so looking and the color scheme is awesome.