Comments on: maybe tomorrow it rains, maybe tomorrow it rains http://www.girlpants.org/2006/04/maybe-tomorrow-it-rains-maybe-tomorrow-it-rains/ more songs than a song convention Sat, 26 Nov 2011 08:24:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.3 By: Ben http://www.girlpants.org/2006/04/maybe-tomorrow-it-rains-maybe-tomorrow-it-rains/comment-page-1/#comment-226 Ben Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:46:45 +0000 http://www.girlpants.org/?p=165#comment-226 "like a cockerspaniel to a summer sausage" is almost a Darnielle line. Hah. I love many things about <em>Come, Come</em> but it doesn't work as a coherent musical or narrative experience for me the way that his albums often do and (I think, to a lesser degree) this EP does. Yeah, a lot of the songs here are more upbeat--probably more upbeat than he's been in a long, long time--and yeah, it's a lot easier to have that kind of immediate, throat-clutching emotional reaction with a downbeat Mt. Goats song. Or, at least, a lot more likely. Who isn't unhappy more often than they're happy? It's the same deal with the B&S album: they used to be melancholy and now they're edging toward fun and sunny. Fun and sunny is always going to sound more trite than melancholy (the kind of escapist fantasy you find in, say, "White Collar Boy"), but that doesn't mean that the songs are inherently any less enjoyable, witty, complex, etc etc on an internal scale. I know you well enough to know that you're not implying all music needs to be depressing, or that the Mountain Goats/B&S must always write deeply personal odes to pain and suffering. I sometimes get pretty upset when an artist goes through a major stylistic shift mid-career and, honestly, I hope the next full Mountain Goats album is more like Sunset Tree/Tallahassee and less like this EP. Still, I think this one is pretty sweet for what it is. Also, I think that last stanza of "Wait For You" is just as devestating as a lot of his recent stuff. Yikes. “like a cockerspaniel to a summer sausage” is almost a Darnielle line. Hah.

I love many things about Come, Come but it doesn’t work as a coherent musical or narrative experience for me the way that his albums often do and (I think, to a lesser degree) this EP does. Yeah, a lot of the songs here are more upbeat–probably more upbeat than he’s been in a long, long time–and yeah, it’s a lot easier to have that kind of immediate, throat-clutching emotional reaction with a downbeat Mt. Goats song. Or, at least, a lot more likely. Who isn’t unhappy more often than they’re happy? It’s the same deal with the B&S album: they used to be melancholy and now they’re edging toward fun and sunny. Fun and sunny is always going to sound more trite than melancholy (the kind of escapist fantasy you find in, say, “White Collar Boy”), but that doesn’t mean that the songs are inherently any less enjoyable, witty, complex, etc etc on an internal scale.

I know you well enough to know that you’re not implying all music needs to be depressing, or that the Mountain Goats/B&S must always write deeply personal odes to pain and suffering. I sometimes get pretty upset when an artist goes through a major stylistic shift mid-career and, honestly, I hope the next full Mountain Goats album is more like Sunset Tree/Tallahassee and less like this EP. Still, I think this one is pretty sweet for what it is.

Also, I think that last stanza of “Wait For You” is just as devestating as a lot of his recent stuff. Yikes.

]]> By: niina http://www.girlpants.org/2006/04/maybe-tomorrow-it-rains-maybe-tomorrow-it-rains/comment-page-1/#comment-225 niina Thu, 06 Apr 2006 22:39:10 +0000 http://www.girlpants.org/?p=165#comment-225 First off, you should know that I thought <i>Come, Come to the Sunset Tree</i> was lovely, perhaps specifically because of its inconsistencies. Where <i>The Sunset Tree</i> was a work of blissful genius replete with a stunning narrative thread, this other bit, its slightly austistic counterpart, was perhaps less "together" and "decipherable" but had its gorgeous moments. For instance, more than once I found myself thinking I preferred the stripped-down sound of the songs on <i>Come, Come</i>, and definitely once, driving along listening to it, I randomly burst into tears. After two listens, however, this EP has left me lukewarm... I think it's because it steps back from the last album's subject matter to a bit more abstract storytelling, and as a rule, I'm generally drawn to despair like a cockerspaniel to a summer sausage. God knows I like a little bit of pain. But to be fair, I'll keep rummaging in the closet, even if the skeletons aren't as obvious. "Alibi" rocks, though. It really does. And the full sound is something I can appreciate. And although I was a little indifferent to "Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise" at first, I just found myself kind of humming along when it came on. Overall I guess that for now I like these songs like I like the songs on the new Belle and Sebastian album -- they kind of rock and they're catchy, but they don't, you know, clutch me by the throat, knock me down an emotional snowbank, and leave me there, shivering and stunned. <i>So far.</i> First off, you should know that I thought Come, Come to the Sunset Tree was lovely, perhaps specifically because of its inconsistencies. Where The Sunset Tree was a work of blissful genius replete with a stunning narrative thread, this other bit, its slightly austistic counterpart, was perhaps less “together” and “decipherable” but had its gorgeous moments. For instance, more than once I found myself thinking I preferred the stripped-down sound of the songs on Come, Come, and definitely once, driving along listening to it, I randomly burst into tears.

After two listens, however, this EP has left me lukewarm… I think it’s because it steps back from the last album’s subject matter to a bit more abstract storytelling, and as a rule, I’m generally drawn to despair like a cockerspaniel to a summer sausage. God knows I like a little bit of pain. But to be fair, I’ll keep rummaging in the closet, even if the skeletons aren’t as obvious.

“Alibi” rocks, though. It really does. And the full sound is something I can appreciate. And although I was a little indifferent to “Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise” at first, I just found myself kind of humming along when it came on. Overall I guess that for now I like these songs like I like the songs on the new Belle and Sebastian album — they kind of rock and they’re catchy, but they don’t, you know, clutch me by the throat, knock me down an emotional snowbank, and leave me there, shivering and stunned.

So far.

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