Chairlift - Bruises (This year's "Heartbeats"/"Young Folks")

It's on the Apple Ipod Nano advert at the moment. Gorgeous bit of sweet electropop loveliness. Any opinions?

3 more tracks on myspace

Chairlift
http://www.myspace.com/chairlift

brilliant progressive art-pop rock - i love the atmospherics of the instrumentation and moody female vocals, they remind me a bit of the early 80s band The Passions or early Sinead 0'Connor - also some Fleetwood Mac influence or Norwegian band White Willow on their last album, http://www.myspace.com/whitewillowband

a UK equivalent band of Chairlift in 2008, although with male vocals would be: The Week that Was
http://www.myspace.com/theweekthatwas

the rest of the album is quite different from this particular song... like a cross between MGMT and early 4AD bands, but tending more towards the latter. The guitars kind of shimmer in a way that hasn't been done since 1984 and the vocals are very Dead Can Dance/Cocteaus quasi-goth style. It's good, but it's a shame there's nothing else on there that sounds as nice as Bruises.

I'm really into "Planet Health" and its slow-burning Kate Bush-isms.

Bat for Lashes fans should jump on the Chairlift bandwagon

guardian band of the day feature:

No 382: Chairlift
Like the lost soundtrack to a movie that was never made, today's band are hard to pin down, but that makes them all the more bewitching

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/03/new.band.of.the.day.382.chairlift

extravagant video

YouTube - Chairlift - Planet Health

oh. when i saw the nano ad i thought it was some feist outtake or something.

the bits of this threat that mention 4AD and shimmering guitars make me rub my hands with glee.

the bits that mention feist and bat for lashes make me rub my temples and say: "oh".

still. i shall listen at some point. not now, though. i can't really be arsed. not a great sign, that.

thread, that should be. not threat. although perhaps i'm on to something there.

this record blows

this is fucking awful. seriously, it's like some slick but passionless female-led twee-cure tribute band. "evident utensil" made my teeth itch. if i never hear that again, it'll be too soon.

"bruises" is marginally better -- at least, the mercifully vocal-free middle eight is OK, as is the "doo-doo-doo" bit. but the combination of the, heh, "beat" and the rest of the singing could drive a man to drink.

This is so terrible. I was going to start a thread to express my hatred for this song but the search turned this up.
I heard this on a commercial last year I think; heard the full version today on the radio driving home from work. The part where the male vocal comes in makes me see red.
I am a grown man and I usually have a high tolerance for shit but this song ruined my drive.

The album transforms some golden elements to lead, maybe the rhythm programming is at fault. That said, the video for "Evident Utinsil" is the most psychedelic bit of video compression kludge hacking I've encountered:

Not the same thing but reminded me a bit of Takagi Masakatsu:

Just saw them. Not really shimmery, more just kind of loudly echoey. It reminded me of mid-80s Peter Gabriel. Sort of enjoyed lead singer's hippie antics. Liked two songs out of the six I heard, didn't stay for "Bruises."

http://vimeo.com/11398692

awesome

Their new album, 'Something', came out today and is now on Spotify, and I'm on what must be my 4th or 5th listen now, and it's pretty pretty good. It's definitely doing a lot more for me than their debut did (although it had some decent stuff on it, I thought, like 'Planet Health'). I don't think there's anything on here as sickly sweet as 'Bruises', which is a good thing in my eyes, and my impression is that this is more of a melodic, poppy song-based record, with some (but not all) of the quirk toned down.

this album is really good! first great album of 2012.

This is a good album. Maybe not a great one for me. 'I Belong In Your Arms' towers above everything else, but there are some lovely moments on the rest of it.

'take it out on me' is pretty great

This is a good album. Maybe not a great one for me. 'I Belong In Your Arms' towers above everything else, but there are some lovely moments on the rest of it.

― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Monday, January 30, 2012 9:17 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

cosign all of this. "Take It Out on Me" sounds a lot like some 80s/90s pop song but I can't put my finger on it. the whole production dredges up nostalgia for me in a way that might ruin it if I figure out the sources.

listening now, the bass line is amazing in "I Belong in Your Arms". Maybe the overall sound is an a-ha rehash but it's so refreshing to hear an indie electro track with musicianship in both composition and instrumental and vocal performance.

Re "Take It Out on Me" 80s flashback: In the line "cause business is cruel" -- the eay the final L is pronounced, plus maybe the near-trisyllabicity of "business" -- I'm getting mild Claudia Brücken vibes, possibly strengthened by how the synth is being hammered along in a manner not entirely unlike "Duel".

There are some great lyrics on here, simple but very effective. Like in the last song, "but if I gave you what you're asking for / I know you wouldn't want it anymore..."

Lovely album.

i'll have to check this out. I did quite like that "Bruises" (I'm immune to twee shit), but the rest of the debut wasn't great.

refreshing to hear an indie electro track with musicianship in both composition and instrumental and vocal performance.

v much agree with this (for the whole album really, not just IBiYA); nothing at all there is timid or defensive.

Haha watched the "Amanaemonesia" video now, they have seen some K Bush videos from c1980 perhaps?

Oh and since my association engine seems to be running in overdrive: Just heard "Bruises" for the first time as well, and uhm might Lena of Eurovision-winning 2010 fame have been aware of this thing? :-P

Only had this on in the background in the morning around breakfast and coffee, but can confirm Tim's call that the first tracks are a perfect run of 1985 pop.

Fantastic single.

Is "Amanaemonesia" the first single off this album? I listened to that one on the radio and I thought it was pretty good. I've only listened once but I got the impression that they were chaneling Kate Bush and Stereolab at some points. The host had a hard time pronouncing its name properly.

This left me a bit cold on first listen and I'm struggling to put my finger on why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEOem7U2LPE

This also brings to mind the Christine McVie songs on Tango In The Night for me.

^^^^^^ yep

Really like the record but it's incoherent as fuck. I've listened to it several times all the way through and I'm still struggling to get a sense of it as one thing at all.

Amanaemonesia was played at the party I was at last night and it sounded pretty great in that setting, but I Belong In Your Arms is absolutely the best track on the album.

Really like 'Take it out on me' but cannot for the life of me pinpoint the songs it sounds exactly like (in terms of tune, not production)

It doesn't strike me as being particularly incoherent, it's all pretty standard 80s-inflected indie blog pop to these ears. There are a couple of nice songs but I think that 2/3rds of the album fall down by just not being very interesting melodically. It's one of those records where you can hear that from the basslines upward.

There are a handful of good songs though - I like Take It Out On Me and Cool As A Fire particularly. The rest I can take or leave.

i gave this a listen a couple of months ago - had never heard of them before, saw a couple of people raving about the album - and thought it was extremely dull

better than 2 bears

marginally

Aside from "I Belong In Your Arms", "Wrong Opinion" is the standout for me. So glassy. It's like a female-fronted Icehouse.

just realized my last post reads like a compliment, is not the intention

I didn't care much for the first album, but this one presses a lot of my buttons, providing a bed for Polachek's remarkable vocals that isn't as averse to simple pleasures. Its rewarded repeat listens and I think its the best thing of its sort (New Wave textured indie pop) so far this year. That said, it'll probably fall out of rotation when the School of Seven Bells LP is released.

Agreed, I started off just liking the ones mentioned but really enjoying the whole thing now.

new one is a thumbs up for me. amanamanamanesia is my fave so far

I haven't made my mind up on this despite a few plays. It reminds me of Glasser, with more pop song structure and hooky choruses. There is some Stereolab sounding stuff there and plenty of other influences.. I'm not sure it is more than the collection of influences, whether it stands out at all. "I belong in your arms" is pretty catchy.

Its a charcoal sketchbook by a preternaturally talented but untutored artist. The production is thin, the sound patches preset, the lyrics vague when present. One only wonders whether a full set of oils and canvas would ruin the charm.

^ Posted in the wrong thread. I thought I was in the Grimes thread.

Band reminds me of an amuse-bouche

really enjoying the new album, especially with repeat plays. some quality infectious party-numbers stacked upfront ("sidewalk safari", "i belong in your arms", "take it out on me") and some delicate and unconventional, though no less pretty, stuff tailing it out. love the unique phrasing and spacey, almost alt-country leanings of "frigid springs" and the icy Victorialand-isms of "turning". there's a distinct Sincerely Yours vibe happening in parts and a whole lot of 80s obviously, but i'm finding the package as a whole quite original and refreshing.

It's so much better than that first album. Can't believe it's the same band TBH.

Just saw them live. Fantastic show. Caroline is adorable.

I still love this album.

"I Belong in Your Arms" is year end top five for sure. Love that bass line.

Great song. The ones that I keep coming back to the most are 'Wrong Opinion', 'Amanaemonesia' and especially 'Met Before'.

Hopefully gonna see them in SF

Very likeable live band if last night at the Scala is anything to go by. They seemed to amp up the 80s-ness even more than on the album and de-tweed Bruises a little - by swapping out the strawberries verse for one from Melt With You - which fit better with stuff from the new album.

"i belong in your arms" is a monster of a song, have had it on repeat all day

I STILL love this album.

Top ten single

I STILL love this album.

I need to bust this out some more. Discovered it through the EOY poll results (which I'm still processing, really) and thought it was a big standout.

This, the Wild Nothing record (Nocturne) and the School Of Seven Bells album are all still getting regularly played here!

The kind of album where you think 'yeah I like a couple of songs on that' until you play it all the way through and there are maybe two short moments where it's slightly less than excellent.

And I've been really enjoying Poliça for similar reasons recently too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eghzhlbv6Cc

New solo project from Caroline Polachek by the name Ramona Lisa. This song doesn't really go anywhere, but something else from the upcoming record might not suck.

Interesting... I thought Chairlift were in the studio last year?

It's nice to see Julia Holter's influence at work.

I think there should be a new chairlift album soon too. But Caroline's been busy, she's done collaborations with blood orange and wrote "no angel", amongst other things.

Caroline's solo album under name of 'Ramona Lisa' is available to stream on Soundcloud

Was listening to SOMETHING today and was reminded of how a friend of mine got really into Chairlift b/c they reminded him of Tears for Fears

btw my favorite track from the Caroline solo album is probably

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHawd3Dlpyo

Caroline's solo album under name of 'Ramona Lisa' is available to stream on Soundcloud

― kinder, Saturday, April 26, 2014 11:08 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man did nobody care about this at all?

i kind of forgot about them.

"Backwards and Upwards" is the track to recommend to Ned/DJP-types.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYXTmJI8drU

I never heard the ramona lisa album b/c I heard that it was a more experimental work and presumed it was just Caroline trying out ideas rather than essential listening. I'm hoping a new Chairlift album materialises soon.

"No Angel" still one of the best songs of the past 12 months imo

I never heard the ramona lisa album b/c I heard that it was a more experimental work and presumed it was just Caroline trying out ideas rather than essential listening.

yeah that is probably true tbh

i mean still worth a listen if you like her/chairlift but decidedly non-essential

Couple of great tracks iirc, the rest not so much. Must re-visit...

She just announced on Twitter that it's available for free download for the next 2 weeks:
https://bundles.bittorrent.com/bundles/ramonalisa

i'm a bit surprised by the mild response to the ramona lisa album, i've been very into it this week. i think she creates a very interesting vibe with the midi instrumentation, somehow both thin and warm.

also there's this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd1o8Jlhjqo

nor sure that adds much to the original (which is extraordinary)

https://twitter.com/Chairlifted/status/652516680212594688

About fucking time!

I was just listening to Something this morning, too - it's still as good as ever.

Re: the sound clip on that Twitter post - I'm hoping there's at least going to be a decent song at the end of that. The melody seems a bit 'Inspector Gadget' to me for some reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4RIeKLsHFk

live version of the single - i expect the studio version will sound better but it's pretty far from I Belong In Your Arms or Amanaemonesia

sounds alright. worth bearing in mind also that that video is more than 2 years old - song could've changed plenty in that time

Yeah, I mean I'd be lying if I said I was impressed by what I'm hearing here, but I'm going to wait until I hear the proper fleshed-out studio version, and indeed the album when it comes out before I start forming definite opinions. Part of me is hoping that this is going to be a "red herring" type of first single.

So, the studio version of the new single seems to be out there now...

i love it http://pitchfork.com/news/61631-chairlift-return-with-new-song-ch-ching/

sounds like something she wrote for bey

Not feelin dis.

Yeah, neither am I. Again, I'm hoping that this is a bit of a "red herring" first single and that the rest of the album is much better. My expectations for this have pretty much been lowered.

some of it is nice but I don't really know what they were going for with the sax, it just feels weak. album is 'Moth' out in January

Well, the full video is out there now, and I guess the video is alright but... Jesus tittyfucking Christ am I completely, totally and utterly underwhelmed by this new single. I'm not against acts doing or trying something different, but what I don't like is when they completely remove everything that I liked about them in the first place. I'm really, really hoping that this track isn't representative of Moth as a whole, because if it is then I'm at least one fan of their previous work that will jump ship. Thank God for acts like Chvrches that do it properly and release a follow-up album that's a logical progression to their previous one rather than going down the "but we want all our albums to be radically different" route. I used to enjoy it when bands used to perversely make radically different, totally batshit and illogical follow-ups to their previous albums, but now I just find it a fucking pain in the arse.

Anyway, 'Ch-Ching' basically, to me, sounds like a novelty song, in a way that 'Bruises' kinda felt like a novelty song (but much more so) and in a way that pretty much every track from Something didn't. I don't want to be partying like it's 1994 here and crying "FUCKING SELLOUTS!" or anything, because that would be silly - there's always been a pop element to everything that Chairlift have ever done, however there's something about this song which makes me feel like they were kinda aiming for a hit here. Whether it'll actually be one, who knows? But if it does somehow manage to become a hit, it'll become a hit due to its total banality.

'Sidewalk Safari' and 'Amanaemonesia' were great not just because they had the pop hooks and some great synth sounds, but they had a quirk to them which, to me, was interesting. 'Ch-Ching' sounds like empty, dull, pandering wank by comparison.

It pains me to have to write all this, because to say that I was looking forward to a new Chairlift record was an understatement. Something still remains one of my most loved, and most played albums to be released so far this decade and now I'm suddenly finding myself in the position where I'm already beginning to feel like it's the end of the line for me and this band. I hope when the album comes out that I'm proven wrong, but expectations have definitely been considerably lowered.

Maybe their second album was an anomaly, because I felt similarly ¯\(ツ)/¯ about their first album as well.

Yeah, Something could well have been an anomaly, but we won't know for absolutely sure until Moth comes out. The first Chairlift album is definitely patchy without a doubt, but I still think it has its highlights amongst the so-so stuff on there. What's frustrating for me is that when I play the first Chairlift album and Something back-to-back, the leap in quality is immediately apparent. In fact, I'd definitely say that Something saved their arses, because I got the impression that they were dangerously close to being written off, and if Something hadn't delivered they undoubtedly would have been. It would have "see ya later Chairlift, we'll eternally remember you for 'Bruises', there's the door" and then many years later "God, does anyone remember Chairlift? 'Bruises' anyone? LOL!"

Now, you'd think that a band who had just managed to save their bacon by putting out a great second album would take heed of this fact and try and at least acknowledge that they'd found a particular musical area that they were good at, one that managed to not only bring in a lot of fans but also achieved the feat of changing opinions of them at a critical juncture. People who would have written them off were now suddenly paying attention, saying "hang on, this record is actually quite good, I think I'll stick around and see where they go from here"

Instead, what they seem to have done - and again, this is based solely on 'Ch-Ching' and I'm hoping the rest of the forthcoming record will change my mind - is completely ignore that their previous record snatched them from the jaws of extinction and moved into an area that not only are they (in my opinion) not particularly good at, but also (again, in my opinion) features none of the qualities that I found appealing about this band and what initially drew me in.

If the new record is more in the vein of 'Ch-Ching', I think it'll probably bring in some new fans, but I suspect that many will also fall off, and to do that at the moment when people are seriously starting to pay attention is, in my opinion, a fucking stupid move.

It's not that bad
I can't see it being a new direction for the whole album idk

and I LOVE 'something' (except the name which I always forget)

the song is a bit of a mess but jesus put the knives back in the drawer, its not THAT bad.

It's not that good either, particularly considering that this is the first single from the record, and their first single for about three years or something?

Poor Turrican. I think it's a bop

Also this is not "radically different" for Polachek at all, "No Angel" is nearly 2 years old

i like this song a lot in concept but there is something that hurts my ears on the mix and i can't quite pinpoint it but i think its something about a weird and tinny autotune factor on her voice in the chorus? anyone? you can hear it a lot on the end of the "Getting what you want can be dangerous" line...

Yeah, Something could well have been an anomaly, but we won't know for absolutely sure until Moth comes out. The first Chairlift album is definitely patchy without a doubt, but I still think it has its highlights amongst the so-so stuff on there. What's frustrating for me is that when I play the first Chairlift album and Something back-to-back, the leap in quality is immediately apparent. In fact, I'd definitely say that Something saved their arses, because I got the impression that they were dangerously close to being written off, and if Something hadn't delivered they undoubtedly would have been. It would have "see ya later Chairlift, we'll eternally remember you for 'Bruises', there's the door" and then many years later "God, does anyone remember Chairlift? 'Bruises' anyone? LOL!"

Now, you'd think that a band who had just managed to save their bacon by putting out a great second album would take heed of this fact and try and at least acknowledge that they'd found a particular musical area that they were good at, one that managed to not only bring in a lot of fans but also achieved the feat of changing opinions of them at a critical juncture. People who would have written them off were now suddenly paying attention, saying "hang on, this record is actually quite good, I think I'll stick around and see where they go from here"

Instead, what they seem to have done - and again, this is based solely on 'Ch-Ching' and I'm hoping the rest of the forthcoming record will change my mind - is completely ignore that their previous record snatched them from the jaws of extinction and moved into an area that not only are they (in my opinion) not particularly good at, but also (again, in my opinion) features none of the qualities that I found appealing about this band and what initially drew me in.

If the new record is more in the vein of 'Ch-Ching', I think it'll probably bring in some new fans, but I suspect that many will also fall off, and to do that at the moment when people are seriously starting to pay attention is, in my opinion, a fucking stupid move.

― Turrican, Friday, October 16, 2015 3:05 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jeez louise, a pretty good band released a mediocre song. it's happened before.

So there's a new track, possibly even more of a pop move than Ch-Ching. I like both though.

These two tracks seem to mainly be dialing back some of the more 80s retro elements that were all over Something. They sound more "current" to me.

The individual sounds on "Romeo" are as 80s retro as anything they've released. There's just more evident digital audio workstation touches to give it that hyperisolated 21st century gloss.

http://www.vogue.com/13363580/chairlift-caroline-polachek-wedding-snug-harbor/

But, what is this year's Heartbeats/Young Folks?

The definitive list of songs used by Apple Inc. in commercials, keynote addresses, presentations, and other marketing materials

http://www.vogue.com/13363580/chairlift-caroline-polachek-wedding-snug-harbor/

― wizzz! (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 December 2015 02:08 (15 hours ago)

Huh, turns out I've read her dad's book on the Opium Wars! Still trumped by today's "Haruomi Hosono's grandad survived the Titanic" revelation, mind.

I dislike the new track as much as I do 'Ch-Ching', to be quite honest with you. I'll still listen to the album when it's released, but I'm definitely not excited about it. My expectations have been lowered by a considerable amount of notches, and I'm actually preparing for the album to be... well, shite.

nice wedding, though.

Yes. Wedding articles. In Vogue.

https://putyourboogerinmypocket.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/fonzi.jpg

It actually looks like a boring wedding. Serious question: Are weddings in the US usually this low key? I mean small gatherings of 50+ people, fancy dinner a little dance and everybody goes home? I just saw Rachel Getting Married a couple of days ago and that's a very small wedding too. In Latinamerica weddings of under 150 guests are considered small.

I see the average wedding budget in the US is $20,000 according to this: http://www.soundvision.com/article/wedding-statistics-in-the-united-states

I've seen friends of mine who have spent half of that in the dress alone :S

I love this new song, it's up there with "I Belong In Your Arms", I think I want them to go full pop.

i like low key weddings, and there isn't anything obviously objectionable about caroline polachek's. maybe it's just resentment that she is beautiful and smart and talented and rich*, but the whole immaculate tastefulness of it (and the fact that it was even covered in vogue) grates on me.

* that said, the person her husband most resembles is macaulay culkin

i can't say that i really /like/ ch-ching very much, but it is an earworm, and it's growing on me a little.

in retrospect chairlift's first album really seems like a false start, even if it did generate some buzz and revenue. i wonder if she's embarrassed by it now.

the new song ("romeo") feels kind of melodically emaciated. the verses seem entirely pro forma, and the shift to the chorus feels really willful. i feel like all the digital manipulation--all the parts of the song feel edited to within an inch of their lives--is just trying to distract from the lack of melodic ideas. but who knows maybe it'll grow on me.

a better word for it would be "inert"

this is some of the most joyless music i have heard in a minute

in retrospect chairlift's first album really seems like a false start, even if it did generate some buzz and revenue. i wonder if she's embarrassed by it now.

― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, December 3, 2015 11:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The first Chairlift LP is definitely patchy, but it has some decent stuff on it. I'm more embarrassed about this new stuff I'm hearing, tbh.

it just seems to have come from different people entirely (yes, i know they had a third member who is now gone). the whole affect, the sensibility, is profoundly different -- much less arty, less arch (though still arch).

I quite like 'Romeo'. Production is a bit annoying, hopefully that's mainly due to shitty laptop speakers. But feels a bit like in early 2000s when everyone was putting like fake 'scratchy dj' sounds in, lots of slightly irritating little tics.

this album is really, really good btw

Just caught up with all the new songs on Spotify yesterday. Very excited for the album now.

Have never heard them, but this NYT interview/article has me curious

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/arts/music/chairlift-on-the-arias-beats-and-jazz-grooves-that-fed-moth.html?_r=0

good to see mishio ogawa's name about. wha-ha-ha & haniwa are two of the best bands ever (chakra's not bad either) & clicking through to the link I see there are three later ogawa solo albums I didn't even know about (and that aren't on discogs)

this album is... not good. it is stunningly not good. (this from someone who liked ch-ching)

lol what do you dislike about it? idk i love the horns and the post-disco guitar and etc. also "crying in public" is so gorgeous

joyless/inert sums it up well, plus "some of these tracks were either very bad ideas or very bad takes, and yet they *are* ideas, which is more than can be said elsewhere

haha i don't get that feeling from it at all. oh well

like only "ottawa to osaka" and "unfinished business" strike me as shapeless and hermetic maybe, and those are growing on me

yeah "ottawa to osaka" was one of the very bad ideas

Having heard all of the tracks previewed so far from this record, it's fair to say at this stage that this record isn't going to be for me. Oh well, at least Something still remains a killer record, but as far as I can see, my enthusiasm for this band stops right here.

yeah this album is kind of a mess

I really liked "Moth to the Flame," "Crying in Public" and "Ch-Ching," iffy on "Romeo." vv curious to hear the rest.

this is ok on first listen but nowhere near Something really. 'kind of a mess' is accurate though. no idea what they were going for on Ottawa to Osaka. i like the breezy feeling on some of the tracks, wasn't really expecting that from the singles, sort of wish they did more with that.

i obv love messes

the instrumentation on "polymorphing" and "show u off" <3

I had never heard of this band until 2 days ago and I've listened to Moth about 10 times already and currently spinning it an 11th time

It's so infectious. Show U Off and Moth to the Flame are faves

there are some decent tracks here, I still like Ch-Ching and Romeo a lot, but it is definitely a disappointment compared to Something. The overall vibe is a bit too sappy for me and there just aren't as many huge hooks as I was hoping for.

This Is also the first time I listened to them and I'm feeling some Haim vibes. Is it just me?

Love the first half but it loses me on the second. The last two songs in particular are such a disappointing end to the album. Can't remember a single thing about them.

aw i love the last song, it's so spacious and twisting

Okay, so I did listen to the album, and yes it is as terrible as I suspected it would be. A shame, as I was eagerly awaiting this record.

i'm genuinely surprised by how divisive this record is. huh

i mean i sort of get it

it doesn't sound like something very much at all and on many of the tracks they kind of go for this kinda petrified electro pop but i am so down with that aesthetic, especially when it is married to massive hooks ("polymorphing," "moth to the flame," "show u off"). hard for me to conceive of these as "terrible" in any sense

- "crying in decent" is good but they have a high bar to clear with "i belong in your arms" and this doesn't clear it; similarly "romeo" is aimed square at my musical tastes and yet somehow misses
- "ottawa to osaka" is the song equivalent of lost in translation, i.e. japan as backdrop for sluggish love affair and "whoa, we're so foreign here"
- I'm sure the last half of "show u off" was very fun to record but christ it never should have been released to the public
- there really aren't that many hooks here at all?

"Ottawa to Osaka" is a half step or two from being R&B but the choice to sing in a rather plummy way makes the thing fussy.

the spoken stuff at the end of "show u off" is fun idk. everything in that song is a hook

if it's reeeeeaaaaalll

Tentative thumbs up for this. "Crying In Public" is great. The drawbacks are that I can't really hear "Show U Off" without thinking "this is good but I'd much prefer to hear a Knowles sister singing", and on a number of the tracks the transition from the chorus back to a verse or the middle 8 has been done quite clumsily.

"this is good but I'd much prefer to hear a Knowles sister singing" was my complaint about "Ch-Ching" too.

I could definitely see some successful covers coming out of this

half of this is quite good though not really on the same level as Something, but the other half ranges from clunky missteps to meandering nothings of songs

There are elements of this album I do like, I'll admit. For example, the outro to 'No Such Thing As Illusion' when it settles into the electronics and fretless bass is pure ear candy to me. Thing is, it's not joined to a particularly great song. 'Crying In Public', on the whole, is probably the only track on the record which I would consider to be a well-written song. 'Ottawa To Osaka' sounds like it would have fit in snugly on the first album, and I don't mean that as a compliment. The vocal on the chorus to 'Unfinished Business' makes me want to rip my rare off. 'Polymorphing' is probably the most successful of the "hope you like our new direction" stuff, but as good as 'I Belong In Your Arms', 'Amanaemomesia', 'Wrong Opinion', 'Met Before' etc.? God, no. 'Moth To A Flame' and 'Show U Off' are particularly crapola.

'Moth To A Flame' and 'Show U Off' are particularly crapola.

ha these are my two favorite songs on the record! good times

xpost:

*rare=ears. Fucking autocorrect.

'Look Up' is a pretty weak opener too. Basically, I just can't believe that, after four years, this was the best that they could come up with. A real mish-mash of confused ideas, ill-advised experiments and pandering bullshit.

there are two great melodic phrases in "no such thing as illusion" and i like that they don't add anything to that, they just sort of inhabit the mood of the song for six minutes. it rules

It's no 'Guilty as Charged'

yeah it really isn't their previous record

You're right about that. The previous one was actually good!

lol

Relistening to Something disappointed me. A fan of those keyboard crunches, discrete and discreet guitar, and Caroline Polachek's swoops may miss how many of those tracks are mere perfumed air. She's not a consistent songwriter. The best stretch on Moth, as Brad pointed out, is in the middle.

yeah i've always found something uneven so i guess i'll never agree with turrican here

and "I Belong In Your Arms" is one of my tunes of the decade.

I agree that she's not a consistent songwriter, but I definitely think that Something is their most consistent record.

Moth to a Flame is definitely one of the highlights on this but it'd be one of the weaker ones on Something, which has always seemed consistent enough to me (certainly in comparison to Moth!)

"Moth to the Flame" is sweet but I can't shake the impression that they're trying to recapture the euphoria of the Talabot/Pional IBIYA remix

yeah wow halfway through this and really not liking it at all. Romeo is pleasant enough, probably a couple of others I'd listen to a bit more but otherwise, nup
I prefer if bands with ultimately a patchy output concentrate all their good ones onto one album so that's good I guess.

I so wish the whole album was as good as Romeo and Crying in Public.

I like the stabs at R&B. I could live without the bits that sound like Sade after yodeling classes.

This would have been a fantastic EP.

hugely disappointing album with a few good and no great songs

I could live without the bits that sound like Sade after yodeling classes.

― Lurkers of the world, unite! (Sanpaku), Saturday, February 6, 2016 7:44 PM (Yesterday)

yes this description is perfect

How much are you betting that their next album is going to be their "argh! sorry we alienated a good portion of our fanbase... come back, come back!" record?

idk all three of their records are pretty different from each other

I've kept:

Romeo
Moth to the Flame
Show U Off

I've kept 'Crying In Public' and pretty much destroyed the rest.

Are you not into this album Turrican?

Hahaha... does it show? :D

This has grown on me a lot over a handful of plays. Romeo and Moth To The Flame tower above it all still though.

i'm listening to Moth for the first time and enjoying it quite a lot. No strong opinions yet, but seems solid.

Does she have to do that voice thing on every line? It was quite cool and endearing on the last album but now it's like a perpetual fixture.

I will say this: The album artwork makes me want to enjoy it a whole lot more than it probably deserves.

I've always found their lyrics to be clunky. Not always in a really bad way, but sometimes they really grate.

Moth to the Flame and Romeo are good.
The 'he's that kind of man, mama' bit is unnecessary and distracting though.

I really like the reggae-ish one.

I'd forgotten about this record, and now that I've been reminded of it I'm gonna forget about it again.

Chairlift
June 14 – Tuesday - 7:00pm – Red Hook Park, Brooklyn – FREE SHOW

'crying in public' is so prefab sprout

it's also their best song

whoever called this 'yodel Sade' is 100% OTM. I just can't take this new album seriously. Romeo is a jam though.

Been listening to this again and it just leaves me cold.
I need to get up to speed with the Shambhala thread as I am desperate for good new musics

I like most of the upbeat tracks on here, but there are plenty of duds weighing it down

'Crying In Public' is lovely, yeah. My one keeper from a thoroughly sub-par and cripplingly woeful LP.

"Moth" must be one of the most dire follow-ups to a great record in memory.

Yeah, they totally blew it with this one. I'll still be giving their next record a listen out of curiosity, but I'm hoping it'll be an improvement.

I thought this record was quite so-so on release but I've really come around to a lot of it.

i wouldn't say they entirely blew it! it's not an excellent album but it has some catchy stuff on it, and a little bit of resonant stuff.

her vocal mannerisms do really need to be either dialed down or changed up.

it's the incessant shifts b/t falsetto and natural voice that she does with such facility that she seems to want to do them on every verse.

It's not THAT bad?? I haven't gone back to it much though. I keep wanting to play certain tracks off it when I'm DJing or when I've got people round but each track has a slightly cringey moment that puts me off playing it to other people.

'No Such Thing As Illusion'

this song seems to kind of give the game away that they just weren't coming up with a lot of good songs so they made room for a tossed-off bit of 'ambient' filler.

as with everything there will be people who genuinely like it and why not.

There's a good EP hiding between the yodeling Sade moments.

Kind of miss their more indie pop/rock tunes. Would've been a good substitute for the dull yodelers.

So they've broken up now. Hopefully this means more solo music from Caroline.

Surprising news, as I thought they may have another decent record like Something in 'em.

Caroline's got an instrumental solo album that's free to download here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/tci-assets/drawing-the-target-around-the-arrow.zip

http://pitchfork.com/features/interview/10065-finished-business-an-exit-interview-with-chairlift/

Funny that Ch-Ching was originally wrote for Beyonce. Maybe would've been less disastrous if she did it

I don't really like "Bruises" but "I Belong in Your Arms" is one of the best new wave revival songs I've ever heard. Has the same euphoric liquid feeling as somethibg like Blondie's "Atomic."

That might be hyperbolic because Atomic is one of the best songs of all time but this year I'm living without limits.

Every year since about 2006 has had its Heart of Glass/Atomic rip-off track, and I love them all. The Sprawl II; Cruel; this one... looking forward to this year's one

Sidewalk Safari is one of my favorite opening tracks. I like how they mined Art of Noise and Cocteaus on the same record. Shame about the follow up

man that final album is still such a disappointment. It's a startling failure

It certainly wasn't worth waiting four years for. I mean, it still amazes me that they had four years to work on Moth and it still turned out awful.

yeah, totally agree Turrican. The first track is a non-starter and the album feels like a mess of experiments that went wrong with the exception of "Crying in public".

watching live videos from the last tour, they seemed like they were having far more fun than this diluted album suggested

haven't heard the full album but c'mon now "moth to the flame" is great

4 years? really? didn't feel like a particularly long time between Something and Moth but apparently so. Something is definitely a classic album though

Yeah, it was really four years, although there was that Polachek solo record in between.

Solo record was much better than the last Charlift. Seems like it may have influenced the way their final album sounded, especially "Ottawa to Osaka"...in a bad way.

this is certainly a choice!

https://www.stereogum.com/1974416/caroline-polachek-pulls-out-of-moogfest-over-lineup-announcement/news/

i support this. she doesn't want to be enlisted in political grandstanding without her consent.

someone at MOOGfest should have been conscientious enough to consider giving the artists a heads-up that this was how the lineup was getting rolled out, but I think Polachek could have handled this a little more professionally too. it's of course her choice if she doesn't want to play but it's still sad to see this kind of discord from two parties that ostensibly are pretty simpatico in their view of the world.

There's no question that the tweet is tokenistic as hell, but outright bailing seems like an extreme response to me idk xp

"political grandstanding" seems like a bordering-on-bad-faith reading of this. I'm just looking at the tweet though, i don't know if there was more to the announcement or not.

whether it is a worthy cause or not they didn't consult the artists as to whether they were OK with being enlisted in it

caroline polachek doesn't have to be a gender activist if she doesn't want to

Support Caroline on this one!

I have a lot of memories of friends experiencing a very particular kind of conflicted doubt when they get invited to all-female festivals. I can only imagine all those feelings compressed into a shock when learning about it after signing up. moogfest & emmy parker are definitely not grandstanding though, and I liked their response

the CEP solo album has a balance to it, the way her melodies give way after the opening pieces to longform sinewave textures. like hiroshi yoshimura & eliane radigue on the same bus. sounds great loud.

It does strike me as about 40 years too late to curate electronic music festivals around gender. Among musical genres, academic/experimental electronic composition has been the most friendly to female composers, and the most eager to fete female pioneers, at least since I first started paying attention in the 80s.

Milton - that polachek solo album is great!

She sounded strong vocalizing with John Cale recently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

yeah I'm usually surprised at people not having heard her solo album -- it's way better than the last chairlift record

"From Ottawa to Osaka" sounds like a textural nod to her solo record; but the last chairlift record is so uneven it's probably for the best they split so they can both focus on their own projects.

'Amanaemonesia' just popped up on shuffle play and blew me away all over again. I still can't believe how much of a step forward Something was from their debut, and even moreso how they went completely to shit afterwards.

Definitely one of the best singles in the respective year. Follow up was super patchy, some songs felt like they may have fit better on Caroline’s solo record, which was very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w6R4I7I3wA

absolutely phenomenal imo

beautiful song

song & video are both incredible, very excited for this record. was a little worried that she said in this interview that Danny L Harle co-produced 2/3rds of the record but he was apparently involved on "Door" so it should be fine

Wow, I'm blown away by this. Agree that video is just as incredible as the song. Suddenly very excited for her album now.

It's a nice song, but there's a limit to how much I want to hear her in ballad mode. Generally prefer the upbeat tracks.

What struck me here is how much the vocal technique she (over)relies upon mimics overt autotune.

omg I love this

This is so good!

That last Chairlift album was underrated too.

True

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19ku7o_25wU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6HDrFxDVX8

two more tracks, nice but not stunning in the way that "door" was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NTUY-jP47I

Apparently the album is out on October 18th. Going by these singles, it's shaping up to be quite special.

I like em all so far! Door still the standout though

I did not expect to like this as much as I do (still not really into "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings," not sure why, on any axis) but I do, also from what I've heard it is somehow the closest to a sarah brightman album I am likely to get (exaggeration but it is definitely conversant with classical/new age stuff)

Does this mean she's pretty much abandoned the more upbeat pop songs?

not exactly, no

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtUJ4b2jsw

another wonderful single, extremely excited for this

unsurprisingly this rules. kinda sequenced weirdly with the most pop moments right near the end though

Loved all the tracks that have dropped so far; Hit Me Where It Hurts is doing it for me the most of the new tracks.

that's probably one of the weaker ones for me, my favourites of the new ones are "pang" and "shut up caroline". "door" and "so hot you're hurting my feelings" are some of the very best songs i've heard this year still

this album is so sick

as a white man I can't believe the misogynists at pfork only gave this a 7.3. ;)

(sorry)

About 2/3rds of this album is great; the rest that isn't sounds like something made by the kind of white woman Kelela called her out for being.

what does that mean?

she wrote "n***as" on her instagram last year, quoting a lyric, and kelela saw it and was understandably mad about it

she wrote it uncensored that is

"Pang" is an excellent Dave Matthews Band rewrite, "Caroline Shut Up" is excellent, period. Sometimes she's too in love with the sound of her voice.

i don't blame her too much when she has a voice like that

over a full album the static tempos make this feel a little inert but I love so much of it, definite Imogen Heap vibes

Caroline Polachek has coronavirus :(

Do you have a source on that? I don’t see any news site or social networks reporting anything about it.

which one of y’all gave caroline polachek coronavirus pic.twitter.com/pjy17xaVab

— original visual (@poppysdaddi) March 14, 2020

yeah surprising that pitchfork or whoever didn't pick up on it. but it was in her ig story

Given their closeness at a recent London performance it wouldn't surprise me if Christine &tQ is also infected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dtUmoxGT8I

lol at this christmas version of "so hot you're hurting my feelings"

I fully endorse the concept of Christmas versions of existing tracks

this album is really, really good btw

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson)

Brad otm here. It may have taken me five years, but I just had a moment with Moth. The songs I dismissed are suddenly sounding glorious.

I burned through everything related to Caroline this past year, and Moth was the album that grew on me most (though Something is still my favorite Chairlift by a long way). Sure, the intro track is kinda nothing, and "Unfinished Business" grates, but the eight other tracks are great. "Ottawa to Osaka" got clowned upthread but I love it. Does You Inspire You is the album that really doesn't have the depth of the other two. underwritten, and not much to recommend it past "Bruises"

Caroline's cover of The Corrs' "Breathless" is probably unnecessary but pretty lolsy.

i think it's kinda brilliant honestly

I like it a lot but I have no idea how long I will feel that way.

it's a 2020 version of enya

her new song "bunny is a rider" is fabulous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ5y2GMVVNQ

there's an of Montreal song called "Bunny Is No Kind Of Rider". Are they referring to the same thing?

pretty nice song, I also thought of the Of Montreal song

the weirdest thing is that I had a super disturbing dream last night in which my nephew killed a baby rabbit in front of me and then I woke up to see this... https://t.co/0DEYS0xJsu

— of Montreal~she/he/they/them (@xxofMontrealxx) July 14, 2021

Request to change title to Chairlift / Caroline Polachek was trying to post the new song but couldn’t find a Polachek thread and forgot this existed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zEQJrggKgk

real ray of light vibes here

not her catchiest song, but a fun video, would like some of that glassware

I love this

I think she deserves a solo thread now.

She’s at the top of her game, not sure it will be as good as Pang but it definitely has potential.

Ooh I like this one. The b-section was unexpected, deflating the build, but then that wonderful coda pays off that tension later. Love the production

Yeah second time listening to these and loving the 90’d vibe

*this

ooh this is great