Jay Reatard: Watch Me Fall

Listened to this a bit. Big fan of Blood Visions/ Singles etc.. He's trying something new- what with all the acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. The pop elements that have always been there now to the fore. Mostly good but don't like the rerecorded version of Watching you- sounds a bit ponderous with that strum and has had the sting (cunt) removed. Love the single and most of the other songs are really catchy - hooks galore but don't know if all the hooks work. Very 'Cleany' with My Reality. A Whisper is a sublime way to end but again coming to terms with the new version- I think I like it. He just can't help but go a bit faster than you'd expect. He's a great songwriter but can I say that i preferred the old stuff?

Thoughts and reflections please.

there are some posts on starting from the top here on down 2009 Rolling "Punk" (or non-indie underground) Rock Thread

anyway i think this is really good, and i always end up liking jay's shit as time wears on. i don't think this is as good as singles 08 - but i revere that album - but it's definitely really really good. i think it gets better in the second half too - "rotten mind" is probably the best track and the ballads are especially great, maybe even better than singles 08 and the last few songs on that were incredible

see even in that post i moved on from really good to really really good. check back in 3 mins when i post that i think this is "great".

True. These songs crawl up on you like a drunken spider. Wounded is good too now. A lot of focus from early reviews on the lyrics. I like the loathing. It is good in a song. Gives them direction. It is natural in rocknroll - who wants earnest, reworked poetry?

love love love 'nothing now', sounds like freddie mercury singing for chairs missing era wire

death on 2 legs angry freddie mercury

the new version of 'watching you' destroys the old one imo, that drum beat is genius

^^i kind of agree

i dunno if this album is as good as blood visions but blood visions is the best rock album of the 00's imo and it's still better than anything i've heard all year

It's very good, but I'm not compelled to play it over and over and over like I was with Blood Visions. That said, it's still got more plays on my last.fm charts than any other album since I got it.

I don't think new version of 'Watching You' is bad. I think it is a great song. I just think it really loses the dark element of surprise when he called whoever a 'cunt' in the early version. That and the strum. Just loses a bit of teeth for me. Still though. Good.

'watch me fall' is a self-reference/self-deprecating prediction to his own hype, yeah? obvious? his lyrics seem the same as they ever were

i love that he's still rocking the band in a tin can recording style, but w/ more layers

Yes they do and same really with his 'pop sensibility' for me. All those tunes on Blood Visions are just like fast pop songs. So many great hooks on that record. Thats why its funny that some of the reviews have focussed on his lyrics. Its not like he's trying to be Dylan or anything.

yeah, he's always had the pop sensibility thing going, 'my shadow' has more great hooks in it than some bands have in their whole careers. 'faking it' sounds like a blood visions outtake to me

side 2 is just about perfect on this record.

Having some trouble with this one, tbh.

New video for 'Aint gonna Save me' and its a new version of the song? A bit weird. Is this kind of like his policy of playing it different live and so now another new version for the video or has Matador cracked the whip? Guess its just more Jay to go round.

this is really good. guy's moved right into my sweet spot, pop & production wise.

(a few songs remind me of kingmaker, which i guess wouldn't be an endorsement from most people but it is from me...)

i always have the same process w jay songs: they all sound the same to me for the first few times, then eventually i can differentiate the songs, then eventually i start to compartmentalize every instrument & vocal hook in each song and it hits me again what a brilliant musician he is

i was late on the draw with him for no reason better than knee-jerk skepticism. but i'm sold. the power-pop moves just seal the deal.

been sleeping for the same reason. time to get on the stick it seems.

He seems to polarise a lot of people. A lot of people get really worked up about his personality.

ALSO
"i always have the same process w jay songs: they all sound the same to me for the first few times, then eventually i can differentiate the songs, then eventually i start to compartmentalize every instrument & vocal hook in each song and it hits me again what a brilliant musician he is"

This is an excellent description for the experience of listening to him. Once it all sinks in I fall hard for the songs.
Same experience with this record, like i said in the first post I wasn't sure-but it just gets more and more difficult to resist.

pretty much in love with this album now.

nyt feature here. i like this:

“I’m not trying to be low fidelity,” he added. “I’m trying to be handmade. You don’t go into a bakery and say, ‘That apple pie is handmade, that’s a “lo-fi” pie.’ You realize the crust looks a little rough around the edges, it looks like somebody’s grandma made this, and all of a sudden it’s comforting.”

wait, jay reatard's music is comforting? i actually really like the recording on his albums, i guess it's lo fi but you can tell there's been alot of care put into it not sounding too messy what with everything just bleeding into one big gooey blob as alot of lo fi things do. like every instrument was recording on a shitty microphone, but then they were all carefully placed inside of a perfect glass cube a few feet away from each other.

I have come around to this now. Have you seen the video for "It ain't gonna save me?"
Pretty funny/silly. I think he's trying to lighten up a little bit.

i like the video.

and yeah i don't really think he's lo-fi, aesthetically. the sound on all of them is pretty bright and forward.

fat Jay is the best Jay imo

i can only listen to Reatards or Lost Sounds so many times before putting them away, sometimes for months.

I havent gotten into his stuff like many people I know, not really sure what all the fuss is about but at the same time I hear it and it sounds pretty cool and I bet if I sat down and listened to nothing but his music for an afternoon I could become a diehard fan.

I really love that video, it reminds me of oldschool Beck videos. Best part by far is when they smash that bottle of ketchup over the old guy's head.

I haven't picked up a physical copy of the album yet - did he play every instrument on it, as on Blood Visions?

Oh god, I just realized it's not even officially out yet - between the leak and AOL streaming the album and promo mp3s it's easy to forget.

I think it's out today but I guess release dates are Tuesdays in the US? (Aside: why is that?)

there are assorted theories on reason for tuesday release days. the most plausible is that sales figures for each week are counted tuesday-monday -- although that could be an effect rather than a cause.

anyway, watch me fall was released on emusic (and i assume elsewhere online) last week.

Any chance of a 'breakout hit' for Aint Gonna Save Me? Getting any air or video play above what you would expect for someone with this kind of 'low profile'? I mean it is kinda catchy.

"There Is No Sun" is the one I can't shake.

Yeah this should be the next single for sure. Maybe the only way to break a song or new person is to tag it to a movie or advertisement. i could see this working, over the closing credits as the emotional payoff plays out.

Have you seen the trailer for "Hump Day?"
(It features "Hammer I miss you" from Singles 06-07)

I'm in love with this album, and I haven't heard anything from Jay's earlier works. Which is the best?

Blood Visions is tremendous. More 'punky'. What initially seems like lots of short fast blasts of noise, soon turn to lots of power pop goodness. Tonnes of songs- all good. Matador singles also awesome- a cross beween the two- more 'pop' songs. Have only heard some of the Reatards stuff. Sounded good too. Snottier. Watch me Fall has the 'best' production iof anything he has done so far. Can anyone enlighten as to what is the best out of allof his teen Reatad stuff?

reatards-wise i dig grown up fucked up the most

xp - singles 06-07, matador singles, and blood visions are all definitely worth your time. if you're tryna narrow your focus to just one, then blood visions or singles 06-07.

"Band quit! Fuck them! They are boring rich kids who can't play for ahit anyways ... Say hello to your ugly and boring wifes opps I mean lifes guys suck it."

That's Jay Reatard communicating the apparent demise of his touring band via Twitter this morning.

hey more barbaras stuff is a-ok by me

Had this in the car for about a month, listened to it at least a hundred times. Agree that he's a fantastic songwriter, and that the whole thing comes across as somewhat featureless at first, but once the tunes sink in/hooks start to bite, it opens up incredibly. That said, there's something, I dunno, constricted about his writing/recording approach. His singing and playing don't lack vigor, but it all feels sort of detached, somehow. As though each song consists of a bunch of clearly separate components that just happen to have been assembled in this manner. It makes the whole feel at bit empty to me. Just a bit, but it's there, and it's not a good thing. It's not an emptiness that compliments the music or the ideas involved.

When he plays the songs live, they explode, they leak all kinds of noise and energy. They don't seem distant and carefully crafted, but then again, they lose a lot of their nuances of arrangement. It's a tough balance, I suppose, between careful craft and whatever it is that injects your craft with human life. In listening to this record, I hear the former a lot more than the latter, and live the opposite is true. Net effect leaves me wishing he managed to close the gap a little better. At least when it comes to recording/production.

I do like the record, though, and it's not like Blood Visions didn't have the same problem. Demos of those songs on the ITR singles comp blow the overly precise and compressed final versions out of the water. They seem so much more alive (maybe not a positive quality in such death-besotted material, but I like what I like).

good post, thanks. I was wondering what people thought of this new album.

ehhh listened to this again this morning. BLAH. really boring.

contenderizer nails what was bugging me about Reatard that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I agree, this basically sucks. I haven't felt the need to go back to it at all after the first week.

still like it lots. "rotten mind" has been in heavy rotation for me lately.

This thing is a grower. Sounding fantastic this afternoon.

That said, there's something, I dunno, constricted about his writing/recording approach. His singing and playing don't lack vigor, but it all feels sort of detached, somehow. As though each song consists of a bunch of clearly separate components that just happen to have been assembled in this manner. It makes the whole feel at bit empty to me. Just a bit, but it's there, and it's not a good thing. It's not an emptiness that compliments the music or the ideas involved.

this is ridiculously otm but ya know it's not like i need music to be engaging me (emotionally) all the time, it's nice to listen to something that only really wants to entertain you. if jay weren't singing the way he were singing, if he were singing more passionately or honestly or something, it would be much creepier and less of a big clattering mindless romp.

That's fair. For me, it makes the record seem a bit characterless. Like I enjoy it, but it doesn't really affect me in any strong way, and don't often reach for it anymore. I listened to it a lot at first, but quickly came to feel that I'd absorbed it and didn't need to hear it anymore. Much more likely to listen to Blood Visions, which has the same recording/performance issues (and more so), but also has a strong identity & vibe of its own.

It's weird, though. I think almost every song on Watch Me Fall would make a terrific single (by which I mean 45, not radio release). Maybe it's only crammed all together that they become indistinct.

I too have not gone back after the initial burst of enthusiasm. Perhaps I overdosed and now I am dead. Perhaps the music is shallow. Perhaps the man of steel is melting away. I still want Jay to win though. C'mon Jay.

Jay's old band members are now backing up Wavves. As disappointing as Watch Me Fall is, that's still a downgrade to me.

I really do think this is az excellent album, with fantastic tunes, don't understand those who are disappointed.

I think almost every song on Watch Me Fall would make a terrific single (by which I mean 45, not radio release).

This is where I've settled. Blood Visions might be an aberration in his method, in that there's a lot of flow in the sequencing. Once I started treating this more like the singles collections or his earlier bands, it crystallized nicely for me.

ok never really got into Jay...really. Just heard I'm Watching You on SOMA...really liked it, recommend me some more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb-I1QVkCRs

singles 08 chris

Blood Visions.
Don't sleep on Lost Sounds, either.
I would rec Singles 06/07 before Singles 08, too, but maybe that's just me.

well, if someone's asking cuz they like "i'm watching you", singles 08 is the obvious recommendation. prefer 06/07 myself, but...

BLOOD VISIONS!