Cheer up.
I have realised what a lot of the bands I can’t get into have in common. They whine.
I’ve just been listening to Chris Wood, who comes highly recommended by a friend of mine whose opinions I value very highly. I just can’t get into him though. And I think the reason is that he sounds like a grump. It’s partly his voice, I grant you, which cannot be helped.
I had the same problem when I saw Martin Carthy at the Crawley Folk Festival this year. He’s a veritable GOD in the traditional folk world, but does nothing at all for me cos his songs are all woe and hardship. Another issue I have with him is that he’s willfully unmodern. Fair enough, traditional folk is all about covering traditional songs, but even Carthy’s original compositions are about medieval queens being in labour and stuff. Jeez.
One band from FFS’s staple gang of musicians that I have the same problem with is Sons of Noel and Adrian. It’s almost sacrilege in the company I keep not to be a fan of the Willkommen a-million-piece but I confess I’m not. When I first heard them I thought they were wonderful, but now I can’t listen to them. It seems to me like the same sort of grief that’s poured out in abundance by factions of the public when a famous person dies. It feels strange, insincere and over-expressed.
Conversely I absolutely love another Willkommen act The Leisure Society, whose lyrics have their fair share of bitterness but it’s coupled with hopefulness and a brightness in their music.
I’m not an idiot. I don’t want to just live in a world full of sunshine and teddy bears. In fact I love miserable music when it’s handled delicately and honestly or with humour. The Antlers – Hospice (which I am listening to right now), for example, is an utterly heartbreaking album about the death of the lead singer’s girlfriend – harrowing but incredible. And one of my favourite LPs of all time is The Sunset Tree by the Mountain Goats, which tells an autobiographical tale about the abuse John Darnielle suffered at the hands of his stepfather.
And what it boils down to I think is when it comes to music — as in life — no-one really wants to hear people complain for the sake of it.
