Nu-wave
Has anyone noticed the resurgence lately of New wave style music? I've mentioned it before with my friends a while ago, when we were just starting to see it, now we're deep in the swing.
I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing either, When first breaking out of the musical abuse called country music inflicted upon me by my father, I found solace in bands that were doing something completely different. I was a fan of Devo and Flock of Seagulls and Weird Al. It was the late 80s/early 90s and it was something that was just different. I was trying to escape from Country music, which then was just beginning it's swing towards the mellow pop it hasn't been able to escape since then. it seems country has finally started it's long crawl out, heading more towards a rockabilly style, but that's a topic for another day.
But Nu-wave, I'd probably call it neo-wave, but people would think I'm referring to some film stunt or something, and "nu" seems to be the standard in something that's being fresh by trying something that's happened before.(ie. Nu-marvel for the comic savvy) Anyways, I saw New wave elements creeping back into music, and when I picked up the Killers album, about a month before they exploded with their first single, I was certain it was coming. They may not be jamming out on one of those guitar/keyboard deals but it's there. Maroon 5 had it's little touches of electronica. and Britney pop was coming in with little touches. It was finally shoved in my face the other day. A customer was looking for a new CD, the Bravery, said he had read good reviews of it. The store I work at had it on sale for, like $7, so as I finished my work day, "good review+on sale" equaled try it out.
It's... How do I put this.... It sucked.
Now to listen to it, the guys in the group have talent the beats and the music are even a little catchy, they'll probably end up on one of those top 40s station and have their little one hit wonder, but it's not their music.
It's something you feel from the music, more than something you hear, which I think is why it'll end up being radio gold, which is a shame.
It lacks the passion for the music, I can practically see the meeting where the record guy says to the blokes "It's good, but we're looking for something with a little more electronica" and the lead singer, desperately trying to grab at that contract (as a good number of musicians are) says "we can do that" and they'll get their little contract and probably a top ten single, hell maybe two. But then this bands going to say "okay, we're in" and try to do something a little different and will end up folding like origami, which is really a shame, since it does sound like these guys have talent.
But they sound so preprocessed and reprocessed it sucks. Bravery, be brave and find your own damn style.
And just to be fair I also picked up Action Action, which I picked up pretty much because they had a gimmick. Some of the CDs we got were actually hand signed. Hell, it may not even be the real band's signature, instead some korean boy who signs for $0.12 an hour, but it's a neat gimmick and it also had a sticker saying "For fans of Killers, Depeche Mode and Interpol" I said two out of three aren't bad, so I picked up the hot pink cover, which you can barely see from the huge "for fans of... " sticker. These guys also are picking up a little of that same techno style opening, but damn, they have energy going into this CD, the music is all over the place it even slows down towards the end of the album, and is fantastic.
Still it's picking up those old New wave bits and style and playing with them again, How long before we're crying out "just give me some guitar, drum, and bass Rock and Roll?"
Any thoughts?