Login for FavoritesXiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself
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Album Details
- Artist: Xiu Xiu
- Album: Dear God, I Hate Myself
- Label: Kill Rock Stars
- Year of Release: 2010
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: tosnob on 2010-03-17
Media
RecommendThere are just so many bands that one has access to in this age that you can't possibly keep up with them all. One of the bands that has never really made it on to my radar until now is art rockers Xiu Xiu. Oh, I've been aware of them for years, but I hadn't made the time to give them a listen (partly because their name is lame).
With a new album, Dear God, I Hate Myself, looming on the horizon (out Feb. 23rd), I thought this was an appropriate time to dive in. And I'm glad I did.
Xiu Xiu does an extraordinary job of blending string arrangements, unique percussion, electronic elements, feedback and other effects with non-traditional rhythms and time signatures to create an incredibly fresh sound. In a world of derivative rock music that is by no means and easy thing to do. Nor is it easy to achieve the balance between dissonance and elegance that Xiu Xiu maintain on track after track.
Most appealing about Dear God, I Hate Myself is that amongst all the frenzy, the melody is not lost. A song like "This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)" even boasts a discernible hook in the chorus.
Of course, by it's very nature experimental music has it's good results and not so good results. That's to be expected and it's no different with Xiu Xiu. The vast majority of the songs work by delivering a novel sound to the listener's ear. On occasion, such as on "Apple for a Brain" or "Hyunhye's Theme", there are simply too many sounds. In those cases the music simply becomes to cluttered to be comprehensible.
If you are looking for an album that will give you a fresh perspective on today's music scene, you would be hard pressed to find something to equal Dear God, I Hate Myself.
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Log In or Register to Rate Albumson 2011-12-23 dscanland Said:
I agree wholeheartedly with you analogy of Xiu Xiu. Load of crap!
Not Rated
Review:
on 2011-12-23 CharlesMartel Said:
Dear Xiu Xiu,
Thank you for your last album, which I feel was aptly titled. I say that because, after listening to it, I hate you too.
I would be extremely grateful if you would now consider stopping, stopping issuing CD's that is. No, I don't suggest you issue downloads only, I suggest you stop entirely. Clearly, the music business is not for you as you have ceased issuing anything which was worth listening to a very long time ago, assuming you ever did in the first place, of course.
I have come to this conclusion after listening to your latest album of above reference. Now I like to think of myself as a musically tolerant person who will give anything a go, but one thing I do insist on is that the singer be able to sing. Clearly Mr. Stewart is not up to the role of vocalist as he fails miserably to attain this single basic criterion. Some decent production would have helped but I would strongly counsel anyone against resorting to autotune for such a device merely confirms to the listener that you cannot, in fact sing.
And another thing. Synthesisers. I know they are useful and you can do lots of things with them, but you have to be very careful not to let the inherent sterility of the sound of the machine dominate. I know you have tried to be varied, and I think you have even used the sounds of a Nintendo DS at one point, but the essential sterility of synthesisers is what shines through. It dominates your melodies and your album's entire approach.
Now if you were being clever, you would probably retort that was your intention, to show how the machine comes into conflict with ordinary human flesh, and how the machine may triumph if we are not careful. While I may have some syhmpathy with such a hypothesis, I do not believe that lay behind your album. For instance, tracks such as "Hyunhye's Theme " and " Falkland Road" are little more than a mess of atonal glitches, pops and noises. Sometimes, I can detect the sound of various electrical appliances being switched off and unplugged and I have to say that you would have done the world a great favour had you done this more frequently as your style of music with the synsthesisers turned off is far preferable to it with the synthesisers plugged in and working.
I realise this letter may make uncomfortable reading but I am going to call you out on this one. For far too long people have praised your music as original and interesting, largely, I suspect, out of a fear that if they criticised it and it became a classic ten or fifteen years from now, they would look foolish. Well, I desire to break that spell. This will not become a classic. It is shite and I dont want to listen to it, or anything like it any more.
Thank you for your patience and please do not reply to this letter. Above all, do not send me a copy of one of your other CD's as a sort of palliative or thanks for giving you my opinion. I shall not be listening to it or this again.
Rating: 1/10
