Musical Flops

As a music fan, you fall in love from time to time with a certain band. Sometimes, as in life, that lover goes and changes on you. You don't know each other anymore. Sometimes, they sold out your love to the highest bidder. Made it cheap and tawdry. A few bands come to mind when I think of music love affairs gone wrong. Most recently, one comes to mind and her name is P.J. Harvey. It's not that P.J. has sold herself out for a more "mainstream" sound. It's more that she has nothing left to say. Her lyrics aren't as sharp anymore. There's nothing new about the direction in her music. If you listen closely you can hear her creatively treading water and getting by on past cred. Listening to her last album "Uh-huh Her" I began to hear a paint by numbers rhyme scheme was present. Rhyme schemes are okay if you gotta do it, just do it well. I realize there are a lot of critics out there that think this is P.J. at the top of her game. I just couldn't get past how predictable it was. Not to say I don't think she can rebound. Someone of her talents can certainly regain ground.

Now... Liz Phair on the other hand. Talk about breaking your heart. A onetime poster girl for for old school indie rock grrrlzzz, has decided that being cool and writing cool songs isn;t the way to go anymore. Nope, she has decided that she wants to be taken seriously as a pop princess. What?!?! Liz Phair? Fuck and Run, Liz Phair?!?! She produced and album in 03 called "Liz Phair". Now I haven't heard the album. I don't need to. I got all I need to know from her live performance at the Flaming Lips show from the same year. The set was boring, forgetable, and useless to anyone not mildly retarded or twelve. How did she not see the backlash over this? She has spit in the eye of every fan she had till that point. Poppy, sappy music is for talentless airheaded virginess nymphs. How about strip yourself of anything unique in hopes of making more money. Liz Phair, regaurdless of ever regaining form will never see a dime from me again. She has betrayed me in an unforgivable way. She whored herself. Not in a snobby music geek way. She really did musicly whored herself.

Finally you have a set of bands that were on the fore front of new musical directions. Helping give hope that someday rock will be relevant again. Then... they all fell flat. Firstly there is the biggest offender: Nine Inch Nails. It's as if Trent made "Perfect Drug" for the Lost Highway soundtrack, took his talent, strangled it, wrapped it up in plastic and buried the thing in the NV desert. Then he decides to put out an album, but forgets he murdered his talent, and makes "The Fragile" . Ugh. Not very good. Certainly not what one is expecting after years of waiting and thinking "Wow! It sure is taking him a long time. I bet it's gonna be awesome and meticulous. Trent rules!!!" It was okay, but certainly not worth the wait. Again with his recent album you have a case where I don't own it, but I didn't learn my lesson fully about not expecting much either. This time I didn't just run out and buy it. I listened to samples of it first (legal ones mind you), but with the same giddiness I had while waiting for the last album. What did I get? For that matter what did his fans get it? Poo-poo. Okay sounding poo-poo, but potentially, nail in the coffin poo-poo. There was time when Trent ruled the world, and my how the mighty fall.

Finally (and only finally not for the lack of more bands as examples but this has to end sometime) to a lesser extent you have Marilyn Manson. I feel there's another good album in the man. He was on such an exciting track. He went from Portrait of an American Family (very goo), to Antichrist Superstar (very good), to Mechanical Animals (we are now heading into David Bowie territory excellent). This is the makings of a powerhouse in music. He was pushing the boundaries. Pushing perceptions of his abilities farther. Then he gave us "Holy Wood". Did you hear that? That. That right there. The thud sound. That was sound of Marilyn's ascent ending. Not that it wasn't as okay album, and those are to be expected after three straight good to excellent ones. The problems is that he followed a so-so album with a really bad one. On the surface "Golden Age of the Grotesque" is an okay album. Similar to the before it. On close inspection it come off more like an amateur Marilyn Manson impersonator with no writing talent than the man himself. I like Marilyn. He out of any of these guys, get a pass due to prior work. Due to the fact, this last album is his first real big stumble. If the next album continues the downward spiral (he-he. zing) then he gets lump with all the other ex lovers on my CD shelf.