Thursday, September 20, 2007

Fightstarters

Inspired by Leonard's LJ post yesterday (and cross-posted to it); a day late and a dollar short, an even ten Musical Heresies to which I subscribe:

  1. Sonic Youth: most overrated band ever. Pavement: #2.

  2. The 1980s were, in fact, an excellent decade for music.

  3. Furthermore, Simple Minds’ Sparkle In The Rain stands up head-to-head against just about any other album you’d care to name.

  4. The myth of the holy innocent, of the purity of the primitive, is so much sanctimonious bullshit, invoked to justify the continued exploitation and mockery of the mentally ill and the socially maladapted.

  5. Whatever you may think about Sting’s solo career, the Police were probably the best band of the last 30 years.

  6. In terms of melody, mood, sophistication, and daring, the “dance” music of the last half-decade or so beats the pants off the “rock” music of the same era; there’s more sheer tunefulness going on in any random track by Lindstrøm than in an entire album by, say, Okkervill River of the Fiery Furnaces.

  7. The most underrated virtue in music, among fans and critics alike, is professionalism.

  8. The continuing influence of Simon and Garfunkel is much more pervasive than anyone these days cares to admit.

  9. I bow to no one in my love of Richard Thompson, but it must be said: a tight three-minute Richard Thompson pop song is always better than a sprawling ten-minute Richard Thompson guitar solo. (Also heresy among RT fans: Mirror Blue was hands-down his best album of the 90s.)

  10. As I have theorized elsewhere, the template for the electro-pop duo traces back not to Suicide, as is commonly claimed, but to The Captain and Tennille.

Fight me in the comments.

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