Monday, November 08, 2010

Neocons

This is the most popular video I've posted in a long time -- over 500,000 views at the time of posting. Thing is, I can't figure out why. The song is "We Want War" by British art band These New Puritans, off their new album Hidden. It is not the most accessible piece of music around. There isn't a hook or chorus in sight. It's like prog-era Genesis meets King Crimson of the same era, mixed up with a bit of electronica goodness from the 90's. So WTF is with all these views? Musta appeared on one of those "popular" TV shows or something, that's all I can figure. Oh well, I'm sure the youngsters are enjoying all the attention... and maybe it'll even translate into sales for them, not that they're likely to see any of that money, the industry being what the industry is.

-- Badtux the Music Penguin

3 comments:

  1. I believe that the Brits are just a tick more crazy than we are.

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  2. BBC: I doubt it. You seen the election results? Those are crazy.

    And BT: This song doesn't need a hook -- it stands on its own rather nicely. (Although I'd say it does have a chorus, but that's nit-picking.) Granted, I'm strongly biased on this one, King Crimson being one of my all-time favorites and Genesis actually being number one in my book, but in these times when half of all the new stuff on the radio sounds like Autotuned dance remixes of throwaway filler songs from pop albums with a short shelf-life, a song like "We Want War" is akin to fresh air. Whether that's the reason anyone else likes it or not, I have no idea. But this is simply a really good song...

    (By the way, are you at all familiar with Peter Gabriel's Up album? I thought of that one while listening to this. Same odd-but-solid vibe...)

    ReplyDelete
  3. And now for something whose name is similar but whose sound is completely different: "This is War" by The Godfathers, a British Goth band. Unlike those Puritans, this is ALL about the beat, a hooky, rhythm-driven tune that sounds like Mott the Hoople mixed with Eric Burdon and the Animals, with heavy political lyrics. Taken from an appearance on German TV in 1991, and bonus points -- it has fewer than 2,500 views!

    ReplyDelete

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