> right... i'm not suggesting that he pull an Aphex Twin or anything like
> that... just that he returns to the spirit of sonic diversity evident in
> his work from the late '80's & early nineties.
> Maladjusted sounds like a bunch of studio demos to me.
> oh, & bad, cheesy electronic music (e.g. Crystal Method or Fluke) may
> be so 1995, but electronic music is a valid art form. (too bad no one
> seems to agree)
i seem to remember an article written sometime around 1996. i can't recall what publication and all, but it was basically an argument that electronic music, and specifically its offshoots like drum and bass were going to relegate guitar bands into the bronze age. all i've seen so far is that drum and bass is the equivalent of finding a fossil of a troglodyte in a creek bed. you see millions of them so they aren't that unique or interesting, but more importantly, you don't see live ones hanging around anymore, do you?
i would think that his late 80's early 90's was his closest approximation to mirroring the smith's sound than anything else. Suedehead is the best example i have of what i'm referring to. its only in recent years that he's tried going in a harder direction, which considering his persona, that is technically the more daring road. its essentially rejecting the sound that if he can't have johnny marr writing it, then he doesn't have stand-in musicians and songwriters necessarily beating the same path.
however, does it make for a good record? that is the core question that is getting lost in all of this.
not that i see electronic music as specifically invalid, because just like any other type of music, if you know what you're doing, you can make an excellent record. what it boils down to is the material. its like when you go see the big ticket movies with a solid story line and not renting Jean Luc Godard movies. you might like to do it on occasion, and the know it all critics and film buffs may go on and on about how much more groundbreaking it is, but i guarantee you that if you catch them on a given night, they are watching Star Wars. why? because as "intellectual" as they are, they have to cover up that they watch movies for pleasure.
so, in the end, i do own a couple of electronic based albums that i really enjoy. however, they kept their pop aspects intact. you can walk the line and have excellent albums by Erasure, the talking heads, brian eno that bring an atmosphere to the songs that were written without completely drowning away its melodic aspects, but at the core of it, have excellent songs that can work in many ways.
and well, to my final point is that if he were going to write an electronic album, he would have to get musicians and songwriters that work in that medium. look at Johnny Marr. his stab at it with Electronic was a dud.
