sentienthing

Now, lest you, imaginary reader that is, be sensitive to criticisms of the Pitchfork status quo I urge you to immediately turn away from your monitor for , what you may perceive as( sensitive as you are), invidious remarks are on the way. I have a confession to make, a guilty confession as well. Hitherto, people, like a gay man trying to make himself  go straight I have been likewise striving to appreciate certain Pitchfork rated bands in a self defeating cycle of personal fraud. Nodding at the required time, talking of how highly I rate the new album (as it got a 9.6 rating even though I only listened to two songs and of those two only half liked one of them). No more though, I will say it, I now must say it! I do not like, and/ or really appreciate as much as I ought to, LCD Soundsystem and the Animal Collective. Phew, what a sense of relief!

In fact, I will go further in saying that I do not like most modern electrical dancy type bands that experiment with contemporary and novel approaches in the production of avant garde music. I am a traditionalist in many ways at heart. Music for me is about good lyrics, emotional evocation and a good melody. If a song transfers me to a place I have long forgotten or excites me; if it can bring me to understand , intangibly and incomprehensively, something I had till then knew nothing of; if it can get me moving and appreciating the gentleness and potential of life: then it is, for me, serving the purpose that music was intended for. All this with an organic beat and acoustic feel and I am certainly all the more overjoyed. LCD, you must now see, just don’t satisfy these requirements..

Hell, but this is probably just me though. James, the young yet old gleeful atavist who still doesn't have a facebook account yet somehow manages to live (or rather, you may see it, endure) regardless. Still cursing the end of the commons whilst rocking on my chair by the fire, stick in hand, shouting on how the Luddites are history's real forgotten heroes... No, LCD I just cannot feign to like: far too trendy and hedonistic. Animal Collective, not as bad, but, still, no, they just won't do.

Sufjan Stevens is one person that I do think is good though. In fact along with Jeff Buckley, Jeffrey Lewis, Elliot Smith and Radiohead, I simply cannot get enough of him. Espers is another good band as well of the type I do appreciate, full of new folk vibes but I simply couldn’t put them in the epic category of the former group. Sufjan is, I think, incomparable and is the one true musical genius we have at present (of my genre of appreciation I importantly must add, although I could even argue that this man transcends genres although I am reluctant to really say this too loudly as it whiffs of being the certain type of obsessive proselytizing acolyte that I probably am, yet don’t wish to recognise). He sings with gentle compassion and understanding to the backing of often incredibly complex orchestral and sometimes simple pieces alike with lyrics that wouldn't seem out of place in one of those poetic compendiums that the poets Heaney and Hughes were so inclined to produce( here I must recommend their shared endeavour,” The Rattle Bag”, as something worth checking out ).

To give one example of the genius of Sufjan, I am going to briefly discuss one of his best songs in my opinion, “John Wayne Gacy Jr" a song about the infamous Chicago serial killer who picked up and abducted boys and thereafter horrifically raped and murdered them. He then buried many of the bodies under the floorboards of his own house . An even more sickening side, if this is even possible, to this was exhibited by the fact that this man was well known in the locality for his amicability and would dress up as a clown to entertain the local children. Now, firstly, such subject matter is almost unheard of in contemporary music; almost taboo really. Yet even with such a sensitive subject matter Sufjan manages to produce something that does justice to the portrayal of such a horrific act whilst still managing to foster some rudimentary understanding of such an utterly terrible series of acts.

The song itself has a beautiful melody and haunting chorus that creates a sense of deep sadness and loss. Sufjan sets the scene by speaking of how the serial killers father was a drinker and his mother cried in bed.  This establishing a base not of judgement, nor horror and blame at the wrong doer as would be expected, but of transcendent understanding. We are then told of how his mother would fold the young John Gacy’s T shirts when the swing set hit his head (this alluding to an actual incident in Gacy’s life whereby he suffered severe head trauma as a kid when such a thing happened to him). This is a beautiful image of the simple everyday love of a mother that reminds me of a line in the poem "Autobiography" by Belfast's Louise MacNeise which goes:  " My mother wore a yellow dress: gently, gently, gentleness ”. It does a lot to humanize someone who many would see to be a born monster.

The song then continues with the powerfully mournful chorus of “ oh my God ”, and then asks: “are you one of them?” A strange question here that I take to mean, have I, the listener that is, been in some way killed by the actions of this man as an act like this affects us all. He furthers this idea by then saying how Gacy’s actions would not just kill those who he murdered but that “he’d kill ten thousand people” . This emphasises how, of course, families, friends and neighbours would also be in their own real way killed by his actions. This is an important aspect that is often overlooked in such atrocities. Yet, the part of the song that I found most profound and uncanny in modern music was Sufjan’s personal confession at the end which really works as a confession for all of us when it earnestly asks :

“And in my best behaviour

I am really just like him?

Look underneath the floorboards

For the secrets I have hid.”

 This sentiment reminds me a lot of the famous Kahil Gibran who said in his book “The Prophet”, on the subject of crime:

“So as the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

 And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the tree,

So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all. “

What this is asking and saying is that when we really look at ourselves, truly and deeply, we are capable of any action that any other human can do as we all have a shared humanity. A profound cogitation really this and one that our society tries its best to avoid and ignore but one that Sufjan here again offers for our consideration concluding the song with it for us.

Quite an aside all this I know from my brief initial discourse on my relative disdain for LCD and their ilk. However, I suppose in detailing why I think Sufjan is so great it in many ways implicitly shows why I find so much of the Pitchfork super stars to be lacking. Musical ingenuity and experimentation is good I suppose; but, a man cannot live on bread alone as you all know. Trendiness, this omnipresent force, and something that seems to fuel Pitchfork like LSD did the 60’s, is something that I shall have to write upon another day as a lot needs to be said on it really. Finally, I must admit that Pitchfork are pretty good regardless and that they also highly rate Sufjan. What I do essentially seek to get across is that next time you see an album there that is rated over 9.6 all I ask is that you try and listen to it objectively and that if you don’t actually like it as much as you are supposed to , well then, say it! Stand up and be counted! Your nation needs you.