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Music

Goodmorning – The Iceberg

I’ve listened to some great albums in 2014; that Aphex Twin one was good, and so was that Trophy Eyes one; Caribou put out a swell record too now that I think about it; as did Asgeir. Oh and don’t forget The War on Drugs.

With that in mind, the last new album I listened to in 2014 ( 27 hours before midnight to be exact) was this one, The Iceberg by Goodmorning. Now don’t start to think that I was about to put this album up with the aforementioned others. Ooh, no no. This album smacked me back down to earth with a thump.

Goodmorning

If lo-fi indie rock and dream pop is your jam, then you’ll be all over the new Goodmorning LP The Iceberg. If not, then you’re best off reading a nice book instead.

Much like Arsenal’s year-on-year problems, my grievances are repetitious of what I’ve previously banged on about. I’m really tempted to copy and paste from some of the old pieces I’ve written, but I’ve made a blood pact with Shayen to write 400 original words, so I’ll have to stick by that or I’ll risk not seeing my 3 Siamese kittens I bought from Paddy’s Markets, for a week.*

So just like, I’d estimate, half the bands I’ve covered for Happy, Goodmorning play what’s called ‘dream pop’. The lo-fi, indie, psychedelic sort of stuff that’s no doubt filling the gramophones of households everywhere but mine. This genre is having an absolute boon at the moment – it seems everyone’s loving it but me. It really might just be me though; sometimes you’re just completely out of the popular-opinion- loop, other times you’re that genius that refused to cash in on trends (e.g. frostips) that proved to be horrible as time passed. ‘Scuse me for writing my own story, but I reckon I’m the genius this time, because this stuff is turgid.

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Let’s pick out a song: Kid, the opener, sounds good and easy. First off, we or you or I, I dunno, pick up the simple drum beat and guitar strumming, a foundation of this deadbeat genre because I guess being minimalist, apparent reason or not, is cool. The second thing that comes in is the lo-fi, distant vocals. Hearing them is like seeing another meaningless “Nah it’s got heaps of meaning aye” sleeve tattoo. At this point, I’m already bored. How else are you meant to react to this sort of stuff? I think even the most energetic of hardcore fans would just sort of stand there and sway their arms in enthusiastic response. It gets worse though: this track goes for another 5 minutes.

The standard thing is to talk about more songs, but goddamn what’s the point? Halloween, 1996 begins as some sort of attempt at post-rock, but being ‘dream pop’ there’s no crescendo in sight. Indeed, what’s there to build up when there’s only misery ahead? A few other songs are interesting for a bit, before they drearily return to this soundtrack to a hipster’s depression. Long Way Home seems to be some sort of slow, blues thingy but then ugh the vocals and lo-fi fuzz kick back in.

You have to have balls to do your own amateur music thing, and that’s something I really respect. However, playing the same dreary genre that has less direction to it than the Hebrews in the Sinai – I mean, is there even a well-known band that plays this style? – when there’s every type of music under the sun so easily accessible on Youtube and Google, (or here on Happy of course!), is nothing short of a travesty.

I guess, though, if you’re lame enough to play social quidditch, then you’ll love The Iceberg!

*Ed: At 604 words on a band you didn’t like Nick I’ll give you a fourth kitten for free.

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