TL;DR because this post is long: kinda seems like in the last few years the band has been getting progressively more focused on their financial gain rather than making quality music.
Does it seem to you that in the last few years the band has been making some decisions that I can only call... out of character?
The band has, in previous album cycles, been very firm in their stance that they not outsource their production and that Chvrches remain the product of their three creative minds combined. They were, or are, an indie band and they seemed to take pride in the home-grown nature of their music... Which is why it was odd when the band announced that their then unnamed third album was going to be produced almost entirely by Greg Kurstin.
I'm not against the idea of producers. That would be pretentious and silly of me. Most of the music you will hear was made with a producer. A lot of bands can perform and write but have difficulty honing in their ideas and doing the actual works of putting the songs together in a DAW. Clearly, with two albums worth of evidence, Chvrches was never in need of that assistance.
The band presented it as an artistic decision, but I kind of had my doubts even then. It simply conflicted with what the band had been telling us they valued. I figured maybe their label was pressuring them. But, maybe there was a shift. And that would've been fine, if a bit disappointing.
Then, Love Is Dead actually rolled around, and personally, I got even more confused. The band had been drilling it into us that this was both their poppiest and their grittiest, most aggressive album yet. I think it's safe to say that isn't actually what we got, outside of a few moments on songs like Never Say Die. In retrospect, the comments the band made in promotion of Love Is Dead almost feel like rationalization, or maybe trying to pander to their very indie fanbase who wouldn't be receptive to a switch to full-on mainstream pop?
I want to clarify that I like Love Is Dead a lot. Even its worst song, Miracle, I've come to enjoy if just for Lauren's unique vocal quality. But that song in particular really nails in my point here. Love Is Dead was clearly intended to launch the band into mainstream success. It didn't work, but that was the goal. The singles, Never Say Die and Miracle in particular, were specifically designed with trendiness and radio readiness in mind. Never Say Die makes heavy use of some hip hop elements, particularly in the rhythm Lauren uses on the melody and some of the percussion on the 2nd verse. Miracle is... literally just a better version of Imagine Dragons.
But I was willing to forgive these kind of obvious token radio hits because the rest of the album was actually pretty damn good (and, to be honest, even those songs have a lot to like about them). I chocked it up, again, to pressure from their label. And all was well for quite some time.
Until around the time Lauren moved to Los Angeles. The moment it finally clicked for me that something was actually, genuinely off about the band was when Lauren decided to do that weird one-off ad for a huge name-brand shoe company who has had some very well documented issues with shitty practices when it comes to worker's rights. As most clothing companies do. Feel however you will about that decision, but you can't deny that it's a bizarre choice to make when you're the woman who makes herself out to be so socially progressive. Incredibly out of character. And for... what? What kind of payment does she need in order for her to go back on her own values like that?
It's not been long and now we're dealing with the whole Marhsmello collab. Which, to be honest, is kind of offensive to my ears. I really have to ask at this point why the band keeps doing what they do? Is it out of the love for the art, or is it out of capital gain?
I don't actively want Chvrches to be held back from success, but I'd prefer they get there by the quality of their tunes, not by accepting whatever high-paying offer comes their way for them to advertise a morally dubious product or to collaborate with a generic EDM artist on an uninteresting single. They can do it, it's feasible. Lorde got big by being interesting and new, and she's not an isolated case.
Or maybe I just don't want the band to get so big that I no longer feel I can have any ownership of them. That's probably part of it. Still, some of their recent and, for lack of a better word, capitalist decisions have made me kind of uncomfortable.
Submitted April 03, 2019 at 11:41AM by AparkinTheInquisitor https://ift.tt/2K2x0bj
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