music nerdery, part two

so, i just finished listening to the new white stripes album, get behind me satan, and had some thoughts, pursuant to cam's wonderful post about weezer. because the stripes are a particularly interesting counterpoint to weezer. where weezer spends years cranking out tune after tune after tune, and rivers discards 90% of them as inadequate, the stripes spend a week in the studio cranking out an album. in essence, i think weezer represents the craft of songwriting, whilst the stripes represent the soul of songwriting.

the difference between the two groups, i think, is exemplified by the differences in guitar style on the part of rivers and jack. anyone who's seen both groups live will know what i mean. rivers' guitar is always under his thumb. his distortion is measured, his chord progressions are spot-on, and his rhythms are always perfect. when one of his band members fucks up, he notices immediately (and sometimes bitches at them). he is the eminent craftsman of pop - he knows exactly what he wants his songs to sound like, and his band is a tool to make them sound that way. with jack, though, it seems more like his songs know exactly what they want to sound like, and jack is the tool by which they make themselves sound that way. it seems less like he's in control of his guitar than he's desperately trying to keep it in line. if rivers' guitar is a well-trained, well-groomed puppy, jack's is a timber wolf that hasn't eaten in a week.

and from those two contrasting approaches, you have the groups' comparative strengths and weaknesses. weezer can create a perfect, incredible, and unforgettably singable pop song like buddy holly. but they can also create an entirely forgettable piece of kitsch like the green album. for all of its pop perfection, to me it was worth a listen or two then a permanent spot on the shelf. the difference, i suppose, is that the blue album and pinkerton were balanced between soul and craft; that for all of the intricacy with which the arrangements were worked out, there was still a ton of spirit behind it; a spirit of longing, of loss, and of heartbreak. and since the whole pinkerton debacle, now there's more or less just the craft. it's pretty for what it is, but ultimately forgettable. it's not that i don't like the new weezer albums, or don't think that they're good pieces of music... it's more that they just don't have any spirit in them that drives me to pick them back up off the shelf and actually listen to them more than once or twice.

the opposite is true with the white stripes. they can create a song that's both powerful and poppy, like dead leaves, or any of their other singles. but at the same time, their album tracks are sometimes unpredictable, and sometimes nearly unlistenable. the second song on the new album, for example (the name of which eludes me at the moment), has a ton of soul, but, to be honest, it sounds like shit. it had an interesting vibraphone part, supplemented by some nice pianos, but then every once in a while it featured some random and completely inappropriate amplified guitar hits, that didn't belong in the song at all. it's like jack temporarily lost control of the beast that speaks through his guitar. while weezer stays on the shelf because they're poppy to the point of kitsch, when the stripes stay on the shelf it's because they're all raw energy, and no polish. i'd say, on the whole, the stripes are better these days at striking a balance between the craft and the soul of songwriting. but when they err, they always err on the side of soul. which for me, is a lot more appealing than the side of craft ... craft without soul is merely kitsch.

so, there's my thoughts. check out the new stripes album, it's available on torrentspy and it's certainly worth a listen. it's quite a departure from their previous albums. and has anyone else noticed that blue orchid (the single) sounds almost exactly like the eagles of death metal, and nothing like the rest of the album? weird.

c'est tout.