Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 34,855
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Quote:
The difference, however, between the songs on Emotion and all of the songs that allow me to go on looking down my nose at what’s on the radio is that, invariably, these songs succeed in what they’re trying to do. There is not a single lull in Emotion’s joviality, not a single questionable production choice or misstep into boringness. The songs engage even though they’re insubstantial; they attract despite their asininity. They are so unimpeachably good that, even though I started off listening to this record squirming and scratching trying to find a way to hate it, I couldn’t. But, in learning to like Emotion, I don’t think I merely learned to like Emotion. I think that liking this record is helping me realize something much loftier: That pop music can be substantial and meaningful, and it isn’t something that has to be demeaned.
Emotion is, for all intents and purposes, a perfect pop music record. It succeeds in every area of what it tries to do; What’s exceptional about that is that, not only do most pop records not achieve that level of spotlessness, but most records, period, don’t do that. Even on a lot of my favorite albums I can easily point to a weak track, a questionable compositional choice or some kind of stumble or another; but not here. And in being so flawless a record, Emotion proves to me that, for what it’s worth, pop music doesn’t have to succeed on any of the fronts that I esteem as essential for “good” art. Emotion doesn’t speak to me. Emotion doesn’t say anything about society or the human condition. Emotion is not an essential addition to what I perceive to be the canon of popular music, and it surely doesn’t challenge me in the same way that I usually like to be challenged by music. Emotion is fleeting, it is frivolous and it will perish and be forgotten. Emotion is not great art. But it is great music, and dammit if it isn’t just about as great a record as a record can conceivably be.
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http://cornellsun.com/blog/2015/09/0...epsen-emotion/
Omg at Carlord converting Ivy League rockists  Poor Boryn.
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every song on the album should have had a Top 3 peak at the very least..png)
