I was listening to the new Arcade Fire album 'Neon Bible' yesterday. Unlike the majority of people I know I really like Neon Bible. I really like this new 'widescreen Springsteen type' sound they somehow distilled. It sounds big. Almost bottomless. It has drama and it sounds to me exactly like than an album that could only have been made in 2007. It is a true modern masterpiece, an epic.
I've seen a TV interview with the band recently and they are young. When you see their videos or press shots they somehow seem old, almost like they stepped out of some lost America imbued with wisdom, if a little po-faced. But in actual fact, as I say they're kids. They seemed impossibly shy, but polite and nice and all very Canadian. Which is nice.. Anyway, how could someone so young and possibly unwise (and nice), have written a doom laden epic such as Neon Bible, and have done so it well ? An album that, I feel deals with impending mortality and the breakdown of civilization, with such passion and romantic vision, and yet somehow makes you feel they are performing just for you..
This ability for the youthful to somehow transcend their world, and create a sense of truth, has always occurred. Bob Dylan, was like 20 years old when he wrote 'Like A Rolling Stone', perhaps the most popular example of a song that can transcend almost any barrier and mean something to almost anyone, whoever, or wherever they may be.
But what is it that makes a great song work in this way ?
Is the magic in the artist ? Is the magician here Win from Arcade Fire or the elemental Dylan or is it somehow the music ? I'd like to think it's the music. And that somehow music, like all art, is often summoned through sweat, intelligence and innate skill and craft, but sometimes art is also touched by 'something else'. And what is this 'something else' if not some kind of truth; a truth or a simple fresh perspective that somehow 'fits' into any situation ? In which case, maybe, it is us the audience who create the truth. We are the filter that distills the bullshit, discards the millions of cultural or artistic attempts to engage us from the moment we wake each morning, and on the rare occasion find something that 'resonates'...
Anyway...
T
15 comments:
Quick read this comment before it gets deleted!
Have you read Bryan Appleyard's article in yesterday's Times?
Re searching for 'a truth' it dwells somewhat on the whole 'One man's pile of shit is another's Damien Hirst' relativism BS
The line '...the 1990's was the appearance of a generation to whom the idea of blending high and low (culture) came as naturally as breathing'' seems particularly relevant ;)
So. What is your definition of high and low culture ? Please give examples.
Well Appleyard illustrated his point very well in his article with a picture of Michelangelo's Adam reaching out and touching not God but some bint from Big Brother
I let you decide which is which.
Others would probably include Shakespeare vs Chick Lit or
Orson Welles vs Richard Curtis
etc
And what would you juxtapose Arcade Fire's 'Neon Bible' against ?
Erm, this is assuming you have listened to Neon Bible.... If not you are really wasting everyone's time..
No Toby I haven't heard it nor was I talking about
sorry. you appear to have run out of steam there.
it.
I fell asleep during Citizen Kane and I fell off my chair during Bridget Jones... Quoting Appleyard is easy. Watch them both back to back and give your OWN opinion.
Labeena
The fact that not everyone appreciates every example of high culture, like your good self, doesn't change the fact that it is - and vice versa.
The story of Kane is cumbersome perhaps and by no means a favourite of mine, but it is still considered a masterpiece of film making (number one on the AFI's top 100 list) introducing never before seen camera movements and lighting techniques and story telling etc which are still being copied today. That is part of what makes it great.
That you enjoyed Bridget is also great but it is what it is -low culture froth - which is not a sin by the way - and of it's time - thankfully passed, and will fade from view like some much pulp fiction.
Morgan
Classifying culture in terms of 'high' and 'low' is such an affected and self important pastime. Let me put it another way, I love Romeo and Juliet- in all it's forms- the original, Prokofiev's, Lurhmann's and Berstein's West Side Story. With no hierarchy- it just doesn't concern me, what does is my REAL enjoyment and appreciation.
That's great Labeena I'm pleased for you
Doh. Homer (Simpson) v Appleyard
What the hell are you all talking about???
We are talking about truth.
I think that's a thin vail... they are arguing over who is more intelligent.
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