Friday 8 November 2024

Contemporary?


Having reviewed music both casually and professionally I'm painfully aware that it's all about the nomenclature; syntax is everything. Comparing one band to another, one artist to another, is generally OK. Lazy but OK. It' s form of pigeonholing that most readers are comfortable with. It gives them that first foothold on the climb ahead. But as soon as you drop a careless noun or, god help you, a misplaced adjective you're suddenly in choppy waters. Words like
progressive come with a built in trigger warning. Mainstream ditto. Edgy, double ditto. And never, if you can help it, call anyone or anything, contemporary. Or, worse, retro. Even if he/she/they/it is/are. All of which is a rather convoluted preamble to explain why my new favourite band, the Sheepdogs, have a foot in so many camps that, temped as I might be to drop in a number of both passive and hyperbolic trigger words to tell you what they're like, I am instead just going to leave this one song here, and you can make your own mind up.

The Sheepdogs - Nobody (from their 2018 album Changing Colours)

 

Speaking of contemporary, the photograph at the top of the page is currently available as a limited (six only) edition and comes mounted, signed, numbered, and framed. Every home should have one! Drop me an email if you're interested and I'll tell you just how competitively priced it is - john@johnmedd.com

6 comments:

  1. Don't let George see what you said about 'progressive' (unless that means something different from 'prog' in which case you might be OK).

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    1. Thank you, Ernie. You've illustrated my point beautifully!

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  2. " Words like progressive come with a built in trigger warning."
    The 40 year old me would agree, but now as a pensioner I am much more inclined to dip my toes in those waters. Gentle Giant and Genesis excepted, of course.

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    1. It was only after reading Phil Collins' memoirs that I went and had a listen to Gabriel era Genesis. Overblown and turgid, for the most part; to these ears, anyway.

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