It took me a long time to recognize that I was bored with Tunng’s latest And Then We Saw Land, just because I expect to like Tunng’s work and find it hard to adjust to a scenario where I don’t. But there it was, the time just seemed to drag whenever I had to listen to the new one. It seemed fine, very pretty in spots, but really thin next to the rest of the band’s catalogue.
So I was wondering how often bands get to coast on their past efforts, how often people just assume that they like a new record because they liked the last one? Must happen, at least some of the time.
Anyway, my Dusted review:
Now with And Then We Saw Land, Tunng has shed one key member, Sam Genders, and turned less equivocally toward pop. The shadowiness that made Tunng so intriguing has disappeared (though you can find some of it on Genders’ new project, the Accidentals), and in its place a sort of domesticated sunshine shines through. This is not always a bad thing – “Don’t Look Down or Back” has a wonderfully buoyant chorus that is as uplifting and joyful as anything Tunng has ever done – but it is less like the old Tunng and more like the rest of the world.
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“Don’t Look Down or Back”
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3 comments:
I know what you mean, I was pretty disappointed at first as well. It did seem to be missing the darker bits of the earlier records. I've been listening to it again recently (which I probably wouldn't have done if I hadn't liked their other stuff so much) and I'm surprised at how much I'm starting to like it. It's maybe worth giving another go.
Yeah, I just noticed that whenever it was on, I was counting the tracks until it was over. Maybe it'd grow, I don't know...who has time for that?
Hey, d'ya think the Pitchfork guy read my review? It's got some of the same phrases and mine was first.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14101-and-then-we-saw-land/
I think he might have, it is suspiciously similar, especially the first two paragraphs.
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