Album Rating: 2.0

Spinning the singles again and... I do not understand this. At all. I'm guessing it's purposefully grating. But why?

Album Rating: 2.0

idk man







how are you feeling now?

Album Rating: 2.0

Honestly, feeling frustrated lol. It's not often that I'm left totally unable to see even a slither of appeal.



Maybe the disconnect is this. There's an aesthetic I sense a lot of artists are playing around with now which is represented well by the cover-art to that Arab Strab album. It's kinda ugly in a "playing around with MS paint" way. I feel like Charli is doing the same thing in her music. Like it's purposefully tacky. But I am just totally allergic to that aesthetic. I can't even bring myself to listen to that Arab Strab album - that's how much I dislike its cover art lol.

Album Rating: 2.0

In fact, the cover art to this Charli album annoys me too. Grrr.

Album Rating: 2.0

I'm not annoyed at all...she has a mirror in the ceiling

Album Rating: 2.0

Oh i c

Album Rating: 4.0

Grrr.

probably underrated this initially. her best

Album Rating: 4.0

the two flight attendants I know are super annoying tbh

Album Rating: 4.2

wasn't super into this one yeah

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

ive been fantasizing bout a porsche

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

you're not a ghost, you're in my head

lol good thread

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Maybe the disconnect is this. There's an aesthetic I sense a lot of artists are playing around with now which is represented well by the cover-art to that Arab Strab album. It's kinda ugly in a "playing around with MS paint" way. I feel like Charli is doing the same thing in her music. Like it's purposefully tacky. But I am just totally allergic to that aesthetic. I can't even bring myself to listen to that Arab Strab album - that's how much I dislike its cover art lol.

Album Rating: 3.0

I don't think it's her best, but it really is something.

Album Rating: 2.0

Found some copypasta eh Sint?

big pasta hours
have you considered that beyond the v general similarity of destruction there's a huge difference between what this and the Arab Strap art signify
and that this is probs q obvious to anyone who has heard that album

Album Rating: 2.0

Oh I'm quite sure that what this Charli album and what the Arab Strap cover art signify do not wholly overlap. I don't think I claimed otherwise. There is just *some* similarly between the two I detect that I don't like. Maybe that similarity just is what you called destruction. I don't know, I don't pretend to have the conceptual resources to pinpoint the similarity.

jfc sorry *deconstruction, fuck this phone keypad
what both of them do, uh, do is actively debuff the idea of themselves as isolated 'album' experiences through self-aware framing with wider media. this isn't a new idea or aesthetic, it's just that both of them visualise it in a v digital way, which seems like q a weird thing to be 'allergic' to? both albums' content and lyrical voices are well reflected by their covers tbh (overlapping layers of high erotica and base desire, and autobiographical snapshotting respectively) so idk why that aesthetic in particular is such a major point of your concern hmm

Album Rating: 2.0

Oh don't worry, I read you as saying deconstruction, it's just that my phone made the same error when I typed it myself!



What you describe sounds like it could very well be what I'm not liking. And that you pick up on the way this philosophy is visualised in a very digital way also seems to articulate what I'm reacting to.



I happily grant that there may be congruence between album cover art and album content in both these cases. And such congruence is indeed one feature that I agree album art should have. But that, by itself, is not sufficient for me to like the album art. Congruence of that sort is a relational property - it describes how the cover relates to the content. But I also care about the more intrinsic features of the cover art.



This risks caricaturing my sensibility but think of the contrast between traditionally 'beautiful' visual art, like some renaissance landscape, and the kind of modern art (like, I dunno, a freestanding toilet in a museum) your average joe is fond of trashing. The latter gets most of its value from its context - its relational properties. Context matters to the former too but it in some common sense way, it also seems to have a lot of intrinsic beauty.



I really like album art to have that sort of intrinsic beauty. I really don't like it when it's missing.



Is it weird to have taste like that? Maybe. All I can do is report on my psychology. As a matter of fact, that is what I like and dislike. And at bottom, everyone's taste terminates in some brute likes and dislikes.