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Date Posted: 22:25:14 12/24/01 Mon
Author: raymond raposa
Subject: Re: Maturity=clarity?
In reply to: J. Bond 's message, "Maturity=clarity?" on 19:52:05 11/10/01 Sat

>In response to the question "is Oldham on a
>downslide?" someone implied that those fans who are
>not 'with him' right now(ie. "feeling his new
>shit")suffer from this due to a lack of maturity(re:
>"I feel Will has matured and grown to be more at ease
>with the world"[paraphrase]). It seems, rather, that
>with time Oldham has become much more straight-ahead
>with his lyrical approach, almost to the point of
>banality or, worse, making the songs become
>observation-only sing-a-longs rather than the THERE IS
>through ARISE stage cryptic nuggets that allowed the
>listener his or her own take on the words(just me?).
>
>Why it is so easy to dislike the bluntness of R&B "I
>love you baby yeah yeah" and to appreciate the akward
>phrasings of early Oldham(take your fucking pick of a
>line) is the essence behind most of the success within
>'indie-music': it is not rife with obvious
>generalities, but 'new' ones. One that feel less like
>a call for listener identification than a call from
>YOUR(as in you, ______) long last lover.
>
>This element, poorly explained above, is perhaps why
>I'm so upset with Oldham's more recent releases. JOYA,
>while decent musically(not really a reason why we
>listen to Will though, I think), is so blatantly
>linear in it's words(song and not) that one gets(got)
>the feeling they may finally understand his name
>changes= PALACE: elusive, hence the various
>incarnations still maintaining that one word, WILL:
>straight-forward narratives, were it a person(will)
>explaining there own stories, BPB:an amalgamation of
>both in that the PRINCE could very well live in a
>palace and that BILLY can also be referred to as Will
>and that many songs have that hammer-on-the-head
>lyrical approach("I SEE A DARKNESS", "JUST TO SEE MY
>HOLLY HOME", the song about the 'blacks') and others
>still achieve the PALACE characteristics
>supra("KNOCKTURNE", "A WHOREHOUSE", "BLUE LOTUS
>FEET"). Does this seem right?
>
>Can we also assume that Will's EP GET ON JOLLY,
>containing lyrics written by another man in extremely
>blunt prose, is, in fact, an indicator of where his
>new lyrical stylings rest. Are we seeing the
>'rootless' become 'rooted'? Are we watching the
>maturity of a man or the diluting? Are you reading a
>post that is coming off way-too-pretentious, therefore
>easily dissmissable?
>
>My dear friends, I think the answer to all these 3
>questions is quite simple: "Um, well, that depends."


on the straightforward "will" thing.
re: Joya-"blatantly linear!" (taking liberties with the exclamation point.) o.k., first song, first line, "whats on the other side of the big looking hill" hmmm... mystery
"gather your courage gather your free will" o.k.
"go over yonder take you a look" interesting imagery spiked with "authentic country dialect". fourth line-"at what made us get up at what made us tremble and shook" not even proper english! shook! hardly a linear introduction. and the the chorus! i can't live without what? let what be? what a great song! what a good fill in the blanks time it is! go pajo go! no resolve here.
second song: first verse pretty obviously about the storytelling individual coming across an old friend on the beach. hoping not to be seen, speculating as to his condition (i had hardened myself, in him i do not know) etc... pretty straightforward james taylor type stuff, no doubt there. but then the chorus, some kind of rhetorical question seemingly neither aimed at the subject(s) of the first verse or the listener. a real "left field" type of thing. and then it seems will loses the thread entirely by the second verse. "trying to focus" it even says. suddenly he's grabbing for rhymes and getting further and further away from any resolution before eventually coming back to that damn question only this time it's changed a bit and ends in some muttering about about a rightful due. vague! brilliant!
third track-all mystery all the way.
to be sure there are quite a few straightforward narratives on the album and it certainly is a bit "slicker". but there rea;;y doesnt seem to be much grounds to discount it's "otherness". to do so is certainly to cheat yourself out of a good deal of a reward.
p.s. don't let the quotation marks and exclamation points fool you, this is not sarcasm, irony or mockery. i am genuinely interested\and genuinely drunk.
merry christmas all.

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