[dio]

kinda funny, kinda boring video. I agree with one sentiment that yeah like what even are music videos now, do I ever like them? And then it's like, eh on the other hand every once in a while I do like one or I like them as a way to introduce me to an era's aesthetic I mean maybe.



Anyway who fuggin cares, this song is pretty damn good. It really feels kinda different to me for Panda like idk. He's a big boy now.

[tdegenaro]

the song is good, but the discussion has already become so exhausting.

[Tropic]

I think the song is ok. It's growing on me for sure but I'm not gonna listen to it again until the album's here. Similar vibes to Invisible Darlings--a second single that is sorta just fine, nothing groundbreaking. I dunno maybe I'm way off base

[unrecordednight]

Spoiler: show

lhtd wrote:

hear_smiles wrote:

How very progressive of you. I think my reasoning is sound. Why am I not allowed to dislike things and point out when my favorite artists/bands of all time release art I think is harmful?

Doesn't art and music make you feel something? Doesn't it make you want to talk and share when it lifts you up? Don't you like to speak up when something strange is happening around you? Learning when to say "no" or "I don't like this" or "I don't want to do this" is an invaluable skill and essential for people to not be exploited.

As an artist you need to send your work off to people who aren't going to lavish praise on you no matter what, as you need sincere opinions and reactions, unprejudiced. How does a freshman view my work? What is the NEWBIE hearing?

In this case AC has an eclectic enough fanbase that a fraction of a percent of these fans recognized patterns across a variety of mediums, connected dots, and see a worrying shadow lurking. It's entirely possible they didn't even know they were being taken advantage of, or working with dubious connections, as that's partly essential for the success of the family. Plausible deniability, the defensive element we're all familiar with.

Invoking amused community member here.

Can you start a thread enlightening us on AC’s “worrying shadow”?

lol i also wanna hear this guy's unhinged take [admin note: no]

[unrecordednight]

listened to this song like 20 times today so dang good, pb is best when he lands on the catchiest melodies

[thelucky1]

Does the "walking" (don't know the term for this) snare that shows up periodically remind anyone else of Everything You Do Is a Balloon? It's kind of buried in the mix but you can hear it through headphones.

[BoomCheese]

What I will say is that while I was obsessed with Defense upon first listen, and really enjoyed it for the next few, it really quickly became a song that I didn’t feel a strong desire to hear again (I guess I got bored of the sounds and the melody for some reason?). So far, Ferry Lady seems to have more staying power for me but time will tell. It’s always strange when a song you initially really enjoyed and that you think is objectively great (Defense) becomes boring to your ears. I hope the rest of the album doesn’t do that to me.

[destiny]

i'ma be negative so skip it if you dont like the vibes droppin. but does this song blow cock? Hahahahaha. kinda like a tomboy song refusing to start. i dig the dubbiness of it and the sounds. but it's just kinda the same shit. like a template for a panda bear song rather than a panda bear song. i'm saying all this knowing i'll be singing dat catchy ass melody in like 3 days and doing the two step to it. just listened to a couple times and was just like .. aight man. been loving the boot though, love the energy, if they hold the reigns on the energy the songs might sound a bit flaccid .. i really like defense though. so yeah that's my bitchin!

also, video sucks cock, generative tools and content that comes from it is too fatiguing to my brain. just reminds me of those images meant to simulate what a stroke looks like haha. look em up if you want to but its tough to look at. looks recognizable but your brain knows somethins up.

[preakness]

Ferry Lady is going crazy. Ive probably listened a few dozen times since it came out. Im very very impressed by the mix, i'm latching on comfortably to the hooks and lyrics. I love it. I will love it even more when the rest of the album is out.

has panda bear ever written a bad song? like an actually bad song, not like a song thats not as good as another. i dont think so

[Alcohol]

destiny wrote:

i'ma be negative so skip it if you dont like the vibes droppin. but does this song blow cock? Hahahahaha. kinda like a tomboy song refusing to start. i dig the dubbiness of it and the sounds. but it's just kinda the same shit. like a template for a panda bear song rather than a panda bear song. i'm saying all this knowing i'll be singing dat catchy ass melody in like 3 days and doing the two step to it. just listened to a couple times and was just like .. aight man. been loving the boot though, love the energy, if they hold the reigns on the energy the songs might sound a bit flaccid .. i really like defense though. so yeah that's my bitchin!

also, video sucks cock, generative tools and content that comes from it is too fatiguing to my brain. just reminds me of those images meant to simulate what a stroke looks like haha. look em up if you want to but its tough to look at. looks recognizable but your brain knows somethins up.

Another board member pointed this out already, but the chord changes in this song are really unique, if not too subtle to really grab you. I bet this is the “easy listening” cut between more challenging jams. The sorbet to cleanse the palate between courses.

[pwtruther420]

Im a big fan of this song, but the chord changes aren’t that unique tbh. The key modulation from verse to chorus is really nice tho.

[Hellomark]

destiny wrote:

i'ma be negative so skip it if you dont like the vibes droppin. but does this song blow cock? Hahahahaha. kinda like a tomboy song refusing to start. i dig the dubbiness of it and the sounds. but it's just kinda the same shit. like a template for a panda bear song rather than a panda bear song. i'm saying all this knowing i'll be singing dat catchy ass melody in like 3 days and doing the two step to it. just listened to a couple times and was just like .. aight man. been loving the boot though, love the energy, if they hold the reigns on the energy the songs might sound a bit flaccid .. i really like defense though. so yeah that's my bitchin!

also, video sucks cock, generative tools and content that comes from it is too fatiguing to my brain. just reminds me of those images meant to simulate what a stroke looks like haha. look em up if you want to but its tough to look at. looks recognizable but your brain knows somethins up.

lmao yeah I feel you, perhaps it doesn't fully "blow cock" but I'm not really into it quite as much as a lot of people here seem to be. Production is fantastic though, between this and Defense I continue to be quite excited about the overall SG sound. This song is fine, just feels a little slight to me, and maybe a weird choice as a single when I compare it to something like 50 mg or Ends Meet from this recent tour, two absolute stunners. But of course, who knows what the vibe will really be like with those on the album.

[destiny]

Hellomark wrote:

maybe a weird choice as a single when I compare it to something like 50 mg or Ends Meet from this recent tour, two absolute stunners. But of course, who knows what the vibe will really be like with those on the album.

for sure, i thought just as well or 50 mg would fit better.

preakness wrote:

has panda bear ever written a bad song? like an actually bad song, not like a song thats not as good as another. i dont think so

bad crumbs is better than most artists magnum opus

[dio]

I actually hear Scott Walker on the harmonies on the um. Not chorus but like 3rd part I guess/think.

Like I hear it way more than when I force myself to hear Walker on .... that chill song Walker from ts

[rohcti]

Yeah I immediately thought of Scott Walker when I first heard this song. Really enjoying it!

[Dallou]

preakness wrote:

Ferry Lady is going crazy. Ive probably listened a few dozen times since it came out. Im very very impressed by the mix, i'm latching on comfortably to the hooks and lyrics. I love it. I will love it even more when the rest of the album is out.

has panda bear ever written a bad song? like an actually bad song, not like a song thats not as good as another. i dont think so

Not sur about playing the long game beeing good to me

[Dallou]

I love the "Even he didnt meen it ..." " part so much

[roopn]

I keep expecting the song to end at 3:10 at the end of the second "lost in thought" section, like if this was on buoys I feel it definitely would. the song form is really symmetrical up to that point, I feel it would've been a satisfying ending. but seems like he's past the super minimal, trim all the fat thing he developed in the late 2010s. the third chorus doesn't feel totally essential to me, but the outro is cool.

really like the super candid lyrics were getting here and on defense, but I also loved his cryptic lyrical style. tbf reading the ferry lady lyrics just now it's still not super obvious who or what the song is about, even with the title in mind. but the mood is crystal clear, it's a song of travelling, wandering mind, turning over memories of feelings and approaching new feelings cautiously

[tdegenaro]

the comp to invisible darlings is really astute, though I love love love that song and i love love this one too.

how many more "blows cock"s can we get on the page?

[Tropic]

destiny wrote:

just reminds me of those images meant to simulate what a stroke looks like haha. look em up if you want to but its tough to look at. looks recognizable but your brain knows somethins up.

That formless, shapeshifting aesthetic is what I find most fascinating about AI imagery/videos. Why do they look and feel like dreams? Super interesting. Been meaning to read up on it if anyone has good article recs

[kinetic]

Tropic wrote:

destiny wrote:

just reminds me of those images meant to simulate what a stroke looks like haha. look em up if you want to but its tough to look at. looks recognizable but your brain knows somethins up.

That formless, shapeshifting aesthetic is what I find most fascinating about AI imagery/videos. Why do they look and feel like dreams? Super interesting. Been meaning to read up on it if anyone has good article recs

ask chat gpt? /s

[Tropic]

Hehehe

[gosly]

The vibes seem to have shifted in a most negative direction. Just want to say I'm really looking forward to the full Grift. Cannot wait to hear Ends Meet.

[tulis]

I like Ferry Lady a lot.

Feel like a pretty good mashup could be made w Ferry Lady and My Country by Tune-Yards

Honestly a little surprising Noah hasn’t made a record w live looping the way Merrill has

[nothingmastered]

Seems like this record will be smoother and less garagy than the live shows have been. No idea how Ends Meet/50mg/Just as Well will sound. Extremely strong batch of songs and I'm very excited overall, especially for Anywhere but Here. That shit is lovely

[rohcti]

roopn wrote:

but seems like he's past the super minimal, trim all the fat thing he developed in the late 2010s.

Which is kinda sad because Buoys wasnt even THAT minimal, was hoping/expecting a much more stripped back album this time but ah well. I may be wrong but i feel like the maximalist pop thing just sells better and may be why he tends to do that more often

tdegenaro wrote:

the comp to invisible darlings is really astute, though I love love love that song and i love love this one too.

Same, I love Invisible Darlings a bit more though.. I guess I can see a bit of a connection

[hypo's]

was never a big d perez fan, songs aight on first listen, bad video

[crikit]

Great track.

Definitely valid to be upset about AI generated visuals from an aesthetic, environmental, spiritual, political, (etc) standpoint. But maybe that discussion deserves its own thread.

[blindmowing]

Youth Lagoon announced a record today and it comes out Feb 21.
Darkside announced a record today and it comes out Feb 28.
Both on indie labels. Fat Possum and Matador respectively.

Domino announced Sinister Grift 85 days ago.

IDK, just seeing those announcements today made me feel some type of way again.

[headroom)))]

I'm in the "music videos are great!" camp and when done well can be iconic (who can win a rabbit). A lot of AC videos are not my thing at all, but Danny Perez's art is almost always stellar. Especially his live tour visuals. Shame that so many people won't be able to see the greatness that was the PB vs GR era backing visuals. Those were insanely beautiful, unique, and exhilarating. That being said, I'm not a fan of this video and I do kinda get the AI art hate. There's this kind of cheap unsettling quality that a lot of AI art has that I'm not smart enough or knowledgeable about to explain. I think its the using existing photography and skewing it in a way that feels like a fever dream of an advertisement. But at the same time, I've seen some mind blowing sci-fi worlds that people are creating that are very awe inspiring. Like the next level of that Blade Runner style. So my take is that AI is a tool like anything else. You can use a knife to cut an object or to stab someone. People used to hate on auto tune when T-Pain was Sprunnngggg, but now everybody and their mom uses it (including Avey on live TS/IIN era stuff, damn I wish that vocal effect made it on the album versions).

My hot take is that singles suck. I'd rather just hear the album on a drop date. I never get progressively psyched, it just feels like a slow strip tease where I get uninterested. I prefer to listen an album over and over when it comes out. But I'm no music business man, so what do i know.

New song is cool, 60's west coast psych high on a daytime stroll vibe. Kinda hear some Os Mutantes festival carnival energy in it too. Happy to hear panda's voice.

[blindmowing]

headroom))) wrote:

My hot take is that singles suck. I'd rather just hear the album on a drop date. I never get progressively psyched, it just feels like a slow strip tease where I get uninterested. I prefer to listen an album over and over when it comes out. But I'm no music business man, so what do i know.

I'm with you. From a marketing standpoint I totally get it. There are periods of my life I've been anti-listening to any singles from any album because I wanted to go in fresh every time. Now I tend to just give singles one or two listens tops to curb my curiosity then wait for the full deal to drop.

I do hope the pendulum shifts back far the other way one day where we get more surprise drops or announcements for albums that drop in short order, but for now it really feels like the shift is towards MORE pre-release singles. For instance, that aforementioned Youth Lagoon record has four singles out already, and the album is 12 tracks. Some of these bigger indie records are giving us 33%-50% of the tunes before the album is out. Wild times!

[pox]

using a.i. art to conjure the idea of the uncanny is like presenting a severed hand as an artistic representation of shocking violence. it's both lazy and unpleasant to behold, and on top of that it can't help but distract from its own aims because i'm instead thinking about the real-life cost to produce a piece of art that turned out to be so banal. except the shittiness that is unique to a.i. is that the real-life cost is unknown to us as of yet because the tech is evolving in real time. so i'm left with an open-ended existential dread, amplified by the idea that some so-called artists lack the imagination to see how it could be bad. to call it a tool suggests the artist has control over it. but the artist is the tool. [mic drop -- oh wait there's a song to talk about]

i imagine this song will be good on the album. i'm not sure why it's a single. it doesn't satisfy on its own. i would still rather listen to defense again than this new track. got no beef with it, it's just really mellow and doesn't have any exceptionally satisfying element that makes me want to keep returning to it. that being said, i've heard it two or three times and the full melody of the song is firmly stuck in my head already. it's impressive how consistently he finds these intuitive melodies and song structures that sound like they've been waiting at least 50 years to exist. he keeps getting better at that with each album.

also enjoying the production on all these new tracks, but the album in my head for the last 3 years had a streamlined sound with a ton of pitch bending guitar and we seem to have moved away from that. i know this always happens when a project takes this long to gestate. just curious at this point whether the finished album will scratch that itch at all.

[curleyswirley]

Great track, been going back to it again and again. Love the trumpet and the soundscape in the outro.

[kinetic]

blindmowing wrote:

headroom))) wrote:

My hot take is that singles suck. I'd rather just hear the album on a drop date. I never get progressively psyched, it just feels like a slow strip tease where I get uninterested. I prefer to listen an album over and over when it comes out. But I'm no music business man, so what do i know.

I'm with you. From a marketing standpoint I totally get it. There are periods of my life I've been anti-listening to any singles from any album because I wanted to go in fresh every time. Now I tend to just give singles one or two listens tops to curb my curiosity then wait for the full deal to drop.

I do hope the pendulum shifts back far the other way one day where we get more surprise drops or announcements for albums that drop in short order, but for now it really feels like the shift is towards MORE pre-release singles. For instance, that aforementioned Youth Lagoon record has four singles out already, and the album is 12 tracks. Some of these bigger indie records are giving us 33%-50% of the tunes before the album is out. Wild times!

same same same. i hate singles now. they make no sense. also I have little restraint when it comes to listening to them too much before the album drops. back in the day hearing a single on the radio every so often was great. then i'd buy the cd and wouldn't have any single fatigue.
i'm a huge fan of surprise drops but maybe that only works for kendrick and beyonce these days. idk im no businessman either. just wish domino would adapt and drop the old marketing schemes. give us a surprise ep drop before an album with a single as the first ep track. just something else.
i know the industry is in the tank and theyre desperate for streams, but this model just seems so stale. have any idie musicians cracked the code? is anybody actually making money?

[Cussing Bum]

blindmowing wrote:

Youth Lagoon announced a record today and it comes out Feb 21.
Darkside announced a record today and it comes out Feb 28.
Both on indie labels. Fat Possum and Matador respectively.

Domino announced Sinister Grift 85 days ago.

IDK, just seeing those announcements today made me feel some type of way again.

Joyful Noise announced their first release of 2025, which comes out Feb 7th.

[opposite field]

Singles are cool. It's fun to build hype. Domino just sucks at it.

Not super feeling this new one but I'm excited for the album. I've avoided full bootlegs and am just going to be happy to be able to sit with the full record when I can.

[andthephantom]

My original point on music videos wasn't really about whether they can be cool and worth watching. I was more thinking about two other things.

1. In an environment where artists are scraping by, does it serve their financial interests to spend whatever they spend producing videos? Does the cost of creating them translate to better album and/or ticket sales? I know I know - art isn't all about money. But it kinda has to be about money because of how the industry has evolved over the past few decades. And I suppose if it's the labels fronting the cost, then fine (is it? I don't really know.)

2. Do / how do people actually watch these things? This is more a personal curiosity, and my ignorance is related to my age. I'm 43. Growing up in the 90s, I'd sometimes sit down to watch MTV - turn it on, sit in front of the screen, watch 4 or 5 videos . . . or turn it on while doing homework and watch the good ones while tuning out the bad ones. Do people do this today? Obviously, youtube is the medium. Do y'all sit down and watch music videos on youtube? If I listen to music on youtube, I turn it on, minimize the window, and listen to it. I almost never watch anything music related on there. Data would say I'm "watching" a decent number of music videos. But I'm not - with few exceptions, I'm just listening.

[we<3ourhive]

Anyone who thinks music videos are pointless has clearly never seen the gold soundz video

[sky crawler]

yo is your username a q and not u reference???

[pullhairdownthere]

Love the song.
Love the video.
Simple as.