April saw the release of a plethora of overhyped albums; it should come as no surprise to the serious listener that the quality of these albums ranged from mediocre to awful.
Black Country, New Road inaugurated the month by releasing Forever Howlong; the record wasn’t necessarily worse than their previous ones, it’s just that BCNR were never a good band to begin with.
The album nonetheless sounded like a masterpiece compared to Bon Iver’s Sable, Fable — the faceless joviality is unbearable (the occasional use of intriguing instrumentation is not enough to redeem some of the most laughable songs imaginable).
Towards the end of the month, Sunflower Bean released Mortal Primetime, which was one long yawn. One wonders what listeners and critics saw in these albums. It is difficult to imagine anyone being able to tolerate the playful meandering blandness of BCNR or the unlistenable falsetto of Bon Iver.
All in all, another case of overhyped albums being musically irrelevant — an unfortunate tradition dating back to the most overhyped band in history, The Beatles.
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Brett Abrahamsen is a lifelong connoisseur of the experimental and obscure. He is also a science fiction writer (and an amateur philosopher of sorts). He resides in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
