The four horseman of the musical apocalypse have arrived
It was producer Adrian Hall, the gentleman behind The Clash and Ray Davies who we can blame. Coming across a demo which had been sitting on his desk for a few weeks, he decided to pop it on his stereo and give it a listen: the sky clouded over, birds circled above those studios ominously and their eerie cawing foretold a bleak future: musical Armageddon was approaching. He should have just used the CD as a mug coaster.
'The Great Divide' is one of those songs which probably is somewhat of a harbinger of doom for the coming year and if this is what the sound of 2008 is; I’d gladly give up listening for the next 12 months. The musical equivalent of stuffing week old porridge in your ears, Nebraska’s offering is just uncomfortable noise which does little to inspire or excite. It also has an annoying “f-f-f-f fade awaaaay” bit to it which makes me want to punch my laptop in anger: The Who they certainly aint.
Track 2, 'A Burial' is even worse. I really want to write all the song lyrics out as the rhyming couplets are so God awful, they need to be seen to be believed. You should give the song a listen (or just look up the lyrics online) but with no purpose other than just to amuse yourself. Rhyming “Godiva” and “saliva”, “Iraq” and “back” and my personal favourite “leather” and “inclement weather” they are basically asking to be shot down in a blaze of vitriolic journalistic glory. It is reminiscent of poetry that you might have written when you were a pretentious little 13 year old at school, trying to balance the smug concoction of being seemingly educated, with allusions to mythical people and political events, but retaining a strict handle on the AABB rhyme scheme.
Hugely radio friendly but leaving you with the feeling that you should set fire to your ears just to cleanse yourself afterwards, this is music at its dreariest and most dire. Roll on 2009.