MASSEDUCTION - St Vincent (2017)

A basic tier list of musical complexity (a breakbeat dialectic, if you will), with tv shows to illustrate my points about music, because why not.

Tier 1 - the Letterkenny tier: pick a lane and hit the gas

Do one thing, do it well. It doesn’t have to be conceptually brilliant to be great. There are lots of artists I really like who live in this tier comfortably: Jack White, Dr Dre, and Bad Religion all pop to mind.

Tier 2 - the Rick And Morty tier: emotional whiplash without connection. It can go from funny to deadly serious in a blink without you really having a reason to care. Both ends of the spectrum can be very good, but it can be jarring to switch from one to the other because the continuity isn’t earned between them.

early Radiohead, Tyler The Creator, Tom Waits’ 80s records, any metal album with a power ballad in the middle.

Tier 3 - the Shrinking tier. I don’t known of a better show than Shrinking at earning its emotional payoffs. It has a similar range of funny-and-whimsical to serious-and-pathological, but you’re seeing the serious moments building in the funny ones. There’s connective tissue between all the various disparate parts that makes it feel whole.

Gustav Mahler, for sure. but also Genesis, Nine Inch Nails, Opeth, and… oh look, St Vincent.

Discog-ology

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