Interesting, that puts some of the opinions into perspective then, I guess. Makes me wonder how you guys are going to feel about my pick.
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Originally Posted by
AntiHero84 
I tend not to like contemporary rock music.
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Originally Posted by
StephenHero 
+1 for the most part. Outside of a handful of distinctive or excessively talented bands, too many bands' sounds are molded in the same typology of urban/indie/Williamsburg/Montreal hipsters. Every time I see of a photo of an acclaimed band I can just picture them sitting around somebody's loft eating Kashi cereal and drinking microbrews. Where are the Prince and David Bowie figures that actually have creative sounds or distinguishable personalities? Does anybody set shit on fire anymore? Although in general there is some quality music, it's often redundant in the same way many hairbands were. It's groupthink on a public image level.
I don't think it's fair to compare today's rock artists to the ones of yesteryear, given the vastly different media landscape. It's impossible for any artist to become so distinguished as the figures you mention because of the niche-nature Internet. But on the flip side, I'm willing to bet there were many, many artists just as distinguished and talented and versatile as Prince and Bowie, but they never saw the light of day because of how corporately controlled the music industry was. I'll give you this, the 60s/70s/80s are over. Rock is not about rebellion and upheaval anymore. If anyone set their guitars on fire today, it would just be cliche and, as you say, redundant. I guess I'm just OK with that and expect different things from rock music.
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Originally Posted by
Tokyo Slim 
It means that if this was an instrumental album, it wouldn't have gotten any acclaim. There's nothing that really separates this album's MUSIC from a whole host of other generic "contemporary" (as you put it) stuff right now. I would also hesitate to call this "rock music" but maybe that's just me. I tend to "not give a shit" about music publications. If I don't like it, a positive review isn't going to change my mind. I do like "quotes" though.
I don't believe that any instrumental album these days, barring the electronic, could receive any substantial acclaim. I think the only real innovation possible anymore lies in the actual sounds used in music. Everything melodic and rhythmic and atonal and arhythmic has been done, but we have electronics that will allow us to do them all over again with a different palate, and that is a subtle chunk of what I enjoy musically about this album.