I Get Along…With Sugar And Song. - V
I’m not sure I’ve listened to much else this week except for Play Music, the debut album from Thieves Like Us. Sure to make a future appearance of my Top Albums of 2009 list, Play Music is a brilliant pop romp with just the right amount of guitars for every strike of the keyboard. Laced with gentle synths and drowsy vocals, Play Music is the perfect homage to the early electronic rock greats of the 1980’s that never feels cheesy or forced.
Thieves Like Us took the music blogosphere by storm with their first single, Drugs In My Body. The lyrics “go downtown with the drugs in my body step back up I’m the life of the party” became the collective mantra for long nights and hard partying which, in some weird way, suddenly felt validated. With every music blog on board for a seemingly singular mission to skyrocket Thieves Like Us to fame based entirely on the merits of one track, I found myself at odds with the very same medium I embrace.
When we think of social media Facebook, Twitter and Myspace all come to mind. But social media is at its core an idea, not an application. As disseminators of information commonly delivered in a conversational and opinion-based point of view, music bloggers embody the only model of social media that guarantees success—talk with, not at, your audience. With an endless list of music genres and the staggering number of voices making up music blogosphere, it’s hard to imagine our audiences could ever feel sick of a band before the debut album released. Electronic music bloggers are particularly susceptible to this phenomena, losing the uniqueness of their voice to the constant barrage of promotional emails from PR companies touting artist rosters irrelevant to the blog’s genre of focus and fledging DJs eager to remix the flavor of the week.
As the number of companies and individuals using social media applications to shout at, not talk with their audiences increases, we need to put on our blinders and shift our focus from exposing our audiences to music we love, to exposing our audiences to music we love in a creative way. Instead of having a remix contest for Thieves Like Us’ most popular track, Drugs In My Body have a remix contest for for an artist that Thieves Like Us cites as an influencer of their sound and have Thieves Like Us select the winner and contribute their own remix. Music Bloggers need to take a collective step back and return to a focus on connecting with their audiences. We need to be the messenger, not the message.
I had written off Thieves Like Us. Too many voices all shouting the same thing can numb the very product they are praising. But I put on my blinders and gave Thieves Like Us’ debut release the proper listening it deserves. Throughout the year, I’ve been keeping a Best Tracks of 2009 iTunes playlist. So far only two tracks have made the cut. The newest addition to the playlist is Sugar and Song, the New Order-esque final track on Thieves Like Us’ Play Music.
Thieves Like Us – Sugar And Song (168 kbps VBR)
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I hope you all don’t mind, but the hype machine letter I wrote earlier in the week got me thinking that I’d like to start writing some longer pieces on music as it pertains to the digital landscape.
It won’t by any means take over the site, but I think I’ll be mixing in some pieces of this nature from time to time. Too many sites post 3 sentences and a song, I’d like to contribute something more substantial to the mix.
This is a fantastic writeup and made me give my own serious listen to their album.
Great work. Keep it up.