The Silent Generation

Today's Music of the Day is The Silent Generation, by a group called The Dimes. I don't know anything about the Dimes, just that one of their songs came up on a Pandora station at one point and it seemed fun and enjoyable, so I decided to download this album from eMusic last month. This is also partially the fault of eMusic, and their back catalog, which doesn't have any goddamn Calexico or R.E.M.

Anyway, this isn't awful, 'Nu-Metal' or anything like that - if anything, this album could stand to sharpen its edges a little so it at least has corners. It's very much Sufjan Stevens pop - nicely written but too cute and clever to really pull a person in. If Ben Folds had just decided to write music that was sweet, and left all the irony and fuck-you out, and then threw out all that music, and that music was all found by a dog, and that dog had its own band, that band would be the Dimes. There are all sorts of strings and gentle vocals, though the electric guitar only makes a couple guest appearances (which lends more power to those moments, though the album as a whole suffers for it).

In spite of this album possibly making me less masculine, it does have some strong points. It's certainly listenable, if melancholy at times, and the songwriting is pretty good. This isn't a love-song album, thankfully, but also borrows Sufjan's penchant for historical lyrics. Some of the songs have a decent build to them, though this album is never in danger of rocking, not even a little bit.

I might listen to this album again at some point, but I largely have to write it off, as there's just not enough substance for it to really endear itself to me. Still, there are a couple decent songs - "Keep Me Jumping" isn't bad, and "Battle of San Jacinto" is clearly my favorite track on the album. But as a whole, I wouldn't recommend this to many people. It's probably indicative of a greater trend in indie music as a whole, that being a shift towards lighter and safer indie music. That might be a subject better left for someone with more time and knowledge of music, though.

In Other News:
I'm a little tired today, and a little anxious. I think a decent workout and a little rest should take care of those things, though.

This week is going to be a trial.