Thanks for lending me the new Jenny Lewis CD, Jan. It's really fucking good!
It’s very easy to get your point across when writing about music. Talking about music, however, is a whole new ballgame. It can be difficult to vocalize your feelings about a particular song or record or whathaveyou, maybe because eloquence is fleeting in conversation, and there’s a rarely thesaurus on hand, etc., etc. The following are conversational standbys I employ (along examples of what may be actual conversation!), and though they don’t always work for me, they just might work for you!
1. Really fucking good-Probably lifted from Jack Black in High Fidelity, this is ascribed to the tunes that have earned my utmost respect. Emphasis is given to the word “really”, so much so that its phonetic spelling is “hreally”.
ex. Have you heard the new Broken Social Scene? It’s really fucking good.
2. So so so good-This is a specialty number, used exclusively in relation to live shows. Affect a tone of breathlessness; plenty of air should be released with the third “so”, and as a result, should make the speaker sound as if they are going to pass out.
ex. I couldn’t believe how well the New Pornographers translated to the stage. They were so so so good (*speaker collapses*).
3. Pretty good-For use when something hasn’t lived up to expectations, those expectations being set by both the speaker or other fans.
ex. Yeah, Plans is only pretty good. I probably shouldn’t have got my hopes up.
4. Eh, it’s alright-Once again, it’s all about the emphasis: draw that “i” out, make it nasally, and trail off. The speaker should have luke-warm feelings towards this entity. May also be used to obscure the speaker’s true feelings when said entity is too “mainstream” or past their prime or genuinely lame.
ex. Q: What are your feelings on Steven Page’s solo work?
A: Eh, it’s alright.
note: Nos. 3 and 4 may be used in together with No. 1. For instance, there are some songs on both Plans and Page’s The Vanity Project that are really fucking good.
5. (It/that/he/she/they) suck(s)-For use in the most dire of musical situations. Try to limit the times you play the “sucks” card, lest you appear to be an uber-opinionated douche. Not for use with ironic appreciation or guilty pleasures (try No. 4 for that).
ex. For crying out loud, “My Humps” S-U-C-K-S sucks!
1 comment:
if, in the immortal words of the zappa, writing about music is like dancing about architecture, talking about music is like improvising the choreography for a dance about architecture.
that said, i'd almost always rather have a face to face conversation about music. all of the fancy synonyms in the world are no match for all the different types of communication that can occur face to face. plus, making guitar or drum noises like "duh-du-duh-du-duh-duh-dahhhh" or "waaaaaaah-ro-wahh" just doesn't translate into text as well.
love matthew
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