Critics in 2000 fell for some pretty weird shit. Maybe it was a reaction to the boy band explosion, but many of the albums I’m digging up that were critically acclaimed that year seem like an overcorrection, a deliberate attempt to celebrate the unconventional.
Case in point: The Avalanches, an Australian electronic band, whose album Since I Left You shows up on scores of critics’ year-end lists.
I’m not a fan of EDM, so I can’t pretend to know the difference between the good and the bad. This album, hailed as one of the best of the decade in some circles, sounds like pretty much every other electronic dance album I’ve ever heard. This should play low in the background of a chic Las Vegas hotel, and pretty much nowhere else.
I’d love to hear a defense of The Avalanches, or EDM in general. Anybody out there care to take up the cause?
Not me, although I must admit that the song you featured had more variation, life and exuberance than most of the soulless EDM I have heard.