>>4077
>I found it pretty forgettable overall and I didn't care for most of the vocal samples.
Yeah, there's no subtlety to them compared to how they were often used in their older work. The little snippets that they would use often would get your imagination going due to the lack of context or not being as forward in the mix most of the time. They'd almost feel like voices you'd hear in a hypnagogic state.
I feel like this could partially be a symptom of a modern mentality where everything needs to be spelled out and mystery and insinuation aren’t as appreciated, but I think it’s more likely a result of trying to find a different way of doing things instead of repeating their older work.
>Most of it felt monotonous to me and it was a bit of a chore for me to finish some of the songs.
I agree. I found myself waiting for the album to end.
>"Arena Americanada" was okay I guess, but I'd have to listen to it a few more times to realy say how I felt about it. I did like "You Retreat In Time And Space" quite a bit, but it's not good enough to salvage the rest of the experience for me.
Those are some definitely some of the better pieces, I think. I like the little arpeggio sound that appears in “Arena Americanada,” which genuinely has a nostalgic association for me, but it’s ultimately just a bit of pleasant ornamentation on top of a pretty nondescript track. There’s nothing on the album I can recall that I’d consider genuinely good. Some of the better tracks almost remind me of warmed-over The Campfire Headphase rejects. The Campfire Headphase is the last Boards of Canada album I like (and I honestly enjoy it more than I do Geogaddi), but even that sounded more clinical than their prior work as far as production goes.
Tomorrow’s Harvest at least had “Nothing is Real,” which I consider a truly great track and immediately liked, but there’s nothing like that on Inferno.
>I would say the album it's trying too hard to be spoopy or something, but it falls flat on being unnerving.
Agreed. The music almost feels like it’s made for a modern movie or TV series trying to seem creepy, dark, or even vintage but without putting much work into it.
>I'll probably listen to it again in a week or so to see how I feel about it then.
I've been listening to some of the tracks again and don't like them any better now.
While the album sounds like someone imitating the Sandison brothers to me (they’d probably hate the phrase “Sandison brothers”), in another sense it feels like them trying to get away from their own ways of doing things. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about them is their love for worn-out sounds and imperfections, but Inferno overall is a move away from that. You’d think that it would have a “video nasty” sort of feeling judging from the album artwork and title (like the Dario Argento movie), but it does nothing of the sort. I actually find it a bit jarring in how glossy and contemporary it seems. I can understand wanting to do something different, I would have strongly preferred they’d maintained the organic appeal of their traditional style. I think a psychedelic pseudo-folk album with fewer synths and lots of warbly acoustic instrument samples would have really been interesting, and elements of that have always been part of their approach. There was even an interview that mentioned them having recorded an acoustic version of Music Has the Right to Children. Maybe the tracks I’m thinking of weren’t very old when the tape leaked, but the Random 35 Tracks Tape had some more acoustic pieces too. “Last Walk Around Mirror Lake” and the general approach of The Campfire Headphase also moved acoustic guitars toward the forefront of their sound. Maybe they feel like they’ve already exhausted those possibilities though.
I really don’t know where all the acclaim for this album is coming from. What are people hearing that I don’t? Even longtime fans seem to love it. I guess I was under the impression that the fans genuinely liked a lot of the same things about Boards of Canada’s music. But considering that both this and Tomorrow’s Harvest have gotten such appreciation overall, that doesn’t seem to be true. It’s actually kind of disillusioning to me. It feels like the magic is gone. I think that musicians generally reach points in their career where the passion, creativity, and originality are greatly diminished, but I feel like Boards of Canada’s case is especially tragic writing as such a big fan. If this is the caliber of their new material, I think they’d be better off throwing in the towel.