Okay seriously, when do I listen to a band that gets a lot of internet hype (for an indie)? Like um, never. So I obviously knew Local Natives had a new album out this week but in no way was I going to listen to it, I’m not a sell out – I’m totally “indie indie“, if you know what I mean.
Despite myself preferring/loving and swearing by a genre of music that most people’s parents can “totally relate to”, I still think of myself as hardcore folk-singer-songwriter indie. So again, I was in no way going to sit down to a power listen of some indie darling band. Seriously, 80+ thousand streams in less than a week? No dice.
So yeah, I can be an asshole at times. What do I do, stay steadfast and ignore it or maybe just pretend I heard it and didn’t like it? Then some folks that I trust said they had listened to it and even provided the impression that they even liked it. So my will started to bend.
Then secondly, the whole album is available on Soundcloud to stream. So it is even easy to listen to if I indeed did choose to try out being “mainstream”.
Fine, it has some moments and I mentally owe Local Natives an apology as I do like some of the sounds they collect into “songs” and release on “albums”. Let us not get carried away, there are a few songs that I immediately skip on the new album (called Hummingbird). There are a few that I have purposefully listened to, like, multiple times. And…enjoyed…it.
Fine, damn it, I will (selectively) listen to the new Local Natives album. And now you will as well.
That is all I am willing to give at this point. Thank you for your time.
~Sandy (Smansmith)