If I didn't vote for this, i would in retrospect. The best thing about this thread is all the 'I lasted X amount of time, I can't hack it'. This record is so challenging that the cognitive dissonance kicks in immediately for most people.
I'm also going to say its one of the best albums I've heard in my life. Whatever quirky seam she was mining that spawned the first few releases, she dived head first into and expanded into a form that nobody was or is doing. I love the van dyke parks stuff. its comical, cartoonish and then at times really sensitive and beautiful. The songs are just in a form people are not used to and I'd say that might be the hardest part for most people. Her voice is class, she has said countless times in interviews that every time she goes to sing she does something that her voice supposedly wont let her do, its a punk mentality.
Anyways, towering album, probably not for everyone but if you let yourself get over the unfamiliar instruments, the unfamiliar songs structure and the unfamiliar orchestration and the unfamiliar lyrics, its really, really rewarding. And still challenging.
I'm also going to say its one of the best albums I've heard in my life. Whatever quirky seam she was mining that spawned the first few releases, she dived head first into and expanded into a form that nobody was or is doing. I love the van dyke parks stuff. its comical, cartoonish and then at times really sensitive and beautiful. The songs are just in a form people are not used to and I'd say that might be the hardest part for most people. Her voice is class, she has said countless times in interviews that every time she goes to sing she does something that her voice supposedly wont let her do, its a punk mentality.
Anyways, towering album, probably not for everyone but if you let yourself get over the unfamiliar instruments, the unfamiliar songs structure and the unfamiliar orchestration and the unfamiliar lyrics, its really, really rewarding. And still challenging.