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- Summary: Dear God, I Hate Myself is the art-rock band's first release featuring new band member Angela Seo (keys). The album also features contributions from producer/Deerhoof member Greg Saunier.
- Record Label: Kill Rock Stars
- Genre(s): Indie, Alternative, Experimental
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 20
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Mixed: 4 out of 20
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Negative: 0 out of 20
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Referencing everything from OMD’s Dazzle Ships (on the Speak-&-Spell-esque “Apple For A Brain”) to Tears For Fears’ The Hurting (on the digital-acoustic “Gray Death”), Stewart and Seo have twisted an admittedly dated retro-synth chic into something far more evocative and, yes, progressive.
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Dear God… is as engagingly weird as anything before, but flows so much better by incorporating the customary sonic terrorism into verse-chorus-verse songs, rather than breaking off for performance poetry about living in the shadow of suicide, or (say) war as legitimate barbarism for jocks.
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But it's with his jarring mix of the banal and the brutal ("I will always be nicer to the cat / Than I will be to you") that Stewart shows his outrageous brilliance.
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This album, which he produced with the drummer Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, shudders with the tension of opposing ideals: folksiness and futurism, clarity and ambiguity.
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Most of the remaining 11 songs on Dear God, I Hate Myself are built around sequencers and beats rather than guitars, and while they’ve by no means called off their flirtations with dramatic bursts of noise, they are only intermittent over the 38 minutes
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Dear God, I Hate Myself packs enough of a wallop that it is worth sitting through some dross to get at the choice bits, which, as is the case with any of the best work by Xiu Xiu, are uncomfortable, uncompromising, and easily hummable.
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The one unique thing about Stewart's lyrical style (a sort of homage of shallow, U.S. suburban vernacular that paints a very specific picture to those of us from the suburbs) seems to be missing on Dear God, I Hate Myself. Sure, maybe it's even tongue-in-cheek, but I sure hope he's not joking.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 1
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Mixed: 0 out of 1
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Negative: 0 out of 1
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Oct 29, 2010
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