- Music
- 13 Sep 13
The Naked and Famous - Rolling Waves
X Factor for Hipsters will be huge
There is a view among their critics that New Zealand’s The Naked and Famous are the equivalent of a musical virus. Their ridiculously catchy ear worms have colonised Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, Made In Chelsea, your radio dial – you name it. But is there any substance or depth to what they’re doing?
This follow up to Passive Me, Aggressive You and breakthrough hit ‘Young Blood’ improves on their essentially naive electro pop shtick – but not by a whole lot. During the six-and-half minutes that is aptly entitled ‘Growing Old’, the listener may feel themselves doing exactly that. A major problem with The Naked and Famous – as with electro contemporaries Empire Of The Sun and MGMT – is how terribly transparent it all is.
A textbook example is ‘I Kill Giants’, a piece of nonsense which honestly sounds like it was written by a random computer programme rather than a human being. But what does it matter what I think? This X Factor for hipsters will be huge. I’m left wondering: might they inspire some kids in New Zealand to start a proper punk band?
Keytrack: 'Waltz'
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