Miles and I not only share space in the Reader pretty much every week, we’re also friends—friends with a long history (since the 90s!) of ruthlessly mocking each other’s tastes. Using IM as our forum, we discussed and debated some of our top albums and songs of 2008 and hazarded a few predictions about what 2009 might hold—a two-critic roundtable that makes Sound Opinions look like a Brownie troop meeting.
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MR I was all over “A Cause de Garcons” when that shit hit the blogs, but when her record came out I realized that I can’t stand Yelle for more than three minutes or so.
JH ‘Tevs, freedom fries. Pop-Up is like the first Madonna record. Plastic sounding. Invincible. The songs are dirtier and she has great outfits. She’s in charge.
MR So do you think Yelle’s raunchiness is empowered or is she basically working the titillation factor?
JH It’s in the Smithsonian exhibit of the blogosphere.
MR At times, yeah. “Machine Gun” especially. I like that no one expected them to come back and absolutely no one expected them to step so hard.
JH I think it’s a fuck-you-legacy record.
