Anyone here gave a listen to their new album which came out today? Produced by none other than Daniel Lanois. The reception by both fans and media seems to be pretty mixed (not surprisingly tbh), but I am really enjoying what they’ve done here - watching bands evolve is what I’m always most interested in, so it’s fascinating how this record carves its little niche in their catalogue both conceptually and musically. I’m a little bummed that they’re turning into the Win and Regine Band at this point, but these songs really seem to be hitting home for me after a few listens.
Partially yes and it seems like the allegations weigh heavily on how the album has been received by media. They're still playing SNL and other late night talk shows, so I'd say their situation is nuanced, but they're definitely still feeling the consequences of these sexual misconduct stories coming out.
That's the crux of the issue though - it seems that we're mostly talking about Win's icky behavior (extramarital relations with younger fans), rather than anything truly abusive or criminal. He always seemed like a bit of a douche to me, so as disappointing as that story was, it didn't really destroy the image I had of him, plus he did apologize and has seemingly sorted it out with his wife Regine. But I know many other fans can't really look past this, which adds to the mixed response.
Win and Regine's relationship is actually a major theme of this new album, which to me makes it that much more interesting. I was trying to think about why these stories didn't put me off the band and I think it's because their songs were always about humanity as defined by brokenness, imperfections, mistakes made.
Personally I can't get past the allegations of sexual assault (without consent) and 'unwanted explicit texts' (the infidelity is repugnant too, but unfortunately we live in a world where this is rife) as that, to me, would make me dislike and distrust the person and I can't separate the art from the artist as others can easily do
When people talk about past artists (just taking musical artists into consideration for this point) then as soon as I find out that that person has been involved in unlawful sexual matters then I can drop my interest in them like the proverbial 'hot potato' - I can easily live my life not listening to their music any longer as it won't affect my life going forward one iota
So it's all about how each individual person manages their 'relationship' with that/those artist/artists - and who am I to instruct others in what they should do
I just know that if I found out that my partner had committed those crimes then she/he/they would no longer be my partner
Tried the first single and found it extraordinarily bland. That plus the much discussed conduct issues have put me off the band. I will most likely revisit Funeral and Suburbs though in future. Both are just too good.
I'm pretty much in the same camp as RedSky and germcevoy. .
I mean if it was just affairs then what else is new among famous men? But the details of Win's behavior were both predatory and cringey.
I'm sure I'm enough of a hypocrite to see it differently if the recent music was mind-blowing, but I too am content with revisiting Funeral (an absolutely brilliant album) and The Suburbs (a very accomplished piece of work).
