Panzer Meyer
Member
- Jan 29, 2012
- 70
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I really don't see how all the vocal harmonies sound the same, unless you're complaining simply because they are a trademark (which I don't think is a legitimate beef considering that they aren't the exact same melodies or used in the same way or the only thing that they have in their favor, trademark or not).
The problem is that they use the same intervals between the melody and harmony lines on every song. The melody may change from track to track, but the position of the harmonies relative to the melody never changes at all. It creates a uniform vocal aesthetic that just chokes all the distinction out of the individual songs (much in the way that Iron Maiden's music has lost any real power to move because they phone in the guitar harmonies by rote formula). In the end, it never ends up mattering what they do with melody lines or instrumentation, every song ends up sounding like a variation on the last because they bury everything under the unchanging sameness of their "trademark" harmonies. It doesn't help that their songs are built around traditional pop arrangements that leave little room for structural variation to overcome aesthetic uniformity. It's songwriting by the numbers. Write a verse, write a chorus, fill in the harmony according to the already established formula. Rinse. Wash. Spend your royalties on heroin. Repeat.
By the way, don't ever think that the heroin hasn't played a significant role in AiC's artistic flatlining: while its true that people in the first flush of substance abuse often do astoundingly creative things, established junkies are pretty much the least creative people this side of coma patients. All they can manage is to regurgitate what they've always done, but with the sincere belief that they're doing something new.