Read the original "Culling the Herd" post here.
The Avett Brothers, "Emotionalism" - 0 stars. Bury it.
The Avett Brothers, "I And Love And You" - 0 stars. Bury it.
I suppose that the die I've struck asks me to do separate reviews and commentary on individual albums, but I simply can't separate these two out.
And I can't describe how much I despised every just about single second of both of them. They're both just so jam-packed full of earnest, ham-handed, faux-homespun self-importance. Just about every song makes me want to go find someone and punch them in the face - and I think it's me. The first song is a contrived little ditty that just drips with melancholia called "Die, Die, Die," and I hate, hate hate it from the moment the lead singer opens his earnest, sincere mouth. The falsetto harmony (not unusual for these guys) makes it worse. All I can think of is bearded, flanneled hipsters, with their ironic felt hats, crooning soulfully into their retro microphones.
I can't destroy every single copy of these records, unfortunately, but I can sure as hell delete them from my computer. With extreme prejudice.