Quite quiet here when the dispute about the authenticity of the latest promising leaks is silenced by the loudest voices…
But somehow this thread wasn’t really the right place for this discussion anyway.
Although being new here and not knowing whether it's all old news for you, I’m following up a post from u/bleeding_glass on the BoC subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardsofcanada/s/tM2QDzD8FgIn short, he lined out the theory that it might be virtually impossible / pointless for BoC to release a new album after TH - due to the hopeless nihilism they have manifested there…
Very plausible thoughts, please read the original post for details.
Since there was not really a significant reaction on reddit to my reply yet, I’m reposting it here, hoping to get more insights:
After the end of any socio-politically relevant and activating youth culture in the 1990s, in conjunction with the inflationary “devaluation” of music per se in the years that followed (aka Spotify etc), the socio-political “sense” of music releases - in the sense of building a “unity” - fell away.
However, due to their isolationism, BoC excluded this aspect from their work very early on anyway (and very smartly, similar to RDJ).
Added to this there is the boys’ uncompromising perfectionism: “the idea of the perfect album is this amorphous thing that we’re always aiming at [...]”
I’ve already written elsewhere that it would be extremely difficult to put something comparable together after the quality of the previous main releases.
I think TCH was an attempt by the brothers to make more compromises and become a bit more pleasing. The perfect BoC pop album, but unquestionably with less conceptual depth than MHTRC, GG or TH. But obviously this route wasn’t that satisfying for them.
Well, the remaining options to approach a new album are imo:
(1) even deeper immersion in the endzeit scenario of current reality with its unquestionably very dark prospects for humanity
(2) extreme escapism - in the sense of e.g. dance music with total blanking out of the world / reference to reality, in the sense of e.g. shoegaze or also (partly) techno culture
(3) escapism through conceptual art - i.e. also fading out the real world and focussing on a very specific subject area or a specific story
All three options seem difficult for BoC imo. (1) is very challenging because everything has already been said on TH, right up to the end point. Of course you could tie in with “New Seeds”, overcome the end of the world and also musically depict a positive vision of the future. It would be fantastic if BoC could do that for us...
And (2) actually contradicts the growing demand for a consistent “theme” in BoC’s releases. Although I’d also be very happy about a dance album with thumping tracks like “ATP-7” (hi u/chordplayer77 ), “spiro” or “nlogax”!
But I could most likely imagine (3), maybe even - consistently spun further - a film soundtrack / score? Wow, that would have to be a pretty good film.
However, it could well be that there’s nothing more to come, as u/bleeding_glass argues…
Thoughts?
) ... Please give us a sign Mike 'n' Marcus this thread is going mad!
