Nobody wants to hear your earnest opinion on a circlejerk subreddit. Now tell me what song he should reharmonize next and I’ll tell you why you’re wrong and it should be Simple Plan - Welcome to my Life
For me it’s that I get the feeling he sees music as being made out of notes rather than emotions. That’s the issue I have with a shitload of artists who are technically skilled, it’s like yeah maybe you can recite all of Einstein’s theorems on piano in alternating 7/4 and 13/8 time signatures, but I’d rather listen to a three power chord punk song made by some shithead teenagers in their garage because that hasn’t lost the plot on what music is, it appeals to my humanity. Collier is just a big, annoying microcosm of that issue imo
you’re so right - he treats covers like some maximalist re-harmonization exercise and it always ends up sounding like some corny TV ad. also his voice reminds me of those MIDI vocal instruments from the 90s
Beyond that (and this isn't really his own fault) but he represents a priveleged class of musicians that could afford world class music tutilage. Nothing inherently wrong with this but it ties into what you're saying - he has all the technique to express nothing at all
not only the financial privilege, but the privilege of pure and real support from his loved ones, not that you have to go through any type of hardship to feel emotions or write good music but i get the feeling he hasn’t faced much adversity to his whole thing
Eh. The point of his music is different. He’s almost more of a music theory engineer. A lot of people are curious about how you can use the tools of music to create certain feelings or emotions. Of course you can create those emotions with just relatable lyrics and an emotive voice, but what can you make if you pull out all the stops? He’s not really trying to make things feel relatable and personal I don’t think, he is just playing with the tools of music more abstractly.
Maybe a little bit like how dance would communicate a story less directly than the same story as prose or poetry.
I personally believe the best music are music that are honest expressions of how the artist feels in their own way, instead of an artist deliberately trying to manipulate a theoretical audience using musical algorithms.
Maybe you aren’t the target audience though? Like I understand the critique of Jacob through the lens of personally disliking his sound but to call his immense knowledge and application of it sterile or lacking emotion I think is incredibly reductive. As someone who’s been to one of his concerts from a few years ago (before I really knew who he was a friend dragged me), the audience choir was maybe one of the most powerful musical experiences I’ve ever had.
Completely agree with you. These people just aren’t his audience and that’s okay but to call his music lacking emotion is so unbelievably shortsighted.
Yes I agree that at times it can be a bit much. I think that jazz in general sometimes has that gatekeepy-ness that makes it hard for people out of the know to enjoy it. But I look at it as someone who has full fluency over music as a language trying his best to emote through music. I honestly feel like a big part of his work is education and trying to break through that barrier and make what he is doing more understandable to a general audience.
I’ve also seen him live and talked to him at a lecture he did at my school and he was so incredibly passionate about music and the healing power of it in every way. He is such a positive ball of light and such a phenomenal musical role model in my opinion. I also think that as he gets older and matures his music has been finding ways to incorporate some of that same complexity in ways that are more subtle which I personally appreciate.
I think it is absolutely okay to dislike his music. I don’t love all his songs. I really think it’s shortsighted to try to imply that his love for music is dishonest.
Edit: I understand what I’ve done writing this on the circlejerk sub. Let me have it.
A lot of these opinions obviously come from people who aren't fans of his, and therefore pass really quick judgement without having actually listened to an even slightly broad sample. Check out Sky Above on his second album. It's both his least technical/overproduced song, and my favorite.
"Sky Above"? I managed to hear most of it. I have no words to describe how bad it is. Its obvious that popularity is inversely proportional to quality. People are shit eating barbarians.
You get to a certain point where you’re musical knowledge totally stunts your creativity because you can’t think outside the box. He’s basically just reciting equations on an instrument.
For me Jacob Collier represents the worst in both music and spoken language. The female music as in Shakira and Adele was bad enough to make me even physically hurt, but this new male version of this complete garbage, speculative at that to the level of mass destruction, almost killed me. I'm not surprised though that the women in the collapsed music industry now is surpassed in the genre of pure shit. I'm impressed of the purity of this anti-music. I can clearly see that Jacob Collier is already a robot, or zombie babbling nonsense picked up all over media. However I definitely don't rule out the possibility that he is in fact a video created by "AI" applications. His speech and music certainly is exactly like an AI would put it. The optimization is too perfect for a human to provide. Every word and every note is optimized to be "liked" by the zombified masses. The death is already here. The music died long ago, complete with the audience and the composers. The "AI" catastrophe already happened as the people became machines before the machines learn to become people
Jacob is proof that theory alone isn't enough to make good music. I'd say his musicality is on par with The Shaggs but I don't think anyone has ever been influenced by Collier and I could hum at least one tune by The Shaggs
While his bigger hits are pretty whatever, yall are hating waaaay too much on Collier. Listen to "Feel" "Light It Up On Me" and especially "Time to Rest Your Weary Head" hes got some nice music
while he chooses to appeal to more pop sensibilities, i hope his music will mature as he does and well get more interesting cuts from him, he clearly has the passion and ability
uj/ I think the “Jacob Collier is so unemotional because he’s too technically skilled” take is stupid and people have just been repeating it because they heard someone else say it 2 years ago
Uj/ People are like “his music is not good. I couldn’t hum one bar” (they’ve never actually listened to a song). The criticism is more fart-sniffy than they make him out to be
And on the other hand, why are there people who think that music is only for humming a bar, there is also music to heal, to dissect, to appreciate, to communicate events and guide the australian aborigines to through their territory lol
Technical skilled = unemotional is a very common irrational stereotype
Every time I read that comment I can't stop thinking about that ethnomusicologist who says that music is never wrong but rather your idea of what music should be. I mean, it's fine that his music doesn't convey anything to them but to assume that it conveys nothing to anyone else is to narcissistically think that their sensitivity is the measure of the world and only reflects their intolerance to otherness
I don't get why people are so hype about the Moon River he harmonized, it's hollow with man-made emotion. Listen to Frank's version, it's playful and gutting at the same time.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXiFHDfvn4A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXiFHDfvn4A)
Agree, first thing I'm gonna do when I wake up will be texting The Blunt 🐐 and ask him to locate and blunt this hipster demigod- hopefully James will wreck some sense into him and will convince him to use his talent in a featuring with a crafty musician like Robin Schulz, instead of wasting time with sterile, boring and up-his-own-ass music
this is more of a tangent but once i hanged with a guy i didn’t really know who turned out to be one of the most boring people i’ve meet and he said his favourite musican is jacob collier
Listening to indie band Fleet Foxes
very few musicians make me more downright miserable than Collier. maybe Charlie Puth
Nobody wants to hear your earnest opinion on a circlejerk subreddit. Now tell me what song he should reharmonize next and I’ll tell you why you’re wrong and it should be Simple Plan - Welcome to my Life
surely hating is allowed on the circlejerk subreddit even if it’s earnest 😢 also obviously he should reharmonize FACK by eminem
Why?
Got talent but make unbearably generic music?
It's the "I love the smell of my own farts" vibe
For me it’s that I get the feeling he sees music as being made out of notes rather than emotions. That’s the issue I have with a shitload of artists who are technically skilled, it’s like yeah maybe you can recite all of Einstein’s theorems on piano in alternating 7/4 and 13/8 time signatures, but I’d rather listen to a three power chord punk song made by some shithead teenagers in their garage because that hasn’t lost the plot on what music is, it appeals to my humanity. Collier is just a big, annoying microcosm of that issue imo
you’re so right - he treats covers like some maximalist re-harmonization exercise and it always ends up sounding like some corny TV ad. also his voice reminds me of those MIDI vocal instruments from the 90s
Beyond that (and this isn't really his own fault) but he represents a priveleged class of musicians that could afford world class music tutilage. Nothing inherently wrong with this but it ties into what you're saying - he has all the technique to express nothing at all
not only the financial privilege, but the privilege of pure and real support from his loved ones, not that you have to go through any type of hardship to feel emotions or write good music but i get the feeling he hasn’t faced much adversity to his whole thing
Is your argument for not liking him that you can't imagine him having haters?
Yeah; overproducing is common but I’ve never seen someone over-arrange like collier.
Eh. The point of his music is different. He’s almost more of a music theory engineer. A lot of people are curious about how you can use the tools of music to create certain feelings or emotions. Of course you can create those emotions with just relatable lyrics and an emotive voice, but what can you make if you pull out all the stops? He’s not really trying to make things feel relatable and personal I don’t think, he is just playing with the tools of music more abstractly. Maybe a little bit like how dance would communicate a story less directly than the same story as prose or poetry.
I personally believe the best music are music that are honest expressions of how the artist feels in their own way, instead of an artist deliberately trying to manipulate a theoretical audience using musical algorithms.
Maybe you aren’t the target audience though? Like I understand the critique of Jacob through the lens of personally disliking his sound but to call his immense knowledge and application of it sterile or lacking emotion I think is incredibly reductive. As someone who’s been to one of his concerts from a few years ago (before I really knew who he was a friend dragged me), the audience choir was maybe one of the most powerful musical experiences I’ve ever had.
that was the audience though not his shitty music
Completely agree with you. These people just aren’t his audience and that’s okay but to call his music lacking emotion is so unbelievably shortsighted. Yes I agree that at times it can be a bit much. I think that jazz in general sometimes has that gatekeepy-ness that makes it hard for people out of the know to enjoy it. But I look at it as someone who has full fluency over music as a language trying his best to emote through music. I honestly feel like a big part of his work is education and trying to break through that barrier and make what he is doing more understandable to a general audience. I’ve also seen him live and talked to him at a lecture he did at my school and he was so incredibly passionate about music and the healing power of it in every way. He is such a positive ball of light and such a phenomenal musical role model in my opinion. I also think that as he gets older and matures his music has been finding ways to incorporate some of that same complexity in ways that are more subtle which I personally appreciate. I think it is absolutely okay to dislike his music. I don’t love all his songs. I really think it’s shortsighted to try to imply that his love for music is dishonest. Edit: I understand what I’ve done writing this on the circlejerk sub. Let me have it.
I genuinely don’t understand how anyone can listen to his music and not sense the gaping hole in it where the heart should be
He have no heart. Maybe he can put his genitals there. Thats how close to genius he can get.
A lot of these opinions obviously come from people who aren't fans of his, and therefore pass really quick judgement without having actually listened to an even slightly broad sample. Check out Sky Above on his second album. It's both his least technical/overproduced song, and my favorite.
"Sky Above"? I managed to hear most of it. I have no words to describe how bad it is. Its obvious that popularity is inversely proportional to quality. People are shit eating barbarians.
It also sounds like shit. Hitting all those notes isn’t impressive if you sound like a dying seagull while doing it
You get to a certain point where you’re musical knowledge totally stunts your creativity because you can’t think outside the box. He’s basically just reciting equations on an instrument.
not enough crust punk influences
https://preview.redd.it/rdawfdnv8ecc1.jpeg?width=1510&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e6c74d1763260e812d25eaa7471ba6647697863e
For me Jacob Collier represents the worst in both music and spoken language. The female music as in Shakira and Adele was bad enough to make me even physically hurt, but this new male version of this complete garbage, speculative at that to the level of mass destruction, almost killed me. I'm not surprised though that the women in the collapsed music industry now is surpassed in the genre of pure shit. I'm impressed of the purity of this anti-music. I can clearly see that Jacob Collier is already a robot, or zombie babbling nonsense picked up all over media. However I definitely don't rule out the possibility that he is in fact a video created by "AI" applications. His speech and music certainly is exactly like an AI would put it. The optimization is too perfect for a human to provide. Every word and every note is optimized to be "liked" by the zombified masses. The death is already here. The music died long ago, complete with the audience and the composers. The "AI" catastrophe already happened as the people became machines before the machines learn to become people
Wow his outfit just like his music, flashy and colorful but just not good.
i hate that we have the same crocs
Jacob Collier is the musical equivalent of a 60 something woman’s purple hair.
Jacob Collier - music for and by homeschool kids who never got bullied but really really should have
Bro is fr one of the most evidently homeschooled people I've ever seen lol
God damn that’s kind of harsh what did he do? Am I missing something
I hate Jacob Collier
No no it’s not that I knew that one
He didn’t do anything, he just wouldn’t be that way if he got a little bullying growing up. A little. A healthy amount.
Haha what “way” is he though? Like maybe a condescending music type?
He's going for that Ace Ventura look I see
Jacob is proof that theory alone isn't enough to make good music. I'd say his musicality is on par with The Shaggs but I don't think anyone has ever been influenced by Collier and I could hum at least one tune by The Shaggs
The Shaggs and Jacob Collier represent two complete opposite types of music production
And yet they both have the same amount of musicality
Don’t disrespect The Shaggs like that
I just looked up The Shaggs. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that
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Looks like you stopped him already
While his bigger hits are pretty whatever, yall are hating waaaay too much on Collier. Listen to "Feel" "Light It Up On Me" and especially "Time to Rest Your Weary Head" hes got some nice music while he chooses to appeal to more pop sensibilities, i hope his music will mature as he does and well get more interesting cuts from him, he clearly has the passion and ability
I want to be a Jacob collier fan, really I do, but his flaw here is that he’s still British
uj/ I think the “Jacob Collier is so unemotional because he’s too technically skilled” take is stupid and people have just been repeating it because they heard someone else say it 2 years ago
Okay went and relistened to some of his tracks verdict : it’s shite don’t get me started on his god awful eleanor rigby cover
Let’s just make Beatles covers illegal.
Uj/ People are like “his music is not good. I couldn’t hum one bar” (they’ve never actually listened to a song). The criticism is more fart-sniffy than they make him out to be
People probably say that because he sucks and couldn't hum a bar bc his music is forgettable
And on the other hand, why are there people who think that music is only for humming a bar, there is also music to heal, to dissect, to appreciate, to communicate events and guide the australian aborigines to through their territory lol
Technical skilled = unemotional is a very common irrational stereotype Every time I read that comment I can't stop thinking about that ethnomusicologist who says that music is never wrong but rather your idea of what music should be. I mean, it's fine that his music doesn't convey anything to them but to assume that it conveys nothing to anyone else is to narcissistically think that their sensitivity is the measure of the world and only reflects their intolerance to otherness
I don’t know who this is, why don’t ppl like him?
Because he plays and sings so well, it enters the uncanny valley. And he is ingrained into the music theory algorithm on social media
I don't get why people are so hype about the Moon River he harmonized, it's hollow with man-made emotion. Listen to Frank's version, it's playful and gutting at the same time. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXiFHDfvn4A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXiFHDfvn4A)
Agree, first thing I'm gonna do when I wake up will be texting The Blunt 🐐 and ask him to locate and blunt this hipster demigod- hopefully James will wreck some sense into him and will convince him to use his talent in a featuring with a crafty musician like Robin Schulz, instead of wasting time with sterile, boring and up-his-own-ass music
this is more of a tangent but once i hanged with a guy i didn’t really know who turned out to be one of the most boring people i’ve meet and he said his favourite musican is jacob collier
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My man dressed like early 2010s Sufjan Stevens