Legacy Acts

At the end of last year , I was unfortunate enough to hear the most recent single from David Byrne, ‘T Shirt’. It’s made of thin material indeed, and I say that as someone who likes some Talking Heads work and his projects with Eno and St Vincent. Likewise Kylie and her insipid Christmas single, which inspired office party dances and trended within hours, thus ensuring its Christmas no 1 status.

There’s been a recent trend for bands to reform of late, and I fully understand why: the whole musical infrastructure is different these days, meaning artists make more money primarily through touring and merch, as opposed to the records they release. Download and streaming culture has of course inextricably shifted everything. But there’s a problem that arises within this taste for revivalist music- that of legacy acts.

Whether ABBA and their ABBAtars, Bjork and her Cornucopia tour, or bands you didn’t know were still going (The Wombats anyone?) bands don’t ever seem to know when to split these days, unless of course through necessity, eg because an iconic member passes away. Even then, The Prodigy are still going.

The cash cow is being milked dry, to the point of tedium. Nobody is going to see David Byrne hoping he’ll play lots of new material. Pulp’s last album was (bizarrely)well received, likewise Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Sadly, for me, said albums were weak- just two more examples of artists I previously adored running out of steam.

Legacy acts are fast becoming the modern day equivalent of freak shows, circus acts that people gawp at, astounded they’re still treading the boards. There’s a sense of irony, because irony never really faded away. The Bros documentary, ‘After The Screaming Stops’ evidenced this- there’s a certain schadenfreude for some in watching a facsimile of your teen dreams making dicks of themselves.

All too often, they are little more than bucket list requirements like swimming with dolphins and the Great Wall of China, acts to tick off and part of our soundbite, Instagram -worthy, “picture or it didn’t happen” generation. Call me a pedant (and yep, many have) but I prefer seeing artists before the sell-by date: hungry, expressive, bursting with innovation and something to say. Spare me the dead behind the eyes, “get me Dan Carey” production -line emptiness of those desperate to stay relevant.

Maybe Pulp’s anaemic comeback was merely a blip. Perhaps Cave can muster up something else of the calibre of ‘Carnage’ again. I bloody hope so. Let’s see how breaking artists- and mature ones alike- can startle me this year.