Words don't do justice to how profoundly depressing a listen it is; in fact, it is probably the most depressing thing I have ever heard. Compared to New Waver, Thom Yorke is a veritable Pollyanna and Ian Curtis' bleakest lyrics are positively life-affirming. Much has been said about the existential-crisis-inducing potential of post-rock, but this even outdoes A Silver Mt. Zion in that department. Perhaps it's the way the bleak realities of the words subliminally penetrate your consciousness under the repetitive techno beats that does it. Anyway, I was feeling quite cheerful last evening; then I listened to the whole thing, and by the end, I went away with the feeling that life is a pointless, Sisyphean ordeal from which the only reprieve is death.
And then I put on Stereolab's People Do It All The Time and felt a lot better.
Update: And here is New Waver's Kraftwerk tribute MP3 album.
There's *got* to be something here that I'm missing.
*listens to the mp3s New Waver have put on their website from <cite>The Defeated</cite>*
Oh, right. Now I'm <strong>really</strong> depressed.
Try listening to the whole thing straight through; it's like a guided tour through all the reasons to kill yourself now and save yourself a lot of inevitable suffering and disappointment.
In fact, pretty much every New Waver lyric is an essay on the pointlessness of modern life. The fact that a lot of the songs are electronic karaoke covers of well-known songs with the lyrics changed to fit the New Waver ideology (i.e., "Surfin' USA" becomes "Servin' DNA") adds to the overall effect.
"Life Force" makes me want to strangle Charles Darwin. And there's a point in "Dying Patients" where you can't easily make out the words, and there's a large part of you that's screaming "don't make the effort!"
Hmm, good thing you didn't put on Stereolab's "Transona Five" instead...