A lot of indie stuff I've heard lately has seemed to be lacking in sufficient quality so as to make me feel something. There have been one too many songs that just whiz by me as a dense collage of guitars, vocals and drums, with nothing really gelling to make anything memorable. At the present moment, I'm not a particularly big fan of a lot of the indie rock I've heard*; not that I don't like any of it (the Fiery Furnaces I like - the music is far too interesting for me not to notice), but my overall feeling is such that I'm still quite content to concentrate on trawling through the tonnes of material from the '60s to '80s, unlike S. The '90s and '00s will have their turn, sure, but a fair deal later I'd say. Although, I wonder if I'll get to the state Sufjan Stevens is in ("I don't have the inclination to discover new music. Honestly, I don't really care").

Melodically, though, I guess a fair bit of it has been rather good - enough so to be surprising. Of course there has been nothing in the grand vein, but quite a few of them are pretty solid. What's surprising is that there hasn't been as much "borrowing" from older stuff than I would have expected - I suppose we aren't running out of melodies just yet (but hey, don't tell me Arcade Fire's "Neighbourhood #2" doesn't borrow the mellotron riff from the Moody Blues' "The Voice" - clever guys, taking something from one of the least known Moodies songs!).

* I clearly haven't heard enough for any damning final judgement or anything, but I've heard some bands who have gotten rave reviews. But let me just reiterate that I don't mean this to be indicative of all indie music today - hey, Jens Lekman I can get just fine.