Filter MagCast 012: An Ode to Twee
by Staff | 00.00.0000

Filter MagCast 012: After a month-long cyber-hibernation, the Filter Staff is rested and back to Bryan and Boo team once again, this time tackling the insular world of twee music. What is twee, you ask? Think soft, cute, yearning pop music by sensitive
white men about silly crushes, being an outsider, etc. Born in the early 80s in northern England and Scotland, it was everything anti-punk. These days, twee can be summed up in three words: Belle and Sebastian. But besides B+S, Bryan and Boo delve into the "anorak pop" past with iconoclasts The Pastels and twee rockers The Smiths. They also call out the different strains of modern twee, from gay twee (The Magnetic Fields) to English major twee (The Decemberists) to mainstream twee (Coldplay) to twee from Canada (Stars) and Norway (Magnet).

Featured clips include:
The Pastels, "I'm Alright With You"
Belle and Sebastian, "Expectations"
The Smiths, "Hand In Glove"
The Magnetic Fields, "The Luckiest Guy On the Lower East Side"
The Decemberists, "Leslie Anne Levine"
Stars, "One More Night"
Coldplay, "Talk" (Filter Radio Chart)
Magnet, "Hold On"