The acronym “IDM” (which stands for intelligent dance music, plebs), has always bothered me. Hipsters, it’s like you’ve given up on trying to disguise your pretentiousness when you use a label like that. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of music associated with the acronym, but c’mon, there’s hardly anything more obnoxious than referring to your music as “intelligent.” By calling your dance music “intelligent,” you’re essentially calling all other dance music “unintelligent.” Though this is often the case, don’t reinforce the stereotype. I’m not saying that “IDM” is an inaccurate way to describe some of this music, but there has got to be a less in-your-face-look-at-me way to do it.
Anyway, I digress. I just saw that “idm” tag when I looked up The Glitch Mob on last.fm, and had to get that off my chest.
I like The Glitch Mob. I like large portions of Drink the Sea. My biggest problem with this record—a common problem with dance music—is that it goes on for waaaaay too long. In smaller portions, like one or two tracks, pretty much anything from Drink the Sea is great. It’s just hard to sit and listen to an entire record like this.
And with that, we stumble upon yet another problem with the Swole Ear format. Not all records should be listened to in a prone position while being analytically attacked. There are some albums that do best when on in the background. If I were looking to zone out for an hour (believe me, we all need to every now and then), Drink the Sea is definitely something that I would put on to help me out. It’s hard to get through otherwise, though.
Swole Ear 
Is Intelligent Dance Music a euphemism like Intelligent Design? Are the hipsters trying to imply that the Heavenly Father wrote this music? Did that happen right after he finished worrying about the outcome of sporting events?