pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

"Nas has managed in his short career to run afoul of almost everyone: Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, Tupac...even Jesse Jackson! And if that weren't bad enough, there are whispers among those in the know that much of the music on Nas' albums is provided not by working musicians at all but by sampling machines. We can only assume that Nas, the son of an actual jazz musician, was raised better than that. Our advice? Straighten up and fly right, 'Nasty' Nas!"

i know this is gonna sound condescending and dickish as hell, but sometimes I wonder if a lot of people uhhhh think they “love” music but don’t really “get” music and don’t experience much actual joy or rapture when they hear it

not on ilx, just like, some of the bad reviews that get posted here

some people just like pairing IPAs with things, ok????????????

lol

caught up in the rapture of foam

Personally I wish all works of criticism regarding any artform opened with an itemized list of the creator's cancellable offenses, it'd save the writer, reader and subject a lot of valuable time

WTF is a “jit”?

still got it

As Tolstoy once said "Nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut nut."

https://i.ibb.co/RzVJyKp/Screenshot-2019-07-26-Pitchfork-The-Most-Trusted-Voice-in-Music.png
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omg Diagonals is my all time jam - that track at apocalyptic volume is untouchable

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Sunday, July 21, 2019 5:35 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've always loved this one as well, but listening to it recently on headphones, I was disappointed to notice for the first time the weird effect on the lead vocal that makes it sound like a bad mp3. I hope the remaster sorts this out

I've heard it, but it sounds deliberate to me. The rest of the track is so well recorded (that bass!) it seems unlikely to be a glitch.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. Mary's vocals don't have the same effect, and I also noticed it seems most prominent toward the middle of the track (and seems to disappear at the end). I've heard this song a hundred times, but never noticed it until I listened on headphones, and now I can't un-hear it. It's a weird choice. Like a filter-y, vibrato effect.

Reminds me of when I noticed this weird Tupperware-lid-popping sound in Wedding Bell by Beach House. It doesn't line up with the music at all and lasts the entire time. Very distracting to notice an annoying production mistake and/or unfortunate decision whatever the reason.

Hmmm.

https://pitchfork.com/features/photo-gallery/pitchfork-music-festival-2019-street-style/

A couple years ago pitchfork said chance the rapper had released the 4th best mixtape of the millennium, ahead of 50 Cent is the Future. Now his new album — a maturation in many respects — isn’t as good as 4th rate 50 cent knockoff pop smoke. The mind boggles

I hadn’t seen that Pitchfork “best mixtapes of the millennium” list, so I googled:

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9908-the-50-best-rap-mixtapes-of-the-millennium

This is GREAT! A primer for a mixtape-know-nothing idiot whiteboy like me. Pitchfork should do more articles like this.

xpost Another continuity error! A no prize to whoever can explain

xpost That was a good feature. I've only heard a couple of those and no way am I catching up on 50, but it was a good read.

Slow news year; an article on a random Urban Outfitters–exclusive vinyl reish?:

https://pitchfork.com/news/destinys-child-announce-the-writings-on-the-wall-vinyl-reissue/

tbf, I think the hook is more "Beyonce" with that one, but your point stands

The ringtone crew has some bad news about that mixtape list

Complex has one that while not perfect at least doesn’t say Danny brown and chance the rapper mixtapes are better than 50 cent is the future

A couple years ago pitchfork said chance the rapper had released the 4th best mixtape of the millennium, ahead of 50 Cent is the Future. Now his new album — a maturation in many respects — isn’t as good as 4th rate 50 cent knockoff pop smoke. The mind boggles

can't believe Sally Pitchfork changed her personal taste in three years

I blame Sally getting really into craft beer.

can't believe Sally Pitchfork changed her personal taste in three years

― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Wednesday, July 31, 2019 1:43 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

im aware, i ... wrote for the site. but this isn't just a matter of two different reviewers liking two albums slightly differently, you're talking abt someone stamped as like a Pitchfork Artist, who got Best New Music & headlined their festival, being turned on completely for an album that is hardly some radical departure

slaves to the narrative, must force all artists to conform to scrappy upstart > triumphant breakthrough > commercial peak > bloated decline storyline.

and then... the comeback!

(if they're lucky)

He'll drop another album -- or ahem, 'mixtape' -- shortly, which people will also hate, and then about two years from now, after a series of great records that nobody pays attention to but are actually dope, he will make a mediocre album everyone will say is great. https://t.co/LYKemXzpu0

— Paul Cantor (@PaulCantor) July 29, 2019

its really such a bizarre backlash, when was the last time something like this happened so disconnected from the quality of the music

I was just thinking about the all-stars of "Twitter inexplicably decided this was bad now"

What I came up with: Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Arcade Fire and Chance the Rapper

Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus and Sleater-Kinney legit changed their sound/style to varying degrees so they don't really count, I suppose

Anyway, I'll do a poll/thread if anyone has any other examples

so disconnected from the quality of the music

yeahhh the Arcade Fire one was pretty explicable

Everything Now wasnt the worst album ever made but there were some real clunkers on it (but some decent enough stuff too), and the lyrics were generally awful with the ridiculous marketing campaign that did a lot of work to turn everyone away, it's pretty easy to understand why everyone loved to dunk on it

was completely unaware of any Bruno Mars backlash, my impression was critics etc had slowly warmed up to him after his shifted away from his initial obnoxious presence? Man of the Woods was mostly forgettable rather than terrible (though I know Whiney is a defender of it) but "Supplies" really was that bad and the reevaluation of 20/20 Experience in the time since it came out did him no favours either. the Reputation backlash was overblown though it was disappointing and LWYMMD was a real "wtf is she doing" single

with Chance it's especially puzzling because he hasn't made some bizarre left turn or made a boring rehash of his previous work, he's refined his sound but also added some things that feel natural enough for him like the house grooves which are extremely welcome. no misguided marketing campaign or a weird/bad lead single to get everyone offside either

Why do we need to let Twitter decide what is bad now, when Twitter itself is a fucking shithole?

re Chance, I think it's mostly about the ground of the rap zeitgeist shifting beneath his feet between projects as opposed to anything to do with "quality". no one wants optimism from their rap right now because we all feel like shit

this might help explain why, if anything, Lana Del Rey has only gained critical love because her whole project has skepticism and cynicism baked in on some level

feel like p4k never drops reviews before albums drop anymore. they used to try to set the terms of critical discourse, but now they just come in a few days late and confirm what everyone else already thinks

yeah that definitely seems to be part of it with Chance and i'm not surprised there's been a backlash to his whole schtick i'm just surprised it's with this album, and that it's as absurdly strong a backlash as it is like people really really hate this album, more than they did Everything Now or Reputation!

p4k used to nearly always drop reviews the day of release for big albums but they seem to spread them out more now. iirc it's always been pretty rare for them to put out a review before the album's out

LDR has kinda fluctuated in terms of critical love over the decade i feel? she's on a high right now with the strength of last year's singles of course

idk not counting RYM (which is my usual policy) I feel like her stock has only risen over time

yeah i guess she's been taken more seriously as time has gone on for sure

definitely an example of an artist im most disappointed to see sustaining

I'll happily admit that there might be contextual reasons for the backlash, at least in Europe: Chance has cancelled three European tours since Coloring Book, the last one just this summer, and the belief has been that he wanted to work on his album. And then it's this? I do think if he'd just called it his fourth mixtape, that it could very well have gotten 0,5 points more.

The mixtape-album divide is pretty much meaningless when it comes to Chance. In what way is this not his third album really?

It's his fourth :)

since when is 6.9 a pan?

it’s not as nice as you might think