pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Shout out to dude from “Cultural Appropriation: The Band” doing the real work: Calling a woman sexist on Twitter.

Cop-out:

I don’t know if we’re in a place as a culture to have a conversation about why but I feel it’s important to say it. It’s what I feel and I think it warrants expression.

— Rostam (@matsoR) August 2, 2019

"I can't explain why I called out a review written by a woman as exist, so I'll use my power on this public platform to be as vague as possible."

agreed, moronic

this vs f*nt*n*'s "why are critics not giving the chance album 0/10 scores like The People and also me, rly makes u think"

and the pitchfork review is some very fine, generous critical writing, katherine should be proud of it. if the record's producer thinks there's something to second-guess about it then it's a shame he is too stupid to understand how that has to be done.

it’s what I feel and I think it warrants expression.

who even says things like this

people who want to appear to be speakers responsible enough to talk about what's warranted but not responsible enough to try to justify things they speak

The key is to go on record as having said it, whatever 'it' might be.

well, that way you can get credit for courage to speak the truth, too

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

― jakey mo collier (voodoo chili), Thursday, August 1, 2019 11:56 PM (two days ago)

pretty much nobody hears big major label records w/ enough lead time to get a review up days before a release anymore & unlike at other points in pitchfork's history the big discussion records these days are almost always from majors. no critic heard chance's album before the public.

so the calculation then is to have a writer do a review in ~12 hours in order to get something up "early" or work on a more sensible publishing schedule and risk being "late" on the conversation

yeah, totally feel that, i know some writers still get albums under embargo, but def not all the time. and in that context, it definitely makes more sense for p4k to actually take its time with the review rather than rush out a hot take.

pretty much every indie record even the big ones is completed and often sent out to press before it's even announced tho

I still genuinely have no idea what this is about -- the only two things I can think of are using the phrase "soft rock" (but "adult contemporary" is a clunkier phrase, and also seems weird to describe an artist who's Generation Z), or mentioning other female artists (the culture is not ready for the conversation about the ridiculous pretzel logic it takes to claim that citing other women is sexist -- nobody cares when male artists are compared only to other men)

since he is the producer i thought it might somehow be a qualm with the way you attribute some of the record's good features to the production, maybe he feels like you are crediting him with some auteurist man whatever when you are actually stinting the artist herself, with her playing or arranging or production work or vision or oders to him or whatever

but if that is what it is, it is absurd for him to say it the way he did, and i don't think there is any basis in your review for thinking you are guilty of that

Paul Ponzi at 3:58 3 Aug 19

it’s what I feel and I think it warrants expression.

who even says things like this


this is such a perfect distillation of the mentality of indie dudes it's unreal

so I just read it and that's a really good review and made me want to hear the record

(that said I have received shockingly little pushback from stans or really anyone about this, although I suspect the reason is partly people thinking the record sucks and thus a misogynist review of it is OK)

liked clairo's first ep, looking forward to but haven't heard immunity yet, never read pitchfork but read this, seemed fine and not sure what dude's issue is? presumably just trying to *spark a conversation, you know?*

there's about 8 million acts that would kill for an 8 review that read like that

looking through the twitter replies no one seems to have any idea what he's talking about either except one guy who's guessing that the rolling stone review is being sexist by saying "with help from rostam" as that's diminishing clairo's role in co-producing it? i haven't read the rolling stone review but that seems like a real reach

As long as we’re talking about Pitchfork not being the dumb one, a quite nice write-up of Stevie Wonder’s The Secret Life of Plants for the Sunday Review:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/stevie-wonder-stevie-wonders-journey-through-the-secret-life-of-plants/

hey now let's not lose our resolve

I don’t see anything sexist in Katherine’s review, it’s a v well-written review and v positive.

The moment of putting out a record puts the artist in a position of supreme vulnerability, and prone to reading subtext in reviews where there is none.

On their debut, My Morning Jacket discovered the heavy reverb that would make them legendary.

just imagine if you'd been the one to discover reverb. Why, you'd be as legendary as My Morning Jacket, those clever devils!

"it’s what I feel and I think it warrants expression" lol he sounds very stoned

just read the rolling stone review and while you definitely could tell it was by a (relatively) old school rock critic I didn’t find it sexist either

well it's very subtle

as a woman you might not be able to see it

maybe when we're at a place where we can have a conversation about it, someone will be able to point it out to you

i mean if anyone can achieve that kind of subtlety

The thing I am most looking forward to about the future is all the conversations we are going to have

Andy Beta's Wonder review is wonder-ful.

lmfao @ Rostam

"we're not in a place as a culture for me to explain why I said what I said"

the vampire castle is collapsing

I bet Rostam used a bunch of words he didn't quite know the meaning of.

that quote was Rostam's Fairweather Johnson

it's true, we're really not in a place as a culture where people feel like they need to explain the dumb shit they write on Twitter

"I get this certain feeling when I see misogyny, and I felt kind of like that"

They’re still pushing the “Iggy Azalea has been canceled” line in this long Charlie XCX feature:

“Fancy,” which she co-wrote with Iggy Azalea, helped catapult the Australian rapper to a brief period of international superstardom five years ago, thanks to Charli’s booming cheer-chant of a chorus. While both artists have found it hard to replicate that song’s popularity, “Fancy” felt like the beginning of something for Charli, whereas with Azalea, it has come to represent a sort of ending.

Btw, “Fancy” was released before “Problem” (the hit Ariana Grande song featuring Azalea), so not sure how it represents any sort of “ending” for Iggy (even if you now feel that her career is kaput).

And "Black Widow" was a huge hit too!

I like this section at the end of the piece (never mind the misplaced modifier that kicks it off) — apparently Charli is a star, as long as you’re in the right kind of neighborhood?

Walking out of the spa, scores of pedestrians pass us, but not one of them gives Charli a second look. How is no one rushing up to her requesting a selfie? Why isn’t some 19-year-old stretching out of the passenger seat of a car singing “Vroom Vroom” at her? Well, we’re still in Midtown Manhattan, a neighborhood whose identity is defined by overpriced salads and men whose biggest problems involve locating shirts designed to be worn untucked.

As we stand in this cultural wasteland, sharing a moment of awkward silence before deciding to part ways...

uh if you're a man no shirt needs to be DESIGNED to be worn untucked

tell that to these idiots

https://www.untuckit.com/

maybe they're trying to be funny? even as one of the in-the-grand-scheme-of-things few people who have actually purchased a charli xcx album i don't recall whatsoever what "vroom vroom" for example sounds like. i'm pretty sure someone might have mashed it with the classic "broom broom i'm in me mum's car" meme but even then i can't remember anything about it

they = whoever wrote that feature

the link to the tiktok collection is informative

xp I think it’s meant to be a callback to a paragraph at the beginning of the article:

Then she went to a raucous party at a bar in the East Village with a handful of friends—something that might seem like leisure time to many but, when you’re Charli XCX, it’s impossible to attain blissful off-the-clock anonymity at a drag show in the middle of Pride Week. The gays know her face, even when it’s obscured by sunglasses. They, or shall I say we, are a big part of Charli’s fiery and devout fan base, and love to support an inventive pop underdog whose music rarely scales the charts but is ubiquitous in all their safe spaces.

"the gays know her face" sounds like the start of a calvin klein fragrance commercial