pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

yeah p4k's target readership was probably in daycare when the album came out tho

I don't remember that discourse, because when the album came out I was a 22-year-old snob who wasn't paying attention to pop music.

Fair enuff!

I'm with morrisp on this one. That didn't feel like an album review to me so much as a cultural essay with just enough mention of the album to include it in the album reviews section of the site. The context was interesting for the first half, but it kinda felt like that review was basically all context.

It's not that I disagree, but that is what the Sunday Reviews are, and I don't get why that is so horrifying.

Yeah, like I said last night, I think the Sunday Review generally takes a different approach and perspective than the daily new reviews do. But perhaps the score at the top leads people to think of it along the same lines. Maybe they should get rid of it?

Then how would they retroactively award a 10.0 to an album they wouldn't have touched 15 years ago?

Magazines do it all the time?

e.g. Rolling Stone.

The Sunday Review is one of the best things they do imo.

People who whine about "corporate music" just because it's corporate music don't actually like music; they like being special and use obscure music to make up for not having a personality.

This is true on occasion, but sometimes people whine about 'corporate music' because it takes up so much space that there is precious little room left for other varieties of music. If you're committed to diversity, it's an obstacle.

Cosign that Sunday reviews are the best thing on the site now. I’m not trying to go out of my way to read abt Shakira in 2020 but if pfork is going to chase super bowl clicks I’d rather it be in this form than anything else.

(Fwiw I’ve heard Laundry Service front to back maybe 200 times when an officemate used to play it on repeat, and developed have a visceral nails-on-a-chalkboard reaction to it, and that piece got me to read about it for 10 minutes without having painful flashbacks, so a pretty good piece imho.)

^ That would be an interesting detail for a retrospective review!

i like dont love the review but i definitely think it wouldnt be getting this much wary over-reading if it wasnt reflecting a political shift in coverage vis a vis a pop star

i love the idea that we hear about shakira all the time though, lmao, this was definitely a retro play more than anything ... the last time i remember ppl talking about shakira in public was circa she wolf about a decade ago?

Um... We literally discussed Shakira today over lunch at my office, and I doubt we were the only ones...

ah ooooo

i think a Sunday review covering Shakira and her cultural importance from the perspective of Isabelia Herrera is i mean like a vast improvement over the old Pitchfork days of Brent D analyzing Bobby Digital w/a " Think: "Stan Lee presents... Da Muthaf*&%in' Ghetto!" " esp considering yes the sunday reviews are not a "review" (despite the scor)e as much as it is a more in-depth pondering of its overall history and context.

Um... We literally discussed Shakira today over lunch at my office, and I doubt we were the only ones...

― Frederik B, Monday, February 3, 2020 1:13 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yes ... because of the super bowl

they don't get the superbowl until next month iirc

The idea that there’s some oppressive pop discourse about Shakira is just like wtf... even at the peak of her laundry service fame I remember the discourse being abt her funny translation lyrics & guys liking her butt not some orthodox strain of poptimism

People who whine about "corporate music" just because it's corporate music don't actually like music; they like being special and use obscure music to make up for not having a personality.

This is true on occasion, but sometimes people whine about 'corporate music' because it takes up so much space that there is precious little room left for other varieties of music. If you're committed to diversity, it's an obstacle.

― toilet-cleaning brain surgeon (pomenitul), Monday, February 3, 2020 11:02 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Also lumping people who hate "corporate music" into a neatly packaged strawman mold is the same cynical write-off that those same people are accused of doing to "corporate music".

People whine about Applebees and TGIF and Mcdonald's and Buffalo Wild Wings but those whiners aren't accused of not actually liking food. That would be an extreme counterpoint.

To be clear, I would accuse those whiners of not actually liking food

I only like alternative food

something else for me and DJP to fight about

analogies are dumb

so is Applebees

I had really fond memories of the riblets at Applebee's but I found an old gift card lying around and went and they weren't as good as I remembered them :(

you can't eat good in the neighborhood again

https://i.imgur.com/v20YVOD.jpg

classic

UMS on some "their earlier material was much better" snobbery smdh

Applebee's sold out

https://www.franchisehelp.com/franchisee-resource-center/top-5-references-to-applebee-s-in-friday-night-lights/

The people who love food the most are dogs

The consistency of the Andy Stott cover art over the last 10 years is impressive. He's playing the long game.

Ha, wrong thread

Perhaps I’ve given the impression I care more than I do. I've long resigned myself to the fact that most of the music I listen to - techno / ambient / drone, some death metal, some jazz - is not really served by Pfork, so I don’t usually make a habit of visiting the site. But I think it's weird to just dismiss jon123's complaints, which to me are valid, even if some of us are tired of flogging this particular horse

Thank you, Paul, for giving me some reassurance that I am not going completely fucking mad.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/gil-scott-heron-makaya-mccraven-were-new-again-a-reimagining-by-makaya-mccraven/

(Sorry, couldn't resist. I tend to agree with you and Paul otherwise.)

I'm not going to spew any elitist bullshit, but Alanis Morrissette, Kylie Minogue? Oh my fucking God. I'll stay for a little while to see if P-Fork still serves my needs, but with today's front page, I'm not counting on it. I understand the career move, but I just don't think it's going to serve me any more.

― jess, Sunday, March 31, 2002 7:00 PM (seventeen years ago)

Fever was a 'joke' review at the time.

I was gonna say "uh that doesn't sound like jess at all, what the hell" and then I scrolled up to the original hot take, lol

They were April Fools Day reviews. The joke being that Pitchfork in 2002 would never review pop music.

And that they had been sold to a media conglomerate

you had to be there. it was hilarious at the time.

the greatest trick pitchfork ever pulled was convincing the world they'd never sincerely review a kylie minogue album

I was just looking through the Wayback Machine trying to track down an archived version of the homepage on that date. Unfortunately, there's a gap between March and May, but I did stumble upon a letter I forgot I wrote (in the reader mailbag) in praise of Ethan P's Eminem Show review.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/gil-scott-heron-makaya-mccraven-were-new-again-a-reimagining-by-makaya-mccraven/

― toilet-cleaning brain surgeon (pomenitul), Friday, February 7, 2020 12:07 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

(Sorry, couldn't resist. I tend to agree with you and Paul otherwise.)

― toilet-cleaning brain surgeon (pomenitul), Friday, February 7, 2020 12:08 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is no reflection on Makaya, as I am an avowed superfan (see International Anthem thread), but this only proves my point (see below). Link me to a Pitchfork review of the new Pat Metheny album, which is getting a lot of coverage elsewhere, including a cover story in this month's Downbeat, and I'll eat my words.

I said free jazz. I also didn't mean the 0.0002% of jazz (mostly coming from the London We Out Here scene and / or Kamasi adjacent) they've deemed worthy of coverage this year. Would be nice to see some coverage of people like Julia Hülsmann (and ECM artists in general), Mary Halvorson, John Zorn, Dave Rempis, Tomeka Reid, etc etc etc. There's a great new Bill Frisell album with Petra Haden they haven't bothered to review.

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, February 3, 2020 8:53 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

xp Pitchfork has a reader mailbag?!

It did in 2002! Looks like the last installment was in 2004.

From: mo .
Subject: broke

i came across your website a few years ago and quickly forgot about it. unfortunetely i recently came across it agian. boring. music reviews. who cares what people have to say about music. plus the writing sucks and is boring. double wammy. i can stick a pen in my dogs ass and have him sit on a piece of paper and get better shit then i read on your site. and i happen to catch your year end top , what was it 20, bands/albums. after seeing that i knew you guys suck. keep on trying to be cool. you never will be. i'm not. it doesn't pay to be down.
-maurice