OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

not seeing the creeping here

Let me run it down for you:

- the most meaningful line is one that makes Christgau think Lorde has been having (or at least thinking about) sex
- the most important fact about the new album, for Christgau, is that she's working with the same producer as Taylor Swift, Sia, and Carly Rae Jepsen
- given limited space, he'd rather talk about her (presumed) sex life than any aspect of the music he's supposedly reviewing

He's a fucking creep. And has been for decades. To paraphrase one of his own (in)famous lines, he should fold up his penis and stop typing with it.

I read that as the most meaningful line is a banal throwaway: "Deep, no. Real, in theory. Sex life, presumably. Pop property, absolutely."

He's not talking about her sex life, he's saying she's been packaged as pop property, real, in theory. "someone who's thought about how this sex thing works" is a zing, not frisson. the producer is singled out because he's doing the packaging.

But, yes, there's plenty of creeping that's been done.

Now you have to explain the pole.

damn.

Citroen otm imo

antonoff's so-far-recorded work with crj also amounts to a co-write on a KISS bonus track and some bleachers stuff. they've been in the studio together recently but she throws a lot of stuff out.

female popstars are always the ones who are "packaged" or "presented" it seems...critics tend to lean harder on that language with them anyway. I'd be curious to see a running count of how often producers are named and credited in these reviews, break it down make vs female artists and see what the numbers come out as.

i don't know why people care so much more about branding than actual music.

it's easier to describe in concrete terms

Because nobody cares about music

^^^ new board description

if christgau wants to talk about sex in the new lorde album he should just write about how it figures thematically into the music instead of speculating on how other people are trying to "position" her in the marketplace or whatever. certainly she shouldn't be called a "property."

like, pop music is a commodity, and so it's not unreasonable to think about how lorde is trying to change her brand or whatever, but god, what could be more boring.

Alfred's OTM re: fantasy objects

well at least we're not talking about fantano

That OP article "On selling out" has disappeared, ironically because Photobucket sold out. It's here if you ever need to cite it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160715192338/http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/Screengrabs/onsellingoutexepose.jpg

From this week's R&R (Reviewed & Rated) section of Exeter University Guild Of Students' magnificent student paper, Exeposé...
― Scik Mouthy, Monday, June 18, 2007

paging scott
http://time.com/money/4822260/vinyl-collection-value-experts

Confused, I approached another expert — Ben Blackwell, who co-founded Third Man Records with Jack White — with my concerns about the future monetary value of vinyl.
“To me that seems dumb as s***,” he said bluntly. “You should think of resale value for a car or a house. But a record? If you’re getting into anything for any sort of monetary reasons, you should just be buying f***ing stocks.”
That made sense. Except it wasn’t what I was told way back when.

Ben Blackwell, as ever, OTM

“R.E.M. used to be very big and collectible, and now you can’t give their records away to a 20-year-old,” Mello added.

P sure their records are quite pricey on discogs tho?

I see a few of original pressing Reckonings for under $25. Not giving them away, but not collector prices.

Monster, on the other hand, looks like it's going for crazy money ($65 and up). But that's likely due to the fact that most '90s vinyl releases were pressed in relatively small quantities.

lol @ $30 for Paul Simon Graceland reissue

the bell of the ball

Ha!

I mean, that piece does touch on the anxiety of "collecting" in 2017, which is a real thing

It's wild to think that, like, the Flaming Lips Zaireeka reissue had 7,200 copies and sit unsold in record stores across American and Talking Heads Robert Rauschenberg art edition of Speaking In Tongues had 50,000 copies and I hardly ever see it in the wild. It's hard not to feel like these limited runs are exciting!

My own personal weakest (or proudest) moment as a newish collector came towards the end of January, when I impulsively ordered an extremely limited-edition Ryan Adams box set for $179. The package featured 7-inch singles of every song on his new album, plus new, unheard B-sides. It also came with a box that became a concert stage and cardboard cutouts of him, his band, and his pet cat that you could position on the mock stage if you were feeling super bored or super lonely.

fucking christ

the state of that

My own personal weakest (or proudest) moment as a newish collector came towards the end of January, when I impulsively ordered an extremely limited-edition Ryan Adams box set for $179. The package featured 7-inch singles of every song on his new album, plus new, unheard B-sides. It also came with a box that became a concert stage and cardboard cutouts of him, his band, and his pet cat that you could position on the mock stage if you were feeling super bored or super lonely.

fucking christ

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

We should let David Brooks know about it!

XTC sort of did something like that with the "No Thugs In Our House" 7" in 1982 -- there were cutout finger puppets and you could cut and bend the sleeve into a theater stage. But it only cost a couple of dollars, and it didn't have any Ryan Adams music on it.

counterpoint: sure Ben, how's that resale value of a house working for folks right now

The Bee Gees "To Whom It May Concern" LP from 1972 features a gatefold sleeve that opens up into a stage with pop-up figures of all the Brothers Gibb, they're backing band, orchestra, producers, road crew etc.

it's p awesome tbh

And yet, despite knowing the limitations of a rock band in 2017, the peak time of digital downloads, an era when audiences aren't getting behind even their most beloved performers making intimate, accessible records – Feist sold 37,000 units in Canada in the first six weeks of her previous album, Metals; Pleasure, her latest, sells 5,600 units in that same time – a compulsion drives the band back together. Social media, pornography, Donald Trump, terror: For himself and for his audience, Drew wants to provide something else.

Is that just bad PR or...?

"[BAND] - an alternative to pornography and terror!"

i found that article, it's all over the place, but it sounds like they saved music after the bataclan and restored manchester after the ariana grande tragedy.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/broken-social-scenes-kevin-drew-on-how-an-indie-rock-cornerstone-made-a-roaringcomeback/article35604550/

Oh how my soul is now content.

EliteDaily is still around

http://elitedaily.com/entertainment/celebrity/carly-rae-jepsen-new-album/2017596/

I was alright until "Charli XCX's 'The Fault In Our Stars'".

politely written but infuriating
https://thewalrus.ca/carly-rae-jepsen-hasnt-earned-your-scholarly-scrutiny/

Jason Guriel is a writer based in Toronto. His work has appeared in Elle, The Atlantic, and Slate.

the works of jason guriel

musta took a wrong turn at albuquerque

lol what a dink

that Anthony Lane paragraph he quotes is awful. "it's fine to write about pop-culture as long as you are sneering and dismissive" - can't understand how anyone can think that this would lead to good writing?

there's probably something to be said about how everyone who derides carly rae jepsen assumes her to be much younger than she is. it reflects an arms length engagement *and* an unwillingness to dig in and think about why they're so bothered. have any of the anti crj broadsides discussed her, you know, music?

Anyone who admires Anthony Lane (as a writer or a thinker) can get fucked.

I liked him for about five months in 1998.

like most people, he's gotten dumber and glibber with age

None of this, I should point out, is meant to advance some silly value system pitting high art against pop culture; I’ll take the John Travolta vehicle Blow Out over Antonioni’s Blow Up any day.

haha this sets up exactly the dichotomy it says it won't, which is weird seeing as blow up might as well have been directed by austin powers. prob still otm tho

Phillip J. Pierpont Kennicott VII looks down his lorgnette at the Kennedy Center Honors.

KenCen, apparently, is straight dissing ballet and opera to give awards to rock bands and even, gasp, rappers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/the-kennedy-center-honors-abandon-the-arts-for-pop-culture/2017/08/02/0287e65c-77a0-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_kennicott-1115am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.e1e19c23539f

tbf opera is horrible

KenCen, apparently, is straight dissing ballet and opera to give awards to rock bands and even, gasp, rappers.

I read the tone pretty differently from this.

Yeah. I mean, I disagree with the thesis but it's not unsound; I think he wants to sway things too far in the opposite direction. The Kennedy Center Honors should be open across the spectrum and I would hope for a diverse group of honorees from disciplines popular and esoteric.

That said, LL as the first rapper to get an honor is both fitting and kind of weird. I guess Chuck D's sweet spot was too short for him to be a serious candidate and Will Smith was way too bubblegum to have credibility.