That piece is better if you approach it as a satire of Taylor Swift's writing. i.e., making huge melodramatic emotional narratives out of small personal events that no one else should really give a shit about.
― triggercut, Thursday, 10 May 2018 01:33 (five years ago) link
i feel like writing about "small personal events that no one else should really give a shit about" describes a lot of good songwriting, but i'm not sure what that even means really so
― lowercase (eric), Thursday, 10 May 2018 01:51 (five years ago) link
@triggercut the author is not that self aware, trust
― maura, Thursday, 10 May 2018 02:37 (five years ago) link
eric: cf. Annie Dillard: "Write not about what you love most, but about what you alone love at all."
― moresoupial (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 10 May 2018 13:44 (five years ago) link
in fact just keep a private journal because nobody else is going to seek out your opinions on the new tram cops record
― Arch Bacon (rushomancy), Thursday, 10 May 2018 14:23 (five years ago) link
otm
but i guess they have to submit some type of work to get paid
― F# A# (∞), Thursday, 10 May 2018 17:15 (five years ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/pusha-t-the-story-of-adidon/
― Number None, Wednesday, 30 May 2018 21:53 (five years ago) link
what's so bad about that?
― alpine static, Thursday, 31 May 2018 04:05 (five years ago) link
"My favorite way to listen to music is out in the world — walking to the grocery store or uphill to class, one earbud in and the other free to hear birds calling and insects buzzing."
― Frozen CD, Sunday, 3 June 2018 17:27 (five years ago) link
this lede is outrageous
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/why-are-nashvilles-brightest-stars-touring-with-the-survivors-of-one-direction/2018/06/25/6d547f80-7890-11e8-93cc-6d3beccdd7a3_story.html?utm_term=.5c9342f325e2
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 26 June 2018 17:21 (five years ago) link
Ooph
― triggercut, Tuesday, 26 June 2018 22:17 (five years ago) link
https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/zm8dve/the-saxophones-unlikely-journey-out-of-meme-hell
― grawlix (unperson), Wednesday, 27 June 2018 22:42 (five years ago) link
woof
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 27 June 2018 22:54 (five years ago) link
idgi
― (V) (°,,,,°) (V) (Austin), Wednesday, 27 June 2018 22:58 (five years ago) link
I would say "Noisey should stick to covering Genre X or Genre Y," but literally 99% of what they publish is hot, wet garbage.
― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, 28 June 2018 00:00 (five years ago) link
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/shawn-mendes-headlines-rolling-stone-relaunch-event-presented-by-youtube-music-699343/
yes i know it's a press release but.
the lede...
On July 26th, Rolling Stone will host 500 music industry insiders, influencers and a select group of fans at a raw industrial space in Brooklyn.
...would actually work pretty well as a mad lib.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 18 July 2018 16:59 (five years ago) link
An old one. . .
Recurrence suggests an instant replay of the Railway Children's earlier album, and, in fact, it is. While the rhythms are spritely, the songs tend to sound alike -- at times like some of what Spandau Ballet was doing in the '80s, and at other times as though the Railway Children are trying to ape New Order. Recurrence's highlights, "Merciless" and "Over & Over," suggest that they are trying to do something original, only to fall just a bit short each time. Recurrence makes you wish you had a couple of aspirin to dull the effects. (four and half stars out of five)
https://www.allmusic.com/album/recurrence-mw0000200002
More of a case of actual content of the review not matching the score, but still, that's a pretty large jump.
― outside, you're never alone. (Austin), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 18:36 (five years ago) link
after the resignation of their editor last week, the AV Club apparently has nobody around to tell music writers about this wild new invention called "a single"
Burial released two of the most absorbing, darkly beautiful electronic records ever in 2006 and 2007, but rather than release a follow-up, he has spent the decade-plus since quietly firing off one- to three-track mini-albums.
He goes on to describe a release as a "split" because it has one Burial track on each side of the record.
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Thursday, 9 August 2018 14:35 (five years ago) link
one- to three-track mini-albumslol‘Scuse me while I go ride my two-wheeled, motorless, pedal-powered, one-person car
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Thursday, 9 August 2018 14:40 (five years ago) link
tbf Burial was covering Burial on each side of that Split
― President Keyes, Thursday, 9 August 2018 14:42 (five years ago) link
Not long now until we can call it a side again.
"Good, gloomy industrial danceballad. Lacks vocals, but an attractive side all told. Could do some business with exposure" (Nonplus, BMI)
― Jeff W, Thursday, 9 August 2018 18:30 (five years ago) link
#tbt from dula peep
One of the most funny and embarrassing articles in history. Putting women against each other and speaking way too soon. It’s obvious everyone has room to grow but trying to diminish someones success just because... is a theme that rarely happens with male artists. pic.twitter.com/RTL7UDAmkf— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) August 7, 2018
― Frozen CD, Friday, 10 August 2018 01:03 (five years ago) link
wait, are we making fun of this *fifteen year old article* or the tweet? Because I can bearly get passed the grammer...in that tweet
― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 10 August 2018 01:32 (five years ago) link
I looked up the article and it’s not poorly written (the Lol’z are mainly in the headline, and in retrospect). As for pitting two female artists against each other... I feel like this was a standard thing the NYT did — reviewing two albums at once and comparing/contrasting — but maybe it’s true they didn’t do it as often w/male artists (or didn’t make the contrast as stark or critical, etc.)
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Friday, 10 August 2018 01:42 (five years ago) link
if you dorks don't think "The Solo Beyoncé: She's No Ashanti" is funny, idk what to say
― 5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 10 August 2018 01:47 (five years ago) link
The solo Paul Simon: he's no Leonard Cohen
― Pirate's booty call (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 10 August 2018 01:49 (five years ago) link
xp I said the headline was funny, dude
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Friday, 10 August 2018 01:52 (five years ago) link
Senator, you are no Ashanti
― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 10 August 2018 02:09 (five years ago) link
Investigating Beyoncé, NY Times Sees No Clear Link to Ashanti
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Friday, 10 August 2018 02:22 (five years ago) link
Xgau stays weird about women:
Amanda Shires: To the Sunset (Silver Knife) Although premier violinist and respected singer-songwriter Shires comes by most of her current swell of fame as Jason Isbell's wife, bedrock, and babymama, you wouldn't guess it from the advances she's made in these 10 coolly autonomous, acutely turned, observantly experienced songs. Her soprano incisive over arrangements longer on echo and electronics than you'd expect from tradmaster Dave Cobb, she deals more candidly with attraction ("Parking Lot Pirouette"), lust ("Leave It Alone"), personal rivalry ("Break Out the Champagne"), and even suicide ("Wasn't I Paying Attention?") than supportive domestic partners are expected to, and hardly plays her violin at all. That's how you end up with an album that takes some getting used to not just because it's unexpected but because it's halfway to sui generis. A MINUS
― evol j, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:06 (five years ago) link
jesus christ how is he still getting work?
― the Joao looked at Jonny (Noodle Vague), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:07 (five years ago) link
uhh wtf
― mh, Friday, 10 August 2018 19:12 (five years ago) link
goddamn, this guy
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Friday, 10 August 2018 19:14 (five years ago) link
dang brother, it's tough to even see you up on that high horse from this here ditch. and i'm fresh outta fucks.— sarahshook (@sarahshook) August 11, 2018
― omar little, Friday, 17 August 2018 23:26 (five years ago) link
Re:
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers: Years (Bloodshot) If only she could light up the melancholy of "Good as Gold" with the dawning consciousness of "What It Takes," she might be able to figure out how to duck men's meanness without drinking herself into the ditch ("Parting Words," "Lesson") **
― omar little, Friday, 17 August 2018 23:28 (five years ago) link
this fucking gau
― mookieproof, Friday, 17 August 2018 23:31 (five years ago) link
He's clearly not gonna change, I blame anybody paying him for it nowadays
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 17 August 2018 23:33 (five years ago) link
Why would he write that blurb as his “review”? Besides being very difficult to parse, it’s meaningless to the uninitiated reader (...never mind how it strikes the artist, as nicely illustrated by the above pushback). xpostLike, yeah, imagine a “newcomer” in the rock crit game turning in reviews like this, and expecting to be published
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Friday, 17 August 2018 23:35 (five years ago) link
difficult to parse, meaningless to the initiated reader is pretty much his mission statement afaikt
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 August 2018 23:54 (five years ago) link
^^^
Exactly. I couldn't pinpoint the specific moment when he disappeared completely up his own ass, but it was definitely sometime last century.
― grawlix (unperson), Friday, 17 August 2018 23:59 (five years ago) link
i remember reading defenses of that indecipherability on ilx lol
not that it wasn't an interesting challop but this guys stuff has always been like this!
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Saturday, 18 August 2018 01:22 (five years ago) link
he's not difficult to parse lol
― mark s, Saturday, 18 August 2018 09:38 (five years ago) link
(a lot of the parsing xgau thread seems to be me proving that momus was misreading something: This is the thread where you ask for help in parsing one of Robert Christgau's sentences. )
― mark s, Saturday, 18 August 2018 10:28 (five years ago) link
If you were able to understand the above “review” (on just a syntactical level — never mind the content, which seems pretty useless in the context of a “consumer guide”) without slowly reading it four times, then you’re a better Xgau reader than I.(^I deliberately tried to make this sentence as confusing as his, and don’t think I even succeeded)
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Saturday, 18 August 2018 14:21 (five years ago) link
Although premier violinist and respected singer-songwriter Shires comes by most of her current swell of fame as Jason Isbell's wife, bedrock, and babymama,
Even though Shires is famous now mostly because she's married to this guy [I've never heard of]
you wouldn't guess it from the advances she's made in these 10 coolly autonomous, acutely turned, observantly experienced songs.
you might think listening to this album that she's famous because she makes good music.
Her soprano incisive over arrangements longer on echo and electronics than you'd expect from tradmaster Dave Cobb,
She has a soprano singing voice and uses it in more inventive ways than you'd expect from a Dave Cobb production. Also Xgau thinks that incisive is a verb.
she deals more candidly with attraction ("Parking Lot Pirouette"), lust ("Leave It Alone"), personal rivalry ("Break Out the Champagne"), and even suicide ("Wasn't I Paying Attention?") than supportive domestic partners are expected to,
Good domestic partners don't often have much interesting things to say about hot button issues like attraction, lust, personal rivalry and suicide
and hardly plays her violin at all.
she only plays her violin a little bit on this album.
That's how you end up with an album that takes some getting used to not just because it's unexpected but because it's halfway to sui generis.
So it's an unusual album because it's so candid and she doesn't play violin much and because you wouldn't expect it from someone most famous [to Xgau] for being married to someone else and that makes it halfway unique, a thing you can apparently be in percentages.
― Mordy, Saturday, 18 August 2018 15:59 (five years ago) link
incisive is an adjective there. he's dropped the "is" in trademark annoying telegram stylee. and to pick a nit with you, he's saying the arrangements are more inventive than you'd expect, not the way she uses her voice. i can't believe i finished writing all that without collapsing in ennui but there you go.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 18 August 2018 16:05 (five years ago) link
(FTR, I was talking about the one-sentence Sarah Shook review.)
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Saturday, 18 August 2018 16:09 (five years ago) link
if she could stop being so depressed by tapping into a higher consciousness then she wouldn't let men get to her enough that she's driven to drink to excess
― Mordy, Saturday, 18 August 2018 16:12 (five years ago) link
Yeah — so did you have to read it four times slowly first, like me?Is the “drinking into the ditch” thing from one of the songs (the “melancholy” one); or something he’s adding/projecting? I would have assumed the former, but the artist’s tweet seems to belie that.
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Saturday, 18 August 2018 16:27 (five years ago) link
Btw — I’m not saying the dude has to write like the AP style guide. But I don’t see the “payoff” to his approach, after taking the trouble to parse it out, as a reader interested in actually knowing something about the album.
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Saturday, 18 August 2018 16:30 (five years ago) link