critic's darlings

at one time, John Hiatt

I know a lot of critic types who hate YLT.

Er, no he's not!

How about people like Aimee Mann (pre-Magnolia)? I tend to think "critical darling" mostly about this cadre of people who are making accessible pop music, to glowing reviews but decidedly non-pop sales. I imagine that some years ago there would have been plenty of critics claiming there's no stylistic reason Aimee Mann records shouldn't chart high, and then going on about how it's "the industry" or people's bad taste or something that's "keeping her down." (You know the type I mean, right -- the preferred middle-of-road singer-songwriters of top-level critics everywhere?)

Like Big Star?

Good thing too.

and now sonic youth the institution, well they've "paid their dues" ? entitled to the benefit of the doubt ? they've achieved greatness some years ago ? they're enthusiatic patrons of others (with all the unpleasant indulgences associated with that word intact i'm afraid) ? asylum/geffen sponsored artistic cred for nirvana ? the godfathers of the grunge &/or industry (with the associations of those words intact) ?

yeah, it's that leadership and elder-statesmen positioning that the "critics look to sonic youth" for which grates so much, a position sonic youth would shrug their shoulders at with callow youthful ambiguity -- is the music industry that bad ?

bring in indie mock superstar o'rourke, with o'rourke protesting he ain't worthy in the media (cf: open-ended structured "collectives" like jackie-o, mothers temple or no-neck, or his collaborations with lesser mortals "groop" stereolab presumably of less import) and fingers crossed our team will lift their game

(but seriously, no band could win this. too many college radio DJs aren't really critics, and they like all the same bands)

having read zoot horn rollo's book on the magic band, i think of that album as an opportunity to produce a really interesting listen blown by a maybe jealous zappa -- the box set of parallel unreleased recordings cleared up what the band was really trying to achieve on that album, for me anway, and i see it as the more varese-like piece, the varese blues -- the patron got in the way, was there for the credit and partially screwed up the result, in the name of "weirdness"

but i don't know the von vliet art -- whether getting into painting was a good thing, something arising out of the novel hisory of the magic band, that i don't know, but i don't think beefheart and band overstayed their welcome in the rock music world -- the whole beefheart phenomena is an interesting aside to the general ransacking of the blues by the whites, probably a curious distraction for rock critics through the years that's still fun to reflect on

the idea that whatever sonic youth does next or continues to do is still interesting to critics now however is like watching a muscal idea from the mid '80s trapped in time and self-servingly "curated" by big city scenesters, spun out beyond the usefulness of the bands ideas -- like rock bands from the '70s who endlessly re-do the nostalgia circuit -- why is this bands recent output seen by critics as important, interesting ? wouldn't it hae been more dignified for sonic youth to have moved on ten years ago ? there has been no benefit from any wisdom that might have arisen out of "mature" sonic youth (cf: the promotion of free jazzers, a good thing, but nothing to do with the sound of sonic youth, "grunge improvisors")