pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

gettin pretty lackadaisical with that 'experimental' tag these days

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/?genre=experimental

I kind of like those quotes, especially "dialectics you can dance to", I'm more put off by the high rating for Mars Audiac Quintet vs Transient.

xpost Noted avant-garde composer Lou Barlow

^That must have been a metadata error, it's a total meat-and-potatoes rock album.

Btw -- re: the Stereolab reviews (and the earlier discussion above), this Sherburne piece is a terrific example of focusing on music rather than leaning on lyrics (and doing it really well).

I'm not a Stereolab fan but I'm gonna listen to that album ASAP, based on that review. That's what a compelling music review can do!

welcome, comrade!

I hope no one falls for the recent reissue campaign because of this.

Go to Amoeba, everyone. All of these albums can be had for less than the price of one of the reissues.

I loved Sherburne's EBTG appraisal earlier this week.

The reissues have been great, and at least here in Austin, you can't find the originals. The 1972 versions are not original.

Also, they did a great job with remasters, bonus tracks, and liner notes.

ya the vinyl versions pressed by 1972 are all garbage, these are necessary reissues

Buy them on used CD.

Mars
Emperor
Peng
the others

You can literally buy them all on used CD for the price of one of the reissues. Then you have it and the internet can get fucked and the less said about it, the better.👍

I already own all the original CDs. The reissue of Transient sounds a lot better than the original CD. Is there a particular reason why it's bad to support this band?

i'm surprised at how unripped-off i feel about paying $30 for triple lp sets

austin salty

Seriously, it's a good deal as far as these things go. And I really don't get the case against this. If I didn't buy them is the "internet" going to have hurt feelings?

I haven't bought any of the reissues (my OG vinyl of all of these sounds fine, I'm not an audiophile) confused by Austin's bitterness at the band trying to scare up some income

It's not like they're a bunch of millionaires getting a massive payday. I imagine this is maybe keeping food on the table.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/maxo-kream-brandon-banks/

feel like if you're going to award an album Best New Music you should maybe mention what the music sounds like at some point.

Reissues: not about the music. Got it.

xp See that's what I'm talkin about!

And yes, because I view the world in terms of efficacy, I must want people from one of my favorite bands to not be successful.

ok...

talk sense man

So what exactly is it that bothers you so much about people enjoying these reissues?

feel like if you're going to award an album Best New Music you should maybe mention what the music sounds like at some point.

lol I had no idea what this sounds like and was curious about the reference to an "interpolation of Ice Cube's 'Steady Mobbin'" so checked out the song and the beat is allright but lol when they say "interpolation" they apparently mean "rephrases a single line from"... which is, um, not what interpolation means.

xp

tbf the song was allright, I liked the beat and was pleased it wasn't yet another shitty trap beat + floaty synths

You like the idea of the reissues. I see them as completely unnecessary.

If someone has never heard the band before and this reissue campaign turns them on, well that's fantastic. But nobody has ever needed to buy an overpriced reissue to get into this band.

I had the same issues with the Fleet Foxes reissue thingy last year.

And, back on track, is anyone surprised that pfork is still trying to sell music to people based on everything except the actual music?

to your latter point: not really

I suppose in the list of necessities, reissues by my favorite band rank well below food and shelter, but as far as reissues go, they've done an excellent job. I'm more than happy to hand over my money to them.

these vinyl editions sound superb tbh, the CDs sounded fine but there are some excellent extras and as far as vinyl repressings go, this is a superior product. i think this is probably about twenty bucks less per album than i've seen most other deluxe set triple LPs, it's pretty nice to be able to have them out there.

Yeah, that Maxo Kream review is a real case in point. It makes it seem like if you've got a good enough back story, you should just release your rap album acapella, because flow and production are beside the point.

They should have just run it in The Pitch ("What Maxo Kream's Daddy Issues Say About Contemporary Masculinity") instead of calling it an album review.

October presents: "Maxo Kream talks about family ties, incarceration, and his favorite beers"

"There's a Tear in Maxo Kream's Favorite Hand-Crafted Beer"

My god, that review reads as if the reviewer didn't actually have access to the album for whatever reason (his stream failed for technical reasons, or the record company failed to send him a recording, or he went out on the piss for two days and by the time he got home the stream had expired), and had to write the entire thing on the basis of a lyric sheet.

That Stereolab ETK review was kind of next-level for me - most reviews I read seem about as good to me as I was when I wrote music reviews for tiny magazines back in the day. But that seemed way more sophisticated and literate, and even more discerning than I am about that record, which I have listened to and loved since it came out.

sorry to hijack but where is BEE OK and which thread's hosting the P4k festival stream party?

BeeOk was last seen in the Spoon thread

Here’s a review that at least turns its attention to “the music” for a few sentences in the final paragraph (as if dutifully including a point required by a writing teacher): https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kaina-next-to-the-sun/

Went to Pfork thinking “no way in hell can they pull off a connection between the music world and Marvel’s Comic-Con announcements, no matter how much the algorithm would love that”, but lo and behold:
https://pitchfork.com/news/mahershala-ali-cast-in-marvels-blade-reboot/

Half-expecting a retrospective on “Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction)” in The Pitch by tomorrow morning

From Sherburne's Mars Audiac Quintet review:

Dots and Loops, widely considered their masterpiece, is the pinnacle of their mature phase; when most people think of Stereolab, that record’s kinks and quirks are probably what first come to mind.

This was decidedly not the case until recently, right? I wrote a defense of D&L for Stylus in like 2006, on the premise that it was underrated and unfairly maligned, particularly by fans of the early stuff. (I name-checked Ned, iirc.) Has the consensus now totally shifted?

I still maintain that Switched On is their masterpiece

Also I googled the lyrics to Cybele’s Reverie a few days ago and wow that is an amazing lyric

i thought emperor tomato ketchup had always been considered their masterpiece and that dots & loops was significantly more controversial even now

Also, I don't know if it's talked about, but Laetitia really did something new and interesting with her insistence on "bad weighting of lyrics", singing her lyrics in ways that are weighted all wrong, both in English and French. It's so unique! I remember feeling put off by it when I first got into their music, thinking it was a by-product of English not being her first language, but now I realize it's deliberate, and it's one of things I find most charming about her songwriting

^^^ this is otm

They killed at the festival yesterday

Yeah, I never thought about that, but it’s totally OTM xp

I think a few of the pfork reviews mentioned that