pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

(that said I have received shockingly little pushback from stans or really anyone about this, although I suspect the reason is partly people thinking the record sucks and thus a misogynist review of it is OK)

liked clairo's first ep, looking forward to but haven't heard immunity yet, never read pitchfork but read this, seemed fine and not sure what dude's issue is? presumably just trying to *spark a conversation, you know?*

there's about 8 million acts that would kill for an 8 review that read like that

looking through the twitter replies no one seems to have any idea what he's talking about either except one guy who's guessing that the rolling stone review is being sexist by saying "with help from rostam" as that's diminishing clairo's role in co-producing it? i haven't read the rolling stone review but that seems like a real reach

As long as we’re talking about Pitchfork not being the dumb one, a quite nice write-up of Stevie Wonder’s The Secret Life of Plants for the Sunday Review:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/stevie-wonder-stevie-wonders-journey-through-the-secret-life-of-plants/

hey now let's not lose our resolve

I don’t see anything sexist in Katherine’s review, it’s a v well-written review and v positive.

The moment of putting out a record puts the artist in a position of supreme vulnerability, and prone to reading subtext in reviews where there is none.

On their debut, My Morning Jacket discovered the heavy reverb that would make them legendary.

just imagine if you'd been the one to discover reverb. Why, you'd be as legendary as My Morning Jacket, those clever devils!

"it’s what I feel and I think it warrants expression" lol he sounds very stoned

just read the rolling stone review and while you definitely could tell it was by a (relatively) old school rock critic I didn’t find it sexist either

well it's very subtle

as a woman you might not be able to see it

maybe when we're at a place where we can have a conversation about it, someone will be able to point it out to you

i mean if anyone can achieve that kind of subtlety

The thing I am most looking forward to about the future is all the conversations we are going to have

Andy Beta's Wonder review is wonder-ful.

lmfao @ Rostam

"we're not in a place as a culture for me to explain why I said what I said"

the vampire castle is collapsing

I bet Rostam used a bunch of words he didn't quite know the meaning of.

that quote was Rostam's Fairweather Johnson

it's true, we're really not in a place as a culture where people feel like they need to explain the dumb shit they write on Twitter

"I get this certain feeling when I see misogyny, and I felt kind of like that"

They’re still pushing the “Iggy Azalea has been canceled” line in this long Charlie XCX feature:

“Fancy,” which she co-wrote with Iggy Azalea, helped catapult the Australian rapper to a brief period of international superstardom five years ago, thanks to Charli’s booming cheer-chant of a chorus. While both artists have found it hard to replicate that song’s popularity, “Fancy” felt like the beginning of something for Charli, whereas with Azalea, it has come to represent a sort of ending.

Btw, “Fancy” was released before “Problem” (the hit Ariana Grande song featuring Azalea), so not sure how it represents any sort of “ending” for Iggy (even if you now feel that her career is kaput).

And "Black Widow" was a huge hit too!

I like this section at the end of the piece (never mind the misplaced modifier that kicks it off) — apparently Charli is a star, as long as you’re in the right kind of neighborhood?

Walking out of the spa, scores of pedestrians pass us, but not one of them gives Charli a second look. How is no one rushing up to her requesting a selfie? Why isn’t some 19-year-old stretching out of the passenger seat of a car singing “Vroom Vroom” at her? Well, we’re still in Midtown Manhattan, a neighborhood whose identity is defined by overpriced salads and men whose biggest problems involve locating shirts designed to be worn untucked.

As we stand in this cultural wasteland, sharing a moment of awkward silence before deciding to part ways...

uh if you're a man no shirt needs to be DESIGNED to be worn untucked

tell that to these idiots

https://www.untuckit.com/

maybe they're trying to be funny? even as one of the in-the-grand-scheme-of-things few people who have actually purchased a charli xcx album i don't recall whatsoever what "vroom vroom" for example sounds like. i'm pretty sure someone might have mashed it with the classic "broom broom i'm in me mum's car" meme but even then i can't remember anything about it

they = whoever wrote that feature

the link to the tiktok collection is informative

xp I think it’s meant to be a callback to a paragraph at the beginning of the article:

Then she went to a raucous party at a bar in the East Village with a handful of friends—something that might seem like leisure time to many but, when you’re Charli XCX, it’s impossible to attain blissful off-the-clock anonymity at a drag show in the middle of Pride Week. The gays know her face, even when it’s obscured by sunglasses. They, or shall I say we, are a big part of Charli’s fiery and devout fan base, and love to support an inventive pop underdog whose music rarely scales the charts but is ubiquitous in all their safe spaces.

"the gays know her face" sounds like the start of a calvin klein fragrance commercial

i think elements of the piece are intended to be tongue in cheek. bobby finger is a host of the who weekly podcast and that show adopts a similar tone

i think also that a certain sub-set of charli xcx fans would consider "vroom vroom" to be one of her most iconic and important songs. it sort of represents the moment that she broke away from the punk-in-a-nightie sucker era and started to work with pc music and sophie

that was definitely a critical judgment of midtown manhattan, not of charli or her artistic footprint imo

lol their link to the new katy perry song currently links to this https://youtu.be/fcruFW6dr9I which is not the real song

that was definitely a critical judgment of midtown manhattan, not of charli or her artistic footprint imo

― untuned mass damper (mh), Thursday, August 8, 2019 9:22 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

well that's a relief

https://i.redd.it/z9dpnrse3ef31.jpg

And like Eminem, he’s from the technical school of rap, where the height of artistry is cramming as many syllables and as much internal rhyme into each bar as possible, nuance be damned.

There is more to the "artistry" of the so-called “technical school of rap”--ie MCs that can actually rap--than “cramming as many syllables and as much internal rhyme into each bar as possible.”

How are we supposed to respond to an album that often reads like a suicide note?

Err, given recent events...not like this?

Eminem is a prog rapper. It all makes sense now.

unrelated, but because Pitchfork is the only place I keep seeing the name, can someone explain the moniker "Megan Thee Stallion" to me? I mean, this person ids as a woman, correct? Is this a joke I'm not getting?

i mean it's pretty easy to search the origins of someone's stage name as it's usually something that people get asked about but here you go: https://www.thefader.com/2019/05/20/megan-thee-stallion-fever-cover-story

Saved you a click: it's a Ween reference.

Megan got the nickname “Thee Stallion” in high school — stallion being a standard Texas title applied to tall, attractive women — before she ever laid down one bar. That changed when she got to college.

I guess I've never heard this word being figuratively used to describe anything other than male strength and virility but, hey, I've never been to Texas

In the "The Essence" Nas tells AZ he's going to bring "one of my baddest stallions" to the Deniece Williams concert that night. I've always assumed, given the context, that he meant a woman but I've never been quite sure...

yeah that's common

better known as Megan Thee Stallion (pronounced "Megan The Stallion"[4][5]),

kids these days.

lol paul does this help

https://www.billboard.com/files/styles/article_main_image/public/media/megan-thee-stallion-press-photo-2018-cr-DHinez-billboard-1548.jpg

Never thought I’d have to tell a bunch of white internet hipsters to listen to *MORE* UGK but here we are

https://pitchfork.com/news/nathan-fielder-signs-hbo-deal-new-comedy-pilot-in-the-works/
Does posting to this thread every time Pfork runs a story with no connection to the music world make me like those Hugo voters who choose “No Winner” in certain categories as an objection to the existence of the category itself or is this a battle I stand some chance of actually winning