pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p42cTOZbA1Y

Pitchfork lost interest in Cakes before his first album even came out
https://pitchfork.com/artists/30310-cakes-da-killa/

Looks like we have to give them credit here!

https://variety.com/2020/music/news/cardi-b-megan-thee-stallion-wap-grammy-award-1234803271/

the news was first reported by Pitchfork.

The Sunday review of INXS's Listen Like Thieves is very good. I thought this analysis was particularly dead-on:

Stacked with eminently catchy songs from top to bottom that sound evergreen in ways that evaded so much pop music from the same era, Listen Like Thieves is a classic “verge album”—think Fleetwood Mac, Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger, R.E.M.’s Green, or U2’s The Unforgettable Fire—a mid-career highlight where a fully formed, fully confident band finds its footing at the precipice of something much bigger and maybe just beyond their control.

Albums like this are often my favorite in a band's catalog. Badmotorfinger definitely is.

I wish the writer had been willing to admit that yeah, the heir to INXS's throne really kinda is Maroon 5, but otherwise a really well-done piece.

The 1975 are the true heirs

I enjoyed this a great deal. When I had to review Kick for Pitchfork three years ago, I tried suggesting that LLT is the superior album.

Longform: Rethinking Appropriation and Wokeness in Pop Music

I read this, and found it... confusing, not just on the level of individual sentences ("The neoliberal obsession with individualism crystallized, and focused growing social justice discourse on celebrities and eventually, to the burgeoning class of influencers made in their image"; "The visibility of artists offered an accessible entry point through which to understand discrepancies mitigated by the parameters of race"), but also just the overall thesis. That said, it was clearly written by, and for, people who are deeply engaged with the minutia of online discourse around these issues -- and so I guess "not for me." But insofar as it is a lot of intense writing that barely touches on "music" (or the enjoyment of music) at all, it left me feeling kind of hollow and bummed out.

something is deeply wrong when people care this much whether WAP is grammy nom'd

yeah it's almost more annoying now that the Grammys try to be quasi relevant was at least funnier before when they gave best rap record to Wyclef's guest appearance on a Tony Bennett song

i've never understood who watches the grammy's or thinks they reward the best music

same people who cared about Taylor's pitchfork score

Also the people who see that Grammy recognition often ties to a career bump for those able to exploit it

in the short term it also translates to a concrete bump in streams/sales

i agree that the grammys make sense to the music industry

it seems to work out pretty well on their end. it's the viewer that confuses me

I think it’s cool when artists I like win Grammys, but I don’t live or die by it.

I liked that "wokeness" piece! I like the idea of "the idea of cultural appropriation (itself) being appropriated". I liked:

Within the chaos of wokeness as a litmus test, urgent considerations were rendered secondary. Instead of, “Who is problematic?” we should have been asking, “What is the harm being done, and to whom? How can it be repaired, and by whom?”

I didn't think there was a necessarily epiphanic conclusion but I thought it was a good piece.

the people who vote for grammys are literally buying into a "pay to play" scam.

as a smarter man than myself once asked, who gives a fuck about a goddamn grammy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jGoDSQsz_w
(obligatory)

why?

i guess he drinks a lot of water?

forks quit being a rascal

did it... piss u off

Philip Sherburne’s review of the pair of new Adrianne Lenker albums is really something.

I didn't think it was Great Writing? Def made me curious as to how such an inauspicious-sounding album could attract such a rave but I'm almost through listening to it rn and yeah this album is really all that and more

I thought some of the writing was really strong, but yeah mainly it was the intensity of engagement that was remarkable... he’s clearly a big fan.

I really wish I could like her voice, but my resistance to it is just visceral. :(

I don't like Big Thief at all, but a few minutes into "music for indigo" and I'm sold. I'm also a little surprised Sherburne liked this so much!

I love Big Thief, and was reading the review thinking “huh this sounds like the kind of album that this site usually pans, and I love”. It rules! I listened to the whole thing twice this morning

huh this sounds like the kind of album that this site usually pans, and I love

Heh, how so? Capacity, Big Hands and U.F.O.F. all got BNM'd, and abysskiss garnered an 8.0, so I can't say I'm surprised by their love for Lenker's recent solo material.

waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail! should be sometime this afternoon, i hope

I’m a big fan, but I’m not in a rush... somehow I feel like I’ll have my whole life to listen to it, y’know? :)

I'm a bit burned out on This Sort of Thing at the moment but she's obviously excellent at it.

Made it 1 min into 'Zombie Girl' and yep, this is still Very Much Not For Me.

Not too keen on her voice, no. The instrumentals I'm interested in.

"Zombie Girl," though, did remind me a bit of new weird america stuff, and for some reason this Jana Hunter album in particular: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/4026-blank-unstaring-heirs-of-doom/

I will forever stan that record— it's really good, probably one of the best "folk" records to come out of the aughts.

These, "Here's Everything XX Did as SNL's Host" articles every time a musician hosts are so obnoxious.

Just wait till Jamie XX hosts an episode.

What would Vision of Bodies Being Burned sound like if clipping. made scary movies rather than just liked them?

That review is terrible, but most of their clipping reviews have been. It's getting clowned in the clipping thread.

Not sure why they even bother reviewing clipping anymore. The reviews are basically the same pan over and over.

I got excited for a second for that Menswe@r review though, hoping to see a Ned byline but uh... no.

I'd like to see Stephen Kearse's pitch, "Remember that clipping album I gave 4.5 to last year? Well, there's a new album of leftover tracks from the sessions for it and I think the people are dying to hear my opinion."

Not sure why they even bother reviewing clipping anymore.

RYM rage-traffic.

Raaargh

I don't think I've consciously heard a single track by clipping., Do they have a rabid fan base?

They have a Rabid (Cronenberg, 1977) fanbase

These, "Here's Everything XX Did as SNL's Host" articles every time a musician hosts are so obnoxious.

iyo did facebook ruin the internet?

lol Whiney

Very good

I got excited for a second for that Menswe@r review though, hoping to see a Ned byline but uh... no.

That's because you needed to look elsewhere, my friend:

https://thequietus.com/articles/29097-menswear-nuisance-review-anniversary