OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

"mostly i just know him from tumblr like a decade ago well before he'd started seriously writing about music."

lmao seems about right

sorry, can't get over how half-assed this backlash is

It’s kind of sad now that white women singer/songwriters are all called like Puny Tyrant and make songs about how having a pebble in your shoe reminds you of being ghosted and all of their fans lie about how that feeling is so real it makes them want to jump off a balcony

— Ben (@perma___ben) April 2, 2023

back in my day, backlashes etc blah blah

Music fans always lying about liking music

“Puny Tyrant”(?)

The way some of those guys write about these female musicians certainly says a lot more about themselves than their targets

between constantly hating and this dude, their hearts are clearly not in it!

Making up a guy to be mad at vs. making up a woman singer-songwriter to be mad at

kind of sad how these guys think pointing out the whiteness of white women makes their gender coded sneering (and their own whiteness, where applicable) less obvious somehow?

I bet they have some real dogshit taste in music too

i’ve got dogshit taste in music but i just occasionally blast it on a messageboard

l mean, lol, that’s the thing, the people who complain the loudest always have shit taste anyway

I will say that any piece that says Wojnarowicz and Feinberg paved the way for boygenius is a stretch— partly because the latter didn’t have much to do with music, and the former was a Danceteria worker for a spell who was in a shortlived post-punk band 3 Teens Kill 4. And frankly, their politics were much more radical than what appears on boygenius records. That’s fine! Revolutionary art and activism doesn’t need to have anything to do with pop music! The imperative to draw these connections when they simply aren’t there is on critics, so while I don’t agree with the rest of the review— I like the new record well enough— Schoop has a point there. Just because something is queer doesn’t mean it has anything to do with queer struggle !

as ever, the negative reviews of something like the boygenius album are as much a review of the critical reception as they are of the music. when the music press gets together to unanimously revere something that already seems to have the exposure and support odds tilted in its favour, it can all have the feel of enforced consensus-building, the canon being assembled in real time. which, if you don't fully buy the importance of the music, can feel very disheartening and result in ugly lashing-out at music which probably doesn't deserve it.

i say this as someone who has done the above many, many times

last year's big thief album i just had to shut off the hype, ignore it all, just listen to the music, and it worked. if i listen to boygenius i don't want to know anything about it first. no narrative, no prejudice

i want it sprung on me in a cafe, i don't want to think to myself 'right, i shall now sit, and RESPOND to the boygenius record, i shall PEN MY RESPONSE', that is monstrous, it needs to be organic. whither radio, whither accident

a cafe or an EOY rollout ;)

as ever, the negative reviews of something like the boygenius album are as much a review of the critical reception as they are of the music. when the music press gets together to unanimously revere something that already seems to have the exposure and support odds tilted in its favour, it can all have the feel of enforced consensus-building, the canon being assembled in real time. which, if you don't fully buy the importance of the music, can feel very disheartening and result in ugly lashing-out at music which probably doesn't deserve it.

i say this as someone who has done the above many, many times

― imago, Monday, April 3, 2023 7:56 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

It isn't the saturation that irks me, particularly but the types of records that get elevated to the extent the boygenius record has. To me, this is regressive, bland music that does nothing to challenge the status quo of cafe playlist indie dominance. I'd be fine with Pitchfork plastering seven different articles about, say, Fever Ray or Angel Bat Dawid on the front page, because they're in my opinion legitimately groundbreaking artists who just released excellent albums, and it's just disheartening to see that level of space and focus wasted on zoomer Wilson Philips. I guess what I'm saying is that you're right: it's not the record itself, but what you correctly identify as the enforced consensus-building that some of us are reacting to. Like, why this?

it's just disheartening to see that level of space and focus wasted on zoomer Wilson Philips

Three women harmonzing = Wilson Phillips? OK.

i like that this thread has transformed into the thing it was complaining about yesterday

But what if cafe playlist indie is your thing?

I'm just chuffed that Case/Lang/Veirs didn't get this hype

come on darlin, hear me darlin
this thread's a waste of time for me

Three women harmonzing = Wilson Phillips? OK.

― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, April 3, 2023 9:44 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You're right, that was an unfair comparison. I usually remember Wilson Phillips songs five minutes after I hear them

TS a hypothetical band called Puny Tyrant who sound like zoomer Wilson Philips vs Boygenius

Puny Tyrant consists of Amanda Palmer and two fans who paid their life savings for a spot in the group

Case/Lang/Veirs = awesome/awesome/awesome

It's funny, I've also thought of that album as a comparison point... I should revisit it.

it's terrific.

i don't agree with "Zoomer Wilson Phillips" but that was a good line

i want to go to sleep forever inside "Blue Fires"

I'm just chuffed that Case/Lang/Veirs didn't get this hype

― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, April 3, 2023 6:47 AM

lol otm

(i have zero interest in the boygenius material, but only because i am a stick in the mud)

The Rolling Stone cover story surprised me, but I see it as a combination of appealing biographies, good reputations for songwriting, and timing.

I like the album but recognize how smart, mostly acoustic tunes may not resonate in 2022, especially if like Paul you want "groundbreaking" (a quality dependent on the writer's attitude toward the music specifically and singularity generallly).

There are a lot of thoughtful ways to be critically write about the hype cycle without attacking artists personally for benefiting from it. I think weaker writers are less capable of avoiding the latter. It’s not like boygenius is pushing other ascendant artists down the stairs on the way to the top. It’s not like their feelings are false and their fans are lying because it doesn’t make others feel the same way.

If boygenius did push anyone down some stairs I stand corrected.

I had never heard of any of the people in boygenius until a friend posted a video in 2020 of slowly driving through Providence, listening to “Me & My Dog.” That track is unstoppable pathos for me, and at the height of the pandemic’s first year, it had some resonance with my own personal feelings.

That is, I agree with imago about a certain element of what he’s saying— hearing these sorts of records organically assures my ears will be open and not in thrall to the expectations or exuberance of critics.

Blame the hypers not the hyped.

I'm just chuffed that Case/Lang/Veirs didn't get this hype

― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, April 3, 2023 6:47 AM

“I think [hyped album] is very mid, sorry” is essentially “modern distro models allow me to find several more-obscure examples of the genre/style of [hyped album], however they reach my specific taste preferences more directly, thus I wish they got the hype instead of [hyped album artist]”.

I’m sure there are numerous pre-streaming-era examples, but Gen Xers who attended college in the mid-90s may recall being told “You think Alanis is good? You need to hear Ani DiFranco!”; with a more modern version being “Yeah, Big Thief is fine, but it would be great if the same critical love was thrown at (for me, anyway) Trace or Art School Girlfriend…”

Not to make too much of the comparison btw these acts, but I would quibble that Case & Lang, at least, aren't/weren't any more obscure than even the most famed Boygenius member (although granted didn't have the same "heat" at the time).

PB is capable of filling 5000+ cap amphitheaters across the country.

Neko has never been that big. (Love her, of course.) Lang, maybe ... but that was a long time ago.

Or maybe I'm reading what you're saying wrong? Entirely possible!

Well fair enough!

(Btw – I re-listened to Case/Lang/Viers today, and it is really good; although also the sort of album that seems destined to be less "buzzy" for aesthetic reasons. It happens to have received the exact same Pitchfork score as Boygenius's LP – though doesn't have a "Best New Music" tag, if they were doing that then.)

case/lang/veirs were all in their mid-40s or older when that record came out

perhaps not too unusual that it didn't generate buzz with the kids

Perhaps, but isn’t that’s part of the “complaint”when it comes to certain artists being hyped(?) Nothing’s stopping RS from putting artists that age on the cover, etc.

Anyway I’ll stop “comparing” those two trios (as it feels icky and doesn’t make much sense anyway), but I agree it’s common to respond to hype by asking “why these particular artists and not others,” and the reasons may be good or bad or make sense or not, there are all sorts of factors involved.

yeah not really apples to apples

I am once again calling for the Fiona Apple/Oranssi Pazuzu supergroup

sadly feel like Apple & Oranges is likelier to be her, Blood Orange and Rex Orange County

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Oranges?wprov=sfla1

I thought indie rock writ large was regressive music for lame dweebs when it was a misogynist boys club, and just because women play it now doesn't mean that it somehow transcends being regressive music for lame dweebs

got 'em

Ouch. Lame Dweebs is the name of my Bright Eyes tribute band.