jaded rock critic
me? not so much.but i do think sometimes that rock critics are too jaded for their own good.
it sounds like i'm setting up to dig into some recently-read review that i take issue with, but i'm thinking a little more broadly, about the type of synopsis i might read in pitchfork or another like-minded web source, where so, so much energy is channeled into the endeavor of the artful dis, but where positive appraisals evoke about as much revelatory power as a fortune cookie at a bad chinese restaurant.
i generally like pitchfork, and am almost always impressed with the creativity that informs the composition of their reviews and their explications of albums, but i often approach the site in the same way i found out last week in florida that my dad does right wing talk radio: with my senses strictly attuned to bullshit, ready to feverishly cry foul to an imagined official at the drop of a hat (strictly commercial: look for some jibber-jabber on my sunshine state vacation here soon).
look, i think it's as simple as this: music is stories. i mean, lyrics can TELL a story, but instrumental accompaniment tends to BE the story, and it seems as though a lot of modern writers on music selfishly (and oftentimes laughably) place such a great premium on the white noise of their own epiphanies in the nuances of aural space and time that they tend to forget that at the end of the day, music is only as good as the story that it conveys, and so they will laud the esoteric (and oftentimes lamely impenetrable) while spitting on the accessible (and oftentimes profound). a music can be laden with brilliant hooks and great grooves -- the things that communicate so directly to your gut and your heart -- and yet if the lyrics are literal, if the progression is linear, if the sound is slickly-produced -- if it's too 'commercial', in other words -- you can safely bet that the song or album will be panned.
i love, love, love indie music, but sometimes, music that happens to be good also happens (for that very reason) to be popular, the posited intelligence of the listening public notwithstanding. what a shame that some very talented people are so intent on sharpening their reviews on the wry and the negative that they ignore this cornerstone.
posted by jomilkman @ 8:06 PM
1 Comments:
I definitely agree with the idea that the instrumental component of songs is where the real story is. To this day, I have a hard time *ever* listening to the lyrics of songs, because I'm always so distracted by what's going on musically. Usually I have to read liner notes or look online to see what the lyrics for a piece are, and therefore see what it is supposedly about. Unless the lyrics are strikingly poetic or banal, reading them usually doesn't change my opinion of a song...
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