New piece up 10/27: Double Take

[lastclearchance]

sorry and thanks to anyone who read all of that second bit - hope it made sense.

Don't apologize!

P.S. That's how to big-up a band without just reposting a press release.

[Andrew_TSKS]

maybe it's just that you don't appreciate belle and sebastian in particular, which is fine - most of their songs are annoyingly half-formed, they never made a start-to-finish great album, they're also fairly precious. i can understand not liking b+s. but the way you phrase your dismissal ("pleasant little pop songs", as if anything soft or small couldn't affect you - okay, bring on the penis jokes) makes me think that any record's ability to impress you correlates with its loudness/harshness, and there i must confess imcomprehension. even the way you write about low, how what you understand about them is that despite their quietness they're "still actually a loud band", so to speak, and that's why they're good.

i guess all i really know how to say is that if loudness/harshness is the only thing that can affect you so profoundly, that's a real shame. but i still can't quite believe it's true.

maybe you're right; after all, i like the smiths and nick drake quite a lot. but their work still jumps out at me, and b&s and the shins just kinda sit there politely. which doesn't appeal to me. i can't explain what i'm talking about any better than that, though.

[coldforge]

I don't think it has nearly as much to do with big volume or big sound as much as big musical ideas. If I were to try to explore your position, Andrew, it would take me many many words, so incomprehensible to me is the notion that only loud music can be life-affecting. So I'm going to assume that it's a misrepresentation of your actual feelings.

[Andrew_TSKS]

at this point, i'm sure it is, and i just can't explain myself any better.

[jebreject]

I don't think it has nearly as much to do with big volume or big sound as much as big musical ideas.

This seems right to me.

[YojimboMonkey]

If a band is setting out to explore small spaces, is it belittling to say they didn't change your life? 

I mean hey you explored this microcosm really well and kind of reminded me of this major break-up about 12 years ago, and you did that really well, and frankly I really enjoyed listening to you, but did you affect me in a profound way?  Did any band really?

To really simplify this down, I prefer more aggressive music too and y'all need to get off Andrew's nuts.

[mountmccabe]

A review would seem incomplete without any sort of personal reaction, so I wouldn't want to see things swing too far in that direction.  A personal judgment of somethings worth or even a rating doesn't completely ruin a review though.

I ran out and bought The Dandy Warhols Come Down after reading a review that just panned it.  The writer hated the album, complaining of all the noisy, droning guitar and noting that the single was non-representative.  I was looking into them because I liked "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth" but wow, everything the reviewer said to describe how awful the album was sounded like exactly what I was looking for.

So, basically, yeah, I really agree with the whole "understand and elucidate" idea for criticism.

[Andrew_TSKS]

yeah, dude, i've bought albums based on bad reviews more than once. people are like "this is a bunch of blasting noise! it sucks!" and i'm all "whatever, that sounds like it RULES!" and i buy it.

[Swimmy]

That's why Roger Ebert is my favorite movie critic. I can usually tell, from his review, whether I'll like a movie, even though I disagree with him way more than half the time. But even he has his blind spots, of course.