RIP Pfork Reviews Reviews
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 19:55 (five years ago) link
WATCH Alternative Nation absolutely *OBLITERATES* pitchfork
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 19:58 (five years ago) link
Alternative Nation? The Kennedy show?
― geoffreyess, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 21:56 (five years ago) link
Rewatching this, I feel like someone should really have told her not to post it, or at least to go back and work out what her arguments were and then make a new video.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 30 October 2018 22:02 (five years ago) link
that video is fascinating. I find this whole thing fascinating. not only does she fundamentally misunderstand what music criticism is, her anger betrays an insecurity that p much every GVF fan has expressed since the p4k review was published. if p4k really doesn't matter, if they really are just preaching to the choir, just churning out haters and think pieces, uh.... who gives a shit? your new favorite band is #1 on the Billboard Top 200. they're selling out theaters everywhere they go and will probably be playing arenas within the year. why so upset by p4k's scorn? it's Trumpian to me, doing air quotes every time she says "article" or "review," as if they're fake. she says there's a difference between expressing an opinion and "just bashing"... uh, no there isn't, a harsh opinion is still an opinion.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 30 October 2018 22:15 (five years ago) link
seems kinda needlessly mean to link to a video of someone's onstage breakdown in the middle of what's already a sharply negative review of their new album
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:28 (five years ago) link
lmao a 3.5
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:30 (five years ago) link
guess after deleting the stay what you are review from the archive they needed a replacement
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:31 (five years ago) link
Saves the Day brought emo and its cultural associations to the mass audiences of MTV
iirc and imo, std were never mtv big, this was dashboard
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:32 (five years ago) link
the opening riff from one of the singles was a dead ringer for "fly away" so I assume the album's probably not so hot, but still
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:33 (five years ago) link
and yeah that seems revisionist
the album is very good, this review is not
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:35 (five years ago) link
the opening track is way more tongue-in-cheek and fun than the writer makes it out to be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=appHBD7ut80
Absent of emotional context, it feels delusional and desperate: “Let’s sing along another 20 years,” Conley begs, conjuring up the cursed image of a wrinkled, 50-year-old Saves the Day performing “At Your Funeral” at some kind of twelfth-wave emo revival cruise full of retirees.
... ok but it's a two minute pop-punk jam
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:39 (five years ago) link
v good sign that the reviewer is here to take it down is that the 21-minute song that takes up half the album is only mentioned in passing
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:40 (five years ago) link
i prob come off as a stan for this band but i really disliked their last record and loooooved this one on first blush even though it's full of kinda dodgy ideas ("side by side"'s main riff being one of them, but it's grown on me a lot). the 21 minute track contains several amazing songs inside of it
maligning a band for putting out a tour diary when they're not sun kil moon lol
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 11:49 (five years ago) link
yeah STD were never MTV big. they were the first band I ever saw live though, opening for Green Day & blink-182 at MSG in 2002. is that the biggest tour they ever went on?
― flappy bird, Thursday, 1 November 2018 16:29 (five years ago) link
STD were on MTV *briefly* iirc. They were basically the third biggest band of the initial mainstreaming of emo iirc
― 5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 1 November 2018 16:53 (five years ago) link
i was a pretty devoted mtv-watcher at the time but it's possible i completely missed "at your funeral"
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 16:59 (five years ago) link
same
― flappy bird, Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:15 (five years ago) link
They may have been MTV2 joints
Wiki: Stay What You Are was released in 2001, peaking at number 100 on the Billboard 200. It spawned two successful music videos on MTV2, for the singles "At Your Funeral" and "Freakish", and has since sold 300,000 copies.[1]
― 5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:17 (five years ago) link
yeah i figured that was most likely, that they didn't ever really graduate to the parent channel like dashboard did
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:22 (five years ago) link
next time i review a mewithoutyou record i'm gonna say they brought christian post-hardcore and its cultural associations to the mass audiences of mtvu
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:24 (five years ago) link
and they never had a string of hits like Jimmy Eat World
typing out these band names i am reminded of the above band's recent tweet warning young artists to consider the initialisms of their band names very carefully
― flappy bird, Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:24 (five years ago) link
Lol
― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:56 (five years ago) link
where i was, Saves the Day didn't even feel like they were in the same universe of popularity as Dashboard and Jimmy...not even close
― alpine static, Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:04 (five years ago) link
i think they were on the cusp. if they had something like "The Middle" or even "Sweetness" they would've been. I mean, Jimmy Eat World opened for Green Day & blink on that same tour I saw, STD were on second leg.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:09 (five years ago) link
LOL'd at this awesome Kathleen Hanna quote: "I am voting because watching the Kavanaugh hearings was like having Fred Durst sing 'Nookie' into my face for 12 fucking hours."
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/musicians-on-why-theyre-voting-in-the-2018-midterm-elections/
― flappy bird, Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:10 (five years ago) link
This is a well-written and interesting review (of 9-disc live release from a band that seems difficult to say something new or interesting about): https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rem-rem-at-the-bbc/
― greta van vliet (morrisp), Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:39 (five years ago) link
yeah I lol'd at that Kathleen bit too
xp
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:41 (five years ago) link
no links to my mortal enemies itt
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:49 (five years ago) link
R.E.M.?
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Thursday, 1 November 2018 18:57 (five years ago) link
Taking Back Sunday, The Used, AFI, Unwritten Law were all more popular on rock stations.
― billstevejim, Thursday, 1 November 2018 22:12 (five years ago) link
Weird to read "a band whose legacy is largely undecided" about your all-time favorite band. I am decided.
― geoffreyess, Saturday, 3 November 2018 15:36 (five years ago) link
For the Julia Holter one, I found the score of 8.2 confusingly low for a review that read like sheer impassioned accolades. I felt like something was left unsaid like a unspoken characteristic of the release that disqualified it from the top shelf and made it simply a perfect execution within the limits of it's sort instead of an absolute classic.
― ninthyoung, Monday, 5 November 2018 14:47 (five years ago) link
Think a long way upthread we were talking about how the score is not usually chosen by the reviwer, still seems crazy to me.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 5 November 2018 14:50 (five years ago) link
ah I see. I guess the scores are too narrative-bound to be kept off the leash of centralized control
― ninthyoung, Monday, 5 November 2018 15:02 (five years ago) link
that only really makes sense if you're going to get someone to write a review who agrees with whatever the narrative is though, when there's an obvious disconnect like that it feels really weird
― ufo, Monday, 5 November 2018 15:10 (five years ago) link
in the olden days, some albums used to get very high scores without getting the editorial BNM.
here's an example: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12454-the-59-sound/
― fred-a van vleet (voodoo chili), Monday, 5 November 2018 15:19 (five years ago) link
the gaslit anthem
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Monday, 5 November 2018 15:28 (five years ago) link
8.2 is the only score that seems to get both BNMs and non-BNMs these days
not sure what the difference is supposed to be since editorial decides both these days right?
― ufo, Monday, 5 November 2018 15:41 (five years ago) link
I've always seen BNMs mostly given to records that may have some crossover appeal. Records that are very solid more strictly within their genre/style get the score but not the tag.
That's how I've always imagined the distinction.
― Evan, Monday, 5 November 2018 15:46 (five years ago) link
Both Janalle Monae and this seemed like they very explicitly wanted to encapsulate what 2018 seemed like, and both surprisingly missed BNM, and though I can't really base it on anything it makes me think that Pitchfork wants to avoid looking like they give the tag out for extra-musical reasons. Which in both cases ends up meaning some of the most exciting music gets snubbed, but oh well.
― Frederik B, Monday, 5 November 2018 16:04 (five years ago) link
the 8+ records that narrowly miss BNM are almost always more interesting to me than the ones they rave about
― fred-a van vleet (voodoo chili), Monday, 5 November 2018 16:19 (five years ago) link
yeah, they collect them in the "overlooked records" feature, usually the best stuff is in there
― niels, Tuesday, 6 November 2018 08:44 (five years ago) link
no BNM for twin sister, no credibility
― ||||||||, Tuesday, 6 November 2018 09:29 (five years ago) link
i really dont understand how mr twin sister were a way more hyped band in the indie press before they changed names and suddenly became the best band in the world instead of a just ok dreamy synthpop group
i guess part of that is they were briefly signed to domino, but it seemed like that came on the back of buzz around their early EPs?
― ufo, Tuesday, 6 November 2018 10:00 (five years ago) link
They had a couple of early singles which I still count among my favourite releases of the decade, then the LP on Domino was a huge let-down, think that burned a lot of people out, don't think a hype band can become a hype band again.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 6 November 2018 10:06 (five years ago) link
BNM is one of the worst things about Pitchfork
― ||||||||, Tuesday, November 6, 2018 2:29 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, 6 November 2018 12:29 (five years ago) link
re: ufo, blame Dr. Dre
― austinb, Wednesday, 7 November 2018 02:00 (five years ago) link