See, pitchfork, that's why no one takes you seriously. It's like a parody. "oh, it's getting universal praise? GIVE IT A SHITTY REVIEW"
They clearly have a vendetta against him since he called them out for that "sad boy music" comment from don't miss it.
It’s really transparent. It also seems like, oh we overrated his last album we have to make up for it by panning the fuck out of this one which is much better
P4k took the Rolling Stone route... they are mostly a joke review-wise nowadays but they do have some good reviews now and then this one is clearly a joke
It don't think they're smart enough to write all that for a joke. It's just a contrary review for the sake of being contrary.
The writer is using too many laboured metaphors and dropping too many references to lesser known poets and writers for the review to not be serious.
This has to be the sharpest turn they've taken on a previous adored artist in recent memory. And it's not even close to justified with this record! I had a strong sense this wasn't going to get BNM or a particularly high score after they didn't post the review on Friday, but I didn't expect anything lower than a low 7.
I'm not even worried about the score. The words should be able to adequately explain the number, but they don't and that bothers me a lot.
They're clearly just all e-angry about not being able to label him as a 'sad boy' anymore, fuck off Pitchfork
P4k def picks their scores before a review is actually written and probably before anyone even listens to the album.
I kind of hate all album reviews tbh, not just Pitchfork's. Genuinely insightful ones are few and far between these days and none of them should have ratings. The Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down scale is the only good ratings scale and that requires more than one reviewer to have any meaning, which would lower the amount of review that could be written, meaning less clicks. Kill Rating Scores. Promote good writing.
Most music writing at the moment is absolute junk and scores are practically meaningless. I do think signifiers like Best New Music or Eureka on Tiny Mix Tapes are very useful though, because not every person will read a review or even have the time to do so, so it acts as a very helpful tool for shining a light on certain releases. I wish there was more music writing that dove into the ideas presented on an album rather than the good/bad type of criticism that is usually peddled.
normally I’d agree but when it comes to an artist they’ve done nothing but praise and they suddenly turn on em for no reason, I think it’s worth pointing out they’re trash
instant karma for being mean to James? Pitchfork is going behind a paywall before the end of the year it seems Condé Nast to Put All Titles Behind Paywalls by Year End