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Music 'critics' with their head up their collective a$$es


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Yeah they are a pet peeve of mine. ;)

 

Take this load of BS for example:

 

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Wilco frontman takes a more direct lyrical approach on striking new album

 

"Jeff Tweedy has never been much of a lyricist, but his cryptic words do provide occasional clues to his rich, puzzling music. On Sky Blue Sky, the best Wilco album since 1999’s Summerteeth, Tweedy provides such a clue in the song “Impossible Germany.” “But this is what love is for,” he warbles in his reedy tenor, “to be out of place, gorgeous and alone, face to face.” " (link)

 

 

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I mean WTF. This guy can write well enough, he just obviously has not digested SBS -- which admittedly is hard to do on the first or second listen.

 

In my opinion........the most profound lyricists are the ones that paint their word portraits with the most simple, direct, COMPACT phrasing possible. Leonard Cohen has always done this. Bob Dylan has caught on too -- nearly all of what he's written since Blood On The Tracks (1974) has moved steadily away from being overly verbose or pedantic. Modern Times - IMHO his finest work in the last 32 years, is a perfect example. And Dylan just gets better and better the more he follows that model; he's not writing epic songs like Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands, but he's writing profound, and very accessible music.

 

Fuck 'em. I could write better reviews than some of these overpaid underqualified clowns. But then I'd be one of THEM. LOL. And we all know most of them are just music students who didn't have enough ability to do anything musically. Grrrrr.

 

Just needed to get this off my chest. I know I'm preaching to the choir here! :D

 

If I had my druthers, all SBS reviews would read more like this one.

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Jeff Tweedy has never been much of a lyricist????????????

 

Dude, you're a failure at your job.....just kill yourself now and spare any more collateral damage.

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He does go on to say this, which I don't agree with but is not a bad argument:

 

Tweedy
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1. never been much of a lyricist? yea, whatever.

2. Sky Blue Sky the best wilco album since Summeteeth? umm...did we miss YHF and A Ghost is fucking Born.

 

I completely agree with you "65days" which is saying alot since I love SBS!

 

The last paragraph of the review REALLY pisses me off though.

 

Tweedy will never be the lyricist Lennon was
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Anyone who says 'Jeff Tweedy has never been much of a lyricist' is an idiot, full stop.

 

"I am an American aquarium drinker" may not be his cuppa tea but it is memorable as the opening line of one of the greatest rock albums ever made. But maybe he never made it past that point in the record...

 

Jerkwad.

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Last year Paste (from where that review derived) created a list of the "100 Best Living Songwriters" and had Tweedy listed #24 (just above Robbie Robertson, Tom Petty, and Radiohead, and just below Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed and Van Morrison). So despite not being much of a lyricist, he must be doing something right.

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Today my favorite lyric is: embracing the situation is our only chance to be free.

 

Yesterday my favorite lyric was: would you and I be undefeated by agreeing to disagree.

 

Tomorrow it will probably be something different. I love the lyrics on this album.

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Today my favorite lyric is: embracing the situation is our only chance to be free.

 

Yesterday my favorite lyric was: would you and I be undefeated by agreeing to disagree.

 

Tomorrow it will probably be something different. I love the lyrics on this album.

 

 

Great quote, I find myself getting lost in the lyrics of a different SBS song almost everyday. There may be less wordplay on SBS, but I just like the directness of most of the lyrics.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just received a recent edition of Paste Magazine and was thrilled to see a letter to the editor regarding the recent SBS review by Geoffrey Himes:

 

"Shame on Geoffrey Himes for his review of the latest Wilco release. His attempt to recast the groundbreaking Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as "self-indulgently obscurantist" with "little...substance" is as misguided as it is unfounded. Firstly, I'll gladly refund him the price of the album if he can "heap randon sound effects on...tracks" with a 10th of the ingenuity of "Ashes of American flags" or "I am Trying to Break your Heart." Secondly, his assertion that lyrics "are empty of meaning" if they don't reflect "the way human beings actually talk" is patently absurd. When was the last time you heard someone mention "motorcycle black madonna two-wheeled gypsy queen" in passing conversation? Or is the #1 Greatest songwriter of all time according to this magazine exempt from this rule? If you can't appreciate or find meaning in Wilco's Masterpiece, you don't deserve to be on the staff of this fine publication."

 

-Max Price Boca Raton Fla.

 

 

Thank you Max!

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his assertion that lyrics "are empty of meaning" if they don't reflect "the way human beings actually talk" is patently absurd.

I read the Paste review and that comment really stuck out as being particularly asinine. Since when do lyrics have to be represented in a manner related to the way people talk. Music gives an artist the ability to be as poetic, abstract, or direct as they want to be, and say things in their own unique way. Using this critics assertion about lyric writing, I guess everyone from Dylan to Lennon also fail as lyricists. Oh well, good for that reader, I concur with their letter.

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