New Yorker article

[Somnambulist]

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musi...usic_frerejones

 

Just read the above article in the New Yorker. YHF is mentioned as an example of a "popular, indie" record that basically has no soul. The author compares is to Being There which, apparently, has soul.

 

Rock criticism is a tough line to walk because music is so subjective. What floats one persons boat, sinks someone else's. To me, it seems the author has one view of music and what doesn't fit into it, should be discounted. As with music, everyone's entitled to their opinion.

[jakobnicholas]

Pardon my french, but what a shitty article that is.

 

What the hell does the writer even mean?!

 

Black artists have had a HUGE impact on rock n' roll. But if a band doesn't have a rhythm or soul like James Brown, then their music sucks?

 

How about this quote,

 

"Several groups that experienced commercial success, such as the Flaming Lips and Wilco, drew on the whiter genres of the sixties

[Sir Stewart]

This ridiculous piece has been discussed in at least two other threads downstairs in SES.

[LouieB]

The guy's point is well taken, but the article itself is so badly written and the gratuitious shot at Wilco for no good reason also was pretty shitty.

 

LouieB

[Magus673]

this article is ridiculous.

[Somnambulist]

This ridiculous piece has been discussed in at least two other threads downstairs in SES.

 

 

My apologies. Look before I leap.

[a_quiet_domino]

If you look on any discussion board right now, this article is being lambasted. Mainstream news (like Slate) have also taken SFJ to task for this.

 

Anytime I read anything by this author in the New Yorker, I get the impression that no one at the New Yorker knows anything about contemporary music, but they desperately want to seem like they are hip. Tragic.

[mpolak21]

I've always felt YHF had plenty of soul particularly Jesus, etc. and I'm The Man Who Loves You. This article has an interesting premise but overall it's pretty poorly executed.

 

--Mike

[Oil Can Boyd]

Metafilter had a long thread about it.

 

Two of my favorite commments:

 

"he's the fucking pop music critic of the New Yorker, a post we ought to pay attention to as much as the opera critic at Maxim."

 

"As an exploration of Tuvan throat singing, the complete Rolling Stones catalog is an utter failure."

[craigwinn]

much better is the article from 2001 in the New Yorker that called YHF a masterpiece of the decade and Jeff Tweedy a genius of music for all time.

 

The critic who wrote this latest piece, Sasha Frere Jones, meanwhile, recently wrote an unbelievable puff piece on Mariah Carey which basically argued that she's better than the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin put together. He was creaming in his jeans...unless Sasha Frere Jones is a woman, in which case she was creaming in her jeans.

[redstripe]

i thought the comments re YHF were pretty on point. but making a point about wilco using only YHF reflected badly on the writer. the sample size was much too small. the early sbs reviews kept comparing it to the stax sound, which is obviously heavily influenced by black musicians.