While this may not be the most timely of post, the fact that people have terrible taste in things and critics see fit to rip music and movies to shreds to satisfy their ego brings me to my latest rant.
A few weeks back, Time Out Chicago ran a review on the new LCD Soundsystem disc, This Is Happening. It’s the third and supposedly final release from mastermind James Murphy and his Brooklyn, NY outfit, and it’s amazing. 95% of music reviews out there have deemed it an excellent release. Of course, not everyone loved it, like The New York Post, who thought that while it was musically impeccable, it lacked lyrically substance. So you can’t please everyone.
Then there’s Brent DiCrescenzo of Time Out Chicago.
First a little information on this guy. He used to be a music reviewer for Pitchfork.com before segueing into Time Out. He’s also insanely pretentious. His reviews are artistic babble of the intrinsic metaphysical bullshit blah blah blah that music is. There are websites out there that laugh at how pretentious his writing is (my favorite… his review of Kid A by Radiohead, check it here). But I have always found him slightly annoying, dating back to his early reviews in the late 90’s. They all seemed holier than thou, and at some point I think I sent a nasty letter railing against him to Pitchfork, which was disregarded but whatever. That was over a decade ago. It just always annoyed me that someone thought he would be a good critic.
The Time Out/LCD Soundsystem review published in issue 273 (and linked here) was, to say the least, unpleasant and mean spirited. Instead of talking about the music, he criticized how Murphy seemed to be ripping off Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and for goodness sake, Spoon. “Audacious and larcenous” are directly used to describe the album. And here lies my issue with this review. How is this a description of the quality of music? It’s not. I find it arrogant and downright infuriating that because a group is inspired by or has a sound that is reminiscent of another group, it’s thievery.
It’s absurd: what music group or artist has not been compared or been written as sounding like someone else before them? Nirvana being compared to the Pixies, Oasis to the Beatles… I mean, no one can say their sound isn’t derivative of someone who came before them. Immediate, it makes his accusation of larceny moot.
Then there’s the point of how the disc lacks ‘jaded wit’ and comes off as snarky. So what? The point of that (which is evidently lost of Brent) is that some of the tracks are supposed to be. I find the snark towards critics especially evident in ‘Pow Pow’ (featuring a killer diss to the Village Voice critic: “Eat it Michael Musto, you’re no Bruce Vilanch”) and in one of the tracks DiCrescenzo took particular offense to, ‘You Wanted A Hit’. The music on This Is Happening isn’t about hits and #1 songs. If it were, we’d have a disc of Katy Perry tunes. Blech. James Murphy is doing what he wants, and running his freak flag high. He’s also flaunting his influences. And it’s not cookie cutter. It’s also not being a thief. I can only imagine that Murphy, anticipating the haters, basically wrote some of the tracks as a big ‘fuck you, I don’t care about your indulgent opinion’ to them. I love it. It’s clever, it’s empowing, and it’s what makes the disc even more freeing.
Which brings me to my biggest beef with DiCrescenzo’s piece. He really didn’t listen to the album. I’m sure he ‘listened’, and shucked out that piece of shit two star article in a matter of hours. But he didn’t listen to the lyrics, the sound, the groove, the vibe. He picked apart what he found displeasing and made that the basis for the review. Never once did he grasp the excitement, the joy, the emotional aspect the disc brings. Sure there’s a bit of thumping energy and balls out dance tracks. But the disc, from start to finish, is a story, of heading out, finding the groove, making fun of the drunk girls, making out with someone, wishing for more, promising change, hanging with your friends and making fun of the scene, and heading home at the end of it all. At least that’s what I get out of it. I identify with most of it. I relish it. I guess Brent just didn’t get it.
So I wrote Time Out, expressing my displeasure, for which they graced my letter a spot in the Speak Up page of the June 3-9 issue last week.
I had my say, called Brent on what I though was a low class diss, and got published. As I’ve seen from some of the comments that are linked to the online review, I’m obviously not alone in my thoughts. Even his colleagues who wrote glowing things about LCD’s live show seem to reference a bit of embarrassment about the thrashing the album was given.
What many people didn’t see, and really irked me, was that Brent replied to my letter personally. At first, I thought, wow, this may be a ‘Sorry we had a difference of opinions on the same work’ kind of note, but what I got just astounded me and reinforced how lacking of awareness of the world around him he really is. And it said VOLUMES about what he thinks of people who don’t like his writing. Just an FYI, this is an honest to goodness unedited email I received from him:
From Brent DiCrescenzo to me more 3 weeks ago
JV,
I’m used to petulant hate mail, but it never ceases to amaze me when
people of differing opinion assume a critic didn’t listen to the album.
I’ll assume you CC’d the New York Times on that email, as they said
essentially the same thing. I guess universal acclaim isn’t enough for
some fans.
Thanks for reading,
BD
Brent DiCrescenzo, Music Editor
Time Out Chicago
247 South State Street, 17th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604
bdicrescenzo@timeoutchicago.com
312.924.9378 direct line
312.924.9350 fax
http://www.timeout.com/chicago
Yes, folks, like James Murphy’s music is larcenous, my opinion of Brent DiCrecenzo’s writing is petulant. It just shows that he uses his words to tear people down, and when clueless of what something means, to spin a load of bullshit that means, in the end, nothing of relevance.
So to Brent, I say thank you for showing me what a gracious and talented writer you are. Keep writing that fiction, it should sell tons.
Me, I’m not buying.
Update 6/24/10 I’m adding the Soulwax mix of “You Wanted a Hit” as part of my music series…
Rants of The Misanthrope and other musings 