Most overused cliches that lazy music critics describe bands with

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Besides "bombastic"

― Tinky-Winky, Thursday, 3 May 2007 18:55 (eighteen years ago)

and really fantastic

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 May 2007 18:56 (eighteen years ago)

Shit.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 18:57 (eighteen years ago)

"Criminally overlooked/ignored/neglected." As if someone's gonna arrest the listening public for not appreciating the work of genius in question.

And "on acid" is a perennial hate.

― mike a, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:19 (eighteen years ago)

Jewish

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:20 (eighteen years ago)

Cock-gobblers

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:22 (eighteen years ago)

If I read "sonic terrorism" one more time imma vomit.

― Belisarius, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:23 (eighteen years ago)

Paedo-lookin'

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:24 (eighteen years ago)

I'm glad that ANGULAR's reign of terror is over.

― poortheatre, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:33 (eighteen years ago)

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,310 from www.pitchforkmedia.com for angular. (0.26 seconds)

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:34 (eighteen years ago)

srsly

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

Seminal.

I mean, c'mon.

― JN$OT, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:37 (eighteen years ago)

- any and all food analogies (e.g., "a rich musical gumbo")
- anything to do with notches and/or kicking ("they really kick it up a notch...")
- whatever follows "by jim derogatis"

― Lawrence the Looter, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

Munificent

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:40 (eighteen years ago)

eclectic

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:41 (eighteen years ago)

Whelping

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:44 (eighteen years ago)

Fongs

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

loud

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:47 (eighteen years ago)

influential

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:47 (eighteen years ago)

rifftastic

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:47 (eighteen years ago)

Arcade Fire

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:49 (eighteen years ago)

you guys, a solution would be not to read music criticism you suspect to be crap

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

"suspect"

― JN$OT, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:52 (eighteen years ago)

Dental

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:56 (eighteen years ago)

insert-noun-here-adelic

― henry s, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:57 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=22235

― everything, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:00 (eighteen years ago)

myspace

― whatever, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:02 (eighteen years ago)

"suspect"

-- JN$OT, Thursday, May 3, 2007 12:52 PM

yes, i.e., before you bother starting to read it

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:06 (eighteen years ago)

Derivative

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:08 (eighteen years ago)

Overproduced

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:09 (eighteen years ago)

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,430 for sdfsdfsdfsdfsdfsdfsdfsdf. (0.30 seconds)

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:09 (eighteen years ago)

In classical music criticism:

"magisterial"
"mercurial"
"freshly-sprung"
"Janus-like"
"curate's egg"

I could keep going...

― Jon Lewis, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

Lazy

― Mark Rich@rdson, Thursday, 3 May 2007 21:14 (eighteen years ago)

T/S Lazy Music Critics vs. Too-Serious Music Fans

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 May 2007 21:37 (eighteen years ago)

Wagemannly

― Mike Dixn, Thursday, 3 May 2007 22:04 (eighteen years ago)

classically-trained

And the weakest fucking one that I saw over and over again in the ent. section of both my college paper and the local rag— unique. A unique sound! That tells me so much!

― I eat cannibals, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:02 (eighteen years ago)

ethereal

― circa1916, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)

notes

― sw00ds, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)

FUCKING BRUTAL

― Jeff Treppel, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:32 (eighteen years ago)

delicious

― Alan, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:33 (eighteen years ago)

AOTMFY

― Drooone, Thursday, 3 May 2007 23:35 (eighteen years ago)

In classical music criticism:

"magisterial"
"mercurial"
"freshly-sprung"
"Janus-like"
"curate's egg"

I could keep going...

Please do...

― Tinky-Winky, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:11 (eighteen years ago)

That thing where they go "Its like Pavlova mixed with Orange Juice, remixed by Kylie Minogues's fictional alter-ego Buttons with her left shoe in like a retro-futuristic Blaxploitation movie directed by Zelda Fitzgerald"

Paul Morley does this a lot where he kinda says something like "the venn diagram intersection of Missy and Moby, Tricky and Transmission Vamp, The Go-Go's and The Go!Team".

It's quite annoying and doesn't really mean anything at all.

― I know, right?, Friday, 4 May 2007 02:08 (eighteen years ago)

"masturbatory"

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 4 May 2007 02:12 (eighteen years ago)

someone needs to do an inverse of these "critic cliche" threads--there've been a lot of them over the years, haven't there?--where they say what words and phrases are acceptable to write instead, preferably before those words and phrases themselves become the new cliches, because as it is, i'm kinda terrifed to write my next sentence.

― sw00ds, Friday, 4 May 2007 02:13 (eighteen years ago)

In classical music criticism:

"magisterial"
"mercurial"
"freshly-sprung"
"Janus-like"
"curate's egg"

I could keep going...

Please do...

-- Tinky-Winky, Thursday, May 3, 2007 9:11 PM (1 hour ago)

yeah, i really could listen to someone reading such terms for hours. it would be great.

― the table is the table, Friday, 4 May 2007 02:17 (eighteen years ago)

"Incendiary."

Also, Jewish explains why 50% of my reviews are cliched. Oops.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Friday, 4 May 2007 02:21 (eighteen years ago)

xpost there are like 3 other threads about this already

― billstevejim, Friday, 4 May 2007 03:02 (eighteen years ago)

I hear the Jewish thing. Have the same problem, myself.

― Jeff Treppel, Friday, 4 May 2007 03:05 (eighteen years ago)

i love my cliches. my thick steely slabs of blackened death.

― scott seward, Friday, 4 May 2007 03:36 (eighteen years ago)

The real answer is:

Whatever is on the press release MINUS ANY NUANCE IT MIGHT HAVE HAD.

― Saxby D. Elder, Friday, 4 May 2007 04:25 (eighteen years ago)

LOL - The other day, I used 'unique' because I couldn't think of a nice way of describing a terrible band.

― Tape Store, Friday, 4 May 2007 04:28 (eighteen years ago)

the one that always gets me:
"honest, straight ahead meat-and-potatoes modern rock"

last time i checked meat and potatoes didn't taste like hemorrhoidal vocals drenched in pro-tools sauce

― latebloomer, Friday, 4 May 2007 04:43 (eighteen years ago)

"Seminal. "

That I don't mind so much, only because William Safire's insistance that it be pronounced see-minal gives me a brief internal chuckle whenever I see the word.

― I eat cannibals, Friday, 4 May 2007 04:43 (eighteen years ago)

I think it's a fine word to use to describe music that is made directly out of the amplified sounds of semen splashing against something.

― Drew Daniel, Friday, 4 May 2007 06:14 (eighteen years ago)

"Eponymous", though that usually refers to an album.

― Rich Smörgasbord, Friday, 4 May 2007 08:43 (eighteen years ago)

"dark and compelling"/"compellingly dark"

― braveclub, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:07 (eighteen years ago)

Meets.

As in "Nick Drake Meets..."

Actually, "Nick Drake Meets" as well.

― Mark G, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:10 (eighteen years ago)

Nobody mentioned Beatlesque yet? Well, it *was* a cliche for a while there...

― NYCNative, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:12 (eighteen years ago)

sounds like [band name] on drugs

― braveclub, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:13 (eighteen years ago)

Pierced

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:13 (eighteen years ago)

The original and best

(My favourite thing on this is Mark S on dinosaurs)

― Groke, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:16 (eighteen years ago)

elegiac (unless the song is about someone dead)
experimental (unless the music in question was actually an experiment, in which case tell us the results)

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:36 (eighteen years ago)

You know what the English language needs? More words. Just not enough words.

― the next grozart, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:43 (eighteen years ago)

Nah, there are plenty.

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc.
This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words.

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:48 (eighteen years ago)

Hehe, nah there aren't enough. It makes me wonder what journalism in other countries with less words must be like.

― the next grozart, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:51 (eighteen years ago)

that criminally underrated one does my head in, it is so woefully overused

― mentalist, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:51 (eighteen years ago)

Goerge Orwell to thread!

I particularly like This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose .

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:51 (eighteen years ago)

George - sorry!

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:53 (eighteen years ago)

Too much fuss is made about clichés. Used occasionally, there's nothing wrong with them. On the other hand, people who make a total fetish out of never ever using a cliché end up writing like they're autistic martians. (vide: Martin Amis)

― underpants of the gods, Friday, 4 May 2007 09:54 (eighteen years ago)

But why do people resort to cliche?

Usually because they have nothing to say, or are confused about what they want to say, or lack the vocabulary to express it properly.

A bit more PRECISION and SPECIFICITY would obviate the need for many of these cliches, and, used more sparingly, they could perhaps retain some of their original meaning and power.

Using a "lexical chunk" or a fixed or semi-fixed expression (which many of these are) is a way of producing language without having to think. The language created is then something that doesn't need to be thought about, or doesn't provoke thought. They're actually very useful in conversation or teaching people a foreign language, but not in published writing.

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:06 (eighteen years ago)

.. in a nutshell.

― Mark G, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:11 (eighteen years ago)

"sublime", "glorious", "long awaited", "eponymous".

I think the double barrel ones are the worst, because you can tell the only reason the writer is using them is because they've always seen them being used. I can't think of any of them right now though!

I still have to concede I find it incredibly difficult to write about techno without descending into cliché, you almost end up using the same codewords to give people "who know" a real idea of how something sounds.

― Ronan, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:20 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

A writing style utterly devoid of cliché becomes a bit of a cliché in itself. And unless you're very, very good at it, it sounds strangely unnatural. Obviously I don't think a cliché-ridden text can ever be a good text. But the sparing and judicious use of cliché can be a good thing, connecting the writing with actual thought and speech patterns, forming a bridge between text and reader. After all, all we're talking about is linguistic convention, and we're never going to be able to totally avoid that. Good writing should balance originality with familiarity. And don't forget that cliché was pretty important to pre-modern literature - Homer with his wine-dark sea etc.

― underpants of the gods, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:26 (eighteen years ago)

I suspect the number of people who say they're sick of people saying "like x on acid" now massively outnumbers the amount of people who actually use it.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:31 (eighteen years ago)

I think Phil Sherburne writes fantastically about techno, but it always bugs me when he uses 'ostinato'.

This is partly because i have to look it up EVERY TIME, which makes me feel stupid, but also because it means "a musical phrase repeated over and over during a composition", which kind of defines the sort of music he is writing about anyway!

Generally, I feel there's not enough actual description of what records sound like in music criticism, which I know people will say is boring, but is kind of the point.

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:39 (eighteen years ago)

I suspect the number of people who say they're sick of people saying "like x on acid" now massively outnumbers the amount of people who actually use it.

counr[writers] < count[readers]

― Mark G, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:40 (eighteen years ago)

underpants - I agree with a lot of that, actually, especially about connecting your writing to speech patterns, but many of the cliches of music journalism exist only in music journalism.

The may start out as an original way of expressing an idea, become a lazy shorthamd for the same idea, and eventually become nothing more than a way of filling a page, signifiers without referent.

"... on acid" is a good example of that.

(I'm glad I'm a sub and I don't actually have to WRITE myself, though!)

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:44 (eighteen years ago)

shorthand NOT shorthamd - sorry!

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:45 (eighteen years ago)

eponymous can't be allowed as a cliche. ok if you dislike the word for weird aesthetic reasons (or think the writer thinks he is showing off by using it), but it's a word with a very specific meaning and it's use is pragmatic because of that. to outlaw it's use would be awkward.

― Alan, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:49 (eighteen years ago)

does anyone use "on acid/drugs/etc" today without meaning it AS A JOKE?

― Alan, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:49 (eighteen years ago)

counr[writers] < count[readers]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:53 (eighteen years ago)

about "eponymous": of course the smart freelance writer puts in "self titled" without the hyphen so that he gets paid for two words rather than one (though this presupposes a lax editor).

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:56 (eighteen years ago)

count[writers] < count[readers]

This means the total number of writers is smaller than the total number of readers, so it is unsurprising that the number of people annoyed byt the phrase "x on acid" is larger than the number of people using that phrase. Phew!

― Jamie T Smith, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:58 (eighteen years ago)

thank you.

― Mark G, Friday, 4 May 2007 10:59 (eighteen years ago)

marcello makes a good case!

― Alan, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:01 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, I just didn't like the brackets very much.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:06 (eighteen years ago)

does anyone use "on acid/drugs/etc" today without meaning it AS A JOKE?

http://www.drownedinsound.com

― braveclub, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:08 (eighteen years ago)

It still makes fairly regular appearances in NME as well

― DJ Mencap, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

"blistering guitars"

"jackhammer beat"

"sturdy" (but only if you're Robin Denselow)

― mike t-diva, Friday, 4 May 2007 11:34 (eighteen years ago)

no one has ever pulled off "sonic", imo.

― r|t|c, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:10 (eighteen years ago)

tails, on the other hand...

― r|t|c, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:11 (eighteen years ago)

I remember seeing Bill Bruford's jazz group in concert one time, and he introduced the (upright) bassist as "And...providing solid underpinning on the bass, we have [X]," and then went on to laugh that in all the reviews they read the critics would all write "the solid underpinning of the bass from [X]".

― Joe, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:52 (eighteen years ago)

"Is [x] a good bass player?"
"Yeah, he underpins REALLY solidly!"

― braveclub, Friday, 4 May 2007 12:55 (eighteen years ago)

This seems to arise from a tendency to want to describe what every single member of the band actually does, inevitably never thinking of anything interesting to say about the rhythm section.

Singer, howling like a man posessed, ice cool guitarist churning out squalls of noise, bassist underpinning solidly, drummer, uh, keeping time adequately, and that

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Friday, 4 May 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

My all-time favorite school of critical cliche, besides the classical music one I mentioned above, is the mid-to-late 80's Forced Exposureish school of music-as-physical-assault.

"[album title] by [pigfuck act] invades yr dome like a hydrophobic possum, scurrying its way unneringly to the bedroom where it shreds sheets, thigh flesh and walls alike. Rotating blades of skree turn yr vitals into a red/yellow/green Pollock nightmare by the middle of Side A. An extended dirt-nap is required before the flip, when it starts all over again..."

It was like, look, yes, this record might amaze, exhilarate and/or terrify me. But it simply cannot do me physical harm.

― Jon Lewis, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:22 (eighteen years ago)

Degenerate.

Actually, I want to see more of this one, used unironically.

― Erroneous Botch, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:28 (eighteen years ago)

A writing style utterly devoid of cliché becomes a bit of a cliché in itself.

STFU pleae...

― Tinky-Winky, Monday, 7 May 2007 00:47 (eighteen years ago)

elegiac (unless the song is about someone dead)

Not to be pedantic, but:

el·e·gy (ĕl'ə-jē) pronunciation
n., pl. -gies.

1. A poem composed in elegiac couplets.
2.
1. A poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person.
2. Something resembling such a poem or song.
3. Music. A composition that is melancholy or pensive in tone.

[French élégie, from Latin elegīa, from Greek elegeia, from pl. of elegeion, elegiac distich, from elegos, song, mournful song.]

― Hurting 2, Monday, 7 May 2007 03:49 (eighteen years ago)

Not so much a cliched phrase as a cliched approach - when music writers lazily generalize about "all these bands that do such and such," either pointing out how the band being reviewed stands out among them or how it's just another example of the same alleged trend.

― Hurting 2, Monday, 7 May 2007 03:54 (eighteen years ago)

"Chiming" as in "the chiming guitars are simply euphoria-inducing on r.e.m's newest release "we've run out of things to say but, dammit, we're too old to hold regular jobs.""

― violoncellos, Monday, 7 May 2007 04:04 (eighteen years ago)

There oughta be a 50 year long moratorium placed upon the use of the word "pretentious" in all reviews. In fact, it should be excised from the vocabulary of all sentient organisms. What does it even mean at this point in human development? I ask out of abject curiosity. What is it trying to convey? It's a word whose extinction is long overdue.

― violoncellos, Monday, 7 May 2007 07:49 (eighteen years ago)

spiteful

― Rowlando, Monday, 7 May 2007 11:04 (eighteen years ago)

"wall of sound"

― MC, Monday, 7 May 2007 21:18 (eighteen years ago)

Jacobean

― Noodle Vague, Monday, 7 May 2007 21:24 (eighteen years ago)

I used "pretentious" in my last review, but it was affectionately meant. (Rufus Wainwright.)

― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:01 (eighteen years ago)

I only ever use "pretentious" as the highest of compliments!

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 09:02 (eighteen years ago)

Hurting - my point, which didn't come across, was that I think it's an overused cliche to call any sad-sounding peace of music elegiac, whereas I would have no problem if people were using it in the older sense (definitions 1 and 2).

Pedantry = classic, though, so cheers!

― Jamie T Smith, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 10:18 (eighteen years ago)

Whoops - so the original greek meaning is mournful song. So I mean I want it restricted to it's more recent definition.

― Jamie T Smith, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 10:20 (eighteen years ago)

peace = piece

me = idiot

― Jamie T Smith, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 10:21 (eighteen years ago)

cheers!

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 10:28 (eighteen years ago)

not just another singer / songwriter

― BenTyler, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 12:01 (eighteen years ago)

Sounds like (insert really obscure band name)

Sounds like a cross-in-between (insert really obscure band name) (insert another even more obscure band name)

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 12:35 (eighteen years ago)

Alicia Karen Elkins wipes the slates:

I have to confess that I find jazz extremely relaxing. The only way I can stay awake when listening to good jazz is to dance a lot. I was sound asleep on top of my keyboard before the end of the sixth track the first time I listened to this CD. That's what I call great jazz! If it relaxes me that much, it gets my stamp of approval.

― bendy, Saturday, 12 May 2007 11:22 (eighteen years ago)

FFS, I omitted two "O"'s. Humanity should have effectively wiped itself out (with the help of the missing honeybees) by then.

― violoncellos, Saturday, 12 May 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

slept-on

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 17:31 (eighteen years ago)

two months pass...

I'm always bothered by the phrase "vocal stylings". Ugh!

― Jena, Saturday, 28 July 2007 12:53 (eighteen years ago)

"They sound like X and Y doing drugs together".

― groovemaaan, Saturday, 28 July 2007 13:25 (eighteen years ago)

"jazzy"

"sounds like daft punk"

― haitch, Saturday, 28 July 2007 18:17 (eighteen years ago)

"relevant" "not relevant" "important"

file under, LONGER WAYS OF SAYING "I LIKE THIS" FOR TO FILL MY OVERLY LONG 80 WORD REVIEW SLOT

― Ronan, Saturday, 28 July 2007 21:11 (eighteen years ago)

um...

"relevant" = 1 word
"i like this" = 3 words

just saying.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 28 July 2007 21:39 (eighteen years ago)

Heh, "relevant" isn't a sentence, "i like this" is!

― Ronan, Saturday, 28 July 2007 22:26 (eighteen years ago)

"curate's eggs" ?????????

― m0stlyClean, Sunday, 29 July 2007 20:03 (eighteen years ago)

"arguably"

― Zeno, Sunday, 29 July 2007 21:40 (eighteen years ago)

"Relevant" does bother me, and yet I can't help but feel like it means more than "I like this." Like Devendra Banhart somehow seems very *relevant* even though I fucking hate him. Whereas certain local bands I've heard here seem completely irrelevant and I fucking hate them.

― Hurting 2, Sunday, 29 July 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

Actually, I can think of plenty of bands I like who don't seem especially relevant at all. Whereas Nickelback and Dave Matthews are relevant whether I like them or not. (The answer is "not.") So right, no way are those the same thing.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 29 July 2007 22:29 (eighteen years ago)

"tequila-soaked vocals"

― Romeo Jones, Monday, 30 July 2007 00:03 (eighteen years ago)

"double-barell asault"

― Romeo Jones, Monday, 30 July 2007 00:04 (eighteen years ago)

"balls to the wall"

― Romeo Jones, Monday, 30 July 2007 00:04 (eighteen years ago)

oh .. and that "disco-not-disco" or "house-not-house" kinda thing ... that's the absolute worst.

― Romeo Jones, Monday, 30 July 2007 00:09 (eighteen years ago)

"Actually, I can think of plenty of bands I like who don't seem especially relevant at all. Whereas Nickelback and Dave Matthews are relevant whether I like them or not. (The answer is "not.") So right, no way are those the same thing."

relevant to who/what? how many fans/sales does an act need to have before becoming relevant?

― Ronan, Monday, 30 July 2007 09:45 (eighteen years ago)

also I think it's "relevant" used as if this is something more worthy of praise than "irrelevant" that particularly gets the goat.

― Ronan, Monday, 30 July 2007 09:46 (eighteen years ago)

and I guess where the "I like this" thing comes is that often when "relevant" is used in that way there's this sense that you're supposed to believe the writer, unlike you the reader, has their finger on the pulse of something or other, but it's often used more in hope than in truth, so not about Dave Matthews Band but about some indie act who may or may not sell a huge amount of records.

In which case is the act really "relevant" or is it just that they like them and want to sell them a little more strongly?

I don't think I'd mind someone calling Dave Matthews Band relevant, especially if they didn't like them.

― Ronan, Monday, 30 July 2007 09:51 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

"Like so-and-so and so-and-so's love child"

― musically, Thursday, 24 January 2008 05:40 (seventeen years ago)

on WEED!

― Hurting 2, Thursday, 24 January 2008 05:41 (seventeen years ago)

....meets...in a dark alley...on the moon while. . . watches from afar ON ACID!

Well, a combination of the last two posts, but elaborating on the first one. Either one nevertheless screams "Look at me, I can't write write music reviews!"

― mehlt, Thursday, 24 January 2008 05:59 (seventeen years ago)

Basically any review that is founded upon tautologies doesn't work.

― mehlt, Thursday, 24 January 2008 06:01 (seventeen years ago)

tequila-soaked vocals

Today's Washington Post has a rather sad profile of Amy Winehouse, the British soulstress whose voice sounds like it's been soaked in bourbon, and how she's made her way across the pond.

...her Mercury Music Prize-nominated debut, Frank, blew away critics and fans with her whiskey-soaked vocals...

She looks like '60s girl-group icon Ronnie Spector, sings like a gin-soaked '40s jazz queen, and writes lyrics that could serve as a soundtrack for every unsuspecting subject of A&E's Intervention.

Her gin-soaked voice just kinda pours down into your ears and wraps you around.

The album is wine soaked, pot-smoked and cheatin obsessed.

One wine-drunk, wine-soaked Winehouse of a public disruption that puts a kick to your step like a heel in the small of your back.

...perfectly compliments Winehouse's new found alchohol-drenched rasp...

Amy is in no danger of losing her license to kill as with THAT voice and THOSE lyrics neither the contenders for her throne (Lilly Allen, Jamie T) or her contemporaries from the new jazz revival of 2004, can match the pace of this booze drenched oeuvre.

"Next time I'll be black and 32 - no, I will. I'll have a turban higher than Erykah Badu's," she deadpans about her striking, jazz-soaked vocal.

London's favourite dark-haired, soul-drenched diva makes a welcome return to the limelight

There's little of the debuts jazz leanings as Amy delves back into the girl groups of the sixties for this soul drenched little cracker.

...beautiful slice of soul drenched honey-of-a-single...

Back To Black is a record drenched in soul

So it's anyone's guess why Amy Winehouse's souled-out, Motown-drenched follow-up isn't called "Frankly Foul-Mouthed".

The album kicks off in familiar fashion with the Motown drenched Rehab, the lead single.

Drenched in ‘60s girl-group cool, and sparkling with bad-girl attitude

Winehouse revels in their 60s-soaked creations and, perhaps as she has less to prove this time around, her husky Bassey-esque voice comes across in a truly impressive, natural way.

Back to Black is essentially a heartbreak album drenched in the sounds of girl groups like the Shangri-Las and the Supremes.

...drenched in emotion...

Hers is a voice marinated in regret and pulsing with pain, yet soaked in snarkiness while fully rooted in the saccharine sensibilities of '60s girl groups.

That’s especially true on songs like “In My Bed” and “He Can Only Hold Her,” both of which are dripping with wanton sensuality.

The second half of the record is dripping with soul, as songs like "Josephine," "Gotta Hold On" and "You Know I'm No Good" all have smooth arrangements and great choruses.

...impeccably contemporary but marinated in Motown and old time jazz.

For some reason, the singer-songwriter is swimming in praise over in her native England.

― dabug, Thursday, 24 January 2008 06:44 (seventeen years ago)

Results 1 - 10 of about 125 for "amy winehouse" "crack-addled"

― dabug, Thursday, 24 January 2008 06:47 (seventeen years ago)

(Pretty sure none of those are music critics.)

― dabug, Thursday, 24 January 2008 06:48 (seventeen years ago)

good work

― J0rdan S., Thursday, 24 January 2008 07:27 (seventeen years ago)

Overrated. Except that may be used more by fans than by critics.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 24 January 2008 11:14 (seventeen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.