Your Favorite Piece of Music Writing 2003

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OK, year is over, what was your favorite piece or two of music writing this year? A link if possible would be very nice.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 2 January 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I only ever read this guy. He's really great.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 2 January 2004 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't read it much, which is definitely my loss, but I really enjoyed Marcello's year-end round-up on his blog.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 2 January 2004 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Anything Dave Q got published, if we're talking formal work. Informal work, anything Dave Q wrote here.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 2 January 2004 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"If there ever was a University course in how to be a rock-critic, a great rock critic, and not a stacker of shelves, then I would say that your ideal is to chase down a perfection that can never exist and to be unrelenting in that quest for the impossible, to marvel when you come close, and to re-write the rules all the time so that you can never quite make it. The essential quality to be truly great on an emotional level is utter isolation, uncompromising bloody mindedness. It’s a rejection of any particular canon, including your own, as soon as you feel it is getting in the way of your quest for impossible perfection, and the knowledge that in order to make the truly heroic decisions about what music is and who the greatest are you will essentially be very lonely"

From Words and Music by Paul Morley.

This is stuck on my wall where I work.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 2 January 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish I could follow it more.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 2 January 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Nice one, Nick.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

this is a good one

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=684

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.quicksilvershapeshifter.com/2003.html

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Words and Music: everything up to the point when Kylie and Paul reach 2001. After that, it spirals out of control in a possibly intentional but still not especially edifying sort of way.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Morley turns my stomach. He's a fucking music journalist, not a martyr. Jesus.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah forgot what a great year it was for dave q -- really enjoyed this.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick, you big self-bigger-upper you. Nice piece, mind.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

What? I thought all M-Js were martyrs, that's why they're there, right? To unrelentingly seek out truth/beauty, and if they fail to find it, at least make one crappy joke about Jennifer Lopez having a big can.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

It's possible that I can enjoy what I can enjoy of Morley because I don't see him on the TV during every fucking list show.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Morley's book is great on so many levels, he could appear on any television programme and it wouldn't ruin that for me. The fact that someone got a book published which isn't just backing up the same old same old is achievement enough. It may be a bit long winded in places but it's still easily the best book about music I've ever read.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never read a good book about music.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Apart from The Manual.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i like julian copes books on his music. and the Clash book by the tour manager is ace ' a riot on our own' or sommat like that ..

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

nick - you might like morley's 'ask' more than 'words & music' (which i don't like too much, if at all). i mean, you might not - obv: but it seems a bit more spicy. it has flat sections of course too - mostly in the form of the people who he's talking to - "why just WHY interview him?"

i can't remember anything from this year that i want to suggest just yet.

― cozen¡ (Cozen), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

although, i really liked the dave q tricky article which is odd cs i struggle to make it to the end of his posts a lot of the time and don't think i've ever made it all the way through an article: he's fucking great tho, eh?

― cozen¡ (Cozen), Friday, 2 January 2004 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved that Metallica St. Anger review that Chuck Eddy posted awhile back...

― tipustiger, Saturday, 3 January 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Here

― tipustiger, Saturday, 3 January 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

This was my favorite piece of music writing this year. It hits the nail on the proverbial head!!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 3 January 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm unsure as to actual real live journalism stuff -- currenly I'm leaning towards the super-slick envy-inducing Harris/SFJ/Sheffield shindig on Slate, which makes me stare at my in-progress 2003 P&J comments manifesto of horse-choking death in a vain effort to match their brilliosity. As for fiction, the "liner notes" interlude for the fictional Subtle Distinctions box set from Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude is a great centerpiece of a (so-far) great novel.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Saturday, 3 January 2004 03:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Can I be frightfully predictable and cite Southall's piece on Halcyon, which somehow perfectly crystallises one of my favourite records ever.

Failing that, Dave Q, obv. I don't read blogs or proper print journalism these days, mind.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Saturday, 3 January 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't read blogs or proper print journalism these days, mind.

Friend and brother!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd just like to put out my own piece for your perusal, as I'm not sure how many people saw it:

Cover Commentary: Second Looks at First Impressions

― Michael Patrick Brady (Michael Patrick Brady), Saturday, 3 January 2004 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

SFJ on JT: http://slate.msn.com/id/2087321/

― Josh Timmermann (Josh Timmermann), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:24 (twenty-one years ago)

'on the outside, kickin' it' by sterling clover.

― cloverlandthug, Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i remembered: 'the outsiders' by aliya s. king from the source (july 2003, #166), which --- it's just a really right look at b.g. and turk and the whole cash money beef, the whole tragic thing, their whole tragic thing, it's just really good, really sad.

― cloverlandthug, Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:49 (twenty-one years ago)

This is where I get to the bottom of the White Stripes, while we're big-upping ourselves.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 3 January 2004 06:59 (twenty-one years ago)

The Nick Southall piece on Britney was brilliant.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank you Squirrel, thank you Matt!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Not much in the way of actual writing was dedicated, but the most brilliant piece anyone did this year was Rob Harvilla's Radiohead experiment with fifth graders in the East Bay Express. The drawings and the captions are wonderful! ;-)

― Chris O., Saturday, 3 January 2004 09:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I somehow found
http://www.funbunchcomedy.com/
from this thread, not bad at all

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm reading your review of _Yoshimi Battles_, soutthall,
and I like this too. Spot on observations here.
I was dissapointed by the album as well, "Fight Song"
and "Do You Realize" are the only songs on the album that
really stuck with me. But I don't understand the contention
made by you and others that the Lips are polished and smooth,
I mean sure, the music may be lush at times but the sound
of the album itself sounds even harsher than _The Soft Bulletin_.
The acoustic guitars sound sharp and steely, the drums are hissy;
it sounds like there was no compression at all.
It sounds like a unproduced home demo, and not really fitting
their mythopoeic urges, I think.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I've not listened to it for ages, but my impression, as I remember, that compared to the huge, clattering, clumsy drums of Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi sounded very expensive and precise. Thinking about it this is probably as much to do with the accompanying sonics as the actual timbre of the drums & guitars.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

My favourite was Sterling's piece on the four different rap albums (David Banner, Three 6 Mafia and two others). I'll try and find a link for it a bit later.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 3 January 2004 11:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe no one has mentioned this!

― Jole, Saturday, 3 January 2004 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Swygart is, it has to be said, onto something with that column.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Tim, the link is this: http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0344/031029_music_151.php

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 4 January 2004 00:01 (twenty-one years ago)

i liked nick southalls writing on that britney piece. ive liked nicks writing a number of times this year, i think one of the reasons why is possibly because i always feel he is fighting with himself, i'm never totally convinced by anything he writes, partly because i think he is arguing with an alternate view in his own head. this is a good thing though, its good to see fought out in print. i like to see nick fight against straw men that aren't straw men at all, but oppositional viewpoints within his own head

i dont know why i wrote this in the 3rd person nick as though you werent here, it seems kind of strange now, i dont think i meant to do that, but i also dont want to go back and rewrite, somehow its better to leave as it is.

i feel as though you have made many changes in the last couple of years, and you are not 100% about them, but its good to see you working them out in print.

i also think the robin vs nick thing regarding westwood is great. i was totally in robins camp on that initially, but you came back with some good stuff too, i look forward to robins response (i still think robin is the best writer in britain, so holding your own in that was commendable to say the least)

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 4 January 2004 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Nick Southall's writing because he nicks all of my ideas and actually forms coherent pieces of writing out of them. Respect you, Southall.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 4 January 2004 00:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I will probably regret saying this, but Nick goes into the "Talented and Eloquent Writers I Will Be Doomed to Perpetually Disagree With" file. Which is better than being a stumbly hack who happens to like the same albums I do, if that makes things any better.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Sunday, 4 January 2004 00:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Dear Nick Southall,

I followed the link, read your review, and liked it a lot. I had never writen anything you had writen before. I went to your archive at Stylus, and when it said you were also an "actor" and "film maker" I was really very hesitant to read on. But I did, and after reading several more of your reviews now deem you my favorite critic. Don't mean to come off all kiss-assy, but it really is everything I was looking for in a music review. No nonsense, good humor, and the fact that Ive seen you use the word "cunt" in a review doesn't hurt either.

Good work.

― David Allen (David Allen), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Make that "I had never READ anything you had writen before"

Obviously.

― David Allen (David Allen), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, I just noticed, and don't mean to nitpick (and I still like the reviews more than any others Ive ever read), but why do you begin your review of "Neptunes presents: clones" and chik chik chik with the same, albeit altered paragraph?

― David Allen (David Allen), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

d k's 50c-slash and spizzazzz's lumidee-special chart rundown http://spizzazzz.com/2003_06_01_spizzazzz_archive.html#105569965817058569

and kogan on hip-hop http://villagevoice.com/issues/0324/kogan.php (also on james chance).

jess' year-end-roundup at technicolor too.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 4 January 2004 07:04 (twenty-one years ago)

no, i lied its jess' dizzee piece on technicolor.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 4 January 2004 07:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah the Dizzee piece was fabulous. But I should try and think of a non-ILXOR to big up.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 4 January 2004 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I had never writen anything you had writen before

For a moment I got all excited and thought Borges might be god when I read this. I was gonna email Busted and tell them to do the Beatles thing and everything. Then I realised that it's Sunday, and even if Borges were god, he'd be resting.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 4 January 2004 09:01 (twenty-one years ago)

i mainly only read ilxor stuff and glossies, and the glossies never make me jump, or rarely.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 4 January 2004 09:13 (twenty-one years ago)

And regarding the 'actor' and 'fimmaker' bits on my bio, the key bit comes right afterwards where it says 'liar'. The !!!/Neptunes thing happened because the !!! piece was written first and really just intended for my blog. I thought the idea worked for The Neptunes too, so I nicked it. From myself.

Nick owes Gareth a pint for recognising the eternal struggle! Likewise Dom for being my lounge guru.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 4 January 2004 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Jess' year-end round-up was amazingly great. Very in-depth, insightful, just totally satisfying. Big-ups to a guy who always seems to nail it.

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 4 January 2004 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

jess year-end round up harshed my buzz but i love love loved the dizzee post.

― cozen¡ (Cozen), Sunday, 4 January 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

can i just say that i was very disappoointed that the promised fisticuffs between carmody and southall never eventuated. boys, it's not too late. more bad feeling for 2004 please.

― .:., Sunday, 4 January 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

just makes it in ('jan 1 - 7') - dave tompkins on the roots' 'phrenology':

http://villagevoice.com/issues/0301/tompkins.php

― cozen¡ (Cozen), Sunday, 4 January 2004 14:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Tim's Pearson piece, Jess's end of year roundup, Dennis Romero's piece about rock music naturally.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 4 January 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Melissa Maerz on ARE Weapons in City Pages (she perfectly captures the HUGENESS of their whole shebang) and Ann Powers' John Mayer review in Blender (a brilliant piece of psychoanalysis that REALLY made me wanna spend months with that record).

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, the only Stylus piece I have ever liked was Rich Juzwiak's loving Mariah Carey portrait.

Nick Southall: I have not ever read a single thing you've written, but holy christ yr self promotion is obnoxious.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

One does one's best.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I have written anything good this year. I have in fact written lots to try and get myself in a position where I can write something good and get paid. I think I might be doing weekly singles soon though so it could all be worthwhile, that's my ideal job.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

of course

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Curt1s wins.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

By far.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Although i feel the real winner is everyone, as we all get to read it.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 4 January 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i think i have written some things i like for neumu but it's not my place to say they're my favourite. well actually haha yeh i did write some of my favourite pieces of music writing in 2003 (paucity of year vs self-immolating narcissism) but for different reasons perhaps than are being sought on this thread.

― cozen¡ (Cozen), Sunday, 4 January 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

oh oh and my actual favourite piece of music writing 2003: janice galloway's "clara".

― cozen¡ (Cozen), Sunday, 4 January 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe a separate "favourite thing you wrote" thread?

I have three types of favourite music writing, the ones I agree with, the ones where I learn things, and the ones that make me ask questions about my own tastes/ideas. Technicolour wins the first kind (with a shout out to Marcello's forgotten singles list); Matt Ingrams' blogs win the second; and special mention to Heronbone and World of Stelfox in the third.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Sunday, 4 January 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Been fawning over Kieron Gillen this year: www.gillen.blogspot.com is his blog, not much proper writing but enjoyed his top records of the year, especially the bit where he talks about ILM, CTCL and Popjustice as if you/we are the only people in the world that matter.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Monday, 5 January 2004 00:33 (twenty-one years ago)

TNC on 50 and gangsta in the voice falls in Tico's third category for me.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 5 January 2004 08:07 (twenty-one years ago)

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