Albums About Which AMG (Or Whatever) Give A Very Misleading Impression

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Not reviews you disagree with on good versus bad, so much as ones where the writer really seems to have been listening to a different record than the one you've got. Inspired most specifically by the frankly bizarre AMG review of the Beach Boys' Love You. They're doing all right to play up the "adult child" vibe and the way some (most?) of the tracks are "baffling but ultimately endearing." But this key sentence led me deeply astray:

But from the brutal synthesizer stabs and Carl Wilson's throaty yell, "Harrahhh!" on the opening track, it's clear this is no ordinary Beach Boys LP.

Nothing on this entire album qualifies as "brutal," and the synthesizers do not in any universe, no matter how beachy, "stab" anything. There are no "throaty yells." When I saw this record in the cheapo bin, I thought of this review and snapped it up, excited and curious to see how the Beach Boys could possibly assimilate these freaked-out, terrifying sounds. Unfortunately the better description would probably be "muffled synthesizer warbles" and "Carl Wilson's genial exclamation, 'Hey!'"

As it so happens, I ended up pretty much liking the album, so it wasn't a total waste of $4. But I was expecting something at least as bombastic and out-of-left-field as, I don't know, "Save The Life Of My Child." Has this ever happened to anyone else?

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Monday, 7 August 2006 01:43 (nineteen years ago)

it's a great album. and a great sound. the synths especially. i wouldn't call them muffled exactly. they sound primitive though. like someone is learning how to use them. and, yeah, not brutal. but in a homestudio way, they do kinda leap out at you a bit. in that slystone timmythomas diy kinda way.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 7 August 2006 01:55 (nineteen years ago)

beachy ;-)

― Adam S S (Zephery), Monday, 7 August 2006 02:44 (nineteen years ago)

Now I'm wondering if there are any misleading Ned Raggett reviews on AMG. He's usually pretty good.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Monday, 7 August 2006 02:54 (nineteen years ago)

i recently read a couple of Ned's John Cale reviews and they were very OTM. Nothing surprising about that, really, except I always see Ned as more of a post-1977 type guy, so it was fun to see him expound on something a bit earlier.

I find R. Unterberger's (sp?) reviews of 60s bands to be annoying, he has an extremely narrow view about what constitiutes "classic" and i've read countless reviews where he's dismissed great records as being minor/lesser/not worthy. Loosen up, dude, fuck a canon.

― timmy tannin (pompous), Monday, 7 August 2006 03:17 (nineteen years ago)

I'm wondering if there are any misleading Ned Raggett reviews on AMG

Probably all of them. (My favorite album of all time is actually Don Johnson's Heartbeat.)

I always see Ned as more of a post-1977 type guy, so it was fun to see him expound on something a bit earlier.

Thank yer -- FWIW, most of the reviews you see of 'catalog' stuff is from a stretch of time in the late nineties/early part of this decade when I was essentially reviewing my record collection to a large extent, and which is fairly well dominated by mid-seventies stuff onward (still is, to be sure). A few years back there was a sitewide decision to limit freelancers to recent albums or reissues, and so I've concentrated on new releases since then. I actually don't mind that at all because it keeps me listening to new releases a lot, as well as new reissues of older material, and I've made a lot of good discoveries along the way as a result.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 August 2006 03:29 (nineteen years ago)

(I definitely don't review for 'the canon' per se though there are a few records I do pretty much say are absolutely essential -- Joy Division, for instance. Otherwise I try and say whether something's an enjoyable listen or not, and as it stands a lot of what I hear I like!)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 7 August 2006 03:31 (nineteen years ago)

The Bill Fay albums get pretty harshly (and unjustly) panned. I don't remember who reviewed them, and for some reason I can't connect to AMG at the moment.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Monday, 7 August 2006 05:27 (nineteen years ago)

ha, I keep checking AMG for which Sunbeam etc. reissues to request from the Forced Ex promo list--and I keeping getting xpost dismissive Unterburgers! Alas, his dismissals are usually very plausible for that era and approach--and when I've gone against 'em, he's turned out to be right! But I think he did like Wizz Jones and Clive Palmer, and so do I (as said of former on Rolling Drone, latter in Voice)(sorry for horntoot, but yknow)

― don (dow), Monday, 7 August 2006 05:34 (nineteen years ago)

But I did notice that Steve Huey thinks Madd is Oatie, and the woman who reviewed the new Particle CD actually described the (fairly different) DVD (no, it's not a 2-format package, in retail or promo, least not the way it was sent to me)

― Rudy Wontfail (dow), Monday, 7 August 2006 05:38 (nineteen years ago)

I kinda like the way that 'by far the best track' in the review very rarely gets the AMG tick on the tracklist. Are they done by different people?

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Monday, 7 August 2006 10:17 (nineteen years ago)

Anything reviewed by Thom Jurek is not that good, trust me.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Monday, 7 August 2006 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

john bush ruffles my feathers 70% of the time. i think it's mostly a difference of opinion but sometimes i'm left gawping at the wrong.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 7 August 2006 10:26 (nineteen years ago)

the moldy peaches record only has 2 stars and R.e.m.'s monster gets the same rating as Around the Sun, I think, and Reveal is supposed to be a better album than Monster. Criminal I say. Monster is Tits.

― christopherscottknudsen (christopherscottknudsen), Monday, 7 August 2006 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

Monster is Tits ...Er, is that a good or a bad ting in yer book then?

― tiit (tiit), Monday, 7 August 2006 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

It annoys me that the review of Sammy's Tales of Great Neck Glory doesn't make mention of Lou Reed, instead tauting a superficial Pavement similarity. I'm sure I'm the only one who cares.

And why does Bad Religion's Into The Unknown merit nary a negative word?!? Instead it's called "extremely influental" ... strange description for a half-baked stab at some slightly aged commercial musical trends of the time? The thought that this effort was somehow ahead of its time by 15 years is laughable ... I must have missed that brief era of the J. Geils Band's critical reassessment.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Monday, 7 August 2006 20:28 (nineteen years ago)

One thing I find irritating at times is when a review on AMG and the rating seem wildly divergent. I can't think of a number of examples off the top of my head, but I came across the one for Siouxsie & the Banshees' Peepshow album, where they give it 4 1/2 stars and the review essentially says it's a tepid record with one good song. Perhaps someone can explain this type of discrepancy? I know there are more...

― Mallory L . O'Donnell (That Bitch Camille), Monday, 7 August 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

Artist
Rapoon

Album
Tin of Drum

Rating
AMG Pick
4.5 Stars

Release Date
Sep 22, 1998

Label
Staalplaat

Genre

Styles
* Electronica
* Dark Ambient
* Electronica
* Minimalism
* Experimental

AMG Album ID
R 376470

Corrections to this Entry?

Review by Jim Brenholts

Musically, as Rapoon, Robin Storey has been treading dangerously close to the edges of damnation. Tin of Drum is the culmination of years of flirtation and preparation. If, indeed, there is a hell in the afterlife, Storey has created the soundtrack. This CD is as deep and as dark as it gets. Anything that is deeper and darker is no longer music. The atmospheres are bleak and hopeless. There are moments of brief respite when the spirit lifts up to merely evil. This absolute masterpiece is as scary as, well, hell! It will appeal to fans of Jeff Greinke, Laszlo Hortobagyi, and Lustmord.

― ferzaffe (flezaffe), Monday, 7 August 2006 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

??
:(

― ferzaffe (flezaffe), Monday, 7 August 2006 20:46 (nineteen years ago)

Did somebody recently change the review for Slowdive's Pygmalion? Because I avoided it for years after reading that.

― Jena (JenaP), Monday, 7 August 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

Allmusic's Metacritic quote for Ten Silver Drops reeks of contrived bullshit: "Secret Machines now sound uncannily like a fusion of U2 and INXS", whilst later on in the review the criminal section ""Alone, Jealous and Stoned" wastes a pretty good title on a pretty blah melody (though it begins to pick up near the end when they actually inject some energy into the song). The band has pulled off the not so neat trick of combining a lack of inspiration with an excess of ambition, leaving you stuck in a record you can't get out of. Well, you could turn it off" leaves me almost speechless. Has this dude actually listened to the record more than once or gone into it with no preconceptions? Neat U2 reference, by the way, you pillock.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Monday, 7 August 2006 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

"I find R. Unterberger's (sp?) reviews of 60s bands to be annoying, he has an extremely narrow view about what constitiutes "classic" and i've read countless reviews where he's dismissed great records as being minor/lesser/not worthy."

Cub Koda (RIP) Jeff Tamarkin and to a lesser extent Bruce Eder were/are kinda anti-Unterbergers. That is, they generally praise things Richie wouldn't touch w/a paisley 10 ft pole.

― Picnics and Pixie Stix (Charles McCain), Monday, 7 August 2006 21:53 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I don't take him that seriously, outside his (mid-60s'-to-early 70s)specialties, and even there, he can be, ah, quirky. (for instance, in No Dep, he quickly dismissed the Grateful Dead's entire Golden Road box because they didn't play the blues real good!) And he quit his job as editor of Option because, he said, he just couldn't take being forced at gunpoint to listen to those mean ol' Industrial sides, comin' from Chicago every day. But I like the books of his I've read (the ones with compilations included), and some good interviews etc. on his site, although I haven't checked it in years.

― don (dow), Monday, 7 August 2006 22:30 (nineteen years ago)

AMG seems to be about 80% OTM and 20% WTF. Not a bad ratio, all things considered.

― paid in cigarettes (paid in cigarettes), Tuesday, 8 August 2006 07:40 (nineteen years ago)

Last time I checked, tits are good. I guess tits are a bad thing if you are a homosexual.

― christopherscottknudsen (christopherscottknudsen), Tuesday, 8 August 2006 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

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