Uncritical acceptance of an artist's entire body of work

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This kind of approach to music (or film, or any creative endeavour), wherein the audience or fan refuses or is (claims to be?) unable to make value judgements regarding the relative quality of an artist's work over their whole career, does my head in almost more than any other attitude.

It strikes me as such a bizarre approach, to refuse or be unable to seperate wheat from chaff, and yet I know an awful lot of (generally casual, compared to ILMers for example) music fans who follow this pattern.

Perhaps it comes from a state of extreme deference to the creative process / artistic 'character'? If so, I see that attitude as one which misunderstands the creative process / artistic 'character'.

Emails just arrived and totally distracted me from where this question was going, so I shall end it here...

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I dunno how common it really is. The poll threads are interesting in this regard (no honest!) - some people pay a bit of lip service to "O NOES THIS CHOICE IS TOO HARD" but hardly anyone is actually saying "All good - won't choose."

Maybe the generally casual vs hardcore plays a part, with the casual not having the urge to sort through (or to hear the shite stuff).

Once you've decided that yr interest is in the creator and their thought processes/artistic decisions then it's possible to think "Well it's all interesting".

Which bands/acts get this the most? The Fall? Jandek??

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link

the 'argh this is too hard i can't pick' thing does bother me a bit or at least the whole in-public play up of it. yes it's hard, that's the point (or should be)!

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:59 (seventeen years ago) link

no, i think even jandek fans make distinctions between the albums.

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:59 (seventeen years ago) link

(blue corpse 4eva.)

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 14:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Steve actually the dismissive "Not even close" pffft-ism is more annoying!

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Bit of snobbery going on here with the "casual" aside, as though only ILx has a privileged understanding which the lumpen common mass lack.

Part and parcel of the mechanics of pop, surely, is the love and uncritical loyalty of a musician or group's following come hell or high water. You love them, adore them, worship them; that's the whole point. If you don't get that then you don't really get pop.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I get in this argument all the time with friends who should know better. They read my published reviews or blog posts and remark, not always jokingly, "Oh, yeah, Alfred hates everything." The only possible response is, "Well, you're just a twat."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Steve actually the dismissive "Not even close" pffft-ism is more annoying!

"obviously the correct answer is X"

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

i think that some people convince themselves to like every little thing in an artist's catalogue just so they can achieve a level of completism in engaging with all that the artist has produced. these types will probably try and sap as much enjoyment as they can out of something distinctly lacking in merit.

i dunno. just a thought

― Charlie Howard, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

ILM is the pffftimism community.

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

there's also a difference between saying "they've never made a bad album" and "each and every one of their albums is a perfect masterpiece."

― Edward III, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link

the love and uncritical loyalty of a musician or group's following come hell or high water

this is how i felt when i was an adolescent - it doesn't equate to accepting everything an artist does as 'good' by any means though. i guess a more thought-out position is that, even if you don't necessarily enjoy the current work of yr chosen artist, they still retain something which keeps you interested in them and their artistic development.

i don't really feel like this any more, at least i have my artists that i feel loyalty to, but no one in that unquestioning teenage way. this is healthy, obviously.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link

This has kept Oasis in business for over ten years now.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link

(I meant this phenomenon, not The Lex)

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Is there a workable correlation between the screaming McFly fan and the Keiji Haino analist (for want of a better word I made one up) who has to have every last limited edition 3" memory stick and has to clean up the mouse droppings regularly (cf. Keenan in the Wire end of year round-up a few years back)?

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I've had "everything they've done is good OMG" phases but not "everything they've done is equally good".

Alfred: I've noticed in terms of feedback that "They are good at this, they are bad at that" might as well be "They suck" as far as fans are concerned.

Nick come back and explain what you're actually talking about pls!

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:08 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't really feel like this any more, at least i have my artists that i feel loyalty to, but no one in that unquestioning teenage way. this is healthy, obviously.

altho i don't recall you citing any Madonna song as bad (but may be forgetting something here).

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

No don't come back just yet, I want to half-arsedly mock your Embrace fandom first.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Making distinctions isn't the same as identifying Wheat and Chaff tho, is it? I don't think I'd be happy neatly filing away albums in some sort of number-rated order.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Which bands/acts get this the most? The Fall? Jandek??

ZAPPA!!!!

― Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

"everything they've done is equally good"

surely nobody says this about anyone?

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I think once you listen to and like an artist enough, there's something to be interested in even when the work isn't great.

Like, even with mediocre Prince, it's still Prince who is singing, who thought through the tune, etc., and I respect him enough to at least be interested.

― Jordan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

auteur theory to thread

― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Part and parcel of the mechanics of pop, surely, is the love and uncritical loyalty of a musician or group's following come hell or high water. You love them, adore them, worship them; that's the whole point. If you don't get that then you don't really get pop.

OTM. Sometimes it's like supporting a football team - you just hang in there through the doldrums in the hope that the spark will reignite. I'll defend certain bands to near-fisticuffs even though i know they made some less-good albums, and that's what it's all about, really. Dropping bands you've loved for years off your list just cos they made a clunker just doesn't make sense.

― CharlieNo4, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

NEIL YOUNG

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think I'd be happy neatly filing away albums in some sort of number-rated order.

dude what the hell are you doing on ILM?

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

... no (xpost)

― Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

no, i think even jandek fans make distinctions between the albums.

-- strongohulkington, Tuesday, May 1, 2007 9:59 AM (11 minutes ago)

i have friends that are super into jandek and the def. have favorite periods and albums, etc...i think even the most hardcore ones find his acapella period really hard to take.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

neil young was not my "choice" in this matter. (though i like neil young a lot.) but dude does attract the committed nutjobs.

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link

dude what the hell are you doing on ILM?

...the question we all aks ourselves at least once a week.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link

"Even a bad [x] is still better than [vague handwave at rest of human culture]"

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:14 (seventeen years ago) link

i hate it whan that argument is applied to The Simpsons

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:14 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm telling you, Zappa pwns this thread

― Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I feel that th uncritical-acceptance approach is the only way forward for all artists ever and should be extended into other fields as well - it makes record shopping incredibly easy, what to speak of getting the groceries

― Hans Rott, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:15 (seventeen years ago) link

if anyone i'd pick maybe a middle of the road type dude...like i bet there are a ton of people that love absolutely everything john cougar mellancamp has ever done.

the fall wouldn't be a bad choice either.

neil's close but i don't know anyone that really like Everybody's Rockin' or This Note's For You...but yeah lots of suspect shit like Landing on Water will get defended (by me)

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Akshully what bugs me about the initial question is the militancy of Nick's wording. You really can't understand how people might have uncritical crushes? Or an approach to music that doesn't want to keep score? You almost make it sound like people who don't want to judge music in the same terms as you are being deliberately perverse or feeble-minded.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link

"I don't see how you can like [genre] and not like [X]."

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link

altho i don't recall you citing any Madonna song as bad (but may be forgetting something here).

madonna's done plenty of shit songs! most of her singles are great though. 'hollywood' is a notable exception.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I dunno, dudes, the first thing this made me think of was Googlers on the Dave Matthews Band: Why are they so bad and hated thread.

― jaymc, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link

jaymc is right: jam bands are the terminus point of this phenomenon

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

phish live double CD series to thread

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha I am switching between finger-wagging on this thread and gushing over Girls Aloud album tracks on the one next to it. A hypocrite is I.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Which bands/acts get this the most? The Fall? Jandek??

ZAPPA!!!!

-- Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:10 (2 minutes ago)
NEIL YOUNG

-- strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:11 (1 minute ago)

The exact 2 names that came immediately to mind when I saw the thread title. They're both so fucking wildly inconsistent as well! The hard-core Zappa-ists I've known have been the worst, b/c as well as the uncritical acceptance thing, there's this tendency to look down on other artists as being intellectually inferior, and to assume yer hating on the guy ("hating" = "I like some of his rekkids, but not others") b/c you just don't "get it" yet.

― Pashmina, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

STEELY DAN.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Lou Reed owns this concept, many many Lou Reed fans will tell you that they have a special place in their hearts for Lou at his very worst, when they/we know it's awful e.g. Growing Up In Public - with artists whose work encourages you to feel like you know them personally, even the warts become charming if you're invested

― Hans Rott, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:20 (seventeen years ago) link

bjork fits actually! her fans might say things like they admire medúlla rather than love or even listen to it, but it's still a worthwhile thing for her to have done

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link

tom and lex both otm

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link

though steely dan really did never release a bad album

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I kind of get the feeling that a lot of those Azerrad bands fit in here too. Maybe that's just looking at the poll threads for them.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 15:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 49 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

so what's more important, the art or the artist? if an artist in any medium makes one amazing thing followed by 10 years of crappy things, are they a good artist? Does it matter? Shouldn't we take each peice of work individually?

― King Kitty, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link

9 and 3/4 times out of ten, the art, absolutely.

― sw00ds, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

you can connect the dot emotionally from how this, possibly inferior, piece is affecting you to the one that snared you in the first place.

v otm. sometimes it works the other way round - when the artist you used to love finally releases something indefensible, all that is shit about it infects everything you used to love

― lex pretend, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Sometimes your grow out of your anal phase, kiddies

― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:13 (seventeen years ago) link

be careful not to put two of those words in the same sentence

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link

woo woo juggalo

― PappaWheelie V, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't see Neil Young and Zappa as particularly good examples, as those albums tend to have been well-received also outside the most loyal legion of fans.

What? Is this the same Frank Zappa, Geir? It seems to me, that most of his albums from ca. 1970 onwards have not been very well-received outside his loyal legions of fans.

― Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

xp: sp: you grow out, of course

― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I seem to recall "The Yellow Shark" receiveing good reviews, for instance. "Joe's Garage" surely did.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

He has put out about a million albums, Geir

― Tom D., Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Shouldn't we take each piece of work individually?

but surely we don't do this, or i dont know anyone that really does it, though they may claim to. you might say it's impossible.

― ryan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:21 (seventeen years ago) link

good example of this: everything written about Timbaland in the past year, even the fairly negative reviews of Shock Value

― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:25 (seventeen years ago) link

to clarify: i don't mean to take the work "out of context". Who made it and when and with what is obv. very important. But I try to do my best not to be loyal to something as fickle as an artist. The work, once it's done, never changes really, just it's context and our perspective of it (disco music now vs disco music then)-and that includes the person who made it!

― King Kitty, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link

What liking an artist tends to create isn't "uncritical acceptance" surely, just "goodwill" - I like the Pet Shop Boys, therefore I will give them another chance or two when they make records I don't like. If they make too many bad records I will stop bothering when they make new ones.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link

what's the diff. between doing this with artists and doing this with entire genres/approaches/philosophies? because He Who Shall Not Be Named some people on ILM work the latter all day every day long.

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:33 (seventeen years ago) link

ha ha ignore the He Who Shall Not Be Named bit - it doesn't apply to just one person (but there are one or two usual suspects).

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:34 (seventeen years ago) link

entire genres/approaches/philosophies

what's nice about the "goodwill" approach above is that it applies nicely to these things too!

― ryan, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link

good example of this: everything written about Timbaland in the past year, even the fairly negative reviews of Shock Value

-- Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, May 1, 2007 11:25 AM (11 minutes ago)

really, lots of shit written about him always. people say he's a genius and talk about some of his worst stuff all the time! cf dirt off your shoulder being kind of average as a beat

― deej, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:38 (seventeen years ago) link

what's the diff. between doing this with artists and doing this with entire genres/approaches/philosophies?

well, for one thing, dogmas/genres and philosophies are usually, at least somewhat, defined in some predetermined, collective way, to let you compare the thing with the ideal of that thing. (everyone agrees that x=y=z = "Punk", a+b+c= "Adult Contemporary") An artist isn't static, they're a person making choices based on value judgements just like anyone else, be it critic or fan. When they decide that they are more interesting than the music (see:American Idol), music looses, I think. Of course, this all subjective...Maybe the artist IS the art.

― King Kitty, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:45 (seventeen years ago) link

In which case criticism must wait until they are dead

― King Kitty, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:47 (seventeen years ago) link

I really don'#t see how American Idol gets in there!

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 16:51 (seventeen years ago) link

surprised no one mentioned Tom Waits yet

― dmr, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

The initial premise of the thread 'uncritical acceptance' is the problem though, I don't even think anybody has that level of purity over anything more than a couple of albums, even the most rabid obsessive fan.

There are loads of people who are rather blind to the faults of their hero's lesser works. I couldn't pick a Velvet Underground album that I wouldn't run into a burning building to save (well, not counting squeeze or some of the live stuff), but ask me to critisise them and I could spend hours detailing the faults track by track...

Mind you, I might just be placating myself. I would have no problem ignoring logic and making statements like "well, Pale Blue Eyes is simplistic, manipulative and maudlin... and astonishingly perfect in every way" (and probably have). Or... "Black Angels Death Song is clearly the ultimate achievement of all human civilisation, but it goes on a bit and would be improved with some singing, besides, European son is better".

I'm also quite close to thinking this way about PJ Harvey but I have some issues with Dancehall - though its pretty great here and there.

― Sandy Blair, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link

surprised no one mentioned Tom Waits yet

-- dmr, Tuesday, May 1, 2007 12:02 PM (4 minutes ago)

I was just thinking Tom Waits, though I think he is a unique case because even critics tend to praise everything he does as fantastic, rather than just the fans.

― Mark Clemente, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:08 (seventeen years ago) link

I can think of a few bands where I wouldn't want to choose between their albums, but I'm sure if they made a few more there would be some iffy ones, so it wouldn't come from uncritical acceptance.

I kind of agree with people who are saying that the more you care about a band the more likely you are to want to rate and rank their records, but I'm not really a rating and ranting (as opposed to ranting and raving) kind of guy. I couldn't and wouldn't tell apart my favourite Go-Betweens records, but there are some I find hard to love.

The Pixies are maybe the only band where all their albums seem REALLY good to me, but I'd admit they have some ropey old B-sides and that.

So basically I don't really recognise the phenomenon Nick's asking about. Maybe I should get out more!

― byebyepride, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Kinda like Jordan said, I assume this is often just a matter of liking the artist as a character, in addition to as a music-maker -- even when they're not successful, you're just sort of interested in what they're doing. So it might be more precise to say "I'm invested enough in this artist to find this interesting," rather than "this is really good" -- but that just raises the standard objectivity/subjectivity questions about what the difference between those two things really is.

That said, there are totally people who just like a given artist enough that ANYTHING by that artist sounds better to them than anything else -- maybe you just find someone whose voice or style appeals to you on that kind of level! Nothing really strange about that, though I suppose it requires having "narrow" tastes -- or not "narrow," but just not being the sort of critic/messageboard type who's aspiring to follow everything on a broad, analytical level. You meet plenty of people when you're young whose scope of music-following is basically "stuff on the radio" and "this one other artist I found who is my everything."

― nabisco, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:31 (seventeen years ago) link

If any album by the same act sounds roughly the same, I find it not at all surprising that the act's fans like all of them.

If the act varies stylistically from album to album, it seems strange if the fans love of all them though.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

You find this all the time on bands' official messageboards. Serious criticism is often met with hostility in such places.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I have been having some weird discussions with Michael Jackson fans claiming that "Dangerous" and "Invincible" are both masterpieces.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 21:59 (seventeen years ago) link

please. "off the wall", no contest.

― félix pié, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link

"Thriller" sure represent contest in that case. I'd even rank "Bad" ahead of "Off The Wall". But putting "Invincible" up there is blindness.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Umm are they young people? If you're young enough not to have experienced Jackson's career as an ongoing decline, I can completely see why you'd rank latter period Jackson-with-modern-production up there with the 80s -- I mean, for people of the right age, the 80s albums are going to sound like "the old stuff"; if not outright dated, at least a little dusty and classic-sounding.

― nabisco, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 22:16 (seventeen years ago) link

ICP !!!!! hahaha

― earinfections, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 23:14 (seventeen years ago) link

The Church?

― mrlynch, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 23:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Umm are they young people?

They are old enough that they must have known him from "Dangerous" at least.

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 00:01 (seventeen years ago) link

For me: Pavement

Zappa def OTM. I have met those Zappa fans. If you don't like it, you're either not intellectual enough or you're just no fun.

― sonderangerbot, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 00:15 (seventeen years ago) link

two years pass...

How about *critical* acceptance of an artist's entire body of work...?

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Friday, 12 February 2010 20:47 (fourteen years ago) link

prefer blanket rejection of an artist's entire body of work regardless of what it sounds like

― Lee Dorrian Gray (J0hn D.), Friday, 12 February 2010 21:00 (fourteen years ago) link

^^^ I call this "the Keith Urban Approach"

― your extra awesome blossom (HI DERE), Friday, 12 February 2010 21:01 (fourteen years ago) link

seems more like something Morbz would do

― Wrinkles, I'll see you on the other side (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 12 February 2010 21:03 (fourteen years ago) link

How is it possible that Dylan hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet? I even like the records he doesn't like, like the S/T. I even like the Christmas record. I have a illness.

― Hardcore Homecare (staggerlee), Saturday, 13 February 2010 05:24 (fourteen years ago) link

Also how is it possible that Van Morrison hasn't been mentioned here?

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 13 February 2010 22:27 (fourteen years ago) link

Hmm i think most van morrison fans, even the biggest know he comes out with a fair amount of shit.

Funny thing about Keith Urban is there's soooo little difference between some of his stuff and Ryan Adams/Paul Westerberg, but it comes from such a supposedly different world and some of the surface details are so glossy that most people will refuse to hear it.

― Jamie_ATP, Saturday, 13 February 2010 23:38 (fourteen years ago) link

See, I just don't listen to Ryan Adams or solo Westerberg. Consistency of mind!

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Sunday, 14 February 2010 00:50 (fourteen years ago) link

Hmm i think most van morrison fans, even the biggest know he comes out with a fair amount of shit.

Really? Have never ever heard a bad word against the guy from any of the people I know who are into him. Maybe my experience is odd in this regard.

― Sean Carruthers, Sunday, 14 February 2010 01:37 (fourteen years ago) link

Zappa's an interesting example upthread - didn't he make a big deal about considering everything he did as part of the same project/body of work, making no distinctions (in terms of worth) between the modern classical stuff/jazz fusion stuff/pop stuff? Obviously you can see why that would encourage fans to look for value in all of it.

Funny that some people describe the approach as an adolescent fandom-type thing 'cos I was exactly the opposite - as a teen I was perplexed by, say, Q magazine fawning over then-recent Dylan albums, thinking "why can they not just let it go?". Yet in my 20s I've found myself drawn to the minor records in peoples' catalogues - Neil Young and the Stones are the big ones right now - and I'd put it down to becoming more interested in the narrative of a life of making music. I like the idea of figuring out how and why the mis-steps happen and, like someone said, joining the dots to the rest of the artist's work.

― Gavin in Leeds, Sunday, 14 February 2010 19:23 (fourteen years ago) link

I was a Zappa completist from 1979 to about 1995, but definitely wasn't uncritically accepting of the whole body of work. (Hated Flo & Eddie, most of his synclavier works, his crueler comedy songs.) I actually agree with Geir for once -- Rush and the Dead are better examples.

― blow it out your bad-taste hole (WmC), Sunday, 14 February 2010 19:32 (fourteen years ago) link

uncritical acceptance vs. completist OCD

― M.V., Sunday, 14 February 2010 21:42 (fourteen years ago) link

prefer blanket rejection of an artist's entire body of work regardless of what it sounds like

My relationship w/ Neil Young in one.

― Mark G, Monday, 15 February 2010 10:04 (fourteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Hmm i think most van morrison fans, even the biggest know he comes out with a fair amount of shit.
Funny thing about Keith Urban is there's soooo little difference between some of his stuff and Ryan Adams/Paul Westerberg, but it comes from such a supposedly different world and some of the surface details are so glossy that most people will refuse to hear it.

YA EXCEPT KEITH URBAN IS A FUCKING TOSSER AND WESTERBERG OWNS YOU

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 7 March 2010 04:40 (fourteen years ago) link

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