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| From | "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Fwd: The retraction |
| Date | Wed, 08 Oct 2003 00:32:21 -0400 |
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A reporter admitting making a mistake?
The apocalypse is nigh!
Jaimie Vernon,
President,
Bullseye Records of Canada, Inc.
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
"Not Suing Our Customers Since 1985!"
>Subject: The retraction
>Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 19:59:35 +0000
>
>http://www.epinions.com/content_3375800452
>
>The Kings - Because of You
>My Tone and Groove review of this album was the worst review I ever wrote.
>I don't mean that it was the most negative review I've given, but that it
>was the most poorly written on my part. I prefer to both read and write
>personal reviews and this is one of the big reasons why I like Epinions so
>much. If a reviewer doesn't care to discuss how an artwork affects them
>personally, I have a hard time seeing why I should trust their opinions.
>Too many critics, I think, try to maintain an intellectual distance from
>their subjects and this too easily lends itself to smug superiority over
>them and that is why so many people hate critics (I'm looking in your
>direction, Robert Chrisgau). The reason I hate my Because of You review so
>much is that while it would have been very easy for me to talk about the
>album in terms of how a band who helped provide my adolescence with a
>soundtrack (courtesy of The Kings Are Here, best known for the single "This
>Beat Goes On"/"Switchin' To Glide") and how happy I was to hear them back
>now with an album of songs working in pretty much exactly the same 1980-ish
>mode that they always worked in, I took the cheap way out. "It is basically
>forty minutes of music in a style that no one really bothers with anymore
>so if your idea of cool is The Vines, Beck or Justin Timberlake, this will
>no doubt sound like the kind of hopelessly old fashioned thing best left to
>the classic rock radio doldrums," I wrote and even as I went on to say "if
>what you seek is relief from all things hip, ironic or fashion-conscious,
>this album provides about as likeable and unpretentious an escape as you
>are likely to find in this form in 2003," which I meant entirely as a
>compliment, this hardly sounded like a ringing endorsement. Reading it
>back, my review does sound much less complimentary than I probably intended
>it to be, but I described what the album sounded like and at the time I
>thought that I had done my job. But no, I treated the album like a product
>and not like an artwork. This is bad reviewing and I am sorry. The Kings
>deserve better. They are a good band and this is a fine album (and another
>one that Epinions doesn't list, so check them out at
>www.thekingsarehere.com). So, if you guys are reading, the next time you
>play Windsor a round of drinks are on me.
>
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