Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

I reckon pitchfork review meetings are basically:



"right, who wants to review the new prog album?"



*GROAN*

'I love Lateralus and anyone who gives it a 1.7 is just a joke writer.'

I LIKE THIS BAND SO ANYONE WHO DOESN'T IS WRONG

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

It's not the rating that's aggravating, it's how arrogant and pretentious the writing for these reviews are

eh, pitchfork reviews vary wildly in quality but i honestly don't understand the vitriolic hatred they
get around these parts

people act like the site is some kind of malevolent hive minds who set out to make/break artists
careers on a whim but actually it's just a bunch of disparate humn beings who all have different
opinions and different ways of expressing them, some of which may or may not be
annoying/pretentious/arrogant

i mean i think lateralus is pretty shitty but that doesn't mean my opinion is automatically invalid

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

Most of their reviews that I've read are pretentious and condescending with little to nothing to do with the music and just try to pack as many obscure references into the review as possible to come across as smart but instead just looks like a jackass

that criticism could also be levelled against loads of reviews on this site

some p4k reviewers are bad, some are good. i've read terrible reviews, but i've also read good ones,
and it's pretty telling that the ones people hate for being 'pretentious' always happen to be slagging
off their favorite albums BUT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT OF COURSE

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

"Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off



Well, I can't take Pitchfork seriously when they rate albums like Lateralus a 1.9 out of 10. I simply disregard their reviews."



Yeah, this comment is pretty worthless

it's like, get over it

i never understood why people care so much about the opinions of others on stuff they like and feel the need to try to discredit them for it

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

If the rating is obnoxiously low like for this or Lateralus the review better have good reasons to justify that rating, but lots of P4k reviews don't

opinions on the relative quality of their reviews is one thing, but what annoys me is when people start accusing them of some kind of sinister conspiracy to review their favorite albums badly before they even hear them

Album Rating: 3.5

fuck em

ok you got me

Album Rating: 4.5

I don't think it's a conspiracy, there is just a pattern that illuminates a seeming lack of objectivity when it comes to any progressive rock released after 1980. They love Can and Roxy Music, often give good reviews to re-issues of progressive music made during or around the golden age, I just think it's funny that they never give a good review to any prog album released in the modern era, and mostly ignore most of them. They didn't review The Raven That Refused To Sing, for example. I really don't care, it's just interesting to me that music enthusiasts have written off an entire genre, and seemingly the only genre, as they review and give plaudits to everything to Pop to all the sub-genres of Metal. Maybe they just hate the sound of "those synths that sound like a flute." I understand if they were to slam Emerson Lake and Palmer, or some prog band that is over indulgent and not "honest", but I find Pale Communion, Lateralus, to be very forthright and not pretentious like a lot of the records released at the end of the golden era of Prog, or during the Neo-Prog era. Is IQs Road of Bones pretentious? I don't think so, and less pretentious then Ariana Grande Mocha Frappacino....



I have gotten a lot of good recommendations from Pitchfork when it comes to alt rock, so I do read what they have to say, it's just curious, especially since prog has seriously infiltrated 90% of alt rock.

Album Rating: 4.5

My problem with Pitchfork giving Lateralus a sub 2 out of 10 review is not because I love the album, it's because if you give something a 1 and 1/2 or whatever it is, likely one of, if not the lowest ratings ever recorded on their site, it should be one of the worst albums ever made, in my opinion, it undermines the credibility of the reviewer. Even if you don't like the lyrics or the songs, is it recorded well? Is the musicianship poor? So poor on all of those levels that it is sub 2? Why even give it a 1 and 1/2? Because the reviewer doesn't like what the album represents, and if you read the review, that bleats pure.

Album Rating: 4.5

It's also interesting to me that they didn't even review The Dillinger Escape Plan's 'One of Us is the Killer.' And they seem to like them....well, did.

Album Rating: 4.5

Yes, I understand the individual reviewers are individuals, but they have an editor and a reviews editor....actually they have thirteen editors....

the lateralus review is terrible to be fair (and the site's improved a hell of a lot since then in terms of consistency) but my point is that there is no 'they', there's a collection of disparate individuals with wildly varying tastes and opinions. you might not think pale communion or lateralus are pretentious but that doesn't give you cause to criticise someone who does

also tbh i'm not sure prog has as wide an appeal and cultural significance as you think it does, though you'd never think that from spending time on here

Album Rating: 4.5

Fair enough, upon further review....Brent DiCrescenzo, the guy who wrote that review, has been gone since 2006, and he just loved to needle The Mars Volta and Tool...which is great...choose your own adventure, I think it's generally good for all of our pre-conceptions to be challenged, and at the same time to think for yourself when it comes to the art you like or dis-like.



After Brent left they gave 10,000 Days a 5.9 or so. It seems like one of the Senior Editors is a Miles Davis fan, and has given really nice, well-written reviews to the recent Miles Davis Filmore East set, and some of the golden era re-issues.



It seems that a lot of Metal artists reference prog, Mastodon, ISIS, Pallbearer...in the time signatures and the use of analog synths. The alt bands reference Krautrock, R.I.O., Larks Tongues in Aspic and Islands era King Crimson, Pink Floyd more than Yes, ELP and Genesis, and many are more inspired by 1980s alt which is a Prog free zone, but from OK Computer and Kid A on it seems like there was a lot of young musicians, who were crate digging and found Amon Duul II and Tago Mago....and that's to be expected. One of the things I love about alt rock is the variety. Prog, is such a broad spectrum, it's really a bad way to describe the music and musicians that were alt rock in the late 60s and 70s....

Brent DiCrescenzo is also the guy who used to do those godawful 'concept' reviews, this one being
particularly bad: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5799-the-fragile/

i think as the years have gone by the site has become much more professional and has moved away from
the kind of sophomoric hipster sneering that so much of their early content contained. 4/5 years ago
your criticisms would've been totally valid for the most part. i've also noticed that reissues tend
to get higher quality reviews, the talk talk ones are another standout for me

your points about prog's influence are very true, my bone of contention is more to do with how
acknowledged that influence is in the mainstream - for better or worse prog is still highly
unfashionable and considered somewhat niche outside of communities like sputnik, i know this is
anecdotal but when the newest steven wilson came out none of the quality broadsheets or standard
music monthlies i read gave it more than a passing interest. who knows, maybe that perception is
changing but i can see why sites like p4k (and drowned in sound, spin etc) don't tend to cover it

tl;dr: you're basically right, pitchfork isn't as shit as it used to be and prog isn't cool (yet)

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

I still believe the comment about the 2/10 rating to not be true. Sure, it's well recorded and they can all play together but I have strong feelings that all sound and music is subjective. Therefore them playing in time, well or even having good production is irrelevant to me, just like how a million death core bands can all play their instruments but I don't necessarily love them or would give thematic thumbs up for playing on time.