that's no way to go around living

p much
I mean -- why bother?

rogue apostrophe at the end

What does RIYL mean?

"review if you like..."

oh man I may have been reading that wrong for years

i may be stupid and sometimes i'm bad with this kind of stuff but why does the album title 'fantasy memorial' indicate that a band is trying too hard?

Most of this is rambling and me forcing my own writing style on you--change what you want, or nothing at all. Most of it is also really small, but I honestly have nothing better to do than read carefully through reviews and give small changes to things that might not even need change.

"You could find this out retrospectively, as I did, getting more pissed off at the contents of Fantasy Memorial with each new calculated “idiosyncrasy” these guys attribute to themselves you find "

i'm just the tiniest bit confused with this--first off, you use the word 'retrospectively' (i.e., looking past) which would indicate that someone kind of listens to dinosaur feathers and then later gets pissed off, but in a way the rest of the sentence expresses that you were getting pissed of as you were listening. this certainly isn't anything big. there's also a bit of awkwardness in the phrase "with each new calculated 'idiosyncrasy' these guys attribute to themselves you find"--i'm not exactly too sure how you'd fix it, but i feel like "to themselves you find" just reads a little clumsily.

"Because, and I’ll be honest about this, there’s nothing really offensively bad about Fantasy Memorial, at least not in a what-the-fuck-is-this? sort of way."

I've always found that, with any sentence that has "at least" in the latter half, an em dash works slightly better. So,

"Fantasy Memorial--at least, not in a what-the" etc.

I'm not denying that that might be pure personal preference, though.

"so it’s no wonder why Dinosaur Feathers are getting popular now"

This is a pure question, and not at all a suggestion: is it correct, when using the phrase 'it's no wonder', to insert 'why' or to continue on? So, would it be the way you typed it, or

"so it's no wonder Dinosaur Feathers are getting popular now"

I've actually run into this before and was always wondering about it. I think they may be both right.

"writing obvious harmonies in an ode"

writing harmonies in an obvious ode? maybe

"But being derivative isn’t a grievance that causes someone to, say, get really riled up and rant to the internet about the content of a low-profile album that will get an at-best modest chug from the press/hype machine."

Love this. just fyi

"impassioned response is the shit-eating way with which they are derivative."

this is so insignificant and maybe-wrong that I bring it up meekly, but I feel like there's something strange here--mostly in the "shit-eating way with which they are"...i'm not sure what's striking me; it might be that i think "in which" fits better but even that doesn't strike me as totally right.

"In Fantasy Memorial, you can constantly find moments that trace back to other bands, sometimes exact songs."

I feel like the second comma should be either an em dash or a semicolon or something.

"The resulting mess is maddening to wade through, and not even all that terrible, just really, really irritating."

I think this sentence could use a little switch-up in terms of punctuation--either make it 'and, though not even all that terrible' or replace the first comma with an em dash or something else.

"then you’d end up with a mildly entertaining album packed with hooks enough"

packed with enough hooks

"onceormaybetwice-over"

haha, i like this because it's silly but i think 'once- or maybe twice-over' would make it easier to read. or, perhaps 'once-or-maybe-twice-over'

i googled "exemplariness" and i think it's a word? but nonetheless i feel like something a little less unwieldy could be used :P

"I’ll take it Dinosaur Feathers aren’t sexist bastards"

this phrase confuses me (it's probably me, not you)--does 'i'll take it' mean 'i'll assume'? I think it might be "I'll take it that"

Excellent, excellent review. Your writing is starting to remind me of the extra-brainy (but not-at-all pretentious) writing of postmodern people like (I feel like I'll get shit for this comparison) David Foster Wallace. I.e., it's obvious you know what you're talking about, you make consistently good insights, and you present it in a way that basically anyone can understand--also frequently quite humorous.

Downside: quite long sentences. But who doesn't love those?

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

You guys make me so butthurt.

actually?

wow alex, thanks for going through the review so thoroughly. Most of the wordings you had issue with are intended that way, however, and I won't change them, except the first one which I agree reads awkwardly

"...the better solution is to enjoy Fantasy Memorial as you might enjoy a Chicken McNugget: enjoy the tasty greasiness and remain blissfully unaware that it is probably killing you slowly. Whatever you do, just don’t think about it."

"Most of the wordings you had issue with are intended that way, however, and I won't change them"

yeah, i saw that most of these were potentially a byproduct of that--the whole really long "myspace influences" section that was all in a parenthesis is an example. very great stuff

Hi Adam,
A friend pointed my towards your review today - very interesting to read. When I sat down to write these songs, I never imagined such an impassioned response - positive or negative. I'm sorry our music has made you so angry.

It's very interesting to read something so thoroughly objective, by which I mean, reading someone explain exactly your actions, shortcomings and the general problems with what you do.

I'm a little taken aback by your anger with our "influences" section on Myspace, because really - it's just Myspace. Had I know it was going to come under such scrutiny, perhaps I would have taken it more seriously.

Anyway - if you're interested - you should send us some questions for what would have to be a hilarious interview. (dinosaurfeathersmusic@gmail.com) Most music interviews are just bland interchanges between fawning writers and the bands they love. This would be much more interesting - as I can't imagine you would pull any punches. I'd say that nobody who hates our music so much would be willing to take the time to do an e-mail exchange/interview, but you did write quite a bit, so perhaps you would be interested.

Cheers,
Greg

(One thing I would like to say is that I have never heard the first Yeasayer album, so while I may have written something similar, I would at least like to pardon myself from ripping them off.)

Really, really great review.

Hi Adam,
A friend pointed my towards your review today - very interesting to read. When I sat down to write
these songs, I never imagined such an impassioned response - positive or negative. I'm sorry our
music has made you so angry.

It's very interesting to read something so thoroughly objective, by which I mean, reading someone
explain exactly your actions, shortcomings and the general problems with what you do.

I'm a little taken aback by your anger with our "influences" section on Myspace, because really -
it's just Myspace. Had I know it was going to come under such scrutiny, perhaps I would have taken
it more seriously.

Anyway - if you're interested - you should send us some questions for what would have to be a
hilarious interview. (dinosaurfeathersmusic@gmail.com) Most music interviews are just bland
interchanges between fawning writers and the bands they love. This would be much more interesting -
as I can't imagine you would pull any punches. I'd say that nobody who hates our music so much would
be willing to take the time to do an e-mail exchange/interview, but you did write quite a bit, so
perhaps you would be interested.

Cheers,
Greg

(One thing I would like to say is that I have never heard the first Yeasayer album, so while I may
have written something similar, I would at least like to pardon myself from ripping them
off.)

thats actually pretty insane

That was a snazzy response, sir Greg.

Would've been schweet if he challenged him to a fight.