Album Rating: 4.7 | Sound Off

wines please don't listen to this

Album Rating: 4.5

not to dive too far into this discussion which should probably be forgotten at this point, but i was just surprised at some of the vitriol towards the review (which was, in itself, well-written, though perhaps not a well-written "review" but that's neither here nor there) when plenty of genuinely poor pieces of writing get a pass on this site (which is fine!). it just felt like a weird place for the sputnik criticism machine to start churning so intensely, particularly in response to a piece that was so deeply intense and personal, even if it was wasn't a proper review. for comparison's sake, we recently had a featured staff review for the most popular 2020 album on here basically operate on a theme of "this is why i'm not joining in the BLM protests" and no one really cared



at any rate! it's super not a big deal, it's totally fine to tell someone who you think wrote a bad review that you think their review is bad, but when said review is relaying personal stories of emotional abuse, self-harm, etc., i feel like a more subtle touch may be warranted



love all y'all though i'm just spitballin on why i was kinda surprised

Album Rating: 4.0

talk about music how it suits you



if you’re legitimately a professional music critic than conduct yourself accordingly



give a free pass to those just shooting the shit about music they love if they’re not asking for feedback



don’t take yourself seriously



engage and grow with the community if you’d like



hear new things and be excited and challenged in your listening



stop shitting on each other and engage



— a bullshit idealistic waior manifesto, god bless, whatever whatever, don’t get your ego involved, I will try too

Album Rating: 2.5

wines plz listen to this so we can be 2.0-brothers-in-arms. MIB 2/5



anyway yeah i mean i didn't like the review but if it comes from somewhere sincere and isn't trying to be a "review" then i mean i can't really critique it anymore than i'd feel comfortable critiquing someone's journal entry, or bathroom stall graffiti.

Album Rating: 4.0

I 100% judge bathroom stall graffiti more than Sputnik reviews



That shit is asinine

Album Rating: 2.5

well yeah but it’s beyond critique lol, asinine or no

Imagine scrawling "beyond critique" above the toilet at a Denny's.

Album Rating: 2.5

would be artistically pure

Album Rating: 2.5

brb, going for it, this is my moment

A long time coming.

This thread became... a lot. Not sure why my comment is being viewed as hazing, it was snippy but from a place of recognition. I used to post overly self-involved reviews 8 years earlier and would have benefited from being called out on it. The people defending the writeup have also removed their way-too-personal material from the site. It usually takes years rather than a day to delete though which is a surprise.

That's the name I gave my first whack session after taking 150 mg of clomipramine.

Album Rating: 5.0

To throw in my final two cents here:



My issue wasn't just with the one comment, it was a couple. I'm a writer, in fact I'm a published author, I just come to places like this in my spare time, which is why I typically write intensely subjective reviews that contain about 50 percent of my human perspective and 50 percent of whatever you can consider my 'critical analysis'



I'm happy a few of you seemed to be a fan of the original review. Personally, it's found far better reception (and by that I mean 'discussion'- not praise, not looking for blind compliments just cause I managed to crank out something kinda personal) the other places I've put it so that was reassuring.



My rather intense response, as insinuated above by someone else earlier, came from the severe condescension I derived from a response. My experience with these forums and user comments on this site, as a whole, tend to be negative, as a lot of people here haven't grasped what 'opinions' and the word 'subjective' yet (this isn't an observation from my reviews, I mean in general, not trying to sound holier than thou, but insular communities like this seem to yield lots of people who don't know how to talk to others like human beings) and I was anticipating typical internet/sputnik snark. Generally speaking, I am fairly thick-skinned, the less I say about my experiences that led me to be that way the better. What bothered me was:



A) the fact that my original review, conceptually speaking, someone seemed to be very averse to my more confessional approach. This isn't unfair, but when I elaborated, I was explaining my context under which I evaluated the album so I could be better understood, and my personal experiences informed that. If you ask me, that's a hell of a lot better than throwing empty, shallow praise at the album like the 'hyperbolic fanboy that could've been a case study' I was made out to be. If I didn't mention or allude to that, I felt it would've been, at the very least, emotionally dishonest. The type of writing I respond to is criticism interwoven with personal experience because I find it more insightful and interesting, so it tends to be the writing I create, something something Roger Ebert's 'empathy machine' comments. Music especially is the type of art I think is the most emotionally visceral, and the intense nature of the thematic content Phoebe deals with is inextricably linked to this, so I felt it would be mildly appropriate if a bit revealing. I've grown to be more open with expression because it lets me be more receptive and I probably should've taken into consideration and just not put the review here at all to begin with since I figured this might happen.

Album Rating: 5.0

B) An issue I also had was that I did make actual critical evaluations of the album and why it resonated with me beyond the very personal stuff, and that looked like it was totally ignored just because I slapped a 5 on this thing and included a less-than-flattering anecdote about my life. This was somewhat bothersome, as I felt I did a decent job at relaying why I felt the way I did, both emotionally and just as a music listener, as it genuinely is my opinion and I stand by it. I bought the damn thing on vinyl the other day, my thoughts are unchanged. The problem lies with both the aforementioned attitude and the insistence that I would 'look back on this and cringe'- which I'll admit, stung more than it should have because it's something I've heard a few times before. Here's the thing though: it's never true. No matter how 'heart on my sleeve' my writing gets, especially in reference to my critical stuff about films and music, it feels like a shallow, stupid criticism. I look back at things I wrote when I was a teenager that expose myself in far less """professional""" ways with much sloppier writing and I still view it as being a stepping stone to getting to where I am.



C) I'm in no way averse to having something critical said about my work. In fact, far worse has been said about things that I DIDN'T write in around twenty minutes in the shoe stockroom in a department store while on my break, which yes, is how I wrote the original review. Off the cuff, totally unprompted, just wrote on my phone and threw it up just to get it out there. The thing is I saw no real criticism that felt like it came from a genuine place. The critique that the 'third paragraph is completely extraneous to the album' was a little bewildering, considering I directly acknowledged this and further justified it so I could better explain what I was trying to say. To me, that feels very narrow-minded and felt like less a criticism of my writing and more an objection to its existence conceptually, which to be blunt, I think is very stupid. By all means level any criticism you want at me, but I saw few criticisms and just more objections if I didn't interweave my points and my context well enough, then that's perfectly fine to take issue with. I'm sure I could've improved that considering the circumstances.



D) I did feel it necessary to include because, as I mentioned, I felt it would be dishonest to do so otherwise. If I didn't, then this would be nothing more than hyperbolic fanboy praise, and if anything, I wanted to be upfront and say my connection to Phoebe's music is something I cannot separate from my overall experience.

Album Rating: 5.0

E) Gyro, you're an asshole, but I kinda like you. Sowing, you're cool, always appreciate it when I see you comment on something I wrote, I frequented many of your reviews when I first came here. Thanks man. And thanks to the others for being encouraging, that was swell of you. Thanks to the people who weren't encouraging too, even if I flip out on you because I'm prone to do so when being deliberately exposed, you still get me to think about what I make in a new way. While I can't say everything said in this thread was in good faith or didn't irk me, I can tell a lot of it comes from a place of empathy. I stand by my piece and what was said, but I think it's a safe bet that I need to pick another avenue to write music reviews that invite discussion since this doesn't seem to cut it in a way that suits my format or style. I guess if anything I hoped to see that perhaps my experience would resonate with others who had gone through something similar or had been similarly moved by the album, as this tends to be the thing I value most: emotional response. I interrogate art from every perspective, but the humanist and sincere side is what I value, and considering the music in question, it felt somewhat appropriate. Perhaps I simply fucked up and didn't do a good job at getting that across, or just failed to incite that in people, which is certainly on me. I get that not everyone, in fact, most people, might not respond to how I engage with and critique art, but I feel like it's limiting and shallow-minded to say it can't be done. If we don't have these messy, emotional perspectives, then I think we do lose something valuable, even if it's far from perfect or contains limited appeal. In fact, it could be argued that its messiness (even if I feel my piece was reasonably well-structured considering my goal) is its entire appeal. I'm not arguing in favor of low quality, I'm arguing in favor of high sincerity, and there's no reason why it can't be both. I can totally get why someone would argue to my ineffectiveness.



Now that I have, once again, embarrassed myself by rambling in long, overly expressive writing that will no doubt bother a bunch of internet strangers, I'm quite tired and I'm going to drink a beer and listen to this again. As someone mentioned earlier, Sowing I think, this section should be dedicated to Phoebe's stellar work with this record, as I think she's far more worthy of discussion than I am. Sorry to have bothered anyone.

TLDR for anyone who can't be bothered with the 1400+ word response

"I'm a writer, in fact I'm a published author, I just come to places like this in my spare time"
"Generally speaking, I am fairly thick-skinned"
"I need to pick another avenue to write music reviews that invite discussion since this doesn't seem to cut it in a way that suits my format or style"

Album Rating: 4.0

Honestly man, I had no your issue with your original review. Don't let Sputnik drama get to you. Just keep writing how you want to write. If I let people talking shit to me deter me from using this site I would have stopped using it a week or two ago lol

Album Rating: 3.5

Holy shit.



"Generally speaking, I am fairly thick-skinned"



I mean, you can say that, but you were pretty quick to try to delete your review after hardly anything.

who tf is that

any loremasters in chat wanna aware me