Article is basically stating the obvious every step of the way, at least for us more hardcore fans. Nothing there that any of us don't already know. I guess we are not the intended audience, though.
All in all, Pitchfork has been fairly respectful to the band over the years. Certainly moreso than the majority of their readers.
It's all true. The new Portishead record is different, yet very much the same. Weird? Yes and no. The sound of Portishead is strikingly similar to that of 1994's groundbreaking Dummy. The difference lies within the sampling. Whereas Dummy was comprised of instantly memorable, bleak and dreary tracks, all sampled from old jazz, blues and film soundtracks, the band chose to record their own sounds, press them to vinyl, and use those as their launching point.
The melodies here are more jagged than those on Dummy, and Beth Gibbons' aching yowls are more distinguished and dramatic. Songs like "Elysium" and "Half Day Closing" probably won't really strike you until you've played them a few time, but tracks like "Over", "Humming", "Only You", and the sensational closing track, "Western Eyes", will grab your attention immediately.
Despite that it takes some getting acquainted with, though, Portishead comes very close to matching the twisting, dark road spirals of Dummy after it's sunk itself into your skull, and has permanently engraved itself in that giant slab of cold concrete that is the history of your life. Something tells me it's only gonna get better from here.
That's true enough. Even excluding the Coltrane and Kid A reviews, much of the stuff they released in the early days was poorly written and devoid of substance. Like right here, this is an entire review from 1997:
I didn't cut anything out; the review actually starts by responding to reviews the reader probably isn't aware of and has at least two awful grammatical errors in three short paragraphs.
unless somebody does a leak..
I was thinking mainly about all the producers they've had for SOI/E and rumours about different sounds/directions etc., moreso than comparing alt Bomb versions (which aren't particularly exciting) for example. I have no way to prove it of course unless somebody does a leak..
I'm trying to find the grammatical errors you speak of. The only one that jumps out at me is "until you've played them a few time".
Well, that and the author's inconsistent use of the oxford comma. Four places where it's appropriate, but he only does so on the latter two.
I suppose it depends on your definition of "error," but there are writing style issues all over the place, particularly in that second to last sentence.
Just to pick one example from it, using "though" as a conjunction is made unnecessary by putting "despite" at the beginning of the sentence because it already makes clear that a comparison and concession is coming. Move "though" into "despite that"'s place and the sentence flows so much better. Forget that the sentence is nearly 50 words long when it could have easily been chopped into two or even three smaller sentences of greater clarity.
Discussion like this is really better suited for Random Music Talk.
does rmt also double for a place for lonely virgins to vent?
TM is still only listing two ticket prices for LA: $35 and $280.
I wish U2 would put as much nuance into their new music as they do fleecing fans.
$100 and $155 are the other two price points.It's just a range, with $35 representing nosebleeds and $280 for red zone. Checking shows that are currently in a pre-sale, it looks like GAs will be $70.
Interesting that they appear to only be selling 60% of the seats. I suppose that confirms there's no in-the-round stage this time.