I'm so sick of reading "criticism" from the usuals -- Pitchfork, Dusted, Coke Machine Glow, etc. I mean, they're usually a regurgitation of one-sheets anyway. So, where are we expected to go for the real nitty gritty criticism? The kind of honest criticism from THE PEOPLE? Amazon, of course! Despite the critical reception for No Age's new album, Nouns (TMT Review), here are some comments that'll make you question your favorite pro critics:
- Lovblad (Geneva, Switzerland): Avoid!!!! This is really pretentious and horrible. In the other reviews as well as elsewhere this has been treated very very reverentially whereas it is really a lot of talentless and pointless stuffing around on instruments...A waste of time and money. Buy the original innovative stuff such as My Bloody Valentine, Loop or Sonic Youth and when you are done with them...buy them again before this...No really, this goes beyond testing my patience and I have listened to a lot of bad stuff in my life (belive my friends, parents and wife!).
- Thomas Szabo "Cheater" (Charlottesville, VA): I always give a CD three listens before condemning it. This CD sucks. I listened at home. I listened at my desk. I listened in the car. I can listen to nearly anything and enjoy. This CD sucks. Most CD's have 1 or two songs that probably shouldn't have been published....Nothing on this CD should have ever leaked out. Sorry to be so negative but when I finally flipped off the 2ed song, when I couldn't stand it any more...I had to look and make sure that I had actually gone forward because the 3rd cut was as bad as the 2ed.
- S. D. Mason (Greenville, NC): The sound of these indie rockers is certainly a strange one, but the word that ultimately describes it is frustrating. The music itself is good, the instrumentation isn't groundbreaking and the band members aren't geniuses with what they have in their hands, but they at least make it fit. The production, however, is what makes the album dismissable. The vocals are pushed back to such an extent that it's extremely difficult to discern them from the rest of the music. Maybe that's the point. If so, I don't get it. It's not bad, and certainly none of it is unlistenable; their punk rock, indie, and electronica influences (most notably Boards of Canada) are all high-spirited. Next time, maybe?
Point being: don't buy the album. But I hear their live show is amazing:
$ Battles