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Once again, we present our overview of the latest Rolling Stone album-review section, hoping to prove our long-held theory that just about every record to pass through the halls of 1290 Avenue of the Americas is rewarded with three stars.
It took us a few days to come down from the last issue’s critical round-up, which featured absolutely no three-star reviews whatsoever. But our moment of triumph was clearly the result of rampant stats-juking, as the new issue doles out plenty of triple-headers, this time to the likes of Norah Jones, Of Montreal, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. There are also a few surprising disses, including a two-and-a-half-star write-up for Neko Case’s live album–possibly the first semi-negative Case study we’ve ever seen–and a similarly starred, Robert Christgau-penned smack-down of the new Bloc Party album (in which the Dean also gets in a jibe at Brandon Flowers).
Otherwise, it’s a fairly normal RS section, save for the fact that Chavez’s Better Days Will Haunt You reissue is finally reviewed, nearly four months after its release. We look forward to next issue’s timely examination of the Alapalooza.
Issue #: 1019
Total number of reviews (excluding reissues): 21
Total number of three-star reviews: 8
Total percentage of reviews that are three-star reviews: 38 percent
Number of I’m From Rolling Stone mentions (including advertorial): 4
Number of McDonald’s Honey Mustard Snack Wrap ads that play off the magazine’s review section: 1
Everybody’s A Wenner [archive]
Has anyone noticed this week how the Pitchfork 7.0 is eerily similar to the RS three stars? Both CYHSY and The Shins got low 7s, which is basically saying they deserved 5s but for readerships sake decided to give them, drumroll please, three stars!
Wait, they JUST NOW reviewed Tigers Have Spoken? Or is there a live Neko Case disc I don’t know about?
And, well — if anyone knows how to smack down a disappointing sophomore effort, it’s the Dean.
Oh, wait … there’s not a companion disc to that Austin City Limits DVD, is there?
Yeah, that it is. It came out this month. I’ve heard it doesn’t have anything that’s not on the DVD.
You hit it on the spot, fishnotfried. If you look at that geeky site that analyses Pitchfork reviews
(http://idolator.com/tunes/pitchfork/recordreview-clearinghouse-provides-hours-of-clicking-for-music-nerds-229901.php), you can see that that the majority of records get between a 5.5 and 8.5 rating, which averages out to about … 7.0. Guess most critics just aren’t as fierce as they think they are …
Not to be all James Murphy about it, but I was there, and yeah, it was kind of convoluted and weird, but easily one of the best live sets I’ve seen from Case & Co.