Idolator

That opening paragraph made me want to burn my diplomas in effigy.

i didn't read any of the review because the score alone confirmed what i already thought about this band. i think dave fridmann is currently on an angelic mission to produce "bloggy" bands' second albums for the covert, but specific, purpose of exposing them as completely unremarkable and overambitious.

you're up, Vampire Weekend!

It's a shame, because, live at least, they're a fantastic band. But the whole thing seems sort of rushed, and sterile. Plus, when they signed my vinyl, they wrote "Go Twins" on it, which is obviously amazing.

I am so nauseated right now.

I believe that the review's first paragraph is a fair criticism: Here's this band taken out of obscurity by blogs and the indie hype machine, and now they have a disappointing sophomore record.

Of course, it just had to be the lead review, didn't it? I could care less about the band, but talk about rubbing their faces in it...we get it, PF!

@Cam/ron:well, i think it's the tone one finds objectionable, and a few of the not-quite-the-point-itself suppositions about what does or does not make a "good story". or if a band as negligible as tapes n' tapes count as a "story" at all.

i have read the review now, and i think it's a little funny how pitchfork now washes their hands of the whole business of hyping this band in the first place. i'm sure it wasn't as hilariously explicit a relationship as the one outlined in "Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru", but it wouldn't be good satire if there were no truth to it at all.

i suppose when Black Kids drop an album and subsequently wear our their welcome, we'll lay that at the anonymous feet of "the internet" as well.

@westartedthis: It's best to know that each review reflects the author's opinion, not that of the entire site.

I don't know what there is to be pissed about, at least not long term. They're an unremarkable band who's particular style of being two steps up from mediocre caught on. Plus, each DIFFERENT ALBUM got a DIFFERENT SCORE from a DIFFERENT REVIEWER so why perpetuate the monolithic view of Pitchfork? There's also the fact that, since you have a platform here, you could just as easily write a definitive corrective of P4ks slighting (if that's what it is) instead of doing this half-assed version of the (usually hillarious) "Yay journalism!" thing.

@westartedthis: NAH, there'll already be so much of a backlash by the time that happens that I doubt the followup will crack a "7."

Gotta say i'm amazed the record got the score it did. I thought it was an absolute stinker. badly made record. badly written review. i guess they all go hand in hand

@Cam/ron: that's very true, and i chide myself for referring to a single review in terms of "Pitchfork said _____."

but wouldn't you agree that Pitchfork and Tapes n' Tapes have a special relationship? one that bears mentioning in any kind of "takedown" review, however deserving it might be? past similar cases, the writer often DOES cop to certain opinions expressed under pitchfork's masthead.

what i want to know is this: when is one of these bands going to suck it up and prove all of us mean old internet people wrong? make a good record! tell dave fridmann to lose your phone number! produce it yourself - that's how you made the first one, isn't it? you too can enjoy EVERLASTING HYPE by being GOOD on a regular basis! i know! you tell them where to stick their 5.9 by continuing to write and record music despite the fact that Stereogum hasn't linked you in a month! - as your forefathers did.

i'm talking about Teenage Fanclub. do as Teenage Fanclub did.

It's awkward to criticize one potentially baseless hype source by quoting another one, but Vice's review of this record seemed pretty spot on when they said "this band's entire fucking career is a figment of Pitchfork's imagination."

TNT were one of the first bands I heard and thought "wow, Pitchfork really can make absolutely anything popular." I don't know how accurate that is, but I feel like talking about this band's general internet hype in the review is sort of a cop-out when so much of the public (even the Tapes N' Tapes-listening public) still doesn't give a fuck what any music website besides possibly Pitchfork thinks.

I blame all of you!

You are all to blame!

@westartedthis: do as Teenage Fanclub did.

word life.

@CloudCarrier:

i feel kind of the same as you. what cheesed me off was not so much the review (which i can't say was terribly surprising), as the "forkcast" of the band's conan performance that was also posted today. i know the whole "forkcast" itself is often a sort of subpar blog-lite, but the first sentence (out of two was) "T'nT's sophomore album Walk It Off got a 5.9 today, check Adam Moerder's review for the scoop." like, regardless of the quality of this band or your feelings about them, that was arguably cheap and unquestionably trite.

and i am not reflexively anti-fork, although they increasingly make that stance hard to maintain...

semi-related: my copy of the future of the left album had a sticker on it that read, "0.8 pitchforkier than mcclusky!" obviously they were (understandably) still trying to get a little of that brand-name prestige, but it did make me chuckle.

What I want to know is if the sophmore slump is more "we don't care about you after your first album" these days.

well the album is pretty boring

@CloudCarrier: Don't you mean "couldn't care less"?

I am such a douchebag.

@Cam/ron: Sure, it's fair criticism, but it completey evades the fact that Pitchfork, among others, is responsible for the aforementioned regurgitation.

What? People figured out Tapes N'Tapes are kind of boring? Rock on.

@thearcanemodel: That made me giddy when I saw it. FOTL are good at self-promoting by way of piss take.

@Cheap Shot:
i think it's a little of column A, a lot of column B at lately...but so many of these debuts are overhyped it's almost inevitable.

semi-related: from TODAY's p-fork review of the someone still loves you boris yeltsin record:

"Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were supposed to totally change the game for up-and-coming bands looking to avoid being extra deck chairs on the majors' sinking ships, but after Some Loud Thunder met its inevitable and somewhat warranted backlash, it just became that much harder to invest in a group like Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (and Walk It Off ain't helpin' either)."

uh, maybe SSLYBY isn't TRYING to be CYHSY. for that matter, maybe CYHSY (damn these band names are awkward) wasn't trying to be CYHSY either, at least in terms of what the writer is trying to have them represent.

true, the SSLYBY record isn't life-changing but their best songs go down like diet dr. pepper...and they have/are fun. definitely don't get an overly careerist vibe from them. maybe that record doesn't "deserve" a really high score, but maybe they're not trying to take over the world either, you know?

@SuperUnison: indeed.

Boring? Really? Has anyone listened to this album more than once? Have you even listened to it once? Headshock? the Dirty Dirty? Come on.. Walk It Off is a good record.