Case Study: Robbie Fulks and Georgia Hard
How to write a good review:
http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/f/fulksrobbie-georgia.shtml
1) Have a knowledge of your subject
2) Use good prose
3) Do a close reading of some lyrics
4) Contextualize
5) Be insighful
How to write a bad review:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/f/fulks_robbie/georgia-hard.shtml
1) Confuse country, alt-country, and roots-rock
2) Listen to the cd once while doing something else
3) Completely ignore lyrics
For the record, I quite like this album, despite not generally liking country that much (a senseless bias, I'm sure, based on my enjoyment of most things folky or twangy).
http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/f/fulksrobbie-georgia.shtml
1) Have a knowledge of your subject
2) Use good prose
3) Do a close reading of some lyrics
4) Contextualize
5) Be insighful
How to write a bad review:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/f/fulks_robbie/georgia-hard.shtml
1) Confuse country, alt-country, and roots-rock
2) Listen to the cd once while doing something else
3) Completely ignore lyrics
For the record, I quite like this album, despite not generally liking country that much (a senseless bias, I'm sure, based on my enjoyment of most things folky or twangy).
posted by Justin Cober-Lake | 2:36 PM
5 Comments:
Does Deusner not understand that Big & Rich isn't really a sensical comparison for Fulks, any more than Queen would be for, say, the Replacments?
(and I say that with affection for all four acts mentioned)
I think that's a major problem in his thinking here (I can't remember any of his other pieces). Not that criticism should be relativist, but you should at least meet an artist on his field -- Fulks *isn't* alt-country or B&R country; he's much more in the traditional C&W songwriter fold.
I don't know enough about any of these areas to write on them myself, but at least I know that!
I am enjoying the image of Mercury and Westerberg each fronting the other's band... :)
The results of that, my friend, would probably be even greater than the original acts.
Justin, it seems to me that you misplaced the two. It should be the opposite. Just replace the "bad" and good" in your article, and i'll agree, because pitchfork is, in this specific case, actually right: Robbie Fulks can not sing, but kudos anyway goes to him, for trying.
But what you think of Fulks's voice is hardly the point -- it's still possible to place him in the right context and critique him from there. The issue of "good" criticism is more than just determining whether an artist is "good" or not.
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