Originally Posted by
Mantra
I actually kind of like that fragile review, even though that was my favorite album at the time I came across it and I thought a lot of the points it was making were kind of stupid. It may be over the top, but it feels like a distinctive piece of writing. I don't agree with the opinion, but I respect how thoroughly he tosses out any pretense of "objectivity" in music journalism (something that has always struck me as nothing but a myth) and instead just tries his best to express his extremely subjective opinion in an entertaining, striking way.
Music journalism is kind of a joke of a writing genre, mostly totally bland and pointless, but the rare people who are able to make it worthwhile are those who use it as a means of self-expression, kind of like how Hunter S. Thompson's journalism is way more interesting than any other forgotten sports writer of his era. At a certain point, people have to understand that good culture journalism isn't about seeing your own opinion validated, or about fucking "objectivity." The best writers use it as its own artistic medium. The only thing I care about is, by the end if the review, feeling like I got to know this writer, got to understand their sense if taste, who they are as an actual person in the world, where they're coming from. To me, that's good writing.