Monday, September 16, 2013
this is not meth either (standup from yours truly)
so since i haven't posted anything in two months (to the day!), it's time for me to dust off my small corner of the internet and put something there for the two people who have periodically checked in to see if i've posted anything new. i've been getting more and more into standup comedy. i moonlighted doing it my freshman year, but i was very busy and not very good. i'm just as busy this year, but i think i've gotten a bit better, and i'm really excited about how this set turned out. leave a comment if you loved/hated/had an opinion about it! without further ado, here's my setlist from an open mic on the 14th, which i've entitled "this is not meth either" (you'll see why). hold on to your asses, folks
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
criticism criticism, pt. 4: watch your letters (or criticism will die)
this criticism criticism column is a very special one, because i'm going to get out a lot of my anger about an issue that rankles me every time it comes up. it's an issue that affects a lot of writers, particularly those just starting out. it's the most obvious way to get yourself rejected as a writer, and yet, time after time, people fall into the blind-sheep pattern of making the same stupid mistakes. you want to be a critic? fix your horrible goddamn spelling/grammar/usage/punctuation/use of language.
now, i swear to you that i'm not one of those assholes who goes around publicly shaming others for their failure to pay tribute to the Grammar Gods. i'm just as bad as everyone else is; my speech and writing occasionally allows errors and snafus to creep in. but this is a problem that a TON of people have - and, if everyone has the same problem, is it really a problem? well, maybe, maybe not. but it's certainly not enough of an issue to me that i feel compelled to call out someone in conversation or on Facebook for not following all the conventions of Standard Edited American English. in the everyday world, it's just not that big of a deal.
but in criticism... those stupid mistakes and fuck-ups you make will just kill you. i'm not sure if there are any studies done on how proper use of language affects the way a written message is received, but i can tell you this: nine times out of ten, if i see someone trying to make a point on the internet with shitty grammar or spelling, i'm going to approach their opinion withcomplete and total disregard some skepticism.
am i an asshole? oh, no question. but, believe me, it's true on a subconscious level. when i read poorly written and unedited reviews, i get almost completely distracted from the main points the reviewer's making. hell, oftentimes i can't even remember what they were reviewing. that's a serious problem. thankfully, though, it also works the opposite way. think back to a sentence you read from a book or newspaper, if you can recall it exactly. your mind is far more likely to jump to a sentence that's well-organized and concise, neither of which are qualities of error-riddled, messy text globs.
now, larger critical outlets (Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, A.V. Club, &c.) have teams of editors who can pick out all the grammar and spelling mistakes the reviewer may have made. that's perfectly understandable: they need to have everything looking professional. but think about that word for a second. does that mean any old schlub with half an opinion and a working computer can write a professional review, and just let the editors do all the fixing? of course not. the editors may have the ability to fix your stupid-ass errors, but professional-quality capital-C critics aren't going to need that kind of help. maybe their reviews will need to be trimmed, or a paragraph or two switched around, but they certainly shouldn't need rudimentary usage work.
the unfortunate truth of the whole thing is that formal criticism is becoming a lost art. the phrase "everyone's a critic" may be worn to the bone, but, in some sense, it's now more true than ever. people will start blogs like this one, or become the reviewer for their local or school newspaper, or even write quick blurbs on Amazon, and just charge right into it without any regard for these rules. true, they may never become explicitly "professional" critics. but, in the eyes of the great and powerful Internet, all men are equal. when anyone has the ability to log onto a social-networking site, click on an empty text box, and speak his or her mind, the opinion of someone like Robert Christgau or Sasha Frere-Jones matters as much (or as little) as that of CoolGuy_267.
so, what can we, as critics, do about this? well, we can spend a whole paragraph complaining about it, as i've just done. or, we can get on our asses - at our computers - and do something about it.
now, i may not be a professional critic. (i'm not even really an authority on criticism. nobody reads this blog. i have no illusions about that.) but i would like to be one, mind you. and with this goal in mind, i make sure that every sentence in every review i write is logical, concise, and correct. what if every reviewer did this? shit, criticism would be saved (sort of). that ranting, sad, bitter paragraph wouldn't even need to exist. but not every reviewer does that. and some perfectly good reviewers who have a lot of potential are hammering the nails into their own coffins with every i left undotted, every t left uncrossed, every simple and manageable error left unaltered.
so please, you guys: for the love of God, fix your grammar and usage and spelling and punctuation and organization and vocabulary and whatever the hell else you need to fix. if you want to be a true critic, or even want people to give your opinion a chance, you must communicate as effectively as you can. (and if you can't get through a paragraph without some serious outside editing help, you might want to consider a different career path.) if we all work at it, and take small steps to make our reviews look better, more polished, more readable, more professional, we just might get through to somebody. and that's what's important.
now, i swear to you that i'm not one of those assholes who goes around publicly shaming others for their failure to pay tribute to the Grammar Gods. i'm just as bad as everyone else is; my speech and writing occasionally allows errors and snafus to creep in. but this is a problem that a TON of people have - and, if everyone has the same problem, is it really a problem? well, maybe, maybe not. but it's certainly not enough of an issue to me that i feel compelled to call out someone in conversation or on Facebook for not following all the conventions of Standard Edited American English. in the everyday world, it's just not that big of a deal.
but in criticism... those stupid mistakes and fuck-ups you make will just kill you. i'm not sure if there are any studies done on how proper use of language affects the way a written message is received, but i can tell you this: nine times out of ten, if i see someone trying to make a point on the internet with shitty grammar or spelling, i'm going to approach their opinion with
am i an asshole? oh, no question. but, believe me, it's true on a subconscious level. when i read poorly written and unedited reviews, i get almost completely distracted from the main points the reviewer's making. hell, oftentimes i can't even remember what they were reviewing. that's a serious problem. thankfully, though, it also works the opposite way. think back to a sentence you read from a book or newspaper, if you can recall it exactly. your mind is far more likely to jump to a sentence that's well-organized and concise, neither of which are qualities of error-riddled, messy text globs.
now, larger critical outlets (Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, A.V. Club, &c.) have teams of editors who can pick out all the grammar and spelling mistakes the reviewer may have made. that's perfectly understandable: they need to have everything looking professional. but think about that word for a second. does that mean any old schlub with half an opinion and a working computer can write a professional review, and just let the editors do all the fixing? of course not. the editors may have the ability to fix your stupid-ass errors, but professional-quality capital-C critics aren't going to need that kind of help. maybe their reviews will need to be trimmed, or a paragraph or two switched around, but they certainly shouldn't need rudimentary usage work.
the unfortunate truth of the whole thing is that formal criticism is becoming a lost art. the phrase "everyone's a critic" may be worn to the bone, but, in some sense, it's now more true than ever. people will start blogs like this one, or become the reviewer for their local or school newspaper, or even write quick blurbs on Amazon, and just charge right into it without any regard for these rules. true, they may never become explicitly "professional" critics. but, in the eyes of the great and powerful Internet, all men are equal. when anyone has the ability to log onto a social-networking site, click on an empty text box, and speak his or her mind, the opinion of someone like Robert Christgau or Sasha Frere-Jones matters as much (or as little) as that of CoolGuy_267.
so, what can we, as critics, do about this? well, we can spend a whole paragraph complaining about it, as i've just done. or, we can get on our asses - at our computers - and do something about it.
now, i may not be a professional critic. (i'm not even really an authority on criticism. nobody reads this blog. i have no illusions about that.) but i would like to be one, mind you. and with this goal in mind, i make sure that every sentence in every review i write is logical, concise, and correct. what if every reviewer did this? shit, criticism would be saved (sort of). that ranting, sad, bitter paragraph wouldn't even need to exist. but not every reviewer does that. and some perfectly good reviewers who have a lot of potential are hammering the nails into their own coffins with every i left undotted, every t left uncrossed, every simple and manageable error left unaltered.
so please, you guys: for the love of God, fix your grammar and usage and spelling and punctuation and organization and vocabulary and whatever the hell else you need to fix. if you want to be a true critic, or even want people to give your opinion a chance, you must communicate as effectively as you can. (and if you can't get through a paragraph without some serious outside editing help, you might want to consider a different career path.) if we all work at it, and take small steps to make our reviews look better, more polished, more readable, more professional, we just might get through to somebody. and that's what's important.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
criticism criticism, pt. 3: why 10? why not?
i once read a review i'll never forget - not a formally published review, and not a music review, but an independently submitted review on a small gaming website. the review had some technical and organizational issues, but mostly communicated a sort of indifferent support of the game. (if it weren't so unenthusiastic, it would have read like an advertisement for the game in question, something that i advise aspiring critics never to shoot for. but that's neither here nor there.) after reading this review, i got the sense that the reviewer was bored by the game, or didn't like it quite enough to rave about it.
but, when i scrolled down and saw the score, my jaw dropped: it was a 10/10. the reader in me was befuddled; the critic in me was indignant. this wasn't like any other 10/10 review i'd read, where the writers would wax rhapsodic about every aspect of the work and talk about its far-reaching consequence. this was, to summarize it kindly, a dull bit of advertising copy for a game that didn't even seem to be worth the purchase - the equivalent of reading a fiery speech in a monotone.
now, i realize it's a bit petty for me to get all worked up about a review of that nature. it was an informal website, and i wasn't even interested in buying the damn game in the first place. but, nonetheless, my feathers were ruffled with righteous confusion. not only had the value of the game been diminished by the review, but the perfect score had been devalued by pairing it to the review!
as you may have seen in part 2 of this series, in which i wrote about numerical review scores and their symbolic significance, 10/10 is, by definition, the gold standard for an album (i'm switching back to talking about albums instead of games - i think you get my point). a 10/10 comes in many forms - 4 stars out of 4, 5 Zeus Slaps out of 5 - but all of its derivations mean, or should mean, the same thing: you think this album is perfect. that's right. not really really good. not only-flawed-in-one-minor-way-but-i'm-willing-to-overlook-it-because-it's-so-great. Perfect, with a capital P. you can't go higher than a 10/10. if you critique a work properly and extensively, and find that the only score you feel comfortable giving is a 10/10, chances are you've found a very, very special record. 10/10 albums - Perfect albums - don't come around too often, and the critics that review them and find them to be perfect inevitably, and quite understandably, gush over them.
which is why it pains and frustrates me to no end to see reviews like the one i talked about above. if i had tried to guess the score after reading the review, i would've guessed it to be a 7/10 at best. true, all the basics of the game were outlined, and there were a few qualifiers of enjoyment sporadically thrown in ("the missions were fun," or something of that nature). but it didn't convey any sense of urgency, any excitement, any joy at playing what the reviewer had labeled a perfect game.
if you're going to give an album (or a game, or anything) a perfect score, you absolutely have to convey as much honest excitement as you can. and if you can't get worked up enough by it to give it a 10/10, it doesn't deserve one. plain and simple.
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i once wrote a review i'll never forget. it was my first review for my first "official" writing gig. i made the mistake of reviewing an album i already enjoyed (i'm gonna write about that later - be careful of that), but, luckily, not one that i enjoyed enough to give it a perfect score. nonetheless, i thought it was a very solid record. a few dull songs here and there, but the bright spots were very good. i wrote a brief, paragraph-long piece about the album, and gave it a 4/5. but when i turned it in to my editor, he looked it over and said "no, that won't do."
i was taken aback. i'd worked hard on making my paragraph concise, easy to read, and all-encompassing. i'd named the best songs, alluded to great albums of the band's past and compared the new release with those records. i'd triple-checked my structure, grammar, and punctuation. what had i done wrong? but, as soon as he told me, i realized what was missing. from that point on, the direction i took my reviews was permanently impacted.
the advice he gave me is that which i give to you now: if the record doesn't deserve a perfect score, you have to explain why.
remember the advice i gave about communicating interest for a 10/10 record? (of course you do. the question's rhetorical, bear with me.) this is the flip side to that coin. if the album is a 9/10, or an 7.5/10, or even a 4/10, you have to make it clear to your readers why those points were docked. like i said, perfect records don't come around very often. chances are you're going to get one, maybe two per year at most, that you find no fault with. which means that you're going to find at least some minor fault with every other album you review that year. you're going to confuse the hell out of your readers if you write a positive- or neutral-sounding review, and then give the album a 6/10.
larger outlets for reviews - for instance, the website for the Guardian, or Pitchfork - are especially guilty of this, warmly receiving and talking up new releases while holding a 3/5 or a 6.8/10 like a knife behind their backs. i can't stress enough the symbolic importance of scores. there is a vast difference between a 7/10 album and an 8/10 album, and a bait-and-switch on the part of the reviewer, however unintentional, is jarring. as a critic, you can't be afraid to call a spade a spade, and you certainly shouldn't call it a club. that helps no one.
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now, chances are that a lot of the reviewers guilty of mismatched scoring believe that the score they gave was absolutely correct. and, honestly, in their heart of hearts, it probably was. i believe that the key problem in reviews like these is improper communication. in retrospect, it's very plausible that the aspiring game reviewer loved the game, and simply had trouble conveying his enjoyment for it on paper (or maybe he just found nothing to be wrong with it, and gave it a 10/10 just because it met all his expectations - but you get my point). i know that, in my own faulty review, i had forgotten to communicate the issues i had with the album. even though the score i picked felt right, i made the mistake of not showing the reader the steps i'd taken to get there.
with this in mind, the key to properly scoring a review is open, honest, direct communication with your audience. if you find something you really like about the record you're reviewing, don't be afraid to direct your readers to it. if an aspect of the album seriously bothers you, speak up. and, if you honestly believe that you've found, by your standards, a perfect record, go ahead and give that 10/10 - that is, as long as you preclude it with the fanfare it deserves.
but, when i scrolled down and saw the score, my jaw dropped: it was a 10/10. the reader in me was befuddled; the critic in me was indignant. this wasn't like any other 10/10 review i'd read, where the writers would wax rhapsodic about every aspect of the work and talk about its far-reaching consequence. this was, to summarize it kindly, a dull bit of advertising copy for a game that didn't even seem to be worth the purchase - the equivalent of reading a fiery speech in a monotone.
now, i realize it's a bit petty for me to get all worked up about a review of that nature. it was an informal website, and i wasn't even interested in buying the damn game in the first place. but, nonetheless, my feathers were ruffled with righteous confusion. not only had the value of the game been diminished by the review, but the perfect score had been devalued by pairing it to the review!
as you may have seen in part 2 of this series, in which i wrote about numerical review scores and their symbolic significance, 10/10 is, by definition, the gold standard for an album (i'm switching back to talking about albums instead of games - i think you get my point). a 10/10 comes in many forms - 4 stars out of 4, 5 Zeus Slaps out of 5 - but all of its derivations mean, or should mean, the same thing: you think this album is perfect. that's right. not really really good. not only-flawed-in-one-minor-way-but-i'm-willing-to-overlook-it-because-it's-so-great. Perfect, with a capital P. you can't go higher than a 10/10. if you critique a work properly and extensively, and find that the only score you feel comfortable giving is a 10/10, chances are you've found a very, very special record. 10/10 albums - Perfect albums - don't come around too often, and the critics that review them and find them to be perfect inevitably, and quite understandably, gush over them.
which is why it pains and frustrates me to no end to see reviews like the one i talked about above. if i had tried to guess the score after reading the review, i would've guessed it to be a 7/10 at best. true, all the basics of the game were outlined, and there were a few qualifiers of enjoyment sporadically thrown in ("the missions were fun," or something of that nature). but it didn't convey any sense of urgency, any excitement, any joy at playing what the reviewer had labeled a perfect game.
if you're going to give an album (or a game, or anything) a perfect score, you absolutely have to convey as much honest excitement as you can. and if you can't get worked up enough by it to give it a 10/10, it doesn't deserve one. plain and simple.
=====
i once wrote a review i'll never forget. it was my first review for my first "official" writing gig. i made the mistake of reviewing an album i already enjoyed (i'm gonna write about that later - be careful of that), but, luckily, not one that i enjoyed enough to give it a perfect score. nonetheless, i thought it was a very solid record. a few dull songs here and there, but the bright spots were very good. i wrote a brief, paragraph-long piece about the album, and gave it a 4/5. but when i turned it in to my editor, he looked it over and said "no, that won't do."
i was taken aback. i'd worked hard on making my paragraph concise, easy to read, and all-encompassing. i'd named the best songs, alluded to great albums of the band's past and compared the new release with those records. i'd triple-checked my structure, grammar, and punctuation. what had i done wrong? but, as soon as he told me, i realized what was missing. from that point on, the direction i took my reviews was permanently impacted.
the advice he gave me is that which i give to you now: if the record doesn't deserve a perfect score, you have to explain why.
remember the advice i gave about communicating interest for a 10/10 record? (of course you do. the question's rhetorical, bear with me.) this is the flip side to that coin. if the album is a 9/10, or an 7.5/10, or even a 4/10, you have to make it clear to your readers why those points were docked. like i said, perfect records don't come around very often. chances are you're going to get one, maybe two per year at most, that you find no fault with. which means that you're going to find at least some minor fault with every other album you review that year. you're going to confuse the hell out of your readers if you write a positive- or neutral-sounding review, and then give the album a 6/10.
larger outlets for reviews - for instance, the website for the Guardian, or Pitchfork - are especially guilty of this, warmly receiving and talking up new releases while holding a 3/5 or a 6.8/10 like a knife behind their backs. i can't stress enough the symbolic importance of scores. there is a vast difference between a 7/10 album and an 8/10 album, and a bait-and-switch on the part of the reviewer, however unintentional, is jarring. as a critic, you can't be afraid to call a spade a spade, and you certainly shouldn't call it a club. that helps no one.
=====
now, chances are that a lot of the reviewers guilty of mismatched scoring believe that the score they gave was absolutely correct. and, honestly, in their heart of hearts, it probably was. i believe that the key problem in reviews like these is improper communication. in retrospect, it's very plausible that the aspiring game reviewer loved the game, and simply had trouble conveying his enjoyment for it on paper (or maybe he just found nothing to be wrong with it, and gave it a 10/10 just because it met all his expectations - but you get my point). i know that, in my own faulty review, i had forgotten to communicate the issues i had with the album. even though the score i picked felt right, i made the mistake of not showing the reader the steps i'd taken to get there.
with this in mind, the key to properly scoring a review is open, honest, direct communication with your audience. if you find something you really like about the record you're reviewing, don't be afraid to direct your readers to it. if an aspect of the album seriously bothers you, speak up. and, if you honestly believe that you've found, by your standards, a perfect record, go ahead and give that 10/10 - that is, as long as you preclude it with the fanfare it deserves.
criticism criticism, pt. 2: numbers/scores
if you will, try to remember the last music review you read. without looking it up, can you think back to a specific quote from the review and recall it exactly? it's easy enough to get the main idea, but a bit tougher to get an exact quote, right?
now, still without looking, can you recall the score the review gave the album? how many stars (or, for certain reviewers, Zeus Slaps)? what number out of 5, or 10, or 100? that's a damn sight easier, isn't it?
as an author, i'd like to think a few of my turns of phrase are fairly memorable (though it's very likely i'm being vain), and i really enjoy making introductory and concluding sentences that will stick in the readers' minds as they read my reviews. but, despite my best efforts, the fact of the matter is that the final numerical score i give will resonate the most with the majority of my readers. true, they might be able to get the gist of what i'm saying, maybe even rattle off a funny aside i throw in, but my 4/5 or 7.5/10 has a better chance of sticking with them.
my theory as to why numbers resonate in criticism is this: every numerical score has a symbolic meaning. obviously, a 10/10 means a record is fantastic, and a 0/10 means that a record is horrible. but look at some other numbers: a 7.5, for instance, conjures the image of an album with a few great songs, but a few duds or filler tracks along the line as well. an 8.1 makes me think of a record that's very solid, but imperfect - perhaps it's a bit too long, or the pacing is cluttered. a 6.8, thanks to the infamous Onion article satirizing Pitchfork, calls to mind an album that "leaves the listener wanting more." i could go on and on. (it's very likely that these scores mean different things to different people, but that's how these numbers look from my perspective.) my point is, as both a critic and an avid reader of criticism, i can look at a record and assign a number - one that my readers will be far more likely to remember than the words i write - that quickly and efficiently conveys how i feel about the album i'm critiquing.
some of my fellow critics see this as a huge detriment to their work. i've seen reviewers insist that giving a numerical score will pull the content of their writing out of focus, or will decrease the likelihood of fans actually reading the review. i don't agree with that line of thinking one bit. and here's why: the number i choose not only encapsulates my opinion on the album, but also prompts my audience to read the review and figure out why i gave the album that number in the first place. the number doesn't overshadow the review itself. it acts as a doorway into the review.
true, some people might skip over the critique and go straight to the number. but what's the point of forgoing a number just to spite those people? if they're going to skip through your wordy two-page spread to get the quick-and-dirty summary of your opinion and move on, removing the summary sure as hell isn't going to convince them to wade through your wall of text and figure out what you think. you might as well omit the headline from a newspaper, or the letter grades from a report card. the very people you're trying to trick into reading your review not only still won't read your review - they won't even have a vague sense of what you think. you've already lost them completely.
look, just don't be afraid of numbers. even if you're concerned that they'll draw more attention than your words, and that they'll last longer, don't be afraid to tap into their potential. they are there to help you gather your thoughts and opinions, and to help other people get an idea of them at a glance. use them.
my theory as to why numbers resonate in criticism is this: every numerical score has a symbolic meaning. obviously, a 10/10 means a record is fantastic, and a 0/10 means that a record is horrible. but look at some other numbers: a 7.5, for instance, conjures the image of an album with a few great songs, but a few duds or filler tracks along the line as well. an 8.1 makes me think of a record that's very solid, but imperfect - perhaps it's a bit too long, or the pacing is cluttered. a 6.8, thanks to the infamous Onion article satirizing Pitchfork, calls to mind an album that "leaves the listener wanting more." i could go on and on. (it's very likely that these scores mean different things to different people, but that's how these numbers look from my perspective.) my point is, as both a critic and an avid reader of criticism, i can look at a record and assign a number - one that my readers will be far more likely to remember than the words i write - that quickly and efficiently conveys how i feel about the album i'm critiquing.
some of my fellow critics see this as a huge detriment to their work. i've seen reviewers insist that giving a numerical score will pull the content of their writing out of focus, or will decrease the likelihood of fans actually reading the review. i don't agree with that line of thinking one bit. and here's why: the number i choose not only encapsulates my opinion on the album, but also prompts my audience to read the review and figure out why i gave the album that number in the first place. the number doesn't overshadow the review itself. it acts as a doorway into the review.
true, some people might skip over the critique and go straight to the number. but what's the point of forgoing a number just to spite those people? if they're going to skip through your wordy two-page spread to get the quick-and-dirty summary of your opinion and move on, removing the summary sure as hell isn't going to convince them to wade through your wall of text and figure out what you think. you might as well omit the headline from a newspaper, or the letter grades from a report card. the very people you're trying to trick into reading your review not only still won't read your review - they won't even have a vague sense of what you think. you've already lost them completely.
look, just don't be afraid of numbers. even if you're concerned that they'll draw more attention than your words, and that they'll last longer, don't be afraid to tap into their potential. they are there to help you gather your thoughts and opinions, and to help other people get an idea of them at a glance. use them.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
criticism criticism, pt. 1: Goethe
over the past few days, i've been reading music reviews from people who should not be writing them. sometimes the reviews are written poorly; sometimes the score doesn't correlate with the review; sometimes the reviewer just flat-out doesn't understand the artist's intention.
now, i can't presume to know everything about writing music reviews. i've only been doing it for four-odd years, and i've only been good at it for about a year (and that's by my standards). but i've gotten a lot of good advice on how to be a music critic - not just a reviewer, but a critic - and i feel compelled to pass it on (particularly to a few of my friends who are interested in getting into music criticism). with this in mind, i'm gonna be posting every few days about how to make your criticism legitimate, polished, and artful. of course, many of these tips are primarily based on music criticism, but my hope is to present these pieces of advice such that they can be applied to criticism of any art form.
one of the HUGE breakthroughs i had in learning criticism was in an Elements of Performance class i took my freshman year. it was essentially an introduction to theatre for both majors and non-majors. over the course of the semester, we evaluated plays and works of theatre from the school. at the very beginning of the semester, my professor taught us about the German writer Goethe. aside from an oddly-pronounced name, Goethe had a great series of evaluative questions for analyzing art. learning these questions has forever impacted the way i criticize music. they are:
- what is the artist trying to do?
- how well does the artist go about doing it?
- was it worth doing?
they're easy sentences to remember. remember them. memorize them. commit them to your memory. you will need them. my professor in this class would chant "know it, become it" every time she said something we needed to know (and not just for tests, either). you need to know this stuff. know these sentences. become them.
so many reviews i've read of late - from amateur to prolific criticism - fail to remember these questions. it's one thing to see a review that utterly misses the point of an album or song on a small blog buried in the internet, but it's absolutely disheartening to see that on Pitchfork or in Rolling Stone. if you are a professional critic, or want to become one, you have to keep these questions at the forefront of your mind every time you strike pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).
of course, not everybody was made to be a music critic. oftentimes, amateur reviewers will give an album they like a 9.5/10 simply because they like it, and won't feel the need to explain why in detail. this works the same way if they don't like an album; perhaps these "reviewers" simply feel that their listeners will approach the music from exactly the same perspective they do. (there are a lot of problems with this logic that i'll go into in later entries.) but, if you want to go from being a hypeman who fellates his favorite band's every release, or a hater who trashes albums he knows he won't like, to an actual music critic, you've GOT to remember these three questions.
so, the next time you listen to a new album - any new album at all - ask yourself. what is this artist trying to accomplish with this album? how well does he or she go about achieving this goal? ultimately, was it worth the effort? if you know (and become) these questions, you're off to a great start.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
my top 20 favorite albums of all time (as of right now)
this is a very controversial topic for a lot of people, so i thought i'd try my hand at it. these are all records i violently love and listen to obsessively. of course, this list changes essentially every two weeks, but this should give you an idea of my musical tastes up to this point. please remember: this is not my list of the best albums of all time, this is my list of my favorite albums of all time (yes, that is a HUGE distinction). also, i didn't put any of these albums on here to look intelligent or seem like i'm better than you or anything like that. these are all on here because i absolutely love them. finally, since 20 isn't that large of a number, i'm also going to add commentary as to why i like each album, and add my favorite track.
====
20. Kid A/Radiohead
i've had some special memories with this record. the first time i listened to it, i absolutely hated it. i had just devoured OK Computer (#6) and The Bends, and i was looking for another Radiohead album. but this completely defied my expectations, and i was furious. so i swore i'd never listen to it again. and then, three days later, i thought i'd give it another go, and it wasn't so bad this time, but i still didn't necessarily like it. and then, out of nowhere, on the third listen, i fell in love. i don't think it's the best album of the 2000s (like a lot of people have talked it up to be), or even the most important, but it's a damn good one nonetheless.
(favorite track: "Idioteque")
19. Discovery/Daft Punk
my dance-party record of choice. it's packed to the brims with good songs for dancing, driving, and just chilling.
(favorite track: "Crescendolls")
18. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy/Kanye West
this is the album that got me into hip-hop (took me long enough haha). it was a weird-ass entry point, i'll grant you that. i didn't know much about mainstream rap, or hip-hop in general for that matter. but the tales of excess, the overblown production, and the raw emotion drew me right in. in retrospect, it doesn't at all cater to hip-hop genre lines, but that's part of its charm. and you have to admit, "POWER" is the new sport chant of the past ten years ("Seven Nation Army," it was fun, but it's time to move on).
(favorite track: "Monster")
17. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends/Coldplay
this is about as poppy as i like to go, but i unashamedly love it. it's a lot of fun, and the lesser-known tracks on this one ("Yes," "Strawberry Swing," "Cemeteries of London") are among Coldplay's best. plus, my mom really likes this one, so that's fun.
(favorite track: "Strawberry Swing")
16. good kid, m.A.A.d city/Kendrick Lamar
my favorite thing about this album is how it's a really intricate story, but you can enjoy all the songs on their own as well. (that's not true of a lot of "rock opera" or "story" albums.) and it's a fantastically told story as well. from a technical standpoint, Kendrick is an incredible rapper, and he picked some great beats this time around. this one's still pretty new, but it's a future classic.
(favorite track: "Money Trees (feat. Jay Rock)"
15. Music Has the Right to Children/Boards of Canada
Geogaddi, The Campfire Headphase, and Tomorrow's Harvest easily could've taken this same spot, but i picked this one because of its ambiguity. instead of highlighting a specific mood or undertone like those other three, BOC went through them all, putting nostalgia and contentment alongside restlessness and unease. it's a great introduction to their sound, and it's perfect for listening at 3 AM.
(favorite track: "Turquoise Hexagon Sun")
14. Untrue/Burial
one of the darkest and deepest records in my catalog. by turns deeply ambient, crushingly depressing, and quietly triumphant, it's a great record for rainy days.
(favorite track: "Ghost Hardware")
13. The Ecstatic/Mos Def
a lot of my hip-hop-head friends get pissed whenever i mention this album. and they're right about one thing: it certainly isn't the traditionalist hip-hop Mos perfected on Black on Both Sides. but, once you look past that, it's a damn fine record. the beats are like a journey through music from all around the world, and Mos Def is at his most astral and weird here. this was another highly influential record for my entrance into hip-hop, and its unconventional songwriting and varied sound drew me in.
(favorite track: "Casa Bey")
12. channel ORANGE/Frank Ocean
another new record that should certainly earn classic status. i knew of Frank Ocean through his mixtape nostalgia, ultra, but his album blew me away. every song flirts with conventional R&B while pointing to the future. he's got a fantastic voice, as well.
(favorite track: "Lost")
11. Blue Chips/Action Bronson (prod. Party Supplies)
all of Action Bronson's work is very good, but this mixtape is my favorite of his. the tape is this crazy, messy, overblown, fucking awesome piece of work. it's a weed-and-prosciutto-fueled hip-hop adventure with dynamite guest appearances, Bronson's illest verses, and banger after banger after banger. it's like dim sum or tapas, but with badass underground hip-hop. so damn cool.
(favorite track: "Pouches of Tuna (feat. Roc Marciano)"
10. Illmatic/Nas
very likely the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and one of my favorites. it's a textbook example of the best that hip-hop has to offer. the beats are classics (an instrumental version of this album alone would still be fantastic), the verses are dynamite (and there's only one guest verse!), and it's a quick-and-easy listen (take note, modern rappers). this deserves every bit of the critical acclaim it's received.
(favorite track: "One Love")
9. Donuts/J Dilla
this album is an odyssey through soul-based hip-hop. there's a whole mythos behind it (dilla made it as he was dying), but it remains just as fresh as it was when i first heard it, and in a lot of ways i'm still trying to wrap my head around it. it's an amazing journey when you listen to it all the way through, but the individual pieces are just as excellent and meticulously crafted. this thing is almost like the instrumental bible for me. other rappers can attempt to remix it, that's their call. but for me, Donuts is perhaps the only instrumental hip-hop album that i can just put on and listen to all the way through without uttering a word. somehow, it feels right just to shut up and listen to the master work.
(favorite track: "Two Can Win" - but, really, the whole thing straight through)
8. Madvillainy/Madvillain
both members of Madvillain are in their absolute prime here: Madlib's comic-book-soul beats have never sounded better, and MF DOOM's dextrous, winding rhymes are at their most confusing and satisfying. i STILL can't figure out what some of it means sometimes. i'm almost scared for the sequel to this album, simply because this first one is so good. there are a lot of instrumental interludes that break up the record, but they're all good too. this is killer, inventive, goosebump-inducing underground hip-hop from front to back.
(favorite track: "ALL CAPS")
7. Past is Prologue/Tycho
Tycho's debut record. it's beautifully mellow and intricately arranged, and it exudes life from every pore. it reminds me of driving at night with my best friends (this and Dive (#2) often soundtracked our night drives). in addition, it's a very unassuming album that works just as well in the background as it does under close scrutiny. this is an album i recommend for people who claim that electronic music is devoid of life or soul. it's essentially perfect, especially for late-night walks and introspective meditation.
(favorite track: "The Disconnect")
6. OK Computer/Radiohead
a modern-rock classic. this was my first step into truly alternative music. i'd taken steps into alternative rock with Pink Floyd albums like The Wall and The Dark Side of the Moon, but this sounded like nothing i'd ever heard before. just like Kid A (#20), this album bothered me to no end on the first listen. after the third listen or so, however, it was bliss. i'll never forget the first time i listened to the record all the way through. i hit the play button, walked back to the couch as "Airbag" started, and didn't get up until the final triangle of "The Tourist" rang through my cold, cramped basement. it was absolutely perfect. it used to be my favorite album of all time, and even though i've discovered 5 more albums that i love even more, this one will always be my first true love.
(favorite track: "Subterranean Homesick Alien")
5. Cosmogramma/Flying Lotus
when i describe the genre of this album to my friends, the best i can come up with is chillelectrojazzhop. granted, it's a crazy word, but that's exactly what this one is. somewhere between the Dilla-infused trip-hop of Los Angeles and the meditative electronica of Until the Quiet Comes (both of which are great records), FlyLo made a challenging, slightly insane, and absolutely gorgeous record. just like many of my favorite albums, it can be listened to both in parts and as a whole. the progression between each genre (astral electronica to mellow jazz to barely-recognizable hip-hop) is fluid and natural, and even putting the intro as the fourth track seems to make sense. it's very tough to wrap your head around, but it's well worth the wait.
(favorite track: "Satelllliiiiiteee")
4. Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star/Black Star
my favorite (traditional) hip-hop album of all time. Mos and Kweli are the perfect duo, and (in my opinion) they're at their absolute best here. many of the lyrics are very positive and uplifting, and contain vivid imagery and delightful wordplay. the two masters of dropping knowledge dispense a great deal of wisdom on these fantastic tracks. this one's influence is often overlooked, but it's a masterful work of hip-hop that shouldn't be slept on.
(favorite track: "Astronomy (8th Light)"
3. The College Dropout/Kanye West
one day, after listening to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (#18), i wondered what else Kanye West had to offer. i figured i'd start at the beginning and go from there. so i clicked on the first official track of The College Dropout, "We Don't Care." five seconds later, i was out of my seat dancing along. Kanye sounded different in all the right ways: less jaded, (slightly) humbler, more soulful and cheeky. and the BEATS! every beat was infectiously soulful and head-nodding, and the lyrics were simple but impeccably delivered. true, the album is completely overblown, and some aspects of it (Jay-Z's great but ill-fitting guest verses on "Never Let Me Down," all the skits, the final eight-odd minutes of "Last Call") border on ridiculous. but Kanye never put a more representative, all-encompassing portrait of himself on record than he did here. it's goofy, it's too much, it's fucking awesome.
(favorite track: "We Don't Care")
2. Dive/Tycho
this album holds so many memories for me. it reminds me of staying out past 4 AM with my best friends in the summer, driving way too fast with the windows down, feeling incredibly alive. it's wistful, nostalgic, meditative, triumphant, and achingly beautiful. the whole record is warm and expansive, echoing nature and wildlife throughout. the blend of acoustic and electronic instruments is seamless. it makes me feel incredibly happy.
(favorite track: "Hours")
1. In Rainbows/Radiohead
i honestly don't know where to start. this also holds a lot of memories for me, but different kinds: i learned to play all of this album on both guitar and piano. i formed a band with my best friend, and we played the album all the way through. this album is my favorite for so many reasons. it speaks to my rock roots while looking to the future. the album is immaculately recorded and arranged, sounding spacious and warm beyond belief. it's a prime example of the Gestalt principle: every song is nearly flawless on its own, but somehow the album as a whole is even better. it's an epic album like OK Computer (#6) or Kid A (#20), but it doesn't try to be as life-changing or ambitious as those albums, and somehow ends up reaching even greater heights. i've listened to it at least a hundred times all the way through (seriously), and i'm STILL discovering new sounds buried in the mix like hidden treasures. the bonus edition of the album is a great edition that actually complements the album; instead of feeling tacked-on, it throws the ten main tracks into sharper relief. simply put, In Rainbows is absolutely, immaculately perfect. and it is far and away my favorite album of all time.
(favorite track: all of them. i legitimately cannot pick a favorite)
=====
well, that's my list. disagree? fuck you. but tell me what your favorites are and we can bicker (or geek out about music, whichever you like). but these are my all-time favorite albums right now. if you haven't listened to some (or, God help you, any) of these, i strongly encourage you to check them out. you won't regret it.
====
20. Kid A/Radiohead
i've had some special memories with this record. the first time i listened to it, i absolutely hated it. i had just devoured OK Computer (#6) and The Bends, and i was looking for another Radiohead album. but this completely defied my expectations, and i was furious. so i swore i'd never listen to it again. and then, three days later, i thought i'd give it another go, and it wasn't so bad this time, but i still didn't necessarily like it. and then, out of nowhere, on the third listen, i fell in love. i don't think it's the best album of the 2000s (like a lot of people have talked it up to be), or even the most important, but it's a damn good one nonetheless.
(favorite track: "Idioteque")
19. Discovery/Daft Punk
my dance-party record of choice. it's packed to the brims with good songs for dancing, driving, and just chilling.
(favorite track: "Crescendolls")
18. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy/Kanye West
this is the album that got me into hip-hop (took me long enough haha). it was a weird-ass entry point, i'll grant you that. i didn't know much about mainstream rap, or hip-hop in general for that matter. but the tales of excess, the overblown production, and the raw emotion drew me right in. in retrospect, it doesn't at all cater to hip-hop genre lines, but that's part of its charm. and you have to admit, "POWER" is the new sport chant of the past ten years ("Seven Nation Army," it was fun, but it's time to move on).
(favorite track: "Monster")
17. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends/Coldplay
this is about as poppy as i like to go, but i unashamedly love it. it's a lot of fun, and the lesser-known tracks on this one ("Yes," "Strawberry Swing," "Cemeteries of London") are among Coldplay's best. plus, my mom really likes this one, so that's fun.
(favorite track: "Strawberry Swing")
16. good kid, m.A.A.d city/Kendrick Lamar
my favorite thing about this album is how it's a really intricate story, but you can enjoy all the songs on their own as well. (that's not true of a lot of "rock opera" or "story" albums.) and it's a fantastically told story as well. from a technical standpoint, Kendrick is an incredible rapper, and he picked some great beats this time around. this one's still pretty new, but it's a future classic.
(favorite track: "Money Trees (feat. Jay Rock)"
15. Music Has the Right to Children/Boards of Canada
Geogaddi, The Campfire Headphase, and Tomorrow's Harvest easily could've taken this same spot, but i picked this one because of its ambiguity. instead of highlighting a specific mood or undertone like those other three, BOC went through them all, putting nostalgia and contentment alongside restlessness and unease. it's a great introduction to their sound, and it's perfect for listening at 3 AM.
(favorite track: "Turquoise Hexagon Sun")
14. Untrue/Burial
one of the darkest and deepest records in my catalog. by turns deeply ambient, crushingly depressing, and quietly triumphant, it's a great record for rainy days.
(favorite track: "Ghost Hardware")
13. The Ecstatic/Mos Def
a lot of my hip-hop-head friends get pissed whenever i mention this album. and they're right about one thing: it certainly isn't the traditionalist hip-hop Mos perfected on Black on Both Sides. but, once you look past that, it's a damn fine record. the beats are like a journey through music from all around the world, and Mos Def is at his most astral and weird here. this was another highly influential record for my entrance into hip-hop, and its unconventional songwriting and varied sound drew me in.
(favorite track: "Casa Bey")
12. channel ORANGE/Frank Ocean
another new record that should certainly earn classic status. i knew of Frank Ocean through his mixtape nostalgia, ultra, but his album blew me away. every song flirts with conventional R&B while pointing to the future. he's got a fantastic voice, as well.
(favorite track: "Lost")
11. Blue Chips/Action Bronson (prod. Party Supplies)
all of Action Bronson's work is very good, but this mixtape is my favorite of his. the tape is this crazy, messy, overblown, fucking awesome piece of work. it's a weed-and-prosciutto-fueled hip-hop adventure with dynamite guest appearances, Bronson's illest verses, and banger after banger after banger. it's like dim sum or tapas, but with badass underground hip-hop. so damn cool.
(favorite track: "Pouches of Tuna (feat. Roc Marciano)"
10. Illmatic/Nas
very likely the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and one of my favorites. it's a textbook example of the best that hip-hop has to offer. the beats are classics (an instrumental version of this album alone would still be fantastic), the verses are dynamite (and there's only one guest verse!), and it's a quick-and-easy listen (take note, modern rappers). this deserves every bit of the critical acclaim it's received.
(favorite track: "One Love")
9. Donuts/J Dilla
this album is an odyssey through soul-based hip-hop. there's a whole mythos behind it (dilla made it as he was dying), but it remains just as fresh as it was when i first heard it, and in a lot of ways i'm still trying to wrap my head around it. it's an amazing journey when you listen to it all the way through, but the individual pieces are just as excellent and meticulously crafted. this thing is almost like the instrumental bible for me. other rappers can attempt to remix it, that's their call. but for me, Donuts is perhaps the only instrumental hip-hop album that i can just put on and listen to all the way through without uttering a word. somehow, it feels right just to shut up and listen to the master work.
(favorite track: "Two Can Win" - but, really, the whole thing straight through)
8. Madvillainy/Madvillain
both members of Madvillain are in their absolute prime here: Madlib's comic-book-soul beats have never sounded better, and MF DOOM's dextrous, winding rhymes are at their most confusing and satisfying. i STILL can't figure out what some of it means sometimes. i'm almost scared for the sequel to this album, simply because this first one is so good. there are a lot of instrumental interludes that break up the record, but they're all good too. this is killer, inventive, goosebump-inducing underground hip-hop from front to back.
(favorite track: "ALL CAPS")
7. Past is Prologue/Tycho
Tycho's debut record. it's beautifully mellow and intricately arranged, and it exudes life from every pore. it reminds me of driving at night with my best friends (this and Dive (#2) often soundtracked our night drives). in addition, it's a very unassuming album that works just as well in the background as it does under close scrutiny. this is an album i recommend for people who claim that electronic music is devoid of life or soul. it's essentially perfect, especially for late-night walks and introspective meditation.
(favorite track: "The Disconnect")
6. OK Computer/Radiohead
a modern-rock classic. this was my first step into truly alternative music. i'd taken steps into alternative rock with Pink Floyd albums like The Wall and The Dark Side of the Moon, but this sounded like nothing i'd ever heard before. just like Kid A (#20), this album bothered me to no end on the first listen. after the third listen or so, however, it was bliss. i'll never forget the first time i listened to the record all the way through. i hit the play button, walked back to the couch as "Airbag" started, and didn't get up until the final triangle of "The Tourist" rang through my cold, cramped basement. it was absolutely perfect. it used to be my favorite album of all time, and even though i've discovered 5 more albums that i love even more, this one will always be my first true love.
(favorite track: "Subterranean Homesick Alien")
5. Cosmogramma/Flying Lotus
when i describe the genre of this album to my friends, the best i can come up with is chillelectrojazzhop. granted, it's a crazy word, but that's exactly what this one is. somewhere between the Dilla-infused trip-hop of Los Angeles and the meditative electronica of Until the Quiet Comes (both of which are great records), FlyLo made a challenging, slightly insane, and absolutely gorgeous record. just like many of my favorite albums, it can be listened to both in parts and as a whole. the progression between each genre (astral electronica to mellow jazz to barely-recognizable hip-hop) is fluid and natural, and even putting the intro as the fourth track seems to make sense. it's very tough to wrap your head around, but it's well worth the wait.
(favorite track: "Satelllliiiiiteee")
4. Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star/Black Star
my favorite (traditional) hip-hop album of all time. Mos and Kweli are the perfect duo, and (in my opinion) they're at their absolute best here. many of the lyrics are very positive and uplifting, and contain vivid imagery and delightful wordplay. the two masters of dropping knowledge dispense a great deal of wisdom on these fantastic tracks. this one's influence is often overlooked, but it's a masterful work of hip-hop that shouldn't be slept on.
(favorite track: "Astronomy (8th Light)"
3. The College Dropout/Kanye West
one day, after listening to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (#18), i wondered what else Kanye West had to offer. i figured i'd start at the beginning and go from there. so i clicked on the first official track of The College Dropout, "We Don't Care." five seconds later, i was out of my seat dancing along. Kanye sounded different in all the right ways: less jaded, (slightly) humbler, more soulful and cheeky. and the BEATS! every beat was infectiously soulful and head-nodding, and the lyrics were simple but impeccably delivered. true, the album is completely overblown, and some aspects of it (Jay-Z's great but ill-fitting guest verses on "Never Let Me Down," all the skits, the final eight-odd minutes of "Last Call") border on ridiculous. but Kanye never put a more representative, all-encompassing portrait of himself on record than he did here. it's goofy, it's too much, it's fucking awesome.
(favorite track: "We Don't Care")
2. Dive/Tycho
this album holds so many memories for me. it reminds me of staying out past 4 AM with my best friends in the summer, driving way too fast with the windows down, feeling incredibly alive. it's wistful, nostalgic, meditative, triumphant, and achingly beautiful. the whole record is warm and expansive, echoing nature and wildlife throughout. the blend of acoustic and electronic instruments is seamless. it makes me feel incredibly happy.
(favorite track: "Hours")
1. In Rainbows/Radiohead
i honestly don't know where to start. this also holds a lot of memories for me, but different kinds: i learned to play all of this album on both guitar and piano. i formed a band with my best friend, and we played the album all the way through. this album is my favorite for so many reasons. it speaks to my rock roots while looking to the future. the album is immaculately recorded and arranged, sounding spacious and warm beyond belief. it's a prime example of the Gestalt principle: every song is nearly flawless on its own, but somehow the album as a whole is even better. it's an epic album like OK Computer (#6) or Kid A (#20), but it doesn't try to be as life-changing or ambitious as those albums, and somehow ends up reaching even greater heights. i've listened to it at least a hundred times all the way through (seriously), and i'm STILL discovering new sounds buried in the mix like hidden treasures. the bonus edition of the album is a great edition that actually complements the album; instead of feeling tacked-on, it throws the ten main tracks into sharper relief. simply put, In Rainbows is absolutely, immaculately perfect. and it is far and away my favorite album of all time.
(favorite track: all of them. i legitimately cannot pick a favorite)
=====
well, that's my list. disagree? fuck you. but tell me what your favorites are and we can bicker (or geek out about music, whichever you like). but these are my all-time favorite albums right now. if you haven't listened to some (or, God help you, any) of these, i strongly encourage you to check them out. you won't regret it.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
music review: Random Access Memories by Daft Punk
as some of you may know, i write for an online music publication called TheRecordRaver. i reviewed Daft Punk's album Random Access Memories, which was just officially released today. below is the review i posted on the site.
NB: i go by EP on the site, so that's why i signed it that way.
===
NB: i go by EP on the site, so that's why i signed it that way.
===
*QR* Daft Punk, Random Access
Memories (2013) 4/5
The legendary French dance-music robots--behind such legendary albums as 1997's acid-house classic Homework and 2001's rainbow-disco odyssey Discovery--return with their most bombastic and ambitious record yet. But this record is vastly different from their past material: rather than making another sample-based dance album, the robots have crafted an intricate prog/dance/pop record with live instrumentation. The album sounds a bit like dancefloor classics of the late '70s and early '80s channelled through Daft Punk's trademark vocoders and sci-fi aesthetics (think "Thriller" or "I Will Survive" played by robots from the future). The resulting album can't really be called a "dance" album (at least, in the modern sense of the word), but it is a thrilling record nonetheless. The French cyborgs also change up this record by working in tandem with excellent musicians from the past and present. These collaborations are the most exciting part of the album. Legendary disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder talks about his early days in the sprawling house-history opus "Giorgio by Moroder." Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers adds a retro momentum to lead single "Get Lucky," as well as "Lose Yourself to Dance" and "Give Life Back to Music." Indie frontmen Julian Casablancas and Panda Bear (of Strokes and Animal Collective fame, respectively) beautifully execute their own tracks ("Instant Crush," "Doin' it Right"). The album falls flat in a few places: over-instrumentation threatens to cloud some of the more epic tracks (particularly "Giorgio by Moroder" and "Touch"), and some of the songs ("Lose Yourself to Dance," "Doin' it Right") are a bit too repetitive. In addition, the advance promotion for the record promised an album that would alter the course of electronic dance music, something that seems a bit unlikely upon listening to the record. Regardless of these slight problems, Random Access Memories is a truly epic record. It may not be a conventional EDM album, but it is a polarizing, arresting, overblown, and head-nodding record nonetheless. --EP
The legendary French dance-music robots--behind such legendary albums as 1997's acid-house classic Homework and 2001's rainbow-disco odyssey Discovery--return with their most bombastic and ambitious record yet. But this record is vastly different from their past material: rather than making another sample-based dance album, the robots have crafted an intricate prog/dance/pop record with live instrumentation. The album sounds a bit like dancefloor classics of the late '70s and early '80s channelled through Daft Punk's trademark vocoders and sci-fi aesthetics (think "Thriller" or "I Will Survive" played by robots from the future). The resulting album can't really be called a "dance" album (at least, in the modern sense of the word), but it is a thrilling record nonetheless. The French cyborgs also change up this record by working in tandem with excellent musicians from the past and present. These collaborations are the most exciting part of the album. Legendary disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder talks about his early days in the sprawling house-history opus "Giorgio by Moroder." Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers adds a retro momentum to lead single "Get Lucky," as well as "Lose Yourself to Dance" and "Give Life Back to Music." Indie frontmen Julian Casablancas and Panda Bear (of Strokes and Animal Collective fame, respectively) beautifully execute their own tracks ("Instant Crush," "Doin' it Right"). The album falls flat in a few places: over-instrumentation threatens to cloud some of the more epic tracks (particularly "Giorgio by Moroder" and "Touch"), and some of the songs ("Lose Yourself to Dance," "Doin' it Right") are a bit too repetitive. In addition, the advance promotion for the record promised an album that would alter the course of electronic dance music, something that seems a bit unlikely upon listening to the record. Regardless of these slight problems, Random Access Memories is a truly epic record. It may not be a conventional EDM album, but it is a polarizing, arresting, overblown, and head-nodding record nonetheless. --EP
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