12.19.2006

Whoa.

I actually agree with Rolling Stone, which recently critiqued Pitchfork's formulation of the year's 100 best tracks. How did that happen?

In the history of rock music few artists have benefited as much from the hipster audience’s fear of seeming stupid than Joanna Newsom. This much fawned over woodland nymph/harpist — with her track “Emily” off this year’s Ys (pronounced “ees” … what you didn’t know that?) has secured the Number 9 spot on what is an otherwise quite well-conceived list of the year’s 100 best tracks courtesy of indie zeitgeist definers Pitchfork.

We are taking this moment to address an issue that has been plaguing us ever since this album came out, namely, that it sucks.

I completely agree. I've been hearing oodles of Ms. Newsom's tracks on both Sirius radio and on "teh Internets." And while, yes, it is very different than anything out there, I must agree...it sucks. No, I'm not hating on "harps" or "lush instrumentation," or even Joanna herself (I'm sure she's a wonderful person), but lousy vocals and unimaginative melodies. What is further irritating is that for some strange reason, the "indie rock" community has flocked to her like flies on poop. My theory is that her fans think she's cute.

Apparently it is all about the scene, not the music. Sounds a lot like the Top 40 scene to me.

Labels: music

posted by brian at 8:36 AM | Permalink

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