I got your more responsible reviews right here....

Foxboro Hot Tubs – Must say that Green Day’s last two made me reevaluate my opinion of them. “American Idiot” was an important, mature, punk record that seemed to come from nowhere. This one is an off the cuff, 180-degree turnaround. Its a blast from start to finish, full of stolen riffs (“Alligator”), cheesy Farfisa organ fills (“Ruby Room”) and all-out garage rock (“Pieces of Truth”). Clever of them to release it under another name and take the “American Idiot” follow-up pressure off themselves. 4 stars

The Heavy – I had no idea what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. Nice mix of funk and rock Good vocals, great horn section, well-written songs. Sort of a mix of the Black Keys, Sly, Prince and Fishbone. One beef: can we all agree that the under-production thing has been overdone, especially the vocal distortion and faux-vinyl sound? We can? Great. That said, it’s an enjoyable disc, “Dignity” and “Girl” are the two standouts. 3.5 stars

Built to Spill –Fearless Leader sent me a bunch of discs by these guys last year. This one is not my favorite. However, it is a solid album owing to the very nice guitar grooves that are on each track. The lyrics and vocals are suspect, but in the end it’s all about the noise with this band, and they deliver more often than not. 3 stars

Radiohead – For a long time, I’ve believed that Radiohead is one of the most over-rated bands ever. Though it pains me to say it, I was wrong. It seems every time I hear them, I like what I hear, and this disc is a good example. Very U2-ish, particularly “High and Dry” and “Fake Plastic Trees”. The highlight for me is “Black Star”, which is perfect. A few lesser tracks drag this one down a little, but the guitar work, production and sound throughout is all top-notch. 3.5 stars

Elton Ghits – A single disc Elton g-hits is an exercise in futility. To put it in perspective, this CD only covers 5 years of EJ’s career, ignores most of the hits, and leaves out several songs from those years that to me are career highlights (“Harmony”, “Funeral for a Friend”, “Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters”). Not trying to pooh-pooh Mike’s disc, it’s very good, but there’s just too much to chose from. A true EJ G-hits is a 4 disc set minimum. One of the true greats whose “celebrity-ness “ too often overshadows his excellent work.

Discussion Question

I disagree with the premises laid out in the question’s preface, particularly the statement that intimates the only way to take a risk as a critic is “in discovery and defense of the new”. It is equally risky to take a stand against something others are fawning over. I also believe that while a piece of art is needed for a criticism to be written , the criticism itself is no less of an artistic expression.

How we can criticize more responsibly and with less self-indulgence? There’s always the beloved Ken Boucher genre card, where we accept we have biases against certain types of music and as such can’t judge it fairly. It isn’t always applicable, and sometimes its just plain lazy to fall back on that. We could also write reviews that start with “well, I don’t have the ability to create this myself, and I respect the time and effort that went into it, blah, blah, blah”. But, this reeks of a handholding “Kumbaya”-singing mentality where everybody is ok, and lets not keep score because the members of Somerdale and Mike Patton are people just like Ray Davies and Joe Strummer, and we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

I am not capable of creating anything half as good as the worse piece of crap we’ve listened to (Matisyahu). I am also not qualified to be president, but I still voice my opinion as to who is. I’m not a chef, but I know a good meal when I’ve had one. Self-indulgent? Sure. Could I be “less critical” in my criticism? Sure. Will I bother trying? Unlikely. It IS fun to write scathing reviews every now and then, and if this little group isn’t fun, why bother?

And by the way, I thought “Ratatouille” was lame