The TP Over /Under

No, we're not betting on anything, just asking which TP reviews over- or under-rated an artist/album?

Bip pointed out the REM review in the Dec '82 edition...which states that the best band outta Athens are The Method Actors! Yes, the review mentions, apart from REM, the B52s and Pylon. Honestly, I haven't heard (or thought of) that band in ages. I def remember liking what I heard - a killer cover of "All Tomorow's Parties" - so maybe they ARE really good, and TP was right all along.

The April '82 issue has half a page of hate directed at Black Flag's "Damaged." The TP review in the books is very positive, and of course the album is generally considered one of hardcore's all-time classics, so wonder what all those haters published in the article think about that album now? One of the writers accuses LA punks as not being real punks, but rather spoiled suburbanites. "Real" punk can't come out of middle-class (or even affluent) suburbia? Wait til they find out what kind of place Forest Hills, Queens is...

I just saw Steve Wynn on his book tour and read his new memoir, which I quite liked. So that made me want to check out the Dream Syndicate entry on this site and I was surprised by how pissy and dismissive it is, especially about The Days of Wine and Roses. Coverage of the later albums gets a little friendlier, but it's still more of a "listen to it if you must" attitude than any sort of recommendation.

The entry for Wynn's solo career is much more sympathetic.

Re: The Days of Wine and Roses, I think I have mentioned on this site before that I have a pretty distinct recollection of the first TP book describing that album and the Dream Syndicate as being basically low-rent Psychedelic Furs. I no longer own that book, so I can't verify, but I remember thinking at the time that it was way off-base. I mean, I dig the Furs too, but to me there's not much similarity in what the two bands were up to in 1982.

> [ The Days of Wine and Roses ] appealed to sensitive
> English-major college radio programmers too young to
> shoot up to the Velvets the first time around.

Yet somehow, the Dream Syndicate's debut album appealed to me too. Guess I was doing something right.

I've always felt that The Waterboys get a bum rap in their TP review. Sure, Mike Scott could be described as pretentious -- indeed, I called him that, when I posted a review of the Waterboys' show in Seattle a few years back. But describing A Pagan Place as "a horrific realization of Mike Scott's grandiose vision" really seems too much. But, oh well ... we all have our likes and dislikes. (A few of my fellow KSER DJs have called me out for having such an attitude toward The Grateful Dead ... including a couple from whom I wouldn't have expected such loyalty.)

I remember several occasions when TP sent copies of current releases to readers and then printed their reviews. Black Flag was an example of that.

If memory serves, the readers always panned the albums! Tough crowd….

I agree re: Waterboys, Delvin.

The Swell Maps write-up has long stuck in my craw as being overly negative.

Every time I hear Arcade Fire on the radio, I think: Echo & The Bunnymen are apparently still recording, and boy, have they lost it.

If others like 'em, fine, whatever, but the TP review "Neon Bible ranks among the best indie rock recordings of all time" is really a bit much. And I'm not even that big an Echo & The Bunnymen fan!

Robert Christgau gave that album a rare A+ (his highest for an Arcade Fire album). I actually like it quite a bit myself, but I have to say even at my peak fandom for Arcade Fire, I thought Funeral and The Suburbs were even better.

I haven't listened to them in ages though. I championed their fourth album even though it felt bloated - they could've thrown out nearly everything on the second disc and released the whole thing as a stronger and far more consistent single album - but after that they went off a cliff.

I noticed Wilco's early '00s work isn't too beloved (basically where the entry stops), but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is still one of my all-time favorites, it really captures that uneasy and terrible time in the U.S. for me better than any other rock album. Re: A Ghost Is Born, I would've ditched the ridiculous coda on "Less Than You Think," and I would've slotted in the outtakes "Panthers" (as track #2) and "Kicking Television" (as the penultimate track), both of which are otherwise available as bonus material on the deluxe edition - had they done that, I wouldn't hesitate to call it their last great album. (They made several very good albums after that, but there would be no more surprises or any real sense of them pushing their limits.)

I love this take about Black Flag, although I do think Damaged is a classic.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2024 08:05PM by Nightdrive.

I've always been taken aback by the TP review of Sting; I've always been a fan...he definitely has his faults and he's written some sub-par material over his long career, but the critique isn't just dismissive, not just critical....it's visceral. I agree with some of the premises discussed in the article...yeah, he endeavored to cultivate the "I'm the sexy, intellectual, vulnerable man of the 80's" stereotype, but I can divorce that guise from the merits of the music.

His first four albums were terrific in general, my favorite being The Soul Cages, which I could relate to through my own life experiences. Sadly, after the year 2000, he adopted an adult-contemporary, lo-fi approach that left many of his fans disappointed (including me.) He composed music for Dowling's poems and called it an album? That was a bit of a headshaker even to his most devout fans.

But...yikes, I would hate to be in that headspace from which the review was spawned (you're still the best, Ira!).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2024 06:09AM by Fleeingbandit.