Savage night on Friday with a capacity Voodoo crowd and a great buzz about the place. All the acts went down really well:SEBP, Adebisi Shank, LPX, Prince Kong and Nouveau Noise were all great and a huge shoutout to Robbie Coffey on the “tables of steel” (in-joke) who was the DJ for the night and played a great mix of drum and bass, hip hop and mashup tunes towards the end that had me spinning. I’ll have to get Robbie to do a mix for nialler9 soon. I’ll have some Polaroids of the night later.
On another note, I was reading the excellent Observer Music Magazine today which has a cover feature on Kanye West along with features on Christian Rock, Scorsese’s Rolling Stones film, Ibiza nostalgia and Devendra Banhart (whose new one I’d like to hear). I’ve learned Avril Lavigne says “like” a lot and is a bit of a ditz (no surprise there, she’s hardly Joni Mitchell) and Kanye is a hypocritical arrogant so and so. Most interestingly though, is the album reviews section where the critics went wild giving EIGHT albums out of the 21 in total a full FIVE STARS. Now, maybe the little bit of sunshine we had got to them all this week or maybe they all deserved it but it seems a little star happy. Among the five-star reviews were ones I agree with: The new Go! Team album Proof of Youth is essentially Thunder Lightning Strike part 2 but it’s so damn catchy and beguiling it deserves the full praise. Manu Chao’s La Radiolina sounds like it is as good as all his others and could be his breakthrough hence the five stars but something was amiss when I read the review of the new Liars album (see great new video) which although is full of praise is hardly glowing – ending with the line “Liars may have moved more towards the mainstream but they’re still a long, long way from easy listening“.
Five stars each for Hard-Fi and KT Tunstall and I suspected there was a printing error or the designer was taking the piss. For the record the other 5 star reviews were Richard Hawley, Gwyneth Herbert and Mexican Institute of Sound. Other reviews are a bit more normalized with Super Furries, Rilo Kiley, Tunng and Animal Collective receiving three stars and Caribou and Kate Nash getting four. Whether Hard-Fi should get full props for writing an album that’s guaranteed to sell millions is up for debate and I certainly wouldn’t agree with that. Like it or not, the star ratings system is a good indication of a review but some of the above just don’t match the ratings. Surely five stars should be reserved for definitive albums. Great magazine otherwise.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
I did let out a laugh yesterday when the first 6 pages or so in the review section all had 5 star reviews.
Then you see a 4 star review and you’re like “Well that must be shite”
Richard Hawley can’t fart these days without it being critically lauded.
the mag always gives a load of five star reviews. Still, it’s a great read. Avril – what a twat: “my favourite Beach Boys song is ‘Wipe Out'”
I’ve given up reading their reviews, I never agree with them anyway. I suspect they’re paid for… KT Tunstall in particular had some pretty big full-page ads elsewhere in the mag.
OMM is shite in my opinion. Like Q used to be except even smugger.
Q’s still shite.
haha, I like the idea that Hard-Fi are better than Animal C..
It’s great for a free Sunday Supplement, no doubt about it. Q and MOJO make me queasy.
Oh and Bobby, they ARE of course!
Avril – I just like, don’t understand. Tit.
I wouldn’t call it free since you buy the paper (which has gone to the trying-to-be-different Berliner size).
It suffers from the same thing that most English music journalism comes from – class prejudice (remember “working class = coolness, integrity, slightly edgy)and a desperate need to find what the next cool thing is, and being bitchy and smug about everything that isn’t that. It doesn’t know how to enjoy itself or just enjoy music… unlike this site I might add, which is all about enjoying music.
OK that’s true, there is certain elements of class prejudice to it. I do think they cover a large breadth of music in it which I like to see.
[quote post=”597″]unlike this site I might add, which is all about enjoying music.[/quote]
YAY that’s exactly what this blog is about! Nice one.
Spot on about the whole “conspiracy against the middle-classes” there, Ian. Heh-heh. Yes, indeed, class prejudice is not just prevalent in the music industry, it’s rampant throughout society, so it is. Expect I’ll see you throwing eggs at the Hard Working Class Heroes festival, hmm? Down with this sort of thing!
I went off the OMM mag a while back, for some of the reasons mentioned above, but mostly because I’m seriously dubious about integrity of the reviews and the star ratings. Recently Dizzee Rascal’s album was reviewed and got 5 stars – but not in the front review pages, it was one of those 3 line efforts nearer the back that you’d almost miss. If it’s a five star review, it should be in the ‘First 10’ section, unlike a three star album that appeared there in the same week.
Note this month: the two first full page ads in the mag are Hard Fi and KT Tunstall…
Hmm, the hyperbolic exclamation that Dizzee Rascal’s latest was astonishing made me chuckle after I heard it (because it’s mostly poo).I shall be paying closer attention to the ads in the future 😉
Yep, agreed – Dizzee’s latest effort is mostly poo (he’s very over-rated) but editorially it makes no sense to have a five star album condensed into a few lines, when something that scores less gets almost a full page/half page.
OMM may suffer from some of the aforementioned criticisms sure, but comparing Q or Mojo? or any dedicated mainstream national music mag for that matter? they’re bags of puke. I’ll agree with many of the charges, but it has some decent features, reviews some interesting albums (although i don’t care too much for reviews like most of the rest of ye, even me own) and it’s cheap! Overboard on the 5-stars alright, but christ, anythings better than those pitchfork reviews….
http://www.somethingawful.com/fakesa/richdork/
OMM is shit. Just to reiterate!
Pitchfork on the other hand has turned me onto several exceelnt bands such as the Wrens, Broken Social Scene, Sufjan Stevens, The Thermals and so on. Many many more. I think its a fantastic website, albeit one that should occasionally be taken with a pinch of salt.
For me it’s just another outlet.
There’s no real ‘bible’ out there anymore. It’s just another source for music info along with other magazines, Phantom, your mates, Channel 6 vid show, myspace, blogs, flyers around town, messageboards, mailing lists, web radio, the bloke in Borderline or Road records etc etc ad infinitum
The OMM contextualises the music industry for Guardian readers, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s only a tiny piece of the puzzle.
Take what you like and leave the rest.