Misconstruing Albini

[flanneljammies]

In a Pitchfork review posted today, the reviewer made the following observations about Steve Albini's recordings in general:

"...superfluous reverb and an air-tight low end. I've never listened to an Albini-produced band and not thought my ears were clogged."
"...silo 'verb and guitar strangulation."
"...balled-fist, hyper-compressed sludge treatments."

What records has he actually listened too? Surely the reverb he complains about is room sound, but hyper-compressed? Come on...

[bigtoe]

"a reviewer here did the same thing once...same thing - said - 'overcompressed.'"

reviewers are idiots for the most part...they try to make a name for themselves by throwing mud and slinging their cocks around like anyone cares.

the writers in my town love me,

Mike

[chris harris]

how many pitchfork reviewers do you think even know what compression is?

[thethingwiththestuff]

oh my, a pitchfork reviewer writing over his own head? pshaw...

the poor guy gets misconstrued a trillion times a day on the internet. the only thing worse than that review is people thinking albini never uses compression at all.

[Rigsby]

*Flame suit on*

I kind of agree with the cloggy sound thing, thus i'm not a huge albini fan.

*Runs out of the thread flames licking his back*

[rydberg]

I'm convinced that the writers for Pitchfork don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. I've seen mistake after mistake, misinformation and just plain bullshit in most of the reviews. The least they could do is start hiring college graduates rather than get their submissions from high school study hallers.

And a writer like that trying to do a technical critique is beyond laughable. That kind of bullshit stinks from 10 miles away.

P.

[numberthirty]

You know, I saw this and, it really did ruffle my feathers. No matter how we see Albini, how does the compression comment help the average guy on the street(who may know nothing about compression) No example of such recording was given(by Albini or anyone else for that matter) It just seemed like using a pronoun without giving any nouns to clue the reader as to what the heck the reviewer is talking about.

[numberthirty]

AND: I could have sworn the reviewer used the phrase tube-amped?

[numberthirty]

AND: the reviewer used warm-ish! I know that's not a word! Don't they grammar check those things?

[Everybody's X]

I don't know about the article but the subject line is a great band name

[joel hamilton]

You know, I saw this and, it really did ruffle my feathers. No matter how we see Albini, how does the compression comment help the average guy on the street(who may know nothing about compression) No example of such recording was given(by Albini or anyone else for that matter) It just seemed like using a pronoun without giving any nouns to clue the reader as to what the heck the reviewer is talking about.

That is the key to this. Nice one. I avoid discussions about other engineers as we all hear things differently, but to try and get specific about "compression" or other techniques seems ludacris beyond even a discussion involving taste.

Arguing opinion and subjective definition of "good" or "better" is more than pointless, it is downright lame. Just my opinion, of course.

[bmsander]

How many Pitchfork reviewers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?






Wow . . . (*condescending look*) . . . you don't know???





brett

[dynomike]

These are, after all, the same reviewers who believe that Bryce Goggin ruined Nada Surf's "Let Go"...

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-re ... t-go.shtml

Idiots! That album sounds gorgeous!

[bdp]

How many Pitchfork reviewers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?






Wow . . . (*condescending look*) . . . you don't know???





brett

Dude, that is funny.

Cheers,

bdp

[lonesome_tone]

god damn that pitchfork review of Let Go is so fucking infuriating.

they even had the balls to claim that bryce goggin 'ruined' crooked rain.

meanwhile they're giving serious thought to 'mashups' and sucking the dfa's cock until it bleeds.