At the risk of coming across like a fully paid-up member of the reviewers' union, an astute write-up can really help you to see things in a different light - whether that's souring expectations ahead of hearing an album or really selling a record that has thus far underwhelmed.
A case in point: Ben Cardew's piece on Everything Was Beautiful for Pitchfork. On the first couple of plays, I was struggling to hear Spiritualized's ninth studio album as anything other than overblown self-parody - but it turns out that it's actually a shining testament to ploughing your own furrow, or, in Cardew's words, "getting high on your own supply".
As he argues, the record takes their "habitual influences" (who, it's worth noting, are no one else's - at least not in combination) - "The Stooges, gospel, blues, free jazz, the Rolling Stones, et al." - and "finesses [them] into a hypnotic mixture, capable of both savage intensity and benzodiazepine drift". Admittedly, the chief reference point is "the band's own gilded history" - but that's no problem because they do it "so shamelessly well". As he puts it, the album is "like meeting an old friend and finding new shared memories, the nostalgia not yet worn thin".
Would I have seen through my own cynicism and come to this realisation without Cardew's intervention? Perhaps - though I might have set the album to one side had the review not convinced me to listen again.
Ultimately, Everything Was Beautiful is an immersive, maximalist masterpiece - a deliberate call-back to Ladies And Gentleman... and every bit its equal. And I'm grateful to that review for making me come to my senses.
No comments:
Post a Comment