|
4:44 earned Jay his first "Best New Music" on Pitchfork since Watch the Throne.
They wrote an OK review, but I feel like they missed a lot. Like, they didn't even mention "Caught in their Eyes" and they only directly referenced "Moonlight" in passing, before going on to talk about the effect of sampling iconic women's voices. Sheesh!
I feel like if you're going to review an album, you should spend some time on the album's standout tracks. More time on the music than on the surrounding cultural events, or how the album fits into an artist's legacy. How can you know that with an album that's five days old? I mean, barring legacy-making or artist-defining albums, that is.
Jay-Z has been doing this for 21 years. I don't need to read about those years, or what his family life is like or whatever. I'd like to read competent writing about the music on the album; not an album review/tabloid story mash-up.
Music writing sucks a taint. For all the bitching I do about it, I don't think I could do any better. I'd want to write about every song, especially on an album like 4:44, which is so lean and compact and smooth. But people wouldn't want to read about that. They'd want to read about Tidal and Beyoncé and Blue Ivy Carter.
Fuckin Frank Ocean is on this crazy hot streak with features, and he turned up for a track that samples Nina Simone and rocks the house! How could that go without a mention?
|