Thursday, July 19, 2007

This is Your Brain Dribbling Out of Your Ears

Extremely irksome New York Times pop music critic Kelefa Sanneh is seriously worried about something.

From today's paper:

There have been ominous signs for months.

Really? Do you mean Michael Chertoff's gut? Perhaps the new NIE estimate?

Like the pair of flip-flops that showed up in the mail, courtesy of some record label looking to influence the outcome. And the half-hearted arguments among friends who seemed to be merely going through the motions. And the stagnant pop charts, which all but eliminated suspense.

Oh, those. Right, scary. What else?

Taken together, these and other omens point to one sad conclusion:

Good lord, man, don't leave us hanging like that. What is it that you're getting at?

It’s probably time to stop talking about the so-called Song of the Summer.



Words fail me.

There's more here, if you can stand it, but be warned -- it gets worse.

I'm sorry to keep flogging a dead equine where Sanneh is concerned, but c'mon: granted the Times' pop coverage has always been, shall we say, uneven. But this kind of lovesick puppy fanboy gush was absolutely unprecedented before Sanneh's tenure, and one can only assume it's part of the same ongoing institutional nervous breakdown at the Old Grey Lady that has given us the WMD fantasies of Judith Miller or David Brooks putting George W. Bush and Leo Tolstoy together in the same sentence.

9 comments:

shrimplate said...

We have Bush to lead us in the war against terrierists, and Sanneh serving as our cultural champion.

It's all coming together in some kind of demented gestalt that defies all taste and reason. Oh well. It fills up spaces between ad copy.

Kid Charlemagne said...

I have to go with Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" as the song of the summer because that is what I will need after reading that twaddle.

Anonymous said...

What's that guy prattling on about?

And btw, the unavoidable summer song is undoubtedly Rihanna's "Umbrella."

Um-ba-rell-a.

-Jay C.

TMink said...

Twaddle, a fine word and well used. Popular music matters to some of us, and there are also some of us who can tell between popular pop and good pop.

You would think that the NYT could do better, but then their equipment people are computer geeks rather than people who recognize good sound.

I guess it is more of the triumph of convienence over quality.

Trey

TMink said...

And I checked out Winehouse, her voice is an aquired taste that I have yet to consolidate.

Easy on the eyes though.

Trey

Anonymous said...

And I checked out Winehouse, her voice is an aquired taste that I have yet to consolidate.

Easy on the eyes though.

Trey


Funny, I like her voice & her songs, but find her really harsh to look at.

TMink said...

Vive la difference!

Trey

Anonymous said...

Personally, for summer song of the summer I'm going with M.I.A.'s Boyz. It's like Fleetwood Mac doing Tusk in the middle of Do The Right Thing. Don't miss the video.

mcpart said...

I think this iTunes user review of Rihanna's album sums up what is wrong with the music industry in 2007. By the way, although "Umbrella" isn't a bad song, it has held on to the number one spot since Memorial Day with some of the lowest chart-topping sales figures in history:

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Awesome * * * *
by BooReguard™
I love this album... I havent bought it yet but i've heard so many previews and leaked songs and i luv shut up and drive and breakin dishes click YES is u agree