Foxing - Draw Down The Moon (August 6, 2021) Album • Page 63

Geez, y'all really hate when a review doesn't like an album as much as y'all.

 

ah, yes, I guess she didn't explicitly say bomb it

 

Here’s the thing. It’s an impossible situation. Music is inherently personal for the band, the artist, the fans. To me it is completely normal and expected that fans of the album and band are going to be annoyed by a review that isn’t glowing….that’s generally how it goes. If it devolves into toxic stan culture that’s different, but this isn’t that. In this situation I’m actually finding the defensive stance of the writers to be more annoying. This is what music criticism is. You write a piece and then people respectfully disagree with it. Nothing in here has been disrespectful or harmful. Just a bunch of people that love a band/album and want to see them get good press because good press is make or break sometimes (though Foxing is gonna be fine, and as some have mentioned probably even better off after this review), especially in the streaming era.

 

This isn't true. People just dislike when a review is poorly written and overtly critical without fully engaging with the piece of music they are reviewing.

 

i made my points, hardly anyone who disagrees wants to engage with them, its fine

 

It can both be true that negative reviews are to be expected and are deserving of space in music discourse and that this particular negative review is kind of dumb

 

Man, you really didn't read any of this did you lol

 

Also, it's fucking hysterical to see so many "why don't you just ignore pitchfork it doesn't matter" on a site that literally censors the name of another music critic lol

 

I haven’t, and probably won’t, read the review. But on the topic of the album itself. It’s not really hitting me the way I had hoped it would. I love 737, Beacons, and Speak with the Dead but outside of that nothing has wowed me. Gotta listen a few more times. I might just not be in the right mood for it.

 

what posts here confused you into thinking that people think chorus is a good site

 

Negative music reviews are what they are, and it's stupid when someone like Halsey gets angry over them because she's in a position in life where one won't affect her career. It just sucks when smaller bands get one from Pitchfork or Fantan0 because those are often the first reviews people go to after an album drops. Obviously negative reviews shouldn't be banned or anything, but it would be nice for the reviewers to realize that writing negative reviews for smaller bands could be damaging to their careers and they should maybe choose their words more carefully or how they approach the review. (Note: I am *not* saying that no one should ever write a negative review of a smaller band, just that reviewers should be aware of the damaging impact it can have with the way some are written, especially if it's poorly written like this review is)

 

I haven’t spent much time with the album, but for the writer assigned to reviewing it to show a surface level understanding of the lyrical content is embarrassing. I agree with you and appreciate you taking the time to share your views. When I called it a great review, I was just entertained by it but didn’t realise how much detail they had missed. I’m sorry for that. As a fellow bi person, more bi erasure in the media is crushing and unacceptable

 

The review is whatever. I don't think it's horribly written, just incredibly shallow. I was kind of whelmed on first listen too, but quickly came around to the record, so I definitely disagree with it, and my biggest problem with P4k as a whole continues to be the way they gloss over or even undermine the context surrounding lyrics (this review, Iridescence, the Frightened Rabbit review all come to mind). At this point, it feels like a purposeful move to stir up reaction. Maybe I'm reading into that too much. Regardless, their reviews continue to be relevant whether the site sucks or not and it makes sense we're going to discuss them here.

This is literally a bit lol and a good one imo

 

A bit ironic.

 

Nah, I'm actually admitting I didn't read it instead of implying I did but saying something that makes it abundantly clear that I didn't.

 

i totally get people dont all like the album and there are perfectly valid reasons why. i just expected better analysis from what for better or for worse (lets be honest, its for worse) is the epicenter of online music criticism. the result is a review that is shallow and comes across as completely unfair. that's what makes it so poorly written to me, and the really predictable structure. i dont think its a good piece of criticism and i hardly ever think overtly negative reviews are.

 

yes this is how the majority of reviews happen

if you've been noticing a lot of late reviews assigned to reviewers who didn't seem particularly attentive to what they've listened to: the freelance stable of music critics is a group of extremely burned out and/or overscheduled ppl in august 2021

 

i'm not defending this review, btw, but those are the conditions that produced it

 

i dont doubt freelancers are overworked and underpaid like the rest of us but music as an art form deserves wayyyyyyyy more than its been getting in terms of critique and analysis. this has been a problem throughout the entire streaming era as music becomes more and more disposable and expendable and everyone's quick to get a review out as quickly as possible before everyones attention moves onto whatever the next big thing is. people used to have to sit with albums and depending on how much money you had and were spending you had to let whatever you purchased grow on you because cd's weren't cheap. but i digress. a lot of people who dont feel this could very well come around to it in an era where music isnt picked up, listened to a few times, and put back down before it can really reveal itself.

 

Don't wanna be a bummer in here so I'll probably dip out after this post but I'm not too pressed about the review, as a more casual fan of the band. I was a big fan of NMG and saw them on their subsequent headliner but this album hasn't done much for me, and sonically I thought the review was pretty well aligned with my thoughts on it thus far. Granted, I can't speak for the lyrical content bc I only really dive into lyrics on albums that I love. Idk, if this were a band I was deeply in love with I would probably be pissed, but they're not, so I'm not. That's fine too I think

 

maybe i'll write something about being nonbinary and loving this album at some point idk. i've already found it hard to put what this album is doing in words

 

Pitchfork should do redux reviews years later imho

 

another thing for me is that there's a history of emo music being looked down upon by the serious critic crowd because of historically shallow readings of their lyrics and writing them off as melodramatic. ignoring how much music like that/like this means to people like me and why. emo music always gets brushed away and not given a fair shake by critics and only recently has that begun to change but i felt echos of that all over this review.

 

everyone should do this I think! break out of the initial release—10 year anniversary piece—15 year anniversary piece cycle. more, continuous opinions that develop over time can probably help undermine the hegemony of one or two publications too

 

Reviews within a week of release shouldn't exist