Letters, sundry & pregnant pauses

From: Jordan Peacock
Subject: letters section & reviews

greetings

i understand where some of these people are coming from, there are a lot of negative reviews. however, i'm a pretty serious music-addict of sorts and there's a lot more crap than there is quality albums. To be honest, fpm has an abnormally high percentage of quality albums reviewed. And all the poor reviews tend to merely shine the light all the more brightly on the good reviews. I've bought several albums partionally due to your reviews, and a couple (The Blamed-Give Us Barrabas & Spiritualized-Let It Come Down) I bought without having heard anything of theirs prior.

And they are quality. So thanks for pulling no punches, it gives those of us trying to sort through the mound of shit for those jewels an easier task

god bless
-jordan peacock

jordan- thanks a lot for your kind words. i think that it is fairly self-evident that we at fpm have fairly high standards, and a fairly low tolerance for bullshit. that said, we all love music, and especially rock and roll/pop music. constantly hearing awful records is kind of like seeing your favorite sports team lose every game they play... it makes you sick and, if it happens often enough, it may taint your impression of the entire game. still, when that one great game comes along when your team wins with a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, it makes the whole thing worthwhile. similarly, when a truly great album comes out, we all rally round it and sing its praises like little school girls with a crush. thanks for reading and taking the time to write us. your encouragement means a lot. -kindred least I tried.

From: Steven
Subject: your reviews

i'm confused...how can you even call your reviews, reviews? no one wants to click a link that they think is going to a review only to hear you complain because a band sounded a little like another band or you just dont like good metal...unlike SOAD, they're garbage, but somehow got a decent review. no one wants to here your negative reviews that are highly opinionated, they want something that they can actually tell if they are going to like it or not. why dont you just tell about the music without getting so opinionated?

Anyone else besides me think there are too many easy jokes to be made from this? I'm not sure where to begin...

From: Eric Zwierzynski
Subject: You guys are getting better

I just wanted to write you guys and let you know how impressed I've been with your magazine. If something is crap, you tell me that. If something is really quite good, you tell me that. Yeah, some people don't like the reviews that seem to be nothing to do with an album, but it just proves how crappy it was.

Your reviews of Sigur Ros, Half-Handed Cloud, and a few others have been spectacular. I don't even care, most of the time, who you're reviewing, I just like reading good reviews. Sigur Ros and Half-Handed Cloud are now on my Christmas list thanks in part to your reviews. Thank you.

Eric.

Cool man. Glad you're liking the content.

From: Cameron Stallones
Subject: gettin' old and washed up

hi

im a long time reader and i just wanted to tell you that your reviews have gone to hell over the past couple months....sometime long ago you decided to once again abandon actually reviewing the album for having fun pissing off as many people as possible...the sad thing is i have a lot of respect for almost all of your writers, but man, those reviews are total crap? so you hated yankee hotel foxtrot? fine..thats great...how bout you tell me something about teh freaking record? instead of just fart onto a keyboard about how you hate jeff tweedey to get a cheap laugh? and that review of the new starflyer ep read like it was writen by a third grader in five minutes? so was the record good? bad? the extent of it was that i was told exaclty what songs were on the EP (thanks there...couldnt find the tracklist) and then i was told that the reviewer didnt like the title...man you guys used to be good! lets kick itup a couple notches ok?

cam

still love you guys

Hey, Cameron, I just re-read my Wilco review that you criticized in the letter column. I tried listening to that album again last night. I played it several times, over and over, to see just what it is that bothers me. Trust me -- I want to like it. My heroes are guys like Alex Chilton and the VU and Brian Wilson blah blah fucking blah. It's an amorphous, shallow, insincere, facile piece of contrived pablum. I still bet all the creativity on it came from the annoying co-leader who so ungraciously got the axe. Tweedy's Tayloresque instincts drag the album into fecund banality. Man, most albums don't irritate me this much. I keep playing it hoping to like it, but it's insincere and sloppy and pompous to the bone. So fuck you, Cameron, my initial response was correct. And I think I gave it all the thought it required in the first place. XXOO, Chris Estey