Sunday, December 15, 2013

Angst at Songlines

Rarely do I complain about a review, but the most recent Songlines has just made such an egregiously incorrect assessment of Who is William Onyeabor? that I need to consider my trust of the magazine, notorious for never trashing anything, regardless of how crap I consider some folk music from the end of the earth. In the most remote chance and anyone saw this review, I must protest!!!

This is one of the best things I found recently and Songlines gave it one!!! star. Nothing in that fan mag gets one star, ever! The review says "it is at times laughably awful -- sufficiently pedestrian and repetitive to suggest that it may all be a joke", "the song gets progressively worse and all vocals and lyrics are clumsy" and ""Atomic Bomb" sounds like the worst sort of 70s porn film soundtrack".

Let's compare that to emusic, ranking it in top 100 albums of the year..."he blends nuclear warfare with orgasmic megatonnage in the irrepressible “Atomic Bomb", "dazzling distillation of this mystery man’s work". Or the Guardian review: "fantastic and largely unknown".

Tell me this isn't great.