From Somewhere, Volume Two

Pitchfork is a curiously annoying website. Their news section has become increasingly narrow in scope. And their jokey editorial stance of late makes Wizard look like Pulitzer Prize material.

As Indie Rock in general is having a bit of an identity crisis, so too is Pitchfork. And nowhere is this more evident that its album review section. 

These days, Pitchfork seems more content to rant on about the artist or the label the album came from over actually reviewing the work in question. Which, unless I missed something is still their job.

Case in point, their recent review of the full length debut from Florida synth popsters Black Kids, which in its entirety consisted of a picture of two puppies with a graphic reading ‘sorry’-this is presumably due to the fact Pitchfork had spend a lot of editorial space hyping the band, and the reviewer apparently found the album wanting (they gave the disc a 3.3 rating).

Then there’s their review of the US release of Amy Winehouse’s Frank, where instead of actually discussing the merits of the record, Pitchfork opted to spend the majority of the ‘review’ slamming Universal for its assumed reasons for releasing it.

Or their review of the physical release of Radiohead’s In Rainbows (an album they rated a 10 in it’s digital ‘pay what you want’ release) – where, somewhat predictably, they chastised anyone who bought the record for its packaging.

It’s all so cute and funny and clever in the way that Pitchfork likes to think it is. Sure, they’re easy targets. And perhaps Pitchfork’s editorial thinks its readers are better served in occasionally commenting on the absurdity of marketing schemes or anything released on a major label. Such practices are fine, so long as they’re clearly labeled to the reader that way.

But the thing is, those kinds of items already have a name- for the record they’re called commentary pieces, kids- and are clearly not reviews. That appears to be a distinction Pitchfork, for whatever reason, fails to make.

And that-in addition to being misleading-just isn’t very cool.