As usual with Bowie, Blackstar (RCA, 2016), produced again by Tony Visconti...

>As usual with Bowie, Blackstar (RCA, 2016), produced again by Tony Visconti,, is mostly image and very little about the music. The ten-minute Blackstar, that was supposed to be the centerpiece, is little more than a funereal litany a` la Doors with jazz horns that goes on five minutes too many. Bowie crooning melodramatic in Lazarus (from his Broadway musical about an alien who falls in love) or romantic in Dollar Days is either delirious and pathetic, certainly not entertaining. His tedious voice interferes with the driving jazz jam of 'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore and with the frenzied and tense Sue (a 2014 single). Even when the voice is not a distraction, the rest is hardly intriguing: I Can't Give Everything Away boasts an awful distorted guitar against syncopated beats and layers of electronic drones: not exactly genius. This is trivial "music" that any amateur could make, except that most amateurs would be ashamed to release it.

What did he mean by this?

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He's too harsh but not entirely wrong.

It isn't the godlike album to end all albums that many are saying (Pretty much just because he's dead, as always happens) but it also isn't amature work that anyone could have shat out either.

Surprise surprise, Scaruffi is being a contrarian and shitting on a nearly universally-loved album.

You can tell he tries far to hard to dislike Bowie's work

>Bowie died of cancer in january 2016.

he just has a hate boner for bowie
if it was any other artist he'd be much more positive about it

This.

I like Scaruffi, and he's damn right about a lot of things. He's well-spoken and very in-depth. He's even right in some criticisms of Bowie. But he really, really, really has always given him way more shit than necessary.

Bowie didn't ignore music, he was actually a quite accomplished musician; he just often kept it simple for the audience, or flourished or layered in subtle ways that didn't seem too brand new, experimental, or complex, but actually were. On top of that, he took the theatrical element very seriously, and fused it with the music to add meaning and grandiosity, imparting good music with an atmosphere of the time or the conditions or just that era of his performances. Not in lieu of composition.

It may be slightly pretentious, and maybe that's why he's against it, he's all about the music. But I feel like he's intentionally ignoring context, whether out of bias, spite, or something else, especially with something like Blackstar.

scaruffi is like a decade or more ahead with all of his reviews.

Did Bowie take his girlfriend once or something?

>But I feel like he's intentionally ignoring context, whether out of bias, spite, or something else, especially with something like Blackstar.
What's the context with Blackstar ? The musical context, that is ?

the fact that Bowie wrote it knowing he was dying, I guess

Even without the context, Blackstar was good. Remember when it leaked here and people were flipping shit about it? Scaruffi just gets assblasted about Bowie for no good reason.

I agree, I loved the album when it first came out but when Bowie died, it all made a lot more sense
shit was heavy

I agree it was shit but fuck me he really has a stick up his ass about Bowie til the bitter end

Scaruffi really shouldn't be considered a pop music historian of any sort if he can't at least acknowledge the effect Bowie had on the music industry and the footprints he made in popular music and culture

Scruff willingly blanks out important details about music history and while it's usually refreshing to have someone who is contrary to the normal flow of pop criticism, its retarded to make a statement like "Pere Ubu is one of the most influential bands ever" when hardly anyone has even listened to a Pere Ubu record.
I'm pretty sure there was a period of time where they didn't even print the first three Pere Ubu records as well and they were actually dug up again to be re-released.

>dying man writes an album about dying

>"melodramatic"

If this is melodramatic, then what the fuck ISN'T?

This goes beyond criticism to personal dislike. What the fuck is Scaruffi's problem? Like yeah, I wouldn't expect him to rate it highly, but this is just harsh.

Why didn't you like it?

Discordant sounds combined with downbeat jazz (A constant passion with Bowie; he learned the sax before anything else, Young Americans, etc.) to give the slower, yet more chaotic sound that in some ways signifies loss, confusion, or approaching the end of one's life (As we learned). There's also the fact that most of I Can't Give Everything Away is largely composed by chunks or queues from Bowie songs of various eras, with the most frequently recognized being A New Career in a New Town. Fancy that fucking title in this context.

That, combined with the lyrics and vocal performance, alongside the context of its creation and general concept, makes it a very powerful piece. That's what I meant by combining the situation and the sound for something more, something he always did. And you can fuck off if you're the type to say lyrics, performance, and emotions imparted by the music don't matter, and only the technical aspects of the music matter.

Not to be hostile, but I've seen people say that sort of thing before, and that almost seems like the argument Scaruffi's leaning on here, calling it amateurish and whatnot.

He seems to find Bowie's flair personally distasteful, and contrives to find a way to paint that opinion as something objective.

>not posting the best part
Bowie died of cancer in january 2016.
4/10

zevon did the superior farewell album, thanks piero

Judging from The Wind (Artemis, 2003), featuring cameos by Ry Cooder, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris and others, Warren Zevon left this world without any major statement for humankind. In fact, most of the album is a retrospective, but cynical rather than nostalgic, view of life (Numb as a Statue, Disorder in the House, The Rest Of The Night, Dirty Life And Times) that doesn't quite sound like he's going to miss us humans. Only superficially haunted by intimations of mortality (particularly the spiritual-sounding Prison Grove), the ballads are dreadfully sincere (She's Too Good for Me, El Amor de Mi Vida,, Please Stay, Keep Me in Your Heart Awhile) but they don't beg for eternal life or divine forgiveness. The message seems to be "I have lived, I have sinned, and what will be will be".

6/10

kek

Reminder that he rated Korn's s/t/ is a 7.5.

wtf i hate scaruffi now

Bowie fucked his dad and his mum at the same time

accurate score
at least scaruffi's contrarianism doesn't lead him to knocking them for simply being unfashionable like fantano, or pretty much anyone else really, ie it's actually useful

wtf i hate bowie now

I kind of agree with this review to be honest, it felt too bloated, too middle of the road and too far away from instantaneous pop songs Bowie is mainly remembered for. Like every track was edging towards Station to Station and that album is cool and all but I didn't need to a long retred through old territories if you know what I mean.

Also
>melodramatic
>is either delirious and pathetic, certainly not entertaining.
>not exactly genius.
>This is trivial "music" that any amateur could make, except that most amateurs would be ashamed to release it.
are like gaping holes in this guy's ego, he's trying his best to be Ian Cohen and he's kind of succeeding 2bh

What else has Scaruffi recently updated?

Am I the only one who thinks the lyrics on Blackstar can be kind of terrible? I love the music but damn some of those lines make me cringe

I WAS LOOKING FOR YOUR ARSE

I'M NOT A PORNSTAR

WHERE THE FUCK DID MONDAY GOOOOU

i really want scruffy to release an album of his own. it would be epic

Joanna Newsom

Radiohead

Thank you gentlemen. Here have some Scaruffi core

One of the things I hate the most about Scaruffi is how pretentious his writing is. He poses his opinions as facts even though he has a lot of obvious biases, mostly against more popular and critically acclaimed artists.
For example, you can hate on The Beatles as much as you want, but denying their influence like he does is just incredibly stupid.

mate.. people were calling Painting With AOTY when it leaked

>are like gaping holes in this guy's ego

And that's my problem with it.

I'm a huge Bowie fan. However, I can understand if someone doesn't think this is 10/10 AOTYAY GIFT FROM GOD or even just AOTY. Some of his criticisms are very valid or correct, and some of the music, on first listen and far later listens, doesn't hit me right. That's fine.

The problem is that this just reads as a continued vendetta against Bowie. In context with Scaruffi (With past reviews and how little he's updated lately), and even out of context, this reads as very pointed, disingenuous, and malicious. Like you said, as gaping holes, as a function of his ego.

>Trying to be like Ian Cohen and kind of succeeding
Because we all know Ian Cohen is a valuable writer who deserves respect

I mean you're not wrong but there's this

But he doesn't really deny their influence. He cites them very often in reviews of other artists' albums.

this is true. the man is so oblivious to the world around him that doesn't have to with China or cognitive science that he doesn't even know how much of a meme he is.

honestly I don't resent Scaruffi at all for shitting on Beatles/Bowie/whatever

the point of his reviews is to tell me which "obscure" artists I should look up, not just to tell me if I like Revolver or not

He is kinda right. Bowie released far better albums

But he died on a Sunday so that monday line is really eerie

huh, I didn't actually know that. I'll confess I don't read his reviews very often (mostly because whenever I do I get pissed off)
can you give me some examples?

youtube.com/watch?v=16gT0lnSoew

Wow, I checked a couple days ago and she wasn't updated, it looks like Divers went from 7.5 to 6.5 and a long review was added. As a big Newsom fan I'd agree with his review & rating

He's absolutely, consistently denied Bowie any recognition for influence, or at least any positive influence. I mean, one thing for the Beatles, but it's relevant to the subject at hand.

fair point, though. I mean, it's Scaruffi. He's a bit off. I mean, come on.

Yeah but he can't really keep calling himself a pop music historian or write about pop music history if he can't forgo his biases
Like on one of his page descriptions it says he's unbiased to which artists would be praised or not but that clearly isn't true.
He is basically the mega-Ian Cohen at this point, both have a warped perception of music history and both use contrarianism to sell themselves as critical voices.

>6/10
Oh shit, I actually anticipated will would hate AMSP more.

i'm just glad to see scaruffi publishing new reviews


loved blackstar btw

Hhe mentions them in his write-ups for Green (obscure power pop band from Illinois), Vampire Weekend, Rufus Wainright, Teenage Fanclub, and a bunch of others. He doesn't always see their influence as an entirely positive factor, of course.

Jeez what's this guy's problem. This sounds more like a personal attack against Bowie than a review. I understand disliking the album but he's being just plain nasty. I haven't read a ton of his reviews but I've not found anything that was as blatantly mean spirited as this.

Minimalism

This.
He even gave 6/10 to A Moon Shaped Pool (one of their worst reviewed album elsewhere)
recently despite being a huge Radiohead detractor.

Green is really good. I'm thankful for Scaruffi introducing me to them. Their stuff is hard to find though. Have only ever found their two most popular albums and nothing else.

The thing I really don't like about this is that even though there was no chance in hell Bowie was ever going to step in and confront Scruff's opinions or straight insults, there was always a possibility that he could in some way defend an artistic decision or strike back at a critic but he's fucking dead now and Scaruffi kind of wins by default because of that

idk maybe im reading too much into this, it feels too much like Scaruffi is trying to have the last laugh though

That's certainly what it looks like. He's just being a dick because he knows he can get away with it. Really unprofessional.

>at least scaruffi's contrarianism doesn't lead him to knocking them for simply being unfashionable like fantano
isn't his contrarianism what would make him give Korn such a high score in the first place?

korn were pretty well-received when they debuted

>Sup Forums unironically defends nu-metal and grunge because their beloved pedo critic said s
Holy shit

comes out sounding like shit tho

what's with the refrigerator thing

...

Holy shit
Well that changes a lot

what do you guys think of his top 15 jazz list for this year?

Jazz

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke (ECM)
Ken Vandermark: Site Specific (Catalytic)
Bathysphere: Bathysphere (Driff)
SLM (Mark Dresser and Sarah Weaver): Source (Liminal)
Peter Broetzmann: Beautiful Lies
Barry Guy: The Blue Shroud
Rob Mazurek: Alien Flower Sutra
Taylor Ho Bynum: Enter The Plus Tet
Peter Evans: Lifeblood
Martin Archer: Story Tellers
Michael Formanek's Ensemble Kolossus: The Distance (ECM)
Tyshawn Sorey: The Inner Spectrum Of Variables (Pi)
Nels Cline: Lovers
Nate Wooley: Argonautica
Henry Threadgill's Ensemble Double-Up: Old Locks and Irregular Verbs

There's also a different screencap of Scaruffi's fridge obsession floating around.
You can probably find it in some Sup Forumsmour thread

>jizz
>relevant in 2016

who's the guy playing?

Brian Wilson

jazz fans don't listen to jazz to be "relevant" (whatever that means)

He also rated AMSP 6/10, which is actually pretty damned good:

>Thankfully, Radiohead abandoned the beats for A Moon Shaped Pool (XL, 2016), their least machine-based album yet, a veritable return to humanity. If the driving minimalist repetition of Burn the Witch sounds like an amateurish impersonation of Michael Nyman augmented with melancholy new-age piano, a couple of the songs display real genius like it rarely happened on their pretentious albums: the creative collage of The Numbers blends distorted Indian-esque music with snippets of orchestral music, massive organ drones and ghostly lysergic chanting; the elaborate ethereal pastiche Daydreaming blends more minimalist repetition with drones and sound effects that are almost musique concrete; Present Tense grafts flamenco-ish guitar and falsetto scat into a Caribbean beat; and Ful Stop sets an electronic threnody to Neu-esque motorik rhythm. Half of the album is wasted in minor detours, such as the somber and spare litany Desert Island Disk and the languid r&b over syncopated digital beat Identikit, but this could be their best album since Amnesiac.

>this fag unironically rejects nu-metal and grunge because his beloved p4k said so

>this could be their best album since Amnesiac.

that's pretty funny considering he put it on his most overhyped albums list a few months agp

but I like that, 6/10 is a good score from Scaruffi, especially when you consider that the last Radiohead album to get above a 5 from Scaruffi was Amnesiac

did he review anything else today?

Reminder that he considers Aqua's debut album better than anything Radiohead have ever done.

So far I've found

David Bowie - Blackstar - 4/10
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool - 6/10
Joanna Newsom - Divers - 6/10

Looks like he's only updating the bio pages atm. I imagine that he would have to:

>Update all of the bios for artists that are already in his system.
>Create or upload new bios for new artists, which could take a while.
>THEN post hyperlinked scores on the review and best-of 20xx pages

*Divers was 6.5/10

He is correct.

I have said all along: the album is not that impressive and is only acclaimed because Bowie meme-died. Scaruffi correctly saw through this.

What the fuck. That ending.
He's clearly just lying at this point, but why?
What the fuck does it serve him to shit this vehemently on everything ever related to David Bowie, even when he's passed on.

That you need to learn how to form your own opinion about something.

Also just compare David Bowie to Scaruffi in appareance and manner and you can just feel how one is a powerful musical symbol whilst the other one is an insecure manlet with an incredibly punchable face.

>Divers 6.5/10

WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

>"I Can't Give Everything Away Boasts an awful distorted guitar"

WHAT IS HE ON ABOUT?
Did he listen to the song?!
What awful distorted guitar?
I'm not hearing it.
I'd like to see one of his huge fans defend this since he's just making up what happens in the songs now.

The problem with Scaruffi is that he is, in a lot of ways, autistic about his music criticism. He very much ONLY cares about what's on the album in front of him, which in many cases is good, cutting away the bullshit of many reviews.

However, in the case of an album like Blackstar one CANNOT ignore the contexts. It would simply be foolish. Bowie's ill health and death are so essential to an understanding of the album that to disregard that context IS to disregard the album.

Blackstar WAS mostly image, I will agree, but I don't see what's wrong with that; Bowie was an image artist his entire life. It's fitting that his final record be a celebration of that.

My Mom saw Pere Ubu last week. My Government/cultural studies teacher was there too and I guess they rocked out together. Pretty awesome situation.

>conflating nu-metal with grunge

for what purpose

If nothing else, at least Scaruffi is good for deflating overrated albums.

Updated list for 15/16 releases:

David Bowie - Blackstar - 4/10
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool - 6/10
Joanna Newsom - Divers - 6.5/10
Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness - 6/10

Post more if you have em

ok the only bowie album i've listened to is hunky dory and i've never heard blackstar and i'm listening to "i can't give everything away" right now and this is kind of some adult contemporary shit i'm sorry

>Joanna Newsom - Divers - 6.5/10
>Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness - 6/10

What's everyone's favourite Bowie album, then?
My brain tells me I should say Station to Station but I fucking love Young Americans.

Do yourself a favour and at least listen to Station to Station through to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), user.

I'm not even gonna try to level with that statement. I respect opposing opinions, but all of the points are entirely wrong.
>Blackstar is all image and meaningless, sounds like The Doors, and goes on for 5 minutes too long
>"melodramatic crooning" in his fucking eulogy swan song
>"tedious voice" (aged texture) was some of the best parts of the albm, especially the "whoo"'s in Tis A Pity
>trivial "music"

Seriously, I've never respected his critique and this is just another nail

>he was actually a quite accomplished musician
What do you mean?

>However, in the case of an album like Blackstar one CANNOT ignore the contexts.

Yet more proof that Bowie's meme-death is making Bowie fanatics go crazy

>"L-like this album right now o-or I-I... uhh... I-I'll kn-knock your socks off! Bowie meme-died and it was super duper sad!"

Embarrassing :(

gotta be Low for me, but Station to Station is definitely up there

It's not the matter of him being right, since we all know it would be overblown due to Bowie's death, it's the fact that Scaruffi is unnecessarily mean in his review. It seems like a lot of his criticisms are personal attacks.

He gave Tortoise's The Catastrophist a 4/10

when will he post the albums he actually liked??

we need some 7.5s up in this bitch

that doesnt mean people didnt like Blackstar when it dropped.

He's already posted them. It's just that they're too obscure for us to find.