Applaud Denning
The Yes/No Interlude recently linked to Adrian Denning’s reviews of seemingly every long-player by The Fall. This is the epitome of the nutty labour of love that the internet has embraced. Or is it the other way around? Mr Denning seems to be some saddo with time on his hands, so I felt a kinship immediately. There are dozens and dozens of other LPs he’s reviewed. The selection is eclectic or random, choose either depending on your level of tolerance. I’m on the “eclectic” side, but then again …
He scores them out of ten, which is a dodgy sign. Still, I was pleased to see 10 given for The Wedding Present’s stirring Seamonsters from 1991, and totally concur with his ravings about it. I first heard the opening track Dalliance in a Peel session, and it took my breath away then. The LP version is even better.
But then he gives 6� to Pink Floyd’s mournful wailingest Animals (1977). Tsk. OK, it’s just a bit of fun, but I still worry about the lack of curiosity about the meaning and purpose of such analyses. It replaces the utter mystery of why we like music with some kind of consumerist measuring scale.
And then, to annoy me further, he makes this uselessly banal point when reviewing the one “classical” record on show, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring: “If you love classical, what’s stopping you really digging ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ by The Rolling Stones as well? Answer? Nothing at all!” But why does one love anything? The review reckons The Rite of Spring is good because it is “emotions expressed through music, expertly”. Is that why, really? I wonder if the reason is precisely the opposite.
But actually, I’m more bothered by that 6�.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Music Is My Hot Hot Sex
- More links You’d half-expect something called T…
- Lianne Hall
- Listless
- Sad Sad Song
