Death of the hatchet job(newstatesman.com)
newstatesman.com
Death of the hatchet job
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/11/death-hatchet-job
10 comments
To critique the critic, that review, although quite cutting, seems like a clumsy attempt the channel the spirit of Roger Ebert, e.g.:
> Spice World is obviously intended as a ripoff of 'A Hard Day's Night' which gave The Beatles to the movies... the huge difference, of course, is that the Beatles were talented—while, let's face it, the Spice Girls could be duplicated by any five women under the age of 30 standing in line at Dunkin' Donuts.
Damn, that man could scathe. More here: http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=61250
> Spice World is obviously intended as a ripoff of 'A Hard Day's Night' which gave The Beatles to the movies... the huge difference, of course, is that the Beatles were talented—while, let's face it, the Spice Girls could be duplicated by any five women under the age of 30 standing in line at Dunkin' Donuts.
Damn, that man could scathe. More here: http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=61250
I don't personally think that is a hatchet job - the quote seems harsh, but it's not the full extent of the review.
> The sublime moments come when Donen calms down and concentrates on melody.
That's a pretty glowing quote!
Overall, the review gives two stars - bad, but not exactly a hatchet job. The criticisms are fair, and well-justified - and Syd Barrett is a pretty cool point of comparison. If anything, I would say it suggests that the hatchet job really is dead if this is the worst that can be found - it's negative, but it really works to justify its negativity and struggles throughout to pick out bright spots.
A hatchet job, in my opinion, must be unremittingly & deliberately brutal, or slash quickly and leave the target all-but-beheaded. Coldplay saw many examples of the former, as reviewers struggled to explain why mediocrity in sufficient quantity became something somehow worse, while I think it was Terrorizer magazine (maybe Metal Hammer?) who managed a one-word review of Fall Out Boy.
> The sublime moments come when Donen calms down and concentrates on melody.
That's a pretty glowing quote!
Overall, the review gives two stars - bad, but not exactly a hatchet job. The criticisms are fair, and well-justified - and Syd Barrett is a pretty cool point of comparison. If anything, I would say it suggests that the hatchet job really is dead if this is the worst that can be found - it's negative, but it really works to justify its negativity and struggles throughout to pick out bright spots.
A hatchet job, in my opinion, must be unremittingly & deliberately brutal, or slash quickly and leave the target all-but-beheaded. Coldplay saw many examples of the former, as reviewers struggled to explain why mediocrity in sufficient quantity became something somehow worse, while I think it was Terrorizer magazine (maybe Metal Hammer?) who managed a one-word review of Fall Out Boy.
"Hatchet job" carries an implication of more than just a brutal/negative review. It suggests a critique that's done for malicious reasons or in support of a pre-ordained conclusion. Of course, that's often in the eye of the beholder--if you're on the receiving end of a particular biting critique you probably don't think it's fair.
Wow, that is pretty epic.
Clicking the author's name, one finds that in this publication the author writes primarily glowing reviews, and navel-gazing inside-baseball meditations on the act of reviewing. Writing more "hatchet jobs" might be the easiest way to solve this problem?
Halfway through article and popup blocks all text. Too bad. Was interesting until then.
Quote: "ntil 2010, Donen was writing naive, two-chord pop songs that recall Syd Barrett’s more rudimentary creations. He’s since reinvented himself as an orchestral composer, teaching himself to arrange by reading Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of Orchestration. Never mind one of those “couch-to-5k” exercise programmes, this is the equivalent of a sofa-bound slob attempting to compete in the Olympics having just read Mo Farah’s autobiography."