http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/u/unrest/imperial-ffrr.shtml
Ok, so let me get this straight. Nitsuh loved only 9 of the 20 tracks found on the Unrest resissue, less then one half of it total number of songs found on the record yet it still got a rating of 8.2.
Keeping that in mind, I liked 5 out of the 6 paragraphs in Nitsuh’s review but the final one, the summery throws a wrench in the works. Most of this review graciously reflects Unrest’s characteristic angle as well as places the reader in the time period of which this music was made. I appreciate that kind of set up, especially knowing full well that a huge percent of the people reading Pitchfork are probably too young to be all that familiar the band.
But then comes the below line.
“Imperial's littered with tracks you'll wind up skipping; even with those eight bonuses (more prototypes and variants than anything else), I can only whittle it down to a nine-song Perfect Album. But when it's worth it, it kills: This stuff is pure style, and unlike just about anything around it.”
So it has me thinking….
If I didn’t own this record already, after reading this review I may have opted to borrow the record from a friend and tape only the good songs because recording the rest would be a waste of time. Even more so, buying it would have been a waste of precious teenage dollars. Modern music fans catching up on indie rocks wealthy past can now download the tracks suggested in a review and ignore the rest of an artist’s entire body work.(Thank you Ipod.) 20 years later I suppose some things don’t change or improve with age but who am to talk? I still only own a few songs by Oingo Boingo and they are hiding in a dusty pile of mixed tapes from 1985. Are Unrest records any more worthy of ownership then Oingo Boingo ? I can’t even call that a good question.
I think more than anything Nitshuh’s review made me wonder just how many other people are out there listening to music and listening for only “the kill” rather then also enjoying the chase that brought them there in the first place.
I hope the media’s obsession with only hits on a release doesn’t further contract the rest of the world’s already shrinking attention span.
