Grasshopper

Here’s another one I’ve never heard in concert. One of the last greats of the 20th century to listen to anyway, before he joins Richter, Arrau, Benedetti Michelangeli, just to name my three reference points. Review from a true expert.

So... as usual, there are no half measures: either an inexhaustible genius even at 90, if he makes it, or an old fool already overcooked. And what if poets were also subject to the inexorable law of time? There's a lot of weariness in this album, which leans more on craft than on inspiration. Objectively, I would rate it a 3, but considering it's the work of a 74-year-old, I'm more lenient, especially since it's still from one of my favorite artists. I've read harsher and more justified criticisms of Lestobang.

@UXO: I despise boy scouts, focolarini, familydeists, and every kind of kiss-up just as much as you do. I would like to clarify that my "terrible offense" (if there was one) was completely unintentional, meaning I didn't say "Uxo, you're an intolerant Taliban, so I'm going to rip off your beard and turban," but rather that I was surprised that someone like you, usually balanced in your judgments, would shoot down without mercy the "poor" Dolores O'Riordan. Evidently, for you, it must be a matter of skin-deep dislike. It happens to me too: for example, I go off the rails when I hear praises sung to that uncouth doughnut-selling Nannini (whom I should defend out of local pride), one of the biggest bluffs in Italian music. With unchanged esteem for you and without a trace of bitterness.

To give a record like this a 1, you must have serious hearing problems, but after seeing someone who, just to show off, gives a 1 even to Beethoven, I’m no longer surprised by anything. The review doesn’t seem bad to me... perhaps a bit aseptic, but clear and detailed.

Manliuzzo, you are relatively new to this site, so I’ll make a revelation to you, but keep it between us. It’s not that I "send" the Japanese mafia: in reality, Debaser itself is nothing more than a syndicate, of which I am one of the heads (of course, I remain silent about the identities of the others). Whoever doesn’t give me a 5 will soon receive a visit from our hitmen. We have The Punisher, whose name speaks for itself, who, just to be clear, walks around with a white pitbull named Stronko, who has already completed several missions for us. This time you’re in the clear because you’ve given me the proper 5, but you have no idea what tortures the four fools who dared to give a 4 have been subjected to. As for "the green mahalishi," who gave me a 2, he was found inside a pillar of an overpass in Agrigento. Stay alert... And if you want to know more (for real) about how much I care about the 5, see my review on Mozart's Quartets.

In fact, I only said that they can make a certain impression, not that they are the best that has come out in the last twenty years. And anyway, as I already mentioned, I’m out of my depth and my judgment is worth what it's worth. I didn't mind them until "Wake up...": with that, they started to get a bit tiresome for me.

A UXO: about tastes... with what follows. It will be simple music, certainly not comparable to vintage jazz or classical, which I, as an antiquarian, love much more, but albums like "No need to argue" and "To the faithful departed" still seem pleasant to me, and labeling them as "scout boy crap" strikes me as a bit of a Taliban attitude, which I frankly didn't expect from you. Let it be clear that in absolute terms the Cranberries aren’t even comparable to other things that are dearer to both you and me, but considering what has invaded the radio between the '90s and the '00s, I think they can hold their own. With this, I don’t mean to change your tastes, far from it.

@Hal: Since the beginning of my long debaserian adventure, I have been fighting against a certain schematism that I must clearly have a bit innately. You will remember the "lamented" one (by the way, what happened to her?), who back in 2004 commented on my early attempts asking me, "But where's the passion?" Evidently, every now and then the entomologist within me prevails over the sensitive person, as must have definitely been the case this time, since you were already two to notice it, and not exactly two novices. What can I say? A warned man is half saved... Thank you for pointing it out, but feel free to be more severe. Even if I am a bit spoiled, or rather precisely because of this, a 4 every now and then does not hurt when it is deserved.

Yes, the one about JoP's Requiem remains absolutely the most beautiful review (but it's much more: it's the expression of a state of mind in the form of a review) ever appeared on Debaser, even if, to demonstrate how arbitrary the Debaser ratings can be, it only took an idiot who gave it a 4, maybe by mistake, to ruin (so to speak) the average, bringing it down to 4.98 and automatically excluding it from any ranking. But what happened to JoP? Is it possible that Debaser is destined to die suffocated by swarms of adolescent fans sending fifteenth-sixteenth semi-literate reviews, or worse, in SMS language, of Pink Floyd albums (with all due respect to the latter, of course)?

Sad end of one of the few bands that in the '90s still insisted on composing music instead of conforming to making simple noise (but mine is the judgment of an antiquarian and doesn't hold much weight: who knows how many interesting phenomena I've missed...). A sad end told in the best possible way. I don’t know this album, and if I’m not given it as a gift, I suppose I won’t get to know it. As far as I’m concerned, by 2001 with "Wake up and smell the coffee," the measure was full.