Stoney

NewRomantic, I have two feelings buzzing in my head: the first is that I think women have ridiculed your virility in public and also beaten you up, and the second is that I have a strong feeling you deserved both. But what you write sometimes makes me laugh. Take care, okay? :)

@Alexander77, do you know what’s another trend that’s gaining popularity these days, aside from bashing DTs? Using the term “pseudo-intellectual.” There’s this new tendency where anything that isn’t lowbrow, popular, and “commonplace” is interpreted as a potential attempt to show off, filling one’s mouth with empty words. If someone has studied music history on their own and has come to the conclusion that Slint have been influential, important, decisive, while DT haven’t, they can’t come here and say it, because otherwise they’d be labeled a “pseudo-intellectual.” These days, everyone is shooting down anything that tries to detach even an inch from the mass mainstream, so in the end, no one will say anything “intellectual” anymore, whether true or supposed, and everything will become uniform, and finally, everyone will be happy. Regards.

@Pixies, I've done very few reviews, and this is the first one about an album. The other four are all about books (only one of which is a criticism, the others are not). First of all, let me make a note: I believe it's important to talk about music (or books, or anything else) regardless of personal tastes. If I only talked about what I like, what would it matter to people? It's better to make judgments after considering things, regardless of whether they are positive or negative. So, when I write a review, ultimately it’s because I feel like sharing a thought process with the rest of the world, not to say whether I liked an album or a book, because I believe that the user passing through here doesn't really care about my personal tastes. However, they might find a food for thought; perhaps through me, they could reflect on something they haven’t noticed yet: I always experience this when I read other people's reviews. Beyond this, I don’t feel particularly capable of discussing music, because the albums I like have already been extensively reviewed, and I am always afraid of not having understood them enough. My relationship with music is peculiar because it is constantly evolving and quite erratic. I spend time listening to new albums that I might not even know how to approach digesting, yet I strive to understand the perspective of those who composed them in order to grasp their expressive intent. What interests me, personally, is understanding the language of the musicians and why they use one form rather than another. The criterion I use to navigate the sea of information about titles, tracks, reviews, dates, and genre definitions is the opinion of others I consider more knowledgeable (here on Debaser too) as well as my own personal intuition (which I believe, without self-aggrandizing, I possess much more than many others when it comes to music). I prefer to quietly admire certain works, coming to intuit their greatness rather than speaking up and risking making gross inaccuracies. Usually, I’m someone who keeps my convictions to myself, but I just can’t hold back when I see that on one side there are people cultivating an interest and seeking to deepen their knowledge and critical ability, while on the other side there is an endless stream of ecstatic individuals speaking ignorantly about genius and excess in the albums of Dream Theater, SymphonyX, and their ilk. It’s something I can’t stand. Why does music give everyone the illusion of being cultured and knowledgeable? Why do people listen to Tiziano Ferro and come tell you that you don’t understand a damn thing about music? Oh, it doesn’t happen with other disciplines: I've never heard anyone come to forums to act pretentious about painting, sculpture, or, I don’t know, the history of the early Middle Ages, architecture, or haute cuisine. Why does everyone seem to know everything about music? I’ll tell you why: because anyone can listen to a piece of music, and people are just waiting for an opportunity to show off their knowledge: with music, this possibility is practically given to you for free. With this, I don’t expect everyone to know about music, but at least to have the awareness that what one knows is always just a small part, and for every work that is deemed important, there are another 100 still to discover, that much is true. And the funny thing is that I, who make these arguments, am often accused of lacking "humility." I don’t care if you listen to Tiziano Ferro for your own reasons, but from that to self-satisfy as if it were a conscious choice of quality is just not right. I hope I’ve been thorough in my explanation, goodbye.

I want to give 5 to the profile picture of Sentence.

Yes, Pixies, but if you really want to shorten it at least write DT, not DM :D

@Brat, yes, tastes are tastes, but to me this story seems like an excuse to justify everything and the opposite of everything. Clearly, tastes matter, but then what do we do, stay at home listening to the music we like and that's it? I don't like that. It's better to risk an insult, at least then we can engage with each other.

@Squonk, your comment worries me. “It’s that often when we are given absolute freedom, we bring out the worst in ourselves.” First of all, freedom of expression is never too much. I welcome anyone who dismantles piece by piece what I believe is valid: it’s called debate, and it’s ALWAYS constructive. Only the ignorant are outraged when someone questions a certainty they hold as absolute. What do you want, for everyone who says Awake is terrible to be silenced? Well, I’m sorry for you, I will continue to say it as long as I can breathe. After two comments from you, I think I understand how you think: you are one of those who would like everything to always be moderate, calm, “centrist,” that the tones should never be too high and that everyone should always discuss the same things without straying too far from the most established common opinion. You seem like one of those who believes that the maximum allowed of “freedom of expression” is to rehash common opinions perhaps colored in slightly different tones, but without straying too far from the sheepfold. Your talk of “yes, okay, you can disagree with me, but not so much, come on, in the end we all think the same things, we all have the same tastes, and if you disagree that much with me, it means you’re not very objective” scares me a little. I criticize whatever I like, in music, because I have two ears and a brain. I would like to know how many of those who are outraged after the scolding I gave to this album know Slint, Tortoise, Battles, Jesus Lizard, Pere Ubu (just to name a few of the most influential bands in the last 20 years), and if they are able to make a comparison between their poetics and that of Dream Theater. This is because I’m assuming we are seriously discussing music; if we want to talk about which catchy little tune we prefer to whistle in the shower, that’s another story, personally, for that I’d be fine with a piece by 883 as well. I am genuinely bothered by the presumption with which you classify my positions as a priori, especially after claiming that you went back to reread my past comments, in which I have always specified ad nauseam the reasons for my positions, a sign that I know how to argue my theses. You didn’t even bother to counter; you just replied with benign condescension that the only reason to criticize Dream Theater must be some personal quirk due to an unspecified “hatred” towards them. Besides, you even lecture me on humility, a very subtle way of telling me that I shouldn’t dare to speak up. Far from being presumptuous. Oh, and one last thing: I don’t have “followers” because I’m not Saint Francis. They seem rather like users who have read my post and agreed with what I said, and maybe they caught the irony of the review without overthinking it.

@Senzastile, thank you, I'm glad you like it!!

@Squonk, I graduated in engineering and I work as an office employee. The difference between my job and that of my professor in Digital Transmission who designed the GSM network in Italy back in the day, for example (and who knows what the hell he is dealing with around the world now), is very clear to me, and I would even say glaring. If there’s someone in the engineering field who should be taken as an example, it’s certainly someone like him, not me who works in an office; it seems as clear as day. It’s not a downgrade, it’s simply the reality of the facts. I thought the metaphor would be obvious, and instead I find myself having to provide subtitles. Bah. To answer your question, though, I don’t know how intelligent I am, but I definitely know how imaginative you are to see a "downgrade of category" behind something like that. Take care.

Damn, and here I was looking at breasts and butts in women. I messed up everything; I should have asked them how they were doing with their vaginal muscles.