The Punisher

... and also a bit egocentric, yes indeed

Dear ajejebrazorf, I generally do not like IN TOTO everything by one or another singer-songwriter. I prefer certain songs over others, which are more common in some albums than in others. I like Tom Waits (almost all), Nick Cave (not all), Leonard Cohen (the early ones), but the list of songs would be quite long and I usually NEVER feel like elaborating on what I LIKE. I prefer to review and keep readers away from WHAT I DO NOT LIKE. Nihilistic and/or masochistic attitude? Perhaps.

Forgive me Sfascia Carrozze, but does this seem like a serious review to you? You talk about others, yet you seem quite disjointed in your expression, trying for that "at all costs" effect with a touch of Latinism, a quote here and there, filling your discourse with heavy, frankly tiring pseudo-intellectual phrases of the worst kind (you know Enrico Ghezzi when he introduces movies on Rai3 in the dead of night?).
And then what do you do? You give 4 stars to an album you’ve slaughtered from start to finish? I don’t know what to say... for heaven's sake, the meaning is clear but what a heaviness. Every now and then, step out of your character and try to write as you eat, or eat something else...

Dear Josi, if I wanted to be provocative to "make news," as you say, I would have said quite different things, MUCH more heavy and reactionary (unless, for provocation, you bring up the puritanical discourse of SfasciaCarrozze who was "annoyed" by the word "coglioni," but then that's a different story, and we can open a fun site for Papa Boys...) which I DID NOT do. Can you tell me where the provocation I supposedly aimed for is!?

I review albums that, in my opinion, DO NOT DESERVE the praise and accolades of other reviews, as in the case of these overrated EELS.

If I had written a review like this, Kosmogabri would have skinned me alive: no data, no explanation, no analysis of the pieces, no critical evaluation elements. The reviewer seems to say: take it because it's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. That's it. Kosmog., you tell him off for me, or I'll always end up being the punisher.

Do you like "Winny The Punny"?
P.S. my offer to review together the albums you prefer still stands...

Dear Kosmog,
I will move you too, but you truly deserve the Golden Boccalona award (as was to be proven): not even a moment after a few posts, and like a good little teacher, you said things exactly as I thought you would. Come on, a bit too predictable, don’t you think?
; - ))

I've heard great things about this group and, from your words, I'm becoming convinced to check them out... of course, they are Italians and at face value there isn't much to trust, we'll see.

You see Galakordi Urtis Krat,
I said "from the gut" and you understood the belly, while I meant a state of impulse, an unfiltered, spontaneous urgency not clouded by the excess of rationality that makes us search for things where they probably aren’t, justifies everything and its opposite, tends to pigeonhole, report, compare, etc. The "gut" is a tool that not everyone has: it is that synthetic ability to "feel" things through other perceptual channels that are not necessarily connected to analysis and rationality. Call it a sixth sense, call it an expansive state, or whatever you like, if in my opinion Bjork, just to make an example, made a shitty record, it’s not that I say it "gratuitously" as someone is trying to make me believe. I reason why, I usually explain what I disagree with, otherwise it’s clear it would be "too easy". Perhaps someone would prefer that I used the tones of politics, of politeness, and did convoluted and hazy rhetoric to define what I, drastically, call a half-assed job (basically like 80% of the Italian printed music criticism which, unlike me, is paid to write, preferably well, about this or that artist, cannot afford the luxury of saying the things I think and that, I assure you, many think too, believe me). You all get dispirited when I brutally tear apart a work, blaming ME for being insensitive instead of being OBJECTIVE in judging the work FOR WHAT IT IS and not FOR WHAT IT REPRESENTS TO YOU. The gap is all here.