Something weird is happening in music criticism and I can’t tell if it’s actually me that’s the one who doesn’t ‘get it’. Of course this has come off the back of two of the year’s most high profile music releases, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. Both albums under so much scrutiny before and after release, with think pieces and reviews causing chaos in the two hardcore fanbases of these artists. We didn’t even get around to reviewing either album, the general Picky Bastard opinions ranging from ‘Amazing album’ to ‘I could only last 4 tracks before being annoyed’, but there’s a specific thing that seems to have happened I can’t understand.
For me music reviews and criticism is all completely personal to that person’s experience with an album. We aren’t doing peer reviews or marking someone’s maths homework here. Explaining the way that the music makes you feel and the emotional connection it can give you is the key to why we bother writing about music. I personally love ranking things and judging and comparing songs and albums to each other, but again it’s entirely based on my own connection/experience with a record.
What I’ve seen across both of these albums and the discourse that’s kicked off is a focus on praising the technical mechanics of these albums as a ‘project’. So the references and call backs that Beyoncé uses on Cowboy Carter, or the self referential stories where Taylor Swift’s lyrics connect back to themselves. Neither of these things are ‘bad’ and not worth talking about, in fact I love the deep dives into the specifics of music creation as I find it fascinating; but these references aren’t ‘why’ the music is good.
I see the idea that ‘Taylor Swift’s lyricism on recent albums is good because of the way everything is connected to each other’ mentioned a lot, by critics and fans alike and I just can’t buy into the idea of something being better simply because it mentions previous things or ties pieces of work together. It’s the MCU-ification of music, the joined up interconnecting narrative and self references are part of the enjoyment for fans, but they aren’t the reason that say Black Panther is a great film in its own right?
It’s the same for the ‘Beyoncé is overrated’ brigade, who I definitely disagree with, but it feels like the response from fans is always ‘the craft itself is complex and so therefore I think the music is good’. Surely it’s the other way around? The music isn’t great ‘because’ it’s complicated and has to be ‘understood’? The narrative surrounding the album is worth mentioning in a review, but isn’t the key reason that the music is enjoyable to listen to? That doesn’t make sense?
It’s what has created this space where critics seem to be split down the middle on two albums that may not be the all time best thing these artists have created, but also are definitely not the worst. They are just more solid albums from the biggest names in the industry that get conflated into reviews to be worth more than the actual experience someone has when listening. The lack of nuance has made any and all discussions around these albums difficult to engage with for anyone who genuinely loves these artists, but isn’t blind to having their own opinions within their experience as a fan.
Music can be enjoyable whether or not the creation, references and position within an artist’s discography is complex or simple. Posting this kind of take on a website called Picky Bastards is incredibly misguided, but who said logic was part of my thought process here.
Words by Sam Atkins
Picky Bastards 