Subjective. Because objectivity is based in fact, and it's impossible to post an opinion as fact, because opinions themselves are based on emotions and feelings, which in turn make them subjective. Example: some people can look at a Jackson Pollock piece and say 'what the fuck, this is lazy. He literally just splattered paint against the canvas!' while another will point out that Pollock is a very talented artist, because he actually employed a special technique called 'drip painting' and it wasn't simply a case of 'flinging paint at a canvas'. But in the end ( ), whether or not you love or hate his work...that is an opinion, and opinions are subjective.
Actual musicologists admit there is a base level of objectivity in reviewing music. I'll take their word for it. You can enjoy a bad/mediocre album, no one is mad at that.
I can respect that then. I humbly disagree, but I know neither one of us will change the other's opinions. Again, I'm sorry if my initial post came off as agressive. I do like discussions like this when opinions conflict together and is handled civilally.
None of us are musicologists. The only thing you can say that's objective about One More Light is that it's audible. And it doesn't seem that way.
Ah sorry. I thought you were implying I had a vendetta against this site and the staff at first. It's really hard to read how things are stated online sometimes But yeah, I guess I do have a bit of an issue about how moderation has been handled for this album release.
I have a question for everyone here who doesn't like the album, and takes exception to my review: If this album was put as an A-, or if I gave it the same score as I gave THP (B+)...would you be reacting ANY differently than you are right now? Or would you still be upset because I didn't give it a C- or a D (which on AltWire is basically considered a failure of an album)? Because if your critique is that you feel AltWire should be a lot harsher with our scores, than fine...but if a B+ or A- wouldn't please you, then it's useless for me to try to sway any of you.
Remember that the difference between objective and subjective is not necessarily binary — there are a lot of gray areas. But I would certainly say that there are reasonably good measures that we can use to ascertain the quality of at least some music. Their results will always be debatable; and that's OK. You believe it's an A, and that's OK. But I'd honestly would've been much more understanding if you gave it a score similar to THP.
I have no vendetta against LPA or the staff. In fact, I have pleasant memories with this website, with the album rollout of ATS being my favorite, an album that has stayed with me since then.
Fair enough, I think people's criticism is mostly that while I didn't give it an A+ (10/10 on Altwire, where an A or A- is a 9/10), I didn't go far enough into explaining why it was an 'A' but not an 'A+'. Some feel that I instead only focused on the album's strengths. Which to be fair, if an album is that highly ranked there wont be many flaws to list (in the opinion of the reviewer at least), but not going into the flaws makes the review not seem 'objective' enough and purely biased...when it wasn't. I stand by my review, and don't regret the score I gave it at all...but next LP review I'll certainly be sure to state where I think the band could improve etc, even if I find it worthy of a high score...so that I may justify my score further. That's a critique I've read that I'll apply to future reviews for sure.
Sooooo when should I change this news post's title to "Jayhov Disagrees With Derek's Review Of One More Light?" Cause apparently, that's all this discussion has boiled down to. Great job hijacking this thread. Fact of the matter is that opinions aren't fact. Let's get on with it and stop trying to drag other people, especially us moderators, into it.
I don't have anything to regret about that. I've been civil and so have others that have had similar opinions to mine. None of us have been passive aggressive, rude, etc. But I do think it would be hilarious if you changed the title to that, please do.
Your review didn't bother me. It's just that...you gave OML an A, which implies that you think the album is nearly flawless/perfect. Many people highly disagree with that so of course you're gonna get counter arguments and everyone's 2 cents on why they don't think it deserves an A. That should be expected.
And it was. Absolutely. I knew I'd get disagreements over it. What I didn't expect is to have my journalistic integrity questioned, which nobody should EVER have occur for giving a good score to an album. It's like people think Mike wrote me a massive check to give this album a good score. If he did? It must've been lost in the mail because I'm still broke. Shinoda, where you at man? Where's my money?
Yeah, pretty unfortunate, since Mike said some things worth discussing. In my interpretation, he said that they created this album for a (partly) commercial reason. Should he stab himself in the face then or not? It's confusing.
My post was never meant as an implication that you were paid off or anything like that for the review.