I agree with New York Post’s rock critic Michaelangelo Matos opinion maybe a third of the time, so about 10X more than I ever did Dan Aquilante (who I no longer wanna stick it to since he has been MIA on his website since December, suggesting life can be a whole lot harder without NYP’s bi-weekly checks) but I trust him always and I kinda think he is spunky. He never simply follows the trend and considering he is one of the most influential critics in the country overnight, his willingness to go his own way is refreshing.
A quick look at his resume finds Matos all over the place, LA Times, Allmusic, the Guardian, the Voice. But even by those standards, the Post is a high profile gig.
Anyway, between Ryan Dombal’s Pitchfork over written (their entire career has been leading to “Hannah Hunt”? Really???) and pr referencing 9.3 review, and Matos’ two and a half star calm lack of reverence review of Modern Vampires Of The City, my opinion is closer to Ryan but I prefer MM. And I think within a week my opinion will be closer to MM’s. I am a sucker for the thrill of the new. “The end result is rich and rewarding –just not as exciting as before”.
As for Ryan, this was a big review for him. The big statement review the way his Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was a big statement review. With a difference, Ryan overstates the case for Vampire Weekend, and he conflates Ezra’s existential crises into a serious philosophy. But fear of dying is nothing of the sort.
With many less words at his disposal, Matos is off hand, a couple of good points: they are less jittery than their first two albums and are therefore less exciting about expresses his POV.
The truth is, there are holes in the album which the best songs cover up very well. Ryan is too stuck on his estimation and will probably have second thoughts at some point. His 1000 word dash has the heft of a last word but not the smarts. “There’s more air in these songs, more spontaneity, more dynamics. The overarching themes– death and a dubious sense of faith– are certainly Serious. But you never feel like you’re being preached at while listening to this album.” This is what writers write when they don’t much feel like writing. More air? Please, the spiked rhythms of the first album were so airy they were buoyant. If the album is so important to Dombal why doesn’t his review show any thought? I think what really bothers me, over and above using press notes to cheat with, is the complete irrelevance of the Souls Of Mischief (who?)-Grover Washington Jr- Bread break down of “Step”. Who cares? What has it got to do with anything at all. When rock critics in the 1980s were pinpointing a Maceo Parker sample they were showing off their chomps, it was a bragging game, like when Robert Christgau spotted “Reeling In The Years” hiding in “So It Goes”. Ryan and Chris Bosman of CoS are blowhards, faking an erudition they don’t actually own.
Hearing “Reeling” in “So It Goes”, makes mincemeat of New Wave’s very name, it brings the music back to its source and brings jazz and session players into the scruffy NW vibe. Finding Bread (that was the point, right?) in “Step” makes Vampire Weekend clever boys. Big fucking deal.
But this is the big problem with the new world of music critics, they are humorless dickheads. Perhaps somebody somewhere can get off on their reviews, but they are such a slog in search of a pearl of wisdom that simply doesn’t exist. The more you read them the less there is. Where is that one sentence that makes it all come to life?