Rolling Stone's Jody Rosen hits me as a reasonable enough fellow. BY RS standards a pretty good writer and I have zero kick against him. Except for his completely ridiculous 3 and a half star review of the diabolical, crime against nature, Sparkle Soundtrack.The album is a complete disaster except for Whitney Houston's "His Eye On The Sparrow" . Sure, she didn't have the voice she once had, she was 47 years old for fucks sake. But really, on an album with Jordin Sparks and some Nigerian actress, there is no competition to mention.
Rosen's claim that Houston is the worst thing on the album isn't just bush league arrogance, it is demonstrably mistaken.
And if you can get past that nonsense, how can you review an album with four songs written by Curtis Mayfield and sung by Aretha Franklin from a remake of a film that had starred Franklin and MENTION NEITHER. If only by comparison, Sparkle sucks. The RS community gave it a one star. God save the RS community.
Nearly as bad was going the Woody Guthrie centennial collection 4 1/2 stars, which giving the last two Springsteen albums 5 stars. Are you fucking kidding me? Does nobody have any ears??? Is there a goddamn editor in the house.
Oh, finally? Four stars for yet another piece of crap from Ross and the Maybach crew.
Perhaps Jody should go back to searching out plagiarist… His review is It's the second-most-satisfying retro-soul album review of the year – after Kelly's Write Me Back.