There was a golden age of rock criticism, several actually. Creem when Lester Bangs was editor, NME under Nick Logan, the Voice when Bangs was writing for Christgau, and Bob Guccione's Spin.
None of them exist as they once were, or at all come to that, and nobody around today compares to them.
Spin is Pitchfork is RS without the big time celebrities
Here is Spin's latest album grades:
8 of 10TV on the Radio 'Nine Types of Light'
9 of 10Foo Fighters 'Wasting Light'
8 of 10Poly Styrene 'Generation Indigo'
7 of 10Steve Earle 'I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive'
8 of 10Explosions in the Sky 'Take Care. Take Care. Take Care.'
8 of 10Thursday 'No Devolución'
7 of 10 The Mixtures 'Stompin at the Rainbow'
8 of 10 Times New Viking 'Dancer Equired'
8 of 10 Prefuse 73 'The Only She Chapters'
8 of 10 Boris 'Attention Please'
7 of 10 Boris 'Heavy Rocks'
8 of 10 Cass McCombs 'Wit's End'
8 of 10 Dennis Coffey 'Dennis Coffey'
8 of 10 An Horse 'Walls'
7 of 10 The Airborne Toxic Event 'All at Once'
6 of 10 About Group 'Start and Complete'
I dunno, nothing much here to surprise or thrill. Maybe the 9 for Foo Fighters suggests it is better than I'm expecting. "Rope" sucks but the other song they played on SNL was alright. Could I be wrong?
Earle sounds about right at 7, TV I'd go with 7.5 but maybe I'd up that to 8 once I had the chance to really listen.
But does anybody give a shit what these guys say?
Indeed, does anybody read.