Francisco Lopez: Untitled #104: Pitchfork Review: Francisco Lopez composes art music, Pitchfork reviewer doesn’t like it, Pitchfork reviewer gives it 0.0, Pitchfork gets hits off of people who take its marking system too seriously, everybody is happy except for F.Lopez who I doubt cares.
The one good thing about marking systems is that you can pull stunts like this – ‘stunt journalism’ in the British music press will have infuriated or excited every reader at some point, and American writing is sadly lacking in it. The Lopez review alas doesn’t really qualify – it lacks the fists-raised, come and have a go madness of the best stunt journalism, the sense of a writer willing to put their reputation, such as it is, on the line. Spencer Owen’s piece is simply somebody really hating a record, but it’s somebody hating – or loving – the principle of a record that makes for the most dynamic writing.