>As usual with Bowie, Blackstar (RCA, 2016), produced again

He's too harsh but not entirely wrong.

It isn't the godlike album to end all albums that many are saying (Pretty much just because he's dead, as always happens) but it also isn't amature work that anyone could have shat out either.

>>69681807
Surprise surprise, Scaruffi is being a contrarian and shitting on a nearly universally-loved album.

You can tell he tries far to hard to dislike Bowie's work

>>69681807
>Bowie died of cancer in january 2016.

>>69681882
he just has a hate boner for bowie
if it was any other artist he'd be much more positive about it

>>69681807
>>69681885
>>69682637
This.

I like Scaruffi, and he's damn right about a lot of things. He's well-spoken and very in-depth. He's even right in some criticisms of Bowie. But he really, really, really has always given him way more shit than necessary.

Bowie didn't ignore music, he was actually a quite accomplished musician; he just often kept it simple for the audience, or flourished or layered in subtle ways that didn't seem too brand new, experimental, or complex, but actually were. On top of that, he took the theatrical element very seriously, and fused it with the music to add meaning and grandiosity, imparting good music with an atmosphere of the time or the conditions or just that era of his performances. Not in lieu of composition.

It may be slightly pretentious, and maybe that's why he's against it, he's all about the music. But I feel like he's intentionally ignoring context, whether out of bias, spite, or something else, especially with something like Blackstar.

>>69681807

scaruffi is like a decade or more ahead with all of his reviews.

Did Bowie take his girlfriend once or something?

>>69682863
>But I feel like he's intentionally ignoring context, whether out of bias, spite, or something else, especially with something like Blackstar.
What's the context with Blackstar ? The musical context, that is ?

>>69682947
the fact that Bowie wrote it knowing he was dying, I guess

>>69682987
Even without the context, Blackstar was good. Remember when it leaked here and people were flipping shit about it? Scaruffi just gets assblasted about Bowie for no good reason.

>>69683038
I agree, I loved the album when it first came out but when Bowie died, it all made a lot more sense
shit was heavy

I agree it was shit but fuck me he really has a stick up his ass about Bowie til the bitter end

Scaruffi really shouldn't be considered a pop music historian of any sort if he can't at least acknowledge the effect Bowie had on the music industry and the footprints he made in popular music and culture

>>69682947
Scruff willingly blanks out important details about music history and while it's usually refreshing to have someone who is contrary to the normal flow of pop criticism, its retarded to make a statement like "Pere Ubu is one of the most influential bands ever" when hardly anyone has even listened to a Pere Ubu record.
I'm pretty sure there was a period of time where they didn't even print the first three Pere Ubu records as well and they were actually dug up again to be re-released.

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>dying man writes an album about dying

>"melodramatic"

If this is melodramatic, then what the fuck ISN'T?

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This goes beyond criticism to personal dislike. What the fuck is Scaruffi's problem? Like yeah, I wouldn't expect him to rate it highly, but this is just harsh.

>>69683072
Why didn't you like it?

>>69682947
Discordant sounds combined with downbeat jazz (A constant passion with Bowie; he learned the sax before anything else, Young Americans, etc.) to give the slower, yet more chaotic sound that in some ways signifies loss, confusion, or approaching the end of one's life (As we learned). There's also the fact that most of I Can't Give Everything Away is largely composed by chunks or queues from Bowie songs of various eras, with the most frequently recognized being A New Career in a New Town. Fancy that fucking title in this context.

That, combined with the lyrics and vocal performance, alongside the context of its creation and general concept, makes it a very powerful piece. That's what I meant by combining the situation and the sound for something more, something he always did. And you can fuck off if you're the type to say lyrics, performance, and emotions imparted by the music don't matter, and only the technical aspects of the music matter.

Not to be hostile, but I've seen people say that sort of thing before, and that almost seems like the argument Scaruffi's leaning on here, calling it amateurish and whatnot.

>>69683190
He seems to find Bowie's flair personally distasteful, and contrives to find a way to paint that opinion as something objective.

>>69681807
>not posting the best part
Bowie died of cancer in january 2016.
4/10

zevon did the superior farewell album, thanks piero

Judging from The Wind (Artemis, 2003), featuring cameos by Ry Cooder, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris and others, Warren Zevon left this world without any major statement for humankind. In fact, most of the album is a retrospective, but cynical rather than nostalgic, view of life (Numb as a Statue, Disorder in the House, The Rest Of The Night, Dirty Life And Times) that doesn't quite sound like he's going to miss us humans. Only superficially haunted by intimations of mortality (particularly the spiritual-sounding Prison Grove), the ballads are dreadfully sincere (She's Too Good for Me, El Amor de Mi Vida,, Please Stay, Keep Me in Your Heart Awhile) but they don't beg for eternal life or divine forgiveness. The message seems to be "I have lived, I have sinned, and what will be will be".

6/10

>>69683343
kek

>>69683371
Reminder that he rated Korn's s/t/ is a 7.5.

wtf i hate scaruffi now

>>69682916
Bowie fucked his dad and his mum at the same time

>>69683485
accurate score
at least scaruffi's contrarianism doesn't lead him to knocking them for simply being unfashionable like fantano, or pretty much anyone else really, ie it's actually useful

>>69683513
wtf i hate bowie now

>>69683292
I kind of agree with this review to be honest, it felt too bloated, too middle of the road and too far away from instantaneous pop songs Bowie is mainly remembered for. Like every track was edging towards Station to Station and that album is cool and all but I didn't need to a long retred through old territories if you know what I mean.

Also
>melodramatic
>is either delirious and pathetic, certainly not entertaining.
>not exactly genius.
>This is trivial "music" that any amateur could make, except that most amateurs would be ashamed to release it.
are like gaping holes in this guy's ego, he's trying his best to be Ian Cohen and he's kind of succeeding 2bh

What else has Scaruffi recently updated?

Am I the only one who thinks the lyrics on Blackstar can be kind of terrible? I love the music but damn some of those lines make me cringe

>>69683692
I WAS LOOKING FOR YOUR ARSE

I'M NOT A PORNSTAR

WHERE THE FUCK DID MONDAY GOOOOU

i really want scruffy to release an album of his own. it would be epic

>>69683687
Joanna Newsom

>>69683687
Radiohead

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>>69683778
>>69683794

Thank you gentlemen. Here have some Scaruffi core

>>69682863
One of the things I hate the most about Scaruffi is how pretentious his writing is. He poses his opinions as facts even though he has a lot of obvious biases, mostly against more popular and critically acclaimed artists.
For example, you can hate on The Beatles as much as you want, but denying their influence like he does is just incredibly stupid.

>>69683038
mate.. people were calling Painting With AOTY when it leaked

>>69683623
>are like gaping holes in this guy's ego

And that's my problem with it.

I'm a huge Bowie fan. However, I can understand if someone doesn't think this is 10/10 AOTYAY GIFT FROM GOD or even just AOTY. Some of his criticisms are very valid or correct, and some of the music, on first listen and far later listens, doesn't hit me right. That's fine.

The problem is that this just reads as a continued vendetta against Bowie. In context with Scaruffi (With past reviews and how little he's updated lately), and even out of context, this reads as very pointed, disingenuous, and malicious. Like you said, as gaping holes, as a function of his ego.

>Trying to be like Ian Cohen and kind of succeeding
Because we all know Ian Cohen is a valuable writer who deserves respect

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>>69683692
>>69683753
I mean you're not wrong but there's this

>>69683910
But he doesn't really deny their influence. He cites them very often in reviews of other artists' albums.

>>69683586
this is true. the man is so oblivious to the world around him that doesn't have to with China or cognitive science that he doesn't even know how much of a meme he is.

>>69683974
honestly I don't resent Scaruffi at all for shitting on Beatles/Bowie/whatever

the point of his reviews is to tell me which "obscure" artists I should look up, not just to tell me if I like Revolver or not

>>69681807

He is kinda right. Bowie released far better albums

>>69683753
But he died on a Sunday so that monday line is really eerie

>>69684000
huh, I didn't actually know that. I'll confess I don't read his reviews very often (mostly because whenever I do I get pissed off)
can you give me some examples?

>>69684014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16gT0lnSoew

>>69683778
Wow, I checked a couple days ago and she wasn't updated, it looks like Divers went from 7.5 to 6.5 and a long review was added. As a big Newsom fan I'd agree with his review & rating

>>69684000
He's absolutely, consistently denied Bowie any recognition for influence, or at least any positive influence. I mean, one thing for the Beatles, but it's relevant to the subject at hand.

>>69684029
fair point, though. I mean, it's Scaruffi. He's a bit off. I mean, come on.

>>69683870

>>69684029
Yeah but he can't really keep calling himself a pop music historian or write about pop music history if he can't forgo his biases
Like on one of his page descriptions it says he's unbiased to which artists would be praised or not but that clearly isn't true.
>>69683974
He is basically the mega-Ian Cohen at this point, both have a warped perception of music history and both use contrarianism to sell themselves as critical voices.

>>69683794
>6/10
Oh shit, I actually anticipated will would hate AMSP more.

i'm just glad to see scaruffi publishing new reviews


loved blackstar btw

>>69684052
Hhe mentions them in his write-ups for Green (obscure power pop band from Illinois), Vampire Weekend, Rufus Wainright, Teenage Fanclub, and a bunch of others. He doesn't always see their influence as an entirely positive factor, of course.

Jeez what's this guy's problem. This sounds more like a personal attack against Bowie than a review. I understand disliking the album but he's being just plain nasty. I haven't read a ton of his reviews but I've not found anything that was as blatantly mean spirited as this.

>>69683149
Minimalism

>>69683586

This.
He even gave 6/10 to A Moon Shaped Pool (one of their worst reviewed album elsewhere)
recently despite being a huge Radiohead detractor.

>>69684193
Green is really good. I'm thankful for Scaruffi introducing me to them. Their stuff is hard to find though. Have only ever found their two most popular albums and nothing else.

The thing I really don't like about this is that even though there was no chance in hell Bowie was ever going to step in and confront Scruff's opinions or straight insults, there was always a possibility that he could in some way defend an artistic decision or strike back at a critic but he's fucking dead now and Scaruffi kind of wins by default because of that

idk maybe im reading too much into this, it feels too much like Scaruffi is trying to have the last laugh though

>>69684514
That's certainly what it looks like. He's just being a dick because he knows he can get away with it. Really unprofessional.

>>69683586
>at least scaruffi's contrarianism doesn't lead him to knocking them for simply being unfashionable like fantano
isn't his contrarianism what would make him give Korn such a high score in the first place?

>>69684678
korn were pretty well-received when they debuted

>/mu/ unironically defends nu-metal and grunge because their beloved pedo critic said s
Holy shit

>>69683312
comes out sounding like shit tho

>>69683870
what's with the refrigerator thing

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>>69683870

>>69683997
Holy shit
Well that changes a lot

what do you guys think of his top 15 jazz list for this year?

Jazz

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke (ECM)
Ken Vandermark: Site Specific (Catalytic)
Bathysphere: Bathysphere (Driff)
SLM (Mark Dresser and Sarah Weaver): Source (Liminal)
Peter Broetzmann: Beautiful Lies
Barry Guy: The Blue Shroud
Rob Mazurek: Alien Flower Sutra
Taylor Ho Bynum: Enter The Plus Tet
Peter Evans: Lifeblood
Martin Archer: Story Tellers
Michael Formanek's Ensemble Kolossus: The Distance (ECM)
Tyshawn Sorey: The Inner Spectrum Of Variables (Pi)
Nels Cline: Lovers
Nate Wooley: Argonautica
Henry Threadgill's Ensemble Double-Up: Old Locks and Irregular Verbs

>>69685652
>>69685834
There's also a different screencap of Scaruffi's fridge obsession floating around.
You can probably find it in some /mu/mour thread

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>>69685871
>jizz
>relevant in 2016

>>69685952
who's the guy playing?

>>69686014
Brian Wilson

>>69685952

jazz fans don't listen to jazz to be "relevant" (whatever that means)

He also rated AMSP 6/10, which is actually pretty damned good:

>Thankfully, Radiohead abandoned the beats for A Moon Shaped Pool (XL, 2016), their least machine-based album yet, a veritable return to humanity. If the driving minimalist repetition of Burn the Witch sounds like an amateurish impersonation of Michael Nyman augmented with melancholy new-age piano, a couple of the songs display real genius like it rarely happened on their pretentious albums: the creative collage of The Numbers blends distorted Indian-esque music with snippets of orchestral music, massive organ drones and ghostly lysergic chanting; the elaborate ethereal pastiche Daydreaming blends more minimalist repetition with drones and sound effects that are almost musique concrete; Present Tense grafts flamenco-ish guitar and falsetto scat into a Caribbean beat; and Ful Stop sets an electronic threnody to Neu-esque motorik rhythm. Half of the album is wasted in minor detours, such as the somber and spare litany Desert Island Disk and the languid r&b over syncopated digital beat Identikit, but this could be their best album since Amnesiac.

>>69684742
>this fag unironically rejects nu-metal and grunge because his beloved p4k said so

>>69686213

>this could be their best album since Amnesiac.

that's pretty funny considering he put it on his most overhyped albums list a few months agp

but I like that, 6/10 is a good score from Scaruffi, especially when you consider that the last Radiohead album to get above a 5 from Scaruffi was Amnesiac

did he review anything else today?

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Reminder that he considers Aqua's debut album better than anything Radiohead have ever done.

>>69686403

So far I've found

David Bowie - Blackstar - 4/10
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool - 6/10
Joanna Newsom - Divers - 6/10

Looks like he's only updating the bio pages atm. I imagine that he would have to:

>Update all of the bios for artists that are already in his system.
>Create or upload new bios for new artists, which could take a while.
>THEN post hyperlinked scores on the review and best-of 20xx pages

>>69686490

*Divers was 6.5/10

>>69681807

He is correct.

I have said all along: the album is not that impressive and is only acclaimed because Bowie meme-died. Scaruffi correctly saw through this.

What the fuck. That ending.
He's clearly just lying at this point, but why?
What the fuck does it serve him to shit this vehemently on everything ever related to David Bowie, even when he's passed on.

>>69681807
That you need to learn how to form your own opinion about something.

Also just compare David Bowie to Scaruffi in appareance and manner and you can just feel how one is a powerful musical symbol whilst the other one is an insecure manlet with an incredibly punchable face.

>>69686506
>>69686490

>Divers 6.5/10

WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

>"I Can't Give Everything Away Boasts an awful distorted guitar"

WHAT IS HE ON ABOUT?
Did he listen to the song?!
What awful distorted guitar?
I'm not hearing it.
I'd like to see one of his huge fans defend this since he's just making up what happens in the songs now.

>>69681807
The problem with Scaruffi is that he is, in a lot of ways, autistic about his music criticism. He very much ONLY cares about what's on the album in front of him, which in many cases is good, cutting away the bullshit of many reviews.

However, in the case of an album like Blackstar one CANNOT ignore the contexts. It would simply be foolish. Bowie's ill health and death are so essential to an understanding of the album that to disregard that context IS to disregard the album.

Blackstar WAS mostly image, I will agree, but I don't see what's wrong with that; Bowie was an image artist his entire life. It's fitting that his final record be a celebration of that.

>>69683072
My Mom saw Pere Ubu last week. My Government/cultural studies teacher was there too and I guess they rocked out together. Pretty awesome situation.

>>69684742
>>69686377
>conflating nu-metal with grunge

for what purpose

>>69686490

Updated list for 15/16 releases:

David Bowie - Blackstar - 4/10
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool - 6/10
Joanna Newsom - Divers - 6.5/10
Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness - 6/10

Post more if you have em

ok the only bowie album i've listened to is hunky dory and i've never heard blackstar and i'm listening to "i can't give everything away" right now and this is kind of some adult contemporary shit i'm sorry

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>>69687185

>Joanna Newsom - Divers - 6.5/10
>Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness - 6/10

>>69681807
What's everyone's favourite Bowie album, then?
My brain tells me I should say Station to Station but I fucking love Young Americans.

>>69687238
Do yourself a favour and at least listen to Station to Station through to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), anon.

>>69681855
I'm not even gonna try to level with that statement. I respect opposing opinions, but all of the points are entirely wrong.
>Blackstar is all image and meaningless, sounds like The Doors, and goes on for 5 minutes too long
>"melodramatic crooning" in his fucking eulogy swan song
>"tedious voice" (aged texture) was some of the best parts of the albm, especially the "whoo"'s in Tis A Pity
>trivial "music"

Seriously, I've never respected his critique and this is just another nail

>>69682863
>he was actually a quite accomplished musician
What do you mean?

>>69687044
>However, in the case of an album like Blackstar one CANNOT ignore the contexts.

Yet more proof that Bowie's meme-death is making Bowie fanatics go crazy

>"L-like this album right now o-or I-I... uhh... I-I'll kn-knock your socks off! Bowie meme-died and it was super duper sad!"

Embarrassing :(

>>69687334
gotta be Low for me, but Station to Station is definitely up there

>>69686575
It's not the matter of him being right, since we all know it would be overblown due to Bowie's death, it's the fact that Scaruffi is unnecessarily mean in his review. It seems like a lot of his criticisms are personal attacks.

>>69687185
He gave Tortoise's The Catastrophist a 4/10

when will he post the albums he actually liked??

we need some 7.5s up in this bitch

>>69683950
that doesnt mean people didnt like Blackstar when it dropped.

>>69687434

He's already posted them. It's just that they're too obscure for us to find.

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>>69687434
He also hasn't given a 9 since 1997.

>>69687460

I looked up one of these albums from his "liked' list and it wasn't rated yet.

seems like he's just doing the most popular/most requested right now

>>69687481

I am aware of that

I don't expect anything above an 8 ever again

>>69681807
all scaruffi does is take what's good about the individual parts of the music and make them seem bad

this man is a hack for all hacks

>>69687368
It's literally about his death you sperg, the context is kind of important

>>69687511

name a better living critic

>>69687570

>the context is kind of important

Okay, so it's about death because of a real life context.

What's the punchline to this argument? How does this transition into a magical quality bump for the album?

http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/idiots.html

What the FUCK did he mean by this?

>>69687683

It doesn't

The argument is literally that the album should be force-memed as good, all because Bowie meme-died :)

>>69681807
>>69681807
All this butthurt over a bad album and someone calling it out
Don't even care if its sureboobel who is saying it, the album is pretty boring

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HOLY SHIIIIT
THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN
BOWIE BTFO EVEN IN HIS DEATH

>>69687714
>>69687708

100 percent correct. The album is a 5, at BEST, and would have been ignored if Bowie was alive today. It is also not universally loved as people here would like to believe.

>>69686462
not true as radiohead has two 7's. So overall, radiohead is the overall better band

WHAT ELSE DID HE UPDATE? I'm hungry for some new scaruffi reviews senpai

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>>69687185
>Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness - 6/10

Let's predict scores guys, I feel like Atrocity Exhibition will get a 7.5 or at least a 7.

>>69687493
>I don't expect anything above an 8 ever again
He gave Have One on Me an 8.5 if I'm not wrong but that's it

>>69681807
He just really fucking hates Bowie. Anything good Bowie might do is automatically invalidated by his bias. Not that a lot of his criticism is unfounded, but it's obvious Bowie can basically do no good in his eyes. It will always be seen as a second rate imitation of something similar. That's just how he sees Bowie.

>>69688073
SCREEN CAP THIS

from RYM best albums of 2015 and 16

To Pimp a Butterfly: 6/10
Carrie & Lowell: 6/10
Divers: 6.5, RIP
Jenny Death: 6.5, rated
Have You In My Wilderness, 6, rated
Third Side of Tape: 7.5
Oblivion Access: 6.5/10
Viet Cong: 5/10
Vulnicura: 5/10
In Colour: 4.5/10
Atrocity Exhibition: 6.5/10
We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service: 6/10
Skeleton Tree: 6.5/10
The Glowing Man: 5/10
Blonde: 7/10
elseq 1–5: 7/10
The Synarchy of Molten Bones: 7/10
The Impossible Kid: 5/10
Teens of Denial: 4.5/10
Wildflower: 6.5/10
Bottomless Pit: 5/10
You Want It Darker: 6.5/10
Malibu: 4/10

>>69688115

yeah but that was in 2010

and there have been only three 8s since (Janelle Monae, Julia Holter's first album, and some obscure death metal band)

>>69688279
>You Want It Darker: 6.5/10
it'll probably be lower desu

>>69688279
>Oblivion Access: 6.5/10
No way, Scaruffi likes LUM, it will be a 7 at most.
>To Pimp a Butterfly: 6/10
Arguably could be a 7 too.
The rest is pretty accurate.

>>69688400
he hasn't rated lil ugly mane at all yet and he said he liked third side of tape and mentioned nothing of oblivion. My guess it's gonna be a 6.5

we gonna get one of those rare 7.5 for a hip hop albums bois, i feel lit. And i feel the same with to Pimp a Butterfly, but a 6 feels like the safe answer.

>>69688400

TPAB has production that rivals MBDTF so I could see it being 7/10 or MAYBE 7.5 (especially since GKMC got 6.5)

>>69687344
98% of what scruffles says is wrong.

>>69687451
it does mean that your point about people freaking out over the leak is invalid

>>69688400

>Scaruffi likes LUM

wait what? I don't think Scaruffi has written anything about him yet

>>69687703
That he's a gigantic idiot that likes to ignore context or what's actually going on and cherry picks to fit what he thinks.

Actually, that seems to explain a lot, seems par for the course.

>>69687708
>Never listened to Bowie
>Blackstar release
>Listen to it and this its a good time
>Bowie dies three days later
god damn it, I knew I was late to the party but I didn't want to be part of the dedman crew.

>>69687493
he usually hands out an 8 or two a year

>>69688279
Atrocity exhibition will be a 7 or 7.5
he loved the first half of old

>>69681807
wtf I just read his Bowie reviews, he sounds like he has a personal grudge against him or something.

>>69687185
He dropped some of Aphex Twins rating and rated Random Access Memories a 4.5

>>69684514
>>69684607

come on, you make it looks like Scaruffi viscerally hates Bowie, like he fucked his girlfriend or something.
Actually Piero has stated many times in the past that he has a lot of respect for him for his role as a "patron" for many worthwhile artists (Reed, Iggy, Devo...) and that he was one of the most intelligent rockstars around.
He simply doesn't think that he's that great as a musician.

>>69688215

It might be possible that you are a Bowie fanatic, that Bowie's stuff, while fine to listen to, is not groundbreaking at ALL, and that you are very biased and have been gaslit by social pressure into liking Blackstar, which is only considered "good"in the context of Bowie's memedeath.

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ah yes

>>69688400
6.5 isn't too bad by his standards

>>69681807
KEK. BASED

>>69689267
this happened to me too

>>69690418

>four 8/10

Are Swans the band with the highest number of 8s or above on his website?

>>69681893
I got a good laugh out of that. After a massive paragraph of him ripping Bowie apart he pretty much ends the article with "oh btw he died".

>>69690806
He's given more to Frank Zappa.
Fugazi has 3 "8+"s scores

>>69690879

You are right. Zappa has five 8s and a 9.
Apart from those, anything else (Cave, Dylan, Beefheart, Faust, Sonic Youth, Doors, Wyatt, Germano, Mercury Rev, Pere Ubu, Popol Vuh, Residents, Fahey...) seems to have 3 albums max with an 8 or above rating.

>>69681807
Good. Only reason this got attention is because he passed. Blackstar is terrible compared to his 70s stuff

I like Scaruffi but its clear he can't look at his music objectively without his dislike of Bowie interfering.

>>69691095
Steve Roach also has 3 8s and an 8.5

>>69690806

Frank Zappa - 7
Roy Montgomery - 5 (in different projects)
Swans - 4
Meredith Monk - 4
Steve Reich - 4
Steve Roach - 4

Known people with 3: Captain Beefheart, The Velvet Underground, Pere Ubu, Tim Buckley, Klaus Schulze, Nick Cave, Lisa Germano, The Residents, Vampire Rodents, Butthole Surfers, Fugazi, Jon Hassell, Bardo Pond (if you count their Hash Jar Tempo collaborations), Phish

>>69685871
Vijay Iyer release is great, Bathysphere pretty good, too, Nels is pretty weak haven't really been a fan of his work ever though, haven't checked out the rest.

>implying scaruffi hates bowie

he liked low and heroes

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At least he think David Bowie is overrated and finds some of his stuff alright

>>69691331

this is review gore

>>69691259
>Meredith Monk

The fuck, why haven't I seen her 9's anywhere on Scaruffi's lists? Is it because she's counted as classical? Steve Reich doesn't show up anywhere on his greatest lists either.

>>69691331
Why would he even contine to review them. I don't think I've even seen him give out 2's to other albums besides this list.

>>69691451
>I don't think I've even seen him give out 2's to other albums besides this list.

Other than the TD albums he's given 2s to:

>Klaus Schulze - Jubilee Edition
>Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas
>Amon Tobin - Solid Steel Presents Amon Tobin: Recorded Live

>>69691331

I don't think it's just about "finding it alright".

He is looking for musical, and ONLY musical, innovation. To him, if Bowie releases something "merely as good" as something from the 1970s in 2016, then it is evidently not good at ALL from an innovation standpoint, hence a 4/10 would make sense even if people were saying that Bowie sounds better than he has in a while on Blackstar.

I am not surprised. Scaruffi's never been a big fan of the Beatles/post-Meddle-Pink Floyd/Bowie/Radiohead style of making music. The whole "seemingly simple pop tracks but with complexity/depth hidden within the subtleties" thing. In a way I get his frustration because the relative accessibility of these artists will always,within the context of the "canon of music", put them above musicians with similar depth/complexity that lack that relative amount of accessibility. His way of thinking of accessibility as a social construct of a sort is right, it is ultimately shallow; for example there are weird tribal subcultures around the world for whom Faust I would sound a lot more normal and accessible than Beatles because of their environment/culture (I remember listening to this one group's equivalent of a "musical scale" and its dissonant as fuck.) So accessibility is relative and ultimately shallow. But that doesn't discount that these artists that did get popular because of their accessibility factor didn't also make music that does in fact have depth/complexity to it. That doesn't discount that they, too were just as innovative as the usual musicians he likes, just in a different manner usually.

Hating on a poppy track that actually does go the extra mile to add depth/complexity is just as dumb as hating on a non-poppy track because it sounds too inaccessible or abrasive.

>>69691451

He's just inconsistent. Reich and Monk are supposedly not there because they are "avant-garde"

Fun-fact: he has two hidden 8.5s that are lesser-known as well. Check Terry Riley's profile ("Rainbow in Curved Air" gets an 8.5) and Borbetomagus (Barbed Wire Maggots gets an 8.5).

>>69691524
Dude also has a 5 star system for certain other albums.

>>69691499
>I remember listening to this one group's equivalent of a "musical scale" and its dissonant as fuck
You got any examples that are up on youtube or soundcloud? I'm genuinely interested in hearing this.

>>69691555

Yep!

Even more bizarre: Check Michael Stearns' profile. They all have star ratings. One album (Collected Ambient and Textural Works) gets **. But if you look at http://www.scaruffi.com/cdreview/1996.html, that self-same album has an 8/10!

>>69691524
I've seen a lot of artists under avant-garde but their still on his lists. Thanks for the heads up, I'll give all these a listen.

>>69691581
I think that was his old rating system and he never updated the ratings.

>>69691643

If you want to know how I learned all of this, some no-lifers over at RYM went through literally every profile, all CD reviews, and all decade lists and made a list of them at:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/SellMeAGod/scaruffitize_me__capn__pt__1/

Which is honestly a more coherent resource than his own website atm for 7-9.5 reviews.

SCARUFFI THE GOD
I KNEW I COULD COUNT ON YOU LMAOOOO
BOWIE POPTIMISTS BTFOOOOOO

LMAOOOOOOO
>B-BUT MUH TRAGIC BACK STORY
>MUH FEELS

B

T

F

O

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Here's a fun game: find out what Scaruffi thinks of your favorite film director

I found out Scaruffi likes John Carpenter. He's a big fan of Assault on Precinct 13, Escape from New York, Halloween, Dark Star and They Live. They're on his greatest films lists. Scaruffi usually gravitates towards dramas/arthouse films but it looks like he can enjoy a good genre film.

>>69691726

He really likes Kevin Smith's Dogma for some reason.

>>69691626
That is bizarre, I doubt he's even aware of the conflicting rates.

>>69691670
That is some next level autism, I'm glad someone did it though.

>>69691726
He has a Christopher Nolan page:

http://www.scaruffi.com/director/nolan.html

Has Scaruffi ever given out a 10?

He strikes me as the kind of guy who'd say 'a 10 is perfection and thus can NEVER be reached'.

>>69691904
TMR is basically his 10 and he'll probably update it to a 10 before he dies.

>>69691726
His favourite David Lynch film is Lost Highway
>mfw

>>69691581
Can't find the exact example on this atm. I took the class where we discussed this years ago. Shooting my teacher from then an email right now because I know he does it usually in the beginning of every time he has taught this class.

In the mean time, you can find a variety of studies on how dissonance is treated by various cultures otherwise.

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>>69691726
Not my favorite director but I did some digging on foot fucker. He has a boner for Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs but he thinks Jackie Brown is dull and he hates Kill Bill and Django Unchained.

>>69692019
>Shooting my teacher from then an email right now because I know he does it usually in the beginning of every time he has taught this class.

Ayy thanks anon that's way more than I expected someone to put in for a random anon ask on /mu/, sincerely appreciate it

>>69692050
>he thinks Jackie Brown is dull
>not realizing it's Tarantino's best
What a plen

>>69692050
scaruffi liked the hateful eight

>>69692357
Link?

>>69691904
>'a 10 is perfection and thus can NEVER be reached'.
That's pretty much his stance. Although he really, really loves Trout Mask Replica and I wouldn't be surprised if he changes its score to a 10.

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ah yes
>best films of 2016

>>69692436
>his 'Must See' ratings only go up to 7.5
He's like a reverse IGN; he's too stingy on giving things high ratings.

>>69692436
>Nocturnal Animals has two different ratings
What the fuck?

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>Best films:

>1. Fargo (1996)
>2. The Big Lebowski (1998)
>3. Barton Fink (1991)
>4. Raising Arizona (1987)
>5. Miller's Crossing (1990)
>6. O Brother Where Art Thou (2000)

Do you agree, /mu/?

>>69692540
It's weird, whenever I watch The Big Lebowski or Raising Arizona I can't help but think of the Coen Brothers as this wacky duo but then I see how they look in person and they look so fucking serious and dour all the time.

>>69692457
I've heard he doesn't actually watch any of the films he puts on that list. But who knows.

>>69681807
I AM HUMAN AND I NEED TO BE LOVED

>>69691726
don't worry about his film taste
It's primarily dogshit
His modern taste is commendable tho
I share his opinions with my film professors and we laugh at him, its a good time

desu I just wanna see the Kanye review

>>69693385
He'll probably give it a 5/10. I mean, he hated Yeezus

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>>69693365
hue

>>69693365
your profs don't like Werckmeister Harmonies?

>>69681807
>While a trivial guitarist and vocalist, George Harrison (who died of cancer in November 2001) was perhaps the only one who made songs worthy of notice.

THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN

Where are all the new reviews? Can't find them under 2016 or new reviews. Please help, i always look forward to new scruffles reviews

>>69693465
satan's tango is better
the long take wasn't a revolution
his opinions of old films is where it gets ghastly

I hope this pretentious wank knows his only input into my life was reminding me to give Blackstar another relisten, reaffirming my love for it.

Not sure why this man is celebrated.. As far as his sad play in my life goes, he just reminds me that some people can make a living off of being overtly out of touch with people and tearing better men and women down.

>>69694889
the dude is out of touch and contrarian as fuck but if you don't get why he gave it the rating he did then you flat out don't understand enough about scaruffi to have that opinion

>>69694889
>>69694913
record is shite regardless of how he feels about it

>>69688279
what about pablo?

>>69694889
>t some people can make a living off of being overtly out of touch with people and tearing better men and women down.

he doesn't make a living doing this, he's a software consultant

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>http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/PieroScaruffi

>>69691474

>He is looking for musical, and ONLY musical, innovation.

Not true. Scaruffi has said himself that emotion is very important to him. But innovation is probably more important. I think he sees the emotion in Blackstar as gimmicky, and people are only praising it because of the death concept that surprised everybody, without taking into account that musically it is honestly pretty uninteresting.

>>69687703
October, 2004: Piero Scaruffi, editor of this website, for having believed that Saddan Hussein still had weapons of mass destruction.

>>69692415
he gave it a 7 http://www.scaruffi.com/cinema/best15.html

>>69694889
Blackstar is overrated shit. Stay mad.

>>69681807
>funereal litany a` la Doors
Scaruffi is going deaf.

>>69683997
Nice point there.

>>69683072
>Scruff willingly blanks out important details about music history and while it's usually refreshing to have someone who is contrary to the normal flow of pop criticism, its retarded to make a statement like "Pere Ubu is one of the most influential bands ever" when hardly anyone has even listened to a Pere Ubu record.
I'm pretty sure PU are very influential.

>>69697173
NO FACTS TO BACK UP CLAIMS DEFENDING LITERALLY WHO
Thanks for playing.

>>69681807
>(from his Broadway musical about an alien who falls in love)

This is literally (not true by the way)

DUDE

INNOVATION

LMAO

Has anyone else found any new changes to his site?

So far he's reviewed, holter, Bowie, Radiohead and tortoise and apparently changed some ratings on daft punk and aphex twin

>>69698438
>aphex twin
syro is still rated 7. what did he change?

>>69698438
I don't think he's changed any Aphex or Daft Punk ratings.

>>69697775
Same with the "distorted guitar" in I Cant Give Everything Away.
I'm not hearing anything that could be described the way he describes it.

>>69698438
Oh shit he liked Syro
>Instead of trying to rehash his past career as Drukqs seemed to do, Aphex Twin looked ahead and focused on just one style on Syro (Warp, 2014): painstakingly sculpted, multilayered, hyperkinetic, scrambled, burbling, glitchy preludes for chopped vocal samples, fibrillating hyper-polyrhythms and looped eccentricities. His main asset here is the skill in manipulating audio devices, as proven also by the crystal-clear machine sound. His second asset is his passion for deviant harmony. The result is a deliberate contradiction, "songs" such as Minipops 67, 180db_ and Syro U473t8+e that attempt to fuse elegant geometry and dadaistic anarchy. Along the way James also stages two music-hall skits, namely Produk 29 (almost a parody of house-music) and the stuttering polka Circlont6a. This oblique strategy unravels masterfully in two pieces that straddle the border with classical music: Circlont14, that sounds like a Bach toccata remixed at 152 beats per minute with windchimes and castanets, and the major-key carillon-sonata Aisatsana. Aphex Twin had not been so inspired in 20 years. The warm, intense, passionate Syro is the opposite of the amateurish, detached, slacker Drukqs.
Color me surprised.

>>69698661
>Drukqs
>a rehash

Wut, it was his most experimental release to date.

>>69694913
All I'm hearing is that he has a massive hate boner for Bowie already, so why should I even care?

I shouldn't.

>>69695032
naw.

>>69697122
It's AOTY to many for a multitude of valid reasons: perfect production, great performance (despite cancer), masterful songwriting, context to the expression and a legend transcending an pretty great album into a time-evolving epitaph.

Hardly sounds like the grounds for being rated more so than it deserves. If anyone sounds like an upset child, it's you.

Absolutely based.

Bowie represents everything wrong with music. Normies who revise history to say their banal pop is important just because it has some quirks stolen from actual innovators need to be called out. Bowie was all style and no substance to the very end.

>>69699762
What do you listen to? Don't like or dislike Bowie, just genuinely curious?

>>69683692
I think this sounds like someone who isn't accustomed to his abstract lyricism.
Plenty of meaning in each line, yet the approach is everything.

>>69683753
For example.
>I was looking for your ass
This whole thing is about his life, the part of his life he resents the most is New York. The video demonstrates this as it brings back the costume from the Ashes To Ashes video (A song about his life in the 70's.)
It's possibly that he sums up all this wasted time and health, the reason he fucked his liver so hard, because he's just chasing tail like a dog, spending his Ziggy cash on coke and blitzed out in the Thin White Duke era.

>I'm not a pornstar
For an artist to have been many things, he was at first most notoriously considered pornographic and extremely, sexually perverse to conservative adults during the Ziggy stuff.

But that doesn't quite sum up a man who revered his peace and personal privacy.

Not sure about the monday line, but he died on one, and seeing how he set up the rest of this death shit 3 days in advance..

There.

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>>69699802
A lot of things. My AOTY is Barbara Kinga Majewska, Emilia Sitarz play Franz Schubert Winterreise.

>>69699921
>Emilia Sitarz play Franz Schubert Winterreise.
Winterreise is shit. His String Quartet no. 15 is the only good Schubert.

>>69699980
Your loss.

>>69700037
>''Waaah, Bowie is normie shit!''
Your loss.

>>69700132
That's true, because Bowie had a negative influence on pop music. It's everyone's loss.

>>69700165
>Bowie had a negative influence on pop music
How so?

>>69683072
>its retarded to make a statement like "Pere Ubu is one of the most influential bands ever" when hardly anyone has even listened to a Pere Ubu record.
>I'm pretty sure there was a period of time where they didn't even print the first three Pere Ubu records as well and they were actually dug up again to be re-released.

You don't have to be popular among the general audience to be highly influential.
Haven't you ever heard of the famous quote about The Velvet Underground usually attributed to Brian Eno?
>"The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band”

>>69700132
>typing out waaah
>even as sarcasm

Has anyone found any other new reviews or score changes?

>>69699921
A lil bit too much shidaiqu

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>>69699886
I disagree about the Ashes to Ashes bit. It's not that, it's more subtle. I appreciate the rest of what you said, but you got a bit of that wrong.

For one, he actually loved New York, clearly. He lived there more than I think he lived anywhere else, raised his daughter there, presumably, and died there. He obviously loved it.

The time he resents most was in Los Angeles, which he had both said should be wiped off the face of the planet, and several times regarded that as an era of drugs, madness, bad "friends," and very little memory. The costume he brought back was actually from the Station to Station era, a photoshoot where he was drawing the Tree of Life on a rug, basically, which was a habit of his at the time, apparently. That's actually what the line in Breaking Glass is about.

It's partially that, the "wasted time and health" I'd say is the "there I spent up all my money" line. "Looking for your ass" goes back to >>69683997 to me.

It's a dense song either way, but these are two entirely different points and sets of imagery. I remember people being worried back when it happened because of it. It's a weird damn callback to go for that costume as a frail, shaking old man being visited by a twitching, bob-cut Death while singing about trying to save your legacy and eternal soul.

Earthling>Blackstar

>>69702792
meh

>>69702792

Bowie hasn't released a very good album in more than 35 years.
Buddha of Suburbia and Outside are (slightly) better than Earhling, though.

>>69687334
Scary Monsters