nov 11
2008
Chinese Democracy
So yeah, Chinese Democracy? Rolling Stone loves it. (I get the weird feeling that the best conceptual comparison will be Eminem.)
7 comments
The last time I read RS regularly was in the early 90s, and they ALWAYS gave 4 stars MINIMUM to washed up 70s rockers with new albums. I also cracked an issue at a bookstore recently and every useless pop-alt band was getting 3 to 3.5 stars on every bullshit release.
posted by alesh at 10:34 PM on November 11, 2008 
OK, I did a little clicking around. John Fogerty, Marianne Faithfull, Bowie, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, and King Krimson. All got 4 stars, and that's just from a couple of months in 1997.
posted by alesh at 11:04 PM on November 11, 2008
Why did Fricke p-out on the fifth star then? We need that Nate Silver guy to calculate Rolling Stone's grade inflation/deflation since 1978. And he can break it down by new vs. established acts and hopefully come up with an index for extra credit depending on x amount of years between records.
posted by stevemarsh at 11:10 PM on November 11, 2008
My favorite part about RS Online is the commenters who try to outdo the critics. The formula: use a lot of four syllable words that you don't understand, compare the project to a really obscure artist for credibility, and claim to understand the hidden message that all music apparently contains, but make sure that you convey that it seems obvious to you. Repeat for all subsequent paragraphs.
posted by Robert at 11:23 PM on November 11, 2008
And somebody needs to write an essay on this Journey situation. Why is this happening? Calling Nate Silver...
posted by stevemarsh at 11:32 PM on November 11, 2008
Sidenote: Nate Silver now has people coming up with jobs for him.
posted by Gavin at 1:33 PM on November 12, 2008
4 stars from Rolling Stone is 1.5 stars on an objective scale.
posted by mpb at 3:16 PM on November 12, 2008
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