Rather listen to Britney Spears or Papa Roach would you?

I can only assume from such a misunderstood and pointlessly convoluted review, that those are the only two artists that you have in your music collection.

Let me slow it down for the ‘tards out there. Papa Roach and Britney Spears suck. Bibio sucks more. I’d rather listen to that which merely sucks, as opposed to that which sucks more.

I could have been clearer I suppose. Here’s a list of things I’d rather do than listen to Bibio:

-Pour boiling water on my genitals.
-Eat a bag filled with a mix of glass and dog feces.
-Watch Grey’s Anatomy.
-Attempt a fulfilling, long-term relationship with Amy Winehouse.
-Model a sweater made entirely of live spiders.
-Follow Ashton Kutcher on Twitter.
-Have a handful of Maury episodes be dedicated to my hate of creamy peanut butter, and during a taping, be forced to confront creamy peanut butter and confess my secret hatred. Later, crunchy peanut butter would come on stage, and it would fight creamy peanut butter. Needless to say, I’d be in a very precarious situation!
-Etc.

Hope this clears up my convoluted review!

and suddenly jill sobule is looking good..

Why does Bibio suck more than Britney Spears or Papa Roach, Mr. Mitchell? Your review and comment don’t give any specific reason for your opinion.

Uh. When I refer to modern pop music as ‘better’, I’m speaking in hyperbole of course… but the sample we provide should be proof enough. Noise is not art. Nor is the combination of dissonant sounds.

‘Perhaps it’s me’ – the underpinning statement, I think people seem to have lost sight of the fact that reviews are opinions (i.e subjective) and not fact. To be honest I used to really like Bibio now I have lost interest in his music a bit as the formula seems to have been a bit tired/flat/one dimensional for a while now, I prefer ‘The Flashbulb’, but that’s not to say that the incarnation ‘Bibio’ is not without merit. Frankly the suggestion that Britney Spears or Papa Roach are more listenable is simply inflammatory and serves no real purpose. In the vein of the man himself, it’s fair that you express a dislike for his music even in the harshest possible terms but to insult the people who enjoy his it is deeply immature and blinkered. I’d be interested to hear what you actually enjoy listening to…….

Just noticed you gave Metric a great review a fairly decent album, so some insight into your taste…..but doesn’t Emily Haines target her music at 15 years old girls? LOL

James V Mitchell, why did you moderate my comments?? Weak!

Luke, no one was around to approve comments. Relax, man.

Luke… I didn’t moderate anything. This isn’t Youtube. We take time to make sure the comments posted are thought out and worth the time of our readers. We get spam, too.

As far as being inflammatory. You’re right. I was. Intentionally. And I’m not going to go down a list of things I listen to or enjoy. You can get a sense of that from some of my many, many reviews. I’ve panned maybe 4 or 5 albums I think are absolutely terrible. Bibio is just one in a series of things Shawn has given to me where I’ve gone, “Is this a joke?” So ease up.

As for mocking listeners of Bibio, well, you mocked me and the ’15 year old girls’ who enjoy Metric. I suppse then it’s safe to say we’re all critics, if not assholes.

True (the last sentence – I’m an arsehole!)….just baiting with the Metric thing, it was too easy to overlook. I appreciate your opinion but simply don’t see the need to insult.

Don’t be rude. I’m not fond of Ovals & Emeralds either, but faced with the choice of listening to Papa Roach complain like a teenager versus minimal/unintelligible lyrics, I would definitely choose the latter.

To me, it sounds like Ovals & Emeralds was a poorly assembled collection of b-sides rather than being “bleak, vague and pointless,” and an attempt to get an audience “duped into believing that music can take shape in a discordant, arrhythmic mix of sounds…”

It may not be well-constructed, but probably doesn’t need to be compared with Chinese water torture.

I’m not surprised you would sympathize with a character who, when confronted with an obstacle, completely fails at finding a meaning or attempt at solving it — instead of cutting his losses and moving on, he spews his impotent rage at the people around him that appreciate it.

He is what is known in the art world as a ‘philistine’. Rest assured, there are many other people out there just like you, and they are happily keeping the state of pop music at its current low.

“Philistine” eh? If an opinion on this band is the litmus for such a term, then I’ll happily give up on music altogether. Actually… I don’t even consider this music, so your retort is moot. If you dig Bibio, fine. But I hold fast to my own opinion, as I expect you do yours. Even if that opinion is rendered out of a need to feel artsy and cool. I would never sacrifice taste for a feeling of independence. “Impotent rage”. Hahahah… Get over it.

your not very smart james you probably shouldn’t be reviewing anything… i feel sorry for you angry man

You that you spelled “you’re” incorrectly, right? Not a good way to make your “you probably shouldn’t be reviewing” point.

dylan’s livejournal is leaking

[...] haven’t written a review since this one. I like to tell myself it’s because I’ve been too busy, or I’ve been suffering from [...]

Ovals and Emeralds has some extremely out there tracks which yes are a challenging listen but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Track 3, ‘Carosello Ellitico’ is a stunning joy. Tis a stone hearted sort that can’t see the beauty in it.

“tis”. LOL.

James, you come across as an old fart who resents other people’s adventurous taste and open mindedness simply because you can’t hack this yourself. Just in the same way that our parents’ generation never liked rap and feel the need to justify it by reminding us all that it “isn’t proper music”, which is totally futile. You spewed out this rather conceitedly bold statement: “Noise is not art. Nor is the combination of dissonant sounds.” Wow! That pretty much invalidates a hell of a lot of artists out there. Mind you, I suppose if Pearl Jam is some kind of yardstick of your sense of quality or your adventurousness then it doesn’t take much for something to sound challenging, or indeed ‘dissonant’ – a word often used by people who want to sound knowledgeable about music but simultaneously prove they know fuck all. John Coltrane used dissonance, Stockhausen explored noise – but according to you, neither of these produced ‘art’. This is one of those reviews which makes it obvious you never really listened in the first place; most of the tracks on this EP are rhythmic (3/4, 4/4, 6/8 for example), harmonic, melodic, structured and some contain non-dissonant intricate guitar fingerpicking styles, which I’m sure you yourself could not better. Stick to the self indulgent duty of reminding us all why ‘Pearl Jam matters’. Loser.

There is a difference between listening to something and liking something. If we don’t like it, we don’t have to defend the review: it’s 8 months old.

I am happy that some people like Bibio release and if you don’t like James’ writing, sorry. I happen to think that he illustrated why he doesn’t like the album and this review gives me the glimpse into what James, as a reviewer, does and doesn’t like. Art invokes emotions, including those so contradictory that we can make statements like “noise isn’t art”. Hard to believe that over several paragraphs, you were incensed enough to look into other writing by James and check out his “art”, which judging by your definition, all writing would be. If you’re willing to say that he didn’t get Bibio, you can also argue that you don’t get us. We like what we like and I won’t apologize for that.

Peter Gammons doesn’t have to be able to throw a better knuckleball than Tim Wakefield to criticize him, but you think we need to be able to fingerpick to write reviews? Seriously, you’re angry, that’s clear, but you’re pretty effing unreasonable.

Have a good holiday – it’s December and you should be shopping, not whining about reviews from albums that were only supposed to be a sample of what an artist could do 8 months after we posted. That’s called “trolling”. You got your response. Move along.

I fail to see how my defense of Pearl Jam as a contributor to the landscape of music makes that band my “yardstick” for quality. I also fail to see what glass holding structures in window construction have to do with your post. Maybe you were trying to be clever.

But thanks for pointing out the time signatures. Should I be impressed that Wilkinson’s songs adhere to musical standards but somehow evade a sense of musicality all together? Is that skill? Or should I pay attention to your hipster sleight of hand? Dropping Coltrane and Stockhausen, two artists (composers, if you will) I’d be the last to think of after spinning anything by Bibio (or anyone else for that matter) is oh so distracting, what will I do? You must have taste! You must be worldly and shit! You must have a record player! HOW DASHING AND DIFFERENT! How dare I criticize that which I did not like, and that which you did? Oh no! The internet is crumbling around me! THE TROLLS DOTH COME FROM YONDER BASE ATOP THY IVORY TOWER OF INDIE ROCK CREDIBILITY!

Bibio’s “Ovals Emeralds” sucked. And so does “Ambivalence Avenue”.

He could have referenced Jaco Pastorious for bonus points but really missed out on a good opportunity there.

transom&mullion was the first thing that came to my head, no hidden meaning there, I didn’t realize my name had to support my argument, apologies for that. It seems you fancy yourself as a comedian too, shame, I didn’t laugh. I love the way that musicians publicize music and are expected to receive criticism, but it seems that poor little pseudo-critics are so delicate they can’t take criticism back. My reason for dropping names like Coltrane and Stockhausen is because they were two highly influential and highly revered artists, who, with your ultra-conservative statement ‘noise is not art…’, you completely dismiss, there was no intention to compare them to bibio, so don’t create a decoy by reading between the lines. I was merely pointing out the ignorance and futility of your narrow opinion on music. Whipping out the ‘hipster’ card is one of the laziest and most cliche of defenses, I see it all over the internet, it seems if your taste is more diverse than gash seattle rock, then you’re a hipster. It’s pretty lame, and inaccurate. I read the other comments because after stumbling upon this review, I was interested to see how many people you may have insulted with: “A small but growing audience of music fans have, for some reason, allowed themselves to be duped into believing that music can take shape in a discordant, arrhythmic mix of sounds if you just let yourself go”… I was certainly one, although I also find it vaguely amusing, but it seems I’m not the only one who thought your review was trite. And if you don’t want people to comment 8 months down the line – disable the comments, remove the post, whatever… this is the internet where people express opinions, they can do that on the day of the post or 8 YEARS down the line if they wish, although it seems you don’t actually want that. Oh, and cymbals and snares produce noise and dissonant overtones – want to see them eradicated from rock music? Or do they have their place because you, the might James V. Mitchell allows it to be so?

oh, and @ shaun smith:

Angry? Unreasonable?

Like this:

“After this handful selection of nothingness”

Or

“I’d sooner turn it off and bask in the frank, and possibly more meaningless exposition of Britney Spears or Papa Roach.”

?

Or are those comments a good example of constructive, reasonable and culturally accurate criticism, completely free of bilious anger?

IMO, it’s not a review, it’s a masturbatory rant from a guy who thinks his lack of musical adventurousness is something worth boasting about.

Bye!

Sticks and stones, etc.

No matter how many times you post a comment on this review, my opinion will remain intact: Bibio isn’t very good.

And neither is Stormloop.

He also spelled my name wrong. I would like to say that offends me, but I think my parents wrote my name in 3/4 and were busy fingerpicking a ukulele during my birth. I haven’t had a child yet, so I don’t understand the process.

@transom&mullion Yes, unreasonable. No one comes to see this review. I would LOVE to furnish the stats for you to prove that even if Google shows us as the number one result, no…one…clicks…through. They don’t care. It’s a review and all reviews are biased based on the writer’s tastes and preferences. Hell, I assign them based on past experiences and obviously didn’t listen to enough o’ this to realize what a bucket of balls it is.

You know what mate? You’re right, bibio is shit, and pearl jam are great, and noise is invalid and dissonance isn’t art, and anyone who likes experimental music is a lying hipster who has allowed themselves to fall for that ‘emperor’s new clothes’ gag. Oh and stormloop? It’s a Flemish word I liked the look/sound of, saw it on a monument in Belgium, I fail to see what it has to do with this discussion. So a Flemish word you were undoubtedly previously unaware of is ‘shit’? Besides aren’t there rules/laws about disclosing information about people? You like to stoop low eh? And for the records, I don’t want you to change your opinion, I want you to consider how it appears to other people, which judging by the general response here, doesn’t look like it’s in your favor.

@ shaWn… nobody cares, you’re right, hence your multiple and prompt responses. Pedantic comments like misspellings are great decoys, just comb youtube for abundant examples of this. Oh and before you get back, yes I do care, hence my multiple replies.

Well, instead of flaming in the comments, you should have written this out in an email. There’s a “contact us” section for a reason. My prompt responses have more to do with my having the back-end of my site open while at work, in case something needs to be fixed or edited quickly. Maybe even if big news breaks. Who knows. Listen, I am fucking with you when I say it’s a “bucket of balls”. I have heard worse, honestly. James just didn’t like it, but don’t get too heated over it. Honestly, passion and anger aren’t one in the same.