i can respect that he wrote this article as no other national music journalist would (3 stars is the new disparaging remark). too bad he's wrong at points and his punch has no weight behind it, but at least he tried.

also, i said this before, but it remains to be the truth: everything you write about music is taken with a grain of salt when you were once a member of a shitty band like ui.

i know he's a man,i just like calling him my bitch.

but agreed, absolute terrible writing. I really don't understand how TNY keeps publishing his crap. I think it's cause if they fired him for someone who wrote about real relevant artists, he'd cry racism.

Lately he's only written about hip-hop, without the understanding that it's DEAD. sales and ingenuity-wise.

poor man. poor deluded man.

Once they figured out she was a junkie, she should've been shelved and left alone to toil by herself on the independant scene. I wonder if she'd be as big. They shouldn't be marketing her and her story to youth culture as much they do.

God I feel so old typing that. :(

This woman is not a step-up from the Britney Spears role model archetype. More like a step to the right....

Snoopy Dogg.

Hip hop photography.

Soulja Boy.

On grime.

M.I.A.

Dude 'n' Nem.

Lil Wayne.

i'm sure you get the picture. those were all within the last 6 months.

And I would say mjb is half soul/ half hip hop, but she sold her soul to the devil after 411.

Also, he wrote slams of indie rock claiming it wasn't black enough (?!?!), a terrible piece about johanna newsom and his thing about the "gorillaz-go-peking-opera" was so blatheringly fawning as to be cringe-worthy.

who gives a fuck if people don't know what "real" soul singing sounds like. doesn't mean they'd like it if they heard it, and it doesn't mean they can't like winehouse

and who gives a fuck if amy winehouse sounds like christina aguilera with better taste (funny, BTW).

xtina hearts dj premier, and since then has been aight with me

I know it's pop music and the kids probably eat it up, but I just find Whinehouse's chaotic, troubled-girl archetype so tired. It kind of bums me out that so many people seem to eat it up. It's so typically British music tabloid pop.

But they do eat it up. And it's probably a good thing too, because if you took that away, there wouldn't be much left, just a not particularly interesting pomo pastiche on girl groups and soul. It's music that makes "I'm am Shelby Lynne" seem path breaking by comparison.

As for Sharon Jones, she's definitely on the retro side. But that's the point. She's also like what, 52 years old, on the young side of the classic soul moment, but perhaps one of the last people who grew up during that period to come to prominence making soul music.

She's also one of the best live acts I've seen in quite some time. It's comfort food for sure. It doesn't have pretenses to being more. And it tastes fucking good.