Wow, this whole essay is incredibly balanced. Bravo - this is so refreshing to hear someone convey their thoughts so eloquently and fairly. This made my day, to be honest.

Music in the 'streaming age' travels and is caught by... 'word of gob' ( by word of mouth ) within your feed. If something is good... you'll hear about it. The zeitgeist now speaks directly to the masses. There's no longer a need for 'purveyor's of good taste' to supersede on musics behalf. The music industry can now concentrate on web-focused theatrics... to entice new consumers. Music critics are excess baggage, another layer of fluff that's unnecessary in the coming digital age. Like everything... change is happening. The Rock will be separated from the Roll. You must 'roll' with it. There's good and bad to discover... just as 'change' always wraps itself in. You can see the positives, or bemoan and reminisce... a bygone past.

Those are good points Tom, I miss your music reviews with Jake 😢 Check out Creative Maelstrom sometime for his reviews, he always has a comment on the album cover which is fun.

Awh man, I miss you and Jake and Velocities in Music, and listening to this made me remember why I loved listening to you guys so much... The critical thinking and vulnerability, and also the friendship you two had, made the podcasts so so so enjoyable to listen to. I wish I could argue with your points on this video, but I completely agree with you. I loved how you defined the terms of what music critics should do, and I agree, they should educate and help viewers discover new music, and make them think about it in a different way ! I remember watching Oliver from Deepcuts try not to give numerical scores for his album reviews, and I thought it was super interesting! I think Pitchfork is trying to appease the masses as much as they can with the numerical rating and colourful language, but if they aren't educating or challenging the music they are discussing, it hurts the artist and people's perspective and opinions on an album! A 5/10 is a decent score, you remember??? But in todays standards, a 5 is a very low and almost harsh score ! Anyways, miss you guys and hope y'all are both doing well

You should get a podcast man, I really enjoyed listening to this. And I agreed with everything honestly.

This was a great video man....way too level headed and straight forward for the drama driven separatist mainstream...but I hope this concept becomes the new prevailing ideal...giving everyone an honest chance!

Your analysis is spot on. I liked listening to podcasts like Velocities in Music and That's Not Metal, and even though I didn't always have the same taste, it was great to hear people talking passionately about music. Then if I hadn't heard of the band before, I can give it a listen to see if I like it, or understand what they are discussing. When there's so much music out there, it's just a fact that you haven't heard the names of 99% of artists that exist, so you do need some help to point you in the direction of the good/interesting albums. I suppose there's probably not that much value in advertising (via a review/podcast) a new album/song by Ed Sheeran because most people will know who he is and know if they would want to hear it or not; although you could still enjoy a discussion with people talking passionately about the music. So I'm not saying it shouldn't be reviewed at all, but there's just more value in promoting the lesser-known material.

This was really informative! You helped me understand why I've never found much value in the hundreds of faceless publication review articles I come across. It's much more compelling and easier to appreciate when I have an understanding of who the reviewer is, where they're coming from, and what they're trying to accomplish. I really enjoyed watching, thanks for this!

This was spot on man, more people need to hear this

Fantano's recent review of the last National album had him just sleeping and he gave it a 2 out of 10. I haven't heard it. I got into the band with High Violet, but I think I found each subsequent album less interesting, to the point that I bought the prior one and still haven't opened it. lol. I feel that Pitchfork has shifted in the last few years since they changed ownership. They review a lot more mainstream pop artists that would never be reviewed or had their News reported. They are going for more diversity, which is a good thing, but I don't know about ignoring or greatly diminishing what made them popular. It could be me though. I don't really have the pulse of current music, and mostly am buying music of artists I already know and filling in gaps of music from past decades.

Great points!

great video, i hope this pops off and starts some conversations I will say that episodes of the p4k podcast that I've listened to have that personable quality you mentioned in the second half of the video. I've felt much more willing to listen to a record after *hearing* someone talk about it rather than just reading someone talk about it. isn't that weird?

eminem album got 4.8 and sexy red got 7 and ice spice got 8 so i get what ed is saying

“A professional critic” of any kind is arguably THE most made up bs job title ever.

The fact you mentioned Ed sheeran is an L