'Moon' Shot

Indie rock Twitter setting itself on fire over a 6.0 record review in PITCHFORK isn't a new phenomenon—critics will critic and stans will stan—but Wednesday's three-alarm blaze over the CONDÉ NAST site's review of FOXING's fourth album, DRAW DOWN THE MOON, was of special interest because of the involvement of the St. Louis band's manager, who Tuesday night was publicly begging Pitchfork for a review of the two-week-old album and Wednesday morning was declaring himself "done with virtually all music press" after reading "the most idiotic and objectively wrong review I've read in years." Careful what you wish for, JOSEPH MARRO. The manager, who deleted that second tweet after it started attracting subtweets and shade from all corners of indie rock social media, was joined in his anger by a small army of emo fans, who accused Pitchfork's SHAAD D'SOUZA of writing about the album he wished Foxing had made instead of the one it did make, which D'Souza described as an errant attempt to revive "early-to-mid-2010s" "earnest, urbane" indie rock festival music. (If you need time to process what this particular revival will mean for you, dear reader, go ahead. I can wait.) This is a not uncommon criticism of music criticism, and it often has merit. But D'Souza's review isn't deserving of it. It's thoughtful and well written, it puts the album in the context of the band's career and the current rock universe, and it has a clear point of view. It's the notes of a disappointed fan. You can acknowledge all of that whether you agree or disagree with it. (It also has the decimal-pointed numerical score that Pitchfork is famous for and that you can't blame the writer for and which has been debated ad nauseam over the decades; I'll spare you any more of that.)

Reviews matter, and have always mattered, to serious music fans. On a superficial level, they can provide a quick guide to what might, and might not, be worth your listening time. On a deeper level, a smart review can sharpen your ears and help you hear a piece of music in a way you might not otherwise hear it, give you new ways to think about it, add context and details, or provide an almost unrelated, self-contained entertainment of its own, in the way any piece of good writing can. Criticism is an essential part of the music ecosystem. There's a tremendous amount of dreck out there, and some meanness too, but the good stuff is worth fighting for. The artform has been under assault for several years by forces including shrinking editorial budgets, the distractions of YOUTUBE and SPOTIFY, and the devaluing of music itself. There will always be angry or frustrated artists, managers and publicists; that's part of the ecosystem, too. But I'd like to think they, even in their most frustrated moments, are readers, too. I know Foxing lead singer CONOR MURPHY is, because he helped shut down the debate with a note on the band's official Twitter account that started, "Okay so a bad review. This happens." Murphy went on: "At the end of the day, pitchfork didn't love the album and that's okay... I for one am going to enjoy the fact that people cared enough to write a review of a thing I was a part of making." Win-win. Or, if you will, win-lose-win.

And now you're going to go check out the album yourself, aren't you?

Plus Also Too

Add LANA DEL REY to the list of artists just saying no to future posthumous album releases. A day after ANDERSON .PAAK posted a photo of an arm tattoo requesting no "posthumous albums or songs with my names attached," Del Rey re-posted .Paak's arm on her Instagram with the note "it's in my will but it's also on his tattoo"... Add UNITEDMASTERS to the list of record company alternatives that are offering advances to some artists—up to $1 million—and that have hit on the novel idea of paying artists royalties almost immediately instead of making them wait months. The latter program, part of a partnership with a company called PAPERCHAIN, is in essence an advance too, as Paperchain is using algorithms to calculate what it *thinks* an artist's royalties will be and paying that amount in real time, which, if I'm reading this correctly, is basically using the predicted royalties as an advance against the actual royalties. Which seems like a damn good use of both advances and algorithms... SPOTIFY expands access to its "Music + Talk" format.

Rest in Peace

Singer/songwriter (and Disney voice actor) CAROLINE PEYTON.