Music Twitter has, once again, been dominated by Pitchfork today. The notorious publication decided to rescore some of their old reviews and, unsurprisingly, musos went mad.
Anthony Fantano discussed it in a video; Gawker even reviewed the rescored reviews. When you score music to the decimal point, someone’s always going to have an opinion about it.
In their feature, Pitchfork welcomingly gave better scores to great albums by PJ Harvey, Rilo Kiley, and Jeffrey Lewis.
However, they obviously left out a lot of other reviews also in need of a correction. We thought we’d help them out with some other old reviews that they really should have changed too!
Panic! at the Disco – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (1.5 > 6.8)
The debut studio album by the divisive pop punk band might not be excellent but 1.5 seems much too low. There has to be a reason it remains culturally relevant 16 long years after its release.
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Tracks like ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ are grating but memorable, still belted out in bars and clubs today. For all the formulaic production, moments of sincerity slipped through. The whininess was always balanced by strong emotive instrumentation.
The Streets – Original Pirate Material (7.9 > 9.0)
For someone from the U.K. of a certain age, this is so seminal. What an encapsulating record. The debut studio album from Mike Skinner’s project might have been heavily influenced by U.S. hip hop but U.K. garage dominates proceedings.
He spins genuinely moving tales of working class Britain, never demeaning, always genuine. Witty and sincere in equal measure, it’s a work of originality that still stands the test of time.
Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap (0.8 > 8.5)
In 2018, Pitchfork tried to retroactively erase memories of what they originally gave this masterpiece by rating it an 8.5 but it’s too little too late. “Mediocrity is not a punishable crime, but if it was, Belle & Sebastian would be enjoying their last meal right about now,” begun the original review, an abhorrent opening line.
On their third studio album, none of Belle & Sebastian’s powers had diminished. Stuart Murdoch and co. were still able to conjure melancholic songs as if it was the breeziest thing to do in the world.
Murdoch was a literary songwriter of the highest order: to start a record with ‘It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career’ and not have it be the strongest track on the album is testament to his talent. Delicate and arresting, wistful and detailed, the Glaswegians knew how to make excellent indie pop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYj5WS3vntA
Tool – Lateralus (1.9 > 6.4)
The alternative metal band might not have been operating at their highest level on their third studio album but it didn’t deserve such a low score. They still won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance for the song ‘Schism’; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame still placed the album in its Definitive 200 list.
It was experimental and challenging and not supposed to be consumed easily; perhaps the sheer domination of their previous album Aenima hindered its reception.
