Today, I’m going to let you all into my process a bit, because I struggled to write this review.
I talk to people about what I do, and I tell them about the bad movies I see or bad albums I hear, and I think that tends to get across how much I love movies and music: There’s a lot I’m willing to put up with in pursuit of finding great stuff to watch or hear. The thing is, badness? It isn’t all that bad. Art that really strikes as bad is incredibly easy to write about. I think badness is the end result of creativity gone awry. Truly awful material is fascinating. You can learn a lot from trash, and writing about trash is nearly as fun as writing about treasure.
It’s everything in between that I can’t stand reviewing. Wolf Parade’s Thin Mind is far from bad. I’ll listen to it again, maybe while I’m cooking or working out; it’s perfectly fine. But “fine” isn’t “good,” and nailing down what makes something “fine” not so fine after all is a real pain in the neck.
I tried to do that anyway for Paste Magazine, so check it out.
A Constant Visual Feast 