5 Links to Consider | February 5, 2024
A round-up of this week's compelling and considered clicks, compiled from The Absolute Sound's veteran staff of experts and reviewers.
The Beatles Win Grammy with Their AI-Assisted Song. But How Exactly Was It Made?
Now and Then began as a demo recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s. In 1994, Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, passed the recording to Paul McCartney, who, alongside Ringo Starr and the late George Harrison, attempted to complete it as part of The Beatles Anthology project. However, technical limitations at the time prevented Lennon’s vocals and piano from being properly separated from the lo-fi cassette recording, which halted progress.
It wasn’t until 2021 that advancements in audio technology made the project viable. Filmmaker Peter Jackson’s team, responsible for the Get Back documentary, developed a machine-learning system called MAL capable of isolating and enhancing individual audio components. This allowed McCartney and Starr to finally finish Now and Then with Harrison’s pre-recorded guitar parts from the 1990s sessions.
Rolling Stone's 500 Worst Reviews of All Time (work in progress)
What do I mean by the 'worst' reviews?
The reviews generally break down into four categories:
(1) Poorly Written Reviews: Self-explanatory. Most of these were written in the magazine's infancy, when no one knew what the hell they were doing.
(2) Curmudgeonly Reviews: Reviews that are unduly harsh or dismissive, or offer a specious critique of a band. In many cases the artist that is the target of the curmudgeon's wrath is inventing a new genre, which confuses the critic, causing them to lash out with sarcasm and invective. In other instances, the curmudgeon has a personal ax to grind, and is lambasting an album for reasons that are completely tangential to the music itself. Almost all of Dave Marsh's reviews fall under #2. Many of Christian Hoard's do too (when he is not writing anti-reviews). Jon Landau was a curmudgeon until he stopped caring and became a hack.
(3) Hack Reviews: Terrible albums, generally by established artists (and/or personal friends of Jann Wenner), that were reviewed favorably by RS. In many cases I honestly doubt that the critic genuinely holds the opinions articulated in these reviews. Anthony DeCurtis, David Fricke and Rob Sheffield are clearly the biggest and worst hacks. J.D. Considine really straddles both #2 and #3. Chuck Eddy possibly belongs here as well, but some of his reviews are so bizarre and off-base that I'm tempted to put him in a fifth category all his own.
(4) Anti-Reviews: A review that hedges, describing an album without ever really offering an opinion about it, usually in one hundred words or less. Invariably an anti-review awards an album three stars.
"I find the biggest problem with rock criticism is the lack of any criticism of the criticism." -Jon Landau, Rolling Stone, March 11, 1976 How we’re recovering priceless audio and lost languages from old decaying tapes
“The LM-3032 Tape Restorator works by applying cyclomethicone (a silicone-based solvent used in cosmetics) to the length of a tape. This leaves behind an extremely thin film of lubrication that allows smoother playback, making digitisation possible.
Tests have shown this process has no negative long-term effects on the tape. In fact, tapes treated with this method five years ago still play without issues.
This technological wizardry allows us to salvage precious analogue recordings before it’s too late.
For many languages, these may be the only known recordings – stored on a single cassette, in a single location, and virtually inaccessible. Some of the primary research records digitised by PARADISEC have survived long periods of neglect in offices, garages and attics.”
Bluetooth Speakers Are Ruining Music
When I was in my early 20s, commuting to work over the freeways of Los Angeles, I listened to Brian Wilson’s 2004 album, Smile, several hundred times. I like the Beach Boys just fine, but I’m not a superfan, and the decades-long backstory of Smile never really hooked me. But the album itself was sonic mesmerism: each hyper-produced number slicking into the next, with Wilson’s baroque, sometimes cartoonish tinkering laid over a thousand stars of sunshine. If I tried to listen again and my weathered Mazda mutely regurgitated the disc, as it often did, I could still hear the whole thing in my head…
Young People's Concert: "Bach Transmogrified" / Bernstein · New York Philharmonic
Bernstein discusses different transmogrifications or treatments of Bach's works. After an organ recital of the Little Fugue, guest conductor Leopold Stokowski conducts his own transcription of the fugue for symphony orchestra. Other transmogrifications include Foss' Phorion and a version of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 performed by the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble.
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