Hinterland's blog

Wow, yet another new review, this one on some highly dubious Web site called Evil Sponge. This one is much less positive, and shows a great deal of ignorance about our chosen genre and our musical aims. What it comes down to is that the reviewer hates Michaela's singing and wants the world to know about it. However, he contradicts himself. In one sentence, he describes how her voice "quivers and quavers", but in the next he notes that she "hits as many long sustained notes for as long as possible". Which indicates to me that he doesn't really what the hell he's talking about. In one paragraph, he talks about Michaela's "virtuosity", while in another he describes her as "caterwauling". Make up your mind! My dictionary defines virtuosity as "great technical skill in the practice of a fine art" and caterwaul as "to make a harsh cry" or "the shrill noise of a cat". You can't have it both ways!

Although I'm probably more qualified than most to recognize when a critic knows what he's talking about and when he's full of hot air, I generally feel that it's not a good policy to respond to reviews. However, this anonymous jackass (Bill E. Joel indeed) also makes some incorrect assumptions. The connection we have to the Vancouver Opera is that Gregg works for them, and we have used their van to haul gear on a number of occasions. That's why they were thanked, so I'm not sure what sort of "dead giveaway" that's supposed to be with regards to Michaela's vocals.

But I can't complain too much. Actually, I'm quite proud of the fact that our music has the power to elicit such an extreme reaction. After all, the greatest rock bands in history (think of the Smiths, the Velvet Underground, the Cocteau Twins) are love-it-or-hate-it propositions. A bunch of positive reviews and a couple of negative ones are far better than a batch of reviews that are uniformly middling, wouldn't you agree?

posted by John @ 6/16/2004 01:16:00 PM