Random Thought: I Agree With Pitchfork?

Wow, two mentions of Pitchfork on the same day. I don't think I ever talk about Pitchfork, largely because I rarely read it anymore.

Anyway, I did venture over to the indie rock mothership this morning and noticed that they'd run a review of the new Bishop Allen album, Bishop Allen & the Broken String. Gotta say, it's one of the few Pitchfork reviews that I pretty much agreed with from start to finish. My key point of agreement - these songs were better on the EPs. The band seemed to think that they needed to add several layers of studio sheen to their sound for their debut LP, when in fact a huge part of their appeal is that their songs are clever, catchy and slightly off-kilter. Studio perfection does not become them, and in most cases saps the life and charm from the band's songs.

I do like the album, and I think that there are a bunch of really good songs there. But I also think that this could have been a great album, and the band missed out by trying to be too much to too many people. That's been a trend on a lot of albums this year, in my opinion (Voxtrot, The Shins, Bloc Party, Sondre Lerche, Ryan Adams), and has led to a number of disappointing albums.