Frank Zappa claimed "rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read" That's a bit extreme, but it does have its problems...
If there exists any substrate of society which is deserving of more sympathetic attention, surely, that substrate is the critics. Those who leadenly lift their pens to write a eulogy for their favourite, obscure records, and deliver defeatist, embittered tracts on the latest million-seller, hating every petty, compromised second of the process. Pity the sour, judgemental wretches! No, wait. Let me genuinely make my case. I think there is a problem with criticism generally speaking, and, in this instance at least, the problem is not the fault of critics.
