Points for effort?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Do artists deserve critical credit for trying ambitious stuff? Interesting debate on various tumblr blogs concerning indie dudes Of Montreal (beloved of byebyepride and piratemoggy, tho I don't think I've seen either pronounce on the new album) (pot80 luvs it tho) who have ISSUES with dismissive reviews of their latest waxing.

The original short interviews
Some back and forth about it.
My own response (well, currently it's at the top - catch it while you can!!)

I think this is an interesting little debate.

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree actually, which is why I prefer conversation to reviews. But when I did that kind of thing on ILM it was usually phrased as a - sometimes quite aggressive I guess - "Defend the Indefensible" kind of thing.

But reviews aren't quite this kind of conversation - even in the comment-box era (which P4K of course doesn't take part in) there's a definite hierarchy of statement and response. And in those circs I've come round to the idea that the person given the chance to make the statement should have some level of generosity. (An indie rock dude might well be generous, but then they'd be a reconstructed one ;))