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09/01/2005 Entry: "Popmatters poor, ugly Veneer review"

David Bernard's Popmatters review of Jose Gonzalez "Veneer" is Poor Journalism and Ugly Americanism...both!

Poor journalism:
"The press release for Veneer indicates that José González's sound is a mix between..."
Any critic who even mentions the press release that accompanies the CD they're reviewing has wasted your time and mine. Shoddy! Pointless! And David did it in the first sentence!

Ugly Americanism:
"I'll give González the benefit of the doubt with his English lyrics since he's Swedish. Still, some moments could be better..."
Gracious, writing in English so well! Where did you do your schooling again? I'd love to see some of your poetry as well.

American music writers pontificating on foreign bands' English-as-a-second-language issues is ugly, ugly, ugly. It doesn't happen in the UK. Why not? Because UK music writers aren't close minded when it comes to highlighting perceived faults and they understand that artists make the extra effort to reach the widest audience possible, and they write about the MERITS OF THE MUSIC FOR FUXACHE! And likely weren't introduced to the music of Nick Drake by a VW commercial.

Weird thing is, I think David truly likes the record.