Spank-the-money!

I liked that song she wrote about her jeans. Long time ago...

That was Magic Dirt ps Josh Jennings what the fuck have you ever done?

He just did a review, Rod. It's right above you!

nothing is above me as i am towering and impressive

josh jennings: you equated julia roberts to cate blanchett. ridiculous - and wrong - assessment.

Yeah. aren't they like totally different height?

this is a fucking brutal review! well written too.

if this was a debut album we (you? well, i at least) would cut her more slack.

it's just a strange drastic stylistic change that i can't fathom or believe in as anything more than jumping on the bandwagon. i don't believe you're genuine.

which is confusing as i referred to bertie as her and the reviewer as you firstly then i used you to describe bertie. i'm not made out for this writing business.

I don't understand why people are getting shitty that, you know, not everything is declared awesome. Both this and the Slug Guts review make their points well.

doesn't look like anyone here is too wound up about it Block.

you picking fights again?

Yeah I prolly should've posted this in the Slug Guts thread.
So what?

Favourite Jeans was a fantastic song. I quite like the writing in that review, the last paragraph especially.

The songs I've heard from album do nothing for me. Loved the last one. Maybe it's a grower, but I dunno if I have the will to persist.
Call me superficial, but I much preferred her blonde. This dyke look doesn't suit her. And what's with all these girls looking miserable? Smile for fucks sake.

This Galway Pipe is going down a treat. Mmmm

Fighting cliche with cliche - i.e. the third par - rarely works.

Fighting cliche with cliche

Have you just coined a new cliché?

This is a terrible review...
And i'm not referring to critical position of the author.

To say that it was ''well-written'' is about as accurate an appraisal as calling the furious wank Josh Jenning's had while he proof-read it ''great sex''.

From start to finish it smacks of ignorance. He obviously spent very little time with the record, which in my opinion constitutes one of the most lyrically inspired (check out 'Black Cats'), musically intellectual Australian releases in recent history and one that takes multiple listening experiences to reveal it's true beauty. To describe Blackman's voice as ''easy-listening'' has me wondering if he indeed listened to the record at all?

Additionally, it becomes obvious in his final paragraph that Josh has a very limited understanding of the Australian music industry, or he certainly wouldn't pigeon-hole a wholly independent artist like Bertie Blackman with the likes of image-conscious, major label, platinum-selling, ARIA winning performers - which frankly she couldn't be further from.

People like Josh Jennings put the cringe in Australian 'Cultural Cringe'. Call it an expression of European guilt, call it (very) passive aggression brought on by cultural isolation, hemispheric penis envy and plain old jealousy that compels them to trash local art as a means of emancipating themselves from the society that bore, failed to show them the celebrity they yearn for and now disgusts them.

Music forum's such as these should be a celebration of music, especially local, not a forum for out-of-work (sorry ''freelance'') amateur journalists without any musical talent themselves or even the ears to recognize it, to try and the slam genuine articles making some noise out there with the beginner's guide to cliche's and a box of soiled kleenax on their lap.

To say that it was ''well-written'' is about as accurate an appraisal as calling the furious wank Josh Jenning's had while he proof-read it ''great sex''.

I must have missed this bit of the review.
Sorry, ''thi's bit''.

Music forum's such as these should be a celebration of music, especially local, not a forum for out-of-work (sorry ''freelance'') amateur journalists without any musical talent themselves or even the ears to recognize it, to try and the slam genuine articles making some noise out there with the beginner's guide to cliche's and a box of soiled kleenax on their lap.

Yeah. Musicians definitely need more smoke blown up their arses. The review is crass, admittedly and light-on for actual info, but I feel for too long Australian's have 'celebrated' their mediocrity in a musical sense. The strike rate of good Australian music is appalling, the strike rate of band-that-gets-signed-wins-aria is appalling too, but in the reverse.

How do you work out what an artist set out to achieve?

the thing with bertie is that it's hard to tell if she's chopped and changed sounds with the prevailing trends (more or less) or her own whims and influences?

surely her primary aim should be to write great songs?

cleanyoungmess quotes the review as saying, ''cutesy little girl dresses ( Higgins, Steele, Blasko, Bowditch and Mitchell come to mind)'', but the review has no list of names after the clothes reference.

Am I missing something?

FrankieTeardrop, what I mean is this. Scenario: throw disc in player - right OK, this artist has clearly made a dark ambient electro-pop type record. OK, so regardless of whether I'm into this genre, the question might be asked, how well has the artist achieved this goal?

In other words, is this a good electro-pop record or a bad one? OK, so the review does lament the lack of solid songs, but only for about one line. Much of the rest of it is the author raving on about the greater environment. Not such a bad thing, but I guess I've got this thing about critics suspending some of that for the sake of the document at hand.

The thing with bertie is that it's hard to tell if she's chopped and changed sounds with the prevailing trends (more or less) or her own whims and influences?

What bugs me about this comment is that, whilst M+N have only reviewed the album in August, the record came out in early May. As Josh states:

Bertie Blackman spent seven months in 10 studios readying her album

That puts Bertie writing Secrets and Lies since October 2008. Undoubtedly 2009 has been the year of electro-pop going mainstream, some of which has permeated music culture international, but compare Bertie's writing/release dates with this batch of the latest trendy acts:

Metric's Fantasies came out April 7, 2008
Passion Pit's Manners came our May 19, 2009
Phoenix' Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix came out May 25 2009
Little Boots' Hands came out June 9, 2009
La Roux's La Roux came out June 29, 2008

Would people seriously suggest that by some miracle, Bertie writing in her flat in October 2009 found out what these acts where going to do, before they had done it and that this style would be en vogue come mid-2009?

Or .. is there a remote possibility that, as she's stated elsewhere she'd been listening to a lot of Kate Bush, Goldfrapp and Bjork, was sick of the rock chick shtick and wanted to work with Lee Groves who had produced Goldfrapp and Gwen Stefani? If anything it's Major label international A&R departments that mold their artists sonically around the latest international trends and whims, why pick on the local girl who actually released at the beginning of the curve?

My but you are putting some work into this, even after most folks have gone home.
What's the story? Are you her mum/partner/manager/number one fan, or something?

well most folks don't have crappy jobs that drag on this long. . . :(
but point taken... i'm getting obsessed. Just hate reading unreasonable critique of home grown talent. pet peeve of mine.

So you have no connection to Bertie, then?
It's clear from your earlier posts in the threads you've started that you do something in ''the industry''.

Just hate reading unreasonable critique of home grown talent. pet peeve of mine.

In that case you should head to the Wolfmother threads :-)

Well, Bertie should obviously employ cleanyoungmess as her publicist or something. Bertie, if you're reading this...

I dunno, I think it's healthy that someone who strongly objects to a review here is willing to have this debate.

Do you, shaun?

agreed. the review is a heavy rap groove, and really what else is there to do but object? so object. personally I aint heard the music or the music before so won't comment. all I can glean is that perhaps the reviewer s railing against production? more than content?

i love your moxie, cleanyoungmess.

in railing on production that tapers into the sell out whinge.

i know enough about the industry Block, i work on community radio and put on local gigs in melbourne, also play in a couple bands.

I see. But do you have any connection to Bertie Blackman?

Eat me!

At least we can surely agree that the cover is going to be in the list of 2009's worst.

Agreed!

cleanyoungmess never did answer your question Block. Having watched Bertie program rage last night i came to the conclusion she has great taste in music, just not her own.