http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/12499?type=user
Just posted it, took a while but I like writting reviews. It's the second one by the way "Frank Hannell" not that other guy. I'd avoided giving Antidotes a proper verdict until now but here it is.
Thoughts?
Post your thoughts here or under the review..
..I'm not bothered either way.
Have DiS spelt "reviews" as "reveiws" in the bar at the top?
Heehee.
They have indeed
Oh dear that's not a good start.
Haha
Well spotted!
.....
"you will encounter a pretty decent band which sound is more Les Savy Fav than The Rapture"
Erm i disagree with this, becuase the rapture and foals are good and Les Savy Fav are not, thats mainly due to them being rubbish...
Good review anyhoo
Mine is the 2nd review not that one.
I pointed that out in the title silly. :)
you got that completely backwards
LSF are good, the rapture and foals are not
I disagree with your disagreement.....
LSF are many multitudes of a thousand times better than Foals and/or The Rapture.
Lets not get 'current' Rapture
mixed up with 'early' Rapture though. A mistake often made.
LSF are better than the Rapture! You fool!
ditto
LSF are zillions times better
*something about Les Savy Fav being better than your mum*
Why are you all talking about a reference that is..
1) Irrelevant
2) Not about my review but someone elses?
and the confusion spirals out of control.
It'll be bedlam. Bedlam i tell you! Mwahahahahahaha.
Did you read my review?
not yet,
but i definitely think LSF are better than The Rapture or Foals :P
hahaha
i love how obsessed you are with threads going off in tangents. STAY ON TOPIC EVERYONE, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS, A MESSAGE BOARD? NO, IT'S A CONCENTRATION CAMP.
Are you questioning my authority?
Get in line, this is my thread and I make the rules. Question me again and they'll be serious consequences for you and you're associates.
CONTRACEPTIVE CAP
The album
is totally average. There is no real change of direction in it, and has quickly become tiresome for me.
soz
I was just saying like :P
What a shit thread
I'm going to start a thread about Foals instead.
Did you read my review though?
The only reason I started the thread was because I made a review. It's constructive, saying "Foals are great" or "Foals are shit" isn't.
I confess I did skim through your badly written review
I feel it added much weight to the ongoing debate.
But none of your posts rhyme and also you whine.
It's not badly written..
..but I know you're just saying that to wind me up. My writting isn't perfect by any means but it's decent I think.
"my writting isn't perfect"
Now that WAS perfect.
Also, I'm not trying to wind you up, it was a mediocre review on a subject that has been discussed to death.
<3
i didnt
know yannis was in Youthmovies? i thought it was the Edmund Fitzgerald guitarist that was in youthmovies?
Er....
*hides*
Your review is alreet....
I dont think i would give it 6 tho...
"Much of the album is like this, an almost formulaic listen at times; too many songs lack the killer instinct and die out before they’ve really begun" Thats really true a lot of it never really has the release, too much tension...
"Tracks like the frantic-space-electro of “Heavy Water” and the beautifully melodic “Tron” that leaves the listener in trance-like wonderment are proof that Foals are capable of so much more." These are two of my least faves, especially Tron, its kinda dull and anticlimactic...
The main problem, imo, with Foals, is that to much pressure was put on them, and every modern band. If we went back 10 years ago they wouldnt be as big and they'd have time to grow as a band (i.e radiohead- there first album was pretty dross, but then they experimented loads)
I dont think its worth being to hard on them because i'd rather see a band such as Foals get big than Courteeners whos influence ranges from "Definetely Maybe" to "The Libertines", at least with Foals they have different influences...
I have to agree there.
I would rather see them get critical acclaim than most of the other new mainstream bands.
i like the review.
haven't heard much of Foals but from what i have it sums up my general ambivalanece to it rather well.
Frank
I wanted to do this but I didn't have the guts. My favorite part of "Antidotes" is the artwork- love that.
What's your general opinon on the album Pat?
I dislike the artwork actually.
Foals don't do anything even vaguely original
They spent the whole of the album trying to spin what's already been done many times into something newish, they don't even dress original, their get ups are ecclectic mish moshes with waifish overtones- I don't get the fuss about them at all. About the artwork, I'm a big David Hockney fan and the cover of Antidotes reminds me of his sketches.
But you are right on track with the review. Like I said, I wanted to post about it but didn't want to bother with all the fallout.
Nothing wrong with liking Foals though.
Each to their own
Yeh, there not as original is some people make out.
They have their own "sound" as I mentioned in the review but it's just a mish-mash of influences, hardly original. They're not a bad band at all, there's potential to work with.
If you wanted to write a review then do it, don't worry about what anyone else thinks.
I've only done two reviews so far.
Antidotes: me 6/10, DiS 9/10
The Destruction Of Small Ideas: me 10/10, DiS 6/10.
Although I did T.D.O.S.I because it's one of my favourite albums and criminally underrated.
GalacticStar3ruption's review of Foals' Antidotes
Given the incoherent froth of opinion that has been generated over Foals, it might be considered admirable to produce an attempt at measured objectivity. Unfortunately, a good review requires insight and relevance, and this account seems to be lacking in both.
Sincere, but awkwardly written, i'm not sure where our man can go from here.
5/10
^This better be a joke.
Otherwise you're not a very nice person.
Well, you only get one mark less than Foals
So you're only 10% nicer.
It was a pretty fair summation to be honest.
You've got an unwarranted high opinion of yourself.
No I don't.
I think my review is decent, I can't write as well as the DiS reviewers and would never claim I could. It was just my opinion on an album that's all.
I think to write a review about my review is stupid, unless it was a joke of course.
You've set up a thread!
And asked "thoughts?"
You're going to get reviewed!
There's a difference between..
..reviewing my writting style/quality and reviewing my opinions.
Is "writting" deliberate?
And surely style and opinion are relevant to a review. It's a piece of writing, after all. A badly written newspaper article can have all the good opinions in the world in it, but will still be a bad novel.
Heh, please substitute "novel" for "newspaper article"
Or vice versa, as is your preference. Hoist by my own pomposity there. Bugger.
No it wasn't.
When I type fast I tend to make lots of child-like errors. My auto pilot fails me. :(
I suppose you have a point, but I'd only notice this in the case of a badly written review. I don't think mine is badly written, probably just average. As long as the reviewer seems to have some understanding into what they're talking about then I respect them.
Well, having not heard the album I can't comment on your insight or relevance
But the writing was alright. Maybe the big paragraph in the middle was a little too long? It's harder to read long paragraphs on computer screens, after all.
Certainly for me, anyway. My eyes glaze and I skip on.
Critisism noted.
Big paragraphs aren't a good idea, I find myself skipping bits when reading them.
^ Critics can get criticized too.
He did say you were sincere and that's always good, and 5/10 is better than nothing although I fail to see a lack of insight or relevance in the review.
i just wrote a really considered response
and then the stupid DiS adverts thing caused me to lose it.
Sorry! I'm off on lunch now, i'll see if i can write it out again after.
(seriously, i was fully pissed off to see it disappear)
I've edited my review slightly.
Their was a factual error pointed out by aharps below. Any grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors will not be changed.
*above (not below)
Silly me.
Don't worry about it, you got good feedback too.
The main thing is you took the time to write about something important to you and you had courage enough to post something that would quite likely be ridiculed or worse yet completely ignored.
Rest easy, there will be many more bands to hail as heroes or expose as frauds.
STATEMENT
I realise I may have misguided some of you. I didn't wan't your thoughts on my review quality wise, I wanted your thoughts on Antidotes and if you agree or not with my points. Evaluate what I've written but not the quality of what I've written.
Does this even make sense?
So, you wanted another Foals Thread?
Good work.
No, I was hoping this thread would be the final one.
The holy grail of all Foals threads, one backed by a substantial argument in the form of a review, not simply a short statement.
The reason I wrote the review is because it was on a subject that causes much debate.
Now you've explained your intentions properly...
It makes sense.
Very generally, Antiodotes leaves me cold, unmoved and indifferent which I think relates somewhat to a couple of points you made.
It was a solid review which I mostly agreed with, just not an entertaining read.
Yeah I need to work on entertaining the reader more.
It's informative enough just not overly interesting. It's only the 2nd review I've ever written so I guess there's time to improve.
I've just read my 1st review again and it's a similar story.
I managed to get more cool sounding phrases and sentences in but it was still more informative than entertaining.
It's well written. I'm just not a fan of them.
Thanks, neither am I.
I challenged myself to write a review starting at a completely neutral standpoint, which is difficult with Foals.
I've done a review of T.D.O.S.I by 65days but I love that album and wrote it from memory.
the review isn't really well written
and it's ffaaccttuuaalllyy innncccoorrreeeccttt
What facts are incorrect then?
It's an average review of an average band.
why did you make this thread?
For some intellegent Foals debate for once.
Instead of saying they're good or they're shit I made a constructive argument in the form of a review and besides I enjoyed writing it.
I wouldn't know about the facts
because I am not a fan.
Oh good, I was hoping to find out what someone who can't write thinks about Foals
Oh, how insightful.
FUCK OFF THEN
*slams head on desk*
Unless they ment....
Hmm, you think they make funny yes, not taking piss, no?
(I have no idea why I wrote it like this)
Phew, back from lunch now, let's try this again
Sorry! :(
I was going to give you 6/10 for effort, but didn't think that you'd want to be patronised in such a way.
Bear in mind that it was a review rather than a piece of constructive criticism, and all of the best come back stronger from bad reviews. Prove me wrong!
If you would like some constructive criticism:
1. Clarify in your mind what points you want to make. A list would be useful, it only needs to be two or three things for something like this. (a description of what the music sounds like, the fact that it's pretty mediocre and... anything else?)
2. Make your points clearly. Use simple sentences and re-read them to see how they flow. Elaborate on your points by using examples or explaining why it is that you feel something to be the case.
3. Practice makes perfect. Well, maybe not, but it can certainly improve things. The more you do something, the more comfortable you'll be with it. It also makes it easier to look over what you've done and see how things can be improved.
Finally, you can think of me as someone who took the time to make a genuine response to something that you've produced, or just some loser sat at a computer wasting his own time. Or you can not think about me at all, whichever makes you feel best.
OOORR... you could review my review of your review. Then we could both repeat this ad nauseum. Who will quit first?!!!!
I had written a longer response than this.
Stupid adverts.
I've noted your criticism, thanks for the advice. I don't mind that, at least you took time to try and help.
I basically wrote my review from notes I compiled from listening to the album a few times and a little previous knowledge.
I'm sure I'll get better the more I write.
I've heard that the best way to improve at writing reviews
is to write loads of them and not post any of them on DiS.
Best of luck x
But that's no fun...
..this way I get people pointlessly shitting all over my writing skills and generally acting like twats.
P.S. I'm not talking about you and I fully expect you to make a snide comment about my use of the word "shitting".
3/10
Its a badly written review, your writing is not good.
No probs
If you're doing it for yourself and enjoying it, then that's the most important thing.