Pitchfork’s Black Kids Review

(Picture from here)

So this has caused some real consternation on the blogosphere. Black Kids, hyped through the roof by Pitchfork on the release of their Wizard of Ahhhs EP, were first given a 0.0 review for their full-length, Partie Traumatic, accompanied by two regretful looking pugs and a brief caption saying ‘sorry’. This was later slightly altered to show the two pugs and their ‘sorry’ with a 3.3 review.

Although this seems to play right into the hands of Pitchfork haters who accuse the site of being facetious and irritating college-boy critiquers, I’m siding with the site on this one. The Black Kids album is ridiculously disappointing, misguided and ultimately, boring. They are absolutely right to take back any previous praise that could have seen this hideous record fall into the hands of unsuspecting and P4K trusting consumers and should be exulted among critics for admitting they are wrong. That is not easy to do and I’ve had to apologise many times in the past for recommendations made during the first flush of likedom. Should they have made a longer apology, explaining their choice? Yes. They probably should, but praise them for being candid, even if they did so through two lovable pugs.

More opinions from PopCandy, The LA Times and a piece on the perfect 10.0 and 0.0s from Pitchfork in the past on Salad Days Music.