When I first started reading the music press as a teenager, as much as I enjoyed discovering new music, reading interviews with bands I liked, and reading positive reviews of bands of interest, I was often moved to great mirth by the most scathing of the negative reviews. In fact, it was the realisation that reviewing afforded the writer the opportunity to really let fly that was one of the reasons I wanted to be a reviewer myself. Not because I get kicks from being unreasonably or unnecessarily nasty or vicious, but because as a lover of language, there's joy to be had in finding new modes of expression. Any writer will tell you that the range of vocabulary available for negative or unpleasant things is far greater and far more exciting than that for positive and pleasant things.
However, lately I've discovered that the real challenge is in finding ways to articulate mediocrity that are fun to write and interesting to read. It's no easy task to write the critical or literary equivalent of a shrug. But that's about all I can muster for Anita Lipnicka's album. Occasionally moody and atmospheric (as on 'The Chase'), this collection, built largely around piano, pedal steel and Anita's vocals is ok. This is definitely a positive thing: it's definitely not shit. However, there are about thirteen thousand albums released every week that are ok, a few dozen that are good, and a mere handful that are truly brilliant. Go figure.
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Anita Lipnicka on MySpace
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