So, Nick accuses Tom making/claiming its death. And then he fingers me? And maybe when I talked to Nick after writing seven of them last week I was feeling a bit burned out on the process- is 400 words on Skepticism really useful for anyone reading Stylus- or anyone at all for that matter?

I’ve been of the belief in the recent past that the time for the traditional record review has been over for a while now. As a consumer guide all we need is ten words, as Tom writes, and the knowledge of the person that we’re talking to. “You wouldn’t like it, if I know your taste at all…” Despite this, a life-affirming Nick Southall main event it becomes parodic self-indulgent garbage to many and that’s a shame.

In essence, however, what Stylus is trying to bring to the table is the whole package. David Cozen comes at it one way, Nick comes at in another, and maybe I complete the triangle. What is unfortunate for artists, perhaps, is that they can’t receive three Stylus reviews- the personal, the consumer, and the critical. Maybe it’s an idea to look into…

What does it add up to? The review isn’t dead. Even Tom admits that despite the extraordinary (my word, not his!) writing that rarely functions as proper review on NYLPM- IS mainly composed of talking about music- reviewing it, critiquing it, moving around it to look at another angle- which I think any successful writing about music does whether it be labeled review or blog post.

I hope that Stylus, at the very least, appears to be open to all these sorts of things, only forcing writers to write in the review format with one constraint: that they get across to the reader, in whichever way the feel best, what each album is about and whether or not it is worth someone’s time.

In other news, Ricardo Villalobos new album is ridiculously good. [If you like house music, you should buy it soon!]*

*[ten words, people, it’s all you need]