Helen Razor, who has made a carer from being irritated all the time and generally disagreeable, agrees.
I had forgotten about it, until reminded by acb.
I've consistently been irritated by a music industry in Australia who latches onto bands after successful albums and won't let go, regardless of the quality of later albums. If a previous album is popular, their later albums must be fantastic.
The ultimate example is listed in Everett True's editorial, Silverchair. IMHO Neon Ballroom was their peak. The lyrics were silly, but the production and compositions are lovely. It's been all downhill from there, but the press still love them. Same goes for Powderfinger, who've done nothing of interest since their first big album, Internationalist, released ten years ago. Their most recent album Dream Days at the Hotel Existence was best described by a friend as "insulting".
Everett's editorial specifically rags (haha) on street press. My experience with street press (as a member of a band) is that they're X number of pages of advertising, with the spaces in between filled with press releases written by bands, or articles written by the paper sucking up to you because you spent money on advertising space. Or barely coherent gushing fanboy interviews with international bands just excited that they answered their phone-call.
To be completely fair though, I've usually found street-press CD reviews to be brutally honest. Compare them to reviews in the official JB-HiFi magazine, who never give anything under 7/10. Why would anyone buy it if they dared to criticise it? It doesn't make sense...
And beyond fairness... why would a magazine of any kind write a five page article on a band they didn't like? Everett even says so in his article.
I was interviewed by a handful of street press writers to promote a show I was playing in Brisbane with ace pick-up garage band Young Liberals. The first question out the blocks every time was, "What do you do when you have to interview a band you don't like?" Excuse me? I don't understand the query. You're getting paid less than a pittance (if you're getting paid at all) for writing for a crappy free magazine given away on the streets of your city ... and you're interviewing bands you don't like? Why? What is the point? These magazines are free: their financial stability and continuing existence have nothing to with sales figures. Why not feature who the fuck you like?
Ignoring the obviously too-subtle-for-him timing of the question (they don't like your band!), following this advise, street press are going to be filled with positive articles.
No one wants to read a four page editorial on why Silverchair/Powderfinger/Whitlams used to be good but now suck. Such comments are left to short snipes in unrelated articles, while the big three page press-release spreads get all the attention.
Sorry.