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START WITH A RANT ABOUT THE STUPIDITY OF THE TITLE THE title's ironic. Duh. Listen without prejudice. What the fuck does that mean? That you shouldn't have any opinions of your own? That you should like what they like? That you should listen fairly to everything being rammed down your throat 24-hours-a-fucking-day by people who couldn't give a shit about feeling or soul or any of the spangly bits in-between which make music worthwhile? Next, they'll be asking us to eat without taste-buds, drink without amphetamines, fuck without condoms. Hmm . . . If I want to object to Smashing Pumpkins simply cos Billy Corgan has the sort of squashed-in face you instinctively want to punch, that's my business and nobody else's. Listen without prejudice, indeed. It's nonsensical. Next they'll be telling me to turn up to the shows I write about. "Be objective about music," people cry - American rock critics particularly. Why? How? Think for a moment. What matters about music is the ache right inside, that micro-second when the whole world stops turning. The glitter. The girl. The gristle. The gut feeling. Something either hits you or it doesn't. And no amount of fancy words or ponce-y similes will ever mask that fact. Fuck being objective. And don't believe or trust anyone who says they are. It's not even possible to be objective about whether a guitar is properly tuned or not. Believe me. I once lived in the same house as Huggy Bear. Listen with prejudice. ALWAYS! |