February 02, 2006

Weinkauf Award Nominee

The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop music critics' poll- all 60 pages of it- was one big Weinkauf-arama- the critics who participated might be shocked to discover that there were actually songs written and released in 2005 that were not about George W. Bush, and can't be interpreted as such either. But one bizarre quote stood out above all others, from critic Max Berry:

"It was no surprise when U2 began performing "One" during the Katrina concert. But after Bono finished the first verse, the song went places it had never been before. Emerging from the shadows at the back and bringing the kind of comfort you only get from someone you've missed more than you realized, Mary J. Blige looked into the camera and asked—-her voice thick with a thousand others, all hard as fists—"Did I disappoint you?" With that she unlocked a rage in the song that Bono—even Johnny Cash—never got to. A verse later, the series of questions about forgiveness and raising the dead and playing Jesus made the song's unnamed "you" plain as day. Because these weren't questions anymore, they were indictments. And Mary was sending them directly to George's door."
Gotta love that a song released in 1990- and written by the conspicuously non-Bush-bashing Bono- is more Really About Bush than everything that came out all year.

As for the poll itself, Kanye West swept the album and single polls. I liked the Spoon album more, but I can't complain.

Posted by Stephen Silver at February 2, 2006 06:14 PM
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