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It’s rare that “pro-social content” is a category used to review a band’s latest album–but at the Christian review site Plugged In Online it’s a critical content rating (along with objectionable content and a summary advisory for the album). To their credit they do what they do well, they provide people concerned with content […]
It’s rare that “pro-social content” is a category used to review a band’s latest album–but at the Christian review site Plugged In Online it’s a critical content rating (along with objectionable content and a summary advisory for the album). To their credit they do what they do well, they provide people concerned with content issues a good summary of the albums pro’s and con’s. However, to your average music fan these reviews are better than dry summaries of albums–they’re downright hilarious.
A poster child of the musical moral delinquint is Beck, who receives criticism for every reviewed album (a surprising number of his are actually reviewed on this site). Beck’s album Mellow Gold takes a harsh beating from the morality police who sum up a harsh review with “this worthless disc spews refuse from start to finish.” The ever popular Odelay also apparently “fails to clear the hurdle of acceptability,” and while the reviewers seem to lighten up a little bit on his latest effort, Guero, they don’t let it go completely unscathed: “Beck’s latest album is eclectic and artfully done, but a real downer.” Ouch. He may be wordy, he may sell albums, but if he wants to win Plugged In Online support, he’s got a long way to go.
Critical darlings and highly acclaimed (as well as Grammy winning artists) Radiohead and Wilco fare no better in the eyes of the site. Radiohead takes a beating for Kid A an album that “teens shouldn’t waste their time on.” Poor Jeff Tweedy of Wilco must be worried what devout Christian audiences think of him, according to the objectionable content of A Ghost is Born the singer describes that “he bought ‘Handshake Drugs’ downtown” and in a later song “tells a woman to take off her dress.”
Why the reviewers even tried to address Dr. Dre’s The Chronic is beyond me, but it’s one of the few albums that has nothing listed in the pro-social section of the review and is simply described as a “socially irresponsible record.” Ironically enough Zwan comes out ahead of it’s competitors with an album that “soars when it seeks God and loving, committed relationships.” If only Billy Corgan could have received this kind of support from the likes of Pitchfork (who gave it a 4.8)…
Plugged in Online isn’t looking for artistic merit really (though they don’t specifically oppose it), nor are they looking for clever lyrics or reflections of the desperation and alienation of society. Nope. Any of that could earn a bad review and a paragraph reprimanding moral missteps. For someone looking for a moral scale on which to judge albums it works–for pretty much everyone else it provides at least a couple of laughs–after all, someone had to describe the third instillation in the Beatle’s Anthology as “a muffled blend of innocence and depravity.”
Shed the light on your favorite artists: “http://www.pluggedinonline.com/music/index.cfm”
Absolutely hilarious.
The funniest review I remember on there was for the killers - Hot Fuss-
Curious gender-bending mars “Somebody Told Me” (“You had a boyfriend who looks like a girlfriend I had”) and “Andy You’re a Star” which, while not overtly sexual, finds a man obsessed with another man.
that gender bending is very curious indeed…
Maybe put a link to the site and a jpg of the logo in the article….
I’m glad someone reviewed that site. Hilarious, I used to read it for info.
Great review.
Man, even Garth Brooks isn’t pure enough for them.
They do little, if any, research before they do the reviews… Sad stuff, really… The only band that has been ‘pure enough’ for them, has been The All American Rejects… who whine throughout each song…
I am glad for the site and use it to get an idea of what is out there you must take everything you read and apply it to you, maybe it works for you maybe it does not possibly you dont want to hear “garbage” in your music and possibly you do.. it is a great site for information weather you like what they have to say or not.
The site clearly has an angle and an agenda. They’re perfectly up-front with it, though. So is their slant a bad thing? Or is it intended to be a tool for those with a similar perspective.
As for their lack of research, as ’supported’ by the evidence that they approve of very little: baloney. Not liking (or disapproving of) a band, album, or flick is not the same thing as calling them talentless. They do the former without doing the latter.
They look for very specific things, reporting them to a very specific audience. I say let them well enough alone–or read it for a good laugh–but don’t dismiss them just because you disagree.
um yeah, it’s a good website, but it’s not for some people. learn to apply it to yourself.