“Reviews would lose some meaning if we only focused on what we think is good, there are also a lot of interesting things about music as a whole that can come from listening to music that isn’t nec. great. When you think of music and the culture around it in big picture terms, as far as trends and cultural shifts and so on, you need to pay attention to things that you don’t nec. love too. So that’s the rationale for reviewing something in the first place that would strike someone as lousy. it definitely doesn’t feel good if a review has a bad effect on someone, but unfortunately that’s an aspect of what we do and you have to live with it and, to go back to something way upthread, to try and disengage yourself from the effect of a review and what the band will think and to talk directly to the readers.”
Flavorwire: An Interview with Pitchfork Managing Editor Mark Richardson on Animal Collective
