No Depression Magazine

[Partridge]

I quit buying No Depression Magazine when they printed a retarded review of WE RAN back in 1998, and they quit publishing some time after that.

Apparently they are back publishing quarterly, and the upcoming Fall issue has an article of interest- An Oral History of 'Trio'



You can buy it online at their website No Depression

[Partridge]

For the sake of discussion, here from their archive is the review of "We Ran" that so offended me that I quit buying the magazine.

[fabtastique]

Despite the “writers” opinion on We Ran, that is without a doubt one of the worst written pieces of print I’ve ever read!

[the Scribe]

Album Review
Linda Ronstadt - We Ran
by Archive
August 31, 1998

Like a hypo-hygienic not-so-nice ice cream man, Claire has a dirty little scoop: Linda-doo-ron-Ronstadt has perfected, like a late 19th-century French painter killing the Catskills, the art of the impression.

Listen to Bob-not-Jakob-Dylan-not-Thomas's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", and I'll strangle in my dangling bangles if she's not singing like a canary but channeling like a cat the voice of Jennifer Warnes gone peevish. And on "I Go To Pieces", I swear to-not-at you she performs a wavering-quavering true-or-falsetto laryngeal lift of Aaron Neville noodles non troppo.

Unmisfortunatelylike, the rest in peace of this album leaves more depression than impression. Linda's vocals are more passive than a passel of pacifist patsies passed out on patchouli. An elaboration on my alliteration: The "Give Me A Reason" ukulele is groovylele, but it is thrown for a loop and a loss by oblongy lead vocals and background vocals wheezy as a leaky organ and there's your disturbing medical image for the day. The music on "Heartbreak Kind" is as tight and twitchy as co-writer Marty Stuart's pant-pantaloons, but Linda doesn't ride the music, it rides her.

Claire O. is fair though, and must like a barehanded catcher admit she got a cool groove from the piano-tinkle-sprinkled "Ruler Of My Heart", which not warlock sounds like it was recorded in a cocktail bar in an igloo on the moon. Linda's Laid-Back Lunar Lounge.

Despitefully, most of my scribble is quibble, and as I dip the nib to nip this rip, I am a despondent correspondent whose rooty-tooty-duty it is to classify this album as more downer than get-downer, with more snooze than blues. A nice-try-no-fly with more pallid than ballad. In short, it lacked snort.

Views: 59
Artist Linda Ronstadt
Album We Ran
Label Elektra
Author Claire O
Other tags Issue #17

Wow. It is awful. I am glad I missed it the first time although I do have to say they have had some other good reviews about Linda.

ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/707/setting-straight-oral-history

nodepression.com/article/linda-ronstadtsetting-it-straight-oral-history

[eddiejinnj]

"Unmisfortunatelylike"? wt*? eddiejinnj

[erik]

Quote by eddieinnj:

"Unmisfortunatelylike"? wt*? eddiejinnj

Yes, quite "Trumpian", isn't it? (LOL)

In all good seriousness, even though I don't think any artist is entitled to a good review every time he/she puts out an album, that No Depression so-called "review" of We Ran is so shoddy that the person (with that anonymous name of "Claire O") should have been fired for lingual malpractice and a very poor attempt at sarcasm alone (IMHO)..

And in any case, while I have said it many times, I will stand by my assertion that We Ran was not only Linda's best album of the 1990s, but arguably the most grievously ignored album of her entire career.

[eddiejinnj]

The butchering of the English language is not exclusive to any one person but it is so pervasive that it worries me. People can't spell the most simple words and understand context given the generally short worded ways of modern communication. On point re: Linda, when "We Ran" came out I really thought it was a hit. I loved the album and played it incessantly. Erik, I think we both need to remember that it was the most poorly supported effort by Linda due to her illness. We have said before that it did get a good review by RS (not that that is a big deal especially in recent times). "When We Ran" sung live at the Beacon on tour with Emmylou is one of the big highlights of the many times I have seen her perform. eddiejinnj

[Richard W]

Regarding the oral history article (#2 in the above links), the writer refers to "one of the most kick ass, played and cherished tracks I've ever owned" as "his “Silver Hair and Golden Needles”. Sheesh.

Still, I did appreciate his (lengthy!) blog making amends for his past dissing of LR.

As for that We Ran "review" — appalling. I have never read anything ever where the writer was so dazzled with their own lame wit and masturbatory brilliance that they could barely, if at all, construct a single pun- and alliteration-free sentence. Worse, it somehow made it past the magazine's "editors".

Definitely a classic of its (despicable) kind. I only hope that this was the beginning and the end of Cindy O.'s career. Any writer proud of that smear of gobbledygook probably divines meaning in their stool.

[Guest for Linda]

nodepression.com/article/thirteen-ways-looking-linda-ronstadt. This was a thoughtful article from No Depression - representing one guy's wrestling with his long uneven relationship with Linda. They do need copy editors. I would say the 90s were in some ways "a lost decade" for Linda appreciation. But she is certainly the subject of plenty appreciation nowadays, always wish for more.

[eddiejinnj]

Thanks for posting but I do recall reading that article if I'm not mistaken. Will check it out. If I read it, I remember it being a good read otherwise a new article to discover. eddiejinnj

[erik]

Quote by eddieinnj:

On point re: Linda, when "We Ran" came out I really thought it was a hit. I loved the album and played it incessantly. Erik, I think we both need to remember that it was the most poorly supported effort by Linda due to her illness.

It's true that Linda's illness (Hashimoto's thyroiditis) kept her from promoting the album; but all the same, it was out there, and Elektra did their level best (at least, I thought so) to promote it, alongside the near-unanimous enthusiastic reviews. I too played my copy incessantly for most of the second half of 1998.

[philly]

Aug 1, 2017 21:42:56 GMT -5 Partridge said:

For the sake of discussion, here from their archive is the review of "We Ran" that so offended me that I quit buying the magazine.

Oh wow, that writer, who is mercifully anonymous, sounds like they're trying to channel Dennis Miller --- very badly. My eyes hurt just skimming over it!

[the Scribe]

the person (with that anonymous name of "Claire O") should have been fired for lingual malpractice and a very poor attempt at sarcasm alone (IMHO)..

I agree, her attempts at cunning lingual practices were poor attempts at sarcasm much like mine often are, but worse. Not even one good double entendre.

We Ran is a wonderful album. I have come to appreciate it more as the years go by. There are so many individual treasures on this album with Ruler of My Heart being one of my favorites.

[jhar26]

No Depression is a pretty interesting magazine imo. These days it's mostly an online thing though. I don't get worked up reading something shoddy from someone that I disagree with. If I did I couldn't read anything. It's only when it becomes a pattern that we have a problem. Overal No Depression is ok imo.

[Tony]

Overall I agree that No Depression has been a good magazine and online presence. I don't automatically quit buying products or magazines because I sometimes disagree with the content. I still read Rolling Stone. But this review was so egregious that I couldn't believe it was published. It really told me nothing about the album or the type of music on it, and I found it incoherent and sloppy, so I decided that my money would not support them.

I continued to read the magazine- I would peruse it at the book store - and I checked it online, but no cash from me to them.

I haven't decided if I want to buy the upcoming Trio article. Is it really $15 for that one issue or was that a bad dream?

[Partridge]

$15 or a bad dream? I suppose that is better than $22. I found an explanation on their website for the price. No advertisement revenue.

information about pricing

[moe]

The "We Ran" article was truly weird. Was this person trying to channel James Joyce or, like a lot of folks said, he (or she) simply couldn't spell or put down a coherent sentence? Leaving for a moment the motivation involved one thing is clear the writer shows a very Trumpian tendency (sorry about the unintentional alliteration) to put his own supposed cleverness ahead of delivering a reasoned review. (Arrgh- I really can't help it) The only bright spot I can see in this is, due to the bizarre delivery, the negativity toward Linda is pretty much lost is the mangled writing. By the way this is one of my favorite albums and  the songs he knocked are my particular favorites. So as far as I am concerned in addition to terrible writing skills he also has no taste in music.

[artpelzer]

Aug 2, 2017 0:41:15 GMT -5 fabtastique said:

[musedeva]

never heard of this....a magazine about depression? No, ?

with lesbian innuendos?

WHACK!