Yes, it’s another post moaning about a listicle from the increasingly terrible Guardian. This one purports to be “10 of the best pieces of album artwork”, but it actually seems to be “10 random records the writer owns”. Tubular Bells and Horses fair enough. OK we don’t need to see the same old covers trotted out, but one of these is a single, one is a straight lift of a Breugel painting… and one is Sam bleedin’ Smith!
10 of the best? Seriously?
It’s a shame Ice T and Body Count’s delightful ditty Cop Killer isn’t better known, because I just paid tribute to it in my reaction to this article:
Page fillerrrrrrrrrr!
Decidedly odd choices.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or at least Oscar did.
Here’s my tribute to one on the list, commissioned by me, realised by a friend.
TB being played on kazoos puts me in mind of The Fall.
“Two-uh. Slightly. Dis-TORTED-uh. Guitars”
I was ready to eyeroll this, but… 3 Feet High and Rising! Yay!
I also enjoyed the following comment below the article:
“Oh, were you wanting the 10 scientifically best album covers?”
Which kind of underlines the utter pointlessness of the exercise…
I’m loathe to defend the Guardian, which I agree is becoming increasingly unreadable, but I actually don’t mind this article.
I think Jonathan Jones is their arts correspondent, and it’s sort of interesting to see which covers he’s chosen; I like that he hasn’t just gone the Sgt Pepper, DSOTM route. I also like that one of his top 10 album covers isn’t from an album at all, and that he seems to have upset so many people below the line by the simple expedient of liking something different to them. Plus, if all it ends up being is an excuse to look at the cover of Horses then that’s 60 seconds well spent.
It’s pointless, but so is life – and thank goodness for that.
The Sam Smith cover is very good – a startlingly raw image to present to a mainstream public.
Is it a slow news day?
I don’t think Fleet Foxes actually painted that cover, the lazy gits.
…and the sun is beating on the soldiers by the side of the road.
Let’s face it – the “increasingly terrible” Guardian like every other media outlet is being slowly and inexorably taken over by, shock and horror, persons of a youthful age.
Given the demographic of this site I look forward to many more years of disgruntled bad-tempered “What do they know?” and “1971, now that was a year”
Not that the author of the piece in question appears to be remotely youthful.
If these media organisations are being taken over by the youth, then they are so spectacularly bad at their jobs that nepotism must have played a part in their recruitment. Do you know even a single young person who reads a newspaper?
This is why the “power of the press” thing is so hopelessly outdated.
Anybody under 40 thinks – what is the purpose of this big papery thing full of stuff that happened two days ago?
The real power of the press is over the journalism of the BBC. With underfunded news and current affairs departments they too often base news worthiness of a story on what is in the papers that day.
Jonathan Jones’ opinions are never worth paying attention to (except of the rare occasions I agree with him of course).
We do have the privilege of knowing that when we are right, there is nobody ON EARTH who is righter.
I am, by nature, a Guardian reader. I do think they’ve rather lost their collective sense of humour in the last few years, though. With that in mind, I put together a small quiz for fellow Guardian readers…you might like to have a go.
How many of the following are genuine (recent) Guardian headlines, and how many have I made up?
‘A handheld grater will make guests want to have sex with you’
‘Why are our cities built for 6ft-tall men?’
‘Gender inequality inherent in cheesecake production’
‘Why men feel more attractive as the evening wears on’
‘Drug dealer’s ‘love of Stilton’ leads to his arrest.’
‘Could you take down a grizzly bear with your bare hands? My husband believes he can.’
‘Red, square and no pubic hair: The toxic masculinity of Mr Men.’
‘Help! Is my quinoa destroying the planet?’
‘Smooth in the groove: the best razors for first-date testicular grooming.’
I think the quinoa one is genuine. I’ll have a think about the others. A lot of story headlines on theguardian website could have been lifted from On The Hour/The Day Today.
I’ve read it for forty years. It can be immensely irritating, but is currently worth reading for Marina Hyde, Rafael Behr and John Crace.
Marina Hyde especially is one of its saving graces – she is a treasure.
She gave me a slap on Twitter after I pointed out that ghost is not a verb. The headline of a content free column was “Cameron ghosting media” which means “No comment from Cameron on Greensill”.
And how did that impact you?
I felt like my personal space had been invaded.
Oh I say. Do you want some Savlon?
Good on yer, Twang – when did nouns become verbs?
Coincidentally, this subject came up when chatting to my sister yesterday. She had mentioned it at a work meeting with some younger colleagues (the Stoke Sibling is in her mid fifties) – but they didn’t seem to understand the issue…
Surely they are all real. You forgot
“Should we ban the word cycling?”
I’m certain I read the Stilton Cheese one.
Erm … are they all genuine? I recognise the handheld grater one, anyway…
“Why you should feel guilty and miserable about breathing”
That’s from the Daily Mail, surely? One of Sarah Vain’s.
If I was Sarah Vain I’d certainly feel guilty about breathing.
Peace and love etc
The cheesecake, Mr Men and the last one are fake. The rest are real Guardian headlines.
Also: “there are more tin cans than people”!
I buy the paper Observer every Sunday but the weekday edition…nah.
The Guardian’s spirit animal is Lisa Simpson.
You just know the writers spend their day screeching at people, pointing out their perceived faults and then when they go to bed they wonder why nobody likes them.
Funny you should mention Lisa Simpson: this appearance of the Democrats on The Simpsons puts me in mind of the life’s work of Polly Toynbee.
When not in her Tuscany retreat of course.
Well, I like the Guardian for its news coverage and subscribe to it for that reason. I started the subscription following Amelia Gentleman’s exposure of the Windrush scandal. You’ll only get proper journalism if someone pays for it. I suppose they have to rely on clickbait like this Jonathan Jones article, to attract the advertisers. I don’t understand the economics of the press, but I’d have thought it would be worth them setting up a paywall, or only allowing a number of free online stories a month.
I tend to skip most of the Comment is Free stuff, as the regular writers go through the same routines. This isn’t unique to the Guardian – how can anyone really come up with an original and insightful opinion every week? The occasional contributors can be interesting, and when it becomes the Observer on Sundays, it’s a lot better.
I tend to skip most of the Comment is Free stuff, as the regular writers go through the same routines. This isn’t unique to the Guardian – how can anyone really come up with an original and insightful opinion every week?
….it can’t happen HERRRE, I’m telling you my DEARRRR…..