This has been rattling around the old noggin for a while but should a band get a middling press review because the reviewer doesn’t feel part of the audience.

Recently two reviewers in The Times gave Ben Folds & Belle & Sebastian ‘meh’ ratings for much the same reason. Will Hodgkinson said that although he’d liked the show he felt not being able to join in with the “call and response” bits made it feel like an ‘in-joke’. I assume he is referring mainly to ‘Army’ where the crowd perform a three part horn section and fill in one key phrase. This has been a feature of his live shows and his live album dance he went solo. The reviewer was unfamiliar and felt left out – is that his fault or the artists for not being inclusive?

The other reviewer went to one of the R&H performances featuring B&S playing ‘Tigermilk’ in its entirety in celebratory former. He remarked heat he didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as the rest of the audience “for whom this music was familiar to them as their wallpaper’. Well, yes, these shows sold out really fast and the band have one » Continue Reading.