NY Times Defense

For my NY Times Defense I chose to critique “A Rock Group With a Frontman Who Takes Up a Lot of Room,” by Jon Caramanica. From what I gathered, Caramanica has been writing for the NY Times since 2005 strictly as a music critic. He has written reviews on very well known artists including Weezer, Regina Spektor, and Mark Ronson. Caramanica has also been writing for the LA Times and has published 79 articles with them since 2003.
The review in Tuesday’s NY Times is on a live performance of a group called Los Campesinos! Caramanica is obviously a fan of the group’s music but the tone of the review gives the impression that he was disappointed with their live performance. Although the review is short, Caramanica manages to include a lot of information about the band and also succeeds in putting the live performance in a context by comparing it to their recordings.
Caramanica gets some humorous anecdotes in his review and really tears down lead singer Gareth Campesinos! He shows his familiarity with the group by referencing numerous songs and talking about various members of the band. While there isn’t really a “but” in the review, Caramanica successfully gets his point across that the band’s live performance was a disappointment overall even though they did have their moments.