Finneas O’Connell is coming to his younger sister’s defense after Pitchfork reviewed Billie Eilish‘s newest album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. The siblings collaborated on the album, with Finneas producing and co-writing with Eilish.
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Recently, journalist Hannah Jocelyn scored the album for Pitchfork, giving it an average score of 6.8/10. Overall, considering how picky album reviews can be, that’s not too bad. However, Finneas was not pleased and went on to publicly discredit and pan the score on social media.
Finneas replied to a fan comment on TikTok, writing, “Nothing cool about writing a positive review of an album everyone likes — they’ve gotta have an angle.” He added, “They gave [Lana Del Rey’s] Born to Die a 5.5 — it’s their whole hater-a** bag.”
There’s merit to both sides of the argument. No, a publication shouldn’t write a negative review for negativity’s sake, but publications also have a right to their opinion. A lot of work goes into an album, yes, and it may be Finneas’ creative baby, but at the same time it’s just one reviewer’s opinion. A critic is going to criticize—it’s literally in their job description—but at the end of the day, an opinion is still an opinion.
[RELATED: Billie Eilish’s New Album ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’ Track by Track]
Pitchfork Changed Their Tune on Lana Del Rey’s ‘Born to Die’
Finneas O’Connell mentioned Pitchfork‘s initial score for Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die in his rebuttal—when the album came out in 2012, the publication gave it a 5.5/10. The review was not particularly glowing, even though it’s now one of Del Rey’s most popular albums.
However, Pitchfork recently backtracked on their initial score in an article called “Rescored,” where they essentially re-evaluated some of their lowest-scored albums. They raised Born to Die from a 5.5 to a 7.8, calling to mind how opinions can change and how the culture surrounding Lana Del Rey in 2012 influenced the score.
At the time, Del Rey was critically panned as just another “femme fatale persona” that critics found over-the-top and annoying. This circulating view of her debut most likely influenced Pitchfork, and they could have possibly bought into the criticism of Del Rey’s rebrand that year. Time and growth does change an opinion, though, and the publication has altered their score following the distance of years.
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