Appreciation Post: Sasha Frere-Jones

Sasha Frere-Jones is a pop music critic and commentator for The New Yorker, a title seemingly dripping with pretention.  But Frere-Jones’ writes about music in a way that few writers do these days.  His New Yorker essays are often part review, part reflection on a given artist, but are never mistakenly labeled as reviews.  His prose unfolds in a direct but easy-going manner, balancing the high style of The New Yorker and and the more casual voice of most music journalism. 

The most important thing is that Frere-Jones writes seriously about pop music, oscilatting easily between Beyonce and Grizzly Bear and avoiding the requisite snide and ironic turns of phrase which publications like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone deem necessary to include in their articles and reviews.  Where some might find it necessary to maintain an ironic distance from mainstream pop, Frere-Jones dissects it unabashedly, often focusing specifically on quality of voice, personality, and lyricism.  He actually, gulp, describes music in musical terms.

Frere-Jones’ articles are a pleasure to read.  He also keeps a music blog on newyorker.com, and lest the internet be afraid of a print journalist, he also keeps a personal blog and Twitter account full of the egotistical rants the Internet loves.  Check this guy out. 

Official Website

(Erik Martz)