"When a pop critic talks about influences, he’s almost never talking about the historical development of musical forms. Instead, he’s talking about his record collection, his CD-filled binders, his external hard drive—he is congratulating himself, like James Murphy in “Losing My Edge,” on being a good fan."
From 5.4: Pitchfork, 1995–present by Richard Beck. This is one of the main reasons that I made a concerted effort a year or two ago to avoid too many references to other bands. This makes writing a review a LOT harder. But they tend to stand up better over time. I’m not saying I never fall back on this as a crutch but I’ve gotten much better about avoiding it as the easy way out.
