Eh. It's the Crowes. They've essentially been making the same (admittedly sometimes pretty good) Stones tribute album for going on two decades. Anybody who would buy the album had aleady decided to and everybody else could give a shit. (and while I enjoy some of their music, Chris Robinson always struck me as a bit of a dufus.)

At least for Maxim, this is the rule rather than the exception.

Maxim's actions seem to completely lack journalistic integrity

Does anybody actually read Maxim? I thought it was one of those mags where you just look at the pictures.

Also: it's not like this sort of thing is unprecedented. Richard Meltzer used to do it on a regular basis. Still does, from time to time. Of course, he could get away with it because he was (usually) entertaining.

Also also: there are still Black Crowes making albums?

I had no idea the Black Crowes were still around and I had no idea Maxim was still around. So I learned two new things today!

How much shit will I take for admitting that, upon first reading of that review, I was like, "Oh snap, that dreadlocked guy must be pissed!" and it wasn't until just now that I realized that they weren't talking about Counting Crows?

Tomorrow I will review Chuck Palahniuk's next book.

This is like complaining about the lack of educational value of SpikeTV.

Incredulously, the magazine gave the album a two and a half star rating

"What the hell am I doing?" asked Maxim, "This is unbelievable! Oh, well. Here goes: '2½'; ain't that some shit?"

This is the first Crowes album in years (after splits, solo albums, marriages, divorces, etc, etc) - I'm getting it but am a little anxious as to whether it'll be great one or one of the meh ones. This review thing is pretty standard practice - the girlfriend of one of my brothers who has worked for a slew of women's magazines does this all the time. In fact I was responsible for the review of a Tori Amos album once - she didn't want to listen to it so asked me what I thought it would be like based on the first single.

2or3 - there's a new Counting Crows album soon as well.