Aaagh! This may just be me, and I'd like to stress that it is not a comment about anyone on this site, where everybody is always respectful and reasonable, but has anyone else noticed that when DS does anything new, a whole pile of alleged "fans" appear on review sites on the Internet, slating him and threatening never to buy his records/go to his concerts ever again?
It's not just that they don't like what he's just done (which is perfectly fair expression of opinion), but they seem to
(a) take the fact that he's recorded an album/performed a concert that they didn't happen to like as a deliberate personal affront to them
(b)assume that he's knowingly produced something that he, too, must think is artistically bad, in a cynical attempt to cheat them out of their money
(c) assume that their opinion is the only valid one and that anyone who disagrees with them is just a critically deficient fangirl/boy who's blindly made up their mind that David can do no wrong
I've just been despairing at some of the comments posted under the Times review and on other review sites. There have been a lot of reasoned, fair comments by people who hated the RFH gig and give a clear critical rationale for what they acknowledge is just their opinion, but then there's been a lot of arrogant "How dare he shortchange us like this? It was rubbish and anyone who thinks different must be stupid or lying" kind of posts.
I remember the same situation only on a much worse scale when Blemish came out. I can't think of any other artist who routinely gets ripped to shreds by his/her own fans like this. Why is this?