Trey Irby says “I don’t even know what my thoughts on ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ even accomplish” in his article “Kanye West reviews not accurate.” I can answer that question for you, Mr. Irby: They accomplish nothing because, quite simply, you don’t seem to — and this blows my mind — have any thoughts on the matter.

I started reading this article with wistful expectations that someone would finally swipe the ivory tower out from Mr. West’s feet with a substantiated claim as to why this album is not as good as everyone says it is. Instead of this, we get a simpering lament against rating systems and Pitchfork. We also get a swipe at “indie hipster friends.” As I sit here listening to a band that hasn’t even formed yet, I ask you this Mr. Irby, doth the sire protest too much? Methinks so. Methinks so.

I have no beef with Mr. Irby having beef with ratings systems. But for the love of all things holy, man, tell me why they are wrong. This all just smacks of Mr. Irby being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. For instance, when I recently got into a howling argument with my Grandpappy Houser over Attack Attack!’s 2010 eponymous release, I provided point after point after point as to why this 72 minutes of sweet crabcore totally eclipses their earlier efforts. I also respected that My Grandpappy is something of a traditionalist, and I understand why he goes in more for Attack Attack!’s earlier stuff. Mr. Irby, if you’re going to say something sucks, please do us all a favor and tell us why. Please, tell me, why is Kanye’s album not a classic on par with Attack Attack!’s stellar work?

Greg Houser is a graduate student in English.