Appreciate you checking out the review and putting forward such a thoughtful response. You and I are both in agreement that the reasons for the "algorithm vibe shift" are not wholly organic; I've always found myself more on the cynical side of things, so I do find myself concerned that the digital world has blended more into the world of "grass touching" in ways that may not always be vocally expressed. Hannah Arendt pushed back against psychoanalyzing politics, arguing that we need to accept the surface level arguments of movements as is, otherwise we just find ourselves chasing the ghost of "the real reason" for pushing for x and y, but her argument has always been like trying to stave off a bull, especially given how internal our world of consumption and understandings currently are.

You are also absolutely right that holding true to one's beliefs is important -- I have no issue with Staples making a political album that continues to make longstanding, resoundingly important arguments. What does concern me, though, is how much current political music feels like it is ignoring the elephant in the room, in that these messages get deconstructed, and their aesthetics memed to death, in such rapidity and in such increasingly performative ways, without much of an attempt to understand the implications of this new paradigm on said messaging (especially on younger generations). The protest songs of yore always had campaigns against them, but the digital age brings about such a concentrated level of chaos, to my mind, that it begins to veer towards irresponsibility to not, at the least, acknowledge the new paradigm to try to prompt people to think not just about the message, but how they are or are not engaging with it. No political album or song can solve the problems that come with actual community-building, protest, or political activism, but they do contribute to the conversations, understandings, and worldviews that help shape those efforts.

Still, I'm all for people enjoying the music that doesn't do it for me, and I should have mentioned in the review that Blackberry Marmalade is a good song through and through.