Talk:Growing Up (The Linda Lindas album)

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I've listed this article for peer review because I would like to promote it to FA status. I believe it meets the criteria, but I need another opinion. The sections I believe need improvement are the lead, #Background, and #Writing and recording.

Thanks, – The Sharpest Lives (💬•✏️•ℹ️) 20:33, 17 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

I came here from my own music-related PR (thank you again TSL for your feedback!), and have some comments that I hope could help improve the article further.

• The Linda Lindas should be linked on their first mention in the body of the article.
• Mila de la Garza's full name should be used on the first mention in the body of the article (currently second and third), with subsequent mentions either continuing to use her full name or referring to her by her given name only; the first mention should also name which instrument she plays. (The same also applies to Lucia and Carlos, since all three were involved in the album and have the same last name.)
  • Per the above, "Mila de la Garza and Eloise Wong subsequently met up" -> "Mila de la Garza met with Eloise Wong, the band's bassist,"
  • Conversely, while Bela Salazar and Eloise Wong are appropriately referred to by their full names when they are first mentioned in the body of the article, they can safely be referred to by just their last names on each subsequent mention.
• While I personally don't mind passive voice, I have been advised at an ongoing FAC that active voice is preferable – you may wish to consider rewording some sentences to use the active voice.
• "the latter of which" -> "the latter of whom"
• "On May 22, 2021" – the year isn't needed here, as the reader knows from earlier in the paragraph that the events occurred in May 2021.
• "she was Chinese. He'd been told" -> linking these two sentences with a semicolon would work better because one of them is presently on the short side. More importantly, any contractions that are not possessives should be avoided when writing in wikivoice; see MOS:CONTRACTIONS.
  • Additionally, if Mila's age is going to be mentioned in this paragraph (which I'm not totally confident is necessary, though I do appreciate that it adds context), I think it should be clarified that she was 10 years old at the time of the incident.
• Double trouble: "Growing Up was released on released on April 8, 2022,"
• Lyrics section: I am unsure if the first paragraph is long enough to stand on its own – the paragraph break could probably be removed without sacrificing any flow.
• "each of the band members were under 18" -> "each band member was under 18"
• The sentence with the Rolling Stone quote is missing a period at the end.
• "however, the lyrics still have hope" – do the lyrics themselves possess human emotions, or do they convey those emotions? I would rephrase this sentence to something along the lines of "The lyrics of 'Talking to Myself' express resilience against severe anxiety."
• I think the prose centering around the lyrics of "Nino" could probably be tightened, perhaps even to a single sentence: how does "Salazar wrote 'Nino' about her cat of the same name; she felt that Nino was jealous that she had previously written a song about her other cat, Monica, which appeared on the Linda Lindas' eponymous EP (2020)." sound?
• The music section is quite short. Is there any more that can be said about how the album sounds? Playing techniques, timbres of each instrument, recording techniques?
• The prose in the packaging section feels a bit choppy, and the section itself a bit short. I'd probably rephrase the prose presently there to something like "The album cover is a photograph of paper dolls designed by Wong; she cut the dolls freehand, intending for them to represent the band members as cats. The photograph was taken by Zen Sekizawa, a friend of the band, who worked for 'hours' to create the appropriate lighting for the dolls." Furthermore, is there any more information that could be added on how Wong designed, or was inspired to design, the paper dolls? Or on how Sekizawa obtained the lighting for the photograph? I also feel like the succeeding one-sentence paragraph could be harmlessly merged into the previous paragraph.
• All publications listed under {{Music ratings}} should also have their reviews incorporated into the prose of the critical reception section; The Line of Best Fit and Sputnikmusic are two examples of this not yet being the case.
• Very interesting to note that a cat was credited for playing piano on "Nino" – is there any more information on this that could be added to the article?

I hope this feedback is helpful. I enjoyed reading this article, but I do feel like it needs some more work before it is ready for FAC. Since this would be your first, I strongly recommend seeking mentorship from an experienced FA contributor who can give you probably better insight than I could – as you may have seen on my PR, I sought a mentor for my work on Not Strong Enough (Boygenius song), and his advice has resulted in that article being substantially improved. Keep up the great work, Dylan620 (he/him • talk • edits) 21:51, 20 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Dylan620: Great feedback– thanks for the detailed suggestions! I've already implemented some of the smaller suggestions, and will work on the rest soon. Per your suggestion, I will also seek a mentor. Thanks again! – The Sharpest Lives (💬•✏️•ℹ️) 01:11, 21 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

• The references should either consistently have publications linked at every mention, at only the first mention, or none. Also, including words like "magazine" in parenthesis (Spin (magazine), Paste (magazine)) is not really common practice so I would recommend against it.
• While I do not personally care about this, FACs are made to conform to MOS:CONFORMTITLE. This means album titles have to go in italics and song titles have to go in quotation marks in the reference titles.
• Remove the Spanos redlink since the article was deleted after an AfD determined her non-notable.
• I would suggest removing the YouTube and Spotify external links, since promoting single vendors where albums are available for commercial consumption is generally discouraged.
• Optionally, I would suggest splitting the opening sentence: "Growing Up is the debut studio album by American rock band the Linda Lindas. Epitaph Records released the album on April 8, 2022."
• Most people would be familiar with the location of Los Angeles so I believe mentioning California is unnecessary.
• For the first sentence of the second lead paragraph, I would suggest "Growing Up received generally favorable reviews from critics and appeared on multiple 2022 year-end lists."
• "Billboard's Top Album Sales chart" - These are two blue links close together, which is not preferred, so you could maybe forego mentioning it is Billboard's chart
• "Four singles were released before the album: "Oh!", "Nino", "Growing Up", and "Talking to Myself". Multiple music videos were released, featuring cameos from skateboarder Ray Barbee and Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna." - Since the music videos were for the singles, there is potential for mixing the sentences and ridding this of the repetition of "were released". Try "Ray Barbee and Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna made cameos in the music videos for the four singles released from the album: "Oh!", "Nino", "Growing Up", and "Talking to Myself"."
• The touring should definitely find a mention in the lead. Also, do we have a name for the tour?
• First instance of extended play should be spelled out in full, with the abbreviation in parenthesis, since it is a term many are not familiar with.
• "The Linda Lindas had previously released their self-titled EP independently in December 2020." - Why not have this appear in the chronologically correct position in the paragraph? I am not a fan of the "had previously" framing
• Is it possible to include some context about what a "TEENtastic Tuesdays" event is through a note?
• "The video became a viral social media hit, earning praise from Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, Red Hot Chili Peppers's Flea, Thurston Moore, Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna, Kid Cudi, and author Viet Thanh Nguyen, the latter of whom said "'Racist, Sexist Boy' is the song we need now"" - This is too long, and "latter" is usually used when only two things are being talked about. Suggest splitting Nguyen's comment into a separate sentence.
• "it was later clarified that Epitaph had been working on a deal with the Linda Lindas before the video went viral" - I am not sure this should be characterized as a clarification, since there is no mention of someone wondering if the viral video caused the deal. How about "On May 22, Epitaph Records announced that it had signed the Linda Lindas, in a deal which they had been working on since before the video went viral"?
• "Most of the album was written during the COVID-19 pandemic" - This is the first mention of an album so it would help to be more descriptive. You could describe it as their "debut studio album" or just use the album title altogether.
• "The band members had to attend school remotely, and were unable to see each other often", ""helped [her] mind to think about something else", and made it easier to put her emotions into a song" - No comma required here. WP:CINS is very helpful regarding this.
• "They felt that writing down their "feelings of loneliness and confusion" was a relief" - Do you mean writing about their feelings? The current wording makes it unclear if they put the feelings into a song
• Mila de la Garza was already introduced as the band's drummer in the Background section so the reintroduction in the Writing and recording section looks repetitive. Although, the whole racism incident seems to be repeating.
• One-sentence paragraphs are discouraged so you should merge it. Also, is there background information about any of the other tracks?
• "The song "Talking to Myself" has been described as an "anxiety spiral", however, the lyrics of "Talking to Myself" express resilience against severe anxiety" - vary the wording to avoid repeating the song title twice in the sentence
• "Feeling that Nino "wouldn't leave her alone until he got a song too"" - Not a quote of significance in conveying meaning so I would suggest paraphrasing
• "Racist, Sexist Boy" does not need to be wikilinked again in the Lyrics section. There also seems to be a third repetition of the racism incident here...
• "The opening track "Oh!" has been compared" - Since there is only one opening track, you can do commas before and after the song title.
• "who worked for "hours" to create the appropriate lighting for the dolls" - One-word quotes are discouraged by some FAC reviewers.
• The Release section should probably be retitled "Release and promotion" since it is mostly about promotional activities. Touring could then be merged into it.
• Since the music videos are all for the singles, I am not sure about sub-sectioning them separately. They would all fit together with the bits about the videos following the information about single releases in their respective chronological order.
• You may refer to WP:RECEPTION to club similar themes from different reviewers for the Critical reception section. It also seems to have a few too many direct quotes that could stand to be paraphrased.
• It is quite glaring that many reviews, including Pitchfork(!) and The Line of Best Fit, are not mentioned in the prose at all. The FAC reviewers would definitely take issue with that. Relevant details from these types of reviews should be consulted and incorporated in both, the Composition and Critical reception sections.
• I am not seeing the significance of mentioning the country each publication is from in the Rankings table. The table also shouldn't be sortable by "Accolade", and I am not sure these listicle names are usually italicized.
• The tracks all seem to have different writers so is there a reason you haven't gone for the conventional Track listing format?
• "Credits adapted from the liner notes of Growing Up." - This is not a full sentence. You should add the word "are" between "Credits" and "adapted" if you want to use the period afterwards.

I hope you liked the review so far! The Composition and Critical reception sections will probably change a lot after the implementation of these comments so I will have to revisit this at a later date. Feel free to ask me any clarification questions by pinging me here. Best, NØ 15:12, 27 June 2024 (UTC)Reply