One of the great things about the "2.0" media world is that the "experts" (myself included) don't have the last word anymore. Nowadays when you're dealing with ideas there is no longer a monologue but a dialog, a trialog, a multilog. Once thoughts and ideas are released into the 2.0 space people will add on them, subtract from them, delete, erase and remix them; subjecting them to a sort of scrutiny that only high priests and court jesters got away with in the past.
I've always been attracted to Derrida's (that's Jacques, the French philosopher. I'm an unrepentant fan) idea of "critique as part of the text". I like his idea that criticism is a sort of addition/annex to a creative work - a "para-site"- that creates it's own dialog with the structures of the culture the births a work. I tend to look at criticism through that lens.

There has been a pretty interesting riff going through alot of criticism of the "Ancients Speak" album. Alot of the critical response to the record boils down to "great effort but flawed". Which is cool as far as it goes. And YES, I do appreciate the fact that the critics who feel that way have pointed out that there are PARTS of the record they feel are great (as Afropop Worldwide pointed out people are buying their records $0.99 at a time now). But the funny part (yes I do chuckle about it) of the criticism of "Ancients Speak" is that there is no consensus in the "great but flawed" crew on WHICH parts of the record work and which parts don't.
I'm gonna make a lil remix of 3 of reviews so you can see what I mean.

...the weak points of this project, unfortunately, all revolve around the influence of hip-hop.
Okayplayer

...it’s worth mentioning the songs where it all falls together. Jazz poetry in the Gil Scott-Heron / Last Poets tradition creates the New York bona fides of “Sometimes.” The smooth rap of Ruben deftly intertwines with the candomblé chorus of Afoxe Filhos do Korin Efan.
Afropop Worldwide

....when the shrill guitar of Blackbyrd McKnight (of P-Funk) shreds the lumbering pace of "Sun of Shango," Gibbs seems to be refuting his own theory.
ScrippsNews
ScrippsNews

...my favorite track, “Sun of Shango.” The song isn’t overwhelmed with sound. Just a bass, a drum track, conga, and a droning sound that sits behind what could best be described as a prayerful voice. About halfway through the song, a roaring electric guitar solo, wily and sincere, comes ripping through, almost calling out to the ancients in which Gibbs’ crew speak of.
Okayplayer

These critiques really are a "para-site", an annex that dialogs with the structures of culture. Which of these critics are "right"? By what basis? It'd be interesting to get the 3 of them in a room to discuss what they think works about music and its cultural function in general. But the most interesting part would be releasing the conversation out into the 2.0 world.