In my mind, Albini holds a plain speaking American slot besides Hunter S. Thompson, for the similarity of these remarks:

  "I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe
  sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit." - Steve Albini

  "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long
   plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die
   like dogs. There's also a negative side.". - Hunter S Thompson

When you're good, and you know it, not because people tell you or shower you with praise, but because it comes from love, from the heart, then you know there's nobody whose ass you have to kiss.

Steve Albini was an exceptionally competent and emotionally generous person who spoke about the industry as the wide-eyed boy saw the Emperor's "New Clothes". Not bitter or superior or excoriating, just casually pointing out the truth; that it's a stinking corrupt pile of shit that deserves to die. Wish there were more Steve Albinis in the tech world, confident going their own way and not sucking up to big-tech pedlars of digital dross.

Time for some Pixies...

Sad loss. RIP.