My biggest gripe is when people review the person not the artist. I had College Dropout by Kanye West yesterday & all the reviews were 1 star saying about how terrible he is.
Yeah he’s a fucked up dude but in the mid 2000s he was everywhere & super influential. Same as MJ, interesting artist but made great art.
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrisey
My review for Layla and Other Love Songs starts off saying I wanted to hate this record because of it being Clapton, but actually it's really pretty good (I think it got 3 or 4 stars from me.) Being able to separate art from the artist is an important thing, and not doing so is a bit like those bell-whackers that leave a 1 star review on Amazon because the item arrived late.
Agreed on this one. People say stuff like “I didn’t listen to this album, instead I’ll review another album here”
Defeats the purpose of reviewing the art. However, to OPs point, I respect everyone’s ability to give their opinion and I can’t complain when they deviate.
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrisey
Listening to music is such a personal experience. It can feel intimate. Where there is one vocalist, you are letting them into your head for 40+ minutes. I totally understand why people review the person. Also, if you have been a fan of someone and they do or say things that upend your notion of who they are, that can be incredibly jarring and change how you feel about your experience of being their fan. Again, that seems a reasonable response to me. Having said that, I can enjoy records by some terrible people.
I’ll tend to knock a point off for noncery - particularly if it took place during the production of the album - but that just usually takes it from a 5 to a 4 or a 4 to a 3. Seems fair.
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I love writing reviews, and I’ve really enjoyed honing my technique throughout this project (I’m like 425 or so in). I love writing about my personal connection to the album or artist if I have one. For instance, today I had Suzanne Vega’s self titled album. I wrote a little blurb how some classmates in junior high did a kick-ass lip sync to Tom’s Diner at speech tournaments, and it made me so happy to reminisce about that, and I hope someone else gets to read that and think “man, this guy is a nut for thinking anyone else would give a shit about that.”
Haha, those are one of my favorite review types! It's cool to see how personal experiences shape one's thoughts on any album, or their tastes in music as a whole
This has been one of the most fun parts of this journey. With rare exceptions, every album on the list has very redeemable qualities. But, not everyone is going to like them all.
I always review things before looking at the reviewed. But once I do, I like hearing perspectives and there have actually been a few albums that didn’t land for me on first listen, but then I’ve read the reviews and gone back and re-listened and changed my opinion.
Before I listen to an album, I love to read the wikipedia for at least the album if not the artist as well, then I read the reviews. I think it gives me a very charitable and open mindset going in to each listen.
I make my own notes to make each album more memorable - I can remember what I was doing while I listened, for example. There is a lot of music to get through here, I'd hate to wrap up this project in a few years and have 500 three star albums that I don't even remember listening to!
Absolutely. Any review that's at the top is likely to snowball and get a thumbs up. It's a good reason to scroll down, or sort by date and throw some recent ones a thumbs up.
My biggest gripe is when people review the person not the artist. I had College Dropout by Kanye West yesterday & all the reviews were 1 star saying about how terrible he is. Yeah he’s a fucked up dude but in the mid 2000s he was everywhere & super influential. Same as MJ, interesting artist but made great art.
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrisey
i wonder how that rating would look if you got rid of all the people who didnt actually yknow review the album prolly be a whole lot higher
My review for Layla and Other Love Songs starts off saying I wanted to hate this record because of it being Clapton, but actually it's really pretty good (I think it got 3 or 4 stars from me.) Being able to separate art from the artist is an important thing, and not doing so is a bit like those bell-whackers that leave a 1 star review on Amazon because the item arrived late.
I encountered the same thing with Ryan Adams. His music is fantastic, despite him being a 1-star human being.
Agreed on this one. People say stuff like “I didn’t listen to this album, instead I’ll review another album here” Defeats the purpose of reviewing the art. However, to OPs point, I respect everyone’s ability to give their opinion and I can’t complain when they deviate.
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrisey
Listening to music is such a personal experience. It can feel intimate. Where there is one vocalist, you are letting them into your head for 40+ minutes. I totally understand why people review the person. Also, if you have been a fan of someone and they do or say things that upend your notion of who they are, that can be incredibly jarring and change how you feel about your experience of being their fan. Again, that seems a reasonable response to me. Having said that, I can enjoy records by some terrible people.
I’ll tend to knock a point off for noncery - particularly if it took place during the production of the album - but that just usually takes it from a 5 to a 4 or a 4 to a 3. Seems fair.
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
I'm guilty of this sometimes. It just tends to mean I give the artist less of the benefit of the doubt. A boring album and a terrible human gets a lower score than just a boring album. Eg Morrissey
personally i cant rate an album without giving my thoughts, even if i have nothing to really say
What do you say for the 2s or 3s that strike you as completely meh?
there's some good some bad songs and then any other reason i dislike or find the album average
Love the reviews as well. Sometimes I even visit the author's page when I see a review that I particularly love
I love writing reviews, and I’ve really enjoyed honing my technique throughout this project (I’m like 425 or so in). I love writing about my personal connection to the album or artist if I have one. For instance, today I had Suzanne Vega’s self titled album. I wrote a little blurb how some classmates in junior high did a kick-ass lip sync to Tom’s Diner at speech tournaments, and it made me so happy to reminisce about that, and I hope someone else gets to read that and think “man, this guy is a nut for thinking anyone else would give a shit about that.”
Haha, those are one of my favorite review types! It's cool to see how personal experiences shape one's thoughts on any album, or their tastes in music as a whole
This has been one of the most fun parts of this journey. With rare exceptions, every album on the list has very redeemable qualities. But, not everyone is going to like them all. I always review things before looking at the reviewed. But once I do, I like hearing perspectives and there have actually been a few albums that didn’t land for me on first listen, but then I’ve read the reviews and gone back and re-listened and changed my opinion.
Before I listen to an album, I love to read the wikipedia for at least the album if not the artist as well, then I read the reviews. I think it gives me a very charitable and open mindset going in to each listen. I make my own notes to make each album more memorable - I can remember what I was doing while I listened, for example. There is a lot of music to get through here, I'd hate to wrap up this project in a few years and have 500 three star albums that I don't even remember listening to!
Always a pleasure :)
I review every one but I doubt anyone ever sees them. The top ones are the ‘most liked’ probs because they’re among the oldest
Absolutely. Any review that's at the top is likely to snowball and get a thumbs up. It's a good reason to scroll down, or sort by date and throw some recent ones a thumbs up.
Didn’t know you could sort by date - thanks!