I can’t stand ranked lists but I think that’s because my relationship with music is emotional rather than something that could be considered empirical or objective. And those emotions can change a lot and quickly. Plus I’m not sure that even if I listened to every Cure album or Nick Cave song, I could even begin to put them in an order beyond piles of ones I love and piles of ones I wasn’t as into.
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Grandma listens to Pharmakon kinda content was where my head was at 5-10 years ago. That thing where Liam Gallagher went to a school kinda ended that contrast video reaction stuff didn’t it?
No not any more really. In the early 10s definitely.
I think those gaps have been filled by forum users etc though. Like for example I know 10-ish people here and elsewhere whose tastes overlap enormously with mine so would always check out stuff they’ve recommended.
Still a time investment and if starting from scratch I would probs also go back to reviews to be honest. End of year lists still do it for me so why not
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Another vote for Rock N Roll Gangster
I like reviews even if they too annoy me
Two things happened around the same sort of time:
- Albums became readily available to listen to without paying £10 a time
- Reviews almost always tended towards four-stars-out-of-five blanditudes
Reviews are still really enjoyable if they’ve got something to say but more often than not it’s just easier to go listen to the record itself.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I think it’s because the stuff that’s not as good doesn’t get considered for review…?
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yeah, if people aren’t being paid to review things then they’re only going to request stuff that they’re likely to be into aren’t they
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Possibly not but looking at the music journalists of the past if we don’t have reviews where is the next generation of right wing tools (like Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill) going to come from?
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YouTube seems to be a far more efficient right whinger factory.
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Haven’t read a review in maybe a decade. The time when a Pitchfork review could make or break an entire album campaign were really dark days.
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Same.
It’s weird - on a site like Pitchfork i’ll read those reviews of 20-30 year old albums that I already know inside out, but for the new releases I’ll maybe look at the rating and give it a spin myself.
Obviously depends on the list and who has put it together, but find lists to be one of the best ways to discover new music tbh. I couldn’t care less who comes first or whatever, but if it’s a focused list put together by someone who knows what they are talking about and there’s loads of albums on it that I already know and like, will always check out anything I haven’t heard. 95% of the time it will be great too
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reviews are fine
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I was going to post an impassioned defence, then I read this
Completely terrible review, only interested in reifying this bands supposed importance. There is nothing critical going on here at all. My fault for still checking the website I suppose
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I think interpreting reviews’ only function as being a guide to what to listen to is too narrow. Sometimes it’s just nice to read a short bit of analysis about a new album you’ve been enjoying.
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Good promotion tool for a smaller band too obviously (unless it’s negative)
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I actually like a list (ranked or not) at the end of a year because if it’s from a publication I like/trust I can have a look through and catch up on stuff I’ve missed.
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I almost never read long-form reviews of brand new albums. There’s far too many of them. The old-school magazine format of 2 or 3 longer pieces alongside dozens of short-form reviews would usually compel me to read all of them. However, the current insistence on page-long screeds on websites means it’s rare I bother going beyond the first paragraph of a handful though.
Basically, I want to know what something sounds like and that it’s not utterly shit. There is absolutely no need for me to read more than that about something I’ve not heard yet.
Yes. Very much so.
Please read my blog where I review music. 
But more seriously, I really like reviews on the smaller sites. They tend to be more based around the kind of music I like, rather than the majors.
Stuff like P4k are unreadable. Smug self important bolox most of the time. Though Sam Sodomsky seems pretty good. There’s no way I would have known who he was without that name though.
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