What do You get from progarchive reviews

Every time I log in I try and read the latest reviews when time permits. First to see what`s new and second to see other people`s take on albums. I even like reading reviews that slam albums which I really like. Sometimes in  a review no matter who is writing it something is brought to my attention about an album which , even though I might have been listening to for years, I`ve missed or overlooked. Another aspect I like about reading amatuer reviews here ( by this I mean we`re not paid to do them ) is that for the most part everyone who writes reviews here understands some or all aspects of this diverse genre and are their views to me are more reliable than a review you would find in Rolling Stone Magazine Music Hound (which I find not very reliable when it comes to prog) or the Rough Guide and others. Plus, where else can you get  so many reviews for a single album?
 
So what `s your take on reviews on progarchives?

some are well written and fairly objective.. very helpful

others are humorous and not as helpful.....

I enjoy the reviews section.

They are very helpful. I enjoy comparing opinions and different points of view. With such quantity and, in general, quality of reviews of the same album, you get a very accurate vision of how an album is like.

You can get somewhat of a feel for albums, and usually more easily compare albums.  But it's awfully difficult to get an accurate description of any album when one reviewer praises it, and the next one slams it.

Flip_Stone wrote: You can get somewhat of a feel for albums, and usually more easily compare albums.  But it's awfully difficult to get an accurate description of any album when one reviewer praises it, and the next one slams it.

That was kind of what happened to me when I was reading the Harmonium's 5 saisons. Every review was praising the album and saying how beautiful it is ect.ect.  It also happened with the Godspeed reviews too.

I find the reviews extremely informative. The main reason for this is that it points me in directions I would otherwise not have considered. I've been a fan of 'prog' related music since the early 80's, with Jethro Tull being my introduction (I still remember being derided by fans of Adam And The Ants etc at the time).

Edited by Takeshi Kovacs - May 19 2006 at 19:33

Since I have found this site, I have used the reviews as well as other tools to purchase over 100 progressive cds.  There have only been about 5 cds that I do not particularly care for.  I think that you can conclude that the reviews are a pretty good tool.

sleeper wrote: The reviews here I find can be very usefull to me when it comes to buying music. Certain reviewres here share a similer taste in music to me and they write concise, well thought out reviews that show the good and bad points of an album. As you said its also nice to see how some people view an album that I like/dislike just to see what others think.

Flip_Stone wrote: You can get somewhat of a feel for albums, and usually more easily compare albums.  But it's awfully difficult to get an accurate description of any album when one reviewer praises it, and the next one slams it.

Edited by dralan - July 11 2006 at 17:26

I'd say the reviewer that I'd agree with on most matters is Easy Livin' (bar Soft Machine Third and Amon Duul II's Yeti, it seems- can't wait until I review those classics) but also I always hugely enjoy Dick Heath, Trotsky and Sean Trane's, even if I don't always quite agree with the latter on the odd band!