Reviews reporting thread

This is the reporting thread for bringing up issues to be checked, and while they have a say, they don't have the final say.

I won't remove the ratings even if I find those one star ratings only questionable. I quite doubt that the person has given much thought and spins to arrive at those conclusions and one stars are expected to be used sparingly. As for the review, it's not so much that it's a bad review, it's that it is pretty much a non-review of the music and instead focuses on how "bad" the album cover is.

This is the review of Close to the Edge:

"Since everyone already talked about this album's tracks a million times, I'm going to talk about its only bad aspect: The album cover.
I don't know if the members of the band thought it was funny or cool to give their masterwork a cover made in Microsoft Paint, but it just doesn't work. It's boring, it's not memorable, and it just sucks overall. It's literally a black to green gradient. Seriously, what? How does that even represent the album? Compare it to ITCOTCK's album cover or WYWH's. That's when you know it's lacking. Just, not very good at all.

The music is cool though, five stars."

I have removed that.

^ He's adding that he thinks the album cover "sucks", that's about it. I doubt that's never been discussed before (maybe none of the reviews mention it). I find the cover bland, but then I find that album bland. To each his or her own tastes, indeed. I didn't delete his ratings without reviews as I can't determine abuse based on that. If he doesn't like those albums, I'm fine with that. My favourite album of his one star ratings is PETER HAMMILL's The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, but if he think that's worthy of one star ("Poor. Only for completionists"), so be it. I actually don't like those ratings descriptions.

I do wish one star ratings had reviews to explain the perspective/ reasoning.

While it may not be specified in the reviews guidelines, there has been an expectation that one tries to write something about the music. I too see little point in reviewing that which many have reviewed before. I would posit that his commentary on the album cover would be better suited to forum discussion than to an album review (it's not very informative, nor is it even accurate, as the cover not made in Microsoft Paint, whose first version came out in 1985. Humorous or not...).

Anyway, may be good to continue this in the reviews discussion thread.

By the way, he's not the only one to mention the cover art, but others have incorporated that into the reviews.

An excerpt: http://www.progarchives.com/album-reviews.asp?id=1827

"...This time the front cover is simply full of mystical green space, and the detailed natural landscape is within the gatefold sleeves. I think this represents that the pretty details and feelings are hidden within the mystical core, which you have to break with concentration. I recall Roger said in an interview, that he first wanted to place the picture to the inners side of the card, so you should have needed to open the glued cards to see the picture!"

Another excerpt, this time less positive about the cover art: http://www.progarchives.com/album-reviews.asp?id=1827

"...Close to the Edge is now one of my favourite PROG albums, and who cares it is one of their most best known album IMO, because it has wonderful landscapes and epic tales and that's the music on the album I'm describing, the cover design is not exactly the best one, however the YES logo is timeless...."

etc. More reviews mention the cover art, but they also talk about the music, so his isn't even that original a take.



Edited by Logan - July 03 2021 at 21:14

^ You might want to ask (PM) Keishiro and Tapfret (if I have done wrong, they might punish me). I have been a mod for many years here, and this has been my understanding. And I don't think of this as punishment, discouragement, maybe.

Your review I just read.   It's minimalistic, but passable I guess. At least you focus on your appreciation of the music.

From the guidelines:

"Try to write reviews that will be of real use and interest to other progressive music fans, who can benefit by finding new avenues for their musical exploration. Consider aspects which will be of interest to the reader such as the style of music, notable influences, similar bands, best tracks (don’t just say "this album is brilliant", explain what you like about it), production quality, musicians involved, album history, We suggest you listen to an album several times before writing a review. It can take a number of listens to Prog albums in particular to begin to appreciate the music."

Edited by Logan - July 03 2021 at 21:28

^ I messed up with the link before, but this one is to me far more interesting about the cover art, because he also compares to the gatefold sleeve.

http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=13082

Eetu Pellonpaa wrote: This is a really fine record, the second album I heard from YES. Many think that it's under- or overrated, but I think that it a great album deserving five stars, nothing less but neither nothing more. Even the master BILL BRUFORD is still there, though he self wasn't happy about this album. And though this music is great, he managed to do even better stuff with KING CRIMSON where he departed. The title epic has created a strong association to my head from the time I listened to this. The sound of birds which introduce the growing humming of synthesizer lead to the jazzy maelstorm, which hurls the listener further towards the beautiful and imaginative world of YES, which is visualized by the paintings of Roger Dean. This time the front cover is simply full of mystical green space, and the detailed natural landscape is within the gatefold sleeves. I think this represents that the pretty details and feelings are hidden within the mystical core, which you have to break with concentration. I recall Roger said in an interview, that he first wanted to place the picture to the inners side of the card, so you should have needed to open the glued cards to see the picture! The ballad on the B-side, "And You and I" is very beautiful and emotional small epic, and the closing number "Siberian Khatru" is a bit more dynamic rocker. I recommend you listen to this, if you still haven't!

The other just amounts to the cover art sucks and others made better cover art. Now he probably doesn't know about the gatefold sleeve art, and I wouldn't expect him to have researched that. As others have mentioned the art in their reviews that actually say something about the music, I don't see any interesting insights in his non-music based album review.

According to my interpretation, yes.   Had he attempted to say something more about the music than "The music is cool though, five stars", then I wouldn't have removed it due to the reporting. I don't think the review standards are very strict here, maybe compared to rateyourmusic (a site I love and use more for discovering albums), but not strict compared to a lot of other sites and review publications (magazines, newspapers etc.). I used to write film reviews for a newspaper (just the local rag), and they were stricter than here. Never tried, but I can't imagine that had I tried to write a film review about the movie poster that it would have been accepted in that job.

The addition process seems something of a non sequitur here, or a shift. I think that's another topic, and I don't know how lax it is. You as a prog genre team member might have a better handle on how lax things are (of course you can always discuss that in team threads if you see a current problem and object in any suggestion threads to an addition). There have been additions in the past I haven't agreed with, but I don't work as directly with the teams now. Obviously it helps to voice one's concerns before an addition is made.

We are getting to far off topic for the reporting thread, so I will leave it there.

Edited by Logan - July 03 2021 at 22:42

The one thing I'm wondering about is how Roger Dean got his hands on a copy of Microsoft Paint back in 1972.

 http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=18282

^ Already alerted him but ... 

chopper wrote: a jazz album doesn't have 5 stars on a prog rock site.

^ I'm not sure that reviewer reads this thread, highly likely your post here is pointless as well.