Question for reviewers

^ Good for you.   Reviews are not a place for debate and second-guessing, the forums are.





Edited by Atavachron - Yesterday at 15:52

Glory hammers Cheese Factor… 5 stars for the moniker!!

Hrychu wrote: A few years back, I wrote a negative review of the latest Shadow Circus album, but then the band's manager messaged me asking to take it down. SC manager wrote: That's just not cool, man. It's only been out a few hours. You don't know what effort goes into this. Obviously you don't review anything metal influenced. I wish you'd take it down and let the album find its audience first. What did you gain today? You got to be the first to complain? me wrote: Everybody has the right to express their opinion. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Especially on ProgArchives, which is a review-centric website. And on PA, I always post honest reviews, even if they're negative. And as a composer/producer I do know very well what effort goes into this. You gotta cope with the fact, that not every review is gonna be super glowing. I do have very strong feelings that your album is gonna be well received by a lot of people. Also, it's always good to see REVIEWS of your stuff on PA (even the negative ones), rather than plain ratings! I've had random people 1-star bomb my discography with plain ratings and it not only hurt but also confused me. Because of that I always make sure to accompany my negative ratings with the reasons why I don't like something. And I've also learned that if random people don't like something you've made, it's not the end of the world. SC manager wrote: Sorry but you're a f**king douchebag. Mid life crisis? Is that a valid musical observation? No. It's personal insults. Take it down and f**k off. So I eventually did remove my review not to start a drama for such trvial reasons.

richard wrote: 5 star ratings should indeed by reserved for exceptional albums like Dark Side Of The Moon but then virtually nothing released this century could seriously ever be considered 5 stars.

I'd say that's completely subjective. I personally know a couple of albums from this century that I would unashamedly call masterpieces on the same level as Dark Side of the Moon or Close to the Edge. Casiopea vs. The Square is one of such masterpieces to me.

Edited by Hrychu - 16 hours 21 minutes ago at 00:06

^There are several albums I would rate five stars, and sometimes I'll round up a 4.5, but they would be 5% or less of everything I own or have heard.

richardh wrote: ... Of course it become highly subjective but the point I think I was trying to make is that reviewers  limiting reviews to mainly 3 or 4 stars is a bit irrelevant and artificial. If you think that a 1000 albums are 5 stars then I don't see a problem going with it personally. It's all subjective.

One thing I feel is that an album needs time, space and proper place to properly digest often. Often someone will listen to something once, and not even very attentively, and rate the music. To me 5 stars means "I adore this" basically, and it is and has been a very important album to me. Those "five star feels" can drop to four stars fairly quickly with repeat listenings, and four stars can drop. With many of the strongest for me, my passion for the album gets stronger over repeated listenings. I have had albums that seemde fairly mediocre to me at first that grew on my greatly with subsequent spins. Sometimes it's about being in the right head-space and maybe having got into similar music avenues so you were primed for it. If rating AND reviewing one is likely to be more pickier -- even too picky and too questioning of its worth in my own experience of reviewing. The reviewing process can easily kill my enjoyment of art as I overthink it and question my feelings instead of just moving and being moved with the music and it can lead to cognitive dissonance with me. I'd rather be that shallow "I love it" guy than the trying for deep analysis person when it comes to art that brings me joy or is very meaningful to me commonly.

There is lots and lots of great music out there and some of it does not catch or get much attention. My thing might be, "Does it stand the test of time with me? Does it stand up to repeated listenings."

By the way, I have seen complaints that reviews are so four and five star heavy, but, and I have not reviewed music much or other stuff in years, but I would want to review that which is special to me. Mediocre-to-me albums are not likely to get reviewed, nor are bad ones to me. I know thousands of albums that I could give four or five stars, or strong threes, to happily enough.

Like Pedro, I have at times wished that there were no ratings, but I have to appreciate that cumulative ratings are a useful tool for me in finding music that might appeal. So I appreciate. I want honesty from the rater, and I hope that the ratings are not just coming from some herd mentality. I know sometimes people do rate higher or lower because of what they think others think of the album or how others will think of the album. Generally I want people to be true to themselves and express a rating that reflects on how the album affects them. Ideally there is a review, or even some fairly short description, to go with it.

Sometimes writers write reviews that come across as knee-jerk reactions and like those "lame" youtube reaction videos and can be insulting and I get that the artists can be really bothered by it. I think as long as it's a thoughtful/ well thought out and accurate review and not just one of those first-impression type things one should be very accepting. And it is good be able to take on and even appreciate criticism. And it it is good to be corrected. There are some very thin-skinned people out there who cannot take any critiques or even questioning... Artists do get some nasty and unfair reviews and reviewers get some very nasty and unfair comments from artists. Unfortunately there are very many nasty and unfair people out there, and generally good people have bad days too.

Logan wrote: ... Like Pedro, I have at times wished that there were no ratings, but I have to appreciate that cumulative ratings are a useful tool for me in finding music that might appeal. So I appreciate. I want honesty from the rater, and I hope that the ratings are not just coming from some herd mentality. I know sometimes people do rate higher or lower because of what they think others think of the album or how others will think of the album. Generally I want people to be true to themselves and express a rating that reflects on how the album affects them. Ideally there is a review, or even some fairly short description, to go with it. ...

Psychedelic Paul wrote: I honestly don't take much notice of PA's ratings, even though I appear to be obsessed by them.

Haha… you seem to be more of a YouTube fan.   

^ I'd tend to agree. Review content is much more important.