I wish the folks at Universal would take note, THIS is how a private business should interact with a community of music enthusiasts online.

One positive note about the site redesign, the expanded search capability is very useful and very welcome, indeed.

Thanks for the update, Trumpetwool. Your consideration and professionalism is sincerely appreciated.

Now Playing: "Silhouette" Call and Response Winds Take No Shape (Badman)

If I may echo Linn here,

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Originally posted by LinnTate:
Thanks for the update, Trumpetwool. Your consideration and professionalism is sincerely appreciated.

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Yes, thank you so much for explaining all that.

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So, we had to pick the most widely used browser by our users (over 87%) to optimize the site for and then work on compatibility issues with the other major browsers as we go forward.

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I had hoped this was the case and I have no problem with that. Being pretty closely involved with Metacritic, I understand how daunting and time-consuming a site redesign can be. I'll be sure and pass this info on to others who have expressed some concern about the site redesign.

at first i thought the new design was annoying, but after using it for a bit you can adjust to it. Also, some of the new site content is very good (song samples, mood search, etc.).

Not to jump on a bandwagon, and be a bore, but I appreciate the info, Trumpetwool. My post was, of course, critical of the changes, but I should have prefaced it by saying that, changes or not, I'm still a big fan of the site.

I'd still prefer a one-page design, but given Trumpetwool's comments, that's not really an option. Oh well. My resistance to change is just another sign of my advancing age. A few racial epithets, a pipe, and a limp, and I'd be my grandfather.

Anyway, my criticisms aside, I'll just pile on to the parade of people patting Trumpetwool on the back for the response, and AMG for providing a good, responsive, FREE, and well-managed site.

A thought on the "new" Allmusic site...I checked my history before and after the site changeover, and I use Allmusic considerably less now than I did before.

It just seems slower and much harder to navigate. The primary reason I go to Metacritic is to check discography information, which often requires three or four clicks to get what I want. I'm probably in a small minority on this, and if I had DSL it might be a different story, but I'm not going to Allmusic just to browse anymore because of the changes...

It's not just you, pE. I have a T1 at the office and cable broadband at home. It loads painfully slowly in both locations (relative to the way it loaded before the redesign). I actually think the tab-based navigation would be so frustrating if it loaded faster.

I know the argument is that it's still a lot of good information for free, which is true. But, I know that before the redesign, I would have paid to use their service. Now, I'm not so sure.

Now Playing: "Pressure Drop" Toots & The Maytals Time Tough: The Anthology (Island Jamaica)

I know this probably doesn't mean anything, but even though they SEEM slower (I'm on dial-up; everything seems slow), I'm using it more than ever because I've been digging through my vinyl and trying to research, cross-reference and get up-to-date with compilations (which I never buy, but YOU guys do!) [That's a decent sentence.] That's about it. They do have much more to offer and when I go to their website, they even know who I am, so that does speed things up. I'm not disagreeing, just commenting. Besides, if they get really slow, I can put my "Bicycle Bridge" game on and kick some computer card-playing butt.

Yeah, they do have a whole pile of useful information there. And it is usually the first place I go to if I'm looking for specific tidbits of info. But I used to browse there a bunch, and now I don't. I only go there looking for specific info.

But, again, I can't be too upset. As LT points out, it is a free service...

Here's a decidedly strange newsflash. Yesterday morning, I was puttering around a bit and decided to finally download the Mozilla Firefox browser. I know that allmusic.com is supposed to be optimized for IE 5.5, but I find that using Firefox it zips around like the allmusic.com of old.

I don't know what to think from a tech standpoint, but I spent some of the best quality time with allmusic.com I have since the launch of the new site.

Your mileage may vary, but I'd love to hear about it.

Now Playing: "Obscured" Spring Heel Jack Amassed (Thirsty Ear)

while i respect what you do (i've recently become a journalism major in hopes that i can one day express my views in some form to a demograph that doesn't include my friends or family)i do have a problem with one of your reviews. Im far from being one of the emo boys/girls that post messages on forums that read " omg i love so and so band so much, they totally sing about my life, and their lead singer is sooo hot/cool". Im 20 and a some of the bands i've liked in the past include Eminem, Keith Whitley, Bright Eyes, Staind, Blue October (not "calling you"), and Brand New. Brand New gave me an album a few years ago that sounded very similar of bands like New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday, and a littley bit of Foo Fighters (in my opinion). This album however had lyrics that kicked the shit out of any of the aforementioned bands and most any band that is making good money in the industry right now. As generic as their music was though i totally understood the critism this disc received from some parties. However, their second album...wow! They combined a wiser lyrical genius with a sound that is more original than less bands (emo/punk/post hardcore) i can count on one hand. They obviously have the talent to sell records if they wanted to. They have a good looking singer. A knowledge of the industry even simple plan's A&R guy lacked. They could've sold lots of records and made a huge name for themselves. Did they? NO. They tried their hearts out to make a good album as opposed to making money. They did it better than any emo/punk band (short maybe of Cursive's "the ugly organ") in the 21st century. As long as i can draw this out i'll cut it short to maybe hold your interest. I dont hold an candle to the bullshit that is Long Island's version of "Melrose Place", but there is no justification for Taking Back Sunday's "Where you want to be" getting a better rating than the masterpiece that is "Deja Entendu".

ive seen amg change there reviews from extremely flattering to not so good,in a way it is cheating to go back and change youre review but i dont see it done too often( that i can tell) anyways i love amg cause they dont have music myopia like some people do so if i decided to read about barbara streisand or kenny rogers i can with no indie snob telling me what to think

They've certainly changed. Does anyone use that stupid PC bogging scroll thing at the top? That has to be the most useless waste of time ever. All it does is mess up the site for anyone with a slower PC. Their ratings favour pop music a lot more than they use to. They're selling out more and more every day. I still use them a lot but I wouldn't be surprised to see banners and pop-ups for Lexus in the next year.

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Originally posted by Filmore Holmes:
They've certainly changed. Does anyone use that stupid PC bogging scroll thing at the top? That has to be the most useless waste of time ever. All it does is mess up the site for anyone with a slower PC.

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I cannot imagine using the new allmusic on anything other than a state-of-the-art PC (whatever that means anymore).

One suggestion, Filmore. I don't know if you're using IE, but ever since I switched to Mozilla's Firefox, I've had much better success. Reviews aside, allmusic is still a pretty handy tool overall for discographies even if their credits seem to have grown increasingly suspect.

Now Playing: "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." John Mellencamp on XM's 80s channel

Agreed. I have a state-PC so I have no probs now but I remember just how painfully it screwed up my last one. It took about a minute to load each page only because of that stupid spider-chart thing nobody has ever used.

Not to restart the kvetching regarding All Music's rating system, but I'd be grateful for a bit of feedback on this review:

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On the surface this sounds fine. This artist sings like the lost child of Otis Redding, and the songs are so retro you could slip them into an oldies station without many people being any the wiser. However, listen more closely and you hear something that's not quite right. Music hasn't stood still, so to put in lines that sound like the Memphis Horns, or a rhythm section that wants to be from Stax or Muscle Shoals, smacks of fakery. And the songs themselves, pleasant as they are, are riddled with clichés. Fine if you're not paying attention, but ultimately not real. And while this artist's voice sounds fine, the sweat and emotion are missing. Put him next to the soul greats and it's quite obvious. He might have graduated from the church and the street corners, but there's no hole in his heart -- he's not singing for his life the way Redding or Wilson Pickett did; he doesn't get under your skin. In other words, there's plenty of calculation behind this album. Yes, it still sounds fine as background, and with neo-soul increasing in popularity he'll doubtless find an audience to lap it up among both the hipsters and the boomers. But you can't replicate feel, and though this album has all the right notes in all the right places, it's just not the real thing.

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I've removed the name of the artist in the review becuase I'm curious specifically as to what rating you believe All Music awarded this album.

Now Playing: The Chargers up 7-0 on the Colts in the 1st quarter

From the sound of the review, it should be a 2 or 2.5 star rating. But I'm guessing, the way you've set it up, that it's more like a 4 or 4.5 rating.

Who is it?

that review shouldnt be given 3 stars since if you give six stars its great and 3 would be decent , at least in my opinion

My setup was a bit transparent. The above review was for the Ricky Fante album Rewind, which received 3.5 out of 5 stars despite a write-up that said (to me anyway), "don't bother."

As I mentioned before, I don't want to dig at All Music too much. It's a useful resource, but it's a mistake to follow their ratings over their reviews.

It's not quite so bad, though, as a particular All Movie review where I suspect the author did not sit through to the end of the film...

Now Playing: "Take Your Mama" Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters (Universal)

i think allmusic is notorious for rating albums on the simplicity of the listening experience.Especially relating to electronic music...and not rating it based on a multitude of factors.

I for one do not follow their rviews...but it is an undispensable resource for muusical backrounds and whatnot.

I still like their old setup alot better...it is way too hard to navigate in their new format.