I don't follow critics very much, but I do have a favorite and least favorite. Favorite: NY Post, for following my open-minded style. My least favorites: The Guardian, The Village Voice, Playlouder. I only left out Pitchfork as worst because they review lesser known albums that I check out.

Favorites : Fufkin.com, Bruce at NotLame Records and the Audities mail list.

Least Favorite: Vanity Fair Magazine's monthly column (love the Annual Music Issue, tho'.)


.

Others I enjoy reading, even when I disagree:

Philadelphia Inquirer reviews
Entertainment Weekly
Blender
San Francisco Chronicle
All Music Guide
PopMatters

More I don't like:

The Onion AV Club (too bad, because I'm a liberal)
New York Magazine
The Wire
Those reviews in fashion magazines and teen magazines

BTW, I don't go to the ones I don't like that often - and the ones I don't like I consider stuffy or unprofessional. Those are just not fun to read.

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Originally posted by flem_snopes:
Favorites : Bruce at NotLame Records

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I love Not Lame, and Bruce does a great service to power pop fans, but have you ever noticed that he LOVES EVERYTHING? And SO many bands get a "sounds like" that doesn't match the actual sound of the band. I'm wary whenever he says a band sounds like Jellyfish, XTC, or Fountains of Wayne. I've tried things that were supposed to sound like those bands and was disappointed.

But I love the site, and at least he offers reviews. I probably wouldn't do it different if it was my label...

Personally, I like most of the reviewers for Magnet. Harp is pretty good, as is Pop Culture Press. By FAR the best mag for volume of reviews is The Big Takeover. Jack Rabid's reviews are great. Many of the others who review for TBT are so-so.

I DON'T like most of the reviewers at Amplifier (some of them are so bad it's laughable) and most of them at Rolling Stone.

For years and years it was Robert Christgau. He seemed to like more of what I liked than any other critic.

Then, it was All Music Guide. Until recently, I visited that site daily. Lots of great info.

Recently, Metacritic. Why not pick a site where you can have all the critics lined up next to each other? Chances are, if they all liked it and I didn't (Hidden Cameras, for example), I'm probably wrong.

But my one surest bet over the last 20 years is, What is mark f buying? I have no better barometer for what I'm likely to enjoy than knowing that mark f has or wants to buy a certain LP.

You can take that to the bank!!!


hal

(With LinnTate's permission, I'm going to steal his line - it's a good one) Now listening to and its growing on me - Devandra Banhart.

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Originally posted by hal:
(With LinnTate's permission, I'm going to steal his line - it's a good one) Now listening to and its growing on me - Devandra Banhart.

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Oh, yeah. Like THAT was an original thought on my part! You're entirely too kind, hal.

I don't know why, but mentioning Christgau reminded me of one of my favorite review sources and one I miss most. Once upon a time J.D. Considine of the Baltimore Sun reviewed music for Musician and had a column called short takes, which was exactly what the name implied, short, capsule reviews. They were sometimes informative, but mostly hilarious. When the guitar supergroup GTR came on the scene in 1986, his Short Take was simply "SHT." Sure. Rob Reiner and company may have done it first in 1984, but it was still funny. Especially in a publication that catered to guitar wannabes. Oh, the hate mail.

[/NOSTALGIA]

Now Playing: "Parisian Thoroughfare" Clifford Brown Brownie: The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown (EmArcy)

My favorite review source is Pitchfork, because they cover the music I like and are interesting enough to spark debate between people. Almost Cool, All Music, Pop Matters and Splendid are all runners-up to it.

I don't think I really hate any music source, but I find Drawer B and Nude As the News to be too sparse in their reviews of new releases to remain relevent.

While we're on the topic, feel free to suggest a music publication not currently listed at metacritic.com that you would most like to see added to the site.

www.cokemachineglow.com and www.musicemissions.com are pretty goos sites that are not listed...

Global/world music gets short shrift here, since there aren't many publications that cover it.

Songlines and http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/world/ are two that come to mind.

Others:

http://www.planbmag.com
http://www.boomkat.com
Magnet Magazine!!! I can't believe this has been excluded!
Alternative Press -- not a great rag, but it's been around forever, and deserves a place.

I went on cokemachineglow recently. not too shabby. I will visit this site in the future.

Stylus magazine is one that I found out about through metacritic, and I now read their reviews daily.

I take every webzine with a grain of salt. The nature of the internet favors quantity, not quality.

I really like www.popmatters.com and www.deathto.tv (Loose Lips Sinks Ships - from the makers of Careless Talk). www.popmatters.com is always really good. www.rockfeedback.com doesnt mess around.

Would really like to find some more sites doing a lot more surreal, strange reviews, we've got a coupla folks who write quite 'out there' stuff for DiS...

Sean

MattD, you say he doesn't like the Wire. I disagree with you, but I'm guessing you don't like it because they never seem to give anything a bad review. I've noticed this too, and as a result trying to find the cream is tough because everything, apparently, is good.

However, I think of the Wire review section not primarily a place to find albums to download, but instead a place to read about what is being made, and to read how the Wire's experienced reviewers describe them and approach them so I get an idea of how to approach different types of music.

Or maybe you don't like the $8.75 newsstand price.

EDIT: I just read the post underneath the one where you say you don't like the Wire. I guess the "not fun" aspect is kinda true too. I have to concentrate when reading the Wire, but I do find it rewarding.

My favorites are All Music and Playlouder. All Music is usually quite fair and balanced, almost too much so at times. Playlouder is the opposite, very emotional and subjective. I tend to agree with the reviewers at Playlouder a lot, and they have either informed or validated many of my recent purchases. Their reviews of the new Ministry and PJ Harvey albums were bang on, at least according to my opinions. I discovered the Bi-Conicals of the Ramm Ell Zee there as well, and that album has become one of my favorites. I also found their no star review of D12's new album to be absolutely hilarious! All Music on the other hand, I usually go to for fact checking, seeing who played on an album, or figuring out which album to buy from an older artist who I am not familiar enough with. I still purchase Blender magazine but I have found it slipping recently, with the reviewers tending to go for safe ratings. Plus, they gave Prince's Musicology 2 stars, what's up with that?! The same rating as Gene Simmons new album, are they f***in' crazy?! I will be watching them closely to see whether it's worth my money anymore. They also never seem to give out 5 stars, I can remember Van Leer Rose and Kill Bill 2 getting 5 stars, but the only other recent 5 star I recall off the top of my head was the 10th anniversary edition of Nas-Illmatic, an album they would probably be too afraid to give five stars to if it came out today. The one other place for reviews that I frequent is Exclaim magazine, a free newspaper in Canada that does an excellent job. Check them out at exclaim.ca.

has anybody mentioned tinymixtapes?Their random mixtape generator is good fun.I have not read all the posts here...so if someone has i appologize.

I think one of major problem with review websites and music reviews in general is that the reviewers know that a certain amount of the people who are looking...are not even reading the review they look at the number rating and go from their.Thats why i love pitchfork also their reviews are insightfull and entertaining.I also love prefixmag,dusted mag,stylus,tiny and many more.

One review that caught me off guard and made me laugh hard was the review of the Juelz Santana album on prefixmag.com.Short and sweet.I still laugh at that one...lmao!

Anyways...have fun reading reviews of your favorite albums...just dont rely 100% on what a certain reviewer says!Check it out yourself...alot of record stores let you preview albums now...and alot of webstores offer previews of tracks for free.

I dont know i guess everyone is different but i dont like somebody chewing my steak for me.Half the fun is finding an album that knowone knows about...and showing it off to your friends.


Have Fun!

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Originally posted by Buck "Sweetie" McGuck:
the Wire. I disagree with you, but I'm guessing you don't like it because they never seem to give anything a bad review.

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I stay far, far away from the Wire ever since they slammed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

I disagree that interviews are all that useful. I stopped doing interviews years ago, because most artists don't really want to be there doing the interview. Usually it's because they're being prodded by the marketing machine driving a recent release, so they're often cranky.

The #1 reason interviews are useless? By definition, musicians communicate best through music, not interviews. So listen to the goddang music!

Reviewers are a great resource, if you're resourceful enough to sort the good from the bad. I don't know who you've been reading, but I prefer the ones who know their stuff, and know how to write. Even deep knowledge can be useless if they're a gasbag and cause your eyes to glaze over by paragraph five.

the best thing to do is find a reviewer or two with similar tastes as yours and follow them.

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Originally posted by Metacritic Music Editor:
While we're on the topic, feel free to suggest a music publication not currently listed at metacritic.com that you would most like to see added to the site.

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The only sites I visit, besides Music Underwater, that Metacritic doesn't consider are Opus 'Zine and Wackiness. The former rarely covers albums that are added to Metacritic, but after thinking about it for a while I thought Wackiness might be a novel addition to your site.