5000 of my record reviews

Just to let everybody know: I have finally got round to setting up a website containing all my album reviews (nearly 5000 at the time of writing). It can be found at http://rf3769.wix.com/richardfalksreviews

The site covers progressive, psychedelic, folk/rock, metal, underground beat and experimental albums by female musicians and bands from all around the world, spanning the mid-sixties until today.

Any comments or feedback would be very welcome. Although it arguably belongs elsewhere on the site, I'm hoping Gorts may let this thread remain in "Music Corner" as these reviews could (I hope) be useful to many members.

 

5,000 reviews? Holy crap! How long did it take you to compile that many?

 

Edit: found it. Never mind.

 

I saw a button that allowed me to continue on. It looks like this is the straight URL http://rf3769.wix.com/richardfalksreviews

 

I've retyped the address manually. Let's see whether it's working OK now.

 

It's taken about five or six years. I got into the habit of reviewing every new album I listened to when I contributed to the reference book Galactic Ramble, and found myself listening again to albums I had heard only months before as I couldn't remember exactly how they sounded. About 1200 of my reviews appeared in Galactic Ramble and its sister publication Endless Trip, but I had several thousand others falling outside those books' parameters, so decided to do something with them.

 

That works now, thanks. I'll take a look. I'm sure this was a big project, thanks for posting it

 

Thanx for the link great work.....

 

5000? Now that's what I call impressive! I don't think I could write more than 5 without starting to repeat myself...

 

I'm afraid your page is giving off a malware warning and is blocked by our firewall here at work.

 

Malware? It's a perfectly normal site put together using Wix. Don't think there's anything dodgy about Wix, is there?

 

I personally wouldn't consider those reviews, but rather opinion pieces that are purely subjective.

 

Impressive. Two highly regarded advertising agencies.

 

The difference being… what, exactly?

 

No idea. I was just letting you know about the message I got when I tried to click on your site.

 

I think your office firewall must have been a bit overzealous, as I can't see how any malware could have crept on there, but I shall keep an eye on it, so thanks for the heads-up.

 

I was looking for Grootna and you did Grootna, very cool. Nice site.

 

If you're going to review vinyl records I would think that pressing, recording and mastering quality would be of interest to the reader. You offer none. You do quote liner notes and comment on how a cover looks and tell us that the previous record they recorded was better (yet, you don't tell us why?).

 

Ah, I understand. No, there is very little information in there about pressing and mastering quality (partly because I review a lot of low-budget private pressings, where the technical quality is awful but the music can be excellent). The site is very definitely aimed at record collectors rather than audiophiles.

 

Got it.

 

In fairness to the OP...all reviews are subjective when it comes to content. And since he's focusing on a selected audience they may not care about an objective review concerning product quality. I have no beef with that. His reviews personally hold no interest for me as they don't touch on the quality of a recording. That still tells me that these are opinion pieces and not reviews. Semantics?

 

I think it depends on what you want to glean from a review. These reviews are about the musical content of the albums under discussion, not about the relative quality of different pressings. I have heard different masterings of quite a number of those LPs and have views about them (to take just one example: don't buy the recent Esoteric CD of Spriguns' Revel Weird And Wild, whatever you do) but that site isn't the place for those observations. Many collectors reading the site will only want the original, in any case, even if it's not the best mastering.

 

You've obviously found your audience....good for you! And I hope you write more for them. Really, I do. I admire your dedication and certainly credit should be given for that.

 

Is that not the case for every single review of every single CD/LP ever written in the history of printed / electronic media ?

 

Not really. Certainly not when you review pressing, recording and mastering quality.