Boards
Reviews on DiS
Been some really special ones on DiS recently - Andrzej our reviews editor has got some great new writers aboard, and some of our finest scribes have had more time to write more again lately. Be curious which reviews you've enjoyed, as I know people comment a lot less these days (and to be honest, people only ever used to comment if they disagreed with something)
In terms of scores: Have our writers been too kind? Too many 7s, 8s and 9s? Or do you kinda accept that DiS is staffed by a bunch of individuals who love music, and end up requesting records they're likely to rather like? Or is it all the 'same as it ever was'?
Here's a taste of what we've posted this week, as I know some of you don't really frequent the non-Community side of the site.
- Bibio - Silver Wilkinson "...an aural elixir..."
- Four Tet - Rounds (reissue) "...angel-soft ambience and minimalist melodic slivers of unconventional sounds..."
- Marques Toliver - Land Of CanAan "...competent..."
- Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City "...the best alternative pop album you will hear this year..."
- RP Boo - Legacy "...an extraordinary magpie-like, disassociative approach to track-making..."
- Wampire - Curiousity "...surprisingly solid..."
- Primal Scream - More Light "...back on form..."
- Noah & The Whale - Heart of Nowhere "...lovely..."
- Van Dyke Parks - Songs Cycled "..this music sounds wonderfully alien in an age of electronically composed pop music."
- Ghostpoet - Some Say I So I Say Light "...this isn’t a rap record..."
- Scanners - Love Is Symmetry "...brooding, kooky indie..."
- Arcane Roots - Blood & Chemistry "...will whole-heartedly be welcomed by alternative rock fans..."
- Little Boots - Nocturnes "...so much subtlety and class..."
- Rilo Kiley - rkives "...a celebration... a deserved swan song..."
- Still Corners - Strange Pleasures "...never one dimensional..."
- Deerhunter - Monomania "...kind of sloppy, but it also sounds pretty astonishing cranked up loud..."
The Veils - Time Stays, We Go "...a red velvet chocolate heartache cake just waiting for you to scoop it up..."
- The D.O.T. - Diary '...Mike Skinner can try something new without compromising the work ethic he so quickly established: be yourself...."
- Savages - Silence Yourself "...a balance of really excellent stuff and the simply very good...."
also, if you haven't read it yet, take a few mins this weekend to read this
http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4146370-dis-does-singles-6-05-13--vampire-weekend-ya-hey-xl
DiS does reviews?
i like that veils quote :)
i did find still corners to be one dimensional. good, but quite flat.
Nah the scores are fine. No need to offend anyone. Its the writing that matters. We all know the scores work like this anyway:
10 - absolutely stonkin
9 - bloody good
8 - not bad, you'll probably really like it if you are into this stuff
7 - bit disappointing, no real crimes though
6 - criminal
Scores are a funny thing...
I sort of end up assuming if 10 out of 10 tracks are great (and it's got that little bit of extra something - e.g. creativity / innovation / energy) than it's a 10.
If it's mostly good but has a couple of fillers, it's an 8. If it's half good, it's a five etc. My gut feeling is that more of the 8s should be 7s - but this wouldn't stop someone interested in a record buying it, so it's largely irrelevant.
That said, I'd like to think that there's some sort of consistent criteria for scoring. Records which get 9s or 10s because "well I bloody love this and I'm not going to apologise for it" can be quite misleading. Yeah, Hookworms is good, but it's neither particularly innovative nor particularly strong in its songwriting. I bought it on the strength of the review. I LOVE the new Panda Riot album - it really is a classic shoegaze record (and a personal 10), but would I give it a 10 for a wider audience - no, because it's a shoegaze record and that in itself constraints it. Frank Ocean's 9 was the right score - it appealed on many levels (and I'm not normally into his sort of music). Is Hookworms better? No.
Sorry too much personal opinion. Keep doing as you're doing.
ya hey review was great
Liked the Deerhunter one. Quite like Andrzej's reviews for some reason - he seems to review the albums I particularly want to read about. Don't read that many reviews these days, on any site.
He gets first dibs due to being reviews editor, but then he also has impeccable taste and a wonderful way with words. Surprised he isn't revered in a Diver-esqué manner.
Vaguely related read
http://fuckyouneilkulkarni.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/peace-in-love-columbia.html?m=1
Well worth your time.
I read the DiS reviews every day
and I've definitely noticed the quality has been taken to a whole new level recently, some excellent writing and massively entertaining to read.
If I'd call a few out: the Primal Scream one summed up being a lifetime Scream fan and got me excited to hear the new one, Andrzej slayed the Deerhunter (solid as usual); Savages review was engaging, well, great actually; Vampire Weekend was brilliant.
Is it me or have they become more concise? - imho great editorial control.
Less of the solipsistic musings - I like personality in writing but only when it's relevant.
Description of the actual music that I might hear - spot on, exactly what I want from a review.
Are the scores about right? Lots of 8's bandied around, I'll get back to you on that one. The reviews have made me want to listen to a hell of a lot of records I probably wouldn't have because of the enthusiasm of the words.
The writers of these reviews must get hardly any feedback when they've done a good job. So here's my thanks!
What a nice comment
the nature of DiS is that writers will come and go - there's people writing for us now who'll move on to better (paid) things and there's people who haven't written for us yet who'll hopefully get their break writing for us in the future. It's a much less stable system than when Diver, Kev Kharas etc were working for DiS full time, but I like to feel we keep it ticking over pretty well within our means.
I guess back in the day the relationship between the writers and the boards felt a bit closer and there was more commenting on reviews, but I guess in a weird way the fact they've grown into these two slightly distinct entities is actually a sign of the site's success in a way, insofar as both are very popular. Probably cuts both ways as well, insofar as a lot of the writers don't post much on the boards, which is a shame... they're kind of missing out... kind of...
oh yeah, and my stump reply to the 8/10 thing
sure, I'd like a splash more diversity and I do roll my eyes when something I don't like bags a 9/10, but if you round p4k's scores to the nearest whole number it's surprising how un-diverse their marking suddenly seems, eg current reviews would be - She & Him - 8/10, Small Black 6/10, Pharaohs 8/10, Immolation 8/10, Purson 7/10.
as a reader, I always round the P4K
score to the nearest whole number anyway. It seems a bit pointless to me.
See also
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/node/4976
Ah, I've just remembered!
That thread about how and why I came to DiS - it was googling particular album reviews and I felt obliged to create an account to agree / argue with a review in the comments section. I think I must have posted exclusively in comments for about a year before I found the boards.
Hardly anyone does that anymore which is a shame (unless I just read them the day they come out pre-comments). I'm going to make a point of commenting a bit more often, if only to give some feedback and make it seem like more of a dialogue with the reviewer.
I've still got a longstanding beef with the editorial position of reviews being representative of the individual rather than the website. I go to aggregator sites like AnyDecentMusic and Metacritic where they quote DiS scores and soundbites as representation of the site withough appreciating the editor's decision. Don't get me wrong, 90% of the time it's all cool but there's times when I think DiS as a community or entity is being mis-represented in the wider world because of this policy. Just riffing here, I may be wrong.
weeeeeell
I don't personally think there's any point in suggesting it's not the 'official' review, insofar as it's the only review we're going to do, but I suppose the wider point is that a bad review doesn't mean that DiS has taken an editorial stance against the artist in question, and a positive review doesn't necessarily 'mean' anything more than a single writer likes the record.
Or think a positive review of someone like the xx means we have to make it album of the year...
I'm very greatful
to be writing for DIS. I must have contacted about 12+ editors submitting reviews and only two replied at all. Most of the other sites weren't even in DIS' league anyway to be fair.
I probably
shouldn't even be writing for DIS considering I can't even fucking spell grateful correctly lol
As I am one of those former writers who's moved on to paid gigs
I'll always be grateful to DiS for giving me the chance. The more so, considering how piss-poor those first reviews were!
But I took it seriously and have since learned a lot about the mechanics of writing.
I'm not saying I'm great and have got it all figured out. What I am trying to say is that if you fancy yourself a scribe, then DiS could be your big break too.
Writing isn't magic and it isn't Art-- anybody can do it. The secret of being a good writer is being a good re-writer. Good luck to the current staff; if you're on the sidelines now but have the bug, give it a go; and, if Mr Lukowski or Sean ever needs me for a something-something, I'd be honored to.