Julian Cope's "Album of the Month" series brims with personal, passionate, and often mind-expanding writing about records like James Brown's The Payback, Nico's The Marble Index, and a bunch of stuff you've never heard of. (previously) [more inside]
posted by Trurl on May 30, 2012 - 25 comments

The worst book that will ever exist in the history of all books! A collection of the internet's worst reviewers.
posted by kanata on Mar 2, 2012 - 68 comments

Prickly, idiosyncractic and unashamedly pro-Goldsmith, Christian Clemmensen has reviewed modern movie scores at Filmtracks since 1996.
posted by Iridic on Jan 25, 2011 - 7 comments

Stef reviews free jazz. Review index.
posted by kenko on Oct 24, 2010 - 14 comments

A Review of Ocean Surf: The Ultimate in Relaxation
posted by empath on Sep 19, 2010 - 12 comments

Nothing compares with the experience of wandering through the archives of a college radio station, reading the stickers pasted on the old LPs and seeing first-hand how DJs viewed canonical records when they first came out. The KEXP blog puts those stickers online in Review Revue. Read contemporary reactions to: Paul Simon, Graceland. Peter Broggs, Cease the War. LL Cool J, Bigger and Deffer. Nirvana, Sliver 7". Lou Reed, New York. Tin Machine s/t. Sonic Youth, Goo. The Stone Roses s/t.
posted by escabeche on Jul 9, 2010 - 25 comments

The Gramophone Archive is a (free) searchable database containing every issue of Gramophone from April 1923 to the latest issue.
posted by Gyan on Feb 15, 2009 - 4 comments

CRUD CRUD, brief reviews from a thrift store record collection. Also, Gibble Gabble, spoken-word record reviews, from the same collector.
posted by serazin on Jun 8, 2007 - 6 comments

Pre-marital sex! Eastern religious influences! Nods to Darwinian evolution! Spitefulness! In a world where rock music is poised to corrupt the souls of young America, the music review section of Plugged In Online (developed by Focus on the Family) promises to evaluate music not by melody, rhythm, beat or sound, but by the spirit of Colossians 2:8: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."
posted by apple scruff on Sep 18, 2006 - 69 comments

Christmas carols reviewed It's that time of year again for the Christmas Abstract: a music reviewer casts his ear upon tunes of the season. Mostly acerbic, but still interesting. Even includes dialog between Jesus and the Pottery Barn music director.
posted by forrest on Dec 7, 2005 - 20 comments

"First, look up the most popular and critically-acclaimed books, movies, and music on Amazon. Click on 'Customer Reviews,' and sort them by 'Lowest Rating First'..." The Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game.
posted by reklaw on Jul 2, 2004 - 48 comments

Workers Rejoice!! The Maoist Internationalist Movement's music Reviews are in for 2003! As much as Lopez would like to pretend it is otherwise, social status and wealth are inextricably linked in capitalist society. Poor misguided J-Lo.
posted by Dr_Octavius on Dec 19, 2003 - 22 comments

"Right away you can tell: it's white people." Music reviews by 5th graders and kindergartners. via Slatch.
posted by btwillig on Nov 13, 2003 - 22 comments

The director, actor and self proclaimed messiah, Vincent Gallo, has released an album. As The Guardian describes: "It's proggy, inept, embarrassing and pretentious. In fact, it's terrible." Can anyone else think of actors and musicians, writers and artists who shouldn't give up their day job. Extra points available for any who shouldn't even be doing their day job.
posted by feelinglistless on Sep 21, 2001 - 44 comments

Nick Hornby reviews the Billboard Top Ten. Quote: We have been told often enough that to disapprove of gangsta rap is pointless, middle class, and smug, like disapproving of modern urban life itself. Nevertheless, one is entitled to feel queasy about the enthusiasm for and endorsement of the gangsta life audible on "The Saga Continues . . ."
posted by acridrabbit on Aug 21, 2001 - 19 comments

Has there ever been a classical music review this damning? "It's difficult to tell how good they are. If they played a wrong note or lost the rhythm, no one but the composer would notice. Music is dead, and here is the corpse, embalmed on two slices of plastic hell. "
posted by feelinglistless on Jul 8, 2001 - 38 comments

A friend gave me a promo CD of a band called Len. It's the weirdest mix of hip-hop, rock, old-school rap, and bubble-gum pop. It's strange, yet also the most satisfying thing I've heard in a while. If you read the reviews at Amazon, you can see that some people can accept multi-genre bands, and others can't.
posted by mathowie on Sep 14, 1999 - 0 comments