pitchformula.com This project combines a computer science background and a songwriting hobby with an unhealthy obsession for popular music reviews. In it, I attempt to come up with a new computer-assisted songwriting method which takes music critics' opinions into account. By writing software to statisically analyze the content of several thousand record reviews from the Pitchfork music website (www.pitchforkmedia.com), I generate a set of compositional guidelines based on the musical preferences expressed by the critics. I then use those guidelines to write and record a couple of original songs, discussing in detail the relationships between the songs and the data that I have collected. [via music (for robots)]
posted by soundofsuburbia on Jun 16, 2004 - 18 comments

Lester Bangs, rock critic. Some reviews to read and enjoy. Patti Smith. Astral Weeks. Captain Beefheart. The Shaggs. Black Sabbath. Weather Report. Lou Reed. There are books you can read about him, too. (Previous mention in this thread.)
posted by ashbury on Oct 7, 2003 - 18 comments

John Darnielle has written a song by song defense of Radiohead's amnesiac (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8/9,10,11), among other overly wordy and passionate music reviews, including many pleas for us all to learn to love doom/death metal. John is a prolific songwriter himself, under the name The Mountain Goats. All the TMG's music, including their newest, is recorded on the Panasonic RX-FT500, a cheap boom box with the gears audibly churning in the background as extra musician.
posted by malphigian on Mar 6, 2002 - 25 comments

You don't need Metacritic to know that Driven blows. But you might need it to learn that Dolly Parton's new album is a gorgeous return to her bluegrass roots, Rififi is a classic french thriller, and You Can Count On Me is getting more 10's than Mary Lou Retton.
posted by geronimo_rex on May 3, 2001 - 11 comments