Tuesday 7 June 2016

1. Introduction - Into The Great Wide Open...

Hello there and welcome to my music blog! Come in and make yourself comfortable.

Just a quick introduction to this site:

I initially started this blog many moons ago, but it was quite generic; wrote a dozen-or-so entries and things pretty much dried up soon after. It wasn’t because I couldn’t be bothered – of the pieces I had written only about half ended up getting finished and posted. I guess I had deemed the rest too ranty or uninteresting for anyone other than myself. Moreover, I realised my blog was getting too intimate and quite frankly nobody needs to read about that stuff. ‘Tis better to retain some mystique, no?

So I have decided to reboot and write about music. Album reviews, specifically. I decided this would be a good project as it allows me to talk about the music I am listening to beyond Twitter, and thus not horrendously condensing everything down to one hundred and forty characters. I am not musically trained nor a professional writer, but I am passionate about music and I like to talk about it. All the time. Sometimes I go on with an almost fanatical level of detail (ever seen ‘American Psycho’?) but feel that a blog is far better a soundboard than my partner’s ear.

More importantly, it means I have to listen to an album in its entirety, as I have too often spent upwards of thirteen quid on a CD only to listen to the singles.

This will mean that I will review albums of different genres, old and new. Most I will already own, and some I don’t. Of course there may be a little bit of bias (as my taste in music is supreme) but I will try and give my honest opinion.  I like most genres of music (my main areas of interest are Rock and Pop, mainly 70s through to noughties), and if there is a particular album you think I should listen to, then drop me a line. I do have reservations though…

Which brings me onto housekeeping:

  1. All reviews are written by me and formed from my own opinion. If you disagree with my comments, then I’m sorry but that’s too bad.
  2. While music suggestions are appreciated, I may not be able to fulfil all - Life is too short to have to listen to a whole album by an artist you loathe.
  3. I tend not to listen to a “trending” artist; instead preferring to wait for the hype and discussions to calm down before giving their work a go.
I rate albums out of 10:

10  – A truly exceptional album; a milestone achievement and an essential purchase.
8-9 – An excellent album; one of the highlights in an artists’ discography and highly recommended.
6-7 – A good album with some consistently fine moments; definitely worth a listen.
4-5 – An average album, with a few key cuts.
2-3 – A disappointing album, with possibly only one or two good moments.
0-1  A very poor piece of work; not worth your time or money.

Still reading? Then onwards and upwards, and thanks.

Simon.

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