Post-Modernistic Paranoia, Or Just Plain Crazy?

So I've been thinking about music reviews a lot recently, especially about their ability to push someone towards or away from a certain musical genre or band. Maybe it's just paranoia, but I'm suspicious of whether music reviews colour my opinion of bands that I might otherwise feel different about. Some reviews seem to just scream “this is a fucking good band, go buy the album now!” and some reviews tend to be a little morose about it, saying “if you want to waste your money on this post-grunge crap, be my guest.” In my opinion, a reviewer’s job is not to force upon you his or her own preferences but to make reference to the good and bad qualities in an album and let you decide. That’s the common misconception about criticism.

A good review doesn’t tell you whether you should like or dislike something. It discusses strengths and weaknesses and invites you to make up your own mind based on the information and perspective given to you. But then that’s it; perspective. Two different reviewers could find different positive and negative sides to an argument and then it’s up to you which one to trust. I guess my big worry is that what if, deep within my subconscious, there’s a Good Charlotte fan waiting to be let out and I tell myself “No, Martey, don’t go down that road! There are parts of ourselves that we are never meant to know…”

I worry that I’m being a hypocrite when I write my reviews, that I’m subliminally forcing my opinions upon those who read them. But then, as long as I’m true to my own ideas, and no one argues with me or points out my mistakes, I’m pretty sure I can deal with the slight nagging paranoia!

Reviewing the new Thom Yorke album ‘The Eraser’ when it comes out, so keep an eye open for that. Release date in the U.k. is 10 Jul 2006.

Martey <3