Affinity for Reviewers

emdiar wrote: Once upon a time, long long ago, a thread was started (I know not by whom) which posed the question, "Does a review influence your opinion", to which I replied, "Yes, but only of the reviewer."   With this in mind, and recognising that tastes vary hugely between site members, which (fellow?) reviewer seems to be most "on the same page" as yourself? For me personally, I have to say Blacksword.   Sure, he only gave Green (Hillage) 4 stars, when it's a blatant 5 star album, and "Script" got half a star too many for my taste, but on the whole, I feel a definite affinity, prog-wise.   Peter is also way up there, plus, I like his style, and appreciation of folk.   I don't want to know who you consider a tasteless heretic, only who you regard as a person of sound musical judgement.   em.

Thanks emdiar. I have often felt from our discussions that we are on a similar page.

With regard to 'Green' it's an album that blew my mind when I first heard it. I discovered it at the same time as the Ozrics, and was listening to a lot of ambient music. It went with my mood very well. I probably would have awarded 5 stars back then, but hey there was no Progarchives then.. My review of 'Green' is quite recent, and my perspective is slightly different I guess. An excellent album nonetheless, as is Live Herald, my old vinyl copy of which still gets frequent plays. Salmon Sing! Wow!

As long as I researched, Drain-o is a French photographer that worked with M. Cousteau and due to his prog-rock appreciation was left in the almost desert island of Bouvet, in the South Atlantic together with the Norwegian garrison that deploys there, however Drain-o is the only permanent resident there...

Edited by Atkingani - October 02 2007 at 22:01

I've always wondered: Who the heck is Drain-O??? He's rated like 2345345556777 albums, and has given very few (if any, I don't know) reviews. I need a personality to match the screen name!

Shakespeare wrote: Shakespeare wrote: There's this one guy on here, I don't see him often, but his reviews express exactly my feelings. Shakey? Shaxpoo? Something like that.... You wouldn't be referring to me, by any chance?

Yeah! YOU! You rock, man!

^^yes, excellent reviewing by Febus.  I've been planning on getting into Barclay James Harvest, one of the "big" bands I've yet to explore, and I began reading his reviews as they appeared on the homepage, seemingly everyday.  As a result, "BJH Live" is on my order list followed by Once Again and EiEE. 

It takes a certain kind of perspecitve to systematical review an entire catalogue that way.  Very good

Greg W wrote: What do you mean Tony? You were one of those guys with narrow taste in music I was referring to...... There are fanboys, yes, but even Collabs are fanboys to someone, so albums tend to be inflated at times anyhow. I will say Collabs take their reviews more seriously and at least try to remain impartial. Many Guest Reviewers need to be watched like a hawk, but those reviews that are accepted should play more credence. 3X or thereabout seems a bit high. That is all.   You were right about one thing. I do like to rock the boat. That felt good. Like old times.

You may be somewhat right about collabs/admins being partial to certain bands, but there is evidence of them being objective regardless: Tony is a well-known (don't deny it Tony!) Rush fanboy, but the mean average of his reviews of Rush albums is only 3.2 stars. Easy Livin' has been known to sing the praises of Mike Oldfield, but his 30 reviews add up to an average rating of only 3.3. I arguably have written more about Kansas than anyone on these archives, but my 29 reviews add up to only a 3.1 average rating of that band.    So I think there's at least some evidence to indicate we are capable of objectivity.

As for Acuity, 14,997 members here have never commented on them, and of the three reviews one was a coolab who explained in detail why he gave it one star; one gave it three with no explanation at all; and you gave it four stars three years ago with a comment on this very thread that this was probably inflated.

From my seat in the bleachers it seems as if the rating system is working pretty well.

That singer is atrocious....

Greg W wrote: What do you mean Tony? You were one of those guys with narrow taste in music I was referring to...... There are fanboys, yes, but even Collabs are fanboys to someone, so albums tend to be inflated at times anyhow.

Well anyone giving 4 stars to Acuity's album seriously needs their own credentials scrutinising....

Yes each one of us has our favorites no doubt Greg but as collective whole we are very diverse. (One of the reasons it takes so long to come to some conclusions)  But from each ones varied experience and taste we represent a broad spectrum of progressive rock music.  It is very true to say the sum is greater than the parts in our case. As long as we leave egos behind us we do good service to the site and its readers.

Greg W wrote: Well, in the end the powers that be may make all the decisions of what is valued or not, but I still have freedom of choice of what reviews I choose to read. I was mwerely trying to explain WHY...   Greg

Well your thoughts came over very poorly and made you appear bitter and twisted,I'm sure that wasnt your intention Greg.
There are many reasons why the overall rating system favours Collabs/Prog Reviewers amongst them:

*Reward for service to the site
*Incentive for members to "move up the ranks"
* to fight the practice of guests giving inflated scores to albums to give them more prominence


I am sure Greg understands this, he just likes to rock the boat occasionally.