Album narrative frequently irritates - please change it long term

I will admit that I hate seeing negative, even snotty reviews on albums paid for with good money.

This strikes me as a “baby with the bathwater” thing. I disagree with the reviews sometimes too, but more often than not, I learn something about the album (guest musicians, song inspirations, the recording process, etc.) from them.

Plus sometimes the number of stars seems out of sync with the text of the review.

Still, I wouldn’t want to do away them though. For me, the information they provide far outweighs the occasional irritating review.

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Don’t the reviews come from allmusic.com (or possibly they spun out the data service as a separate company).

I would like to see more different sources.

FWIW, I tend NOT to read reviews of albums I own or are familiar with. I do look to them for guidance with a new-to-me artist on where to start, but I take it all with a grain of salt.

I think there is a long tradition of book reviews, movie reviews, restaurant reviews even… you may not agree with the reviewer but don’t let it ruin your day :slight_smile:. Wouldn’t there be something wrong if we all agreed with all the reviews we read?

I would be curious from the OP if there are some examples that stand out.

A site I like aggregates ratings from other review sites, like this:
http://www.anydecentmusic.com/review/8887/Mogwai-Every-Countrys-Sun.aspx

So I think in that spirt if Roon could aggregate many sources that would be cool.

Given the number of replies, I think the OP is on to something!
Rob.

I personally don’t want a review, I want background information about the recording of the album, where it lies in the artist’s lineup, interesting facts, etc.

Interesting that this ancient thread occasionally still attracts comments. It was a major irritant for me and is one key reason why I recently decided not to renew my subscription. I really don’t want to read someone’s negative views on something I really love. As stated in the most recent post, factual info is more important. These reviews are clearly just hired generic words and fall far short of what Roon should be for such an incredibly expensive piece of software. That said, I will continue to periodically look for new developments from a distance.

I respectfully disagree Chirs_Wright1. I find that the reviews usually do contain some (sometimes, lots of) factual information - even the reviews that I disagree with. Such as, changes in the lineup of musicians, the creative process, or how the style of music on this album differs from what they had done before, or would go on to do in the future, etc. In addition to that, the reviews usually contain links to other artists and albums, which is fantastic.

These kinds of facts are fairly objective and having access to information like that enhances my listening and exploring experience. It is irritating to read a middling or negative review of what I think is a great piece of music, but that’s subjective. My own opinion is the one I care about the most.

Besides, I doubt that purely objective, “liner notes” style information for massive quantities of music has been stored into a repository that Roon could access.

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