One More Light | Review Round-Up Thread

I'm also of the opinion an "above average" recognition for ATS is acceptable. It was fresh and innovative for a Linkin Park record, but it wasn't necessarily a game changer in rock or modern music when it was released. You guys have to remember just how much music a professional reviewer actually listens to, and how every new release will be compared to others.

I don't think that USA today one is unfair at all. The ABC one's very weak, though.

 

I think that reviewers should rate albums based on artistic merit, as opposed to the impact on music history (Is it even possible to create groundbreaking albums today? I'm not so sure). What I'm interested in when reading a review is whether or not the album is something that I could enjoy. Now we could argue that ATS is only a great album according to my taste, but we can see that a huge chunk of hardcore Linkin Park fans (=the people who gave the album a real chance) love it. The same can not be said about LT, THP, and probably OML. So at least some of the reviewers should have recognized that there is something special about the album. None of them did (except of course for Rick Florino of Artistdirect ).

So If there's such a disconnect between the opinion of the audience and the reviewer, what's the point in reading the reviews?

 

Didn't you know that the album is objectively bad because it follows radio friendly shitty pop trends

 

This might be farfetched but how does one become an official reviewer? Art is so subjective, I might adore one painting or an album and my friend might think it's garbage. I stopped listening and reading reviews a long time ago because not even fans can agree on which song is valuable so how can someone who just listens to music (and looks for what exactly?) decide whether it's good or not.

 

I had a feeling this may end up being one of the band's worst reviewed album and considered by critics to be overall a dud. Aside from Derek and Kerrang! the reviews haven't been so kind. I'm used to Linkin Park albums getting low ratings, but due to the nature of this album I'm prepared for it to get trashed. I see many finding it a big step back from THP.

All the debate over whether it's risky or not risky, all I know is they've alienated a lot of fans and even critics by going full pop along with the comments Mike and Chester have made. I admire the band for doing what they want, but if this album flops, then I'm curious where they'll go from here. Even those that enjoy pop may not be feeling what the band has put out here. I'm wondering if they're banking on reaching a new audience to make up for it, "Heavy" for example was relatively successful despite the backlash.

 

I really didn't mean to offend anyone but it's so difficult, nearly impossible to be objective when it comes to music/movies. We all, whether we liked it or not, have some already formulated opinion even before we start listening. Anynway, thanks for your review, it helped a lot to know what to expect

 

How would that even be possible? Can you tell me what was special or artistic in a way unique only to A Thousand Suns that I couldn't have heard elsewhere? You even have to qualify "real Linkin Park fans" to argue it was a fan favorite, so even that seems like a fairly rough basis to try and use.

I liked ATS, but I only liked it "ok" and can point out numerous things I find wrong with it, however I gave it a chance like I did the albums before and since. Would being able to point out flaws make my opinion of it not worth as much?

I think a good music reviewer is someone who can articulate exactly what brought them to their conclusion in a way you can follow, even if you don't agree. Anthony Fantano, for instance, gave a great review of Gorillaz Humanz that explained a problem some of the fanbase had with it that I agreed with a lot, however I didn't find the flaws to be as bad as he did to give the album a mere 5/10, whereas I would rank it around the 7.5, maybe 8 tier. But he gave me a really good insight on why he came to the conclusion he did, so even though I'm not on board with the ultimate decision as far as how good the album is, the review was solid.

That's what good reviewers do. Less "tell", more "explain".

 

If you don't like Linkin Park, why are you still a fan?

 

Album scores are pretty arbitrary in my opinion.
An undeniable classic album could be a 5/10 or a 10/10 (I guess some people would argue that a classic album can't be bad, but I would disagree).

Scores only really make sense on a personal scale (like how I personally would rank an album).

It's the words, opinions and insights that interests me with a review more than the actual score since I know my opinion most likely will be different from others.

And like Blackee said, sometimes I can literally agree with 100% of a review, but my score of the album would be higher just based on how much I ultimately enjoyed the album despite of its flaws (or the opposite).

 

How did you get that out of anything I wrote?

 

http://www.nme.com/reviews/album/li...source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nme

NME hated it. On the one hand, I'm sure I'll disagree with them entirely. But at least they didn't sound condescending like other reviews, and called LP a great band. Seems like they just genuinely thought it was very average Pop

 

Keep in mind their Minutes to Midnight review was roughly all the same criticisms.

 

They didn't like Chesters vocals?? What? He sounds absolutely phenomenal on this album so far.

 

A paragraph hardly counts as a review, in my opinion.

 

They were generous and nice to THP to be honest. And that was the time they actually interviewed the band for a while.

 

Did USA Today really just say the band isn't as willing to take risks? Okay, fuck the whole "is OML risky" argument, but come on, they've been taking risks for at least 4 albums, what the fuck? Just because in this one instance you don't find this album risky, they just apparently love to play it safe.

And then go on to say the album us full of morse rock anthems... Okay I have yet to hear the rest of the album, but from what everyone is describing the album to be, that I really wouldn't say the album is full of rock anthems... Way to half ass that review.

 

When only the LP fan calls it an A and all the professionals call it mediocre, I think it's pretty clear who has the right of it.

 

Yes, because there's always a "right" opinion on an album...