Hi, everybody. Because the time I have to listen to music seems more and more to be vastly eclipsing the time I have to write about it, and equally because the quantity if not quality of writing posted here requires a dedication that is really difficult to maintain without being paid for it (not that I'm placing myself as being as good as the people who do get paid so much as just noting that I don't want to participate in any kind of devaluing of their work), this is a really long sentence. Where was I? Oh, I am going to be making a change to the way reviews are posted here -- assuming that I don't have a change of heart after I sleep on it. I'm extremely behind on reviewing both new and old music in this space, and I think the best solution is not to cut the number of albums I cover but to reduce the number of full reviews I post.
I quite like the format I've used on the "Also Recommended" posts at the end of 2012 and 2013. That's what you're likely to be seeing on future reviews here. Note, however, that this mostly applies to either negative, neutral, or mildly positive reviews. It's rather likely that most anything that would receive a "highly recommended" tag will still get a lengthy writeup. (That being said, there are exceptions to everything. I'm posting something about Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs sometime this summer and I adore them, but I'm having doubts that they will be sufficient inspiration for an essay.) I'm still giving each record the same amount of attention, just making cruder, possibly less reasonable drive-by judgments, so it's win-win all around! And I like being forced to rein in my wordiness, so it's likely that it will be more fun to me as well, hence less hemming and hawing about sitting down to write here, hence more posts, hence happier readers? In theory? I guess? I hope to have the first such post up by the weekend, along with one or two complete reviews, both of older albums. The first revolutionary short-reviews post will be called "June albums." Future monthly posts will follow.
What kind of stuff will be relegated to the short review pile? Artists I don't know but feel a need to weigh in on, mildly interesting things I run across, failed follow-ups, other sorts of runoff, and things I sense are good despite not being a fan of their genres (that covers two of the reviews in the post coming up). What gets a full review? Generally something by an artist I absolutely love, or anything I'm confident I will have a lot to say about. As a consequence of all this, One Sentence Reviews will be discontinued. My apologies. But if it ends up saving me as much time as I suspect it might, I may start Wuzzon again. (The Also Recommended post at the end of the year will remain because it's meant for records I liked but didn't have time to listen to enough to form an entirely confident opinion.)
If this post disappears in the next 48 hours, you will know it's because my inner stubbornness wouldn't let me change the routine at this blog after four years. Because I can't think of any other good reason not to change, unless you really think I have a lot of exciting and original stuff to say about, like, Architecture in Helsinki. (No slur on them. Just... c'mon.)
No comments:
Post a Comment