That "Review" You Wrote? Yeah, It Doesn’t Really Matter

A couple of months ago, a local artist sent me a project that he had released. He told me that he valued my opinion and really wanted to know what I thought, even if I thought the album was trash. I listened to the project once. I listened to the project twice. I took a good deal of notes, in an effort to compile what I had into a review. I personally wasn’t pleased with what I was listening to and I started to express that, and then I stopped.

Remember that Breakfast Club interview where JAY Z gave his thoughts on the current state of album reviews? Everything he said then was relevant, but it is ten times more relevant today as it seems people are quicker than ever to drum up these ‘reviews’ and label albums “classic”, literally minutes after they are released.

“First of all you can’t listen to an album and rate it in a day. It’s just impossible. And when I see that, I’m like ‘Oh, so this is all just bullshit'” – JAY Z

Hov was spot on. I mean, I get it. Your favorite artist just dropped a project and you’re super duper excited because you probably have been waiting on it for a while, but come on, man. Don’t let that feeling of excitement compel you to run to your computer, type up a bunch of gobbledygook (that word is funny as hell, by the way) and call it a ‘review’. How much reviewing are you really doing in a day or even worse, a few hours? There are songs that I didn’t like the first few times I heard them, but now they’re favorites. There are albums I thought were dope the first go ’round, that get completely no play now. I’ve played projects from my laptop and said “Wow, this kinda sucks”, but then had a totally different reaction once I played it through quality speakers. I said that to say things change, within the listening experience.

Rather than rattling off these knee-jerk thinkpieces and calling them “reviews” (just to get some hits for your little blog) try really sitting down with the music; maybe for a week or so, at the very least. You would be surprised at how many different feelings you go through in that time period.

I stopped writing the review I mentioned in the beginning, because I’m personally done writing reviews. I’m done because I believe music — just like every other art form — is subjective. What I might think is wack, another person might really enjoy and vice versa. Who am I — who is anyone — to write a piece that says, “This isn’t a very good project. Don’t waste your time listening to it”? It might not be good to me, but I’m not going to cost someone a musical experience that they might actually value.

There are still writers out there who actually write good reviews, and you can tell they have spent time with the material, but to be completely honest, I wish swift death upon album reviews.

Your review doesn’t matter. One, because it’s most likely rushed and contains a bunch of BS. Two, because it’s just your opinion. It isn’t something people have to buy into. Let people enjoy the music and lose the false sense of influential authority.