The best album review site on the net (1 Viewer)

[Greg.G]

is George Starostin's site.

He's acutally a professional linguist living and teaching in Russia.

His reviews are thorough and the most balanced I have seen without all of the grade inflation that you will find at allmusic.com. Apparently he does this as a hobby as he doesn't have any advertising on his site. His rating system is the best that I've seen combining an overall group rating with each's album's rating to come up with a number between one and fifteen.

Personally I've found a lot of great albuns through his site that I had previously written off or ignored like:

Quadrophenia
Selling England by the Pound
John Wesley Harding
Station to Station
etc.

Like any great music analysis it is great reading in itself and his command of the English language is much better than most American critics.

 

[Rick_Brown]

Great site. George has his biases, which he states right up front. He won't rate an album highly just because every one else does if he doesn't actually like it.

I disagree with many of his ratings, but I absolutely respect his skill, and appreciate his breadth of scope.

 

[Greg.G]

There are a few artist he has come down hard on, most notably Springsteen, Queen, and to a lesser extent Led Zeppelin. As a matter of fact he gave CCR an overall rating of 4 and Zeppelin a 3, something I don't quite agree with.

On the other hand I've realized reading his introduction why I have never gotten into Queen(stupid lyrics, pomposity, banality).

Even artists I respect like Bowie I have to agree with his assertion that he is not a musical genius, but has been more of a follower than an innovator.

Reading through all the reviews of the time period from the early seventies to the mid eighties you can really see the malaise in popular music setting in - by 1986 everyone was dropping bombs on the public.

The other thing I like about his site is that he reviews artists that never got played on Classic rock radio, but were nevertheless influential. I'm not just talking about the Zappas, King Crimsons, Beefhearts, but also the Van Der Graaf Generators, Cockney Rebel/Steve Harleys, and Pere Ubus of the world.

Other tidbits:
The Who did not write the first rock opera in Tommy. It was done by the Pretty Things with S. F. Sorrow.

And the hilarious from a review of Queen's Flash Gordon soundtrack:

"Tell me what's your soundtrack and I'll tell you what kind of artist you are". Paraphrasing the scriptures, I'd have to remark that I find this to be true. Bob Dylan, for instance, made a soundtrack to a philosophical country-western movie. Neil Young made a soundtrack to a mystical country-western movie. Pink Floyd made soundtracks to all kinds of druggy and paranoid movies. The Bee Gees made the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. And Queen? Why, Queen made the soundtrack to a ridiculous, absolutely corny sci-fi movie!"

 

[ChrisDixon]

>Quadrophenia
>Selling England by the Pound

Wow, these are probably two of my top 5 albums even 20 years after discovering them myself. I would love to turn back the clock and listen to them for the first time again. Timeless!

Chris

 

[AnthonyC]

Completely stupid. At least keep the old reviews up.

What a primadonna.