MUSIC JUNKIES ANONYMOUS

LINKS TO OTHER ALBUM REVIEW SITES

(check these sites out, and maybe you'll be totally disinterested with this one)

• Mark Prindle's Record Reviews - This is arguably the most notorious of all the personal web-reviewing sites out there, and for good reason. Prindle has an effortlessly hilarious over-the-top style (even if it can get a bit excessively offensive at points) that merges well with his descriptions of the music he reviews. Prindle also introduced the 'one ten per band' rule that George Starostin and John McFerrin later took to even greater heights (though here it does make the ratings seem a bit uneven from band to band, one of the few minor complaints about the site). Another unique feature here is its' interactivity - there are literally thousands of reader comments posted on the numerous band pages, and readers are invited to contribute their own pages for reviews of various bands/artists (a feature that has been a controversy as of late). After Prindle's retirement and subsequent return to reviewing, MJA's own Rich Bunnell took over the job of actually maintaining the site and taking care of the weekly updates, and the business now deservedly thrives again. A must visit if you haven't already.
• John McFerrin's Rock And Prog Reviews - It's been a great experience watching John McFerrin's site grow from humble beginnings to something that can easily compete with the best review sites out there. The amount of music John covers on his site might not be among the hugest, as an album/band page is only added something like every three or four days, probably due to the fact that he actually has a life, but John puts so much of himself into his reviews, from his personality to clever descriptions and references that really help readers to get to know what he's reviewing, especially in his more recent reviews (like the utterly impressive Genesis ones). His scale is really interesting too, combining George's 'band rating' scale with Prindle's 'best of' one.
• Creative Noise by Brian Burks - Brian Burks only recently came back from a really lengthy (could have been permanent) hiatus, and hardly updates much anymore, but along with Prindle, he's probably one of the best concise review writers out there, and also one of the most effective of really letting his feelings be known on an album, so if you agree with him, it's very pleasurable, but if you don't, you might have the urge to send flame mail. It's a fairly diverse site too, ranging from punk and new wave to 60's pop and rock pioneers, and it contains a few revealing lists best-of lists as well.
• Satan Stole My Teddybear - Although the music they cover frequently gets a bit too extreme and underground for my liking, this is one of the hugest reviewing sites on the web, covering much of the discographies for several bands in an organized and concise fashion (albums are not given ratings, and the reviews aren't really that long). The site also shamelessly inspired this one in its' layout and staff-oriented approach, I must admit, since there are several reviewers that write for SSMT, most of which have good personality and talent and make for worthwhile reading.
• Wilson And Alroy's Record Reviews - One of the first personal review sites, this isn't one of my favorite pages out there, mostly because of the general attitude that comes off in the reviewing style of these guys ('we listen to lousy records so you won't have to' is an accurate description), but on the other hand, it's extremely comprehensive and diverse, covering well over 2000 albums, even if, unfortunately, nowadays many of them are reviewed by Wilson.
• The All Music Guide - Known by virtually all serious music reviewers out there as the most comprehensive guide to recorded music, this site is useful more as a reference point than a site of actual well-written reviews. Most of them are curiously skimpy and biased to the point where in a few cases it honestly doesn't seem like the reviewers actually listened to what they're writing about, and the scale is mostly relative to a specific band's recorded output, which isn't that helpful. But due to its' size, it's a good place to go to look up info on a certain album or band.
• CapnMarvel's Rock Record Review Bonanza - This site isn't very big yet, as is true with most of the newer crop of review sites, but the writing style of Cap'n Marvel (aka Ryan Atkinson) is one of the most smooth and fun to read I've seen among web reviewers, and the graphics and site design are equally as colorful. This one should become one of my favorites once it gets more comprehensive (though all the pages go into great detail about the bands/artists covered already!)
• Guy's Music Reviews - A great new site I've been checking out heavily lately.  Reviews are written by Guy Peters, covering an eclectic mixture of everyone from John Zorn to Husker Du to Randy Newman to Blur, with very detailed writing that makes it obvious he knows what he's talking about.  Design is done by his girlfriend Els, and that's one of the most excellent features of this site - it's arguably the best designed out of any of the sites in the Web Reviewing Community.
• Scott's Rock And Soul Album Reviews - Despite the status of this site as one of the more recent to pop up in the web reviewing community, there are a large amount of bands/artists/musical styles reviewed here already (apparently he wanted to write a lot before making the site public), so much so I haven't even fully explored the site yet.  What I have seen, though, are some well put together reviews in the refreshing short, Brian Burks tradition.
• Disclaimer Music Archive - This site, run by Chris Willie Williams, is the home of both music reviews and his mostly solo band of the same name, featuring a comprehensive amount of modern indie and alternative reviews.  It's also one of the more notable sites in first using the famous 'letter grade' system, and also one of the more effective in summing up the merits of an album in a single paragraph.  Extremely well-organized as well.
• COSMICBEN's Record Reviews - I kind of wish Ben would update more frequently, because he seems to be a really talented writer within the green background framework covering a seemingly random array of bands and artists, with a clever and often amusing style in his reviews and occasional online journals and such.  I can't help but thinking there's still a heck of a lot of potential here that hasn't been unleashed yet.
• Rock Is Dead Long Live Rock - Like the Cosmicben's site, I can see a lot of potential in the writings of Marco Ursi that hasn't been all the way exposed yet due to infrequent updating, but his reviews of several notorious (mostly classic rock) bands as well as several essays reveal a really great subtle humor that gets incorporated with a knack for getting to the point in describing an album's sound.
• Cole Reviews - A very recent addition to the web reviewing world, from a cool guy that's written a few pages on the almighty Prindle site, Cole Bozman seems to be dedicated from the start in his coverage of numerous bands and albums with his short but satisfying insights and amusing style.  I can tell I'll probably end up disagreeing with him a lot, but that's what makes it fun.  Unfortunately, Cole may be on permanent hiatus, though.  :(
• Jack Feeny's CD Archive - A somewhat well-organized site, with a diverse array of modern and classic rock bands reviewed, as well as several interesting lists, and even poll features where you can vote for the best album from a particular band/artist!  I like Jack's writing style a lot as well, though he could be a bit less top-heavy with the ratings.  Nicely written and involving.
• Steve And Abe's Record Reviews - I disagree with the opinions on this site more than any other (often to the point of annoyance), but the attractive feature here is how incredibly creative and entertaining the writing ability of Steve Knowlton is - nearly every review he writes offers some interesting and humorous feature, and the lists and other sections of his site are often great. Go visit it.
• Adrian's Album Reviews - This is one of the more promising of the more recent sites that have been popping up lately.  Adrian Denning writes quite effective short reviews that maintain reading interest and allow the reader to get a good introductory judge of what the album he's reviewing is like. What I dig about this site in particular is how well organized and easy to navigate it is.
• Brad's Completely Useless Record Reviews - Yet another very new site, with excellent, often hilarious coverage of assorted alternative and classic rock bands that sometimes rival Mark Prindle and Cap'n Marvel in excitement.  Like Cap'n Marvel, this site could also be a very promising one once it gets more bands on it.
• Galpy's Music Reviews - One of the just emerging 'George Starostin clone' sites out there, with band ratings, long intros and reviews, and also a Steve Knowlton-esque approach of using the entire 1-10 rating scale often.  Not too comprehensive yet, but given time, this could be one of those sites to watch out for.
• Daniel Reviews - A nice humble-looking site run by Daniel Fjall, with short, easy-to-read to the point reviews, and a good design.  There's also a few lists for you to check out, sports and movie sections, another incorporation of the George tracklisting feature, and other good stuff.
• Sam Ulward's Music Reviews - Another recent site with quite a bit of potential ahead of it whose most prominent reviewers are Federico Marcon and Joel Larsson, both of whom offer a lot of interesting opinions throughout, and the whole site is excellently organized. It's structured a bit too close to George Starostin's site in places, but it's a worthwhile read.
• The Reactionary Reviewer - Another recent site by Peter Ross, occasional outside reviewer for Mark Prindle's site and commentator for this one, which, at the outset, seems to have a focus on covering the careers on notorious prog and metal bands.  A good writing style and layout to be found here, as well as some controversial opinions (as the title of the site suggests).
• Gnosis - Not so much a review site as it is a guide for finding the most recommended prog/art rock albums out there - the site consists of a staff of several people who assign 1-15 ratings to particular albums, making for a pretty good comparative source, if not too much more than that (you know how those prog fans can be).  Also contains a monthly newsletter.
• Ultimate Metal Reviews - Another one of those infrequently updated sites, this is a somewhat useful guide for fans of the genre, as the site organizes the reviewed bands/artists in effective categories. It's much too limited to the 80's and 90's, and the reviews are a bit short, only briefly mentioning the general sound and songs, but it's a decent reference point.
• Amazon.com - This isn't strictly an album review site - like the All Music Guide it's more of a reference point for specific information on albums, since the 'reader reviews' are much more often than not written by huge fans of a band that give everything 5 stars or bashers that give all 1 star grades, but if you search carefully enough, you can find some useful opinions here.

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