Reviews. Are they still worth it?

Without any quips, the long and short of it is that to save myself a lot of time and grief, I nearly always read multiple reviews before I get any score in any way.

These reviews can be grand, eloquent and convoluted or indeed just a single word from a trusted on-line friend ("GET this! It's GREAT!").

And -obviously- I tend to put more stock in (even one-word) reviews from people I find I am much on par with as far as taste and preference goes.

I rarely look at reviews for scores that I'm not interested in already. Usually I'll only look at reviews of stuff I have or plan to get, just to see what someone else thinks of it (but not letting their opinion affect whether I get it or not).

I think MainTitles offers quite some new reviews, one almost every two days! Varous scores and releases, and I tink we do well.

As for the subject, I agree with Martijn and Thomas. I mostly read the review when I have the score already. For older scores I never heard of or don't have soundclips from, I tend to first read some reviews and then decide based on those. I usually visit James' site and MovieMusicUK, although the latter has now been by random visits.

Obviously, I read the maintitles.net reviews and mostly Tom's on GoldenScores.

I wouldn't say I am influenced in my purchasing decisions very often by reviews (most of what I buy is from Intrada and Varese limited editions, and nobody other than me ever reviews them anyway so I couldn't read reviews even if I wanted to) but I still enjoy reading them. I guess most useful is reviews of lesser-known stuff, but it's always interesting to read other people's opinions of the major releases. Of course one can get that from the forums, but there is a tendency in some people (on all internet forums, not just film music ones) to push their real opinion into a somewhat forced extreme one, just to try to make a point (how many things are either "wonderful" or "awful" in the Now Playing threads!?)

I think that reviewing scores and uploading them for people to read is still very important and needs to be kept going, though I think that what needs to be reviewed may need to change. Yes, people are able to sample scores from audio clips but a review can enlighten the reader on how the whole score fits together, highlighting things that short audio clips can't reveal.

I would like to see a change of emphasis whereby reviewers review items that are less well known and where audio clips are lacking. Instead of trying to review quickly all the new CDs from blockbuster movies, provide a service to people who want to broaden their listening by providing guidance to the unfamiliar.

I also like to read what other people think of a score that I have listened to and formed an opinion on. Varying opinions might highlight other angles in scores that you think you have sussed.

The casual browser who has not much experience listening to film music and comes across a review of some music they heard whilst at the cinema is going to get more information (usually) reading a review here than, say, at Amazon. And - I may be wrong - but the environment where every score is available immediately at the click of a button is not the norm. And if it is then downloading every available score to listen to can't give each score the time and investment they deserve (at least for that first listen).

Online reviews are very useful, but maybe reviewers need to think a bit more when it comes to choosing what to review.

I agree with your last statement, Franz - I would dearly love to see more of that. There is definitely a gap in the market for such reviews - maybe there are some of them at FSM Online, I wouldn't know, but I don't think any of the free sites do it. Hopefully some day you (or someone of a similar mind and ability) might be able to start doing it more frequently.

Ouch!!



Sorry! I'm getting confused with "exfoliated".

It still hurt!

I still enjoy reading reviews. I'm trying to be more picky about what I buy and I find for me that the reviews help give me an idea of the whole score. I find that I can't get a good feel for the score by the low fidelity 30 second soundclips at many of the online stores. Most of the time, if it is at a non-film score based website, they always seem to pick the worst 30 seconds of a track. If a see a new review posted, I usually will at least take a glance and if the score is something I should look into more.

Thanks for the input so far, deeply appreciated. Seeing the discussions about the promos album being sent only within US and such, and having experienced such cut-offs myself as well during the last couple of years, I'd really like more input from reviewers themselves. 'Cause it's logical that they experience the subject matter different that film music fans who are awaiting for those reviews to be written and published. Both views are very useful, but very different at the same time.

That's a good point, Tom.
Especially when at times I happen to enjoy a particular rerecording over the OST (such as in the case of the McNeely recording of The Day The Earth Stood Still or conversely the original version over the rerecording (such as Rozsa's El Cid)

Doesn't make a reviewer's job any easier, I'd guess...

This brings us to the question; does a review need to tell you what it is in order for you to purchase it? For probably most people this is a reason to read them, or to see if these writers share their opinion. I like reading those that tell you something about the score process, some nice trivia, relation film-score and naturally something about how it sounds. Perhaps I'm seeking something a little bit different than most people. I often find myself browsing through reviews, searching for those few things I want to know. I'd rather see a description of the overall score with some small examples, instead of a lot of details of tracks for example. This may sound negative, but I still think reviews are still worth it, just not always for me.

(sorry for repeating myself )

Actually to nobody in particular...

I know, and I was going to use it... but then I read them. Most of them are pretty awful and would need re-writing.

If they contain new material other than the OST, I'd say yes. It might help the Records see if the score's popular