write music reviews

WOW! I love this cd! When I first saw the Yanni Voices special on PBS, I was blown away! Besides his music, he has 4 singers in his group now-hence the name Voices in the title. It adds so much to his music. These singers are some of the best I have ever heard, especially Chloe. If any of them competed in American Idol, they would blow away the competition and win hands down! Ender is one of two men singing on the cd. He has a passionate & beautifully exotic voice, and extremely good looking! Chloe is one of two women singing on the cd. She sounds just like the singer who sings on the little mermaid song, & has a very powerful voice. Leslie has a mellower & lighter sound, while Nathan is a classically trained tenor, and his voice really adds to the music! Four different voices that go well with each other! My favorite song is Mi Todo EresTu-Until the last Moment. Ender & Chloe sing this together, and it is so beautiful! Along with the cd is a dvd. It is the only part I was disappointed with. It has some singing on it along with a lot of talking. I was hoping for the PBS special on the DVD!

Don’t let the name fool you!
To me, the name sounds like a big band from the 1940’s, or a cruise ship band. But they are far from it! Don’t let the name fool you! They sound like a pop or a top 40 band. Two of the band members are in the tv show “Dancing With the Stars, and Derek Hough is the brother of Julianne Hough, another “Dancing with the Stars” dancer, and a very talented singer in her own right. They definitely are a couple of very musically talented siblings! I can see a number of these songs hitting the top 40 charts. The vocals sound, to me, like Justin Timberlake. Who I do not like, but I like these singers. And you can dance to the whole cd! This is one of the few cd’s lately that it is actually worth downloading the whole cd, not just one or two songs. My favorite song is Fall, which has an edge to it. Another song, Break Through, is right up there also! These two songs are going in my Ipod!

Linda Eder-The Other Side of Me This CD was just released on September 30, and this is her 10th CD. She has appeared on Broadway, and has sung at Carnegie Hall. She started her singing career in 1991, and has been going strong ever since. Although she only wrote one song on the CD-“Waiting for the Fall”, she does plan on writing more in the future. “The Other Side of Me” has a hint of country. The lyrics are simple, easy to understand, and realistic. Her voice reminds me of a cross of Sugarland, and Melissa Ethridge minus the gravel. My favorite song is Pieces, which is about being over someone, having had enough of them, and not picking up the pieces anymore, so is a very nice twist. Most of the songs are easy to dance to, and there are several ballads on the CD, so there should be something for everyone!

I went to see Stone Sour a hard rock outfit from Des Moines IOWA last week at the Manchester Apollo, UK. It was the second time I had seen them live and they, again, blew me away. Stone Sour are a five piece from the USA, consisting of most recognisebly Cory Taylor and James Root from notorious metal band, Slipknot. They mix styles of music between songs from extremely heavy songs like ‘30/30-150’ and ‘Orchids’ to softer, more relaxed songs such as ‘Bother’ and ‘Through Glass’, both they do very well.
At the Manchester gig tehy had two fanstastric support bands, Forever Never came on first and with a brutal set they truly warme dthe crowd up before Flyleaf came in with a slightly softer sound, impressive none the less.
Stone Sour come on stage to the synth riff of Europes ‘Final COuntdown’ before suddenly kicking in with ‘30/30-150’, the pouning drum and guitar with powerful vocals combining to make a metal classic, I believe that there is no better song for a live band to open with. After a few more songs of this nature and constant crowd banter from Cory Taylor whos wit wins over the fans who werent too keen before,who got dragged to this gig by friends before slipping into ‘Sillyworld’ which has a slightly softer feel to it. This couldnt have happened at a better time as the crowd particularly needing a sing-a-long after the constant brutal assaults from the heavier songs. When this song finishes, the band leave the stage, all exept for Cory Taylor who shows his talent further by receiving an electro acoustic guitar from a roady. The crowd chants his name with passion and after a short speach he plays the brilliant riff of ‘Bother’. Lighters and phones are thrust into the hot air above the crowds heads as he melodies us all. He asks us what we would like to hear next before surprisingly kicking into teh first verse and chorus of Lynard SKynard’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, much to teh crowds delight before cracking up into laughter. Then he pust on a serious expression and plays a song that obivously meens alot to him in his cover of finish melodic metallers HIM’s ‘Wicked Game’. This couldnt have gone down better, as soon as this song finishes, Cory plays ‘Through Glass’, possibley the bands biggest hit to date before half way through the song his band come back onstage and assist him with the last half of the song. After this there are some more heavy songs to finish the night with, when the band leave the stage to Roy Mayorgas incredible drum solo, there is a cheer like no other.
Stone Sour never fail to impress live, they have their set to a tee and have given everyone a fantastic night.

but I’m clearing this goal off now to make room on my list…

There will be many many more to come.

I know how I feel about all of the music I hear. I love to share it with people and talk about what is good and what is not so good. I am really reluctant to classify anything as being actually BAD.

This last point could be a real problem for me as a music reviewer. Although, I am thinking that perhaps after I have gotten a bit more serious about reviewing music I may develop a keener sense of good v. bad.

Anyway, so one problem is the whole “where do I start” question. I could pick a brand new project I’ve not heard yet, or I could pick one I already know that I totally love (e.g., Santana’s “Supernatural” or “All that I Am” or Toby Mac’s “Welcome to Diverse City”), or I could pick one that I don’t care that much for….

I would truly love to do music reviews for a living, but I do not hold out much hope for that. I’m thinking I would need to get busy and write a pretty diverse, thorough portfolio full of reviews to even be considered by any serious publication as a regular reviewer. And I haven’t the foggiest idea how to go about “selling myself” as a freelance reviewer.

Bottom line: this is something I’ve always thought I’d love to do, so when I saw it as one of the options for my list, I added it.

I’ll do more reviews this weekend. I guess. Life is surprisingly busy right now.

I’ve already written a few reviews on my site. The text in the review is basically stream of consciousness, so it might not make much sense, I might babble a little, curse, go off-topic. I’ll do what I like! Here are some pages I’m working on:

AsiaGenesisRolling StonesThomas Dolby

The reviews themselves take no system, and the number I come up with is purely based on my own opinion. No math or anything. The scale is 0 through 15, based on George Starostin’s system (A reviewer I’m a big fan of) and NOT 0 through 10 for this reason… a 0 through 10 system means you could rate a really really good Madonna album a 10, but also a really really good Beatles album a 10. Well, quite obviously, the Beatles are WAY better than Madonna. the way this system works is I give band levels to each artist, 0 through 5… and if I give a band’s album a 14, then they are at least a level 4 band. The band rating is derived from Score minus 10… (i.e. 14-10=4) This is based on 2 ideas. 1) A band is ONLY as good as their best album. No better. 2) If I use a level system, people will see which bands/artists I think are better. I don’t want to get TOO much into this system, but you should get the general idea.