The CD spot (preamble) - Bomber finds a top internet music review site and ends up with a list of CDs far too long for his bank account...

My normal way of picking CDs is as follows;

• Realise it's been 3 months since I was in a record store
• Buy copy of Uncut or Q
• Get sent on a business trip
• Read through the reviews section on the plane
• Make long list
• Go to music store and collect everything on list.
• Trawl New releases section and listening stations
• Listen to anything I'm not sure of
• Hand over wad of cash

This has worked well for the last 8 years or so but I have been feeling a little frustrated of late, especially with the review section part of the music mags. First off, Q and Uncut cost 8 quid each in HK. I really resent paying twice the cover price. Second the layout I find confusing to the eye, with the upshot that I tend to skim the reviews which leads to; finally, I end up only considering the stuff that my chosen magazine of the month considers worthy. And who are these cunts anyway? Some South London twat who thinks he's cool because he's got a job at a coporate music mag and more metal in his face than pinhead? well, fuck that, I thought.

I turned to the interweb in search of an alternative source of reviews. My problem with internet review sites is that they are either incomplete (tempting you to subscribe to the corporate music mag you're trying to avoid), full of lies (every album, including the new Shania Twain, is "a superb development on a stunning carreer" click to buy), or full of "user reviews" which is about as useful as going to HMV and picking a random selection of albums.

Then I found this site. What joy. They collate the review scores from 30+ different music review sources (Q, Uncut, Mojo, The Guardian and loads more that I've only vaguely heard of). They also have user reviews but fuck that. Also, the new review section of the site is really well laid out so you can easily skim the listing and average magazine review score and zoom in on a particular album to see what the different reviewers had to say about it. I ended up with this list;

• Meltdown - Ash
• Superwolf - Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney
• Push The Button - The Chemical Brothers
• Before The Poison - Marianne Faithfull
• Burn The Maps - The Frames
• Aha Shake Heartbreak - Kings Of Leon
• Set Yourself On Fire - Stars

There are other listings for various Magazines' best of '04 listings, which added the following to the list;

• Uh Huh Herby - PJ Harvey
• Sonic Nurseby - Sonic Youth
• Medullaby - Bjork
• Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheusby - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

And finally the archive where I found a couple of Lamb albums.

They also have a release calender, from which I noticed the following nuggets, probably to feature in the next shop.

March

• Moby - Hotel
• Beck - Guero

April

• Stereophonics - Language, Sex, Violence, Other?
• Garbage - Bleed Like Me
• New Order - Waiting For The Sirens Call
• Foetus - Love

May

• Teenage Fanclub - Man-Made
• The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics

Summer and Autumn 2005

• Massive Attack
• Portishead
• Primal Scream
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• White Stripes
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Shop will ether take place this weekend or during next week, let me know if there's anything that should be on there or anything that you already know and love/hate.

I may never buy a music magazine again. This site is free, complete and bursts the myth that music critics know what they're talking about. There are very few albums which scored over 60% on all reviews. There's always someone who thinks a particular album is shit; I wonder how many nuggets I've missed out on over the years listening to the Q / Uncut company line...

Bomber out