hunt down their release “sex”
best make out album!

hugs from oz.

Like squashed said, the trick is to get a feel for the preferences of the person(s) behind a certain blog. If I would say to you that album X is very good then what would that mean to you? Nothing at first. But if you would have read some of my posts and had a basic idea of my preferences then you’d be able to weigh my advice much better. If Raven Sings the Blues (one of my favourite blogs) writes about something new to me then I have – based on his description of the music and his judgement – a pretty good notion of what to expect. And I also know that there’s a big chance that I will share with him his judgement. To me, that’s the cool thing about blogging when it comes to music. Getting more personalized advice instead of generalized advice (that tries to be objective). And all with the possibility to interact and participate.

Anyway, thanks a lot for dropping by and sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate it. :)

So most people/bloggers listen to particular genre that he is interested in. A blog usually has unique interest in particular subject. And one can follow what each blogger is doing each year, concluded with annual list. No single person knows about everything or has time to chew all releases.

So a blog “best of” list is really a perspective. An opinion.

Last year there was general “vote” for blog wide favorite albums. It was pretty bland. (A little like metacritic list) That is if you want an aggregate blog opinion.

I guess what I am trying to say. You have to be critical and do your own evaluation too. Play part. Either create your own blog or comment and talk to bloggers. This is why blog/internet are much more interesting place than simply reading and accepting a printed list.

Let me say something else: I’m still fairly new to the MP3 blog thing. I only recently started checking out blogs, and I’ve been exposed to so many new and different things…It’s been a little hard to sort it all out, because there’s SO MUCH available at my fingertips now. But the list thing is one thing I’ve noticed in general on all of the blogs I’ve checked out; maybe by this time next year I’ll have enough knowledge of and experience with blogs and what it takes to publish one to let y’all see my own “Best of” list. Maybe it’ll be a 20 Best Albums of the Year, and it’ll cover everything from Classical Guitar to Americana to Pop to Heavy Metal to Electronic Jazz to Underground Punk Rock to whatever. Until then…

@ Vallejo: Thanks! I’m not sure either why most year-end lists are so similar. Although it’s a bit unfair to compare my list with the lists from most review websites as they have averaged-out lists. Any surprises that were there in the individual lists are filtered out from the final list. That’s why I prefer to look at individual lists, which most of the time show a bit more personality.

@ Moka: That’s great to hear that you’ve also bought Box of Birch! You must have really nice friends for them to give you such good musical advice. ;) I hadn’t heard about that rumour you mention about this being Supersilent’s last album. I don’t think it’s true. Or at least, I’m certainly hoping it’s not true. But there are always many other nice projects with Rune Grammofon people involved. For instance, a couple of months ago I saw [Box] in Amsterdam which is a wonderful collaboration between Supersilent’s Ståle Storløkken and Raoul Björkenheim (Scorch Trio), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, John Zorn) and Morgan Ågren. Rune Grammofon will release their album in January, which was much like Supersilent’s tradition fully improvised. Looking forward to this one a lot.