Reviewing Music

I've just been listening to the album "Illmatic" by NaS. It is one of the defining hip-hop albums of the 90s, and is well, extremely good. His lyrics are (to be cliché) very original, but (not being cliché) they really ARE good, not just good in the sense that they rhyme well, or they have some minimal lingering meaning, but they do actually tell a story and send messages across. This is what annoys me about most music reviews I see on the internet, they are either ridiculously and needlessly wordy or just way too simple. I like to see a non-biased and readable review (a good example being http://pitchforkmedia.com). 

For instance, the NME's reviews are, on the odd occasion, fairly good, but on the whole they are rather annoying, because the NME have a wide variety of reviewers, all with their own tastes, who just say what they personally like or dislike about this band or album, rather than an actual review. There are also a number of websites who's reviews are about as reliable a ninety year old pensioner. And of course, you will always get a grumpy old, well respected, music critic (á la Robert Christgau) who can't seem to bring themselves to give Michael Jackson's "Ultimate Collection" more than 3 stars. Some people are just ignorant fools I guess.

As for actual music, "In Rainbows" by Radiohead was probably record of the year for 2008 along with the Fleet Foxes eponymous debut. Such depth and variation in one album, it really shows you don't need to have a lot of songs in an album for it to be good (in fact, this so called 'filler' normally leads to an album being less respected as a general work), and in this case for it to be amazing. Radiohead have constantly produced fantastic albums over the year, with the possible exception of "Pablo Honey". Radiohead are one of my favorite bands of all time, simply because of their music. I can even give reasons why it's good, to show I'm not being biased. Firstly, Thom Yorke has an amazing voice, no really amazing. Secondly, they use such a wide range of instruments to create new, experimental sounds. They also have such consistency in their music, in that each and every album is very good, despite each one being completely different.