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Reviewing is an art. And, websites like Amazon and Epinions notwithstanding, it's not something everyone can do easily. Sure, everyone has an opinion, but expressing and supporting it is where the challenge begins.

As a longtime reviewer and review editor, I've seen music reviews handled in many different ways. Some people prefer simply to list the names of musicians and the instruments they play, followed by the titles of every track. That's not a review, however, it's an encyclopedic entry. Others offer blunt praise or criticism - "this disc rocks" or "the worst sludge to come out of Nashville in years" - but don't support their opinions with anything but bald emotion.

Certainly, a great deal of a review centers around subjective, not objective, thought. It's rarely possible to offer facts and figures to explain why an album is good or bad, why a song touches or repulses you. But for a review to succeed, it needs to explain - both to readers as well as to the musicians in question - why you think the album is good or bad. Are the lyrics deep and meaningful in some way, or are they doggerel? Does the instrumentation mesh together or come together in jarring discord? Are the arrangements original, or is the album simply derivative of the way things have been done before?

A review is simply an opinion, and certainly no review is going to find agreement with everyone who reads it. But opinions need a framework of support, not just a lot of exclamation points. If your point is well argued, you might even find that a musician you've criticized will appreciate your insights into his work.

Learn more about this author, Tom Knapp.
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