Okay I've had a read of a few of the reviews.

Picky correction out of the way first - The sisters in Heart are Ann and Nancy WILSON and not Taylor.

Writing wise, you have potential but you make the same rookie mistakes we all do. Try to avoid saying "I liked this" or "I felt that". As much as it's a personal review and opinion you can still sell that point without sounding like your in conversation with someone.

Also, avoid using "As I said before". That is merely a gateway to repetition and a sign you have little to add to what you've already written. If you need to reiterate something specific use "the aforementioned...".

Make more of a point of singling out tracks and be a bit creative with your adjectives. You don't have to list every track, but enough to give the reader an idea of what they are in for.

Research your subject. The last thing you need is to embarrass yourself with a lack of knowledge. You've done this already which is good but be careful of hyperbole from biased sources. For instance, you said The Mission were massive here in the UK. They were big within their own genre of Goth rock and cracked the top 10 once but they're never sustained commercial success nor did they actually be a regular stadium band which is what I inferred from your piece. That isn't a criticism of you or meant to undermine their achievements but it's easy to over hype something because someone makes it sound better than it was.

Finally, read lots of professional reviews to get an idea of the writing styles but try not to emulate it directly. After a while, you will find your own niche but be wary of becoming a cliche`within that niche.

And above all ENJOY YOURSELF!!

I hope this doesn't sound too pompous considering I've only written a few Anime reviews myself, but these are lessons I learned which helped me and I'm happy to see a fellow budding scribe do well.

Good luck!

Those are some amazing points MiB. I am always willing to take any kind of criticism, so don't be afraid to hurt my feelings. I want to be the best, and I can only do that by getting better. To get better, I need to continuously ask for and take criticism. All of your suggestions will be taken into account. Thanks for taking the time to review my stuff. There will be more to come. Stay tuned to this thread.

Any comments? Or did nobody read them?

Ah...I guess I'll have to put them in this post then. I won't do all of them, only the ones that I feel should be mentioned for some reason.

City Sleeps-Not an Angel
Reminds me a lot of a better version of the band Hinder.

J. Phoenix-Masterpiece
The next big R&B breakout star.

Bullet for my Valentine-Scream Aim Fire
Big name British metal group should continue success with sophomore album.

Alabama-The Last Stand
Since I now know that you guys like country music...

MOTU-Going Back to Memphis
Solid blues album.

If you are interested in reading more, here is a link to all of the January reviews on the site. Feel free to browse around.

Comments are greatly appreciated. Is there anything you liked? Didn't like? Any other comments? Thanks!

I read the first review for City Sleeps and without wishing to sound picky, you used the word band/bands 11 times in that review and often in close proximity to one another. Repetition = bad; thesaurus = good!

You also didn't tell us much about this group other than compare them to another act a lot of people may not know, or really discuss many of the songs. If you have a word limit then that's fine but remember reviews are also recommendations for the reader so a little more in depth info is often very useful.

I did like that you noted an area where the group could improve (playing more to become a tighter outfit) which shows an interest from you and gives your words an air of authority (even if you know nothing).

Tips: invest in a thesaurus and learn to juggle the sentences around to avoid repetition, otherwise you're getting there.

Practice makes perfect.

-- Edited by Man In Black at 16:21, 2008-01-12