Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Good headphones/stereo = absolutely essential to listening to this correctly. It really is awesome on repeated listens. Can't stop listening to Lotus Flower

Album Rating: 3.8

there is no bad track here. i find i listen to this album on repeat a lot

Album Rating: 3.5

This never really stuck with me for some reason, will have to give it a couple more listens soon

Album Rating: 4.0

Also, good review, but you should leave out phrasings like "What I mean is..." Say what you mean, don't explain what you mean.

Album Rating: 3.8

thanks, idiot

yea i cant find a bad track either, this all just blends toghether well.

Album Rating: 3.8

that was too easy

Album Rating: 3.5

will never remember which Adam goes to which username on this site

Album Rating: 4.5

Honestly, this album is totally unreviewable at this point, what with the mammoth amounts of online speculation regarding the possibility of a continuation.



This blog is a pretty useful aggregate of every "hint" up to this point: http://thekingoflimbspart2.com/



And even if this is actually the final album, it's still a little too early to tell, really...

Album Rating: 4.0

Everyone's so inventive when they want to mock me.



I don't know if you've actually taken my criticism seriously or you're being a bitch. That's my biggest fault with staff reviews on this website. Everyone seems to think that we want to hear you tell us a story about your youth and then expound upon it with slow and staggering analysis. Meh.



More information on this newspaper ordeal by the end of the week, early next week.

Album Rating: 3.8

lol, your criticism's a good one. it's a stylistic choice that came from me just writing my thoughts, rereading them, then qualifying them to hit precisely what I wanted say. but your name is theidiot. i couldn't pass it up

Album Rating: 4.0

You and everyone else who thinks they're being cute. All I mean is that a review should be shown as a product not a process.

Album Rating: 4.5

Take it easy, buddy...

i don't really get the problem-- doesn't adam's radiohead experience story tie into his analysis of the record? idk.

Album Rating: 3.8

my adorableness does not come into play here.



I suppose its a question of audience/pretension. There are times in the past where I've gone for a

"professional," impersonal voice and I'm almost always dissatisfied with the review. I'm writing,

unpaid, for a community-based website whose community I know and knows me. Maybe my 'personal spin'

style wouldn't fly at Pitchfork or Rolling Stone or other publications where the publication's score

is representative of the whole site/magazine, but here, my review is simply my opinion, and that's how

I want it presented.

Album Rating: 4.0

I'm sorry. Reading my comments again I can see where people might of thought I was coming off aggressively, but those weren't my intentions. My point isn't regarding the fact that you made this review somewhat of a personal narrative, because if there were any place to include a review with that demeanor, it would undoubtedly be Sputnik because it is so community oriented. I like narrative reviews in all honesty, I just think sometimes they can be a little more fluid.



I also think that, being part of a community, constructive criticism should be a primary focus of comments. I feel like, far too often, staff reviews just get comments like "another great review" etc, etc. Regardless of where your reviews are being submitted and what style that the specific readership might call for, there is always room for improvement. Staff reviewers seem to remain stagnant far too often, reiterating way too similar of a review process over and over again.



Like I said though, good review.

Album Rating: 3.8

That second paragraph is really interesting. I'm certainly not against constructive criticism (I'll

reiterate I found your criticism a good one), but that stagnancy point about staff reviews struck me

if only because I feel like my style has significantly evolved over the past year or so. This review

compared to one I wrote in September reads like a piece from a different person, in my opinion anyway.

But I'm not discrediting your point. I just have to chew on it for a while.

Album Rating: 3.0

"I feel like, far too often, staff reviews just get comments like "another great review" etc, etc."



I will compliment however I see fit sir.



Good day!

Album Rating: 4.0

I don't mean to make a point quite as strong as the word "stagnant" would actually imply. It's obvious that you're progressing. I mean, you write a fuck ton of reviews. The same goes for most staffers.



But like you said, if you were to read a piece you wrote in September, it would read like a piece from a different person. I'm talking about retaining a voice more consistently and growing it rather than jumping from one dynamic to another. Granted, it's evident when releases like this come out that a good portion of the sputnik community knows nothing about musical criticism (see: half of the reviews for this album), but I think that in order to grow as a community, it might be productive to avoid the stupid flame wars that flood the comment sections of most reviews and to think a little bit more about the written piece and the music.



Though, that's just my opinion and I can't see that many people agreeing with me, so what is will most likely remain. Meh.



I do agree wholeheartedly with your review though. The best thing about this album is that the band seems to have separated themselves from their mystique. Well, at least in the music that has been presented, and clearly not in the aura that surrounds them. This release seems to indicate that Radiohead's music is a little more intimate because it's not so difficult to access. All of the subtleties that have made the band so great in the long run still remain, but it seems a little bit less like they're trying to obscure themselves.



What I liked so much about In Rainbows was how listenable that record was. I didn't have to invest myself in the weighty burden that comes with throwing on Everything in it's Right Place. It was accessible. Now, this record is far more obscure than In Rainbows, but somehow still retains that allure of simplicity and minimalism. It offers a lot for the interested listener, but also, merely regarding its beats and melodies, this is a very easy listen.



Sorry, I'll get a bunch of tl;dr, or whatever the fuck you guys say.

Album Rating: 4.0

tl; dr