You’re here! No, I mean you actually came. Someone please lock the door so you guys can’t get out. In this segment we’ll be cross checking different staffers’ approaches to putting words together. Maybe you’re a budding reviewer, on the cusp of greatness, searching for that piece of the puzzle lost on the floor or maybe your mum just logged you on to the household’s singular trusty laptop and you don’t know what to do with your fifteen-minute screen allowance before the older sibling demands the computer for…research? Either way, you’ve come to the right place!

Welcome to Part. 2 of an undisclosed number of mini interviews in this segment.

Today (or sometime this week more likely) we have Tyler White a.k.a. Tyman128. I lack basic witty comments here and enough back-story to dangle lazy liners and joyful familiarity. I shall fix that this year – consider that a late New Year’s resolution. 

First off. Who are you and how did you get here?

Yo, what’s up! I am Tyler, better known on this God forsaken website as tyman420 (I don’t know, some people sorta started adding that to my name and I have zero clue why). I showed up – lemme check, hold up – well… my join date now says January 1970, but I’m pretty sure it was early March 2018 and my first review was June 2018. I still don’t fully know why I even joined this site, pretty sure I just found a random review (pretty sure it was Emery or something like that) by looking up an album on google and then just kinda stuck with it.

How many reviews do you have on this site? No, disregard that. How many reviews are you truly proud of? Now circle back. How many reviews do you have?

Alright, lemme skim through my list and get back to you – okay, so I’m truly proud of like a little less than 30. I’m very hard on myself when it comes to critiquing my writing, and so I was never truly proud of my writing until like late 2020/early 2021 (around the time I became a contrib) aside from a couple early reviews. I now have 92 reviews (at the time of writing this statement right here), but currently have 4-5 reviews planned in the next two weeks alone haha.

Do you have a style? Explain it in words easy enough for a simpleton to follow please.

So for me, it really depends on the album that I’m reviewing. I have different ways of approaching different genres and styles of songwriting. Mostly though, I like to keep a very concise style, I’m not one to write super elaborate or intense exposition (aside from a couple of reviews, I’ll get to that later). Most of the time, my reviews land around the two to four paragraph mark, give or take a paragraph if I’m feeling super brief or a little more wild that day. And I primarily focus on the music and instrumentation and a little less on the lyricism, simply because I’m a musician and that’s easily what I gravitate toward the most at the end of the day. If you read a few of my reviews, you’ll notice that I tend to just say the record as it is with little fluff, I just like to get to the point and make it as clear as possible what readers can expect. 

What’s important when reviewing music?

I think one of the most important things in reviewing music is voicing what the music means to you. It’s easy to just hit auto-pilot and just write a bunch of stuff about what you’re hearing, but that doesn’t really show who you are. We all have different opinions, and it’s important to show that. Of course, objective writing and professionalism is a huge part of reviewing, but at the end of the day, you have your thoughts. If you aren’t really feelin’ a record, let that show and explain why. If you’re deeply connecting with it, share those thoughts. Reviewing isn’t just a description, it’s a viewpoint that comes from what you’ve gathered while listening to an album, and it’s important to lean into that and let it shine through in your writing.

Is there a review, if you were given the power, you’d put first in line for deletion? Why is this the review that would get the chop?

Man, if we’re talking about my albums, there’s a ton of them haha. But, to be specific, I’d definitely throw my Breaking Benjamin – Ember review on the chopping block, without a doubt. Looking back on it, it isn’t necessarily a *bad* review, but once again, I’m super critical of myself. First off, on a lighter note, I completely disagree with literally just about everything I said in the review. I literally said it was on par with their earlier work and said that Dark Before Dawn was an average album… two statements I entirely disagree with now that I consider Ember literally their worst album by far. But in a writing sense, my writing felt super formulaic. Granted, this was my second review I had ever written, but it lacked any sense of voice or style, and I’m really not a big fan of that now. It just read like something I wrote because it was an album, I had listened to rather than an album that I actually had a strong grasp on. 

Explain the difference between a 2.9 and a 3.2 scored review. Math won’t save you here. 

Okay, guess I’ll put my calculator back. Now, this really goes into how I view ratings on Sputnik, huh? So, there’s just something about that *2* that really gets me thinking “yo, this really isn’t that amazing.” Yeah I get it, a 3 is literally called “Good” on here, but that simple .1 drop really sticks out to me. For me, if I’m writing a 2.9 review, there’s definitely some elements I enjoyed and there’s a decent amount of potential, but really, it just fell flat on execution… I’ll also probably have some subtle jabs here and there to really emphasize the below “Good” here. Now, a 3.2? We’re making some progress here. That .3 increase really makes all the difference. Now I’m looking at a 3 with an *additional* decimal to it??? Yeah, we’re moving the right way with this one. Often times, something reviewed that feels like a 3.2 is an album that hits what it’s going for and even has some moments of ingenuity that really catch my eye – but we’re *just* missing that piece that adds that extra oomph that pushes it further. Usually, you don’t even know what that missing piece is, but you know it’s there, which drops it from a 3.5, but you just know deep inside that it can’t merely be a 3.

What review do you have the most comments on and why do you think that is. Feel free to blame Johnny or Gyro.

Alright, lemme do some digging and I’ll get back to you on which one it is. Okay wow, my review with the most comments is my Dance Gavin Dance – Afterburner review with 2,066 comments (at the time of writing this). This actually surprises me, because I don’t necessarily like the review, and I definitely don’t listen to the album anymore so I’m not really in that thread ever. I’m pretty sure it got that much because it was the hot spot to talk about all the singles coming out for the album last year, then it was the place to talk about the allegations and all that fun stuff. So yeah, all that said, it’s because of Johnny.

You’re a fresh-faced addition to the staff roster this year. Did I congratulate you? Um, well done! Pick someone from the current roster and someone who reached the emeritus plane. Is there a style here that you think reviewers on this site (and elsewhere) should emulate more? Why? What sets this writer apart, above or in the next pay grade?

Well, if you didn’t before, thank you now dear. Alright, so for the current roster, I’m gonna highlight dear Sunnyvale out here. Sunny embraces the “straight to the point” kinda style very well, but it’s not just talking about the music. The reviews do a fantastic job of incorporating a personal feeling too, as if it’s not just the music but the personal experience from the music, whatever it may be. And yeah, I just think that ability to keep a review short and sweet and knowing when to expand your thoughts further is an important skill that anyone should try to learn and improve on. I think the emeritus legend I’m going to choose for this one is DaveyBoy. This is more of a biased choice, but I think it’s because I found Sputnik through his Emery – …In Shallow Seas We Sail review randomly one day. What was interesting about his writing is he always opened up with an initial thought, whether it was about the album, some sort of event that he wanted to focus on, or some abstract concept he would use throughout the rest of the review. And it was always fun to see how this initial paragraph with the focal point was then fleshed out into a review that constantly pointed back to what he set out to convey. I think that’s something that everyone should try to do with their reviews more. Don’t go into a review without a plan. Have something you’re trying to convey, but don’t just make it a formula that you’re trying to follow (and conversely, don’t just write on a whim altogether).

On the other end of the scale without naming fingers or pointing names do you think there’s something professional reviewers should be stepping away from? Give me some dirt please.

This is gonna sound super contradicting but I don’t care: don’t include yourself that much. Yeah yeah yeah, I can see the people already saying “BUT YOU SAID TO HAVE MY VOICE AND OPINIONS” and whatever else. Yes, please have your opinions and express them, that’s the point of reviewing the music and that’s what makes reviews special and unique. But please, don’t make your thoughts on the album the story of the review… you’re including your thoughts and experience to enhance the understanding of the album for other people, not to talk about yourself or whatever if that makes sense. Now, there are some exceptions to this, and oftentimes that has to do with how the album impacted their life in a grand way, and that’s a super important method of expressing the impact of music. But just a general review of an album that you had some passing thoughts on? Make your words the spotlight (good or bad) for the record, don’t use the review to spotlight your own words… if that makes any sense.

Your favourite review found in the dusty catacombs of Sputnikmusic’s dusty servers? Now pick one of your own. Which review wins?

So, one review that really stood out to me, and has stuck with me since it was written, was Sowing’s review for Manchester Orchestra – A Black Mile to the Surface. Now, this is a *prime* example of what I mean by certain reviews that implement the “self” in a way that is truly impactful to the review and isn’t like overbearing in a way. First time I read this review, it brought tears to my eyes. The album is one of my favorites of all time, and reading the thoughts of how it impacted someone at a dark point in their life was truly powerful. It was a unique way of showing how to reflect on albums over time and how their impact and meaning shifts for the individual as time runs on. If you’ve never read it, I think you should absolutely take the time and go read it, because it’s absolutely stunning. Now for me, this is such an easy answer. My Zach Bryan – American Heartbreak review is by faaaar my favorite review I’ve ever written. It’s the review that I took the most time with and one that I felt I had so much to write about. I usually like to keep my reviews short and straight to the point, but there was so much lyrical density in the album that I took weeks to go through and understand the narrative so that I could do it justice. It’s my longest review and easily my best written review ever, it’s something I could ramble on forever about because I’m just so proud of my work in that review (which says a lot considering just how tough I am on myself critically). But still, I continue to be tough on myself and say that Sowing’s review here wins. I’m still learning how to develop more of my voice and integrate my personal experience in a way that enhances the review, so watching that style unfold in a perfect way will always beat out my reviews, any day of the week.

And separately, the review that first inspired you to write for Sputnik, become a contributor and eventually become Staff?

Okay, so I kind of already talked about it, but I found this site most likely (from what I remember) through DaveyBoy’s Emery review, so I’m pretty sure that’s the one that inspired me to write for Sputnik in the first place. For contributor, I don’t really have one that inspired me to go for contributor, but I do have a few reviews that inspired me to take review writing more seriously. A few months after I joined the site, letsgofishing did a discography review binge of mewithoutYou, and the idea of reviewing the chronological progression of a band’s style really caught my attention in a great way, and it inspired me to review twenty one pilots’ discography around the same time. Lastly, for staff, I think it was just all of the reviews from Staff that I was reading at the time. After I didn’t get staff the first time around, I just kept reading reviews from like you, Johnny, Dewi, Jesper, Sunny, the list goes on, and I began to understand more about reviewing and how to develop my style even further and it just inspired me to keep going strong with it.

Parting words for new faces, scribes or people who only type using their respective pointer fingers?

If you enjoy reviewing, never stop doing it. Even if you feel like your reviews aren’t “on par” with other people, that’s not the important part. Over time, you’ll develop your style, your voice, your own techniques. As you continue to grow, you can use this as an outlet to share your thoughts on music in a grand way with people who want to read about what other people think about that music. Don’t ever give up on your writing, and never stay away from writing about an album simply because someone else wrote it in “better words than you.” Let this be an opportunity for you to share what’s important to you and be able to develop your writing further than it has before.

Inspire a new generation of writers here.

Just write and never stop writing. As simple as that.

You can read Part one with Jesper by clicking somewhere on the name.

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