Manatea
Mike Kaplan
Staff

Reviews 56
Soundoffs 2
Album Ratings 132
Objectivity 74%

Last Active 01-04-23 3:24 pm
Joined 07-02-22

Review Comments 1,923

 Lists
04.02.24 The GOOD and the BAD (April) - Folk ♦12.04.23 The Manatea Awards 2023 ♦
11.15.23 Rec me the albums I’m missing for a y10.22.23 (Mana)tea time - Still slaps?
07.23.23 The Great Sputnik Summer Roast-VOTING S07.02.23 One year sputversary/Sputnik appreciati ♦
05.16.23 (Mana)tea time - things I can’t get05.04.23 (Mana)tea time - gym recs/manatea says
04.14.23 (mana)tea time - sputnik zodiac ♦04.08.23 (Mana)tea time - Unnecessary Expenses
04.05.23 Happy Passover Sputnik!03.20.23 (Mana)tea time - small joys
03.11.23 (Mana)tea time - Pet Peeves12.18.22 🕎 Happy Hanukkah Sputnik!
11.27.22 My best of 2022

One year sputversary/Sputnik appreciation

Hi everybody. It’s my one year anniversary on sputnik! A year has gone by too fast. I’m very happy to be a part of this community and to have made connections with so many great people. For this installment of (mana)tea time, I’m going to sip on my tea while I list out some reasons I appreciate sputnik, and also list out some cool moments for me. List is bands or albums I have discovered exclusively through this site, or reviews I wrote in the last year.
1The Dear Hunter
Antimai

This was my first review! Of course it was part of a bunch of other reviews on the same album and it definitely is not my best review but I guess it marks the point where I decided that my opinion could be worth something.
2Every Time I Die
Low Teens

I could be wrong, but I feel like this is one of the very few places on the internet where you can be a member and there are a lot of people who are pretty nice to you. An overwhelmingly large percentage of people here are intelligent, caring and civil. The amount of support people give each other is really admirable. Yes, people like to poke fun, step on toes, etc., and if someone goes out of bounds, they know it. There are also definite disagreements on musical taste, but I think most people realize that taste is entirely objective and so it's never some big thing. Overall I’ve had very good experiences with just about everyone here and I feel like I was expecting to be decimated full time and it's nice to see people be nice to each other.
3Dance Gavin Dance
Jackpot Juicer

The review I wrote for Jackpot Juicer was not necessarily amazing. What this silly review turned into though, was absolutely priceless, and the fact that it's still going a year later is not only hysterical but also really cool. If you follow the NFL, feel free to drop by lol.
4Silent Planet
Everything Was Sound

The writing here is a force to be reckoned with. I mean seriously, I feel like a professional establishment should be jealous of the amount of talent that surrounds this site. Not only that, but there are so many writers from across the world, from different cultures and across age brackets here that you get different little quirks and perspectives that I’m pretty sure would not be found in other places. There’s also such a variety of different styles; from humorous to academic to concise and so on. It’s a really good place to learn how to write better.
5Matisyahu
Matisyahu

This Matisyahu review was the first one I was really proud of. I also felt like I was getting into a rhythm as a writer and learning how to communicate my views in a good way.
6Dua Lipa
Future Nostalgia

I could be totally wrong about this, but I feel like because the writers on this site are not paid and have no ties to anything, the reviews that are written here are real. You won’t find reviews written as like “advertisements” for the band or with a bunch of verbiage that was just tacked on for whatever reason the editor feels like. Sputnik is unique in that a lot of people on here say whatever the fuck they want, and to me, that’s a really cool thing. I guess there are probably other websites that are similar such as RYM but… sput is cooler.
7Emarosa
Sting

In January 2023 I went on a string of writing some pretty good reviews. Of all of them, this one was probably the best.
8Brand New
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

I would say that about 70% of the music that I love since I was about fifteen has come from sputnik. That’s something to appreciate. Sputnik has thoroughly developed my musical taste more than just about anything (bar maybe my father). For years, when I would discover a new band on Spotify or the Apple orchard (as Mars would probably put it) or something, I would go to sputnik first and see what albums were actually rated well and start from there. It’s made finding good music easier.
9You Me At Six
Truth Decay

My first joke review! This band sucks…
10Greyhaven
This Bright and Beautiful World

I feel like I’ve made real friends here. Some special mentions are steak, mars, tyman, purp, vult, pizza and boff, but honestly there are so many others like mk, jesper, jay, mort., koris, dadkungfu, slex, yoyo, eggy, twilight, fogzy, ash, ars, pangea. Sometimes I even want to pretend that Johnny is a friend, but we've hardly interacted so we're more like acquaintances (we should talk more btw). If I forgot you, you know I didn’t mean to. Truthfully I like all of you and I hope you like me too.
11Endless, Nameless
Living Without

I think this review has been my favorite one to write this year. First of all the album was great. Second of all, I felt like when I listened to it I instantly had the concept of how I wanted to start and end the review and it was just a very natural process for me to write.
12Haste the Day
Coward

The mods are all helpful people who actually seem to care about sputnik. (At least that’s how I feel.) My impression is that they work very hard to make sputnik an inclusive and welcoming community. Not only that, but they encourage writing and writers. Mods, I appreciate you. (Someone's gonna say that I'm ass-kissing and to that I say... maybe I am? Jk y'all can shit talk all you want I like these guys.)
13 Ed Sheeran
-

Where else will I find a review written like a courtroom drama about Ed Sheeran being brought to trial by an elevator?
14Between the Buried and Me
Colors

Finally, and probably most importantly, I have found a lot of inspiration from the writers on this site and I have learned so much just from reading their work. I wanted to sit down and lay out examples but there are too many to name, and I don’t want to make anyone feel left out. I've tried to spend the year being a productive, upstanding member of the community. I hope I've lived up to that. It's been a good time and I'm looking forward to the next year.
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