User Album Reviews

[Yo Yo Man]

Any of you all ever written album reviews of any of the Bunnymen albums? There's a site of music reviews called AllMusic.com. I've actually read their album reviews since the mid-90's. Back then, the reviews were in books you could find in record stores. I learned about a lot of bands through them, because they would show similar artists for each group. Anyway, I still look at the site today. Well, to me, the first four Bunnymen albums all should be 5 of 5 stars. That is probably too much to ask. As it is, they gave Ocean Rain 5 stars and gave Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here 4.5 stars. What bothers me is they only gave Porcupine 3.5 stars. I feel like this rating is completely arbitrary. 3.5 stars sounds good, but you would be surprised how easy it is to get 4 stars on there. Really, 4.5 stars tells you it's a standout album.

They also have user reviews for each album. Currently, Porcupine has 0 user reviews. I thought some Bunnymen fans might want to chip in their opinions on the album. Maybe if the album gets a lot of attention, the site will revisit it?

I will write my reviews of the albums when I have time to think them through.

[Mr. Brian]

Any of you all ever written album reviews of any of the Bunnymen albums? There's a site of music reviews called AllMusic.com. I've actually read their album reviews since the mid-90's. Back then, the reviews were in books you could find in record stores. I learned about a lot of bands through them, because they would show similar artists for each group. Anyway, I still look at the site today. Well, to me, the first four Bunnymen albums all should be 5 of 5 stars. That is probably too much to ask. As it is, they gave Ocean Rain 5 stars and gave Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here 4.5 stars. What bothers me is they only gave Porcupine 3.5 stars. I feel like this rating is completely arbitrary. 3.5 stars sounds good, but you would be surprised how easy it is to get 4 stars on there. Really, 4.5 stars tells you it's a standout album.

They also have user reviews for each album. Currently, Porcupine has 0 user reviews. I thought some Bunnymen fans might want to chip in their opinions on the album. Maybe if the album gets a lot of attention, the site will revisit it?

I will write my reviews of the albums when I have time to think them through.

Reviews by hardcore fans are a mixed bag. I think Heaven Up Here is my favorite but I also love the much disparaged What Are You Going to Do With Your Life. They are totally different animals.
It's in the forum somewhere, I'll see if i can find it, but I found what I believe is the first mention of the Bunnymen on the internet. It was on Usenet in 1983 and it was a fan review of the new Ocean Rain. They hated it. Someone here wondered if they were still using the same e-mail that was posted and contacted her. She still hates it because it was such a divergence from everything up until that time. Now that album is considered their masterpiece. To each their own.

[Mr. Brian]

Correction: the first mention of the Bunnymen on the internet was in 1983 on Usenet for a short review of Porcupine

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=40&p=352&hilit=usenet#p352


The Ocean Rain review was in 1984. She called it "a bit stiff"

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4760&p=80364&hilit=usenet#p80364

[fat cherry]

wow, missed this thread first time around - or forgotten it just as likely. She's wrong about the ewe-toos, natch. If you listen to Boy and War back to back they are practically the same album only bonio shouts even more on War. Interesting stuff.

Sorry did I turn this into a U2 thread?

[fat cherry]

and more gems from the past (its OK I'll stop now):

Did you know that Phil Collins has recorded for Linn ? Now you can [buy?] a chip
that plugs into the Linn Drum Computer and sounds like like Phil.

If only I'd known. But then didn't the linn drum thing cost as much as a house in those days?

[Mr. Brian]

I guess I steered this off topic right off the bat. Review away! I just think it's important to review something on it's own merits, otherwise you are just comparing to previous albums which is difficult not to do as a hardcore fan of any band.

[fat cherry]

years ago when I was all revved up for the internet and going to be blogging (never happened, haha) I had a plan to do just that, i.e. review and compare old albums - but based on the drummond idea of great bands producing four great albums, so each post or set of posts would be four albums by the current band of choice. Once I realised that once I'd got theough my own fairly meagre collection I'd have to start listening to stuff I didn't like or even worse my enthusiasm waned. The fact that I thought it through that far before launching into it was a huge step forward in my development as a human being though ;-) Might be interesting all the same if I could muster the enthusiasm. might even expand my list of favourite bands and obviously at dinner parties I could hold conversations with people who like led zepplin (as you do). Though inevitably there would be divvy comments by all the nobheads onthe internet and that would probably wind me up even more.

[black francis]

I wrote reviews for a couple of now defunct magazines and a website that was supposed to take us along when it went to print and funnily enough did no such thing when the money came in. I reviewed "Evergreen" back in 1997 but that's my only Bunnymen review.

Allmusic is one of my favorite websites ever and I go there just to read reviews and find related bands to listen to. Ned Raggett is a big Bunnymen fan and his reviews are spot on. You can tell he gets it where some of the other reviewers come across as clueless.

I'm looking at you David Cleary.

[Mr. Brian]

I reviewed "Evergreen" back in 1997 but that's my only Bunnymen review.

Do you still have a copy? Post it!

[black francis]

Unfortunately I do not have a single copy of the magazines I wrote for and the website has been defunct for a long time now. I recall being much more enamored of the album than I am now. I still think Siberia is their latter day magnum opus.

[black francis]

I just checked one of the sites I used to write for literarybrothel.com. It's become http://theliterarybrothel.blogspot.com but hasn't been updated in two years. I keep my writing dreams alive at http://stopmasturbationnow.org as "Carlos Danger" these days.

[Mr. Brian]

Unfortunately I do not have a single copy of the magazines I wrote for and the website has been defunct for a long time now.

Also tell us again about losing your virginity to that Canadian girlfriend.

[Voodoo Billy]

Unfortunately I do not have a single copy of the magazines I wrote for and the website has been defunct for a long time now.

Also tell us again about losing your virginity to that Canadian girlfriend.

Was she a moose?

[black francis]

Don't you judge our love. I thought VT was a safe place.

[Mr. Brian]

Don't you judge our love. I thought VT was a safe place.

You may recall that VT started as a moose hate group.