I've been writing reviews of (mostly) metal albums over the past year or so and one thing that has bugged me is if there is a required number of times you should listen to an album before writing a valid review.
I mean, can you honestly learn enough from one play of an album to get fully engaged with it? You might say that when it comes to metal albums once is more than enough - and I can see where you're coming from even if I don't agree - but I'm not sure that I'm entitled to write a critique of 50 minutes of music that an artist has sweated blood over for 2 or 3 years, having only played it once.
So that got me thinking that all reviewers should inform readers how many times they've listened to the album they are reviewing.
An interesting idea? Or just daft? Maybe both.
That then led me to think about albums from the last 30 or 40 years. What on earth could I have written about OK Computer after just one listen? Can I honestly say that I knew after that first listen that it was a masterpiece and that I would come to regard it as the greatest album of the 90s?
Maybe...but maybe not.
And even if I had picked up on its genius after the first play, there is no chance that I picked up on all the nuances, all the layers, all the ultimate joys of OK Computer...unless I am really, really smart.
Which I'm not.
Mind you, I was pretty sure that Kid A was bloody awful after the first play and I still stand by that.
Thirty years ago Queen released Hot Space. I can still vividly remember the first time I put that on the turntable. Jeepers, what the hell were they doing? So had I reviewed that after one play it would have been spectacularly negative. Probably after ten plays, too.
But you see, now...now, I consider it to be my second favourite Queen album. After Queen 1, of course. I am quite sure you think me bonkers - but that's okay. The Elder is my second favourite Kiss album (after Destroyer, natch) and EVERYONE hates The Elder.
So should I publish how many times I've listened to the album when I publish my next review? I think I will. Can't do any harm, can it?
And what albums did you hate on first listen but grow to love?
Indeed, what albums did you love at first but swiftly lose interest in?
Answers on a postcard yadda yadda yadda.
Music, as always Bruce, is very subjective and opinion will differ on an almost daily basis, so I think it would be good for any review to include the number of listens. As a reader you need to understand the perspective of the review(er) from that distinctive "first listen & joy/dissapopintment" or after listening to an album many months/years later when the excitment of the initial purchase has gone.
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