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If I need to review an album I'll have 1 proper listen (laying down, eyes closed, proper headphones) and then I'll listen to it at least another 5-6 times in the background, one of those checking the lyrics of each song on Genius. Otherwise, if it's just to form an opinion, 2-3 times can be enough.
Direct answer: I usually listen to it 1-2 times, but I often single out specific songs about 3-4 times. When I only hear it once, I focus on it heavily without any distracting activities. Depends on the album.
If i review something, I listen to it at least five times, spanning several days. Purely for the sake consistency and validity. Also, I find that sleeping in between listens helps me understand the record better when I listen to it again.
- Overview
- Listening to the Music
- Outlining Your Review
- Structuring Your Review
- Avoiding Common Mistakes
Reviewing an album can be a creative, interesting, and meaningful task. To be successful, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with musical terms, research the artist, and listen to the album multiple times. If you stay polite and back up your opinions with facts, you’ll have an honest and valuable review finished before you know it!
Listen to the album multiple times.
With every listen, new insights and observations should occur to you. If on the first listen you focused on lyrics or melody, try to stretch yourself to notice something different the next time and the time after. The album took a lot longer to make than it will take to listen to it, so try and respect the effort of the artists and appreciate the complexity.
Listen in different places at different times.
Try to bring the music with you as you go about your day. Let it play while you’re working out or doing chores around the house. You may notice things when it’s on in the background that you didn’t notice when you were intently listening - music is funny that way!
Familiarize yourself with musical terms.
To best qualify, your assessment of the music, do a quick internet search for musical terms, and then try to incorporate them into your review when applicable. Here are a few examples of musical terms that could show up in a review:
Research the artist and compile interesting facts.
Focus on where they grew up, what their musical influences were, how they were discovered or broke into the music business, and what their future goals are. Try to include information that helps the reader understand the meaning behind the album.
A recent breakup or the loss of a family member is worth mentioning if it influenced the tone of the album.
Describe how this album relates to past albums or similar artists.
If the band has released previous albums, describe how this album fits in and if it sounds different or shows progress. If this is the band’s first album, describe how it relates to other albums in the genre. Note if the artist or band is progressive, or very similar to other artists in the genre.
The National Public Radio’s website,
Introduce the artist and the album succinctly.
Your introduction should be more substance than fluff, and it should also catch the reader’s attention. They should be able to tell from your introduction whether you liked the album or not and what stood out. Include the album release date.
For example: “The Pipe Cleaners debut album,
, was released August 1st, 2017. Since then, it’s received critical acclaim and sold more than 1,000,000 copies. Even though the vocals seem to get lost in the loud instrumental solos and rushed tempos, the album shines as a modern throwback to classic hair metal.”
Describe the artist and their history.
Use your outline and the facts you gathered during your research. This is a great place to mention their previous work, if any, and whether any events influenced the album.
Proofread the review and ask for feedback.
You’ll want to fix any spelling or grammar errors, and sentences or ideas that don’t make sense or aren’t developed. If you get questions, especially the same questions from multiple people, it might be worth answering those in the review.
Write critically, but never cruelly.
If you didn’t like something about the album, or maybe even the entire thing, provide examples and stay professional in your tone. “The album was terrible,” isn’t constructive or polite. Stick to the facts and use examples like, “The vocals were off-key and the pitch was a little grating,” or, “The instruments were out of sync with each other and it was difficult to understand the vocalist.”
Choose quality over quantity with your word count.
Unless you have a specific word count requirement, don’t feel as though your review needs to be lengthy at the expense of substance. If you can accomplish a review that summarizes the album and honors the many layers and ideas it conveys in a few paragraphs, that’s great!
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Mar 25, 2021 · This might seem obvious, but the first step in any music review is to listen to the music you plan to review. Ideally, you will listen to the album at least twice so you can form an initial impression and also consider how it hits you on a repeat listen, when some of the novelty has worn off.
Jan 22, 2016 · Listen to at least one album every day. Ensure 70 percent of albums listened to were released in 2015. Keep a list of albums heard with accompanying listening notes (I kept this in a Gmail...
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Jun 8, 2019 · I'll usually take 1 or 2 listens to know if the album is intriguing enough to dive deeper into it. But before truly "knowing" it, being able to locate it emotionally and thematically, knowing the finesse of the music, an album can easily take 15+ listens for me.