What do you like/use/follow?

I pay frequent visits to Wilson and Alroy (www.warr.org). I don't always agree with them, but their critiques are at least considered (they don't review anything without giving it at least 3 listens), they write well and they're up to defending the positions they take. They also make it clear that there are some acts they are just not interested in reviewing (Steely Dan, for example) and they are pretty.... robust with some others.

Some fans disagree violenty with Wilson and Alroy - read their flamewriter's FAQ if you're so inclined or to get some insights into why some folks think they're entitled to diss somebody else's record.

They run the site at their own expense. At one point it was looking liking it was going to be encylopaedic (Steely Dan excepted) but I guess they have to do other stuff to pay the rent.

They believe that the 60s were special and important, and explain why, and they assert that the Beatles were the greatest (quote: "you won't be able to understand the first thing about 60s rock - or Western pop music in general, really - until you sit down and memorize the half-dozen most important Beatles records".)

Which is kind of why I like this one. Reading stuff you agree with isn't that much fun after a while. Reading confidently expressed stuff that you don't agree with might give you angles that you hadn't considered.

Ah! Thanks for this... I don't have anything to add, because I've been looking around for a site exactly like this - something that gives you an overview of an artist and points you in the direction of the right albums to listen to. From a quick look, I'm also not always going to agree with what they say, but it looks like a great starting point.

Now if I can find a similar site that covers the more modern acts in the same way...

*Thanked* for WARR. I'm going to have issues with their views on Steely Dan, Springsteen, Joel, etc (WTF!!!!!????), but it seems hugely entertaining and informative!

I often scratch around metacritic for links to reviews, etc:
http://www.metacritic.com/music

I frequent Encyclopaedia Metallum http://www.metal-archives.com/,it gives me enough insight to see if its worth using up my my data plan,I actually find it quite accurate most times.
I actually have a favourite folder saved with about 10 sites or more in it,so I can cross reference,when dubious ones crop up.

Riaan C wrote: I often scratch around metacritic for links to reviews, etc:
http://www.metacritic.com/music

I gave that a go for a metallica review..LOL
I remember a few years ago they sued napster or something for illegal downloads or something,
theres no way people were downloading their music,
Really?
Maybe their first 4,which Lars admitted he tape traded years ago as well,whats the difference..sod!

exsanguinator wrote: I remember a few years ago they sued napster or something for illegal downloads or something,
theres no way people were downloading their music,
Really?
Maybe their first 4,which Lars admitted he tape traded years ago as well,whats the difference..sod!

People's positions on things change as their stake in the game changes. One of my favourite books to read is Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg. Nothing to do about music really. Stoll was the central figure in the first documented computer hacking case. He gets sent to investigate an accounting error on a system at Berkley University (California), and eventually tracks down hackers from Germany (he had no idea, at first, that the computers were being hacked, but he slowly pieced the whole business together). One of the interesting things about the book is the moral journey he travels.

At the start of the story he's a typical vaguely anti-establishment university long hair with an instinctive distrust of authority and fairly loose attitudes towards access to information and so on. But as he realises what's going on on Berkley's computer systems he starts to see it as a threat to the mutual trust that has built up between various organisations and wonders where the information is going and who wants it and why and he has to take a stand. He ends up thinking of the hackers as being the equivalent of burglars and eventually finds himself doing the previously unthinkable and co-operating with the FBI, the CIA and the military.

So... like I said, nothing to do with music really, but it shows how people's attitudes can change according to their degree of involvement. They can find themselves having to take a stand on things they'd never even thought of.

(also not the only reason you should read that book. It's a great read in many ways)