Sound advice
Girls Aloud don’t need no good advice, but unfortunately not everyone is as musically intuitive as Cheryl, Kimberley and co.
Open’s reviews section contains sharp and unbiased evaluations of albums old and new, detailed critiques of live performances and reliable guidance on lots of other stuff – all rated fairly so you know what to invest your time and money in and what to avoid like a Steve Brookstein fan convention.
Open up
OK, so not all of Open’s reviews pages are, in fact, open right now. We’ll be launching a thorough reviews section soon, literally bulging with spot-on critiques of albums, live events, music-related films and DVDs, and other stuff that we’ll probably just file under “Other stuff”.
But we need you to fill us up, so to speak. Send us your appraisals and assessments on anything music-related. Particularly, we’re looking to build a comprehensive guide to albums, good and bad, of all eras. But if there’s a photographic exhibition of celebrated Hawaiian ukulele players at your local village hall that you think our readers need to know about, put some words together. We might just publish it.
Live reviews should include the date, venue and city location and be no more than 1,200 words. Album reviews should include artist, title, year of release and the titles of up to five of the best tracks and be no more than 750 words. Films and DVDs should include the rating and year of release (400 words max) and for other stuff, well, just use your initiative.
We also ask that you rate anything you review out of ten and that your judgement is honest and objective. While, for example, you may enjoy every note R.E.M. have ever committed to tape, we will be highly suspicious if you award 10/10 to all 13 albums. Bear in mind this reviews section should be an authoritative and reliable guide for those wanting to find music that matches their tastes and to know how best to part with their hard-earned. If you think Automatic For The People is start-to-finish flawless and should be the first purchase for any new fan, by all means give it a resounding thumbs-up. If you think Around The Sun was a bit disappointing by comparison, perhaps 5/10 would be more appropriate.
Reviews will be edited. Some might not make the cut.
Send your pearls of wisdom to reviews@opentomusic.co.uk with whatever you’re reviewing in the subject heading.