How to write a music review

I enjoy writing the music reviews for RTR FM. Even if I get a few duds (like the last Prodigy album for instance). But RTR FM (and possibly quite a lot of other radio stations and other music related organisations or publications) have a lot of CDs to get through. Writing music reviews is a great way to pad the writing portfolio and people are often quite happy to let you do it. I didn’t think I knew how to write a review but I jumped in, assuming the RTR FM music director would let me know when it was crap. My first review was of a CD I really didn’t like and it would have been a very lackluster review had it not been for my friend who took one look at it and told me to “sex it up” a bit. More after the jump on how to write a review and what I mean by “sex it up”.

1. First things first, get a CD and listen to it. While you listen, write down what you think of each track. What other songs does it sound like? What kind of atmosphere does it generate (ie: if it was in a film, what part would it be in – the climax, the beginning, the end credits, the car chase sequence or the romantic moment?)? What instruments are in each track and how are they used?
2. I try to write what I think of each track. I stop and go back and forth. I often do track by track reviews on twitter. Or I jot down what I think on paper. I try to list the tracks I like the most.
3. I then put down information such as who the artist is, what genre they think they are in and others think they are in, how many albums have they put out, who have they worked with before and who are they working on this album and so on. Sometimes this entails a visit to the artist’s website, sometimes to wikipedia especially if you can’t read anything on the site because you are reviewing DJ SMASH for instance who is a Russian DJ. You can’t quote wikipedia or cite it but you can use it to verify information such as genres and discographies which are more or less pedantically corrected.
4. Then comes the first draft. Open up a word document and the title is the artist and album name. Because I have written for so long, I often do the first edit automatically as I type. The first line is an argument or a hook so that readers will get interested in the review. This was my mistake with my very first review that my friend pointed out. He said “Yes it is awful but you want the readers to continue on and read it so you have to make it attractive for them.”Here are some examples from the reviews I have already written:
   

   Jeremy Jay’s Slow Dance: “With a David Bowie like sense for knowing the exact aural impact of words and a Pulp like feel for pop beats, you will love Jeremy Jay’s Slow Dance.”

   Jehan Gonsalkorale’s Shooting Ships and Sinking Stars: “There are only seven songs on this album but every single one of them is worth a listen.”

   Do you see what I mean? It has to be a statement that people will want to verify by reading further to see how you back it up.

5. The next line should be some information because essentially this is journalistic writing – you need to answer the basic “who?”, “what?”, “when?”, “where?”, “why?” and “how?” questions. If you can combine the first argument line with the second info line such as in the Jeremy Jay example above, then that’s even better. So usually the information you give out here is something like: “Artist A’s album B has …”
6. The next best thing that flows on from this line is a bit where you describe the overall sound of the album or if it is a new band, who’s in the band and what they have been described as by others. You can also pick out a few tracks on the album as examples and state what other artists they sound like. This is why I think my first line for Jeremy Jay was a good one: I combined info about the artist, compared him to David Bowie and made a statement that got people interested.
7. Write about how cohesive the overall sound is, describe what the tracks are like, pick out the stand out tracks and write about how they sound and why they stand out.
8. You can quote lyrics. Don’t over do it.
9. Add a bit about who would like it and why? Previous fans? Fans of similar musicians? Or those merely interested in the subject matter? When reviewing Crayon Fields’ All The Pleasures Of The World, I tried to make the point that it was a good album for background music for romantic moments so I suggested guys buying it for girlfriends.
10. Last line should be a call for action along the lines of “buy this album because …” or “stay away …” As I said before, suggesting that guys buy an album for their girlfriends is a call to action. Your readers have read your first statement, they have heard all your reasons to back that initial statement up and now assuming that they agree with you, you need to tell them what to do next. There is no point taking them through all this and trying to get them to accept that very first line, if you don’t tell them what you want them to do with what you just told them. Tell them to go buy the album. Actually tell them.
11. RTR FM has a limit of 250 words for a review. I think 250-300 words max is a good limit to stick to. Your review needs to be short and sweet. So write it out and THEN AND ONLY THEN start cutting words. Take out all unneccessary adjectives that don’t actually describe how good/bad the track is. Then rewrite and reword sentences so that you can combine two sentences into one and so on.
12. After following the steps above, you are ready to catch any more errors. Edit and proofread it before sending it in. Good luck.

Let me know how you go. Cheers, Marisa.