Rating: 
Summary: I like it.
Review: Sure, album guides can always be criticized for one reason or another. Someone's left out, someone rated your favorite album too low, an album you hate is rated too high, etc. But the bottom line on "Musichound Rock" is that it does what it does very well. Nice scope of coverage. Nice writing. Nice pictures. Nice value. (This book weighs more than my first child and costs quite a bit less!!) Get the idea? Then get the book.
Rating:
Summary: A fine publication.
Review: The book itself is more than worth the cover price. Only complaint is a minor one--the CD that comes with the book would be better if it had some more "major" acts on it. John Hiatt and Megadeth are nice, but I've never even heard of a few of the other bands. Other than that, it's a perfect package.
Rating: 
Summary: fun-to-read with all neccessary information for rock fans
Review: this book contains a full dozes of information on rock musicians, bios, discographies. More than that, the informations are conveyed with a lethal sense of humour, which is quite rare to be found in guidebook.
Rating: 
Summary: A Well Informed But Closed-Minded Book About Music
Review: This book gives a wealth of background information about many of the artists found within and unlike other review-rock history books, Graff and Durchholz give the current happenings of many of artists. One irritatingly common flaw in their reviews is their tendancy to be close-minded about certain types of music they personally find unpalatable. For example, in comment about Kajagoogoo's work (including Limahl), the authors describe the albums as "goop" and "unlistenable crap." This sounds exactly like the type of review a narrow-headed American music critic who has had no experiences with music outside the US radio network would say. What music outside the US that is safely fed to the public are usually artists that have conformed to American radio sound. It's too bad not all artists aren't like the Rolling Stones, U2, and Elton John, isn't it? It's true that some songs Kaja recorded seem embarrassing childish and pop-like, however, by and la! rge, this group had a talent in certain sounds that have been sought after by many artists who followed their music period. They had a subtle yet large influence on the trend of pop music two or three years after their first release. Even though having an astigmatized flair of being part of that new romantic era, Kajagoogoo created rifts and baselines that altered what was then common in pop and club music. Unfortunately, this book often provides such petty opinions on artists unliked and does not feed readers with all the information they are interested in finding. Tell us also what's good about the artists. Tell us why they became famous and how they got to a point where someone had to write a review about them in a well published book.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet book!
Review: This book gives me all the info I need. Great biographies of rock musicians and a complete guide to which albums are the best. It even comes with a cool CD. You can't beat it. Lots of great photos too.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable reference for uncovering gems
Review: This book has reinvigorated my interest in music. I don't listen to the radio much (when you have >600 CDs, why bother to subject one's self to DJ blather and commercials?), so there have been many artists who I haven't been exposed to. By reading through this book, I've come across several artists, who, based on the reviews, would seem to fit my taste. I've purchased several CDs based on these reviews, and while some have not panned out (The Bats, The Remains), some have been great finds (Crowded House, Cotton Mather, Hoodoo Gurus). The hit or miss effect is probably mostly due to the great variety of reviewers used. I wish the reviewers were indexed. One could look at which reviews agree closely with your own opinions, and then look at what other bands that reviewer has evaluated, and those rated highly might be a good fit for your taste. That minor deficiency is more than offset by the great breadth of artists covered. Discovering Crowded House was worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable reference for uncovering gems
Review: This book has reinvigorated my interest in music. I don't listen to the radio much (when you have >600 CDs, why bother to subject one's self to DJ blather and commercials?), so there have been many artists who I haven't been exposed to. By reading through this book, I've come across several artists, who, based on the reviews, would seem to fit my taste. I've purchased several CDs based on these reviews, and while some have not panned out (The Bats, The Remains), some have been great finds (Crowded House, Cotton Mather, Hoodoo Gurus). The hit or miss effect is probably mostly due to the great variety of reviewers used. I wish the reviewers were indexed. One could look at which reviews agree closely with your own opinions, and then look at what other bands that reviewer has evaluated, and those rated highly might be a good fit for your taste. That minor deficiency is more than offset by the great breadth of artists covered. Discovering Crowded House was worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This book is great! It covers everybody you'd want to know about from all areas of rock. Should save me some serious cash while shopping for CDs. List of albums in the back that got the maximum rating is most helpful. And a great website guide. Definitely a worthy addition to my music book library.
Rating:
Summary: Super informative tome!
Review: This book is just what I need to help me round out my CD collection with intelligent picks. Only downside I can see to the book is that it's probably too heavy to lug to the record store every weekend! Overall, a splendid effort!!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: This is really a very good book if you're looking for honest critical reviews. It's funny how fans of a few '80s metal bands are upset by a few scorching (but accurate) reviews, so decide to scream: They're POPULAR! That means they're GOOD!This is an honest book, and if they wanted to make everyone happy they wouldn't have written it. The idea of a band with commercial success not automatically being artistically valuable may be a difficult concept for some to grasp, but most people interested in a book of critical reviews passed that hurdle a long time ago. It's a bit pricy, but for that matter so is any book of this kind. Plus, if you read it with an open mind, it can turn you on to some new artists, and keep you from making some bad mistakes, which is definetly worth it. Of course, I didn't agree 100% with every single review, but for the most part, they are very valuable reviews, and definetly worth taking a look at.
|
