Bought on the basis of a review?

[evilC]

In the days before the internet, often all you had to go on was the recommendation of a music journalist in a paper. I ended up buying some of my most pivotal purchases this way. Witness:

1. 'Electricity' 7" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. (The white-on-black-cover version, not the black-on-black, sadly. If it was the latter, I would have sold it on Ebay and be living in a chateau overlooking Lake Geneva by now!) Anyway... I think it was Anne Nightingale, in The Sun (my parents bought it, okay?) who wrote, in the Spring of '79, "If you like Tubeway Army, you'll like this!" Well,all my mates had got into Tubeway Army before me, so I took a chance that this might be my opportunity to get into an Electropop band first. Sure enough - paydirt! They remain the only band I've properly been in the fan club of.

2. 'Grauzone' by Grauzone. I forget where I read the review recommending this, but I think it likened it to The Cure, which - at the time - was all I needed to know!. In fact it's equally near to Kraftwerk. It's been re-released in the last 5 years, under the name of 'The Sunrise Tapes' - a name I never knew it by (the sleeve info is sparse) - but all the tracks appear to have been re-mixed, re-arranged and several added and it loses its coherency in this later form, I feel. I think it may well have been another Anne Nightingale recommendation, in fact. My schoolmates used to come round my place after school just to listen to it! I was so proud! :-)

3. 'The Land Of Rape And Honey' by Ministry. I think the review of this that I read likened them to Killing Joke. It may well have been in Melody Maker, I think. However, that was only half the story. This album is one of the masterpieces of sampling. I became obsessed with Ministry briefly, but the follow-up album was a massive disappointment.

4. 'White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity' by Swans. I'd been through a phase of liking such acts as Death In June, but when I chose to move on, I seem to remember that a review of this album appealed to me, with its references to the acoustic-but-heavy sounds and bleak atmospheres. At first I couldn't get a grip on it, but after a while it dug its claws in and I became a fan of Michael Gira and rather belatedly had to catch up on Swans' rather different back-catalogue. It was culture shock after culture shock!

5. 'Year After Year' by Idaho. I'm pretty sure it would have been Melody Maker where I read the recommendation for this. Anyway, quite what appealed to me about the description of this sunbleached Americana above the rest, I don't know. Perhaps they referenced This Mortal Coil? It would probably have been before, or at least contemporaneous to when I got into Mazzy Star, so I doubt it was that link. Whatever, I'm glad I took the risk. There's some great tracks on there. Almost all 'Americana' seems irrelevant as a result of my exposure to this album.

There's probably many more, but five is enough. It's over to you now...

[alyxandr]

Bought on the basis of a review?

Love Will Tear Us Apart, Joy Division. Christ i hated that single -- still far and away my least favorite JD track.

I became obsessed with Ministry briefly, but the follow-up album was a massive disappointment

The Mind... has some decent stuff on it, and might repay a re-listen. Agree everything after that is pretty ordinary, though.

[Cal Alamein]

Bought on the basis of a review?

Too many to mention. I'd get month-old SOUNDS magazines (1979-1981) sent from a friend of mine in London and I'd pour over album and 45 reviews. Sometimes I could find them at our only decent record store, the others I'd order from Wax Trax (one was them was the 7" of Love Will Tear Us Apart - liked it then, like it now).

I was pleased w/ most of my purchases.

[Sundeporino]

Bought on the basis of a review?

Most of the stuff I bought back then late 70s early 80s was on the strength of reviews in NME, MM and Sounds because Peel apart there was nowt on t'wireless at the times Id be listening and ex Durham coalfield mining villages werent overstocked with record shops.
McCulloch was the only decent pair of ears at Sounds, the MM was hanging on to the old school stuff or promoting pub rock derived music as "new".
Morley, Penman, Bohn, CSM, Kent, Baker etc etc were streets ahead of everyone else in the UK at the time.
Sorry ex MM staffers but you lot came along later by which time Id moved to London.

[Purves Grundy]

Bought on the basis of a review?

I usually only ever read music reviews for the pleasure of seeing some good writing. I almost never actually bought anything on their say-so, being far too tight-fisted to take a gamble just on someone else's say-so. Everything came either on personal recommendation (either loan or play-back) from friends, or through John Peel/Hereward Radio's 'Jive Alive'/Anne Nightingale/The Chart Show/Top of the Pops.

The only example I can think of of having bought something completely unheard purely on the basis of a rview was Primary Colours by the Horrors, just a couple of years ago, after some very favourable stuff on the Quietus. Which, in fairness, is one of my favourite albums ever.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Bought on the basis of a review?

"Deserter's Songs" is the first one which springs to mind. Had given up on Mercury Rev after "Boces", which I didn't like very much and then David Baker left. I remember the NME review really capturing my attention and I bought the album a week later. I was sharing a flat with a good friend and we had some people we knew from Portland staying with us. I'll never forget the whole room freezing as the opening of "Holes" began.

Jockey Slut, when it was good, was a really good source of stuff in the mid-nineties. I remember buying RED 2 by Dave Clarke on the strength of a incredibly positive review and not being disappointed.

Everett True was always the most hit and miss reviewer. He could unearth some real gems from America, but a whole load of shite too. Archers of Loaf fit firmly in the shite category, I bought the album expecting the new Pavement/Nirvana whatever and found out they were America's answer to Mega City 4.

[historyman]

Bought on the basis of a review?

I bought Chapel Club's 'Palace' album earlier this year after reading a review in the Guardian.

I think I recall doing the same with Radiohead's The Bends, after reading the NME review. There are probably loads more that I've forgotten, especially as I didn't listen to the radio much during my late teens/early '20s.

[danielmak]

Bought on the basis of a review?

Pre-Internet, when there was no way to hear songs or an album that was being reviewed, I relied on fanzines and NME/Melody Maker for a lot of my purchases. There were too many to list here. I can say that working in a chain record store in the late 80s/early 90s that Robert Hillburn's review of The Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions produced the most clear example that people read the LA Times Sunday calendar section. That day and for the next 3-4 weeks people came in asking for that record.

[VTTBoscombe]

Bought on the basis of a review?

I think Nick Kent's "Marquee Moon" review was the famous "recomendation" I can think of.

[Tony C]

Bought on the basis of a review?

VTTBoscombe wrote:

I think Nick Kent's "Marquee Moon" review was the famous "recomendation" I can think of.

Curiously, that's exactly the album review that came to my mind when I read this thread title. Wonderful album too, still in my all time top ten, and a lot to thank Kent for. Of course, back in the seventies, there was no option but to take the advice of NME when it came to buying an album - the chances of hearing a Television song anywhere else and making your own mind up were pretty minimal.

Essentially you clung to the words of writers that you learned to trust. A favourite of mine in the NME during the seventies was Angus MacKinnon, a rather more cerebral and measured writer than most of the staff of the time and completely un-rock 'n roll (the anti-Kent, if you will). It was MacKinnon wo introduced me to Pere Ubu's 'Modern Dance', 'Rise Up Like The Sun' by The Albion Band and at least a couple of Weather Report albums.

I'm not quite sure what happened to Angus.

[Gangster Octopus]

Bought on the basis of a review?

Tony C wrote:

Of course, back in the seventies, there was no option but to take the advice of NME when it came to buying an album

This was also true of singles. Especially for someone like me who was always in the pub when John Peel was on...

[sw2borshch]

Bought on the basis of a review?

Andrew Emery was always a safe pair of typing fingers during his "Hip Hop Connection" heyday - and Faisal Islam was usually to be trusted too, I've being trying to check if the Channel 4 economics guy is the same chap, but I can't confirm.

[Nurse Duckett]

Bought on the basis of a review?

I've bought several CDs purely on the strength of reviews in the Grauniad's Film & Music supplement on Fridays.

Not always successfully it must be said, but I'm still very grateful to them for recommending Steve Earle's El Corazon back in 1997: the first of 11 albums of his that I now have, plus several others from people that he's collaborated with.

[imp]

Bought on the basis of a review?

At school we used to slam anyone known to have bought a record without having heard it first, yet we all did it, and I've done it probably hundreds of times since - usually on the basis of several reviews, rather than just one, and only then from trusted critics referencing the appropriate influences. I think it actually leads to more successful purchases than if you hear 30-second samples from a few songs on computer speakers, when you're far more likely to dismiss something out of hand that might have been rewarded by much closer listening. If you invest the money in a record, then you'll generally make the effort.

Though one of my favorite ever records, 'Robespierre's Velvet Basement' by The Jacobites, I bought unheard on the basis of a single review by The Legend! in NME in 1985.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Bought on the basis of a review?

Too many to mention, particularly in the late 80s heyday of Melody Maker, and most of them I either loved (My Bloody Valentine, Pixies, Young Gods) or at least liked (Butthole Surfers, Loop, World Domination Enterprises), but the one that springs to mind is AR Kane's 69, bought on the basis of - I think - a review by our own Wingco. Hated it. Still want a refund.