Monday, 30 September 2013

http://reflektorreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/arctic-monkeys-am.html 

This is a review of Calums review of Arctic Monkeys album 'AM' 
Calum starts of by introducing you to the band and setting the scene, the opening quote of song lyrics is effective as it gives you a taste of what the Arctic Monkeys are about, and a sense of their music style. Before Calum starts the review of the album he gives you a taste of the band and their history with facts told in a story-like way, this makes it more interesting than just listing the facts themselves. He also uses some idiolect and refers to the band as 'the labs'. This removes the formality of the piece, making it a lighter read and more blog-like. 
Calum uses interesting comparisons that relate to the majority of people, things such as 'But is the act convincing? Yes, and no. AM has it's high and low points. At times, it seems almost like Turner and co fit the shoe of leather clad American bikers, but all too often AM sounds a bit like it's wearing a faux leather jacket from Primark' The humour of the comparison is typical to what we would usually find on a blog, its easy humour that most, if not all, will understand and this makes the piece seem less heavy than a basic review we would find else where. The comparisons carry on with 'But then on the flipside Mad Sounds is just like a Sainsbury's Basics version of Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side,' another easy to understand joke that makes the piece more friendly. Calum is putting the songs down but not in a mean way, he is subtle about it, this is clever as both sides of points of view are told, with appreciation and disappointment shown. 
All the way through the review Calum gives information on the band and Turner (front man of the band) in a way that fits in with the review. '...the latter of the two being a version of John Cooper Clarke's classic poem which Turner first encountered in GCSE English' gives an insight to the song without going off topic and making the piece heavy and dull. 
The end paragraph contains some rhythm 'But despite the album's assets, it features a lot of filler, and the album's second side is almost all thriller, no killer,' this gives pace to the review, keeping it fresh, and as it slowly ends it doesn't finish badly, the quality of the writing, skill and humour is carried through out the piece, keeping it interesting and light; in my opinion these are the main and better features of a blog post. 
Calum ends the piece with a hit to the band 'AM is a good album, but definitely an album of a band past their career peak, and beginning to 'lose it'.' leaving no doubt or second guessing in the readers mind of where Calums opinions stand with this album. 

2 comments:

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    1. Good range of points on significant aspects of the text. You have a good sense of what is interesting. Try and increase your awareness of specific audiences. You say most people would understand the references but you mean most readers of the blog (who would have a pragmatic understanding of the insult implicit in comparing creative work to Primark and Sainsburys Basics). Music fans would get certain references and readers of the review who listen to that type of music would feel comfortable with the term 'lads' whereas people outside the socilectal group might not.

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