The Republic of Progarchy is, all in all, a very happy, positive place. I think most of us here would rather talk about the albums that we love rather than the ones we dislike. And, as Brad Birzer has said many times before, it is better to talk about the good, the true, and the beautiful than to lower ourselves to that which is not beautiful. With that said, I think many readers wish that we would be a little more objective in our reviews sometimes. Allow me to explain why I don’t particularly like to write negative reviews.
Art is not something that can be easily judged. When it comes to any art, music included, most artists put their all into what they create (I exclude the majority of modern pop, techno, dubsteppy crap, along with the garbage Nashville considers country these days). Therefore, as a reviewer, it is difficult to harshly judge something that someone else has put so much work into. It just doesn’t seem right to ridicule their labor and effort.
As a bit of an artist myself (I dabble in watercolor, along with charcoal portraits, amongst other media), I know how upsetting it can be when someone who doesn’t understand how much work you have put into something unfairly criticizes your art. (I can think of one instance when I almost socked somebody, but he deserved it for other reasons too, hehehe. Thankfully, I think I’ve matured beyond that. I simply called him a Cretan instead… went right over his head.) If you have honestly used your talents to glorify God in your art, whatever the medium might be, who is anyone to criticize it just because they don’t like it?
There have been several newer progressive albums that I have listened to that many of my fellow Progarchy authors loved that I think were not very good. That does not mean that the albums were inherently bad. It simply means that I didn’t like them. It is very very easy to criticize something that we don’t like, which is something that most people who know me will tell you that I am excellent at (Connor Mullin, no need to verify that). I could go on and on about how much I didn’t like an album, but in the end, what good does that do anyone? All a negative review does is discourage the reader from checking out the music for themselves to see whether or not they like it.
However, I do think there is a time and a place for a negative review. Take Brad Birzer’s recent negative review of Anathema’s latest album, Distant Satellites, for example. Now I don’t particularly like Anathema as a band – too quiet for my taste. But Brad believed that this latest album wasn’t up to Anathema’s normally high standards. If a band fails to reach their full potential, then I think they should be called out on that. My art teacher in high school was never afraid to tell us when our work sucked (his own words). He knew we had potential, and he refused to accept mediocrity. As reviewers and consumers of music, we should also refuse to accept mediocrity.
In the end, my point is we should not criticize an album just because we don’t like it, if the artists did indeed put their all into their work. I’m not a huge fan of U2, but I can appreciate what they have done for rock. I don’t have ACDC tattoos all over my body, but I can appreciate their profound influence on music without criticizing them (I actually enjoy ACDC every once in a while). I think all of my fellow Progarchy authors are at their best when reviewing something they like. Maybe our only fault is being too enthusiastic sometimes, and maybe we could tone it down a bit. But, I don’t think I will start negatively reviewing albums I don’t like just because I didn’t enjoy them. That would not be fair to the artists, to myself, or to you, our awesome readers.
Just my two cents.
Progarchy 
There’s a clear line between constructive and destructive criticism. Constructive criticism is always welcome, even if it’s not convenient. I’ve gotten some negative criticism where I either anticipated the criticism or (worse) knew they were right and didn’t want to acknowledge it.
Sometimes non-constructive criticism happens because people don’t know how to articulate or separate their preferences from objective or outside facts. The critical phrases I dread hearing the most (especially as an art director) are “I like” and “I don’t like”. I’m often thinking (and can only occasionally say) that what you “like” is irrelevant to you or me: the “why” is the basis for critique, not one’s feelings. Personal preference may play a role in that, but at least it’s a clearer point to grasp or discuss.
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Electrotype, thanks for your comment! I wholeheartedly agree with you. I think, as reviewers, it is possible to be objective and offer constructive criticism on someone’s art without making the review negative. I think this can be done even when reviewing music we may not necessarily “like.” I suppose by negative I mean a review that is solely destructive criticism.
As you point out, whether or not someone “likes” or “dislikes” something does not really matter all that much to the artist. As Genesis said, “I know what I like, and I like what I know.” But that doesn’t mean we should be destructive in our criticism of art. However, offering constructive criticism can be extremely difficult to do correctly, and I think I personally need more experience as a reviewer before I can begin to write reviews like that.
I guess my point in writing this article was to explain why I think writing deconstructive criticism is not helpful to anyone. Thanks again for your input!
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I am reasonably new as a writer around these parts and I think your argument is highly commendable. My feelings are this. I do not think that Progarchy is really a review site. Yes, we do reviews but there is a lot more to it than that. DPRP and Background. Now they are review sites and if a punter wants to check out an album review before he buys it; then they are sites he can go to because they list every album they have ever reviewed. We don’t do that here. No lists. Instead we glorify everything prog and tell our story through our prog experiences. And if that happens to include a review then so be it. But because we want to share our love of the genre it is only natural not to write a negative review so as not to discourage anyone. However, we are all individuals and all have different opinions. I am interested to know what my fellow writers think of say, the new Yes album. I think they will be mixed. But there are a lot of educated people here who will inform me as to WHY they think it is good, terrible or indifferent and although it won’t change my opinion, I will learn a little more about the writer and their thinking. If I want to be told the new Yes album is disappointing period I can go to DPRP or Prog Archives or any other review site .If I want to be told that the new Yes album is disappointing because when I fell in love with Yes this happened which lead to this and made me feel this etc etc then I come to Progarchy. And in my short time here I think this is what our readership is looking for otherwise the followers would not be growing.
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Excellent points, Dave! Now that I think about it, I believe that I have only reviewed one album since I became a Progarchist last fall. Most of my posts have either been reviews of concerts I have gone to, reviews of bands in general, or other random posts (like this one) about prog. This wonderful site gives us the freedom to share our personalities through what we choose to write. Like you say, it’s deeper than just reviews. Long live the Republic of Progarchy 😛
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