What music review sites do you actually read?

[Jackson]

We talk so much about critical consensus on this site, but I don't know if we've ever had a thread where we talk about our opinions on individual critics. I think this could be pretty enlightening into why everyone's taste is what it is.

Here are the sites who I think make the best lists:
FACT Magazine
The Wire
Resident Advisor
Fast 'n Bulbous
Tiny Mix Tapes
The Quiteus

I also check these out, but more for news/content:
Pitchfork
The AV Club
Drowned in Sound
NPR Music

Also, Anydecentmusic and Rateyourmusic are invaluable for finding new albums to listen to.

[Zorg]

The Quietus is in my opinion the best written review site out there which really articulates the things I find important when I listen to music. Pitchfork is pretty good for the "niche" albums that they like - Liars, for example. But really I find most of my music from our Albums of 2012 thread, because I'm far too lazy to find music myself. Indeed the real reason for my post is to show you this http://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing, which I find myself staring at again and giggling. It doesn't take long to find yourself a group of curmudgeons/tourists (the two are the same imo). I must do this at some point. I would hate to be a driver who goes past the zebra crossing daily.

[Stephan]

I pretty much only use Megacritic, Metacritic and AnyDecentMusic and then I possibly seek out reviews of the albums that come highly recommended there. I don't really have any particular website to go to for that, but I do always have a look at The AV Club because I visit the website quite a lot for their series reviews anyway.

[Jirin]

The sites I use the most to find new music are this one, Popmatters, Pitchfork, Metacritic, Any Decent Music, and the RYM esoteric charts.

[John]

I only read user reviews on RYM these days. I still look at metacritic and Pitchfork for ratings, but I never read critic reviews anymore. User reviews are more honest.

[antonius]

Some of the above, RYM general charts, and Cokemachineglow. I scroll down RYM a very long way, and eliminate a lot of genres in the lists. CMG is good for hip hop and "experimental", often female, music
Stopped reading Megacritic, FACT and the Wire, too irrelevant.
Pitchfork, RA sometimes have decent reviews and selections in the electronics genre.
And I always look at the metacritic chart on this site.

[Henrik]

I don't have time to follow new music very much, but my favorite critics lists are perhaps the ones from Treble webzine.

[John]

I love the RYM general charts because of how easy they are to customize. The latest chart that was useful to me was children's music as voted on by US members. Voila, children's music in English that isn't Wiggles or Barney!

[Matski]

Another tick for Treblezine too. Well up until recently anyway. It use to be a more open-minded pitchfork, ya know without too much of the snobbish attitude but recently it's feels like it has started taking a turn for the worse.

As for the UK sites, I regularly check in on DiS though I'm not a member of their boards. I'll also browse over parts of the Guardian but I've never been able to agree with the type of reviews/reviewers they employ in their music section, or their other arts sections for that matter but they have a likeable community hanging about so it's not too bad.

Overall though at the top are NPR (great writing and interesting articles) and AllMusic. Allmusic is about the only music reviewing website that I feel judges music on it's own merits rather than by how cool it is. For that alone, they slay the over-populated pitchfork ident market in one swoop. That they cover just about every genre is the clincher. The only criticisms is that it's slightly too biased towards US acts and they take way too long to correct/re-review their entries.

[Stephan]

Good point about the RYM user reviews, I forgot to mention that but I definitely read more of those than any professional reviews. It's just something that you do much quicker since they tend to be short, honest and to the point.

[Greg]

i really don't READ any, anymore. i find music writing, almost across the board, to be atrocious. i do consult lots of lists, though...fast'n'bulbous, rym, christgau, metacritic, and lists here on the forum, especially towards the end of the year. in the past i used to like uncut, mojo, record collector and others, but more recently their lists have started looking more like everyone else's.