Madison Project - The Khaki Album

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[Tiger33]

It doesn't seem like that angry a thread to me. College students are not professional artists, and are probably not used to projects being slammed by strangers. I'm not suggesting we "go easy" on them or anything, just that we need to bear it in mind. Madison Project put out out a good cd, two experienced reviewers had constructive feedback and judged the cd on its own merit, while a third reviewer trashed it because it's not the sound he likes (let alone that it maybe the sound the group likes). If you look back on their last album, "Rockstar", they were criticized for sounding too natural. Then they get slammed for sounding too un-natural. It must be frustrating.

If anything had an angry tone, it was the third review. I mean come on, the songs/album got called: uniform, bland, lackluster, overproduced, static, unenergetc, flawed, drenched in backwash, devoid of personality, unintelligible, and autotuned...and that's only in the first two paragraphs! It almost sounds like the third reviewer was personally offended by the music.

Just keep in mind that Madison Project must have worked hard on this cd, and to hear it trashed, not criticized (yes there is a difference) must be a let down.

[Johnsapella]

It's always an incredible challenge to write an unfavorable review - anything you say toes the line between criticism and insult. Sometimes people fall over that line; I don't really feel like that happened here.

That said, I think we've seen that people are more comfortable when things are cast in a positive light rather than a negative, for instance: "The mix was too shallow" could be restated as "I was left wanting a much greater depth in the mix;" or, "The performances were dull and staid" could be written, "The group is cruising along in 3rd gear, and they should really try to kick it up into 4th or 5th."

Ya know, good old-fasioned All-American 50's speak. Or whatever.

$.02

[cjmike]

I don't think anyone should ever submit any kind of artistic expression to be reviewed without fully understanding and embracing the fact that the review may be negative. Does a negative review mean its a bad album? Not necessarily. It just meant that the person reviewing it didn't like it. Maybe others will listen to the reviewer, or maybe they won't. But, there's the old saying "there's no such thing as bad press" and I think that applies here. I had no clue whatsoever that the Madison Project had out a new album. I saw the review, and I read the responses on the forum, so I went to check out the sound clips. Those are sound clips I never would have heard were it not for the RARB review, positive or negative.

[IanG]

[phollens]

[Tiger33]

Wow, paranoid a little bit IanG, PI? Nice conspiracy theories. Did some detective work and everything. My co-worker was in a group in Maryland and she introduced me to Madison Project. I think they're good and put out a good cd, and I wanted to defend it, so yes I did join just to stick up for these guys. Is there a minimum number of posts you have to do or something before you can write in with your opinion? And if you think I was "trashing" a reviewer, my "trashing" was nothing compared to the way he dismantled this solid cd.

I have no interest in joining a community. In fact this will probably be my last post, I've said what I wanted to. I just wanted to write in about this one topic. Very interesting, indeed. And I understand how you wouldn't want fans to come on this site...I mean the only people who should talk about a cappella are people who sing it, right? It would be a shame if more fans started writing in to discuss cd's, wouldn't it? You wouldn't want to get more people involved in a cappella music, that would be bad. Trying to scare them off is probably a pretty good tactic, IanG, PI. Don't sweat, I'll go away now.

I did some of my own detective work, IanG, PI, and found some of that much much much much much much harsher language. It looks like most of it was for very very very very very very amature groups, not for groups as good as Madison Project.

Drink some warm milk, get some sleep, and relax. You've got a big day of searching for evidence tomorrow. Without it, we may never solve the case!

Also, Johnsapellea, I think you are right. I'm sure it must be tough. Very enlightening, so thanks for your two cents. It was worth at least a dime!

[tekay]

[TheProjectPiper]

[sdargie]

[tekay]