Favorite bands :
blink-182, Girls, Angels & Airwaves, Jeff Buckley, My Chemical Romance, Pink Floyd, Switchfoot, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Nine Inch Nails, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Cure, EMA, Imogen Heap, Incubus, Jon Foreman, Keane, Led Zeppelin, Marilyn Manson, REM, the Rolling Stones, the Vaccines, Queen, The Offspring, Giles Corey, Justice, Black Sabbath, Tool
Favorite guitarists :
Tom Delonge (melody, whoop), David Gilmour, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Don Ross
Favorite bassists :
Roger Waters (I suppose), Mark Hoppus (to some degree or another), Justin Chancellor/Pauk D'Amour, John Deacon
Favorite books :
Primarily non-fiction with a bit of the classics thrown in; the Potter series is always great; Chuck Palahniuk etc. Anyone who's ever been banned anywhere, purely for the sake of knowing who crossed what boundaries or who established that they did. Censorship is bullshit, but it's also fascinating.
Favorite tv :
M*A*S*H, Frasier, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Supernatural, Psych, Monk, 24
Favorite movies :
Star Wars, Casablanca, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Godfather trilogy, Memento, The Room
Yeah, yeah; antagonize the username. I've heard it all before. The account is five years old and, as you should well know, UG usernames are permanent.
I'm Jared; I'm mostly dedicated to reviews, though I've plenty of time for socializing as well. I've played guitar since December 2007. Big general music fan. INFP.
This page contains the Guide to UG Reviews.
Update 1: 6th May, 2013: Published with basic analysis, pending further updates.
Highlights from the Guide to UG Reviews:
-UG Reviewers-
Elitists:
The Ultimate-Guitar contribution minority. This is the group that puts the most time, effort, and consideration into its compositions. Tends to creatively work with and around, rather than strictly within, the boundaries of UG's sound/lyrics and singing/impression format.
UG Team:
The most visible of UG's contributing communities, seeing as it's pretty much the only one under one banner. The varying perspectives can make for vastly differing styles and overall quality. To their credit, they write more consistently than most of the other demographics.
Casuals:
True to their title, the casual simply writes reviews because he feels like it. A casual review is typically quite fair, but not entirely informative. Using this noncommittal format, however, they do not run the risk of receiving poor ratings of their work.
Fans:
This demographic loves its own music, and loves to talk about it. Not to be confused with Fanboys, Fans are just enthusiastic about sharing their music with the rest of the site. They represent a good chunk of the top submissions.
Fanboys:
These guys just can't wait to give their record a 10/10, and often with little to no explanation. 99.999999% of the Fanboy reviews found on Ultimate-Guitar are barely over the character limit and say very little about the actual content.
Eagers:
Eagers make up the majority of contributors on Ultimate-Guitar, who will review whatever they know in as few characters as possible while saying as little about the record as they can.
-Writing a Review-
This is just a short guide on some of the things one should look for when writing a UG review.
Sound:
Because this is at the beginning of the review, you might want to give a brief history of the band if you feel it necessary. Try to come as close as you would to a proper essay. After all, a review is essentially an objective essay regarding an album's quality.
Don't forget to describe the sound. Further than "pop-punk" or "post-metal", come as close as you can to identifying the individual artist and whatever perks it may have. For example, "glam metal with some early 80s pop influence" or "melodic vaudevillian grunge". Don't forget to distinguish varying styles between songs or segments of an album, if needed. High points and low points are good to discuss as well.
Lyrics and Singing:
...but don't forget the last section. It's important to relate each part of an album to the other. Characteristics of the singer(s) should be brought up as well as general quality. Lyrics should be quoted sparingly, and if there is a conceptual linearity with which the album is written, it looks great to delve into that.
Impression:
Generally, just how the pieces fit together, what worked and what didn't in a paragraph or less each, and potentially what could have made the product better.
The All-American Rejects - "Kids in the Street"
"When the World Comes Down"
"Move Along"
"The All-American Rejects"
Angels & Airwaves - "Love Pt II"
Anberlin - "Cities"
Damone - "Out Here All Night"
"Roll The Dice"
Daughtry - "Daughtry"
Fall Out Boy - "Folie a Deux"
"Save Rock and Roll"
"Infinity On High"
Hellogoodbye - "Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!"
My Chemical Romance - '"I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love"
"Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge"
"The Black Parade"
"Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys"
"Conventional Weapons"
"The Black Parade is Dead!"
"The Mad Gear and Missile Kid"
Panic! at the Disco - "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out"
"Vices and Virtues"
Patrick Stump - "Soul Punk"
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus"
Skillet - "Awake"
Spoken - "Last Chance To Breathe"
Switchfoot - "The Beautiful Letdown"
"Nothing Is Sound"
"Oh!Gravity."
"Vice Verses" [Cited on Wikipedia; that's bizarre]
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus"
"Et Tu, Brute?"
Anything else I've contributed is pending a rewrite; please disregard.
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