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Beth Orton & Molly Tuttle Request

Could someone find out if there are plans to review of these two artists recent albums? Beth Orton's new album - Weather Alive, seems to picking quite a few fans amongst the critics. Some such as Pitchfork's Sam Sadomsky have even claimed that it's her best yet. While I don't personally agree, I'd still be very interested to read your editor's own views on it.

I'd also be interested to hear their opinions on Molly Tuttle's Crooked Tree. I know your reviewers have only been moderately impressed by her previous work but I'd still be intrigued to see what they think of this one.

Any response is greatly apreciated.

3 replies

Molly Tuttle's Grammy award winning album has been reviewed.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/crooked-tree-mw0003658536

Thanks for the update. Had long assumed there was no interested in that request. Guess the grammy win helped. Looking forward to reading the review later.

The review is up for Weather Alive. Good work, Marcy Donelson! That write-up is spot-on.

(Both albums have been reviewed by many publications.)  In past decades, Allmusic would have at least graced historic recordings (like a recent release that finally collects the unreleased recordings of Mountain City Four, which was the first group formed by Kate & Anne McGarrigle) with a blurb.  I know that only musicologists and collectors are interested in historic recordings.  Nonetheless, small labels that don't have any marketing budget are doing a service by pressing historic recordings.

Similarly, AllMusic seem to be working on a stricter budget than they were over a decade ago. It's understandable if they can't review as many records these days.

If you are able to make a case for a review and its popularity is evident by the high number of user ratings and reviews it has, then the editorial team may reciprocate. Given their workload, I'm just grateful whenever they do respond to these requests.

Matski, I'm grateful when Allmusic reviews what no other music publication has reviewed (except maybe a sentence or two) because I value Allmusic reviews for discovering new music (new to me).  In other words: I'm interested in albums that aren't already very popular before release.  A new release that debuts at the top of Billboard's charts didn't need to be reviewed, when Allmusic knew that many other publications would likely do so and especially when critics agree that the new release is his worst.