I'm surprised that your editors didn't review Anaïs Mitchell's new album. Critics from most music publications have chosen to review it. Unlike Allmusic, they also reviewed her last album of originals from a decade ago.
After a decade, she has something original to say on record again. When a singer-songwriter self-titles an eponymous album, I always regard it as a personal statement. Even among fellow Grammy winners, she stands out for having won a Tony Award too.
Unfortunately we're just not staffed to cover everything that comes out.
I always pass these requests along and sometimes the review appears and sometimes it doesn't.
It all has to do with the editorial workload and priorities from their other data customers.
Much of the emphasis on the business has shifted to biographies and artist information, and the team is not able to cover the number of album reviews they used to.
Thanks Zac.
It's understandable that the staff can't review every release and that they can't respond to each request. Please be assured that requests are only made in the hopes to increase awareness of the situation and possibly pique interest amongst any staff with the rare opportunity to review something.
The AMG team's dedication, patience and hardwork is appreciated regardless.
Mitchell has been quite busy this year. The new album 'Rolling Golden Holy' from her Bonny Light Horseman side-project has also picked-up quite a few raters on AllMusic. Maybe it could be a more tempting release to review, even with the lukewarm reception the debut album received...
Thanks Matski, I've missed it because I usually discover new releases from reviews. Allmusic has been late with some reviews (I'm waiting to see if a folk release from last week will be reviewed). Bonny Light Horseman's release was from a month ago, but I'll request a review because collaborative albums are rare.
Advanced Search returns a single page of results for 2022 folk releases that have been reviewed, and some of those weren't primarily folk. Positive reviews, especially when featured by retailers, give confidence to buyers. Since positive reviews lead to more buyers, they will also add more positive ratings from those buyers/users.
Bonny Light Horseman's new release has been rated higher than their debut, but users who've already rated the new release are likely the artist's faithful followers. (Allmusic's rating of Bonny Light Horseman's debut was lower than user ratings by one star, which I consider to be a significant difference because user ratings are averaged.)
Just want to bump this thread. It doesn't look like the mods ever responded to it. I'd also be interested to see what the editors think of those two Anaïs Mitchell releases.
So much new music was released in the last couple of weeks that I'm not surprised if a few notable acts have missed out on a review.
Still have to check this one out myself. Maybe I'll find some time later in the week. Yet to listen to Young Man in America too, despite really enjoying Hadestown.
Yes, including Lucinda Williams who has been churning out volumes in Lu's Jukebox during the pandemic. Allmusic thankfully reviewed the first couple of volumes but hasn't kept up with the rest of this prolific series. Although I depend on Allmusic to screen new releases, I gave it a pass because this series isn't original songs.
Allmusic also gave up on reviewing the latest release in the Tiffany Transcriptions, which is a prized series. It's unfortunate for the small record label that doesn't have the marketing budget to reach beyond collectors. Those who have never heard Bob Wills, especially the rare recordings of his live performances (previous releases in the series are out-of-print) to really appreciate his command as a bandleader, are the listeners who miss out!
It was a considerable effort from Lucinda Williams to release that many albums within a year. Those albums do seem to have a good amount of user ratings and even a few user reviews. But considering that the first two entries hadn't quite set the reviewer's world on fire, it's not surprising that they moved on to other things.
As for 'The Lost Transcriptions for Tiffany Music' series, they probably didn't get enough page views and ratings to warrant further reviews. I get the impression that editors will write reviews for recent favourites if there's little else to do but usually they'll be assigned to a release that is going to get the website more views and interaction.
I listened to those two Anaïs Mitchell records. Both beautiful, consistent works. It's a shame that her new record hasn't attracted more listeners. Good luck with getting them both reviewed by the AllMusic staff. Apparently, having multiple user reviews does help your cause. Neither had a write-up until I decided to leave a couple fo quick pieces. You may want to try writing something up yourself, even if it's just a sentence or two. It could help your request gain some momentum.
