Thanks for the memories ...

Tony Cozier - West Indian Cricket commentator (Born: July 10, 1940 - Died: May 11, 2016)
Richie Benaud was the best and then there was Tony Cozier
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I am an album person and not a song or singles person.
I am a music lover and NOT a music "collector".

RYM
All catalogued issues match version owned (except a few v/a) and all releases have, at the very least, cover art uploads

Why I'm here
To catalogue my collection (which used to be diminishing in numbers as fast as I bought new material, as I cull the unwanted via Amazon's marketplace - that's when people still bought CDs!)

I have over 620 Classical CDs and have added all those that have a RYM presence. That leaves approximately 300 other albums which either have no entry or issues which are not yet on RYM

I'm not here to...

Argue endlessly over someone else's definition of the "correct" genre (Come to that, I'm not here to argue over any point - I have better things to do).

Boost my statistics (the aim is to have accurate info for my collection, nothing more).

Social network - where I am more than happy to discuss music for music's sake, the last thing I want to do is engage in inane discussions with spotty teenagers with, at best, two figure figure IQs, who believe, for example, that file-sharing is acceptable or that a Chopin Nocturne, when downloaded, is a "song".

Discover new music from other users. I have spent 40 plus years discovering more than enough new music off my own bat and although I am not precluding the possibility, it is not a primary reason for being here. It's worth noting that since I have been a member here, I have discovered music from just two of my "contacts" and nothing whatsoever from the site's other areas. That factor says more about the success of my musical journey of discovery as opposed to RYM's ineffectiveness in that realm.

Participate in or pay any attention to charts, which offer meaningless comparisons that do music appreciation no favours. People seem to be under the misapprehension that popularity equates to quality. They also see charts as a way of opening up new music whilst I see them as severely restrictive. I can see how listeners new to a genre can use them constructively, however, the vast majority of artists will fall outside of any chart's confines and will be subsequently missed by people using this method for discovery.

My ratings / reviews

Ratings are primarily for my benefit only, as an aide-mémoire.
I only rate albums (why anyone rates or reviews singles is utterly lost on me) and only albums that I have heard in their entirety. I don't listen to music from genres and styles that I don't like and, therefore, that music won't get rated or reviewed - there's little to be gained by that futile exercise. Please note that these are my opinions and mine alone. Finally, there are NO sacred cows.

My reviews are also mainly here as a jog to my memory, as I own hundreds of albums that I might only be slightly familiar with. Where I write a longer review I will attempt to convey something of the music to an imaginary listener who may be considering purchase. They are not necessarily an attempt at literature, although I will endeavour to use correct UK grammar and spelling. Having said that, I am always looking to improve what I write, especially as it is so public and there is always room for improvement. I have occasional interest in other user's reviews (most are an irrelevance to me) and they are rarely, if ever, used to discover new music.

If bonus tracks are included on a release, they are disregarded for the rating I apply - that is done as a bare bones original and I will add any pertinent comments to additional material as an appendix to the review.

If the album has been re-mastered I will add my thoughts as to the efficacy of the endeavour. This element will have been judged solely on my main Hi-Fi, which is highly revealing. I will make judgements based on the following: depth and width of the soundstage; clarity of the bass, treble and mid-range; the mix and the ease at which any chosen instrument can be followed throughout the piece; any overt signs of compression or de-noising.

Reviews that appear on RYM which mention audio quality and are based on listening to the music via a system that does not do the music justice (on the PC perhaps?) are all but useless (to me). I would like to see people stating on what system their reviews were based. Any of my comments regarding the audio quality of downloaded albums will invariably have caveats due to the lack of physical copy. If, for example, a download has superior soundstaging then the original MUST also have had this quality; a digital copy is rarely, if ever, going to improve upon a physical copy.
Contrary to popular belief, some remastered albums are done well!

I will review some classical albums but I am not a musician and I know little to nothing of theory or composition. Therefore, these reviews will be simplistic in nature and I will concentrate on what I like. I doubt that I will apply ratings to classical music as the process seems disrespectful and not a little crass.

Please note that my reviews will display a certain keyboard bias - I love Hammond, Mellotron and piano but hate almost all synthesizers.

Lists: My lists are, on the whole, intended to be light-hearted and fluid - they are not necessarily written in stone. In most cases I will either include my review for an album or give an explanation as to it's presence in the list (there is nothing more frustrating or futile than a list of albums with no explanation as to what makes any particular record desirable or special).

RYM links:
My outstanding corrections
My image uploads
Adding a Classical work to the database
To insert a reference to another review into a review use: http://rateyourmusic.com/review?id=nnnnnnnnn (where nnnnnnnnn is the review number - you need to remove the preceding "[Rating" and all spaces)
My albums without a RYM review (On a per issue basis)
My albums without a RYM assigned label
My albums without a RYM tracklisting
aat,ts,al,o,g,tl,v,r0.0-5.0,n50,oowun, My collection with track-listings
Items in my collection that are without cover art (Any items that appear here will have an uploaded image awaiting approval)
My "Graveyard"
My Tags
Release Type searches for my collection:
typi, Singles
typc, Compilations
typb, Bootlegs
typd, DVD/Videos
typs, Albums
type, E.P.s
Recommendations
Conformity rating
da,Latest contributions
Favourited Items:da

Other RYM links of interest:
If you visit the following link, all of your dead tags will be automatically deleted:
http://rateyourmusic.com/misc/deadtags
To fix/replace tags lost in the above, use this ...
http://rateyourmusic.com/admin/corq/?album_id=xxxxxx (where xxxxxx is the album ID number)
To fix cover art ...
http://rateyourmusic.com/admin/imaq/?type=l&assoc_id=xxxxxx (see above)
To search your own collection + Useful links/search criteria
Collection criteria

Recently added Artists/Albums
Top reviewers - most reviews
Top reviewers in word count
Collection syntax (Currently dead link)
RYM Staff

Misc' Links:
Andy Thompson's wonderful site, dedicated to the Mellotron
http://www.planetmellotron.com/
(now all that's needed is a similar effort for the Hammond)

Quatermass - Tribute website created by my Dutch friend Bas - now handed over to Carol Hynson
http://www.carolhynson.co.uk/quatermass/

Friends: I add and remove "Friends" in a somewhat random nature, so please do not take either removal or addition personally. I use the Friends list almost exclusively to view Friends' Activity but also to see when someone is online for PM purposes. If, for example, I see lots of reviews that are of no interest to me I might remove that contact for a while, As I like to tidy up regularly, if I have not been in contact with anyone recently, they will more than likely be removed but may be added again at a later date. If someone has added me and I have yet to reciprocate, that is likely to be due to the a dissimilarity of collection/reviews and not because I am anti-social (I do have a tendency to the latter but that's another matter)

If anyone has a problem with anything I have written, either in this profile or a review, keep it to yourself because I will not be discussing it - I do not tolerate Fanboys in any shape or form

Note to self: DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY PROFILE ISSUES