Park Ranger Mills here with a basic rundown of the hows and whys of our collection of album reviews. In other words, we love music, we love listening to music, we love writing about the music we love, but we still have criteria for doing what we do.

And so now, let’s share them with you!

Our Primary Focus Is Music: Mostly Prog, Metal/Hard Rock, and Bluegrass

I don’t want to pigeon-hole the site too much, but I’d rather focus on a few key areas than try to be a blanket catch-all to a host of genres. I found this out the hard way with my last blog, where I tried to encapsulate album reviews, movie reviews, running/fitness, race reviews, Disney dining, theme park reports, technology, app, and merchandise reviews, and more. I ended up OK at a bunch of things but without a singular driving focus. So here, it’s all about the music, and even then we stay mostly within the prog, heavy rock, and bluegrass realms.

I Only Review Albums I Actually Enjoy

I can’t stress that one enough, so I’ll reiterate: if I’m reviewing the album, I actually like and recommend the album.

I made this choice for a variety of reasons, the main one being life is entirely too freakin’ short to dwell in negativity. Or rather, if I’m going to spend a significant amount of time writing up an album review, I goshdarn well am going to use my energy in the service of something I enjoy and want to share with others.

Also, since I enjoy focusing on newer music and especially new and upcoming band or artist, the last thing I want to do is crap all over their months or years of hard work attempting to create and share their music with the world and build an audience… simply because it just doesn’t connect with me, or if I find the work to be somehow “subpar”.

There are enough critics and wannabes ready to crap all over creative types, even if said critics actually enjoy the work they’re doing.

The Opposite Is Not Necessarily True

This also bears notice: if I don’t review an album, it doesn’t mean I’ve heard it and don’t like it. Basically I’m just one guy with a full time job and real-world responsibilities and all that garbage. I have a backlog of albums I’d love to get to at some point, with the growing realization I’ll never be able to review them while they are still “new releases”, if at all. And then we have the onslaught of even more releases every week, an embarrassment of riches.

Something has got to give. So some quality albums will just fall through the cracks sometimes. I’ll try to give them a shout-out at some point. But yeah, if I miss a notable album here or there, it doesn’t mean I don’t like or love them.

But then again, maybe it does too… Just don’t assume either way.

With An Exception For A-List, Big-Name Acts

Certain bands can take the “hit” if they release a clunker. I might rip into an A-List band/artist’s new release if I find it to be particularly odious. I don’t see this as a regular occurrence, but hope springs eternal.

If I Reviewed It, I Bought It (Mostly)

I mean, that’s the long and short of my philosophy. I’ll generally listen to the album once or twice and if I like what I’m hearing, I’ll purchase the release and review it. Vinyl, CD, digital files, the format doesn’t matter as long as the tunes are there. Admittedly, I prefer vinyl with digital downloads, but in the end the medium is just the delivery. I generally don’t collect music, I listen to and enjoy it. Still, if you’re seeing a review here at the Park, it’s generally from an album I purchased.

The exception, of course, are albums that are sent to me by bands or artists that ask me to review their work. And even then, I’ll still buy the release afterward if I review it. Support the artist, always.

New Releases (Mostly)

While we will definitely engage with classic album reviews, artist catalog deep-dives, and any kind of one-shots or one-offs from time to time, our focus is primarily on new music.

I mean honestly: does the world need one more jackball waxing poetic about The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Close To The Edge, Thick As A Brick, Wish You Were Here, etc.? Besides, there is such a continuous flow of fine new music releasing every week, it’s already impossible to keep up with everything.

Genre Is Fluid, So…

Want to toss a molotov cocktail into a munitions dump? Start arguing genre labels among prog and metal nerds. Ecch. I include genre as part of each album review, so I generally defer to genre labels I find on websites like ProgArchives, Wikipedia, or the like. If I can’t find an established label, I take my best guess and move on.

No Affiliate Links. Ever.

Not gonna do it. I might link to a release or product of some kind, but I don’t want a piece of your transaction should you choose to make any purchases. Hey look, I’m a capitalist and enjoy cold hard cash as much as the next guy, but as cliched as this is going to sound: expressing my thoughts on music is literally a labor of love. I’m never going to capitalize on talking and sharing music with anyone who’s interested. If I ever get the kind of traffic where I can run ads, maybe that’ll happen one day. But if you’re so inclined to click on those, that’s between you and the advertiser. But when it comes to the music we love: no effing way. So yeah: no affiliate links or any such chicanery will be found here.

I’m sure there’s more but suddenly I am run over by a truck.