A Guide on How to Use Music Review World

OK, so you’re wondering, should I drop the money to get a review of my new single, EP, or album at Music Review World? How will this help me? What if they pan our hard work?

We hire top-flight music industry professionals to do our reviews. Their opinions about your music will definitely help you gauge where your creation ranks in the current music scene. Each reviewer here at MRW is here to help you and your song/album improve. We are given instructions to always suggest ways that the submitter can improve their work and receive a better rating if they resubmit. This is valuable knowledge. The kind of stuff you need to hear.

For example, I’m a reviewer here at MRW. I am also in a band, Redwood Revolution. We submitted an early version of our song The Tyrant King for review. We loved the review and suggestions we received, but were slightly disappointed in only scoring a “Good to Excellent.” Good is the rating we give to music that sounds professionally recorded and produced, but for one reason or another, does not yet make the grade to receive an excellent or outstanding (very rare) rating. Or songs where the songwriting or performance is good, but there are issues with the production quality. Our other ratings are Mediocre or worse yet, Poor. You are hoping not to get those kinds of reviews, but they will be full of helpful tips to improve your music. Valuable information to help you refine your artistic creation to make it sound better.

So, slightly disappointed, we set about making the changes and improving the things in the song that the reviewer had cited. What to do?

Well, that’s where our reviewer came in to help, suggesting that we hold back all of the guitars (rhythm, lead, bass) until the start of the second verse and just have the piano, vocals, and drums in the first verse – to build up and pay off the tension the song naturally creates. Additionally, the reviewer offered these nice suggestions: “there are a few mixing tweaks that could be done to enhance it. The piano is slightly louder than the vocals, and for a song this powerful, the vocals should absolutely be at the front, demanding full attention of the listener. The drums could do with a bit more dynamic range (although this is symptomatic of a live desk feed), as the compressor appears to kick in hard with the crash cymbals used. Still, the intensity and volume of the snare rolls could be increased over the song even further to push the song forward. Other additions that could polish this up in a studio setting could include increasing the feeling of instability through the use of heavy guitar feedback from the amp. Fading in and out through the song build up, more sensitive electric guitar feedback could make the listener feel like at any moment this could ‘spill over’ with anger. An E-bow could do something similar. This is a very powerful solo vocal performance, but for a studio version, I think a stronger and more present lower 5th harmony in some areas would help keep the listener on point with the verses. Whispered lyrics overdubbed on the chorus could also sound really atmospheric. In a deluxe version, the use of timpani rolls would add a ‘shudder’ effect to the chorus nicely.” As you can see, our reviewer had valuable suggestions. And that’s the kind of advice you get when you submit your song/album for review at MRW.

So we set about making most of these changes, and when we finished, we resubmitted our song to MRW for a re-review. This time we got an Excellent to Outstanding with the only flaw to prevent a full-on Outstanding being that the reviewer thought we put too much reverb on the lead vocal. But instead of a litany of things to correct, there was now only one thing separating us from an “outstanding” review. The song was much improved.

We took the advice we initially received from MRW and went back to the drawing board. We made the changes and resubmitted to see if we had improved the quality of the song. And we succeeded in doing that. Making our song better. More appealing to our fans & friends.

So yes, getting a review at Music Review World is definitely worth the money. If you follow the advice and do the work to improve your song, rather than getting pissed off because you thought your song would rate better than it did. Solicit our advice, take the suggestions on how your song could be better to heart, and do the work to actually improve your sound recording.

This was the final verdict on our newly revamped and resubmitted version of the song:

“SCORE/Excellent: Redwood Revolution’s “The Tyrant King” is a socially conscious protest song that dives deep into the political landscape today. Searing and provocative, the lyrics speak directly to the heart with explicit imagery of blood running in the streets and our cries for liberty. Musically, the piano, drumming beat, guitars, along with the addition of basslines, all complement Holly Murphy’s haunting vocals and the immediate storytelling. With the newer versions, the production and mixing are much improved. I give them an ‘Excellent’ rating, since overall, this track worked very well. However, I didn’t give them a perfect score because I think the reverb on this track could be taken down a notch. I think a little more fidelity and clarity could help push this into the Outstanding arena.”

This is a link to the final review with embedded links, so you can read the review and listen to the before and after of the song we submitted:

Thanks for reading this article. It’s your guide to greatness, and we’re here to help you get there!