Album reviews: how soon is too soon?

This year, three bands I love (or have loved) released new albums. What they all have in common is that they have been going for over thirty years and they are *not* on the nostalgia circuit; they've all been releasing music for the whole of that period (albeit occasionally sporadically).

Of the three, Simple Minds' 'Big Music' is the one that has failed to move me. The reviews have somehow come to rest on the idea that the album is a return to their edgy, electronic, pre-'Don't You' phase. But it really isn't. (And trust me, I am an expert in this area.)

Wire's new one - the bluntly named 'Wire' - is their best for some time, which is not to knock their recent work. It just seems so sure-footed, so on the money and so very Wire. And this was reflected at the gig the Minx and I saw recently. (See here.)

And, finally, there's Shriekback's 'Without Real String Or Fish', which is a blistering return to form. Again, not that their recent albums haven't been good but this one is just spot on. (You can find out about the title here.)

Interestingly, all three bands have taken hard to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and so on to promote these releases. I have to say that I think Shriekback have - by a nose - done best at this, not least because Shriekback's Barry Andrew's has written some great posts on Tumblr about all sorts of stuff, mostly but not entirely about Shriekback's history and back catalogue.

He's also been very upfront about asking people to write reviews for the album on Amazon and I was keen to muck in except this rather raised the question that has dogged me for many, many years and that is How do you review an album you've only heard a few times? Indeed, one of the things that attracted me to the sadly now defunct Word magazine was their manifesto pledge to review albums that hadn't only just been released. Cultural curation: now, that's something I think about a lot.

I mean, gig reviews aren't a problem: you go along, you have the experience, you write about it. Album reviews aren't the same. The best album reviews I've ever written are the ones on Amazon for Simple Minds' first nine albums, which were published over the course of a couple of days in 2002, thirteen years after the most recent one had been released. Now that's perspective.

Still, I didn't want to let the Shriekback boys down when they're working so hard, so this morning, having owned the album for only a few weeks, I decided to try and write something honest that might encourage the odd drive-by Amazonian to make a purchase. (I put it here on Wordpress, too.)

Ever since I posted it, I've wanted to go back and make amends. But maybe I'll leave it another thirteen years and get it right.