Anyone know of a good magazine that reviews music as well as audio equipment? Guess I'm kinda looking for something a little more in-depth than the mainstream Rolling Stone type magazine.

Stereophile, Absolute Sound, and Sensible Sound all do some music reviews in every issue. Theres a british magazine called Hi-fi that does the most reviews of the Audio magazines I've read. All of these are a little lean on the amount of music they review every month though.

Gramophone for classical music -- they also do good equipment reviews in each issue.

BBC Music for everything else -- a bit eclectic, but then again, so are most of us here! www.bbc.co.uk/music

--Chris

Playboy...

For music reviews, virtually all US mags SUCK, IMO, poor reviews (and too few of them) and poor journalism. They are expensive but well-worth it if you pick up the British mags, Uncut is the best (comes with free CD of the month's best music) and Mojo is also excellent with more of a classic rock bent. Both mags review not only new releases, but re-releases/re-masters of older stuff as well. You get over 200 reviews per issue, and the journalism is fantastic. This month's Uncut has an absolutely fantastic feature on the making of Dark Side of the Moon with all 4 members of Floyd. You can easily find Uncut and Mojo at Borders Books, Tower Records, or Barnes and Noble.

Mark

Just picked up Uncut at Border's today, and I am very impressed. There is something about British magazines that make them a joy to read. I get a mountaineering mag from GB, Climb High, and this is full of great articles/info as well. I will gladly pay a few more bucks for a better mag without all that commercial ****! Thanks for the input everyone.

If you like experimental & avant-garde music, The Wire is excellent, albeit a bit pretentious. If you like electronica, Grooves is another excellent magazine (but published only four times a year, unfortunately).

- Chris

minya: Thanks for the turn on to "Grooves". This looks like one I'll subsribe to.

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Cool! It's a very nice mag. Tons of well-written and honest reviews. Lots of reviews of music-making hardware and software if you're into that, too.

I just wish it were published more often.

- Chris

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Maybe because in British magazines, there is actually something *to* read, not just lots of splashy photos, ads, and artwork!

(From a loyal reader of The Economist.)

--Chris

Just found the current issue of Grooves, with Autechre on the cover.

My current favourite is Outburn -- lots of alterna and darker side stuff. Reviews are excellent. The first sentence is actually an attempt at describing the music, so that you can decide whether or not you want to read the rest of the review. I'm subscribing to this one.

I will also second Wire and Grooves. I also just found something called EI (Music Electronic and Otherwise) (spinoff of the defunct I/E?). Haven't read it yet.

EDIT: Okay started to read it. The reviews are pretentious as L (think review by analogy to clouds, nature, and nanites), but make for enjoyable reading (I listen to prog after all, so a certain suspension of criticism is in the blood). High marks for attempting to be honest. Appears to be a one-guy operation.

Here be the URL:

http://www.ei-mag.com/

Also, for progressive music fans, Progression.

Also, for current alternative music (which includes a bit too much nu-metal and emo for my tastes, but...whatever), AP -- Alternative Press. Pretty good reviews, but they vary. Kind of like Spin is to Rolling Stone, I.E. sometimes better, sometimes worse.

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Playboy has articles? I've never noticed any. I must have been distracted by something else between the covers. Thinking to myself: Hmmm...why do the numbers, 36, 24, 36 seem to have some relevance to this topic? Can't be a catalouge number or track-timing...

For serious classical collectors, I would recommend Fanfare, a bi-monthly (every two months--not twice a month) survey of new releases juxtaposed with the classic, definitive recordings of the past.

American Record Guide is another nice source, although I have found Fanfare's reviews more in line with my own taste. Your point of view may differ. (As another clue to my leanings vis-a-vis critics: I tend to agree with the editors of the Penguin Guide more than the editors of the Gramophone Guide .)

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Excellent point! Way too many ads in American magazines