Starostin's back!! This is the first time I've ever been so excited about the re-surfacing of a website. During his temporary hiatus, I found the value of John McFerrin's reviews and CapnMarvel, both of which are rather good, but they're still in their infancy compared to George's site. I find John's tastes to be a little too similar to George's at times, especially so when I disagree with George's ratings in the first place! I don't see how this is his fault or anything; after all, the writing is what's important. His reviews are for the most part well thought out, but he doesn't always convince me. This is no doubt true of all review sites, but there sometimes seem to be a slight set of double standards (maybe I only notice this when it's my artists who come under the hammer!?). At any rate, judging by his itineary, it looks as though he's going to have a busy year ahead of him - I have no doubt he'll continue improving.

The captain on the other hand actually seems on occasion to mirror my own tastes (I found his rating of The Notorious Byrd Brothers to be much more in line with my personal view compared to most of the other reviews online), but I couldn't live off his word, if only because of the sometimes overly irreverent writing style. In this sense, he's a bit like Mark Prindle, but at least his reviews are fairly long, and do attempt to give some rationale behind his rating. He seems to be only second to George in terms of frequency of updates too!

Anyhow, perhaps I should feel concerned, because I just know that I'm going to spend hours reading all the new reviews he has posted (for no reason, other than to further my "education" on such matters).