Personally I like the criticism offerred at amazon.com - books, cds (pop or classical or whatever). I suppose these can be called cd reviews, but in the main, I find them quite informative and usually highlight that which is worthy of highlighting. The customer reviews are a good indication of what others 'like us' think about the music - although perhaps it is one-sided: generally those who like the cd only ever review it:P As for the critic who works for the local newspaper - who generally reviews only concerts performed by WASO (West Australian Symphony Orchestra) and soloists with that orchestra (hey, we got Howard Shelley playing Rachmaninov last Saturday!), the criticism sometimes leave something to be desired. For the first, his criticism, as you said, is of the playing and not the work. This is of course the problem with all critics nowadays because generally they are not presented with new works - occasionally this critic is and he does comment on the actual composition (I remember a criticism of a performance of Elgar's last symphony that was filled out by a British composer whose name I forget - and another of Elgar's works, Bach arranged he mentioned that he thought that it was not apt for Bach to be transcribed for a full orchestra, and on having listened to the same performance, I agree with him). In any case, I am sure that this critic about whom I talk, about whom few people will have any idea, would *adore* criticising new works on a regular basis, it's just that the new works composed are never performed but are recorded and stagnate on shelves. Moreover, he would certainly be audacious in criticising a work that has been part of the standard-repetoire for the past century or so wouldn't you think? Thus what is there left for him to comment on but for the performance of the work, a comparision (definitely unfair) with his cds, recordings, of Karajan and Bernstein etc etc. Quite simply, this fellow does not even have the opportunity of reviewing classical cds. That is to be blamed on the newspaper of which I speak, a specifically high-circulation newspaper aimed at nothing but entertainment. The Australian Financial Review has a better classical cd review section. Quite admirable really, but it only comes out once a month! -MAR Knezevic http://mpeg3c.org