Would they? Who would be affected the most?

Critics have access to the albums in advance most of the time and only release the reviews immediately after the embargo is lifted so personally I don't think it'd make a difference as they don't really care about the work but what  gets them the most clicks. 
 

I don't think it would change too much. The year-end and decade-end charts are where you usually see the biggest diference.

Edited May 16, 20242 yr by Virgos Groove

21 minutes ago, ericcartman said:

Would they? Who would be affected the most?

No. They would just decrease two weeks later. 

Some would decrease, I imagine inevitably some would increase. Moreso I think the problem would shift from reviews being messy bc they evaluate based off of first listens to being messy bc the reviewer is contextualizing the album too much within its commercial and public reception. We already see it with follow-ups or with albums with smash or bomb singles beforehand.

I don't think so. Honestly music journalism would be much more interesting if people that actually studied musical theory did reviews at these music publications instead of random people. It would give it a little bit more credibility i suppose.

After what they did to Anti they should be forced to wait 2 years before submitting reviews 

I don't think the shift would be massive, no. But frankly in some cases I think it would actually improve scores as sometimes the longer you sit with something the more you find things to like. But in general no I don't think it'd make a huge dent.

I don't think it would have a significant difference. They'd probably write the review on their first listen anyway and then just sit on it while reviewing other albums

I don't think there's a clear answer. I feel most people would give a higher rating after digesting an album for 2 weeks, but I don't see professional critics religiously focused on one album at a time for so long when there's constantly new music to rate. Personally my initial favorite track is hardly ever my favorite track by the next month. Some things grow and other things click over time. There are also many instances where I am infatuated by an album on the first few listens just by the anticipation alone just to realize it really wasn't all that by the next two weeks. 

Edited May 16, 20242 yr by BGKC