Vic,

"True, but I've read many reviews in fRoots, written some myself, where the message has been "not as good as we have come to expect from XXXXX""

Thank you for your honesty! So the bigger names still get the oxygen of publicity (even if they've produced a duffer) where as whatever the "quality" of an independent release (from a lesser known name) it is still (much?) less likely to get the same.

It was ever thus I guess.

I also guess that a thumbs up and a good review in the "and the rest section" is actually as good an endorsement as a fully independent release could expect from fRoots then.