Negative reviews are just about the most worthless thing ever. You gain almost nothing from reading one, the only thing that matters is why people like a certain piece of music, not why others don't like it. If i read a review i want to read at least an objective attempt to suggest why people would like it (in a non condescending way). Ideally i'll read a review from someone who loves the album and can express why in an informative way. I dont want to hear words such as "boring", "uninspired", "pseudo-intellectual" etc which all really say nothing more than "i dont like it".
Seriously, i struggle to think of many times i've ever read a completely negative comment about a piece of music and actually thought it had some relevance. People typically are not limited by what they like, but by all their stupid boundaries defining what they dont like. I really don't need to hear about it! Much better to break down boundaries and discover the magic in something, than to read about what it's not achieving.
I guess the only use for negative reviews is if you find a reviewer whose taste is almost exactly the same as your own (practically impossible), and it can suggest not that the album is necessarily bad, but that it's not for you. And i'm not suggesting negative things shouldn't be said, just that i see a lot more worth in saying "this album is good because a,b,c but from that angle the drawbacks are x,y,z" as opposed to "this album sucks because of d,e,f" which usually has no relevance to what the album is actually achieving.
rant ended
