Thursday, 17 June 2021

 How Do I Rate Albums?

I've been constantly changing the numbers between the few records I've talked about and that's been annoying me so here's me trying to figure out a good system, will be taking some big inspiration from Xisuma's Musical Journey.

I really hope people listen to the words I'm putting on your screen instead of the ratings I put below the text I spend maybe an hour writing down. Rating records is hard, there is both a subjective side and an objective side and for me especially it's hard to choose which gains the upper hand, I don't like putting a low number on an album that certainly took effort yet doesn't quite spring any emotional feelings or connections. If my subjective score is low I would look at it objectively and still try to give it a high number yet this is my blog and my opinion, I don't know too much about music just yet and I am definitely not qualified to give any objective reviews. From now on I'm going to try to rate the albums based on my own experiences listening them.

0 - These will be records I listen to once and feel genuinely annoyed by, irritating me so far I would prefer silence more, I've only heard one album like it.

1 - A record with this rating would be only slightly better than silence.

2 - Albums that I find only slightly tolerable will most likely rank here, something you listen once and have forgotten at the end of the day.

3 - Here we're just hovering below the neutral line, stuck in the negative, some aspects of the record or some songs entirely will be a turn off, a record that misses something vital yet isn't completely awful.

4 - Four is the baseline, a neutral stance, no emotional connection to the album nor anything special, it's music, it's there but there is nothing to enjoy.

5 - Just slightly above four we have five, who could've guessed? Albums with a decent song or two will rank here, not warranting me coming back to listen to it again but it being an okay listen either way.

6 - Here we start getting a connection between me and the music, records I can bop my head to but have some quirks or flaws I don't enjoy as much

7 - Now we're getting into the good stuff, albums I will revisit occasionally either for a few specific songs or it's entirety.

8 - Records I can't get enough of and I will have downloaded on my phone to listen at all times rank here, music that becomes like my air and keeps my blood pumping.

9 - If possible music that hovers a bit above 8, records that my vocabulary isn't big enough to describe.

10 - Here will be Albums that are my all time favourite, ones I'll never forget and develop with me as time goes on, a total resonance that takes a long time to take it's stand.

A few important things I should note, with some albums my words come out easier than with others, this doesn't effect my rating in the end, I will usually listen an album fully before writing and with the higher ranking records I will have songs memorised anyways. Many albums are between 30 minutes and 1 hour long, depending on the quality of the record and my mood, the length may effect the score, because of this I may go back to edit the ratings on records a few hours or days after writing about them.
Thanks for taking your time to read this and trying to understand a little bit of what goes on in my brain when rating albums.