How Many 5-Star Ratings Do You Give?
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Top 10s and lists
Forum Description: List all your favourites here
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=98526
Printed Date: March 03 2025 at 13:15
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: How Many 5-Star Ratings Do You Give?
Posted By: Xonty
Subject: How Many 5-Star Ratings Do You Give?
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 04:33
|
Also, what counts as an "essential masterpiece" in your book? For me, the key thing is the whole album has to be consistent and not bitty, but I also take into account songwriting, talent, influence, how it connects with me, and production for the sort of post-rock albums on here. I've rated about 90 albums as 5-star (including singles and prog-related albums), out of around 1000 ratings, so about an eleventh of all those I've rated. Looking forward to what you think
 |
Replies:
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 05:27
|
I don't do many reviews, however, those I rate with 5 stars are the albums I consider to have no weak moments throughout the playing duration, and features unusual sounds, ideas, unpredictable twists and turns, and top musicianship.
Live albums are assessed more harshly by my standards...... |
Posted By: Mind_Drive
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 05:42
|
It has to be consistent - overall highly enjoyable - the songs should be very significant and memorable. the uniqueness and innovation and ofc the quality of the compositions. Iīd also be interested in how much your subjective feelings about an album influence your rating. for example an album thats compositions are superb and of highest quality but just doesnīt appeal to you.. does it deserve 3 or even less stars? i think my ojective - subjective ratio is pretty 50/50 or 60/40 ... what do you think? is there a way to tell? ------------- It's just a ride... <3 |
Posted By: sleeper
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 05:46
|
I've got about 70 5 star albums from my roughly 1000 that I've got/heard. To get 5 stars an album has got to be something special, not just very good for what it is but outstanding, to separate itself from the norm. If it hits me like a sledghammer thats definitely a good thing. Production must be good as well, it doesn't need to be perfect but if I can't hear an instrument well or somethings been badly mixed/mastered there's no way I'll give it 5 stars.
------------- Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005 
|
Posted By: sleeper
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 05:53
Interesting question. I think in my case it depends entirely on how strong my subjective feelings are. As an example, I'm going to assume that Godspeed You! Black Emperor are good at what they do, but I find their albums so mind numbingly slow and boring that they generate a complete sense of distaste and I couldn't give them anything other than a 1 star rating were I actually to be bothered in trying to review their albums. Give me your stereotypical Neo Prog or vanilla Progressive Metal band (or a "djent" band these days) and though I'd be just as bored there's at least something for me to latch onto in their musicianship so they'd have a better chance of being bumped from a 2 to a 3 star rating and would have to be really bad to incur a 1 star rating from me (I'm looking at you, Torman Maxt). In short my subjective feelings overrule any objectiveness I would have had with the former due to how strongly they make me feel about it. Another question would be is it better to for music to create strong feelings like hate or weak feelings of boredom and even total apathy? ------------- Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005
|
Mind_Drive wrote:Posted By: Mind_Drive
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 06:03
^^ well i think that depends solely on the listener. I canīt remember an album making me angry because it was bad or something  but itīs nice to hear, that your feeling about an album have such an impact on your rating. At times I wondered whether my ratings would be too sujective.. but i think itīs alright now. ------------- It's just a ride... <3 |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 06:18
|
I'd give five star ratings when I think it is a masterpiece. Personal preferences are a bit of another story: there are some albums I'd give 4 stars which I play more often than some albums which are 5 star imho. For example: I listen to Hamadryad's Safe in Conformity (4-star) more often than to Haken's The Mountain (5-star). ------------- 
|
Posted By: Mind_Drive
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 06:30
|
very interesting! so youīd say you rate more with an objective point of view... my feelings about an album should not get it lower than 3 stars unless its really bad in composition/mastering etc. but they also might raise the 4 to a 5 stars when it connects with me on a special way. music like any art is still a thing of individual perception and this should be taken into account.. ------------- It's just a ride... <3 |
Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 06:57
|
The criteria for what might constitute a 5 star album are clearly subjective and at the furthest reaches of any sad sack's notion of what might resemble an exact science (heaven forfend Đ Dean who could paraphrase my entire post in one sentence and make it a damn sight funnier to boot) I've seen albums rated 5 stars even though the reviewer only liked one track e.g. Tarkus, 2112, Foxtrot et al where one epic composition tends to deaden the timpanic membranes of those plankton underclass who moonlight as arbiters of taste round these parts y'all. For those who approach aesthetic appraisal as you would approach weighing bananas: You are reviewing the whole album, not just the bits you like. Ya dig bro/man/dude? (delete as applicable, hopefully all three) For me, the 5 star spangled banner is only hoisted where every track is uniformly strong e.g. Benny the Bouncer on Brain Salad Surgery is often compared to the wet eggy fart in the shiny ironed Prog spacesuit but I think it has a brilliantly witty and funny lyric, a piano solo to die for and confirms that ELP were NOT po-faced earnest knob-ends who roped off fun and humor as unbecoming of Prog. Shakespeare has comedic interludes designed to lighten the cerebral load, was he therefore the Jerry Lewis of Elizabethan drama? ------------- 
|
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 08:10
|
I've given 14 5-star ratings out of 128 reviews (I don't rate w/out reviewing). All the albums I gave 5 stars are albums that have been with me for a long time, and have been consistent favorites of mine over the years. On one occasion, I gave 5-stars to an album I had only had for a month or two, and for that album I ended up retroactively downgrading it a star after it had sunk in a bit. Looking back, I was too hasty to give it a 5 originally, and I generally try not to do that any more. Basically, I think time is the true test of greatness when it comes to music, and that's why it's tough for me to do a "Best of 20__" list at the end of each year. Not only have the "best" albums I got that year not had enough time to sink in, but I haven't even had the time to hear everything I will eventually hear from that year. I'm glad there are people who like to review brand new things, that helps to get the word out and generate the kind of excitement that only a new release can provide, but I just can't do it.
But I digress. For me, a five-star album can have weak spots - but the overriding impression has to be one of awe and amazement, and a personal connection to the work that I wish I could share with others. Also, since this site does contain albums that aren't really prog albums (e.g. Saccharine Trust's early stuff is art punk), I will take that into account as well. Sac Trust's debut EP is a personal favorite that I consider a near-perfect specimen of its species, but since it is not by any means "a masterpiece of prog" (it's a masterpiece of punk), I couldn't give it a five. I gave it a three, in fact. Got to consider the audience too. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 11:16
| For me, a five star album has to be enjoyable all the way through, and to stand the test of time for me. In other words, I have to love it in all aspects, and consistantly. |
Posted By: smartpatrol
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 11:35
|
10/10s for me have to be enjoyable in virtually every aspect for me; not perfect, but good throughout. According to my Rate Your Music page I've given 231 out of 1425 total ratings. ------------- http://bit.ly/1kqTR8y" rel="nofollow">  The greatest record label of all time! |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 13:59
|
I have given 35 out of 106 ratings as 5 star though I do tend to only rate albums I like a lot. 5 stars to me are albums i've listened to many many times and the highlights vastly outweigh the minor blemishes. ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: Aldebaran_Well
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 15:01
|
When reviewing, a 5 star album has to be perfect in performance,songwriting,production and originality.This is the way i rate.There is also another thing I call the album's aura:now that is the key factor for my personal,purely objective 5 star albums, eternal friends and companions that shaped me as a person. ------------- Some men are hunting hawks,some men are busy bees, some louder than a storm,others silent as the trees, but we're all dressed up as one,noone stands out in the crowd, We're strangers in this town. |
Posted By: Mind_Drive
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 15:43
 very nicely said! itīs the aura that enchants the most...------------- It's just a ride... <3 |
Posted By: irrelevant
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 17:02
|
Influence or being of classic status is a terrible criteria for rating an album highly, or for giving a higher rating because of. If ya don't like In the Court of the Crimson King, you should rate as if you're not fond of it. I'll give a 5 star if the album/EP/single/whatever has pretty much become a part of me, I hold it dearly and enjoy it to pieces. Currently on RYM I've given 9 releases 5 stars out of a total of 230 ratings (which comes to 3.91%). ------------- https://gabebuller.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - New album! http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7385" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7385 |
Posted By: irrelevant
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 17:08
That stuff wouldn't matter to me. I'd ------------- https://gabebuller.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - New album! http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7385" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7385 |
Posted By: Horizons
Date Posted: June 08 2014 at 17:31
|
The influence a record has doesn't change the quality of the music itself. I don't understand why people change album ratings for that reason. ------------- Crushed like a rose in the riverflow. |