Require reviews for 1 star ratings

Yeah, Sam, I bought that Area album without listening to a second of it on Youtube. I just saw it, thought `An Italian prog album?! Listed by a Melbourne vendor in Australia?! I could buy it and have it on my doorstep a day later!!!'

Jokes on me, it was unlistenable garbage and I totally understand why the vendor was ditching it!

Sorry my friend, Meltdowner, I don't know your name ( )........ Real sorry......(Sam??)....
Look, my assessment means very little, regardless.
All I can say is that regardless of the 70's magic ...... I'll place a review and give it some background ...........(realistically, I suck........$

Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote: I've only written a few one-two star reviews

The one-star reviews you wrote are really fun to read and not that negative... for a one-star review 

Tom Ozric wrote: ^ Funny, I think a 3 is a relatively good score (as it says on the packet).......

Ya-huh, that's what I thought!

I suppose it comes back to the whole `half star' argument. To some it seems there's an ocean of difference between a `3' and `4' star rating, so perhaps if it had had that precious half-star in the middle, it might have looked more appealing?

Yeah, but...I still maintain a 3 is perfectly fine!

I've only written a few one-two star reviews, for a lot of reasons.

1. It doesn't feel good to put down someone's efforts.

2. Everyone's life comes with enough negatives, so why would I want to be the cause of upset and hurt to someone else? They've put in effort to create something, who am I to make them question themselves, if it doesn't personally click with me?

3. Unless you're just a snarky a****le or smart-ass kid (oftent hose two go together! , it's difficult to put a lot of effort into something negative.

At least coming from a progressive-rock point-of-view, at they very least there will usually be a lot of positives to appreciate - ie great playing, ambitious arrangements, etc - so those can be focused on rather than the bad.

(Heh, for instance, I was recently able to sneakily give the latest Dream Theater album a 5 star review even though I pretty much hated the friggin' thing!)

I even gave what I thought was a pretty fair (and encouraging) 3 star review once, and the artist got in touch saying `Oh my God, you hated my album??' This dumbfounded me, but even though I must have re-read it a few times just to be sure I remembered what I'd written, it still felt awful to think that it hurt someone.

Do I think my constant reviews become a blur of 5, 4, 3 star reviews, and wish I could throw in a few more `lousy' ones to avoid getting predictable? Absolutely! But it's just not worth my time, not worth the disappointment to the artist who took their time to compose that music that I didn't personally respond to, and life's too short to get a kick out of putting others down.

I believe that a rating, no matter how low or high, deserves justification. I'm not the world's best reviewer, but when I rate an album, I feel an explanation is warranted. I do my best (when I'm not drunk.....). And I am careful with my selections, as I don't want to waste my hard-earned on 1 (or even 2) star albums.
BTW - Love Beach and The Works volumes are 3's for me (Volume 1 almost worth a 4).........

Hey a well-written bad review is fun to read and a blast to write, not to mention potentially informative.  Don't dismiss it.

Ideally we'd ditch the rating only feature entirely, but it will never happen (owners rule).

only time I could see myself giving a one star review is when a band I love does me wrong somehow, in which case I'm sure I'd have 100 words to say about it

Bucklebutt wrote: personally, if I think an album is 1 star, then I wouldn't even waste my time listening to it / rate it at all.