Raters who suck

I kind of find the whole concept of this thread and complaining about reviews silly and dumb anyway. 

This is the sort of thing I was talking about earlier.

Unless I'm missing something.

When I've heard they were working on a new album, and that would be a 2 part project called 'English Electric' I was already happy just by heard that. I am now listening English Electric (Part One) (2012) for the first time. And they just can't fail. Their music is full of emotion, charged with a sentiment that you hardly can see in any other band, specially in Progressive Rock.

Excuse me?  Writing a five star review while you are hearing the album for the first time? 

Epignosis wrote: I would also like to add this: I don't know how this works for other people, but for me, a 5 star album is one that goes beyond enjoyment.  It changes me.  It moves me in a poignant and ineffable way.  It may change the way I think about music.  It may change the way I think about life.  It is, as an album, a premium and rare experience that moves me.  And here's another thing: My mind can conjure up almost any passage from any album I have awarded five stars.  That is why I can never give a 5 star review after one or two listens.  The experience of amazement must not just repeat itself- it must grow in magnitude. A 4 star album may have some of these qualities, but the impact is less profound (or less consistent).  "Turn of the Century" and "Awaken" do the above for me, but "Going for the One," "Wonderous Stories," and "Parallels" do not.  Hence, 4 stars. A 3 star album is simply an album I enjoy.  It's good, but not excellent.  It is the bread before the meal- tasty, but not really satisfying. And no album is without hope!  Well, mostly no album.  A few may remember that I had a 1 star review of Kate Bush's The Hounds of Love here for a while.  But it had a catchy nature that compelled me to revisit it, and I did- many times.  I asked Dean to delete the review, and he graciously (and perhaps quite happily) did so.  I am now prepared to write a fresh review of the album, this time with a much higher rating. I hope this clarifies how I personally review a little.

Just out of curiosity, I have a question: How would you rate an album in which half of the album moves you incredibly, but you couldn't care less about the other half? Like if in the GFTO example you mentioned above, you didn't just feel that the remaining three songs are not as great as the other two, but you actively disliked them?

timothy leary wrote: ......this is fine, but then they take it to the next level by rating any competing albums with a one star rating.

It was a ruse. No disrespect to Gandalff. I replaced the winkie with a chortle.

The polls are rubbish.

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: No one should get uptight about this issue.  True, we have rating guidelines on this site, but the key word is "guidelines;" there's no absolute standard of how to review and rate albums as long as you don't blatantly abuse the system.  Some try to review objectively, some subjectively; some rate based on "progressiveness" while others do so based on the quality of the music regardless of this style; some use more 1's and 5's and some use less.  Some of these differences can be irritating (I hate to see an album I like assigned less stars because it isn't "progressive" enough) but in the end we have to realize that everyone has a different way of evaluating music, and we have to respect each others' ways of doing that.  I'm all for discussion about the matter, because I think that there are better and worse ways of reviewing, but I don't think it's a big enough deal that anyone should be angry or frustrated about it.

dtguitarfan wrote: Epignosis wrote: I love hot dogs and I love filet Mignon.  But in the span of my tastes, I would give a hot dog 3 stars and the filet Mignon 5 stars.  Similarly, I like both Tormato and Close to the Edge, but I like the latter far more than the former. But don't think of it in such general terms of hot dogs and filet mignon.  Think of it as if you were rating restaurants, and rating them according to what they are.  For example - say I was rating restaurants, and I went to this hot dog place that really made the best hot dogs I've ever had in my life!  5 stars!  Yeah, it's not filet mignon.  I never thought it would be.  And it wouldn't be fair for me to say "well, I can't give this restaurant a good rating because...well, it's not filet mignon."  For me, when I rate an album one of the thoughts that crosses my mind is "how often do I think I will listen to this album?"  And the answer to that doesn't always accurately define what rating I will give the album, but hopefully you get where I'm going.

That's not what Rob is saying.  Should or shouldn't you have the ability to discriminate between two restaurants, two albums, two movies, two novels and so on and so forth?  So much overwhelming positivity sounds nice on paper but it's also not very helpful or reliable for a reader.  If two restaurants are good but one is decidedly better than the other, my friends would expect me to say that, especially if they also call for varying budgets.  

Please bear in mind that your reviews are also for the consumption of users of the website and not just the product of your self indulgence.  I don't mean you specifically here, but just a figurative you.  If I wanted to rave about a favourite artist, I would find a friend I know who shares my preferences and rave to him or simply use my blog.  

A review is by nature an empathetic endeavour and not a self centred one.  You use the prism of your experience to attempt to describe and grade an album in a way that others might be able to relate to.   I do make an exception for this rule when it comes to albums that divide opinion:  if I really like it, I will just go ahead with my rating and if I don't, I will usually avoid rating or reviewing it.   But you do have to put yourself in the shoes of other listeners, it is not such a laughably presumptuous exercise as you make it out to be.  It is something we regularly do in life - attempting to understand the other person's feelings.   I cannot claim to completely understand what music is best for somebody else but I have to make an effort to relate to it when I review an album.  A review that is only concerned with what I, I and more capital I think about an album does not need to be shared with a larger audience for reading. 


Edited by rogerthat - September 23 2012 at 00:42

dtguitarfan wrote: Epignosis wrote: I love hot dogs and I love filet Mignon.  But in the span of my tastes, I would give a hot dog 3 stars and the filet Mignon 5 stars.  Similarly, I like both Tormato and Close to the Edge, but I like the latter far more than the former. But don't think of it in such general terms of hot dogs and filet mignon.  Think of it as if you were rating restaurants, and rating them according to what they are.  For example - say I was rating restaurants, and I went to this hot dog place that really made the best hot dogs I've ever had in my life!  5 stars!  Yeah, it's not filet mignon.  I never thought it would be.  And it wouldn't be fair for me to say "well, I can't give this restaurant a good rating because...well, it's not filet mignon."  For me, when I rate an album one of the thoughts that crosses my mind is "how often do I think I will listen to this album?"  And the answer to that doesn't always accurately define what rating I will give the album, but hopefully you get where I'm going.

Epignosis wrote: I love hot dogs and I love filet Mignon.  But in the span of my tastes, I would give a hot dog 3 stars and the filet Mignon 5 stars.  Similarly, I like both Tormato and Close to the Edge, but I like the latter far more than the former.

But don't think of it in such general terms of hot dogs and filet mignon.  Think of it as if you were rating restaurants, and rating them according to what they are.  For example - say I was rating restaurants, and I went to this hot dog place that really made the best hot dogs I've ever had in my life!  5 stars!  Yeah, it's not filet mignon.  I never thought it would be.  And it wouldn't be fair for me to say "well, I can't give this restaurant a good rating because...well, it's not filet mignon."  For me, when I rate an album one of the thoughts that crosses my mind is "how often do I think I will listen to this album?"  And the answer to that doesn't always accurately define what rating I will give the album, but hopefully you get where I'm going.