"5 stars" albums

I think this thread is about a philosophy of work, not a personal taste. It may vary, obviously and thanks goodness.

Let's take the last review posted by Jean and try to read as someone not a member of PA or someone not totally inside prog-rock.

HIGH TIDE - Sea Shanties Review (Permanent link) by BaldJean @ 8:06:19 AM EST, 6/2/2005 SPECIAL COLLABORATION   —

When I first listened to this album I couldn't believe it was from 1969; it is way ahead of the time. Definitely the heaviest album of that aera. Its trademark is the constant battling between electric guitar and electric violin.
Hmmmm... maybe experimental, let's read more.

The album starts right away with a heavy electric guitar riff out of one of the boxes, a pumping bass and drums enter, the guitar riff is answered with heavy electric violin out of the other box, and then "Futilist's Lament" is on the way. The vocals of Tony Hill sound a bit like Jim Morrison; the lyrics throughout the whole album are rather pessimistic. Well, I like heavy electric guitar and I like Morrison's voice, well, this could be a good purchase...

The second track, "Death Warmed Up", is an instrumental and probably the first prog metal piece ever. Guitar and violin together play a very complicated theme of about 3 minutes length, which is repeated once. Then it looks as if they go into another repetition, but what follows for the last 4 minutes is a wild battle between electric guitar and electric violin. Instrumental? Prog Metal? Instrumental is fine, but I'm not totally into metal. Maybe I'll skip that one or maybe a 1969 metal piece should be soft and tolerable.

"Pushed, But Not Forgotten" starts quietly with some phased guitar and melancholic violin, over which Hill sings. But the silence is not for long, soon heavy guitar crashes again, and the violin counters maniacally. The song ends with sad viloin over quiet guitar chords. Violins, violins, violins; this instrument attracts me. My will to buy this album is increasing.

"Walking Down Their Outlook" provides an interesting early example of violin and guitar actually playing two different voices, which is rare in rock music. Violin again, this may be fine.

"Missing Out" has a slightly bluesy feeling, although a lot heavier than blues usually is. Wow, I like a blues touch, now I've decided to purchase it.

"Nowhere" finally is what one could call a ballad, with lines like "On the stage there is no door, at your feet the moving floor decides to burn", yet again it is very heavy, as the whole album. A nearly-ballad, maybe a break, I think it's OK. 

The mix is not the best, but who cares? The music is fantastic! I rarely deal out 5 stars, but this one deserves it. Be warned though: This album is not for the timid! Ah, I'm a shy guy but I'm trying to overwhelm it, maybe it's time to try other flights. I'll buy it.

See, it's hypothetical, the black bold letters do not reflect my opinion (almost ). Another reader could say: "I won't buy it, too much violin", but, at least, he/she received a good indication of what to expect from the reviewed album. A good example of how a review should be, specially for a 5-stars album, IMO.

Edited by Atkingani

without question too many 5's are given here.

a lock should be placed on the 5 rating and all potentials should be voted on by committee...

or maybe, a "cool down" period should be established--similair to handgun purchases, so the reviewer can be absolutely sure, and in their right mind, before they select that GOLDEN 5 RATING.

m4p

 

 

 

I agree Baldie, the commitee would never work.  Yeah, there are two many five star ratings on this site, but what can really be done about it.  I think that one and five star reviews force the reviewer to stand up for quite a bit.  I don't think that it's possible to limit five star ratins, because no matter how much the site advocates two, three, and four star reviews, there are plenty of reviwers who will not pay attention.  Someone could go around editing/deleting reviews that take too strong of a position with too weak of reasoning, but this is a very objective and time consuming job I doubt anyone can or would want to do.

As long as the rating is supported by a coherent review, I don't dare to tell somebody his taste and opinion is wrong.

I check the five and four stars reviews always, that's natural, but the real rating is the review "per se". A good review doesn't need a rating, speaks clearly and loud, rating is only a visual aid.

Iván

Stop the Genesis fanboys giving multiple five star reviews and clogging up the PA top ten. The top 10 should justifiably be

1. YES-CTTE
2. PINK FLOYD-DSOTM
3. JETHRO TULL-TAAB
4. YES-FRAGILE
5. ELP-BSS
6. YES-RELAYER
7. PINK FLOYD-WYWH
8. MIKE OLDFIELD-TUBULAR BELLS
9. VDGG-PAWN HEARTS
10. GENESIS-FOXTROT

Edited by Progger

ivan_2068 wrote:    A good review doesn't need a rating, speaks clearly and loud, rating is only a visual aid. Iván

Agreed!

 

Progger wrote: Stop the Genesis fanboys giving multiple five star reviews and clogging up the PA top ten. The top 10 should justifiably be YES-CTTE PINK FLOYD-DSOTM JETHRO TULL-TAAB YES-FRAGILE ELP-BSS YES-RELAYER PINK FLOYD-WYWH MIKE OLDFIELD-TUBULAR BELLS VDGG-PAWN HEARTS GENESIS-FOXTROT

lol, of these 10 albums only "Pawn Hearts" might make it into my personal top 10. "Relayer" almost makes it (it is the best album of Yes), but I have too many other artists I prefer to Yes. the rest don't even come close. so much for justifiability

I do agree that there are a bit too many 5-star reviews on this site, but can we really account for individual taste? When I started reviewing albums for PA, the logical starting point for me were some of my all-time favourites - this explains the abundance of 4- and 5-stars at the beginning of my "career" as a Prog Reviewer.

Anyway, I always try to explain why I rate a particular album so highly, so that any reader who might be interested in buying that record gets an opportunity to learn more about it. In fact, I completely agree with Atkingani's analysis of BaldJean's review of "Sea Shanties" (expect one from me as well - I got the record some time ago, and it's totally awesome!). This is what I do when I'm thinking of buying a record and want to know something more.

I usually give 5 stars to those albums I really love, as well as to those representing the best of a band or musician's production and/or a milestone in a particular musical genre. For instance, my 5-star reviews include such records as:

In the Court of the Crimson King - Red (KC)

Close to the Edge (Yes)

In the Land of Grey and Pink (Caravan)

Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP)

Dark Side of the Moon (PF)

 

There are also albums I love and listen to very often which, however, did not get 5 stars because I find them flawed in one way or another. Two examples of this are ELP's "Tarkus" (because of Side 2) and KC's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" (because of Wetton's vocals).

BaldJean wrote: mission4prog wrote: without question too many 5's are given here. a lock should be placed on the 5 rating and all potentials should be voted on by committee... or maybe, a "cool down" period should be established--similair to handgun purchases, so the reviewer can be absolutely sure, and in their right mind, before they select that GOLDEN 5 RATING. m4p sorry, but the committee idea would never work; no album would get a 5 star rating that way. at least not if the committee is well balanced. for example, if I were in the committee I would probably block most prog metal albums per se; others would block Kraut or Zheul albums from getting 5 stars. there would hardly be any album a committee could agree upon. anyway, in a way there IS a committee: anyone who rates an album adds to its average rating. and some albums do have an average rating of 5 stars (at least above 4.5). of course those are usually the wrong albums who don't deserve to have them; only I know which albums are worth 5 stars

well then scrap the committee idea, and you can personally approve all 5 star ratings. 

and, actually, you are right, since the review scores are averaged together it IS like a committee.

i guess the next notion would be to post deliberately negative ratings on a particular work in order to skew the end result average...or is that already being done. 

later. 

my first poll will be the perplexing question: "are there too many emoticons on progarchives?'

 

m4p

 

I never read a 5 star review because it's almost never a balanced review.
Most 5 star reviews go something like this:

Great band ................................. 5 stars definitely............. one of the great masterpieces of all
time..........................bla bla bla.

One of the reasons I don't like to review an album on this side is that 4 stars (excellent album)
almost always drags a band down in average rating. so i let the others just ramble on.m.

I do think that a 10 point rating scale would help things. On the other hand people will
continue giving their favorite bands 10 stars then because after all progarchives
 is a sort of sport to them.