5 stars

Doomcifer wrote: Raff wrote: Some of those 5 stars  would've been better as 4 and a half stars, if there had been such a possibility to choose from. I agree.  It would be better if the rating system was on a 10-star system.  I see tons of reviews where people will preface the review with a "half star" rating. Opinions vary.

Yeah, but wouldn't the 10 star rating also be split into halves? I think we should keep it as a 5 star, but allow half stars. That way, if people try and give an album, for argument's sake, a 4.25 rating, then they'll know they're being slightly ridiculous. It's all psychological.

Occasionally I check out some ratings and their owners and you notice strange things in some cases.

TGM: Orb wrote: If someone knows why I think CTTE is a 5 star album and Fragile only a 4 star album, they might appreciate it in a new light. I see reviews as an effort to show why you like an album... sometimes that view helps me understand something properly for the first time. A couple of good reviews on big albums have changed my response to said albums. Alternatively, it can just be interesting and useful to look at people's tastes... if I know a guy likes Court and ELP, but isn't incredibly keen on Moonmadness, his more obscure interests might be very interesting to me.

But can you really add any new thoughts when it has been reviewed 450 times before?  

I wrote in the past that I only review albums I like very much (meaning for me - at least 4 stars). I don't try to be a musical critic. I find I have no time to bother on albums I dislike so I don't write reviews of those. I rarely write reviews anyway cause I'm lazy and many times I don't think I have something to add to the 300 reviewed an album before I did it. I disagree with many of the reviews I read but then, probably, others disagree with mine. So I guess if you read the review and get a good idea why it was rated so then you should respect that writer and his rating.

My thoughts:

1. There are some albums which simply shout 5 stars to me. Close To The Edge, Thick As A Brick, Pawn Hearts, H To He..., Les Porches, Ys, ELP, Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night, Islands... putting an arbitrary quota on these because you think there could only be 10 or 12 albums of that standard seems silly to me.
2. I fear I am a bit generous with 5 star ratings, particularly on a couple of borderline/flawed/only-personal masterpieces, but then I'm probably generous across the board. I wish I could be a bit stingier, but that's just not the way I end up thinking about music and generally when I go to harshen my marks, I can't find much I'd want to change. I figure the reader can look at my general ratings and check the review's pitch if he's really concerned about my rating.
3.

I really do not see the point of writing a 5 star review for anything in the top 50, much less the top 20, but that's just me. Do people really need to know that you think CTTE is a 5 star album, while Fragile is merely 4? Will it change their decision or opinion?

If someone knows why I think CTTE is a 5 star album and Fragile only a 4 star album, they might appreciate it in a new light. I see reviews as an effort to show why you like an album... sometimes that view helps me understand something properly for the first time. A couple of good reviews on big albums have changed my response to said albums. Alternatively, it can just be interesting and useful to look at people's tastes... if I know a guy likes Court and ELP, but isn't incredibly keen on Moonmadness, his more obscure interests might be very interesting to me.

Last week there was a thread talking about too many 1 star review

Now there are too many 5 stars reviews.

Must we limit ourselves to 3 and 4 (many people think 2 stars is offensive, read the scandal about my 2 star eating to Opeth.

When I started reviewing, I determined that I would only give 10 albums 5*, and I had already identified these.

However, I will have to break this since I have discovered the band IQ and one or two other albums by bands  I'd not heard before, plus Mostly Autumn released Glass Shadows, but I will not  give 5* lightly.

There are FAR too many 5* reviews IMO.

Henry Plainview wrote: I really do not see the point of writing a 5 star review for anything in the top 50, much less the top 20, but that's just me. Do people really need to know that you think CTTE is a 5 star album, while Fragile is merely 4? Will it change their decision or opinion?

There are those who, for reasons of their own, won't listen to anything remotely popular. A well-written review ought to encourage them to give a popular prog album a try. Moreover, new people come to this site on a daily basis - some of whom have come by a route that means they've not heard CTTE.

Fundamentally, though, a great review encourages me to go back to an album I know well and listen to it with fresh ears. Hard to see how that's a bad thing. My opinion of quite a few albums has been changed in such a manner.

'Too many five-star albums!' some cry. 'Far too many one-star albums!' say others. So if we listen to these voices we end up with a three-star system - far too crude to distinguish between albums.

And who says there are only a few masterpieces out there? Personally, I think there are hundreds. Which one of us is right? Isn't it a matter of opinion?

Finally, there are plenty of people who only review their favourite albums. Do you expect them to be given fewer than five stars?

As others have said, in the end it is the review that counts.

Raff wrote: Some of those 5 stars  would've been better as 4 and a half stars, if there had been such a possibility to choose from.

I agree.  It would be better if the rating system was on a 10-star system.  I see tons of reviews where people will preface the review with a "half star" rating.

Opinions vary.