Your one and two star album ratings?

I very hurriedly wrote this as waiting to go out.

I find it interesting that some people will have a great many one and two star ratings posted at Prog Archives or otherwise, whereas I would very, very rarely listen through an album that I do not find good/ appreciate more than that. Maybe I'm not very discriminating, but the vast majority of albums I chose to listen to during my years at PA (not ones I listened to due to PA "work") were good to great for my tastes. I rarely buy without listening first, and I like to sample before buying. Even by the time I check music out I usually have reason to think that I will like it.

And I would not wish to rate an album without having listened to the album multiple times. With many raters, I expect that it after just the one spin, with many others I suspect it is rated quite impulsively without having been given even one attentive listen all the way through. With some it may be based on a portion of the album, and some abusive types without listening to it all because the are trying to manipulate rankings. One evens sees vindictive ratings or ones where someone rates an album lower because they think others overrated it.

I have not rated much in many years and if I were to rate now it would come with a review, but I chose to rate my favourite albums, and I especially would not wish to review albums that I don't really like.

So what are some of your one and two star ratings, how much did you listen to those albums and why did you choose to listen through those if they do not seem to match your tastes at all? Especially interested in the more "controversial" ratings, like the ones where the general consensus of reviewers seems to be that it's a very good or excellent album and your rating is much lower. Also of interest is those ones you rate high that others rate low, but I think I did that topic before (maybe this one too, I did one for reviews before).

Edited by Logan - March 28 2025 at 16:06

Some ** ratings with review are actually kind of positive, like Eternal Flashback and Only Human by Amon Düül II, or Art Zoyd's Pure Noise, or Stern Meissen's Freiheit Ist. These are albums hardly anyone listens to, and honestly, there are good reasons for it, but I feel if anything I'm doing them a service, listening to them and mentioning at least one positive aspect in a ** review. When it comes to listening often, my appreciation of some albums changes with time, but for many it doesn't. I think I listened to the Stern Meissen and Art Zoyd album twice each, but I don't feel unfair about that, I just don't think there is much potential to improve. I just feel I "get" some albums even if not rating them highly. Some others I don't like much at first listening but I already know that there's something that I may learn to appreciate more. These don't get ** quickly. 

Edited by Lewian - March 28 2025 at 17:17

^ I likely would give Present's C.O.D. performance a two too. Surprised I did not rate more Present back in the day as that was one of my very favourite and most listened to bands especially in my earlier years at PA.

Seems I only have eight ratings over the past 13 years, and all but one of those has reviews, but I did rate a lot at Prog Archives when the quick rating feature was implemented. I focused on many of my favourite albums then. This is my profile page CLICK

I have noticed various raters who will rate whole discoveries the same. I gave Magma' debut a five stars back in, well, many years ago and I would still stand by the rating. If you look at say THIS user's ratings (CLICK) they rate full discographies the same. Listened to 32 Magma albums and thought they were all one star? Did that person's brother force him to listen? I also notice ratings that come out very quickly on release or before release with very high or low ratings, where I doubt one has taken the time to properly listen.

I don't rate anything 1 or 2 stars on PA but I do have a bunch of low ratings on Gnosis where I have my full collection uploaded. Not all prog by all means, I own, and I have listened to all the albums multiple times before giving up.

1 star (out of 15, equivalent PA 0.33 stars)
Nickelback - Silver Side Up
Staind - Break The Cycle

2 star (0.66 PA stars)
Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction

3 star (1 PA stars)
Allan Holdsworth - Metal Fatigue
Kings Of Leon - Only By Night
U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

4 star (1.33 PA stars)
David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Korn - Life Is Peachy


Edited by Nogbad_The_Bad - March 28 2025 at 19:17

There are various albums in PA that I would give low scores to if I could be arsed to rate them that I have listened to over the past 20 or so years such as ELP's In the Hot Seat, Genesis' ...Calling All Stations..., Yes' Open Your Eyes and Torman Maxt's The Problem of Pain: Part 1, and if Tom MacDonald & Adam Calhoun's album The Brave (2022) was ever added to PA (like on April Fool's Day), I would give it minus stars if I could. I get that sometimes one might listen all the way through an album out of morbid curiosity, or to see what the fuss is about, and I do like some albums and films that might be called of the so good they are bad variety (I love the Shagg's Philosophy of the World, and not sure how I would rate it).



^^^^ 70s Zeuhl albums all one, geez, I had not noticed. If that person had really listened, that would be some dedication. Every Post-Rock/Math Rock got one, but only 21 albums. At least he is more favourable to Progressive Electronic with a 1.08 rating for 74 albums and an better 1.37 for 93 Canterbury Scene albums.

Lewian wrote: Eloy - Ra. I think I listened at least three times to each, as I have some emotional relation to these bands and want them to do well, but there's no hope.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Generally, it's only godawful Death Metal albums that receive a one-star rating from me, but these are some of my two star album choices that are rated highly by many other PA members, although a two-star rating from me is often seen as a recommendation.   2016: David Bowie - Black Star - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k9zz5HH6wfeoWzK5VnHRd68UrIzKr3frI  1982: Kate Bush - The Dreaming - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lbVVvc21x5VshNYvG3LGhSjaLQzZV-1DI  1973: King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mBMqJoDxm1ZOcV88rz8OaHArNwtIKPDro  1972: Tangerine Dream - Zeit - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kTcPbNmo7mf3Zl3MLlOreONsZNNAEmqL8  1972: Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kOWdkl7AREpLB5vkYkhbv94GHycru9xHY  1974: Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k3KoR5NKhcTHsHH7W5sjsVrqDUbsAL0xg

^ On the plus side, I gave the full five stars to Kate's Aerial & Hounds of Love albums, so I'm not completely barking mad. Woof! 

^ At least we agree on Robert Wyatt and Frank Zappa's albums (I don't know about the others), but I'm astonished that you only gave one star to Anderson/Stolt and Dream Theater's albums, which are both four star albums for me - not that my opinion counts for anything though when I've given Kate Bush's highly-acclaimed Dreaming album a lowly two stars. 

I find Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom both absurd and poignant. It's a very moving album to me and I find it all the more meaningful that it occurred after that serious accident Wyatt had when he fell out a window and broke his spine. I had heard and appreciated the album before I knew the story behind the album, but knowing the background does make it all the more poignant and moving for me.

Similarly, Blackstar comes from a place of change and suffering, and like Rock Bottom, I also find it ultimately triumphant in its way as well as very poignant. That someone would put together such an album while dying I do find admirable, and it is deeply personal. That it became so respected by so many, I love. Like with Rock Bottom, I get an empathetic reaction too with it. To me it is not just the culmination of a career, but a life. I recall that Paul described it as depressing, well yeah, I find the circumstances behind it depressing, and subject matter (e.g. "I'm dying to, I'm dying too") but I also find it life-affirming in its way.

Bowie and Wyatt have been two of my favourite artists for many albums through the years, but Rock Bottom and Blackstar mean the most to me. To hear such things reduced to "bad" saddens me. Of course people can and will like what they like, but I rarely like to call albums bad. Feels heartless to me considering the circumstances too, but then those albums evoke very strong emotional reactions from me that go much deeper than I like them.

With Will's ratings CLICK, I love Swans' The Beggar, but I get that being a marmite album. What I would not have expected nearly so much is two stars for Miles Davis' In a Silent Way, but I respect that you took the time to review that album. To me it is wonderful album and the album that first got me to love Miles Davis. What I dislike and strongly disagree with in your review is this line, "This isn't essential to anyone's record collection." I have no idea how you would come to that conclusion. People enjoy different things, what's essential to me need not be essential to you. And I absolutely would have described that album as essential to my collection as much as anything could be described as essential. If I had to save just one Davis album, that would be it, for two add in Big Fun. I'm not nearly so keen on Kind of Blue, but I have no problem appreciating that other people really love it and would not tell them that this it is inessential to their collections.

By the way, I came to this topic wondering especially how many times albums rated one and stars generally had been listened to. Like I said, I (at least usually) would not be comfortable rating an album without having spun it multiple times (and trying it over time ideally). I could have made that aspect clearer.

As I put it in the OP, "So what are some of your one and two star ratings, how much did you listen to those albums and why did you choose to listen through those if they do not seem to match your tastes at all?"

Edited by Logan - March 29 2025 at 08:27