I totally agree. I've never given a 1-star rating to any albums here either. 1-star ratings are for Rap & Hip Hop albums.

I will also change my Yes - Open Your Eyes rating from 2 stars, to 1 star. 

I can't agree more with you on this! This is the only music I can't stand. Cheers, Paul!

Which ones, Cristi?

Dream Theater - The Astonishing

Try Torman Maxt (an old joke),

The albums in question are:

Yes. Open Your Eyes. I stand by this. A piece of work which should have remained firmly in the Sherwood/Squire pantheon where it was conceived

Fish. Songs From The Mirror. I also stand by this. A shocking collection of covers which was purely a last ditch attempt at renewing a commercial career. It failed utterly on all counts

Asia. Live in Massachusetts ‘83. I also stand by this. A live album which sounds as if the protagonists were playing in a phone booth in Outer Mongolia.

King Crimson. The Construkction of Light. This is the only one of the four where I believe that I was overly harsh. I am still not particularly keen on it, and regard it as the worst of KCs studio output, and far too industrial throughout, but it is worth 2 stars, I think.

I have awarded 5 stars to 58 albums, so just short of one in five. I do not think this is overly generous, especially when you consider that quite a few of them are albums I reviewed early on from the so-called classic artists and albums which most would say are indispensable.

Looking at these, I would change my rating for Marillion’s Happiness is the Road to 4 stars. I think it was my first review on the site, and a shocking example of a Master Fanboy. The rest are justified purely by my personal taste, and this is, after all, the entire point. An opinion on music is entirely subjective. Once you read people’s reviews on the site, you get to know who generally shares your tastes. For example, I know that an album Tszirmay (Thomas) really likes will float my boat, as it were, and vice versa.

The definition on PA is: "Poor. Only for completionists (2%)", which I wouldn't have any problem giving to truly bad albums.

 

The Anderson/Stolt collaboration is a 4-star album for me, so it just goes to show how much opinions can vary.

http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=143355" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=143355

Not that I don't think there are one star albums. 

Same here. I've never given less than three stars to any album I've reviewed either, so that rules out me ever reviewing at least half of King Crimson's albums.

 

My apologies to Crimson Mellotron for sticking the knife into King Crimson again.

I'll make sure to check this one out.

I don't want to start another new topic today, so which artists/types of artists do you consider DIY? And what do you actually mean by that?

I don't think The Missing Piece is a bad album tbh, agree on Queensryche though

I wouldn't wish to mention any poor names, and most I forgot since I haven't done such evaluations or much Suggest New Bands/ Unsigned Bands forum checking in a very long time, but these were mostly very amateur do-it-yourself solo "artists" (though calling them artists is a stretch) that ultimately put together the music on their shoddy computers badly (poor mixing for instance) even if they poorly recorded themselves poorly playing an instrument and/or poorly singing their poor compositions (more like decompositions) .   I have heard some not competent stuff, and I do believe that I can say that objectively.  Heck, I'm quite good at making incompetent music (might record and share at some time).

By the way, one of my favourite albums (not in PA) is famed for its incompetence/ badness, and I love it.  I'm talking about The Shagg's Philosophy of the World from 1969 (at least that was produced pretty well).

If that ever were included in PA for some reason (say on April 1st), I'd wonder how to honestly rate it.  I love it, but recognise that it is hardly the work of virtuosos.  Maybe I'd give it a three even though I like it more than that.  "Bad" albums and "bad" films can be so bad that they are so very good.  It's the mediocre ones that can be the worst in the way for being so ordinarily dull, I find.

I know many people like The Missing Piece.

Which Queensryche do you have in mind? For me it's Dedicated to Chaos and their cover album Take Cover. 

I like the Quatermass album very much and enjoy that Shylock album considerably,  Different strokes for different folks.  I don't like that Tool album (not that I heard the whole thing), but I recognised a certain quality to it and I am confident that I would rate it higher if I heard it in full -- it is not an album I would try to rate or review as it's not a style that I am into enough to feel like I could be fair to it, nor would I want to give it the sufficient spins where I would feel comfortable rating/reviewing it.  I would want to compare it against similar albums and wouldn't like to rate ones that I feel are too outside my comfort zone for me to be able to fairly evaluate, let alone put myself through the listening experience -- though If I did I might find more to appreciate.

I've only given 1 star ratings to 2 albums -

1) The Beatles Live at The Star Club Hamburg. Even though I'm a massive Beatles fan this really is for completionists only. It is of historical value, of poor sonic quality and not something you'd really want to listen to more than once or twice.

2) ELP Reworks - not really an ELP album, it's a sort of trance remix album featuring multiple remixes of Fanfare For The Common Man.

ouch!  what is that album guilty of besides thinking that their audience wanted to listen to a symphony

Or are you not a Nightwish fan to begin with?  I quite like their last 5 albums or so

absolutely..it's the review after all.  Even a 1 star review might elicit interest from somebody if it points out "flaws" that the reader might regard as strengths.  A rating conveys nothing of substance by definition

Dedicated to Chaos is just an abomination, but every album from Hear in the Now Frontier is just an endless showcase of stinker after stinker and terrible identity crisis 

I love Tarja Nightwish. I find it strange those albums are rated on PA poorer than the music they did afterwards. The albums with Tarja were unique, they basically created symphonic metal along with Therion. 

The new album frustrated me to the point that I deleted it from my laptop eventually. I gave it so many chances because I read some very positive opinions, even thought I might be missing something. It's so bland, cheesy, lacks any kind of oomph, the songs with the new male singer are so boring. The second CD is godawful Pirates of the Caribbean music, made me cringe. I wasted too much time on the album, time i could have used to listen to something I actually enjoy.  
 

As someone already mentioned, I would have less of a problem warning someone off because of a really poor sound recording quality.

So I admire you guys who write the reviews, good job overall!

I like Tribe (2003 if I remember right). the only later day album with Tate I enjoy.

Their last three albums with Todd La Torre are really good. 

Geoff Tate did an album with some Italian musicians last year, the band is called Sweet Oblivion. Geoff can still sing, a very good album and a pleasant surprise. 

fair enough...I think you could put together a decent convincing 1 star review based on what you just wrote.  Especially the "Pirates of the Caribbean" reference  

I don't know anyone who has genuinely convinced themselves that it is good per se, unless you mean so bad it's good, but there are people like me who appreciate it very much.  Like I said about it, one of my favourite albums (not in PA) is famed for its incompetence/ badness, and I love it.  There are many People like Ed Wood who also think he is a very poor filmmaker, but I love his films.  If it wasn't thought to be so delightfully incompetent then I don't think many would appreciate it.  The girls had only just started to learn their instruments apparently (some might say it really shines or drowns in the lyrics). ;)

Here are a few quotes about The Shaggs.

I have never given 1 star to anything and only a handful of 5 stars...I think there are probably too many 5 star rated albums.

I haven't listened to the Queen + Paul Rodgers album in years. I don't remember it being so bad though.

I agree with Acting Very Strange. Unlistenable. 

Similarly, I don't usually bother with 1* albums because I don't have many, having got rid of them in a purge that would have done Stalin proud: it's just when something truly repulsive turns up (First Utterance or Trout Mask Replica), I spit my dummy out with it.

It's the same reason why I have a large number of 5-star reviews too. I only review the albums I really like.

 

I'm planning to listen to the Queen + Paul Rodgers studio album for the first time tomorrow. I just hope it's as good as the live album, but at least I won't be setting my expectations too high now if you think the album's only worth a 1-star rating.

For the longest time I used the 3 star rating as the standard for "albums/music/artistry that I respect because I know I could do no better." But the PA quotes for four stars using the word "excellent" and "good, but non-essential" for three stars has finally led me to return to many of my old ratings to adjust them. There are many albums that I rated as "good"/three stars that really aren't (and have thus been demoted to two stars), and many more that I rated as "excellent"/four stars that really shouldn't be considered "an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection." And many of my abundant "masterpiece" ratings have been downgraded to four stars because I really can't use the word "essential" when recommending them to others; "excellent," yes; "essential,"  that's really high praise.

I agree with what SteveG said on page one:  one star ratings are for really horrible sounding recordings (most of which occur in the old bootleg world)--or for truly low-achieving infantile music.

 

 

So, you're the reason we have RIO.

 

 

I would never rate poorly an artist that is not my thing, that i would never listen to anyway. 

I've only had ~30 reviews or so, but awarded a few 1 star ratings without stressing about it too much.

Generally, I'd rather read (and trust) a reviewer who is hesitant to give out 5 stars instead of 1's. These guys are usually very honest and thoughtful. The mere fact that I LIKE something isn't NEARLY enough to award the highest rating, in my book.

Also, 1 star ratings shouldn't be reserved only for bootleg/garage/"sonic experiment gone wrong" music. Perfectly produced & promoted also DESERVE 1 star time and time again - it boils down to being dull, unoriginal, cheap, dishonest etc. And there is plenty of that in Prog.

By the way, cross-genres comparisons (i.e. symphonic is 4-5 stars always, rap is 1 full stop) is a bit silly.

Yes, I would. I thought it's what I just meant.

DT - The Astonishing is a good example. 

That I would do.

Albums I would give 1-2 stars are those somewhat within my musical taste, but that is straight out bad or there's something about it that turns me off.

Since 2006 I've given few 1-stars. Usually is when artists that I like release a stinker. Keeping people away from those stinkers helps the artists, too.

Imagine a guy who approaches Camel for the first time and buys The Single Factor. He will surely miss a masterpiece like Moonmadness. Imagine that you have read something about a Greek keyboardist and his collaborations with Jon Anderson...then you listen to Suffocation from See You Later. Would you buy anything else from Vangelis?

1 star ratings may be useful.

Some of the songs weren't that bad and were even catchy but the problem was with Mike's singing which was absolutely wretched. His singing makes Tony Banks' singing sound like Phil Collins. Speaking of Tony Banks his fugitive album is one I thought was pretty bad when I first heard it but it sort of grew on me(warts and all). Some albums aren't really so much bad as they are just downright boring.

Oh... there are 1-star albums.

some of my favorite albums and reviews.. were of 1 star albums..  get it.. 

1 star has not a damn thing to do with being....good or bad.

Also things can change.  When I first bought  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_and_the_New_Symphonia" rel="nofollow - Caravan and the New Symphonia  In 1974, I hated it and that's after having several Caravan's in my collection already.  I almost never played it, it just seems a bad sound recording.  I would have given it a 1 star then because I just did not like it compared to my other Caravan's.

A few years ago I rebought it on CD as a remastered version for completeness and I was blown away as that was not how I remembered it.  I can listen to it a lot now.

Either back in 74 it truly was the poor sound quality or my ears at that time just did not want not hear.  Hard for me to say for sure almost 50 years later.  But I would be foolish to rate it 1 star today.

Perhaps if someone has the 1974 version vinyl they can confirm if it was a bad sound recording or just me not wanting to get to like the album back then?

I gotta say: This barely makes sense!

It has nothing to do with being good or bad? Would you rate your favorite albums with 1 star? And if yes, why the hell would you do so?

Do you know the purpose of a rating system? Sorry, your comment is bullsh*t!

the very definition of rating abuse.  

Hmm, I really don't know him/her...

Gotcha. I was initially infuriated by the comment though.