So here’s more or less how I choose my albums and if I attach a grade/score, how to interpret this.

How I Choose My Albums:

This process changes from day to day.  I farm my albums from the following sources:

  • YouTube recommended videos
  • Spotify suggestions
  • Suggestions from strangers I meet
  • New albums from bands I love

I’m going to try to get to one “legacy” album and one “new” album per week.  I’m defining “Legacy” as anything before the year 2010, and this definition is largely arbitrary.  I’m defining anything “New” as something that was released this calendar month.  I will most likely not be admitting to when I’m reviewing a new or legacy album, it’s just a way for me to keep up a decent enough balance.  As with everything on this site, I reserve the right to ignore my own rules and simply write about whatever tickles my fancy that day.

I do also plan on going through an artist’s discography at least twice this year.  The artists are yet to be determined.  These bursts of content will obviously supersede the above-mentioned new/legacy rule.

If I find myself at a concert, I may review the set instead of an album.  This is especially true during RiotFest, which I attend every year.  More on that as I find myself in those situations.

How I Rate the Albums:

This is by no means an exact science and are subject to change without any notice or logical explanation.  I also do not give a grade to every album, mostly because I forget and I’m not necessarily trying to score everything.  It’s not a competition, but from time to time I feel compelled to use a metric to give the audience a sense of how I feel about the album.  In general I will use one of two scales: a grade scale or a number ratio.

If I decide to give an album a number score, it will fall like this:

  • 1/10 – Terrible.  Like comically bad.  I’d give it a 0 if I didn’t believe in the necessity for context.  The album exists, and so much exist in a scale, even if that’s the only accolade the album deserves.  Think anything by Corey Feldman (go back to acting bro you were fucking rad in Stand By Me).
  • 2/10 – Also terrible, but not as bad as Corey Feldman.  I can’t think of a 2/10 right now, but it’s bad.
  • 3/10 – Bad.  May have a good track, maybe two.  But not something I can recommend.  Think Andrew McMahon and the Wilderness.
  • 4/10 – Not good.  This could be because I’m unfamiliar with genre conventions, or I otherwise just didn’t gel with it.  Nothing technically wrong with the music, but not something I’d recommend.   Or maybe just a disappointing album from a band I usually respect.  Maybe Against Me!’s Shape Shift with Me.
  • 5/10 – Neutral.  I have no feelings about this album.  Either roughly equal ups and downs, just just not something that clicked with me.  Maybe Stolas?
  • 6/10 – Decent.  Solid.  I can recommend it, but I’m not super excited about it.  Like Tides of Man.
  • 7/10 – I liked it.  I’m adding it to my shopping list, but not super high on the list, so who knows if I’ll ever actually get it.  Probably most of Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
  • 8/10 – I’ma buy this.  I’ma tell my friends.  I can’t wait to tell you.  NOFX’s album First Ditch Effort fits this mold.
  • 9/10 – I fucking love this album, and it’s perfect for what it is.  The only reason it’s not a 10 is because of genre conventions that may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  But if you’re into the general shape of the music, there is no reason not to buy this.  Motherfucking NAILS.
  • 10/10 – Everybody should have this.  Everybody should love this.  If you don’t you better have a good reason why.  Every song is fucking rad.  These are Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours level good kind of albums.

Grades are a bit more self explanatory.  I’ll update this section later maybe.