My Rating System

I've decided to start blogging about music again, after a few years off. I took it upon myself to listen to at least 50 albums in 2015, and publish a top 20. I have to say, it was far more fun than I had anticipated. There were a number of albums I was already looking forward to last year, and they were obviously easy to listen to. Some releases I picked because I knew bits about the band and wanted to check them out. Some I picked on recommendation from friends. Others I literally picked because the artwork was cool, or I liked the album title. Most of the music I listened to was at least enjoyable, and some was downright transcendent.

I try to listen to as many different styles of music as possible, sometimes deliberately choosing music I don't like to see if I can get my head around it. While I (like most other people) like to think that I have a broad taste, and that I "like a bit of everything," you'll notice clear prejudices in my ratings. I'm really into guitar music, be that Rock, Metal, Grunge, Shoegaze, Indie or anything else. I also love Hip-Hop and Rap, and Electronic blippy dancey music, and also weird and experimental jazzy music. I like noise, feedback and experimentation, but I like catchy commercial stuff too. So while there's plenty of those kinds of records in there, I do listen to music outside of my comfort zone, to get as broad a spectrum as possible.

I try to listen to everything 5 times in order to get a good feel for it. Some albums were a joy to listen to, and I spun them 20 or 30 times. Others, not so much. Some were instant favourites, others grew over time. Overall the experience was fantastic, I've not listened to this much contemporary music since I was a teenager, and I feel far more informed about music going into 2016. I've made some surprise and welcome discoveries that have coloured my music taste nicely. I'd not even heard of 4 of my top 10 artists before I listened to them. This year I plan to listen to at least 100 albums, and give a top 40. I will be posting monthly round-ups, and then another end-of-year review around this time next year.

You're probably wondering why I left it until now to do my top albums from last year. Most music outlets publish their end-of-year list in December, which seems to make sense on the surface. But if you publish a music magazine in December, it means you write it in November about music that was released in October or before. This leaves out the last 2 months of the year, which is unfair to late releases. Are they not as worthy as the earlier releases? Besides, what do you do if the greatest album of all time gets released on New Year's Eve? By posting my top 20 at the end of January, (read: beginning of February) I have given each 2015 release at least a month to make it's mark.

I've also created a grading system, which I won't go into fully here, but is quite detailed. I took inspiration from Robert Christgau. He grades albums with letters, and writes short (often very brutal!) reviews about them. I want to take a similar route, assessing albums on several categories, coming up with a grade and then writing a short review about them. My grading system is as follows:

A*: Instant Classic.

This rating is reserved for the absolute best albums. The genre-spanning, era-defining multi-million selling stadium-filling records that everyone has heard of. I'm aiming to rate less than 1% of music with this grade. No albums I heard in 2015 reached this level, though my top 3 came close. Examples of past albums that would gain an A* grade would be Dark Side Of The Moon, OK Computer, Thriller, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Blonde On Blonde. The cream of the crop.

A: A Great Record.

This rating is for albums that fall short of the top rating, but nevertheless are very good. These albums are often the best of an artist's career, and are just as listenable, quality and brilliant as the A* bracket but drop down as they lack the spark to be a true classic. This rating is an example of a highly commendable record, and should still be counted as "critically acclaimed." Most popular artists will reach this grade at least once. An example from 2015 of an A grade record is Bjork's Vulnicura.

B: A Good Effort.

This rating is for albums that don't quite cut the mustard in terms of critical acclaim, but are generally worth listening to. An album with this rating may be a debut from a young band that are a little rough around the edges, a mid-career release from an established artist that's not quite at their best, or an album that's good but might be too long or have too much filler on it. An album with this rating may be a little unoriginal or lacking in substance. This is not necessarily a bad record, but it's certainly not A grade either. An example from 2015 of a B grade record is Tame Impala's Currents.

C: Average To Poor.

This rating is for albums that aren't recommendable, but may have a number of redeeming features that elevate them above the bottom ranges. These albums are the experimental whacked-out phase of an established artist, they are the gimmicky style-over-substance records that come in the wake of legitimate music scenes. An album with this rating will probably be derivative or badly crafted. It may have poorly thought out concepts or lots of filler and throwaway lyrics. Most of the time, it will be one-note, and boring. There is some worth in albums with this rating, but the official line is proceed with caution. An example from 2015 of a C grade record is Django Django's Born Under Saturn.

C-: Honorable Mention.

This is a rare rating given to albums that would usually receive a D grade but have maybe one or two songs that are worth listening to. This happens when an established artist releases an album and gets asked to write a single to promote it. That song is clearly better than the rest of the album, and is worth a shot. This also may be an album released by a debut artist, signed off the back of them having one good song, but with no other recommendable material. An example from 2015 of a C- grade record is Cappadonna's The Pillage II (52 Blocks is a tuuuuuune, man!)

D: Do Not Listen To This!

This is for the abject worst of the musical landscape. These albums bear no fruit in terms of popularity, relevance, creativity, originality or technicality. It would be a waste of time to listen to an album with this rating. Not many albums will get this grade, as I try to look for the positives and something to love in every release, but some records just stink. An example from 2015 of a D grade record is Method Man's The Meth Lab.

So that's my rating system in a nutshell, (honestly, I could have written WAY more) and I hope it all makes sense. It's open to interpretation, and you can rate it or slate it as much as you want. Or you can ignore it. I'll be posting up my top 20 tomorrow, and I hope y'all like my picks. Some are obvious, others not so much, but I think I got a good selection covered. Until then!