Revisiting the Ratings

Rating System

I haven't revisited the rating system since the beginning of this blog and I think it's time for me to do so.  The grade ratings have largely fallen in a narrow band, limiting their usefulness for readers.  In addition, my initial criteria - how replayable a tune is - has gradually gone out the window.  I'm not sure a one-dimensional grade or rating makes a lot of sense; some albums are awesome because they're super-fun (like Girl Talk's All Day), some albums are tough listens but very meaningful (like Elvis Perkins' Ash Wednesday).  Some great albums feature brilliant songwriting (like Josh Ritter's So Runs the World Away), and some are wonderful interpretations of old tunes and feature no new songs at all (like the recently-reviewed American Legacies).  How can I boil down all these factors into one grade, and what value does it have if I do?

So what am I going to do?  Not totally sure yet, but I'll feel it out as I go along.  The next couple reviews probably will have no ratings.

Rating System

You may notice I gave The Dead Weather's Horehound a B. Rating anything, especially art, is subjective and probably stupid. If I like something, but Pitchfork doesn't, or Robert Christgau does, or Metacritic doesn't ... does that tell you if you're going to like it?

So my rankings are going to be totally personal. I'm not going to rate something high if I admire its brilliance but I can't really listen to it. I'm going to listen to each album five or six times before I review it and then rate it on how I'm going to listen to it in the future. I'm going to use the following scale:

A - Will be listening to constantly over the next few weeks, months. Rarely if ever will I skip a track if it comes up on shuffle.
B - I like it, and will listen to it occasionally, but not with the burning compulsion of an A album. Usually not going to skip a track if it comes on shuffle.
C - I like a few songs, but there are some I'm going to skip on shuffle, and I'm not usually going to listen to the album start-to-finish.
D - Skipping most of the disc, even on shuffle. Not listening to the album all the way through.
F - Not synching it to my iPod even though I have 50+ GB free.