That's why I noted that people can either rank or rate their albums. I will probably do both. Rating your albums as you go along makes it easier to rank them at the end of the year.

what do you mean 3 number rankings?

if you're listening to an album that you like a whole lot, why wouldn't you say..."damn, great friggin' album...i'm giving it an 8.7" or a B+ or whatever...instead of having to figure out where it falls in line with every album ever released?

When you've got 80 albums at the end of the year I'd say rating them on that basis is much a harder affair. That's why I have a system and it works out pretty well for me.

nevermind...i see what you're getting at. and i like your scale and how it affords more ranking room for good to great albums at a wider range and how mine pretty much makes no use of 6 or below....
maybe i'll try to use your scale this year.
i just don't get scales like konstantinL's where he'll never rank an album over an 8...but like he said, it works for him...and that's all that really matters.

Hey I was waiting until after the shmoo poll stuff was done

I didn't realize you were waiting but was just kidding anyway. I don't know how soon we're going to see the shmoo poll rankings though if its waiting on getting short blurbs from someone on each of the top 20. Anyone got an eta on that?

I know it's your scale, and you can do what the hell you want with it (and, like billy g, I applaud you for having enough perspective to stop yourself from declaring every album you happen to like an automatic ten) but this is one of those scales I just don't get. If everything starts at 5 and proceeds up to 10, why even pretend you have a 10 point scale? Just go from 0 to 5.

Why would an all-time stinker merit 5 out of 10 points? What's the qualitative difference between a 1 and a 4 then, if a 6.75 is "average" and a mere jump of one (1) point to 7.75 means an album is "brilliant"?

It's all fucked up, Kon. And the thing is, your scale makes more sense than most.

I've explained my ranking system here

http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=275187#275187

Yes, I am that anal.

I don't like your system Kon because an album is more than just an accumulation of songs. There's song flow, cohesiveness, buildup and hopefully a lack of any songs that make you want to shove knitting needles in your ear. Under your system, you could have a few alltime stinkers on an album and still rank it above average.

looking forward to:



have heard:



need to update my ranking w/clearlake

I have to admit that I find it a bit strange that some of you are being snide regarding someone's ranking system, presuming that one attempt at musical quantification is inherently inferior to another. Isn't the entire process kind of solipsistic anyway, you're ranking relative to your own metric, whether it be A to Z or some variation of the Dewey Decimal system? Wasn't the idea for the thread was to rank purchases in an ordinal fashion?

See, you just keep beating the drum for this and now I'm gonna have to get it. Bastard. Can I get a short review at least? RIYL?


So far:
1. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
2. The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
3. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
4. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

That's all I feel qualified to rate at this point.

The new *improved* Radcliffe rating scale:

Pine tree
Lexus
Aching loins
Skid mark
Measles
Poontang
Facial wart
Skinny chicken
Tuba spit
Black splotch

So on this scale, the new Strokes album is measles and a half. Clear enough?

I favor the ATL crew rating system but thats just me.......

And the Strokes only measles and a half? Its at least a skid mark and you know it.....

Actually, right now I'd place it closer to Aching Loins, but I figgered I'd play it safe.

Its upbeat bluegrass with two part harmony vocals. Norman's a great picker and while neither possesses a great voice, they harmonize well together. I can't really think of an appropriate RIYL because I don't own much other bluegrass.

If I can find the time this weekend, I'll shot you a ysi.

And what are you complaining about Radcliffe's strokes ranking. That's a pt. and 1/2 higher than poon tang.

Yeah I think its almost Lexus, but I didnt want to get out of control on January 19........

That B&S is really good btw Rads; cant imagine that you are a fan, but shit, good is good.

That sounds cool. I'm surprised that you dont have more bluegrass--its a genre that when done right, is just great....

I'd like to own more but I guess I just don't. I have a Bill Monroe boxset or a couple other one-offs but none that are good riyls other than other Norman Blake albums which probably isn't very helpful.

How does the B&S compare to prior releases. I like all of their albums with the exception of "Dear Catastrophe Witness" which is too poppy for my taste and "Storytelling" which I think everyone agrees isn't all that.

Hot crap, I like this scale, even if I'm not sure what you mean by "pine tree."

It's not perfect but it's as close as I've been able to get. It's easy enough to take things like song flow and cohesiveness into consideration when you are marking the individual tracks. Remember by the time I rate an album I know it pretty well having listened to it at least 3 times and probably more.

Obviously there are exceptions but at the end of the day most albums come down to the question 'Does this contain a strong collection of songs?' and this way gives you a good indication of whether that is the case or not.

As for the averages even with one 5 on an album where the other ten tracks are a 7 it would drop down to 6.81. Say you have one 5, one 6 and nine 7's (i.e essentially an album that only has two weak tracks) it drops down into the 'average' range so I think it would be very rare for for an album with more than one stinker on it to rank above average. Because the rankings are within a narrow band any weak tracks on an album really hamper it's ability to score highly.

Anyway I have 250 albums rated this way so I'm not changing now

Hmmmm. Then you might not like this new one because I think its a natural extension of DCW.....I guess I just really dig where they are going with this pop obsession being augmented by some really nice instrumentation. The shit isnt as dark as some of the earlier material, but the lyrics still have that great bite that they do so well, and I think that they are really stretching out musically with the arrangements and whatnot.

This is Another Sunny Day which I guess is the single since kexp has been blowing it up.

The single, at least in this country, was 'Funny Little Frog'. I held off from buying it so as just to get the album but seeing as B&S have a good rep for quality B sides perhaps I'll get it anyway.

yeah, im not sure of an official single release since I'm not around a college radio station.......

I'm pretty interested to see what you think of this album though. Is it coming out 2-7 over there as well?

I think DCW has some of the sharpest pop songs of the past few years on it. I like that B & S figured out they can't keep mining the same fey/heart-on-sleeve territory forever and now mix it up. That doesn't mean Push Barman isn't brilliant, because it is. It's just they'd get aggravating if they spent the rest of their career as quiet mumblers. As long as they continue to mix it up, I'll stay interested.