Q:: What are the two numbers under each album's name?
A:: The first number is a rating on a scale of 1-10. The second number (in parentheses and italics) is a rating on a scale of 1-15.
Q:: How does the 1-10 rating scale work?
A:: The scale can actually be considered to go from 1-9: a 1 is a really bad grade, and a 9 is a really good grade. The best album for a band/musician that has made a 9-quality album will receive a 10 on the 1-10 scale. In essence, a 10/10 is a glorified 9/10. Only one album per band will be awarded the 10/10 rating. This system was originally implemented by Mark Prindle.
Q:: How does the 1-15 rating scale work?
A:: Albums graded on this scale will generally have this value fall between 4 and 15; the 1, 2 and 3 ratings on this scale are reserved for albums even worse than the worst ones reviewed on this site so far (only one album has even gotten a 3). This system was originally conceived by George Starostin. This is the more important of the two ratings (e.g. a 9(14) album is a better album than a 10(12) album). An interpretation of the meaning of the ratings follows:
15: All-time great. A+
14. Great, close to the all-time level. Solid A to low A+
13. Great, bordering on very good. Solid A- to low A.
12. Very good, bordering on great. Solid B+ to low A-. Any album with this rating or above should be considered to have a
"must own" recommendation from me.
11. Very good. Solid B to low B+.
10. Good, bordering on mediocre. Solid B- to low B.
9. Mediocre, bordering on good. Solid C+ to low B-.
8. Mediocre. Solid C to low C+.
7. Mediocre, bordering on terrible. Solid C- to low C.
6. Terrible, bordering on mediocre. Solid D+ to low C-.
5. Terrible. Low D- to low D+.
4. FAIL. F.
3 and below. BEYOND FAIL.
Q:: What are the possible 1-10 (1-15) grade combinations?
A:: The following are the available combinations:
10 (15)
10 (14)
10 (13)
10 (12)
9 (15)
9 (14)
9 (13)
9 (12)
8 (12)
8 (11)
7 (11)
7 (10)
6 (9)
5 (8)
4 (7)
3 (6)
2 (5)
1 (4)
0 (3)
0 (2)
0 (1)
Q:: What is the point of having such a bizarre rating system?
A:: Both the Prindle and the Starostin systems, on their own, have advantages and disadvantages. The Prindle system, in which only one album per band can receive a 10, is such that it allows the reviewer to make clear which individual album he/she thinks is that band/musician's peak. The disadvantage is that not all 10's (and therefore, not all 9's) are created equal. As an example, on Mark Prindle's site, Weird Al Yankovic gets a 10 (as his peak album), whereas Abbey Road and Dark Side of the Moon only get 9's because Prindle considers The Beatles and The Wall to be the best albums of those respective bands. WAY may get a 10 and DSOTM may only get a 9, but I doubt that Prindle is trying to say that WAY is a better album than DSOTM.
In the Starostin system, it is possible for a group to have more than one "perfect" (15/15) album. In conjunction with his band ratings, this allows him to make clear that he does not necessarily consider the best album of one band on the same level as the best album of another (e.g. Tarkus is rated lower than Blonde on Blonde, but he considers these the best works of ELP and Bob Dylan, respectively). The disadvantage of his system is that it is not always clear which of a band's albums he considers the best the band did. Would he prefer Live at Leeds or Live at the Isle of Wight as his favorite Who album? Abbey Road or Magical Mystery Tour as his favorite Beatles album?
Simply put, the rating system on this page is designed to incorporate the best attributes of both systems and minimize the negatives of each. The downside, of course, is that the rating system has a slight learning curve, but I'm going to assume my readers are smart enough to figure it out.
Q:: How many albums have received each rating?
A:: The breakdown is as follows:
Total: 754
15: 18
14: 29
13: 84
12: 130
11: 185
10: 115
9: 73
8: 58
7: 30
6: 19
5: 9
4: 3
3: 1
Q:: Aren't your ratings a little top-heavy?
A:: They are. This is because I only review albums by bands/musicians that I actually somewhat like. If I reviewed more often and had time to get to groups I completely loathe, the ratings would have a less skewed distribution.
Q:: What's the connection between your album ratings and your band ratings?
A:: The band ratings are derived from the 1-15 album ratings the band/musician receives. Unlike on the Starostin site, the band rating is not derived simply by taking the highest rating the band receives and subtracting ten. The band rating is a function of the top three ratings the band receives.
Q:: Could this get any geekier?
A:: Yes it could! Here are the distribution statistics for my album ratings:
Mean: 10.634
Standard Deviation: 2.1025
Skewness: -0.5153
Kurtosis: 3.3225
Standard Error: 0.0766