(Update 2023: Most of what you read on this page was written when I started this website back in May of 2022. There are some changes I’ve made on this page, the biggest one probably being that previously there were a few paragraphs about what a bunch of different scores represent (mostly what it means about replay value), but I removed it because I don’t want to overcomplicate things. There are too many factors that go into a rating for me to accurately explain what each score means for replay value … for example, sometimes an album I give a 6 will have lots of replay value for me as a whole, and maybe an album I give a 7 has almost no replay value for me as a whole but it gets that higher rating mostly because of a few standout tracks. It really depends. Also, there was some stuff about albums that I find boring vs. albums that I find annoying, and I feel like that also gets too complicated, because sometimes an album can be so boring that it’s annoying … or maybe it’s mostly boring but it has one song I really love enough to bring up the rating.)

Hello. I think it’s a good idea if I explain my rating system to give you a better understanding on why certain albums get certain scores.

I rate albums out of 10, with 0 being the lowest possible score, and 10 being the highest possible score (although don’t expect to see 0s or 10s often). Every album’s score is either a whole number or ending in .5 … so, the possible scores for albums are:

0
0.5
1
…
9
9.5
10

I would also like to make it clear that no matter how positive/negative the review may seem based on what I say about the album, the most accurate way to find how much/how little I like an album is with the score. I understand that some people do it differently, but with my scores, I try not to factor in expectations/what I think of it compared to other albums by the artist/etc … if I give one album a 6.5 and another album a 7, even if it doesn’t seem this way based on what the text of the review says, I probably like the album I gave a 7 more than the album I gave a 6.5 (I say ‘probably’ because maybe my opinion has since changed, and in some cases it is really hard for me to choose a rating, so I might rate one album a 6.5 and another a 7 but if you ask me to compare the two, I might realize I like the 6.5 more … but I think that’s pretty rare).

Also, keep in mind that the score shown under Final Thoughts is the score I officially give the album … if it doesn’t show a score above or if for whatever reason it shows a different score in the main part of the review than it does in the Final Thoughts, the score in the Final Thoughts is my score for the album. (I don’t see why it would show 2 different scores, but just in case that happens for whatever reason.)

I could absolutely love multiple songs on an album and still give it a low score … I could be very glad to have listened to an album because it introduced me to (a) song(s) that I like, but still give the album a low score because as a full album I find it boring and/or annoying. I can still overall take it as a positive that I listened to the album, not only because it’s content for a review, but also because of a song or multiple songs that I like on the album, but the score is based on the album as a whole.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: All of my reviews are based on my own personal taste. I don’t intend to personally attack artists/producers/etc. or send hate toward them. I also don’t intend to change other people’s opinions or tell you that you should feel a certain way about an album/song/artist/etc … the scores I give are based on my “opinion” A.K.A. how much/how little I like an album/song/etc personally. I’m not trying to look at music from some sort of “objective standpoint”. Even if I say something like, “this song is bad,” and I don’t state in that case that it’s just my personal taste/opinion/etc, it’s always just my personal taste/opinion/etc … sometimes I say “in my opinion,” “that’s just me personally,” etc, but sometimes I don’t. Either way, it’s just how I feel personally.

I mostly try to avoid writing something that comes across like I’m implying “if you disagree with me, you’re wrong,” but if it ever comes across that way, that’s not the point I want to get across, and as always, it’s just my personal taste in music.