The proper amount of time - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

AlexZangari wrote:

(does anyone even remember me? Razz

).

Of course. Your avatar will always be a favorite!

I agree with you though. It's difficult for many of us to rate or critique something with that air of certainty. I specifically find it much harder to negatively criticize an album on just a listen or too, because someone (usually) put a lot of time and energy into it. Liking something has no negative impact on the artist, so it's easier to come out and say "this is great" than "this sucks ass"
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meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

Romanelli wrote:

Ever notice that in publications like the RS Album Guide and MusicHound, that the albums that were new at the time of publication are almost always rated a bit too high? I believe it takes time, and that we sometimes get into an unneccesary hurry to get our opinions out there. And when something first comes out, we WANT it to be good...sometimes we want it to be better than it actually ends up being.

I agree for the most part. But I think you can argue that public consensus often sways the opinions of publications over time. They push an album as mediocre, only to find that record gain an overwhelming cult following that drives up the rating over time (when a reissue is released)
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RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

I've listened to albums 10 times... and still hated it (Oasis). And I've waited 15 years and still hated it (Oasis).

But then there's been albums I've listened to a couple times, then decided they were average... then I came back a year later and realized they were great.

Then there's albums that I thought were great for 5 years and then I got older and realized they were just ok.

I don't think there's a way to really quantify what is the correct amount.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

meccalecca wrote:

Romanelli wrote:

Ever notice that in publications like the RS Album Guide and MusicHound, that the albums that were new at the time of publication are almost always rated a bit too high? I believe it takes time, and that we sometimes get into an unneccesary hurry to get our opinions out there. And when something first comes out, we WANT it to be good...sometimes we want it to be better than it actually ends up being.

I agree for the most part. But I think you can argue that public consensus often sways the opinions of publications over time. They push an album as mediocre, only to find that record gain an overwhelming cult following that drives up the rating over time (when a reissue is released)

Yup... I 've seen both of these occur.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Midnite Vultures by Beck

This is a perfect album that took me a bit to get into.

Looks like I rated it as a 65 back in 2011... I'm now re-rating it today as 86.3

I somehow in the mean time came back to this album and fell in love with it.

I saw it first as gimmicky, but then realized this is Beck taking gimmicky things into genius. Kinda like U2 and the Pop album... people didn't get it (although I'll admit this album is probably better than Pop... but who has an album release party at K-Mart?).

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Based on these responses, it seems many of us agree there is no proper amount of time to give an album a final rating or judgement because our reactions can change listen to listen and over the course of time. Which is why Romanelli's comment struck a chord with me:

Romanelli wrote:

I believe it takes time, and that we sometimes get into an unnecessary hurry to get our opinions out there. And when something first comes out, we WANT it to be good...sometimes we want it to be better than it actually ends up being.

This got me again thinking about the current hype on A Moon Shaped Pool, so I did a little digging and this is what I found here on BEA. This is a rating/comment from A Moon Shaped Pool's album page http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=97640:

LAF2 wrote:

Rating: 90/100From LAF2 05/08/2016 18:26
A quick timeline.

1. Album released
*6 hours later*
2. Top rated album on BEA

Jokes aside, I've heard side one and will listen to the rest in a few minutes. I'm impressed.

Now I looked at the dates and times of his rating and comment, and saw that LAF2 made the comment on 5/08, and rated the album 90/100 the next day. But on the surface, if you only looked at the comment above, it kind of appears as though LAF2 rated A Moon Shaped Pool before he even finished listening to it. Obviously we agree rating an album before completing one listen is unfair, and not the proper amount of time. But that isn't what happened, and there's nothing wrong with what LAF2 did. But consider this, his comment, which says very little about A Moon Shaped Pool, is as of now the most liked/most helpful comment on the album's page. And if you look at the other comments with numerous likes/helpfuls, they're in the same vein. They're either addressing the A Moon Shaped Pool's inflated current rating, or they're glorifying it as OK Computer reborn. It ties back in with Romanelli's statement.

Romanelli wrote:

I believe it takes time, and that we sometimes get into an unnecessary hurry to get our opinions out there. And when something first comes out, we WANT it to be good...sometimes we want it to be better than it actually ends up being.