What do your ratings mean?

[Repo]

yeah. I don't obsess over rating like other do. I frankly think the Pitchfork 10 point decimal system is ridiculous. Rating albums is not a science that needs to rounded to the hundredths place. lol.

[RoundTheBend]

[Decurso]

91-100-Perfection. I think I would give 60-70 albums a 100.
81-90-A truly great album...high on my list of all time favourites, but probably not in my top 100.
71-80-Really good stuff. A pleasure to listen to
61-70. Not bad at all, but unremarkable.
51-60-Totally forgettable
41-50-An annoyance not likely to ever be played more than once.

I almost never rate anything lower than this, because if I dislike it that much, I am not likely to make it through the entire thing.
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100 Punk Favourites

Live Albums

Death Metal

[Anti]

I like to think I'm not a stickler on ratings, but I am pretty stubborn on giving albums a perfect score. Kind of defeats the purpose if I'm not so difficult about it. Pretty sure my formula isn't unique but stuff like this is always fun:

100: Out of all the albums I've listened to, I've only given 15 albums a perfect score. What'd you'd expect out of a perfect rating: Classic status; Flawless from start to finish; I feel like everything put into the album has a genuine purpose, including interludes. Also marks a significant time in my life, I've tagged my own personal interpretation that somehow stands the tests of my own timeline. Will only revisit on special occasions so it still carries significant meaning.

95 (up to 99, I guess): Near-perfect album; Will give many relistens; Will recommend to anyone that asks me for new music; Just something about it that prevents it from receiving a perfect score, but still should be regarded as classics in my book. Could receive a perfect score in the future if it hits me right.

90 (up to 94, I guess): Same qualifications as 95-99, just doesn't have the extra chip in its shoulder. I still consider these as classics or classic potential. Could also receive a perfect score in the future, but chances are lower than a 95-99 tier album.

85 (up to 89, I guess): Really great record, will give relistens. Only one to a few flaws. Albums in this category can only receive a classic potential mark from me. Chances it could receive a perfect score in the future are definitely lower.

80 (up to 84, I guess): Great record, will give some relistens. Same qualifications as 85-89, just to a lesser degree.

70 (up to 79): Good albums, probably will snag a few tracks for some playlists on Spotify. Maybe will revisit, maybe not. Anything here will probably not receive a perfect score from me.

60 (up to 69 lol): Ok albums. Probably one track will get put on a playlist for Spotify. Probably won't revisit. Anything at this level or lower has practically no chance of receiving a perfect score in the future.

50 (up to 59): Eh albums. Maybe one track will get put on a playlist for Spotify. Definitely won't revisit anything at this level or lower.

Anything between 10 to 49: Not even.

5 (up to 9, I guess): Shit.

0 (up to 4 I guess): My shit's shit.

Honestly, I kind of have an idea if I'll like an album before I listen to it, so I obviously have more ratings with a nicer score than a "listen to anything that crosses my plate" mentality where the chances of a crap album popping up is higher. Really don't feel like wasting my time.
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...and for dessert!

[Daydreamer]

I really never give ratings below 60, so 60 is pretty bad for me. My ratings are based on songs and then that translated on the album level. It goes something like this:

75 - Average song, doesn't hurt the album but doesn't add anything special to it.
80 - Good song
85 - Very good
90 - Excellent
95 - Great
100 - Perfect
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All time

2000's
1990's
1980's
1970's
1960's

[Rhyner]

For me, 50 is a neutral score, meaning it's roughly equivalent to listening to nothing at all. Given the choice between listening to silence and listening to an album I've rated 50, on average it doesn't make much of difference to me what I choose.

Anything above 50 is a positive score; the closer to 100, the more positive. Likewise, anything below 50 is a negative score; the closer to 0, the more negative. A score of 100 means the album is one of my all-time favorites, one of the very best things I've ever heard. A score of 0 is pretty much inconceivable to me, but it would mean the album is one of the worst things I've ever heard, absolute and utter trash with no redeeming qualities at all.

I give mostly positive ratings because I enjoy almost all the music I hear.

Here's a rough breakdown of what specific scores mean:
Below 30: Varying degrees of really truly awful. I've never given a rating this low.
30: Bad. Unpleasant stuff that I'd really rather not have to listen to.
40: Kinda crappy. Not outright awful, but something I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to.
50: Neutral. Not bad, not good. It's okay, it's fine, it's whatever. I don't mind it at all, but it doesn't move me either.
60: Pretty good. I enjoy it, but I could live without it. The vast majority of music I hear falls somewhere around 60. Fairly disposable stuff.
70: Good. Music I enjoy quite a bit. This is where true quality begins. Anything 70 or above is very much worth my time.
80: Great. Love it. Highly recommended. I listen to it again and again and always want to come back.
90: Masterpiece. Words can't describe what it does to me. Absolutely incredible. I go out of my way to push this music on others because it has been so rewarding in my life.
100: All-time favorite. I can't imagine living without it. The pinnacle of the medium.

There are degrees between all these specific scores, of course. I give 95s, 85s, 75s, etc. if an album's quality doesn't fall cleanly into one of the above categories. And it's not an exact science. I could maybe change the score of a given album up or down as much as 10 points or so depending on how I feel about it that day.

Also, my older ratings are less accurate. My rating system has changed over time, and my taste in music has changed over time, which means the older a rating is, the less likely it is that the rating accurately reflects how I currently feel about the album. My charts are the same way. I really need to go back and re-rate a bunch of stuff and redo my charts. There's quite a bit that's out of date, but I haven't been willing to take the time to fix it. Someday I will.

Oh, and my ratings for songs follow the same system. Replace every instance of "album" above with "song" and it's all still true.

[Dankel]

[RoundTheBend]

Can I just say:

100=100
90=90
80=80
70=70
60=60
50=50
40=40
30=30
20=20
10=10
0=0

[Liedzeit]

That’s cute.
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[theblueboy]

You only really need two ratings on this site:

100/100 = good album
5/100 = bad album