"General" 5 Star Albums, or Personal 4.5 Star Ones

[Applerill]

Okay, I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

While I give out 5 star rankings relatively easily (compared to a lot of other people), I still require the album to be very consistent. Because of this, there are a lot of albums like Iron Maiden's Best of the Beast compilation, which, while I certainly love all the songs on it, I don't really feel too deep of a connection (despite first hearing Iron Maiden in 4th grade). This also applies to a lot of recent albums I give 5 stars to, but don't really know very well (such as my recent listen of The Howling Wolf Album)

On the other hand, there are a lot of very inconsistent albums, such as Heart's Dreamboat Annie and Brand New's The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, that I absolutely adore in personal connection to half the album.

Guys, which of these do I put in my chart? Do I put the 5-star albums I just met? Or do I put in the latter, more personal 4.5-star albums?

What do you guys think?

[ShaneSpear]

I have zero albums at 100/100 for the very reason of this thread. If I allow myself to call an album "perfect" I think it will affect my judgment later. For example: OKC and Demon Days are two albums I have at 95. If I just give Radiohead a (probably justified) 100, then why can't I give Demon Days (an album with much less critical acclaim but one that means just as much to ME as OKC) a 100 as well? But in the end, wouldn't that make the Gorillaz' choice just a sentimental selection and not a true reflection of a proper rating?

Anyway, so I just opt out of calling anything perfect.

[gtroda]

I believe you should put the albums you enjoy and have a personal connection with. If you're putting things on your charts based on what you think "should" be there or based on some general belief that they are "perfect" albums then I believe you are doing a disservice to yourself and the overall point of this site. Things are much more interesting when everyone allows their personal preference to shine through.

[Xavygravy]

I think that if you feel these 'personal 4.5 star albums' should be ranked higher on your chart, then perhaps they deserve the 5 stars, despite their inconsistencies. I believe that your rating should be taking into account your feelings and personal connection with the album, as well as the pure quality of the songs themselves.

[Jasonconfused]

This is going to sound ridiculous, I'm sure, but I've given every album on my top 100 a perfect score. I just that they deserve it if they made it on my chart. I give perfect scores pretty loosely. And that's a tough question. My chart is a combination of albums I have a deep connection with and albums that I recently listened to that I recognize are some of the greatest.

[Guest]

I used to ignore some of my favorites because I thought they don't deserve a place in my all-time chart, but I started to realize it's kind of superficial if I don't put them on my chart so I put "The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid" and "Tour de France Soundtracks" and some other albums that I've listened more than any other album. So now I give 100 to my absolute favorites and 80 and more to my favorite albums and I don't care if an album is considered critically acclaimed or poppy shit.

[Borve Baunehoj]

I neither can and will put much thought into either my ratings or my chart - it's impossible for me (and not very fun either) to treat music like math or something. If an album is sick, I rate it high and put it in my chart. That's it

[thejoj96]

i rate music by how much i enjoy it, but without much thought (a lot of 100s and 0s)

[Applerill]

Guys, thank you so much for your comments, but I think I need to make something clear.

I love all the music that falls into these categories. I just don't know which one I necessarily like more.

I mean, with the Iron Maiden Vs. Brand New analogy, I love "Hallowed Be Thy Name" as much as any song on The Devil and God. But I don't know which one to have on the list.

My chart is just wayyyy too stuffed with things that I love, even with one-album-per-artist. I don't know how ANYONE could have stuff on their chart that they don't like.

[videoheadcleaner]