Rating system

The Rating System

I’m an IB student (for another eleven months and counting) and in my world, work is graded from one to seven, with seven being the most difficult to achieve, especially in Higher Level Physics. Therefore, albums will also be graded from one to seven in a similar way.

7: A really amazing album that everyone with any kind of music collection should own, even if it’s not the kind of thing they’d usually listen to. Blows me away every time I hear it. Not perfect, because perfect albums don’t exist, but definitely heading in that general direction.

6: For a lot of bands, this will be the highest score they achieve, and that’s OK. Albums with this rating are still favourites of mine that I play regularly and like to obsess over occasionally, but there’s just something about them that stops them from reaching that top level.

5: Still impressive. If I had to get rid of a bunch of my CDs, I would fight to keep these ones. They’re flawed, but a very positive listening experience nonetheless.

4: Good; a passing grade. Could be a really patchy, up-and-down album or could be an album that’s generally fair. However, I wouldn’t call this essential listening if you’re just a casual fan of the band or genre.

3: The first failing grade, but has redeeming qualities, and I can understand why people would want to listen to this, even if I don’t particularly often (except for maybe one song.)

2: I personally do not like this album at all, but I can see the odd objective merit in it. But it would certainly not bother me if I never heard an album with this rating again.

1: I’m not sure how this album was allowed to be released.