How I Grade Albums
Reading or watching someone else dissect and review an album you love can be a very disheartening experience. What can be even worse is having no clue what that person cares about when reviewing said album. I plan to do at least one album review every week for as long as I am writing for this website of mine. I never want anyone to say that I was inconsistent with what I was looking for from an album, or that my scoring system didn’t make sense. This little article will serve to let everyone know the big and little things I look for when grading an album. Not to mention my scoring system is going to be a bit different from what I have seen prior.
When reviewing albums, I will always do my best to be as objective as possible. There are artists I do not like but have released objectively wonderful albums. The perfect example of this is Wiz Khalifa. I am just not a fan, but even so I wouldn’t give Rolling Papers an F. My review for that would probably be in line with other outlets. On the flip side, if an artist I love releases a horrendous piece of filth, I won’t sit upon a high horse trying to scratch and claw praise for it. Eminem’s Revival immediately springs to mind as something I will refuse to defend.
Reviewing albums can also be a lengthy process. I want mine to be up quickly after release when hype is at its highest and so sometimes my opinions will change. If I am ever in that position where I give an album particularly high or low praises and my opinion starts to trend seriously in the other direction, I will update my opinion of that album. It may come in the form of an edit and republish of the original article, or in some extreme cases even a whole new article if enough time has passed.
As for what I look for, the biggest thing for me is how enjoyable is the album to listen to? I usually listen to albums in a three listen cycle. The first listen I simply listen. I pay attention to the beats, how the album flows. Are the hooks sticky, and what lines catch me specifically? I pay attention to the length as well. Is there enough variety to keep me interested in the longer albums? On my second listen I start to pay more attention to how well mixed the album is, and I am trying to key in on the lyrics as a whole. The second listen is the one where I try to get a real feel for what the album really wants to convey. Lastly, the third listen is where I break out Genius. I look at the production credits and read the lyrics and try to get everything from the album that I may have missed earlier. After the initial three listens I will go back and try to listen a couple more times to pull it all together and maybe even listen to the album while I am writing the review.
My reviews will go through albums conceptually to start and then move on to a more song by song analysis. If an album is twenty tracks long you can expect me to skim over a song or two if they aren’t that special. Then it all ends with a little wrap up of my final thoughts and the grade.
The grading scale I cooked up combines the typical ten point system with letter grades. My issues with current grading scales are people thinking that everything below an eight is a bad album, and reviewers know this, leading to bloated scores. So what I have done is try my very best to both use the ten point system, but trick some people while I do. Here’s the breakdown:
F = 0-1.9
D = 2.0 - 3.9
C = 4.0 - 5.9
B = 6.0 - 7.9
A = 8.0 - 10
I will also be using pluses and minuses to help point readers in the right direction. The B+ score I gave to Spirit World Field Guide teamed with my mostly positive review leaves that album somewhere in the 7.75 range. That is a fantastic score. Because of schooling, people think that a 70% score is average, but it’s not. In the world of music reviewing, 50% or a 5.0 is an average score. A 9.0 or an A in my scale is practically going to be impossible. I debated just using a ten point scale as my scoring system but I almost felt too pinned in by that. I want these reviews to have a bit of wiggle room. Because even if we agree an album is fantastic, I might say it’s an 8.5 and you might say 8. But we could both agree on giving the album an A- according to my scale, at least.
So that’s where I stand with my grading system. Do you have any concerns or questions you want clarification on? Should I throw down a ten point score alongside my letter grade? Feel free to leave a comment down at the bottom with any questions or insights about this that you may have.