MPJackV wrote:I also don't really understand how Catherine Lewis can give straight 5s and have the overall score be a 4. Granted, she does clarify her reasons for giving the group a 4, which seem to be valid, but something seems inconsistent.
For what it's worth, I really struggled with an overall score to give this album. If you think of our rating system as a letter grade (ie: a 5 is an "A", a 4 is a "B", a 3 is a "C", and so on), this was definitely a high B+ or A- album for me. So, since I'm limited to whole numbers, should that have been a 4 or a 5? I went with a 4, and since it was such a tough decision, I mentioned it explicitly in the review. As John mentioned above, I didn't give it straight 5s-- I gave more than half the tracks a "4", actually. The highs on this album were REALLY great, and so the album merited high scores on the overall categories.... but since a majority of the songs were not "5"s (in my opinion), I ultimately decided that i couldn't give the whole album a 5. Remember, as John and others have mentioned, that a "5" does NOT mean "pristine". It means excellent. There's a difference.
(just to cross-link from the Clef Hangers thread-- here's the link to what RARB scores mean:
http://www.rarb.org/scores.html )
As a fan and supporter of RARB, I don't want to start thinking that perhaps the reviews I'm reading aren't credible anymore.
Actually, what it sounds like you're saying is that you think the RATINGS aren't credible. It's one of the hardest parts of the job, actually: it's can be easy to write about song X or Y, or what does/doesn't work in an album, but assigning one number to reflect an entire album (or one aspect of the album) is damn hard. Especially since many albums have some really terriffic moments and some just so-so moments, so we writers have to assign one number that captures some sort of average. For the overall rating, I erred on the side of being a little conservative; perhaps on the other album-wide ratings, I was a bit generous. The difference between any rating is completely subjective-- and especially the difference between 4 and 5-- but I will stand behind the ratings I assigned this album and the review I wrote of it. Overall, it's a really, really good album with some freaking GREAT moments. I chose the score that i thought best reflected that, and I wrote words to justify my choice.
As always, thanks for reading. I really do appreciate the feedback!