5 star ratings

Yep. I have noticed that when an album is brand new all the fanboys(and fangirls)will immediately give it a five star rating when it's unlikely they have even heard it more than twice. 

Yep! but trying to tell overraters about it!!

really?

I think that too know how liberal someone is being with ratings, it really helps to understand their tastes, what they personally value, how they approach music, and what they think about the music.

While I'm not really into the rating thing, and only rated lots when testing out the quick rating feature after it was implemented, and would be less liberal with my ratings now (I don't feel like going back and editing those, and my tastes/ interests have rather changed in that time), I would like to compare it to my favourite albums that make similar music/ are of similar styles. I don't like Foxtrot or Moonmadness much (prefer Moonmadness), but I likely would still give theme threes even though they wouldn't make my top 1000 favourite albums (Foxtrot would be more like a two in terms of my personal taste).

My ratings here won't tell one much except how much I have valued albums, and my estimation is not static. My benchmarks will differ from another's. I do like to compare to my favourite in the category/ similar albums. If I were rating/ reviewing an electronic music album, I might not be comparing it to a symphonic prog album and basing my rating that way. I do much prefer it when people are explicitly comparing for rating and reviewing purposes to other music as similar as possible. What often bothers me is that many genuinely seem to confuse the subjective, individual nature of music (that relationship between the material and the listener) with objective evaluation. I don't want people to say IMHO, but phrase things in such a way that its clear when one is speaking from one's perspective and making broad claims. I tend to avoid making statements such as "This is good" and "this is bad" unless I feel that I can objectively back it up, and try to differentiate that from my personal experience. There is music I consider bad using various objective measures but love.

One can be objective in certain ways, but enjoyment is personal. I've seen quite a few bad musical comparisons made to justify the ratings which exhibits ignorance (that said, as individuals we might associate differently).

dougmcauliffe wrote: Yeah some people are way too liberal with their 5 star ratings. Before I rate something I think of some of the 5 star bench marks. Foxtrot, Animals, Moonmadness... and then I think, "is this in the same league or come close." Not all 5 stars are created equally however.

I've said many times before but consistency is overrated. Just not having a stinker on an album is not enough. I think that at the end of day 'feeling' is just as valid as anything. The top 20 albums largely makes sense so the overall big picture is still intact.

For example, resistance by IQ

There is a thread about this, where some PA reviewers explain their rating rationale.

I think there are way to many five star reviews, here and on places like the zon. I own close to 1000 discs but seriously only about 50 of those (5%) deserve a five star rating. I was the odd man out on the thread I mentioned.

I give your topic one star...