When is a review TOO Subjective ??

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   You don't need any reasoning at all - pure ratings can also be a helpful guide when buying albums. The trick is to pick your favorite reviewers and then to follow their ratings:

- pick those reviewers that agree with you on certain landmark albums - ideally those which are controversial. So if you find a reviewer who agrees with you on CttE, Trout Mask Replica, Hot Rats, Terria, Scenes From A Memory, The Odyssey (SyX), ... then it is highly likely that you won't go completely wrong if you buy an album which is highly rated by that reviewer + is in a genre that you generally like.

That's also my approach at www.ratingfreak.com - I'll add a "trusted reviewers" feature in the next few weeks. Then you can view top album lists by genre (rock/metal/jazz - not more specific) that show you albums which you haven't rated yet and which are highly rated by those reviewers.

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MikeEnRegalia Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: April 22 2005 Location: Sweden Status: Offline Points: 21820	Posted: May 18 2006 at 06:24
	You don't need any reasoning at all - pure ratings can also be a helpful guide when buying albums. The trick is to pick your favorite reviewers and then to follow their ratings: - pick those reviewers that agree with you on certain landmark albums - ideally those which are controversial. So if you find a reviewer who agrees with you on CttE, Trout Mask Replica, Hot Rats, Terria, Scenes From A Memory, The Odyssey (SyX), ... then it is highly likely that you won't go completely wrong if you buy an album which is highly rated by that reviewer + is in a genre that you generally like. That's also my approach at www.ratingfreak.com - I'll add a "trusted reviewers" feature in the next few weeks. Then you can view top album lists by genre (rock/metal/jazz - not more specific) that show you albums which you haven't rated yet and which are highly rated by those reviewers.
	Release Polls Listened to:

Certif1ed Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: April 08 2004 Location: England Status: Offline Points: 7559	Posted: May 18 2006 at 07:37
	Ratings can be helpful, but that is not how I see the purpose of this site - I think it's more intelligent than X is fab and Y is crap, which is a debate that has raged since the dawn of mindless fanboyism. There are plenty of sites that do ratings - and I don't think that ProgArchives is just another one - at least, it wasn't when I joined up. You can always go and look at a ratings-oriented site if a review here has made you curious. Of course, just because you agree with a reviewer about one album, it doesn't mean you'll agree with them about others. I'd be willing to bet that there are plenty of people who have read a couple of my reviews and said to themselves - "Yeah - that's almost what I think!", and then read others and said "What crap - it's nothing like that!". I know this to be true because I've had "fanboy" PMs about some of my reviews, and death threat PMs about others. I find it more useful to search out reasoned reviews among the dross for albums that are highly rated, and simply read well-written reviews using the RSS feed - which means I see every review as it comes onto the site and can filter that way. This site suits my tastes for reviews - if it ever turned into a RateYourMusic clone, I'd find somewhere else to lurk. This is a Progressive site. -------------------------------- Your site looks good, BTW
	The important thing is not to stop questioning.

MikeEnRegalia Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: April 22 2005 Location: Sweden Status: Offline Points: 21820	Posted: May 18 2006 at 07:55
	^ thanks! You should try it - create an account and rate an album, using all the inputs that are provided. I'd be interested in your feedback! I'd be particularly interested in feedback about the attributes that you can rate for each album - I'm not entirely happy with them yet. BTW: Of course the strategy that I described above includes the risk that you won't like an album rated highly by a "trusted reviewer" ... but then again this can be a chance for you to expand your musical horizon. Maybe you'll grow to like it.
	Release Polls Listened to:

Antennas Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: February 01 2006 Location: Netherlands Status: Offline Points: 331	Posted: May 18 2006 at 07:59
	Hi all, It's still a bit of a question to me how to give ratings - I always try to be objective, and sometimes that means I just give 3 stars to something I personally like very very much (and thus consider it a 5 stars album myself) as I realize that I should take into account that a 'personal love' isn't always a 'masterpiece' for everyone else. I think everyone has a different approach to this, but we should surely try and distinguish between fanboyism (or fangirlism ) and an objective opinion. Baahhh... I fear this comment is uncomprehensible... - hope you get what I mean to say.
	Jesus never managed to figure out the theremin either

MikeEnRegalia Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: April 22 2005 Location: Sweden Status: Offline Points: 21820	Posted: May 18 2006 at 08:31
	I guess that as reviewers get more experienced (and listens to more different styles and bands) their ability grows to recognize which of their favorite albums are objectively great and which ones are really not that great but nevertheless special to the reviewer because of other, really personal factors.
	Release Polls Listened to:

micky Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 02 2005 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 46843	Posted: May 20 2006 at 11:20
	granted I haven't reviewed that many albums yet.... Ivan keeps me pretty damn busy with the symphonic team but I give two ratings in my reviews. My opinion of the albums place in the grand scheme of things prog (the rating submitted to the site) and my personal view of it. While I loved ELO 2 and consider it essential.... I'm not too blind to see that many people (err.. all hahahha) would not. I reviewed the Magma live album from Bruxelles 1971 and LOVED it... gave it 4 or 5 stars personally.. but is it anywhere near an essential album... no way. Gave it 3 stars to the site.
	The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip