Hell Yeah, It's an amazing album!!! It deserves a 10/10 anyday but still it isn't the best record of all time. I mean I can understand if you don't think a record can be perfect but there will always be records that are near perfect and the closest thing to perfect is always the next best thing so I would give it a 10.

Besides, I don't think that a 10 has to a perfect record, only the best of the best. Similarly, records that get a 0 are never devoid of any value whatsoever... there is always comic value, at the least.

quote:

Originally posted by L. R. William Spencer:
I dunno. Would you prefer it got some arbitrary number like 9.7? Who gives a 9.7? That doesn't make any sense... it is the most meaningless difference (between a 9.7 and a 10).

There is a difference. One is saying the album is PERFECT, FLAWLESS. There is no 10. It just bugs me. It's not a issue with the scoring system, I know a few magazines that have never given out perfect scores and maintained the numerical scoring system.

Obviously we get different impressions from the numbers. To me, there is nothing better than a 10 and there is nothing worse than a 0, so the reviewer is saying that the album is the most amazing shit he's ever heard and he'll retire right there and then.

I admit that this is an interesting topic -- not the album, but the concept of a piece of art being perfect or a "perfect 10".

I've had to discuss, justify and explain my opinion on this subject many times. This is what I usually say, and you can disagree with me, but I'm not sure how YOU CAN PROVE that I'm wrong.

1. I agree that there are no perfect works of art. However, I feel strongly that certain works of music, film, painting, etc., will have an incredibly-strong effect on certain individuals. These will be different for everyone, yet they WILL exist, at least for everyone who will accept it.

2. "10" doesn't mean perfect. It means the best you have been exposed to, and yes, that's incredibly subjective. Maybe, if you see or hear something better than your current 10s, you'll drop them to 9.9 or 9.8 or whatever. I don't really care.

3. I believe that there are far more musical compositions/albums worthy of a 10 (or at least, are 10-ish) than there are movies. I have spent the last 30 years of my life assigning over 30,000 movies ratings on a 1-10 scale, and I have TWO films I give a 10. No, I won't tell you which ones, although you could search around here for five minutes and find the answer. Remember: ultimate truth and beauty are far too subjective to be easily transferred.

4. Never listen to me or anyone else, unless you can take the BS. I'm not trying to unload any BS on you, but I might unintentionally do it. (It's not ALL my fault...remember, everybody has their own Sacred Cows and Pariahs.) I say: the fewer SCs and Ps, the better.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mark f,

I'm with Mark. By it's very nature, art cannot be perfect. Perfect is a meaningless term when describing music. It's not an adjective that applies. But that doesn't mean you can't give something a 10. I mean, if something absolutely blows you away and has no major flawsin your view, why not give it a 10? If it's a one-in-a-thousand album, what's wrong with giving it a 10? I think people understand that you're not saying an album is perfect when you give it a ten, because it doesn't make any sense. All you're saying is that an album has an extremely strong effect on you, brings you great satisfaction or pleasure, and is far and above most other albums you've heard.

I think it's interesting how the 5 point rating scale doesn't quite have the same controversy. Not so many people would want to say that 5/5 is perfect. But really they're just numbers - they don't describe people's reactions to the music or film all that well. They can only serve as rough approximations at best - and at worst they have no relation to the 'goodness' contained therein whatsoever.

quote:

Originally posted by vitunkrapula:
I think it's interesting how the 5 point rating scale doesn't quite have the same controversy. Not so many people would want to say that 5/5 is perfect.

Well, I think the larger the denominator, the more difficult a perfect seems to achieve. If you were in school and taking five question quiz, it wouldn't be all that impressive to answer all 5 questions correctly and score a 5/5. Because p4k uses a .1 scoring increment, they're essentially using a 100 point scale. Scoring perfect on a 100 question test, is a much more daunting task. Even the best of us are usually bound to miss a few.

Yeah I know - I was more interested in the psychological aspect than the math. A 10 is somehow much more intimidating than a 5/5. More than probabilities and such can account for, IMO.

odd, but true...

quote:

Originally posted by vitunkrapula:
Yeah I know - I was more interested in the psychological aspect than the math. A 10 is somehow much more intimidating than a 5/5. More than probabilities and such can account for, IMO.

Well 5/5 you only have 5 ratings to hand out (ten if they go .5), but with decimal ratings you have so many ratings to give out (100), that a 10 is pretty daunting.

I personally think that the five-star system is better. A decimal is so arbitrary. There is a clear difference between a three star and, say, a three and a half star, but wtf is the difference between a 7.2 and a 7.4 or something like that?

I like the decimal system. I'm sure that if I were reviewing album under the 5 star system, there'd be times when I would be stuck between whether to give an album, say, 3.5 or 4 stars. That doesn't happen with a decimal system. If you want to convert a decimal score to a star score it's real easy. You just round. Can't do it the other way around though.


One thing I think we can all agree on is that Stylus has most retarded rating system in all the web. Letter grades? Give me a break. I've never heard anyone who thinks that's a good idea. Stylus is just the all-around shittiest music website out there. Nothing else I've seen even comes close.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
I like the decimal system.

If I ever start my own music mag, the rating system is going to be 0.0000 to 0.1000. I'd give In the Aeroplane Over the Sea a 0.0874. Very few albums would recieve the coveted 0.1000 rating.

That'd be great, Eric. Sign me up. Only don't you mean 0.000 to 1.000? Doesn't seem to make much sense to give something great a .1 rating.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
That'd be great, Eric. Sign me up. Only don't you mean 0.000 to 1.000? Doesn't seem to make much sense to give something great a .1 rating.

Haha I think I like his idea more. And I'm pretty sure he didn't make a mistake.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
That'd be great, Eric. Sign me up. Only don't you mean 0.000 to 1.000? Doesn't seem to make much sense to give something great a .1 rating.

No way dude. 0.1000 is the ultimate rating. You have to release a knockdown slice of perfection like "Let it Bleed" to get the 0.1000. Even "OK Computer" only received a 0.0989.

I mostly agree with ericq75's rating of OK Computer, but I think I'd give it approximately a 0.099076. I tried not to put too much detail into my calculation, but I think mine is a little more accurate if you analyze the album empirically. Six significant digits doesn't really seem like too much when rating an album.

I'll argue my way all the way that 0.000006 if you want me to. -_-


But seriously...I'm just kidding.

quote:

Originally posted by less_success:
I mostly agree with ericq75's rating of OK Computer, but I think I'd give it approximately a 0.099076. I tried not to put too much detail into my calculation, but I think mine is a little more accurate if you analyze the album empirically. Six significant digits doesn't really seem like too much when rating an album.

I'll argue my way all the way that 0.000006 if you want me to. -_-


But seriously...I'm just kidding.

we'd better keep this under wraps. if pitchfork gets ahold of this, some new album is going to get a .000001...

hahaha, I'm going to make a new number rating system based on radians. Two pi radians is a perfect score, and I'm only reviewing math rock records.

Hahahaha