HOW DO MY ALBUM RATINGS LOOK?
Hi, everyone! Since bazzreviews is approaching the two-year anniversary, and I’ve reviewed more albums than I can remember, I wanted to reflect on all the ratings I’ve given. After an overwhelming number of people saying “yes” to wanting to see how my ratings spread looks for bazzreviews, I ended up crunching some numbers and found my results.
For a bit of background, I rate albums on a 0-10 scale in increments of ½. Because you could throw the prefix “bazz-” on any word and have it sound cool, I decided to fittingly name this tool of measurement the BazzScale. A general rule of thumb for my reviews is that anything that I give less than 5/10 is considered “negative,” the range of 5 to 6.5 is “mixed,” or “average” and anything greater than 7/10 is “positive.” Here are the results:
At this moment in time, out of 113* albums I have reviewed since December of 2018, I have given almost 80% (90 albums) positive reviews. 15% (17) were mixed, and 5% (6) negative.
*114, if you include Cease and Desist by BLARF. It was one that I jokingly gave an 11/10, so I omitted that entry from the data set.
As you can see on this bar chart, the score I’ve given the most times is either 8.5 or 9, which is kind of surprising. I’ve given that score to a handful of records this year. I guess this is where the factors nostalgia and reflection comes in. After looking back at some of the older reviews, there are definitely some albums I rated a little bit higher than I would have now. So, moral of the story- was I a little too nice back then? Maybe.
My way of reviewing albums might be a little unorthodox, but hear me out. At the beginning of an album, I think the rating should start at a baseline of 5. It will work its way either up or down, depending on how much I’m enjoying the record. I don’t believe an album should ever be rated “very low” (i.e. <3) unless it’s just that unenjoyable or poorly crafted. I’ve never had that many negative experiences with records, but I’ll still try to find at least something positive to take away from a record.
Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed checking out my ratings spread! If you have any critiques, ideas to improve, or more you want to know, feel free to reach out to me and talk about it! Give me a follow on instagram, @bazzreviews, or shoot me an email, bazzreviews@gmail.com. DMs are always open- even if it’s not about music. See you real soon with more bazzreviews content coming soon!