NudeTayne: how do you score your ratings

NudeTayne 12.31.25	album listed is just what I'm currently listening to and will rate soon
ToSmokMuzyki 12.31.25	general flow of quality/time
NudeTayne 12.31.25	seems like par for the course but I personally would find it hard to find a numerical scale for an album if I just listened to it since some albums are growers
ToSmokMuzyki 12.31.25	eh i dont mind if im .5 off now and then if its not already a 4+ or particularly standout 3.5 im unlikely to ever revisit anyway some albums are also merely showers sometimes when i do revisit sthg it goes down instead LOL
NudeTayne 12.31.25	yeah that makes sense, 3.5 or below I listen to every once in a blue moon but might circle back around given the trigger to. being .5 off for a rating is also super relatable, don't got those decimal privileges
ToSmokMuzyki 12.31.25	if i had them i wouldnt use them, i'd rather round up/down than worry about another semi scale in the main scale some rly middly albums that are rly like a 3.26 im just like fk it give the 3.5
markjamie 12.31.25	Just the general feel of an album as a whole. To get a 5, there needs to be an element of time involved for me - at least 6 months, and sometimes years. For a 4.5, I usually have to connect to the album emotionally in some way - not just admire it or recognise it's significance. And I adjust ratings quite often on re-listening.
widowslaugh123 12.31.25	Damn that’s a crazy way to rate shit haha. I used to take ratings super seriously in my early years on sput but now I usually just give it baseline rating depending on my general “feel” of the album. There’s a bunch of albums I’ve listened to a million times and never rated cuz I couldn’t decide or whatever so I just said fuck it and give it whatever my initial vibe is and call it a day
ToSmokMuzyki 12.31.25	i'll now and again put some 4.5s up for trial 5s and rly focus on them to see if whatever flaws therein can be neglected/forgiven, and uh thats how ive only ended up with 9 kek
Calc 12.31.25	vibes.
NudeTayne 12.31.25	I really try not to adjust ratings but I get that sometimes shit just needs time to click with an album and you wanna backpedal. A 5 to me is a straight up all-timer and I want the vinyl buried with me when I die
Aids 12.31.25	vibes obviously
ToSmokMuzyki 12.31.25	burn me on a pyre ship with 100 copies of nordland ii
NudeTayne 12.31.25	vibes are cool but I prioritize longevity more than anything
NudeTayne 12.31.25	then if you give me 8 beers I'll write a review in 3 hours
el_newg 12.31.25	ive not rated on this site for years now but i still think about how I would rate records when listening for me, 5s are all time favs, never get tired of hearing them, incredible albums + formative or emotional connection 4.5s are basically 5s but just don't quite reach the same level for some reason or another. then my 4s are essentially 4.5s and so on
NudeTayne 12.31.25	if I'd have to say, my 4's are albums that I'm gonna skip a track or two on because it has some unnecessary filler or had a song go straight down the shitter
ScuroFantasma 12.31.25	Mostly I’m a fan of bands more so than individual albums, or, those albums will be the gateway to a discography over time. My 5s are therefore mostly the cardinal value given to the top of my ordinal rankings of my favorite bands’ albums. Often there are multiple, which makes sense I think: my favorite artists are those that make most of my favorite music. Sometimes there are the occasional absolute standouts from otherwise middling groups. Sometimes I don’t go for a full discog dive for whatever reason but one album still blows me away. Most of my other positive ratings are in reference to my 5s in some way (don’t quite reach the heights). I have about 50 5s from nearly 1k ratings. I’m probably a generous rater, though I don’t usually rate until I’ve spun something a few times unless it’s an easy 3.5 or something. I tend to listen to stuff I like and like the stuff I listen to though. 3s are usually just meh, 2.5s suck but aren’t offensive, anything below that is pretty much dog shit or severely disappointing.
NudeTayne 12.31.25	I'm like that with SOAD or even Pink Floyd so that's understandable, hell even Linkin Park or Pantera, but some bands go really bad directions
NudeTayne 12.31.25	I do however zero in on what I think is a band's peak and rate it higher than their other work, bad habit
nash1311 12.31.25	I have done what you do before, but typically only when I’m torn on the album or don’t know how to rate it properly such as, damn I hate half of this but adore half, where does this land, or something similar. But 90% of the time it’s more general such as: 3 - this is pleasant but otherwise nothing special 3.5 - I enjoy this. May or may not listen again depending 4 - love it. Will spin plenty and semi regularly 4.5 - one of my absolute favorites 5 - this can be one of my absolute favorites with 0 weak tracks or enhancements, or it can be something that’s both a favorite and despite its flaws it’s monumental to an era, genre, etc
nash1311 12.31.25	Frankly I like music in general so much it’s hard for me to put much below a 3. And that’s not because no such music exists it’s because I don’t listen to said music. I stick with what I know. If someone churns out lowest common denominator music say in metalcore, I don’t listen to them. So I never rate them. Anything sub 2.5 that’s like actual shit I also don’t listen to unless it’s a band I used to love that had fallen off the wagon such as ADTR and Underoath. Any other low ranking from me was something I went in blind on and absolutely hated it lol
NudeTayne 12.31.25	nash I get you on your Cure rating with that explanation
NudeTayne 12.31.25	and yeah it's tough giving something a sub 3 like it really needs to be bad
nash1311 12.31.25	Yeah I just don’t do it really. I have to truly find it offensive and like 99% of the time if I ever stumble upon that I quit after like 1 song anyway
NudeTayne 12.31.25	2025 Addison Rae is an easy 4
nash1311 12.31.25	Lmao I havent heard it (yet)
RogueNine 12.31.25	The number of songs I like on an album has a great deal to do with how I rate it. Nash, your 5 criteria is pretty much identical to mine. Also quite difficult for me to rate below 2.5 (hasn't happened yet) because if I dislike it that much, chances are I didn't even finish the album.
Flashmobba 12.31.25	I feel like an album is more than the sum of its parts, i score the overall gestalt - quality/flow/individual quality of songs/production/replayability (most important for me)
AlkemestRedux 12.31.25	1 = Pure dogshit. 1.5 = Had a listenable song or two but mostly dogshit. 2 = Equivalent of burnt garlic. Sure you can eat it but why? 2.5 = Uninspired, boring, copy-paste, generic music that I will probably forget about entirely. 3 = Some good ideas that were executed poorly or inconsistently overall unimpressive but at least it's a real album and tried some things. 3.5 = Solid and decent quality, will probably relisten occasionally but doesn't really grip me for whatever reason. Not bad but not my cup of tea also fits here. It also encompasses albums I want to 4, but they just don't quite make it. If I could splice scores I think 3.7-8 would be pretty common for me. 4 = Truly enjoyed, good songwriting and composition, good flow, overall a solid album that I'll probably listen to many times and recommend. Could improve in some areas but still enjoyable. 4.5 = Basically a 4 but everything dialed up. Really enjoyed or was very impressed by, very few criticisms I can think of. 5 = Classic. Doesn't mean it's always the best in the genre, but it stands out from the pack for some reason.
Demon of the Fall 12.31.25	mostly vibes up to and inc. 4/5, with the upper end of the scale very much dependent on longevity - I update regularly when returning. If I find myself returning often, then of course a bump is considered. Basic stuff, really. I do not consider rating individual tracks or thinking of an album as a sum of said tracks but the scale is naturally dependent on the number I enjoy, even if I hold 'overall vibe' in higher regard, most often. I can't remember 5ing anything in the past few years where I'd spent less than a year listening, returning regularly and finally having that 'ahh moment' admittedly I need to revamp mine as I've become too stingy. I'll make it my NY resolution because fuck shit you'll likely not stick to like 'drink less' lol
arthropod 12.31.25	I use the song rating average method sometimes, but usually I just rate intuitively. It looks like this: 1 - traumatic 2 - bland 3 - good but little replay value 4 - default rating for anything I like 5 - so good I look past its shortcomings The fraction ratings are various degrees of overlap between the above.
bc013 12.31.25	I rate each song 0.5-5 and then calculate the average. However, I typically exclude interludes and sound bites which are less than or slightly over one minute in length. I also don't allow hidden tracks and meandering sections, which ultimately lead nowhere, to impact a song's rating. For example, Norma Jean's album Wrongdoers contains a 0:50 track [Afterhour Animals], which doesn't factor into the final score because it's under the one minute mark. Also, despite its 14:11 minute runtime [Sun Dies, Blood Moon], I only rate the actual song which ends at about 8 minutes. If I factored in the extra 6 minutes of seemingly pointless feedback the track would be rated much lower, but the actual song is quite good. I've found that making these few adjustments provides a more accurate rating for most of the albums I listen to. Ultimately, Wrongdoers feels closer to a 4.0 album than a 3.5 album to me. Wrongdoers... all tracks rated = 3.68 Wrongdoers... excluding short and long segments = 4.1
nash1311 12.31.25	^ damn that’s clinical lol
jrlikestodance 12.31.25	I usually go off vibes and how many songs I'm likely to revisit, but also sometimes an album could be quality and not something I'll play often. I think there's typically variance depending on genre based on specific factors.
Christbait 12.31.25	Listen to an album, group songs by quality, and then listen to it at least once or twice more. On subsequent playthroughs, I get a bit more critical and may start hitting skip if a song hasn't grabbed me by the second or third go-around. From there I consider the overall strength of the album against any weak tracks or weak areas of production and go from there. Generally if an album is good and I get the urge to relisten to it then it's basically an automatic 3.5 with room to move up and down depending on how/if it sticks.
cylinder 12.31.25	i listen to my heart
bc013 12.31.25	@nash1311 It seems a bit much but is actually an organic process in practice. I use Musicbee so rating songs based on a 0.5-5 scale is very simple. The most clinical part is calculating the average, but it's a basic calculation. If anything, the process provides a degree of consistency across my music collection, which also makes creating smart/dynamic playlists in Musicbee easy as well.
Sniff 01.01.26	I 3.5 everything
Asdfp277 01.01.26	based on vibes
nash1311 01.01.26	Yeah I wasn’t knocking you, more impressed by the dedication. Everybody should have their own system
evilford 01.01.26	My ratings are 5.0/5.0
Hyperion1001 01.01.26	vibes and knowledge that my opinions are all correct.
brickhed 01.01.26	i have a small mental checklist of everything i look for in whatever rating. like for 3.5, theres a lot of good ideas but not done well enough for a 4.0. and its a good "once in a blue moon" type album, which depends if i have it physically or not. so mostly vibes.
FearThyEvil 01.01.26	1=Pretty much nothing of value here! The worst of the worst with nothing creative or good. 1.5=Pretty similar but there's something extremely small that makes it a little bit more less garbage I guess but generally still pretty awful. 2=Pretty poor quality overall but there might be a few moments here or there, couple songs whatnot that make up for a lot of the garbage surrounding the album. 2.5=Probably the rarest rating I ever give out because it's album that is half good half bad. Could be misdirection of sound, bad production quality, an interesting concept that just doesn't live up to what it was going for. Definitely has a mixture of good stuff in there too but it's technically the "mixed" rating for me. 3=Close to how a 2.5 feels for me but just a bit more in the mix of "I can come back to this once in awhile" It's nothing special and I certainly won't remember it a ton but every now and then it picques my interest and is worth a listen. More good then bad but missing plenty of touches. 3.5=Verging on something special or really great but just missing the mark here and there to push it to the upper echelon. Definitely has some wow moments but not enough to get it to the 4 range. 4=An album that I'll definitely continue to listen to quite often with most of the songs on it being good to great to superb. However, it has the occasional dud or two that just slightly hold it back to true greatness or non-stop replay-ability that the next two ratings get. 4.5=Pretty much magnificent must hear records with only that one or two minor slightly weak songs but the rest being pure excellence. Really only small missteps that keep it just slightly away from that 5/5 score but these are all truly special albums. Tons of replay value, extremely memorable and just purely outstanding. 5=For me, this means the purest of excellent music for me, in my opinion of course. These albums all mean something massive to me and are just awe inspiring with jaw dropping moments/songs. Now there actually can be a dud or two on these albums but the quality of the rest of the album is so top tier that it takes over the small missteps. I hold these albums to extremely high standard and consider them truly some unique albums that I feel empty without them lol. I've probably listened to each one of them a huge amount of times by now, the value they bring as a listener for me is invaluable.
bc013 01.01.26	@nash1311 No worries. It's definitely cool to see how everyone else rates their music. There's a large range spanning analytical to "whatever I feel in the moment" and everything else in between, which is pretty neat.
BAT 01.01.26	Do I like it: 3.5+. That's about it tbh. Generally never rate stuff I haven't sat thru, and generally only check out stuff that's been recced or interests me on some level, if something doesn't click for me I usually just kinda forget it idk over the years I've gotten more into cateloging movies I've watched more than albums, typically I just grab CDs I bought years ago at random and throw them in a car for a few weeks.
trilo 01.01.26	mostly vibes but i do try to adhere to the "objectivity" of the number e.g. a 2.5 is actually an average album rather than the skewed scoring you see in a lot of media (games especially) where anything below like a 7/10 is considered bad. i try to avoid extremes unless i have complete conviction something is amazing or dogshit so a lot of my ratings end up between 2-4. it's rare for me to feel an album is so good or so bad it deserves a rating outside of that. also in general i try to rate (and comment on) albums i'm more positive about than negative. some mfs on here spend too much time on music they don't like
nash1311 01.01.26	Some mf spend too much time on music they don’t like [2]
NudeTayne 01.01.26	yeah idc ima bomb sleep token until the whole band offs themselves
platttt 01.01.26	all my ratings are based solely on my personal enjoyment and attachment to an album 5 is a step above, perfect, legitimate emotional attachment 4.5 is a truly exemplary album, very consistent, 2 or less skips 4 is something that might hit your rotation for a while during the year but it's not quite something you spin thaaaat often. often enough to keep in your library, and it's really great nearly every time you listen to it, but you still might feel guilty and wanna delete it when you scroll through. 3.5 is a solid album, enjoyable, with some standout songs. worth revisiting a few times, and can hit on occasion, but not much above that. 3 is decent. it was a pleasant listen but you can't see yourself putting it on often. you commend the artist for their effort that you certainly couldn't personally put up, but you're not revisiting this one anytime soon, sorry. mild record, unmemorable. 2.5 is skippable. filler outweighs anything memorable. frankly, 2.5 and anything below are swill, not worth the time of day. 2 is bad. will likely never listen again. bad experience 1.5 is not simply a bad album, it is particularly offensive, for whatever reason. 1 is the true bottom of the barrel. very rare.