Ryus: not finishing albums in 2024

Ryus 01.28.24	no hate listens 2k23 has given rise to no shitty albums 2k24 keep party rocking sputbros...
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	this is the way. I can usually tell if an album is worth listening to in the first 30 seconds.
ToSmokMuzyki 01.28.24	nah cant catch em all that way
Hawks 01.28.24	I'll usually give it 3-5 tracks depending on song/album length or whatever but if it sucks after that then I turn it off ahrd.
Ryus 01.28.24	catchin em all starts to feel futile after a while i wont be able to spend as much time listening to music soon b/c of life so i dont rly wanna waste my time listening to garbage
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law?wprov=sfti1#
ArsMoriendi 01.28.24	That's totally fine, just don't rate albums that you don't finish ;) Imagine 1-ing an album cuz the first three tracks suck, but it picks up quality completely in the 2nd half
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	you can rate whatever you want for any reason brother
Ryus 01.28.24	nah im 1ing em all
FrozenFirebug 01.28.24	i can tell the objective quality of an album by skipping to any random point within each of the songs and listening to a 1.6 second snippet of it, with a 20% margin of error i usually end up listening to it anyway even if i know it's gonna be shit because a 1 in 5 chance of being wrong gnaws at my gambling tendencies
ArsMoriendi 01.28.24	Can vs. should It's a bummer walking around with a low rating for something you haven't properly tried, flaunting it to others, especially fans who have heard it in full
Hawks 01.28.24	Yeah sorry I didn't have to finish Sleep Token to know it's a 1 lol.
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	nah brother I’ve listened to a grand total of 5 Eminem songs and I can tell you for a fact every single album is a 1
ArsMoriendi 01.28.24	@Hawks: idk what if it's a 1.5 cuz the last 2 tracks weren't as bad
Ryus 01.28.24	who cares tho lol
Ryus 01.28.24	i used to care but this is a dying site with no credibility if you want to 1 bladees discog without hearing a second of it then go ahead
ArsMoriendi 01.28.24	I guess I care because it'd be an insincere spreading of negativity
osmark86 01.28.24	yeah this way of listening to music is the way. Another strat is to put on a bunch of albums in a queue and listen while doing something else, like gaming, and if something makes you actively listen you know it's good and you jam that album again.
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	i promise it is a very sincere spreading of negativity. 90% of everything sucks, why pretend it doesn’t.
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	@osmark that’s exactly how I’ve been digesting new music since i was a teenager.
osmark86 01.28.24	I can also kinda agree with Ars here. If I think an album is kinda shit or meh or whatever I generally don't really bother rating it if I haven't given it an honest chance. I tend to rate stuff I actually dig a lot more actively than things I don't dig.
osmark86 01.28.24	my 1s are reserved for the truly shit excuses for art. if something is just kinda amateur, bad or whatever then I just kinda think "probably just not for me" and move on with the day.
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	yeah i honestly rarely rate albums that low unless i really really hate it. all I’m really saying is that ratings are personal and you can rate anything you want any way you want for any reason.
Hawks 01.28.24	I jam stuff that I think I'm gonna dig 99% of the time and if I end up not liking it for some reason then I will rate low. The other 1% of the time I jam something that I know will be bad just for shits and gigs lol. But I normally never go into an album expecting to hate it. Which is why I have way way way more ratings that are 3.5 or higher than 3 or lower.
Ryus 01.28.24	im choosing not to rate stuff i dont finish but i dont have an issue w people that do i just rate to catalog the stuff that i listen to in case i wanna hear it again…which is kinda why i gave up listening to bad stuff. since idc to hear it again idc to rate it
Ryus 01.28.24	all I’m really saying is that ratings are personal and you can rate anything you want any way you want for any reason. [2]
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	I just checked and I have less than 100 albums out of 1600 total ratings rated below a 2. i think that’s totally reasonable.
ArsMoriendi 01.28.24	Not finishing albums you don't see value a few tracks in is good though, maybe even fantastic. I often sample 3 songs from an album and decide that I don't need to go further Too many people rate albums to seem well-rounded/boost their objectivity scores, when the point of rating and discussing albums here is to share good music, find good music, and build comradery with fellow music nerds. @Hyperion1001: but if you only heard 50% of an album, what exactly is the person rating when they rate the album? Clearly not the back half
osmark86 01.28.24	Yeah I also would say that 99% of the time I go into albums looking for something that I hope is something special or at least something I can vibe with. I sometimes do shot in the darks as well for the fun of it, but I don't think I ever put on an album I know I'll hate haha. That sort of masochism is not for me, but all the power to you Hawks.
osmark86 01.28.24	"all I’m really saying is that ratings are personal and you can rate anything you want any way you want for any reason." oh absolutely, there's no arguing this really. everyone should feel free to rate things the way they want to.
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	im rating how i feel about it which is that i think it’s sucks. if the first half sucks then there’s a 99.99999% chance the back half sucks too.
Hawks 01.28.24	I mean that's a rare occasion lol. Something like Sleep Token and stuff so bad you can't help but listen once lol.
Hawks 01.28.24	Agreed Hype, I do the same thing lol.
Ryus 01.28.24	yeah once you know your taste then you know
osmark86 01.28.24	@Hawks: lol yeah I bet. btw wtf is Sleep Token, they seem kinda edgy like high-brow Gwar or something. Are they really that terrible?
ArsMoriendi 01.28.24	Honestly I don't even try albums for artists/genres I'm predisposed to hate Like what's the fucking point
osmark86 01.28.24	yeah I think we've all heard so much music considering how fucking nerdy we all are that we just know sometimes ;)
Ryus 01.28.24	they are no exaggeration the worst band i have ever heard in my life its like imagine dragons mixed with the shittiest metal youve ever heard, plus bonus extremely cringe lore
Hawks 01.28.24	They are that terrible yes.
Ryus 01.28.24	"Honestly I don't even try albums for artists/genres I'm predisposed to hate" bc ive flipped on some stuff that i used to hate. my taste is less set in stone than i often acknowledge, but i think im at the point where i know what i like and im happy with it
osmark86 01.28.24	I mean I tried Sturgill Simpson because he seemed kinda like an interesting artist in a genre I normally wouldn't touch with a barge pole. But most of the time I avoid stuff I know I'll likely think is shit, because I don't really like listening to be a chore.
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	i was having this conversation with someone earlier and yeah i tend to agree osmark. sure there is value in exploring and expanding your tastes but I’ve listened to so much music at this point that i just kind of know what im looking for. i dont even think that’s a bad thing, it’s just self awareness.
osmark86 01.28.24	@Hawks: damn, see know you've gone and made me curious. I'm enjoying really good music too (listening to Ilion), but fuck I feel like I gotta see how bad it gets. WHY MAN?!
osmark86 01.28.24	@Ryus: damn that description is not helping my "keep my ears clean from filth" campaign I got going... curiosity bout to kill the cat et al
Hawks 01.28.24	That's what I'm saying. Every now and then you get the urge to do that lmao.
osmark86 01.28.24	lol you make a strong point
garas 01.28.24	this is the way [∞]
Hyperion1001 01.28.24	ive also found that expanding my taste has usually come around organically. it rarely happens when i force myself to listen to things out of my comfort zone. good example is that I used to think i hated all country music but my wife started playing stuff like Conway twiddy and David Allen coe in the car a few years ago and i was like “wait a second this kinda fucks?” usually always happens like that.
Ryus 01.28.24	country is a top-tier genre
ArsMoriendi 01.28.24	I've flipped on artists too, and maybe even genre, but there's just kinda some styles of music I know I won't and I'm okay with admitting that. Why try harder to get into stuff like black metal when I've essentially never enjoyed a single moment of it I feel like anything I've flipped one had more of a mixed response like "i like elements A and B, but C and D ruin it for me" etc
osmark86 01.28.24	Ok Sleep Token sound about as consciously pop as anything which does make it a bit bland, but gotta at least give respect to their singer who has a great voice. Also can tell that these musicians seem to have some talent between them, which immediately makes them better than a lot of other shit I've heard if I'm being honest. At least this is what I'm getting from listening to Take Me Back To Eden. Do I think it's good and something I'd listen to though? Probably not.
robertsona 01.28.24	Insofar as any of this matters, you should not rate an album you didn’t finish.
osmark86 01.28.24	"ive also found that expanding my taste has usually come around organically. it rarely happens when i force myself to listen to things out of my comfort zone." this is how I got into kraut & psychedelic/space rock. Always been there kinda lurking for me but I was never really that interested until about 2 years ago when it just really hit me how much I enjoy that sound.
Hawks 01.28.24	Yep sometimes certain stuff just clicks. You'll hear something that you'd normally not dig, start to like it and next thing you know you're binging a bunch of shit just like it.
robertsona 01.28.24	defining “organic” would be interesting. social life brings me into all sorts of nominally inorganic music-exploration sessions, most of them admittedly bunk.
garas 01.28.24	> Insofar as any of this matters, you should not rate an album you didn’t finish. I disagree. When you find something absolutely abysmal, then why should you resist to slap a sweet 1.0 on it?
robertsona 01.28.24	There are little nitpicky exceptional possibilities, but I stand pretty firm on the binary situation of having finished or not finished a work of art, having experienced it in full or not having done so. What if the last song was totally different and really good?
Hawks 01.28.24	Yeah that whole argument is kinda dumb to me. Why make yourself suffer??? And if you wanna rate it who cares? Is it affecting your life that much? Lol god forbid you only listen to 7 tracks of an absolute shitfest instead of all 20 unbearable tracks before throwing a 1 on it!
osmark86 01.28.24	Hawks knows. Once you jam Die Woodys - Fichtl's Lied you just know you're in for a ride down into the wonderful land of old school German polka and you won't know what hit you.
robertsona 01.28.24	What if I absolutely hate the first 10 seconds of a record? The first minute? Five minutes? Where do you draw a line? I can’t help but see the burden of proof lying with the person moving the evaluative goalposts from the hard limit of having finished the damn thing.
Ryus 01.28.24	"Insofar as any of this matters" yeah i dont think it does at all, tbh. rate whatever you want however you want, this site has no credibility
Ryus 01.28.24	if youre talking about sincerely evaluating a piece of art then of course i agree, but yeah
robertsona 01.28.24	This is assuming rating things matters, which I figure is the assumption on a site like this Ars has the right idea, though: my insisting we should hold this bar is not incompatible with me thinking it’s fine that garas never touch a k pop album because he knows it’s not his thing, etc
Hawks 01.28.24	Everyone has their own rating system and Ryus is right nobody gives a fuck what any of us think so rate how you want lmao.
robertsona 01.28.24	I feel like if I fail to hold the bar on this arbitrary activity I’ll start talking over the course of years perhaps decades to an increasing amount of people who “actually” think it’s okay to shelf albums in their mind immediately after their first instinctive hit of “good”/“not good”
osmark86 01.28.24	yeah people only cares about ratings when their trying to prove what a piece of shit the other person they are cockfighting with is
osmark86 01.28.24	@robertsona: I think the general attitude to assessing things will, on average, stay the same over time. there'll be people like you and people unlike you on that matter.
robertsona 01.28.24	I think streaming services are transforming listening rapidly—rapidly—in the direction sanctioned by being ok with slapping a 1 on an album after 2 songs
garas 01.28.24	> What if the last song was totally different and really good? That little 0.5 difference doesn't really matters, imo. One song can't save an entire album from being pure mess. (I rarely give 1.0s, so I don't feel guilty in this, though.)
robertsona 01.28.24	Yeah, I’m rarely inclined to give the lowest rating. Closes the imagination. Theres not something out there ten times better than your favorite album, but surely There’s something fifty times worse than the worst thing you have ever heard.
Hawks 01.28.24	Same I have very few 1's lol. Idk how many ratings 2 or below that I have but the number pales in comparison to my ratings 3 or above.
Ryus 01.28.24	"I think streaming services are transforming listening rapidly—rapidly—in the direction sanctioned by being ok with slapping a 1 on an album after 2 songs" i agree that streaming lets you blaze your way thru a thousand new albums a yr and im kind of trying to stop that this year (entry #3). i think slowing down is good
robertsona 01.28.24	“One song can't save an entire album from being pure mess.” This feels like a logical fallacy of some sort. Okay, what if it were an album you got six songs into and the album was ten songs and the last /two/ were great (even though the next two you were missing only pretty good)? We can keep going—doesn’t it feel easier just to set this goalpost at by far the most natural point at which it could be set? But w/e lol not gonna change minds here
garas 01.28.24	Well, it depends on just a personal scale. I'm just totally on the side of "feel free to rate albums low", since many people are hesitant to say out loud that certain albums are indeed awful.
osmark86 01.28.24	yeah 99% of my ratings are 3 or higher basically. I don't really see much value in rating albums lower most of the time.
osmark86 01.28.24	"since many people are hesitant to say out loud that certain albums are indeed awful." I kinda reserve mostly for the fact that sometimes an album just doesn't fit my tastes, but is not necessarily bad because of that. I just don't personally like it, but I can still see some merit to the artistry and therefore avoid to rate it low. However if I find something is just objectively (as liberally as I can use that word here) awful, lacking in any genuine artistry and just generally only exists for attention-grabbing, then I'll slap a bad rating for it.
garas 01.28.24	"...just generally only exists for attention-grabbing" This is actually reeeeeeally accurate, and something I can 100% get behind. (coughs Liturgy discography coughs) "just doesn't fit my tastes" Fair point, and I also tend to avoid delivering 1.0s in that case. But if you are relatively quite experienced in a genre, and then you come across something irritatingly amateurish, then I see no reason to give it a 1.0 or 1.5.
ToSmokMuzyki 01.28.24	holy balls this just had 6 comments
osmark86 01.28.24	yeah but we're chillin
Purpl3Spartan 01.28.24	This is the way
ToSmokMuzyki 01.29.24	smok is not a quitter, all smok's ratings are 100% listened, smok rates music like women rate sex, what you give me i give back to you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Hawks 01.29.24	Lmao
ToSmokMuzyki 01.29.24	also on the flip side of the listen to half an album and rating it 1 do you know how many albums start at 3s and end at 1.5s? good head but then no thrust game smh
Avagantamos 01.29.24	less new music is good. spend time with the music you like
Ryus 01.29.24	agreed fam. its easy to get caught up with new releases
ArsMoriendi 01.29.24	I still don’t understand how some people can listen to 10 new albums a week The idea of that just gives me anxiety
ToSmokMuzyki 01.29.24	yea theres so much old shit cant bother with new shit most of the time
Ryus 01.29.24	by "new" i just meant new to me "I still don’t understand how some people can listen to 10 new albums a week" lol with so much good music i wanna find the shit i love, so you gotta dig
botb 01.29.24	I can’t imagine hate listening to anything unless I get real joy out of how unintentionally funny it is
Hyperion1001 01.29.24	"I still don’t understand how some people can listen to 10 new albums a week" i refuse to believe they retain anything its just some sort of dick measuring contest at that point. some people on RYM have like 25k ratings and i dont buy it even one bit.
unclereich 01.29.24	not listening to any new music in 2024[2]
PitchforkArms 01.29.24	did not read a single comment here but I came to say that I generally agree with the sentiment. I feel like most of the "album"-y things that add to a work (the flow, conceptual links between tracks, yadda yadda) are much less relevant when the songs simply are not for you, and if you're multiple tracks in, I think it's fair to say "yeah this isn't my thing and getting to the end of it may give me a slightly greater appreciation for it as a whole, but it doesn't add enough appreciation for me to actually need or want to finish it". I think that makes sense.
RogueNine 01.29.24	Lol credibility has nothing to do with this.
Demon of the Fall 01.29.24	'I just checked and I have less than 100 albums out of 1600 total ratings rated below a 2. i think that’s totally reasonable' that's reasonable yeah. I have 325 (out of 3058 - on RYM, slight variance here) rated 2 or below, but only 105 rated 1.5 or below. I rarely dish out anything below a 2 and would actually be willing to increase the frequency a little (but also give out more higher ratings!) I've heard 90% of these in full, the other few are hearing segments 'second-hand' or didn't quite finish them but will have heard the vast majority at one point in time
Demon of the Fall 01.29.24	It's definitely reasonable NOT to finish everything if you're not enjoying it. I wouldn't feel comfortable rating something I'd only heard a small portion of, but to each their own. I understand the chances of seeing a dramatic uptick in the closing stages is so unlikely, that you may as well not bother Then again, depends on how much you know about your own tastes, as I like to challenge myself / explore uncommon ground and if the sound is unfamiliar I may grow to enjoy something I previously didn't. Admittedly, I imagine most people know the difference and would maybe give things like that additional time
neekafat 01.29.24	wow
Ryus 01.29.24	“ Lol credibility has nothing to do with this.” wdym
AsleepInTheBack 01.29.24	I feel like this mentality is fine for someone who has formed a sturdy sense of personal taste (which I sense, Ryus, that you have) but dangerous for someone relatively early on their musical journey (speaking from experience of someone who ignored whole worlds of music for years because of this kind of mentality). “Dangerous” is an overdramatisation though, tbh, just kinda stifling?
AlexKzillion 01.29.24	this is why i have like a 4.0 avg user rating on here. my ratings come off like i like everything i hear but in reality if i feel like something is below a 3 a couple tracks in i just turn it off unless its an artist i already really like. so much music out there and not enough time to waste it on stuff that sucks... unless its like a car crash i can't look away from like that sleep token album
AsleepInTheBack 01.29.24	I just think that we are all far worse at judging what music is good for us and what music is not good for us on first few minutes of an album than we think we are, such that it’s a silly game, unless you’re content with no more pleasant surprise style albums sneaking their way into your life. Boundary stretching comes at the price of listing to a lot of shit, sometimes, maybe. Idk, the ideal music discovery process still alludes me, and I’m unable to convincingly articulate why, but the act of making yourself listen to stuff you don’t like seems to be part of it, I’m convinced. Either for better understanding your likes/dislikes and the precise boundaries thereof, or (as alluded to above) occasionally stumbling on something special that only revealed itself as such by the end of the first listen, or halfway into the second. It’s a balance though, ig; some albums are obvious shitters that no amount of further listening will reveal as anything other than shitters, and deserve to be thrown in toilet after the first track, but at least when I’m outside my usual comfort zone I don’t trust my nose on what smells shit.
AlexKzillion 01.29.24	"occasionally stumbling on something special that only revealed itself as such by the end of the first listen, or halfway into the second." i used to think this way too... but after so many years i can hardly think of any albums that i didn't enjoy much but the conclusion of the album intrigued me enough to check it again (and then it grew into something i actually liked). at least not by an artist i didn't already like. usually by that point of an album i'm already frustrated enough that i spent 40-70 minutes listening to it that i'm not gonna like the end of the album anyways even if they are the best tracks in a vacuum. if something about an album doesn't hook me within the first few tracks its DOA
z00sh 01.29.24	listening to shitty music can be quite entertaining at times tbf, but yeah it's definitely not ideal having to put yourself through all that dreck on a daily basis.
Demon of the Fall 01.29.24	'Idk, the ideal music discovery process still alludes me, and I’m unable to convincingly articulate why, but the act of making yourself listen to stuff you don’t like seems to be part of it, I’m convinced' agree with this 1000%, couldn't ever be satisfied without it being at least a part of my journey - now how much time anyone spends doing this will vary considerably and I imagine 'persevering through music' on a far too regular basis, would be unhealthy and could just cause resentment so yeah, it's all about finding the optimum balance (not entirely sure what that balance is yet, but I'm making strides in areas I hadn't previously traversed. If I have to kiss a few frogs along the way, then so be it)
Galbador 01.29.24	Sometimes it's fun to listen to multiple new albums a day. Rating them that quicly makes most of my ratings just a checklist for my self ofc. Dick measuring not necessarily involved unlike somebody here assumed. Pretty much albums 3,5 and above get another try and best new songs get in my daily rotation for a while. Some of the most important things about this site for me is this way of easing off my memory. Imo the important thing with this manic tactic is to stop to enjoy when you find something really worth while. Stopping if first few songs suck sounds like a good idea but I find it really hard to do. I usually manage to filter out truly bad albums with help of the sput thou.
WretchedCacophony 01.29.24	"i used to care but this is a dying site with no credibility if you want to 1 bladees discog without hearing a second of it then go ahead" this is unnecessarily negative ):
AsleepInTheBack 01.29.24	@demon and @galbafor agreed with you both For sure the relative time you decide to spend jamming stuff that you’re not actively enjoying or “getting” compared to fruitful deep dives is gonna be personal preference and impacted by how much spare time you have to dedicate to this hobby and how much music you already have under your belt. Like, if you’ve already jammed 100 death metal records I’m hardly gonna blame you if you have the confidence to check the first few songs off of a new dm release and immediately discard it if it doesn’t immediately click. I feel like the potential error my reasoning is seeking to avoid doesn’t apply to the same degree in that scenario.
ToSmokMuzyki 01.29.24	i am a miner looking for gold
Ryus 01.30.24	“ this is unnecessarily negative ):” haha nah its a good thing thats why i like this place
AsleepInTheBack 01.30.24	Let us interface as the walls cave in
cylinder 01.30.24	yeah, I'm feelin this too. I went super hard on new music in 2023 and ended up getting pretty burnt out. I did find a lot of gems, but a lot of shit too. Looking over all my ratings from the year, I just thought man, there's so much good stuff here that deserves more time instead of me just moving on to the next thing. it ain't about listening to as much as possible, it's about finding the stuff you love the most. it is a tricky balance, cuz you do have to dig to find those gems, but yeah, not finishing stuff you don't like in the first few tracks will be a great start i think
cylinder 01.30.24	on the subject of rating, I used to lean more towards Ars' position - that you shouldn't rate things you haven't finished. I guess I felt like if I did that, I couldn't be sure that I'm representing my opinion accurately. And it also used to frustrate me to see people giving low ratings to albums I love while admitting they didn't even finish it. But the older I get, the more I understand the nature of personal taste. This thread is a great discussion/example of that. If you really couldn't finish the album because you hated it so much, go ahead and a slap a 1 on that bitch because that's exactly what "1" means. Also agree with you Ryus that this site is not something to take so seriously, which is also something that dawned on me gradually over the years (tho one may argue it shouldn't have taken that long lol)
ToSmokMuzyki 01.30.24	not finishing deez nutz in 2024
AsleepInTheBack 01.30.24	Re new releases for sure ima let you all do the hard work and pick up the good shit once you sift through the bad. Enjoying focusing on the oldies atm given anything that’s stood the test of time for 50 years feels like it warrants my attention more than the Hail Mary of checking something unchecked. I’m sure my preference will change though.
Beardog 01.30.24	If you have time to listen to bad albums, lucky you. Also, respect for your mental fortitude lmfao. My music taste is already bad enough I won't go listening to music I also don't like myself
wildinferno2010 01.31.24	My self-esteem isn't high enough for me to go around hating shit without being able to say that I gave it a decent shot. But I'm working on it
Beardog 01.31.24	I usually don't go around hating shit but when I do I just point out the things I actually heard lol. One or two songs can give enough substantiation to not finish a record imo