Album rating theory
22nd Sep 2004
At what stage do you stop listening to an album? Why do you stop? Boredom? Consciously not overplaying it just to savour it that little bit more? It's crap? Not enough time in the day to listen to all the music you want to? Short attention span?
Here's a formula you can think about when you listen to a new album; it's not rigid, accurate, strict or even appropriate for all albums but, from my experience, it can be a good indicator of an album's longevity. Here's the theory: if you're still playing an album after 25 listens, it's probably very good. Sounds obvious, eh?
Let's break it down into four stages... the likely merits of an album according to the number of listens:
- 0 - 5 listens
To be honest if you're giving up in the first five listens you've probably not given the album enough opportunity to develop and grow on you... unless of course it's actually just crap - 5 - 15 listens
This stage can make or break an album. It has decent, melodious content but you've stopped listening to it because the songs were too catchy and boredom's now setting in - 15 - 25 listens
You like this album a lot, you haven't grown too wearisome, you recognise good songwriting and/or musicianship but perhaps it's time to give it a rest. You'll dig it out again in the future and see if you still rate it then. - more than 25 listens
Wow, more than 25 listens and you still can't get enough? It's truly a very good album. The song structures, time signatures and key changes are crafted with care and attention to detail. Your familiartity with the album means you can list most the tracks by heart as well as sing along to most of the lyrics. The number of listens is proportional to the level of appreciation.
So, somewhere between 5 and 15 listens is the critical period when an album can either blossom and mature like an early springtime flower or it begins to turn brown and wither like autumn leaves.
With this notion in mind, ask yourself this: how often have you read an old review of an album that you absolutely LOVE, and the reviewer gave it something like 5 or 6 out of 10. Do you think: WTF? Well, I think, HMTDTFRLTTA? (How Many Times Did That Fucking Reviewer Listen To That Album?) I'm guessing but I reckon most album reviewers don't listen to the music enough before reviewing it. Yes yes, I know, brush... tarring but I'm probably not too far off the mark!
So, for the last fortnight I've been listening intently to Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned by The Prodigy from a slightly different standpoint than usual. I've put my theory to the test to see how it stands up. Trying to be objective and subjective at the same time... it ain't easy!
0 - 5 listens
With the first 5 listens came these first few thoughts: it's a very heavy, raw sound with ferocious, unrelenting beats. It's not ideal listening when concentration is required. Standout tracks in the beginning were (understandably) the poppier moments like future single Hotride, Spitfire and current single Girls. It reminds me of other hybrid (a combination of guitars and electro in this case) acts like The Faint, Two Lone Swordsmen, DJ Hell, Bloc Party amongst others. Closing track Shoot Down is crap; Liam Gallagher's a twat!
5 - 15 listens
At 15 listens I'm still very much interested. The poppy tracks haven't worn thin, and interestingly a handful of other tracks have come to the fore, notably Action Radar, Spitfire and The Way It. And hands up, I admit it, the closing track Shoot Down isn't quite as annoying as at first... yes it's a grower!
15 - 25 listens
With some appropriate listening under my belt I fell suitably qualified to share with you details about what I like. Spitfire has a feature I like a lot; when a sound or beat or guitar or even silence is used in place of a word or refrain from a chorus. An example of this can be heard when [the singer] is repeating the line If I was in World War Two they'd call me spitfire and, at 4.20, the word spit is replaced with a spitting/firing noise... great!
Action Radar balances a delicious eighties synth riff reminiscent of prime Human League with a very contemporary sounding vocal (contribution from Paul Jackson from unsigned Essex punk band Dirt Candy) a bit like Jack White from The White Stripes.
Here's another point worth mentioning. I particularly like Action Radar and have repeatedly listened to it outwith my regulated listens... perhaps 50 or 60 times so far. With each listen I became very familiar with the first few bars of the following track Medusa's Path; and often I just listened to the whole of that song too. Because of this the stature of Medusa's Path was elevated. Of course placed in any other position in the running order Medusa's Path could have been just another track on the album.
Get Up Get Off could have been lifted from their previous album, The Fat of the Land. Incidentally, there's not much I don't like at this stage.
more than 25 listens
The all-important 25-listens stage came and went without any effort. It's a defintely a very good
album in my book, maybe not a classic yet... give it some time to season.
Can I name the tracks by heart? I'll try: Spitfire, Girls, Hotride, Action Radar, Medusas Path, The Way it, Shoot Down... eh no, I can't. I've basically named the ones I talked about... hmmm!
Conclusions
Ok, how did this experiment go? Well, luckily for me I liked the album, because this report could have failed miserably otherwise. My recommendations: always try to give an album at least five listens... what happens after that is down to the quality of the music. Don't review an album unless you have actually listened to it properly: between 15 and 25 listens should be enough for a balanced opionion. Further, the best rating an album should possibly receive after 25 listens is "very good". To suggest it's a classic
within the first two weeks of it's release is preposterous. If the album still sounds good in six weeks or six months time that's great! Only after years can it be described more generously than "very good"; it's got to stand the test of time.
NB. One factor I didn't develop was the time scale involved with your listens: e.g. 25 listens in a week compared with 25 listens in 3 months. I suggest you'll get a better overview if the timescale is shorter, like two to three weeks.
Comments are now closed
This was posted on 22nd Sep 2004.
colly said...
Shoot Down is a great track, even after just one listen.
Anyway, nice theories. Backs up the way I get to know albums quite well, as I'm lucky enough to be able to have iTunes playing all day - so it's a concentrated period of listening to new stuff.
As for press reviews - I say NEVER take them to heart. Reviewers (NME ones at least) are failed musicians who always have chips on their shoulders about an artist which takes precedence over the music every time. I am morer likely to trust a broadsheet (Guardian/Indy/Times) review however...
Thursday 23rd September 2004 10.17am
leslie said...
hope it can stand the test of time;)
i have listened to brownie mcghee's face in the crowd about 723 times just in the past summer. (i found it again, someone who doesn't understand the necessity of repetition misfiled it, on purpose i assume.)
Thursday 23rd September 2004 12.49pm
Blair Millen said...
Hmmmm... Brownie McGhee, thanks for the tip!
Thursday 23rd September 2004 1.09pm
Lars said...
Interesting theory indeed. I haven't heard the Prodigy album you mention, although I was a huge fan back in the 90s.
As for the implications of the theory, I guess the tough part is to get over each of the "thresholds", i.e. at 5, 15, and so on. I have rediscovered quite a few albums which I initially only listened to three or four times, sometimes after several years.
You didn't really explain why or how the level of appreciation drops for mediocre albums, why its initial rate of increase in apprecation is steeper than that for a very good album, or why it drops off so at such a seemingly high number of listens (~20). What factors come into play, and what do they depend on?
But I guess this is also personal: for example, I rarely have the patience or time to listen to mediocre albums for more than, say, 10 times, even if it's just a perceived notion. Of course, you could be suggesting that such albums form a category of their own. Actually, the more I think of it, the more I recognize it from my own experience. This would be albums that I really like in the beginning, and then, at some point, quickly lose interest in. Could it be because they're "too perfect"? But then again, some albums are perfect from the very first time you hear them, until the end of time. Not many, admittedly, but they do exist.
But you're also right in that the time scale is important. Not sure I agree with you that shorter is better though. I also think there are other influencing factors, such as the listener's musical frame of reference, experience, mood, etc. Maybe a follow-up study?
Saturday 25th September 2004 9.53pm
Blair Millen said...
Thanks for your thoughtful response Lars. First, I'll say I agree in part with Colly's recommendation to avoid album reviews from music journals like the NME and similar; however I'll put my neck on the line by saying that having read the music and film magazine UNCUT for several years, their reviews are usually balanced, well-informed and more often than not reliable.
Interestingly, as a side point, when I have an album that I eventually deem mediocre, the few quality tracks it may contain usually end up on compilations and I rarely return to the album again.
With this in mind I'll attempt to answer some of your points. In June this year I purchased an album (Last Exit by Junior Boys) on the strength of a five star review UNCUT gave. This turned out to be a mediocre album in that there were a few well-written songs in a well sequenced album; meaning that from the start to the finish the album was interspersed with enough quality to convince me it was worth listening to. Only after about 10 to 15 listens did I recognise that the remaining songs were filler and as a result I lost interest quite quickly; the level of appreciation dropped as dramatically as it rose before plateauing off; the quality that did exist produced that plateau.
So why is the initial rate of increase in apprecation of a mediocre album steeper than that for a very good album? Well, you've made a very good point there. First let's recap, to get past 5 listens an album obviously has to have some merit - a few decent tracks. So between 5 and 15 listens is the key stage in deciding if it's got any future. With reference to my original diagram I think it was slightly inaccurate when it came to illustrating the rate of appeciation. I now realise that a mediocre album and a very good album are actually the same thing up until about 10 - 15 listens. After that, depending on the quality of the tracks that don't immediately appeal or jump out, it could either be very good (The Prodigy) or mediocre (Junior Boys). Perhaps my altered and more specific diagram below helps to clarify this point.
Yes, occasionally some albums are near perfect from first listen (which kinda tramples over my theories!). A couple that spring to mind are Berlinette by Ellen Allien and Melody AM by Royksopp.
And yes, agreed, the experience of the listener is important too. With my theory in mind I'd probably not be able to appreciate a Clifford Brown album as readily as the upcoming Royksopp album.
An update would be particularly interesting. I plan to do a few album reviews over the coming weeks, so will revisit them for a re-appraisal within a year or so, see if I'm still listening to them!
Sunday 26th September 2004 4.49pm
nick said...
what were your favourite tracks on the Junior Boys album..
Monday 27th September 2004 10.39am
Lisa Rocket said...
I like your theory on albums...
I have two wildly different albums that get past your 25 plays rule. I listen to a lot of music, so things really have to stick to keep on the playlist!
One is This is the sea by the Waterboys- a classic in my eyes, but maybe tied up in my history. It's been with me for years though every tragedy and every triumph. Uplifting and also cathartic at times.
The other is Thee Fractured Garden by Genesis P Orridge and Splinter Test. Very Dark with light at the end of the tunnel, macrocosm, microcosm, a trip without the drugs.... possibly with the right eyes to hear it, once you get through the almost evil dark, the first half of it..the second half is refreshing and tribal..an understanding of what is...
Sunday 22nd May 2005 11.24pm
Anthony Lydick said...
I think this album is 90% uninspiring. Seems forced. Only like Medusas Path, I think that one came from the heart. I could feel it. The rest...no comments.
Sunday 25th March 2007 6.26pm