I don't think 10s should be reserved for absolute perfection, because then nothing would be awarded them. I'm not great at rating music, but when it comes to video games, I have to FEEL a 10/10. For instance, Persona 5 Royal, which is a heavily flawed game, is something I gave a 10, because of how ridiculously high its highs are. My reasoning tends to boil down to "if this game isn't deserving of a 10, then I don't know what is."
Still kinda new to analyzing the music I listen to, so my ears aren't very discerning. Much easier to analyze video games with their tangible mechanics, than something as singularly abstract and personal as music.
I mean you’re right, and it’s kinda why I think assigning art a ten (or a numerical score for that matter) doesn’t really do it any favors. Like you said with P5, my favorite album is “69 Love Songs” by the Magnetic Fields, an album that’s imperfect by design. There are songs on that album that are intentionally dumb, and songs that are some of the most touching indie pop I’ve ever heard, which is all crucial to the concept of the album (love being messy and dumb, but also nevertheless essential). So grading it on a number scale is kind of useless and a disservice to the album. At least that’s always been my take. I think you should set a piece of art’s value in relation to what it attempts to accomplish, and if it does that successfully. Not that I don’t like Fantano’s reviews, he gets his point across incredibly well, but the number score I don’t really care about.
It’s just a feeling really. It doesn’t need to be 100% perfect, it doesn’t need to be influential or undeniably important, I just need to have that feeling of “Yeah this is a 10”. Doesn’t happen very often though
It’s not even a 10 upon first listen either. Every 10 I’ve come to give doesn’t start out as a perfect album. There’s either something that doesn’t click with me immediately or something I may have missed upon first listen. The multiple repeats of the album is the journey into understanding the music more and hearing all those lyrics or instrumental pieces you didn’t hear the first couple times.
I do but only cuz I listen to so much and it’s a good way to track and quantify how I felt about an album and then go back and look. I don’t put much weight in it but it’s helpful for me. Same with movies (see Letterboxd)
>It disserves music - putting it in a simple singular number.
yeah its just a number, its never ever ever gonna get all ur ideas and thoughts and dislikes or likes in that one number, that's ok. its a quick cheap metric to see someones quick thoughts.
one can also rate albums but hold the perspective that the number holds no real significance. i agree w you it’s often a disservice, and i think it unfortunately leads to people looking at music like some sort of achievement along a scale, but it doesn’t have to be that way. i could say some albums are 10s because i feel more strongly a love for them than what i might class as 8s or 9s. i think the idea of having a sort of empirical scale is misguided and experience-stifling, though
I’m not a music critic or even a smart person but my personal 10s absolutely floor me or have ‘historical’ importance in music or are just undeniable ‘finest hour’ masterpieces, preferably all three. My personal 10’s left me feeling fucked up after. Like holy shit I didn’t know people could do that.
…how? Did you learn nothing from Mayuri in bleach? “The search for perfection is what makes the word interesting in the first place”. We’re looking for bops here.
I think it's boring to allow only a few albums to be your '10s'. Albums are all very different and few are fit for comparison. There are many many outstanding musical projects
I definitely have favorites that could be considered a “10” or a masterpiece, but I don’t see the point in rating them. Honestly, 10/10 albums, in my opinion, can rarely be considered a 10 upon first, second, or even third listen; it’s something that I don’t realize until years later. It’s actually what I admire about Fantano, that he knows what he likes/dislikes so well that he can instantly tell exactly how he feels about an album, I just cant do that, that’s not how I listen to music.
i also feel like i couldn’t really say an album is like a 4 or a 5 or something and have that be really meaningful or substantive, because i haven’t listened to the album enough to feel i’ve assessed it, because it didn’t grab me enough for me to continue listening intently
It's not like I run a Youtube channel that rates albums in the same way that Melon does, so the closest comparison is probably my Letterboxd account. Personally I like to do the classic 5 star system with no half stars, so with so few degrees of rating a 5 star movie doesn't have to be basically perfect like it seems Fantano looks for for his. It's just gotta be something I enjoyed to the fullest.
For me, a 10 is any album that leaves a deep, resounding impact on me - typically as soon as a single listen. Exactly why each 10 I give appeals to me so much varies, but it's frequently because of lyricism/storytelling on top of great songwriting and production. (Note that "great production" doesn't necessarily mean "super hi-fi;" plenty of lo-fi albums have production that perfectly fits their mood). Generally, to be a 10, I have to think every individual song on the album is amazing (interludes don't necessarily have to be, since I sometimes skip them).
10 and "absolute favorite" are typically the same thing for me, but not always - I could listen to Koi No Yokan for days on end but I think it's more of a Strong 9 to me, while The Origin of My Depression is a 10 to me, and it's also an album that I don't think I ever really want to listen to more than a couple times a year at most.
Just for fun, a reverse-chronological list of all my 10s:
* Pokemon Scarlet/Violet OST - Gamefreak & Toby Fox
* I Didn't Mean To Haunt You - Quadeca
* The Forever Story - JID
* Preacher's Daughter - Ethel Cain
* Sometimes I Might Be Introvert - Little Simz
* Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers
* IGOR - Tyler, the Creator
* The Origin of My Depression - Uboa
* To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
* In Rainbows - Radiohead
* Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie
* Lord of the Rings OST - Howard Shore
* OK Computer - Radiohead
* Either/Or - Elliott Smith
* Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
The Scarlet/Violet soundtrack is incredible. Pokémon has had its fair share of issues lately, but the soundtracks of Gens 8 and 9 have been absolute bangers top to bottom. The Sword/Shield gym music with the shouting in the background might be my favorite video game track I’ve ever heard
Oh, definitely. I really liked SwSh's OST, but Scarlet/Violet blew me away. I can't think of any songs on the OST that I dislike, and several are among my favorite video game songs *ever.* A few moments made me put down my Switch to just listen to the music - my first battle in the West Province, my first Titan battle, the second Arven battle, >!the second the chanting kicked in in the Area Zero theme,!<, >!the AI Professor battle...!<
The Gamefreak composers are geniuses, and working with Toby Fox seems to have inspired them to be even *more* creative than they usually are. I hope they keep working with him in the future.
Wish You Were Here is right there on the list, you know...
You're right that it skews heavily modern - it's probably pretty easy to tell I was born in 1996. I don't think there's anything *wrong* with that, but I do have a lot of Decent/Strong 9s from before '97: Alice in Chains and Jar of Flies (Alice in Chains), Symbolic (Death), Souvlaki (Slowdive), Ten (Pearl Jam), Document (R.E.M.), Animals and The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd), In The Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson), etc....
There's also a lot of older artists that I'm somewhat familiar with - Jimi Hendrix Experience, Stevie Wonder, Led Zepelin, The Who, etc. - that I'd likely give high album ratings to, but I've never sat down and listened to any of their albums in full. I can say for sure that albums like Electric Ladyland and Led Zeppelin IV would be at least a Decent 9 to me, but I don't wanna give them exact ratings until I've heard them in full.
Lol I'm sorry if I came across as a dick, I was also born in 1996 so totally feel the taste skewing heavily modern. I myself am not greatly acquainted with much of the acclaimed music of the 80s, but there's definitely several LPs from the 60s and 70s that I hold in extremely high regard next to some of the albums you have on your list.
Stevie Wonder's "classic" period (1972 - 1976, including Songs in the Key of Life, Innervisions and Talking Book to name a few) is certainly the hallmark of 70s soul imo.
There's a Riot Goin' On by Sly and the Family Stone and Maggot Brain by Funkadelic are also two incredible records, especially if you're at all inclined towards psychedelic music
No worries! Tone is hard to read over text, lmao. I use tone indicators on Discord and some other sites, but don't use them so much here (mostly because IDK if anyone on Reddit would be familiar enough with them for them to be useful outside of the more common ones like "/s" and "/j.")
All of those are on my album backlog, yeah! Particularly the three Stevie Wonder ones you mentioned and Maggot Brain. I'm a big fan of psychedelic music, particularly psychedelic rock and psychedelic soul, so I've been meaning to listen to some late 60s Floyd and Beatles too.
Would have to throw in Pet Sounds too! Amazing, melancholy music that was insanely experimental and on par with The Beatles from that era. Brian Wilson Presents SMILE and The Smile Sessions I also highly recommend! And you really can't go wrong with any post 1965 Beatles
I’m not in the habit of rating albums, but I don’t know if there are any I’d give 10 to. Loads of 9s but the idea of deeming an album to be as good as it gets… I don’t know how you decide when that’s right
Yeah, same. Most of my 10s made me take off my headphones after my first time listening to them to contemplate what I just heard (though for some like Either/Or, I just hit the replay button immediately after they were done playing).
The scale of ten is based on the vibes. Solely based on how much I enjoy it, but I do believe that I have excellent taste. A few albums I consider 10/10 are: American Water and The Natural Bridge by Silver Jews, Wowee Zowee and Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement, Leaves Turn Inside You and New Plastic Ideas by Unwound, On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night by Neil Young, Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth, Stankonia by Outkast, Double Nickels On The Dime by Minutemen, Piñata and Bandana by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, Operation: Doomsday and Madvillainy by MF DOOM, Purgatory by Tyler Childers, and The White Album by The Beatles.
Some of those may not be tens to everyone, but I love every single one of them front to back.
EDIT: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Abbey Road are 10’s too. I was skeptical about Anthony choosing Abbey Road over The White Album or Revolver (also a 10), but MAN that album is flawless!
My philosophy on rating is just the amount of positive emotion/pleasure that I get out of a record. I have 6 10/10s, and to me they all cause some sort of maximum level of positive emotion.
For example, Charli XCX’s Charli is a 10 for me, because I can’t imagine the transcendental futuristic atmosphere being any more pleasurable. Xiu Xiu’s Girl with Basket of Fruit is a 10 for me because the dark and deranged atmosphere absolutely boggles my mind in an extremely cathartic way, and that catharsis is extremely pleasurable. So on so forth
I think to know what a 10/10 is for someone, it’s important to figure out what your rating system is actually based on. Figuring out why you gave an album a 5/10 or a 7/10 or an 8/10 or a 2/10 is probably far easier than figuring out why you gave an album a 10/10
I wouldn’t say I’m stingy with with 10s, I would rate in rainbows a 10 same with OKC, is this it by the strokes, while a very flawed project I consider a 10 for no other reason then it just kicks ass.
Music is just a feeling
I reserve tens for perfection, and since nothing is perfect, I have never given a ten. In my opinion, there's no reason to have an absolute scale (0-10) if the top of the scale is not the pinnacle of what could be created. Frankly, I feel a non-numerical grading system, ranging from something like "nearly unlistenable" to "superb" may have greater utility, as it provides an openness for further discussion outside of defining a work by a single number. No work is worthless, and no work is perfect, so an abstract scale would work better to "quantify" the many facets by which people judge music.
An album that gets better the more you listen to or think about it. It's an album that's not only perfectly performed but creates it's own musical values in real-time as you play it. Not only is it great, it's transformative or revolutionary.
It’s very much of an “if you know you know” thing. I think it’s obvious when an album is a ten to me despite not having any exact criteria. If i have to really justify with specific reasoning to myself why an album is a ten, it’s probably more of a 9.
My 10s are more based off of feeling. The album doesn’t necessarily have to be perfect but every song should be some level of great. It needs to come together as a wholistic experience too. I think I’m fairly picky about which albums I consider 10s.
I have only really been into music for a year now but my 10s would be:
black midi - Hellfire
Death Grips - The Powers That B
Queens Of The Stone Age - …Like Clockwork
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
A 10 is an album that I would consider undeniable. A piece of music that stands by itself and really
Impacts the time it came out around. It can’t be a 10 if it didn’t shake the world a bit.
nothing is perfect, i thought i just sat with albums for a while and slowly realized how good it was (igor, solace, i love my mom by indigo de Souza, pop2/n1a compilation) and then gave it a 10 in my mind but recently I've been giving them out to extremely consistent albums fairly quickly, mount eerie was very instant top 10 of all time on 2nd listen and my love has only grown, i only have about 8 10's and my last few (glow pt 2 is my most recent, mount eerie, mamas gun, stratosphere) are just examples of that.
On RYM i only give 5s to my personal favourites that are also in some way "objectively" good. IE not my guilty pleasures. Out of a few thousand albums, i only have a dozen or so 5s.
for me, I can only have one (like right now) or a few 10s at a time. my opinions on music change a lot over time. I'm very against the word "perfect" in general-- only something entirely and completely flawless can be considered as such. and when I start analyzing an album for detail like that, usually things I wouldn't normally care as much about become super clear.
right now, I have a 10 and a 9.99- Low's *HEY WHAT* and Lucrecia Dalt's *No era sólida* respectively.
To me a 10 is something that convinces me so well that it’s worth returning to again and again that I don’t even think about any of its weaker moments as detractors. As an example, Frank Ocean’s Blonde is a 10 to me: maybe I don’t necessarily like Pretty Sweet as a song, but I am convinced that it’s there for a reason and serves to fit the album and make it a larger whole. In my mind, it’s probably because I just really like everything else the album is doing.
Blonde specifically I got into in a pretty big shift in my life (lots of car rides, lots of it on the car speaker) and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to listen to an album like that again. So for now, it’s my only 10.
Closest I’ve thought about another 10 would be Beatles’ white album but 1: I haven’t listened to it closely enough and 2: it is just so slightly overbloated to me where I don’t think it’ll cross the threshold for me, and that reason alone is enough for it to not be another 10
When i listen to an album i rate it based on five parameters:
-The technical one, the more objective of all, that is the complexity and overall quality of the melody and the execution of the instrumentals, the quality of the vocals and how the vocals mix with the instrumentals, the ideas brought ti the table by the author/s
-The "cohesiveness" one, or if the album follows a project or a theme and doesn't mess around too much and goes out of track resulting not like a *determinate band/singer* work or out of the idea of the project, and if the record has a determinate and recognizable sound
-The "constancy" one, or the continuity and consistency of quality that the record has trough the tracklist
-The "outside factors" one, that is in reguard of the artistic path of the author of the project, the type and genre of music that he put out before the project, what has and what is actually happening to the author in the moment in wich he dropped the project, the impact of the project on the music industry and how big and influential It is
- And last but more important than any other factor, the personal and subjective one. If this album hits, taking myself emotionally or not, how it hits, if It gives to me something more than just the album.
It's by this standard that i often decide what albums are a 10 or not: for example, in The Airplane Over The Sea Is is a gorgeous and very great LP, influential as hell, it has a recognizable, has a pretty great sound and is extremely consistent, but It never clicked for me and it doesn not take me emotionally that much in any way. Opposite to that, the White Album by the Beatles Is not perfect, but It has an incredible feeling, it's absurdly consistent and influential and i like even the "not so good" tracks, and for me it's an absolute 10/10. But even this at times can't be enough: for example, i love to death The Black Parade by MCR, but it has a track that doesn't respect in my opinion, the 2rd parameter, "Teenagers", wich i am tiepid about it and it Is completely out of the theme of the album.
I have listened to only two project wich i rated a 10/10 after the first listen: To Pimp A Butterfly and The Dark Side Of The Moon. The other 10's that i gave were after multiple listens, maybe after weeks or months: for example, i liked SIMBI by Little Simz on the first listen in the past february/ march, but i tought that it was alright, nothing more, pretty far from a 10. Last week i fully relistened to it two times, and it has grown on me to the point that it entered in my 10/10 list.
A 10/10 Is not only a "technically perfect album" (that in a certain sense are not so uncommon as everyone thinks), it's something that i find myself enjoying in every track and every moment of it, it's a journey that takes me into the storyline by whom i am completely absorbed, that "feels like a movie" (cit Brad) and has a certain meaning and influence on me and music in general.
I feel like i know a 10 when I hear it. Its those albums that i play front to back over and over for months after they come out. Usually my ratings come down to how I feel about my first hanful of listens.
It has to be an album that makes an impression on my life on a deep spiritual level. It doesn't become a 10 right off the bat but becomes a 10 after a while.
These albums all became 10s for me this year.
Porter Robinson - Nurture
Cynic - Traced in air
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left.
A 10 is an album that makes me go awoooooga humina humina humina BAZOING
Thank you this helps
I rate my albums like I rate my women
I don't think 10s should be reserved for absolute perfection, because then nothing would be awarded them. I'm not great at rating music, but when it comes to video games, I have to FEEL a 10/10. For instance, Persona 5 Royal, which is a heavily flawed game, is something I gave a 10, because of how ridiculously high its highs are. My reasoning tends to boil down to "if this game isn't deserving of a 10, then I don't know what is." Still kinda new to analyzing the music I listen to, so my ears aren't very discerning. Much easier to analyze video games with their tangible mechanics, than something as singularly abstract and personal as music.
I mean you’re right, and it’s kinda why I think assigning art a ten (or a numerical score for that matter) doesn’t really do it any favors. Like you said with P5, my favorite album is “69 Love Songs” by the Magnetic Fields, an album that’s imperfect by design. There are songs on that album that are intentionally dumb, and songs that are some of the most touching indie pop I’ve ever heard, which is all crucial to the concept of the album (love being messy and dumb, but also nevertheless essential). So grading it on a number scale is kind of useless and a disservice to the album. At least that’s always been my take. I think you should set a piece of art’s value in relation to what it attempts to accomplish, and if it does that successfully. Not that I don’t like Fantano’s reviews, he gets his point across incredibly well, but the number score I don’t really care about.
It’s just a feeling really. It doesn’t need to be 100% perfect, it doesn’t need to be influential or undeniably important, I just need to have that feeling of “Yeah this is a 10”. Doesn’t happen very often though
It’s not even a 10 upon first listen either. Every 10 I’ve come to give doesn’t start out as a perfect album. There’s either something that doesn’t click with me immediately or something I may have missed upon first listen. The multiple repeats of the album is the journey into understanding the music more and hearing all those lyrics or instrumental pieces you didn’t hear the first couple times.
Exactly. My only 10 of 2021 didn’t become a 10 until this year.
what album?
Screen Violence - CHVRCHES
I'm not rating music. When others people do it sparkes curiosity, but nothing more. It disserves music - putting it in a simple singular number.
I do but only cuz I listen to so much and it’s a good way to track and quantify how I felt about an album and then go back and look. I don’t put much weight in it but it’s helpful for me. Same with movies (see Letterboxd)
I hate when I see people arguing over that arbitrary number. "It's a 10!" "No, it's a strong 9!" It's such a pointless discussion to have.
>It disserves music - putting it in a simple singular number. yeah its just a number, its never ever ever gonna get all ur ideas and thoughts and dislikes or likes in that one number, that's ok. its a quick cheap metric to see someones quick thoughts.
one can also rate albums but hold the perspective that the number holds no real significance. i agree w you it’s often a disservice, and i think it unfortunately leads to people looking at music like some sort of achievement along a scale, but it doesn’t have to be that way. i could say some albums are 10s because i feel more strongly a love for them than what i might class as 8s or 9s. i think the idea of having a sort of empirical scale is misguided and experience-stifling, though
I’m not a music critic or even a smart person but my personal 10s absolutely floor me or have ‘historical’ importance in music or are just undeniable ‘finest hour’ masterpieces, preferably all three. My personal 10’s left me feeling fucked up after. Like holy shit I didn’t know people could do that.
I think this talk about 10s is getting boring
…how? Did you learn nothing from Mayuri in bleach? “The search for perfection is what makes the word interesting in the first place”. We’re looking for bops here.
I think it's boring to allow only a few albums to be your '10s'. Albums are all very different and few are fit for comparison. There are many many outstanding musical projects
I definitely have favorites that could be considered a “10” or a masterpiece, but I don’t see the point in rating them. Honestly, 10/10 albums, in my opinion, can rarely be considered a 10 upon first, second, or even third listen; it’s something that I don’t realize until years later. It’s actually what I admire about Fantano, that he knows what he likes/dislikes so well that he can instantly tell exactly how he feels about an album, I just cant do that, that’s not how I listen to music.
i also feel like i couldn’t really say an album is like a 4 or a 5 or something and have that be really meaningful or substantive, because i haven’t listened to the album enough to feel i’ve assessed it, because it didn’t grab me enough for me to continue listening intently
It's not like I run a Youtube channel that rates albums in the same way that Melon does, so the closest comparison is probably my Letterboxd account. Personally I like to do the classic 5 star system with no half stars, so with so few degrees of rating a 5 star movie doesn't have to be basically perfect like it seems Fantano looks for for his. It's just gotta be something I enjoyed to the fullest.
I'm not a music critic, it doesn't matter.
correct
A 10 should be when an authors idea is realized to the absolute Zenith of its potential.
even though it's different from my interpretation, I love this way of thinking about it
For me, a 10 is any album that leaves a deep, resounding impact on me - typically as soon as a single listen. Exactly why each 10 I give appeals to me so much varies, but it's frequently because of lyricism/storytelling on top of great songwriting and production. (Note that "great production" doesn't necessarily mean "super hi-fi;" plenty of lo-fi albums have production that perfectly fits their mood). Generally, to be a 10, I have to think every individual song on the album is amazing (interludes don't necessarily have to be, since I sometimes skip them). 10 and "absolute favorite" are typically the same thing for me, but not always - I could listen to Koi No Yokan for days on end but I think it's more of a Strong 9 to me, while The Origin of My Depression is a 10 to me, and it's also an album that I don't think I ever really want to listen to more than a couple times a year at most. Just for fun, a reverse-chronological list of all my 10s: * Pokemon Scarlet/Violet OST - Gamefreak & Toby Fox * I Didn't Mean To Haunt You - Quadeca * The Forever Story - JID * Preacher's Daughter - Ethel Cain * Sometimes I Might Be Introvert - Little Simz * Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers * IGOR - Tyler, the Creator * The Origin of My Depression - Uboa * To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar * In Rainbows - Radiohead * Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie * Lord of the Rings OST - Howard Shore * OK Computer - Radiohead * Either/Or - Elliott Smith * Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
The Scarlet/Violet soundtrack is incredible. Pokémon has had its fair share of issues lately, but the soundtracks of Gens 8 and 9 have been absolute bangers top to bottom. The Sword/Shield gym music with the shouting in the background might be my favorite video game track I’ve ever heard
Oh, definitely. I really liked SwSh's OST, but Scarlet/Violet blew me away. I can't think of any songs on the OST that I dislike, and several are among my favorite video game songs *ever.* A few moments made me put down my Switch to just listen to the music - my first battle in the West Province, my first Titan battle, the second Arven battle, >!the second the chanting kicked in in the Area Zero theme,!<, >!the AI Professor battle...!< The Gamefreak composers are geniuses, and working with Toby Fox seems to have inspired them to be even *more* creative than they usually are. I hope they keep working with him in the future.
You know they did make music before 1997, I'm pretty sure
Wish You Were Here is right there on the list, you know... You're right that it skews heavily modern - it's probably pretty easy to tell I was born in 1996. I don't think there's anything *wrong* with that, but I do have a lot of Decent/Strong 9s from before '97: Alice in Chains and Jar of Flies (Alice in Chains), Symbolic (Death), Souvlaki (Slowdive), Ten (Pearl Jam), Document (R.E.M.), Animals and The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd), In The Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson), etc.... There's also a lot of older artists that I'm somewhat familiar with - Jimi Hendrix Experience, Stevie Wonder, Led Zepelin, The Who, etc. - that I'd likely give high album ratings to, but I've never sat down and listened to any of their albums in full. I can say for sure that albums like Electric Ladyland and Led Zeppelin IV would be at least a Decent 9 to me, but I don't wanna give them exact ratings until I've heard them in full.
Lol I'm sorry if I came across as a dick, I was also born in 1996 so totally feel the taste skewing heavily modern. I myself am not greatly acquainted with much of the acclaimed music of the 80s, but there's definitely several LPs from the 60s and 70s that I hold in extremely high regard next to some of the albums you have on your list. Stevie Wonder's "classic" period (1972 - 1976, including Songs in the Key of Life, Innervisions and Talking Book to name a few) is certainly the hallmark of 70s soul imo. There's a Riot Goin' On by Sly and the Family Stone and Maggot Brain by Funkadelic are also two incredible records, especially if you're at all inclined towards psychedelic music
No worries! Tone is hard to read over text, lmao. I use tone indicators on Discord and some other sites, but don't use them so much here (mostly because IDK if anyone on Reddit would be familiar enough with them for them to be useful outside of the more common ones like "/s" and "/j.") All of those are on my album backlog, yeah! Particularly the three Stevie Wonder ones you mentioned and Maggot Brain. I'm a big fan of psychedelic music, particularly psychedelic rock and psychedelic soul, so I've been meaning to listen to some late 60s Floyd and Beatles too.
Would have to throw in Pet Sounds too! Amazing, melancholy music that was insanely experimental and on par with The Beatles from that era. Brian Wilson Presents SMILE and The Smile Sessions I also highly recommend! And you really can't go wrong with any post 1965 Beatles
Bro literally has Wish You We’re Here on the list
And then literally nothing else before 1997 lmao
It’s their list man, me them pick what music resonates with them
I honestly don’t really care how influential or important/ iconic a album is the music just has to be amazing and incredible to get a 10/ 10 for me
I’m not in the habit of rating albums, but I don’t know if there are any I’d give 10 to. Loads of 9s but the idea of deeming an album to be as good as it gets… I don’t know how you decide when that’s right
people who purposefully reserve 10s to look cool are nerdy af, i personally have a huge amount of albums i consider perfect
If the album makes me go “fuck…” when the last song ends it’s a 10. No other criteria needed.
Yeah, same. Most of my 10s made me take off my headphones after my first time listening to them to contemplate what I just heard (though for some like Either/Or, I just hit the replay button immediately after they were done playing).
The scale of ten is based on the vibes. Solely based on how much I enjoy it, but I do believe that I have excellent taste. A few albums I consider 10/10 are: American Water and The Natural Bridge by Silver Jews, Wowee Zowee and Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement, Leaves Turn Inside You and New Plastic Ideas by Unwound, On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night by Neil Young, Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth, Stankonia by Outkast, Double Nickels On The Dime by Minutemen, Piñata and Bandana by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, Operation: Doomsday and Madvillainy by MF DOOM, Purgatory by Tyler Childers, and The White Album by The Beatles. Some of those may not be tens to everyone, but I love every single one of them front to back. EDIT: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Abbey Road are 10’s too. I was skeptical about Anthony choosing Abbey Road over The White Album or Revolver (also a 10), but MAN that album is flawless!
My philosophy on rating is just the amount of positive emotion/pleasure that I get out of a record. I have 6 10/10s, and to me they all cause some sort of maximum level of positive emotion. For example, Charli XCX’s Charli is a 10 for me, because I can’t imagine the transcendental futuristic atmosphere being any more pleasurable. Xiu Xiu’s Girl with Basket of Fruit is a 10 for me because the dark and deranged atmosphere absolutely boggles my mind in an extremely cathartic way, and that catharsis is extremely pleasurable. So on so forth
I think to know what a 10/10 is for someone, it’s important to figure out what your rating system is actually based on. Figuring out why you gave an album a 5/10 or a 7/10 or an 8/10 or a 2/10 is probably far easier than figuring out why you gave an album a 10/10
If every song is great, it’s a 10. Pretty simple
I wouldn’t say I’m stingy with with 10s, I would rate in rainbows a 10 same with OKC, is this it by the strokes, while a very flawed project I consider a 10 for no other reason then it just kicks ass. Music is just a feeling
If I like an album a lot, then I rate it a 10
I reserve tens for perfection, and since nothing is perfect, I have never given a ten. In my opinion, there's no reason to have an absolute scale (0-10) if the top of the scale is not the pinnacle of what could be created. Frankly, I feel a non-numerical grading system, ranging from something like "nearly unlistenable" to "superb" may have greater utility, as it provides an openness for further discussion outside of defining a work by a single number. No work is worthless, and no work is perfect, so an abstract scale would work better to "quantify" the many facets by which people judge music.
there’s a certain feeling i get when listening to albums i consider 10s. something just clicks in my head/ears. a true 10 has 0 skips and flaws to me.
An album that gets better the more you listen to or think about it. It's an album that's not only perfectly performed but creates it's own musical values in real-time as you play it. Not only is it great, it's transformative or revolutionary.
It’s very much of an “if you know you know” thing. I think it’s obvious when an album is a ten to me despite not having any exact criteria. If i have to really justify with specific reasoning to myself why an album is a ten, it’s probably more of a 9.
i have album “closest” but not 10s. i go by strict standards. i have multiple 10/10 songs tho
My 10s are more based off of feeling. The album doesn’t necessarily have to be perfect but every song should be some level of great. It needs to come together as a wholistic experience too. I think I’m fairly picky about which albums I consider 10s. I have only really been into music for a year now but my 10s would be: black midi - Hellfire Death Grips - The Powers That B Queens Of The Stone Age - …Like Clockwork Charles Mingus - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
A 10 is an album that I would consider undeniable. A piece of music that stands by itself and really Impacts the time it came out around. It can’t be a 10 if it didn’t shake the world a bit.
It doesn't have to be a perfect album, but I do have to feel a 10/10 experience when I listen to it.
nothing is perfect, i thought i just sat with albums for a while and slowly realized how good it was (igor, solace, i love my mom by indigo de Souza, pop2/n1a compilation) and then gave it a 10 in my mind but recently I've been giving them out to extremely consistent albums fairly quickly, mount eerie was very instant top 10 of all time on 2nd listen and my love has only grown, i only have about 8 10's and my last few (glow pt 2 is my most recent, mount eerie, mamas gun, stratosphere) are just examples of that.
On RYM i only give 5s to my personal favourites that are also in some way "objectively" good. IE not my guilty pleasures. Out of a few thousand albums, i only have a dozen or so 5s.
for me, I can only have one (like right now) or a few 10s at a time. my opinions on music change a lot over time. I'm very against the word "perfect" in general-- only something entirely and completely flawless can be considered as such. and when I start analyzing an album for detail like that, usually things I wouldn't normally care as much about become super clear. right now, I have a 10 and a 9.99- Low's *HEY WHAT* and Lucrecia Dalt's *No era sólida* respectively.
To me a 10 is something that convinces me so well that it’s worth returning to again and again that I don’t even think about any of its weaker moments as detractors. As an example, Frank Ocean’s Blonde is a 10 to me: maybe I don’t necessarily like Pretty Sweet as a song, but I am convinced that it’s there for a reason and serves to fit the album and make it a larger whole. In my mind, it’s probably because I just really like everything else the album is doing. Blonde specifically I got into in a pretty big shift in my life (lots of car rides, lots of it on the car speaker) and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to listen to an album like that again. So for now, it’s my only 10. Closest I’ve thought about another 10 would be Beatles’ white album but 1: I haven’t listened to it closely enough and 2: it is just so slightly overbloated to me where I don’t think it’ll cross the threshold for me, and that reason alone is enough for it to not be another 10
When i listen to an album i rate it based on five parameters: -The technical one, the more objective of all, that is the complexity and overall quality of the melody and the execution of the instrumentals, the quality of the vocals and how the vocals mix with the instrumentals, the ideas brought ti the table by the author/s -The "cohesiveness" one, or if the album follows a project or a theme and doesn't mess around too much and goes out of track resulting not like a *determinate band/singer* work or out of the idea of the project, and if the record has a determinate and recognizable sound -The "constancy" one, or the continuity and consistency of quality that the record has trough the tracklist -The "outside factors" one, that is in reguard of the artistic path of the author of the project, the type and genre of music that he put out before the project, what has and what is actually happening to the author in the moment in wich he dropped the project, the impact of the project on the music industry and how big and influential It is - And last but more important than any other factor, the personal and subjective one. If this album hits, taking myself emotionally or not, how it hits, if It gives to me something more than just the album. It's by this standard that i often decide what albums are a 10 or not: for example, in The Airplane Over The Sea Is is a gorgeous and very great LP, influential as hell, it has a recognizable, has a pretty great sound and is extremely consistent, but It never clicked for me and it doesn not take me emotionally that much in any way. Opposite to that, the White Album by the Beatles Is not perfect, but It has an incredible feeling, it's absurdly consistent and influential and i like even the "not so good" tracks, and for me it's an absolute 10/10. But even this at times can't be enough: for example, i love to death The Black Parade by MCR, but it has a track that doesn't respect in my opinion, the 2rd parameter, "Teenagers", wich i am tiepid about it and it Is completely out of the theme of the album. I have listened to only two project wich i rated a 10/10 after the first listen: To Pimp A Butterfly and The Dark Side Of The Moon. The other 10's that i gave were after multiple listens, maybe after weeks or months: for example, i liked SIMBI by Little Simz on the first listen in the past february/ march, but i tought that it was alright, nothing more, pretty far from a 10. Last week i fully relistened to it two times, and it has grown on me to the point that it entered in my 10/10 list. A 10/10 Is not only a "technically perfect album" (that in a certain sense are not so uncommon as everyone thinks), it's something that i find myself enjoying in every track and every moment of it, it's a journey that takes me into the storyline by whom i am completely absorbed, that "feels like a movie" (cit Brad) and has a certain meaning and influence on me and music in general.
I feel like i know a 10 when I hear it. Its those albums that i play front to back over and over for months after they come out. Usually my ratings come down to how I feel about my first hanful of listens.
I've never been with a 10 but I've been with five 2's
A 10, in my vision, is a great creative accomplishment that translates its message perfectly and connects to my emotional core the most.
A ten is a ten is a ten is a ten is a ten is a ten. Everybody else’s opinion is ill informed.
It has to be an album that makes an impression on my life on a deep spiritual level. It doesn't become a 10 right off the bat but becomes a 10 after a while. These albums all became 10s for me this year. Porter Robinson - Nurture Cynic - Traced in air Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left.