Poptimists Album Science #2

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

This is about Proving By Science how good an album really is. The first album to be rated was Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and it scored 63.75 out of a possible 90 giving it a very respectable 71%. So we now know for sure, conclusively, without doubt, that 71% of 'Thriller' as an album is good, or 7 out of 10 if you will - and this seems about right (even tho the urge in the past may have to been to hail the album as a true classic, it transpires that is not quite the case and that it is a handful of particularly excellent singles that have afforded it this status). A satisfying moment for the Poptimists Science Team now follows...

Now, if you please, join me in rating the following tracks from the Pet Shop Boys' 'Please' album out of ten:

[Poll #852054]



If you've not heard the song before or need a reminder there are several ways you can remedy this. if you have iTunes you can search for the album on there and listen to the 30 second clips - or you can use Amazon and other sites in a similar way. If the song was released as a single you may well find the video on YouTube.

If you've not heard the song and can't hear it you could either not mark it (if you dislike the artist generally) or give it a 5 for balance if you do like the artist generally (seems fair to me all in all).

Don't worry too much about the position of the song in the tracklist and it's relation to what comes before and after it - unless you think that sort of thing affects your response to a track significantly (but I don't think this need happen).

Comments

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'Album with a mood or character is better than album with no mood or character (provided that one likes the particular mood and character), even if latter has more high-rated songs.'

This is a 'greater than the sum of it's parts' argument applied to albums that I don't really believe in anymore. Obv. mood and character running through an album are good but if some songs aren't reflecting that well enough then why bother with the album as opposed to just the parts you do think do the job best.

Incidentally this is much harder with films I think, where you may have many great scenes or elements (e.g. effects, cinematography) within a film that is regarded as bad overall because other elements are deemed more important (characterisation, script, plot) and it's not as easy to separate the parts you like (even tho DVDs thankfull have chapters!). I'm v into these parallels btw.

Maybe it's just because we're dealing with 'Pop' and it's true what they say, that 'The Immaculate Collection' would always be better conceptually and potentially than an actual Madonna album...this isn't necessarily about trying to disprove that tho, more just to see if albums regarded as classic really are or in what senses they are/aren't.

I think this methodology is useful in rating an album because it ought to demonstrate how much we listen or would want to listen to the songs on any given album. What could be more important than that?