Not a knock just an observation from someone who has read Allmusic religiously for well over 10 years now. Second, it's important to note that with so many reviewers, there isn't always consistency across the reviews of an artist's discography.

Why? Let's say I want to know about a sub-genre like Chicago soul or Black metal then, such an approach helps me to zero in right on the best albums from the very beginning. Some people can balk at such compartmentalization I tend to think that it's a strength of the site. If going beyond that, to consider the best of genre, the review site is good enough to stick to the genre under consideration. First, is the fact that reviews are considered within the context of a particular artist's canon and not the whole of recorded music. A good case in point is OK Computer, which originally had a four star review and now has a five star review.ДЄ couple points are worth bearing in mind, though. But, doesn't it generally take a little time for the proper perspective to sink in? Albums that may only get four or four-and-a-half stars at first may eventually wind up with five in a couple years time. Sure, new albums are rarely given five stars when they're first released. Ratings at aren't usually static, which means that the site often re-evaluates the reviews it gives. What do you think? Are they just waiting for the next big album that's both fresh and consistent, which honestly hasn't come for about 8 years now? I'll be the first to admit there's a drought in the current music scene, but I also wonder if the website should uphold its own standard in that an album doesn't have to blow minds from beginning to end in order to garner 5 Stars. Take for instance Weezer's latest album, praised by Allmusic, disregarded or knocked by most other critics. Is Eagles' 'Hotel California' a 5 Star album, or an album with quite a few 5 Star songs? How about U2's 'War' or The Police's 'Zenyatta Mondatta'? Roxy Music's 'Siren'?ДЇurthermore, Allmusic dishes out 4 1/2 star ratings with ease. Meanwhile, Portishead's latest is a novel, engaging listen from beginning to end. If the 5 Star ratings were used only for monster classics, I'd readily understand, but is Ween's 'Pure Guava' really 5 stars compared to Portishead's 'Third'? While the former was somewhat groundbreaking for its time, it hasn't necessarily endured as a classic, it's very long, and it's often overshadowed by Ween's own output. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.Has anyone noticed that in the past 2-3 years, hasn't issued 5 Stars to any new album as far as I can tell? In fact, I can barely count any 5 Star ratings since 2000 - Outkast's 'Stankonia' is one. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. To optimize ad relevance by collecting visitor data from multiple websites such as what pages have been loaded.ДЄ cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

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