About the New Scoring Method

Starting today I have moved away from the previous review method where a song is either chosen for my ultimate GBV playlist or not, to a method where every song will get 0 to 6 points based on the scale below:

• Among Bob's Best: These are the hits, and the cream of the crop! (6 points)
• Gems: Great songs that belong on any GBV-related playlist (5 points)
• Almost-Gems: The best of the rest. (4 points)
• They're Good: Not a gem, but it probably is a gem to somebody. I would still like to hear it once in a while. (3 points)
• They're OK: Not likely to make a playlist, but it isn't a bad song by any means. (2 points)
• Could Live Without: Not a toss-off, but I can get by without hearing it ever again. (1 points)
• Toss-Offs & Throwaways: There is usually a couple of these on an album. (0 points)

The album will then get two scores: a total score that simply adds up the points, and an average score that equals the total score divided by the number songs on the album...

Today I re-did the scores of two albums:

2004 - Half Smiles of the Decomposed (48 / 3.43)

2012 - Let's Go Eat the Factory (55 / 2.62)

So which album is better? Let's Go Eat the Factory had a higher total score because it has a lot of good songs, but it also has seven more songs than Half Smiles of the Decomposed (21 compared to Half Smiles' 14). Its average score is quite a bit lower than Half Smiles (2.62 compared to 3.43), so Half Smiles of the Decomposed is more consistently good, and Let's Go Eat the Factory has more total misses.

Maybe.

It really does depend on a lot of things. A total score of 55 can mean a 15 track album that has 8 amazing tracks and 7 skippable ones. It can also mean a 28 track album with 27 ok songs, and 1 skippable one. You really need to look at the average score as well. Let's Go Eat the Factory's 2.62 means that on average the songs are between "Ok" and "Good", whereas Half Smiles of the Decomposed is averaging close to most tracks being "Almost-Gems" or better.

Either way, in this case, both are essential GBV albums! Where one album is consistently good, the other has the same amount of goodness spread out with a lot more filler! Hopefully this helps understand the rating system.