"La gente necesita la música, curarse con algo feliz, que se eleve por encima de la miseria humana. La música es eso, ese es el anhelo de la poesía y la lírica. La letra de una canción, ¡tiene que ser hermosa! Decir algo que llegue al alma de la gente, que llegue a su corazón y le saque la mierda de dentro. Ese es mi intento" - Luis Alberto Spinetta

"There’s so much shit that reaches a lot of people that I don’t like at all. And then there’s the juiciest music that makes me so happy, and nobody cares that it’s there." - Esperanza Spalding

A few notes:

-I rarely write reviews on here. Which I am trying to change - if I do write any extensive review on here though, 9 times out of 10 it will be a positive review because I don't see the point in wasting time writing about albums I don't like.

-If there is not a "written by" at the end of my review, the listed date may be inaccurate, as I normally write my reviews much after the initial rating (and in many cases, years after).

-I think my ratings skew to the more positive side of things (statistically 4/5 has the highest occurrence) because I do not rate albums that frustrate me to the point of not getting through them and didn't rate many albums that I know I don't like, but heard years before I got on RYM. In regards to score, anything above 3-3.25 is something that I have enjoyed overall to some degree.

-All yearly lists contain records that are rated 3.5 and up, in other works, albums that, overall, I enjoyed to some extent. Note that outside of the top 10, these lists may not be strictly in order.

-On my decade lists I leave out classical music due to the fact that the pieces found in the vast majority of the classical albums I listen to were composed in an era extremely removed (chronologically/sonically) from music from the 1950s and on.

-I use my wish list for: (1) things I want to buy physically/check out in the future or (2) things I have opted to just access through a streaming medium.

Here is an explanation of my rating scale, which is an edited version of the scale used on popmatters.com:

5/5 Pinnacle (BEST OF THE BEST): As close to perfection as these things get. In other words, a serious contender for my favorite album of all time.

4.5-4.75/5 Masterpiece (ESSENTIAL): Often the pinnacle of an artist's achievement. A fantastic album with minor flaws.

4.0-4.25/5 Great (STRONGLY RECOMMENDED): A great, solid album overall, but not quite a masterpiece. It could have a small number of weak(er) tracks or in some cases be an album of consistent quality throughout.

3.5-3.75/5 Good (WORTH GETTING): Stands out and is definitely worth purchasing/looking into, although it may be somewhat stereotypical, err too much on the side of safety or have various dips in quality.

3.0-3.25/5 Decent (CAN BE SKIPPED): In a word: lukewarm. Ok. Another phrase that may apply is "middle of the road". Could be of interest to fans of the genre, but has specific weaknesses and often has little tracks that truly stand out - something I probably won't return to that often as a whole.

2.5-2.75/5 Bad/Mediocre: This is the highest grade for an album that I do not really like. An album in which aspects that I enjoy are substantially outweighed by what I don't care for.

All of this said, please do remember that art is not math - conversations that center around the number assigned and not the details, aspects and nuances that make people love, hate or be indifferent to the music, are terribly boring - they are the worst thing about this place.