Some time ago I was asked what was the best album I owned. Not favourite, best. This got me thinking. What was a better album, 1 with 2 classic tracks and then 7 average cuts, 4 near classics and 6 fillers, or one with 10 very good tracks. I set to devising a plan to find out, for now I was curious to know the answer myself. This then for anyone interested is the formula I eventually came up with. Feel free to try it out but be warned once you start it is addictive.
1.Rate each song out of 10,(using 1/2's only when you really can't decide between whole numbers)
2.Add up all the scores and divide by the number of tracks to find the average
3.Identify the median scoring track ie on a 9 track album the 5th highest. For albums with an even number of tracks there will be 2 medians for a 10 track album it will be the 5th and the 6th highest, although if they are the same you need only use 1
4.Add the average to the median(s)and divide by either 2 or 3 depending on the number of medians you have
5.Multiply by 10
6.Multiply according to the number of tracks on the album. IE a 7 track album should be multiplied by 1.07, a 10 track album by 1.10. Don't forget the leading zero if it is less then ten tracks or your ratings will be completely out. Only go up to a maximum of 1.12 ie 12 tracks. If an album has more than 12 tracks multiply it by 1.12 otherwise albums with lots of shorter tracks will have an advantage. 12 has been chosen as it seems to be the limit for a standard length CD album.
Now you have your final rating for each album.
Always aim for consistency, it doesn't really matter whether you tend to give high or low track scores as long as you are consistent. Try wherever possible to do an artist at a time and chronologically as this gives better results. I tried working in strict alpha order to start with but found it a struggle and began to cherry pick favourite artists. So far I have rated over 700 albums and still have about 300 to go. I don't rate compilations or live albums as they would tend to score higher. For re-issues etc I base the rating on only what was on the original issue. As I only rate albums that I own there should be slightly more higher ones than lower ones. Unless of course I have been buying albums I don't really like for the last thirty years !!
I have converted my ratings to Stars for use on this site in the following way.
90+ = Superb 5
85+ = Excellent 4.5
80+ = Very Good 4
75+ = Good 3.5
67.5+ = Fairly Good 3
60+ = Nothing Special 2.5
50+ = Poor 2
40+ = Very Poor 1.5
30+ = Extremely Poor 1
20+ = Oh Dear 0.5
I am sure there are plenty of flaws in this system and that many people will think it an extemely sad thing to do but it does get you listening to albums you haven't heard for years and throws up some surprising results. Try it and let me know how you get on!