My ratings tend towards the high end of the scale although that's mainly because I tend to ignore music I know I won't like rather than my being easily pleased. Generally speaking I only rate that which I own or have owned, although I do make very rare exceptions to that rule. I pay absolutely no heed to an album's supposed "importance" when rating it. My ratings system can be approximately summarised thus:

★★★★★: My untouchable favourites. A rating an album grows into; I've yet to hear an immediate five.
★★★★½: Top class albums, filled with great music. The best albums at this level are in the main only separated from five stars due to personal significance of the latter.
★★★★: Very good albums, the real backbone of my collection.
★★★½: This is about my default rating for any album I like although occasionally I might use it for an album that is inconsistent but has one or two great songs on it.
★★★: Decent enough albums, although not something I’ll listen to very often. May contain a few gems or perhaps just consistently average but generally it means there was a little more about it that I liked than not.
★★½: Not for me. Nothing terrible about it but probably either from a genre I don't really care for or a weak example of a genre I like.
★★: Not good at all. The lowest mark I will give to an album with anything on it worth my time however.
★½: Bad albums, the sort of stuff I would go out of my way to avoid. If I have this in my collection it is likely to disappear pretty soon.
★: Really bad, not worth a second of my attention. I do my best to find some merit in everything I listen to so I only very rarely give out one star or half star ratings.
½: The worst of the worst. Why did this even happen?

Any dear heart or gentle person who wishes to call me friend on here will likely have the courtesy returned to them. I'm really not bothered about musical compatibility or anything along those lines so don't be put off by differences. Unless you're a Nazi or a Randroid of course, in which case hit the road.

I'm not particularly interested in films so I'll not be rating those, ta. And when the video games come I certainly won't be involved in that nonsense.

Oh and, as I always lose these links, note to self 1 and 2.