Comments on: The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love Album Review

By: Train

Train — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:42:49 +0000

Excellent review. I can definitely appreciate a band in today’s iTunes age that attempts to make a cohesive album that is meant to be heard from the opening track all the way through to the closing track…even if you do need Spark Notes to follow along.

By: Ali Plumb

Ali Plumb — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:51:11 +0000

A Decemberists musical… now there’s something I’d love to see.

By: Half Note

Half Note — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:19:03 +0000

LOL That thought never actually occurred to me, Jack. The cover art, and all their cover art for that matter, is actually done by Meloy’s wife who is an artist.

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:32:01 +0000

Good review. I was/am still confused with this album. Confused because even though I appreciate how artsy it is, I don’t know if it’s a good look for them.

Mixed feelings, I guess… also, doesn’t the cover sort of make you want to die?

By: Luis Tovar

Luis Tovar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:28:44 +0000

I stopped her from giving the album a higher score. Not because I didn’t like the album, but we are trying to be more careful with what scores we give certain albums.

Here is a rating scale that I have recently implemented.

The Pretty Much Amazing Rating Scale is based on a 100-point system. On the blog only 10 lightbulbs show up, but PMA has a reviews plugin installed that keeps track of all the scores. In the future, I would like to list the highest reviewed albums of the month, or something like that. The system would be able to distinguish a 77/100 album over a 75/100 album (even though they both show 7 and half bulbs).

0-19 points — Terrible, don’t waste the money or hard drive space!
20-29 points — This is just bad! So, so BAD!
30-39 points — Poor
40-49 — Could have been average. Just missed it.
50-54 — Average Record. Not Bad, Not Good.
55-59 — It’s more good than bad
60-69 — This is just OK. Didn’t hate it.
70-74 — Good album!
75-79 — Very good album!
80-84 — Great album! One of the year’s best!
85-89 — Best album of the year!
90-94 — One of the best albums in years!
95-100 — CLASSIC ALBUM! All-time best

This was inspired by the scale CokeMachineGlow have set up. It’s a very good way of keeping the ratings even.

By: Half Note

Half Note — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:28:41 +0000

Haha that’s an interesting description. I think I’ve heard it described as “rock opera,” but I personally shied away from labeling it because I’m personally not a fan of labels.

I’ll admit that I’m generally tough in ratings. So, in my book, a 7.5 is actually very high for an album. It might be equivalent to another person’s 8.5. I mean, these things are so subjective in many ways, right? I understand it seems sort of off considering how much I raved about the album.

But one thing I took into consideration is their previous work and I found that I like some of their older albums more than this one and I wouldn’t give THOSE anything above an 8.5 or 9 so I had to rate accordingly .. if that makes sense.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:14:34 +0000

Excellent review. I loved this album as well, and “The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid” is definitely my favorite song.

But I can’t help but wonder: what prevented it from getting a higher rating? You never discuss what you don’t like about the album (except for initially having troubles absorbing it). I’m curious.

I was thinking of how to describe the genre of this album, and all I could come up with was “Post-Zeppelin Renaissance Rock.”