Originally Posted by AndyK (Post 555182)

Any scored review is really only as good as the reviewer is consistent with their scoring. A one off 8/10 really means very little unless you know the baseline that the reviewer is working against.

If you know that over a period of time a reviewer rates music (or films or art or food etc) highly that you really like then there's a very good chance that you'll like any new music (or film or art or food etc) that they rate highly that you haven't heard.

If you've no idea what they've measured against to achieve the 8/10 then really all it tells you is that they like it, but with no substance to really back the rating up.

Originally Posted by PanicLord (Post 555181)

But the key thing is that the score accurately reflects the opinions expressed in writing.

Originally Posted by Sarge (Post 555186)

No it doesn't. I've seen a 1/5 rating for HCTB (European 2-disc edition). The reviewer didn't think the album was bad. No, he gave it 1 star because the pages of the booklet were incorrectly attached to the digibook's jacket.

Originally Posted by AndyK (Post 555184)

That's the point though. Isn't that what a review is? The personal view of the reviewer. The only way you can really understand whether a review is accurate is to have some knowledge of the reviewers tastes, if they give a good review (be it scored or not) then you'll more than likely only agree with the review, if your tastes are similar.

Originally Posted by PanicLord (Post 555190)

Well ok - but that wasn't the one you posted!

Originally Posted by A Slice Of English (Post 555191)

I love watching/reading debates where one party tries to convert the other parrty to their way of thinking. Sometimes all that happens is heads butt together, rebound off and then carry on as before.

Like here.