In this fashion, a PEARL album does not by itself indicate perfection, and an OBSIDIAN album does not by itself indicate trash. Dismiss for now the notion that music could ever be perfect. It’s always fun to compare though, and if you feel like making comparisons between a DARK ORANGE and a DODGER BLUE, be my guest!Ģ. While there will always be such a thing as comparison in art, and bad art will certainly be covered here, this system was designed to mitigate direct comparisons of worthiness in musical artwork, and instead focus on its individual positive traits.
Darker FINAL COLORS do not necessarily mean a worse album. Now, just a few important things to note:ġ. Finally, if all of the stated qualities are present, the music earns a PEARL, while a dearth in every quality earns an OBSIDIAN. For example, an album that stands out in both emotional evocation and in uniqueness would receive a YELLOW, or even a WITCH HAZE if there are also intellectual qualities present. These colors also combine to form other colors if the albums have multiple standout qualities. Albums with more prominent shades of RED are emotional or beautiful or have interesting sonics those that are GREENer stand out from the crowd in some way BLUEr albums are brain food. The FINAL COLOR dictates what kind of qualities are notable about the music. Step 3: All three colors are combined to form a single FINAL COLOR. Step 2: Each criteria resolves in a brightness level of its represented color, as follows: If you need a numerical assessment to these criteria: There are levels to each criteria: Low, Medium or High Step 1: The music is judged based on each of the three criteria. Additionally, songs and albums with lyrics that are indecipherable or obscured on first listens could potentially contain less blue. Brian Eno’s Music for Airports or William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops). This category might seem at first to discriminate against music without present or coherent lyrics, but even instrumental or ambient music has the capacity to be judged on an intellectual level if the music is contextually presented as such (e.g. Inspire introspection or critical thought Make effective personal or political statements Judging the capacity of the music to stimulate the mind. This category is meant to signify when an artist decides to break the mold, and it should be rewarded on its own terms. Not every artist is willing or able to create a unique sound, and many enjoy successful careers dabbling in genre templates.
Note that originality is not necessary to enjoy a piece of music. Represent the artist working outside of their established comfort zone Define the artist as a producer of a unique sound Judging the ambition of the music in being novel or trying something new relative to previous works. In the same vein, albums that are well-produced may score low marks if the content ultimately betrays the quality of the production. In this way even music that is objectively ugly-sounding, such as noise rock or certain breeds of black metal, can still earn high marks in this category if the sound is represented well. Since music cannot be bereft of aesthetics, this category is meant to instead critically assess how effectively the aesthetics work for the music, or whether they are specifically worth praising. Are interesting or captivating based on their sonics
Songs and albums that score high on this criteria: This concerns everything from production quality to how effectively the artist conjures beauty or emotion in the music. Judging how the music sounds on a purely sonic level. The three color bases of this method are RED, BLUE and GREEN, and three separate criteria represent these colors. This system is based on the Additive Color Mixing method, where hues of light are combined to form different, brighter colors. This system is designed to highlight on a surface level the specific aspects of a piece of music as it relates to high art, to spotlight the things that make it great, while simultaneously analyzing it in a deeper critical sense through the written review. Every album covered on Spectreview is worth listening to, but music fits many different molds, and listeners want so many different things out of their music.