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I think their ratings are usually pretty accurate (the 10% they gave They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is a big exception), but actually reading one of their reviews is torture.

Good for the little album cover square in the corner, and not much else.

I appreciate their taste in music far more than their content.

I appreciate they're taking a bold stance and it's pretty uncommon in this day and age but...nah. Their reviews can be pretty convoluted and I think it's going to discourage a lot of people from visiting. Myself included, probably

Combined Rating: 41%

i can't be arsed to read reviews

read a review by that pretentious twerp Conrad Amenta you'd never want to return to that site ever again. Please read one but don't blame me when you puke.

But some of CMG's are enough to make me want to give up reading. I mean, for FUCK'S sake.

http://www.cokemachineglow.com/record_review/6864/juliaholter-ekstasis-2012

they are much MUCH better.

I`m going out on the streets to fuck shit up. Coke Machine you`ve pushed me over the goddamn edge.

https://twitter.com/cmgzine/status/227434207054528513

Why are people opposed to a rating. It's a good summing up of what someone thought of the album. It also kicks them off Metacritic which gives them free publicity. Sometimes I read reviews with no score and I have no idea what they really thought of the album.

They estimate a score from the tone of the review or something. The BBC are on Metacritic.

as someone who writes the odd review myself, i'd say the 'no rating' thing can just as easily be used as a cop-out so that you don't actually have to decide or make a judgement about how good an album is. you can just rabbit on about stuff while still sitting on the fence.

in fairness CMG probably can't be accused of looking for ways to sit on the fence, but all the same it's a bit pointless getting rid and i can't see why you can't have both, ie ratings and quality writing. as said elsewhere in the thread, ratings give you a reason to read more than anything else, nobody is taking them too much to heart (pitchfork threads notwithstanding)

there are so many websites scoring albums now, and it's so easy to just listen to an album yourself, reviews have kind of become redundant in the sense that they're recommendations. By taking scores away, you're framing them less as recommendations and more as pieces of writing that complement the music they reference; pieces of writing that offer context or an alternative interpretation. Maybe the reviewers will start sitting on the fence more in terms of "Is it good or is it bad?", but that no longer matters. By the same token, we might get more personal reviews that don't concern themselves with trying to be objective or second-guessing their audience. They'll no doubt lose hits, but they'll probably gain readers.

i guess it may well challenge writers as well in terms of providing a unique perspective or context as opposed to trying to be objective, as you say. hmmm.

and find some writers who can articulate coherent thoughts?

never understood the importance of ratings. If it means people stop reading their reviews then maybe they need to get some decent reviewers in.

I'm a time-poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks - I don't have time* to waste on wading through some spotty herbert's attempt to impress his girlfriend with the radiant power of his wordsmithery.

*that's a lie

I just assimilate scores

Which will never happen this will be my scoring system:

Rubbish
Rubbish unless you're crazy fans of this band
If you like this kind of thing you'll dig this
Worth a play in case you like it
Pretty solid listen even if you don't normally like this stuff
Must listen

I bet you've never even *heard* of a score of 4.73

With minimal new content... There's a review, but I can't tell if they think it's any good or not.

http://cokemachineglow.com/

'Godspeed You! Black Emperor offer a majestic, beautiful coda for a version of protest that is dated and unhelpful today. I missed having their music around, but I wonder whose eyes they’re opening with a record that sounds like a document of yesterday’s anger.'
I'd say they liked about 64% of it. I think it's a pretty fair assessment, though a bit wordy.
That said I like the new site - some quirks but the design is nice. Glad they're back

It's in their recommended records section too.

I'm looking forward to their year end list, even though I don't read the reviews that frequently.

I don't know why I love their superlative awards so much

Sean always blabbers on about how their reviewers don't represent the sites views (clearly a silly point of view, but whatever), and there's no way to represent that in the scores, but CMG did just that.

Sean always blabbers on about how *DiS's* reviewers

obviously