rate your music dot com

[The Mollusk]

Anyone here into this site? I have spotted one other CaB user on there (we have similar tastes, I see your ratings fairly often) although I won't mention them unless they decide to do it themselves.

For some utterly bizarre reason I only started really paying attention to it about a month ago. I made an account mostly to force myself to start writing reviews more regularly but soon afterwards I decided to undergo the mammoth task of digitally cataloguing/rating my collection of nearly 1100 CDs. It's a great thing to be able to check on if I'm out record shopping and can't remember if I already own something or not, plus I'm steadily working on a wishlist on there which will be very handy to give to family around birthday/Christmas time. Buy my literally anything off this massive list and I will be happy.

My profile is here so by all means give me a follow if you want and I'll gladly return the favour.

It's a brilliantly comprehensive site and after only a brief time on there it's broadened my already broad taste considerably. I'm becoming quite the fan of avant-prog and slowcore at the moment, two genres I wouldn't have previously thought I'd care for at all. It is a fucking dangerous rabbit hole though, I've been spending more of my free time on there reading reviews and rummaging obscure releases than anything else recently.

Anyway yeah it's great.

[purlieu]

I've been considering shifting to it since Discogs has been gradually going down the toilet (the reviews sections being entirely dedicated to discussing the quality of the vinyl pressing; moderators deleting comments about records coming back into print so the site can get more cash off scalper sales), but I always find loads of stuff missing and the submission process is so much more of a pain in the arse than Discogs. I also dislike the fact that so, so many of the reviews are based on people who've listened to the record once and then given an expert-like opinion on it.

I have about three accounts on there, I don't think any of them have my full collection on though.

[Dirty Boy]

It's a yay from me.

I've never signed up for it, but it's certainly been a useful resource when it comes to finding reviews of obscure records and i've found plenty of great stuff by searching through the user lists as well (not to mention the 'search by genre' function which is handy).

[Memorex MP3]

I like it a lot but I do find it's increasingly became a bit of a mess for newer stuff where it takes like five years for massively hyped stuff to level itself out.

Still pretty bad with some genres too (eg a lot of dance music is quite badly represented).


Still really good for unearthing stuff though; I find myself increasingly checking out the threads that are linked in albums pages to find similar recommendations.

[chutnut]

I used it a lot about 20 years ago, and still refer back to my collection list from then to remind myself of stuff I've forgotten about. First time I remembered I was pretty surprised it was still around tbh.
Pretty tempted to update it now

[cosmic-hearse]

I've been considering shifting to it since Discogs has been gradually going down the toilet (the reviews sections being entirely dedicated to discussing the quality of the vinyl pressing; moderators deleting comments about records coming back into print so the site can get more cash off scalper sales), but I always find loads of stuff missing and the submission process is so much more of a pain in the arse than Discogs. I also dislike the fact that so, so many of the reviews are based on people who've listened to the record once and then given an expert-like opinion on it.

I have about three accounts on there, I don't think any of them have my full collection on though.

The Discogs reviews are quite useless but there are no moderators deleting stuff to increase sales, it's just users reporting inane things like "repress please!" or people hawking banned White Power records (they should just remove the reviews entirely for them).

Just looked at Rate Your Music - I appreciate it's based on user submissions but it's not very comprehensive at all, just a quick peruse showed massive gaps; not even close to the granularity of Discogs. That said, it's probably better for reviews & whatnot.

[purlieu]

I only mentioned that due to knowing a couple of people whose comments linking to available versions / coming represses have been removed.

[The Mollusk]

Pound for pound it is a better site for reviews. You will always be lumbered with total wazzocks writing shite like "tried giving this artist a spin for the first time, atonal jazzcore is quite a diversion from my usual rotation of twee indie and dream pop but have to say I thought this was just rubbish!! Noise for the sake of noise, no structure and ultimately no point to this music!!!" But the most thorough and informed reviews from people who actually know what they're talking about artistically and contextually will always get upvoted to the top so it balances out well enough for me.

[sevendaughters]

I once used the RYM annual listings to listen to a record I'd never heard of from every year from 1960 to whenever I did it (about 2013) and came up with some crackers and some absolute shite like Hatfield and the North.

[cosmic-hearse]

I only mentioned that due to knowing a couple of people whose comments linking to available versions / coming represses have been removed.

Fair point - the Discogs review 'rules' seem a bit ambiguous anyway so it's not super clear what's permissable (probably better having an all purpose review / comment / discussion field)

[itsfredtitmus]

why are inxs and u2 big music
whats big music
CLINICALLY OBESE MUSIC

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Been using it for years.

You have to be careful to sift through the album ratings of classics from years ago and equally good newer releases. Add about .2/.3 for newer releases and it's usually closer to the actual rating.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I'm on there but I don't really get it. There's one guy on there that writes reviews that are so shit that they actually give me energy. My nemesis. He completes me.

[The Mollusk]

I'm on there but I don't really get it. There's one guy on there that writes reviews that are so shit that they actually give me energy. My nemesis. He completes me.

There's a couple of people on there who are really popular reviewers whose opinions frequently boil my piss. Grampus is one of them.

Been using it for years.

You have to be careful to sift through the album ratings of classics from years ago and equally good newer releases. Add about .2/.3 for newer releases and it's usually closer to the actual rating.

purlieu mentioned upthread that it's annoying how new albums will shoot up the overall charts because of the huge amount of ratings they receive on release. The new Black Country New Road album is currently the 3rd best chamber pop album, 9th best post rock album and 17th best art rock album all time according to those charts.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

There's a couple of people on there who are really popular reviewers whose opinions frequently boil my piss. Grampus is one of them.

purlieu mentioned upthread that it's annoying how new albums will shoot up the overall charts because of the huge amount of ratings they receive on release. The new Black Country New Road album is currently the 3rd best chamber pop album, 9th best post rock album and 17th best art rock album all time according to those charts.

Holy fucking shit haha that's exactly who I was talking about

[dontpaintyourteeth]

smug fucking john peel avatar prick

[The Mollusk]

Hahaha! Fantastic.

In other stupid chart news, black midi hold the number 1 and 2 spot for greatest avant prog albums of all time with their most recent two records. I'm not doubting those albums are ace but seeing them tower over Magma who are the absolute fucking titans of the genre, pioneering, genius, a whole legacy of brilliance emanating from them, it's pretty irksome.