What CriticsFM is
The part of the site that deals with albums, with 0 to 100 scores and written reviews
ChartFM starts with charts, which are lists of songs. CriticsFM is the area that deals with albums, and it runs on scores and writing rather than positions.
It is three things in one place.
Album scores and reviews
Any album in the catalogue can be scored by the community, from 0 to 100. The album's score is the average of the scores it received, and each person has one score per album, which they can change later.
The scale is split into five bands, each with a name and a colour:
- 90 to 100: acclaimed.
- 70 to 89: recommended.
- 50 to 69: mixed.
- 30 to 49: unfavourable.
- 0 to 29: rejected.
Each album page shows the distribution of scores across ten bands of ten points, not just the average. That matters because an average of 70 can be everyone agreeing on 70, or half the room giving 90 and half giving 50, which are very different records.
The top rated list requires at least two scores. An album with a single score of 100 leads nothing, because one score is not a community verdict.
Releases of the week
This is a selection of recent releases, assembled by hand and swapped each round. It is not an automatic list of everything that came out.
Its job is to give a starting point. The volume of releases per week is far too large to browse without someone pointing at what is worth hearing first.
The Album Club
The third part is the club: the community picks one record per round, everyone plays it in the same week and then writes about it. It is the slowest part of the site and the one that produces the most writing.
Albums and EPs only
CriticsFM accepts albums and EPs. Singles stay out.
The cut is by release type in the catalogue, and it exists because a score makes sense for a set of tracks conceived together. Giving 100 to a three minute single and 100 to a fifty minute record is using the same number for different things.
Why scores and writing together
A score is a summary, and a summary loses information. A written review is worth more to whoever reads it, because it says which part of the record works and why.
But the score does a job the text does not: it makes the record comparable, sortable and findable months later. That is why an album page shows the average, the distribution and the reviews on the same screen instead of picking one of the two.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to write in order to score?
- No. You can leave just the score. The review is optional, and it is the part other people read.
- Can I change my score later?
- You can. Your score on that album is updated rather than added again, so the average is not affected twice.
- Why does a record I love have a low score?
- Because the score is a community average, not an editorial verdict. If you think the record is underrated, your score plus a review is exactly what changes that.
