As you may have noticed, we’ve recently dropped the decimal points for the scores given in Stylus reviews; this is for myriad reasons, almost all of them interminably dull. (One reason might be because I’ve lost my ten-sided die, and thus can’t make them up anymore.)

After a great deal of brain-picking and discussion, we’ve also re-defined what the numbers given out actually mean, which may mean that reviewers appear more mealy-mouthed and tight-fisted with the scores than they actually are. For the sake of clarification, here’s a brief breakdown of how the scores should pan out;

10 = Perfect
9 = Exceptional

8 = Really great
7 = Great
6 = Good
5 = OK
4 = Poor
3 = Really poor

2 = Shite
1 = Sinful

As you can see, while this might mean many records receive a lower numerical mark, it gives more room for manoeuvre at the top-end of the scale in terms of differentiating ‘quality’ (whatever that is). Hopefully this should result in 10s and 9s being very rare and wonderous marks, only awarded to albums of unique brilliance and not just any old flavour-of-the-month (likewise 1s and 2s should only be awarded to really offensive tripe). As for the semantics of the difference between ‘great’ and ‘really great’ or ‘poor’ and ‘really poor’… well, that’s for the reviewers to decide.

Thanks!