Hello Reader,
Here at Scummy Water Tower, with each review we post, we will offer our opinion on a musical performance, or series of performances.
Alex here – With each new album review, I’ll start with background on my own listening connection to the music and brief but important background information on the artist. With each new album review, I’m going to listen to all albums I review in the track list order it was released as to respect the artist’s vision. On new album reviews we will not discuss our own track order, i.e. switching song 1 and 3 would’ve added this element, and improved the flow, etc. I don’t think that adds anything of value to a new album review. To me, those hypotheticals that try to analyze the music making process are best left in critical thought experiments for critical album analysis and hindsight. And to me, that process in which it is easy to over analyze isn’t best to be done on new album reviews. So we won’t. I’ll also do my best to avoid inputting bias to the conversion by not listing/marking favorite songs or tracks. Some review sites do that, and it can offer value in a review to the reader, but I’d rather let you form your own opinion on the songs. That’s one of the joys of listening to new music right? And we understand that both your and my opinion will modify over time.
In addition to explaining how we feel with a detailed written review, we’ll also include a grading system called Scum Drops when we cover new album reviews. Why? Using a system gives you our reader and reviewers a shared, common understanding. We want to set ourselves apart from others, in the best ways. The Scum Drops title of our system just seems fitting to brand it with the site name. Special thanks to Jim Hahn for the idea for the name and Josh for designing the graphics and implementing them on the site.
Our new release album review scale will not be as hypercritical as some other sites, and we’ll always respect the artists. We’ll use a 1-5 numeric scale with 0.5 intervals in between. My number of Scum Drops will be relative to all the albums released in a year.
-Alex
| Number of Scum Drops | What That Rating Means |
|---|---|
 |
Sounds incomplete to us. |
 |
Unfinished. Lots of issues here. |
 |
An OK album. There’s a good foundation but also significant room for improvement. |
 |
Just below Average album. Fits right below the average of all the albums released this year. |
 |
Average to ever so slightly above average album, relative to the rest made this year. |
 |
Good album. A bit above average compared to other releases this year. |
 |
Very Good album. |
 |
Excellent album. |
 |
Not the best album ever, but among the best albums of this year. We wouldn’t change a thing. |
In mathematical terms for conceptualization:
- a 1.0 Scum Drop rating would roughly translate to the 0-11th percentile.
- a 1.5 Scum Drops rating would be the 12th-23rd percentile.
- a 2.0 Scum Drops rating would be the 24th-35th percentile.
- a 2.5 Scum Drops rating would be the 36th-47th percentile.
- a 3.0 Scum Drops rating would be the 48th-59th percentile.
- a 3.5 Scum Drops rating would be the 60th-71st percentile.
- a 4.0 Scum Drops rating would be the 72nd-83rd percentile.
- a 4.5 Scum Drops rating would be the 84th-95th percentile.
- and a 5.0 Scum Drops rating would be the 96th-100th percentile.
Thanks for reading and supporting good music.
Until next time,
Alex & Josh
**editor’s note: We altered the descriptions for improved clarity and shared understanding. We added notes about the relativeness of the rating system and included rough percentile equivalents for the same reasons as well.**
Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site: scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions!
Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
