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Matt Cohen's RARB scoring

How do you rate a song on a scale of one to 10? Well, I like to use my old 10 sided dungeons and dragons die. I just let fate (and the mystical powers) decide what each song is really worth. But seriously folks, the key to the scale I use to rate the songs is pretty simple. The main benchmark on my scale is 7. Here's what I mean:

10
Wow! Just about perfect. Might have a small flaw, but it has enough amazing material to keep you distracted. It totally hold your attention. In other words, it's a ten.
9
Great stuff, but there's something a bit wrong, some flaw that takes it off the 10 list.
8
Also great stuff. A notch above typical quality a cappella.
7
Average. But I mean that in a good way. This is exactly what you'd expect a good a cappella group to sound like. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's good.
6
Good. Substandard, but good. You can listen to it.
5
Very borderline. You might like some of it. Still listenable if you like the material on the album that surrounds it. Below average a cappella.
4
Bad.
3
Very bad, but I've heard worse.
2
Pretty damn bad, but (like the 3) there must be SOME redeeming quality, perhaps one clever idea in the arrangement or one standout singer, that keeps it from being a 1.
1
Literally unlistenable. There is no reason to listen to this song. All school songs will get a 1 until further notice (why would anyone want to listen to them?) Any song that has no reason to exist or that misses the point of the song being covered will get a 1. (Imagine a "You Ought to Know" without the anger, for example.) Anyone who murders a song with juvenile humor will get a 1. I have yet to have to give a 1 to a song for just plain bad singing.

Matt's Bio | RARB Home


Last modified: Sun Mar 23 13:46:22 PST 1997

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