Rebecca Christie's RARB scoring

My first goal when it comes to RARB scoring is to be fair and consistent. I'm a lot more involved in a cappella now than I was when I started this, and I've heard a lot more, but I try to make sure that a song I score a 5 or a 6 now is not too far off from what it was in the beginning. I do think my scoring has toughened a little bit, but credit for that goes to the overwhelming growth of the art form over the past five years. I've been a RARBer since 1994, I'm thinking, and we got albums from as far back as 1992, so that should give some perspective.

As to how I score: I think the numbers we assign should do two things. They should serve as a point of comparison between the song or album in question and the rest of the a cappella world. And they should also be useful as a point of comparison between the songs on any given album.

Point is an important word. By their very nature these numbers will not stand up to much in the way of statistical comparison. Albums are reviewed at different times, often with only hazy memory of what came before, and all sorts of factors can come into play. To be truly effective, you'd need something that has unilateral, consistent standards, or at the very least a comprehensive listen to everything being rated.

That taken into account, I still think keeping the numbers serves a useful purpose. They are a rough marker for where the song fits in, and when used in conjunction with the comments can be a good guide to where the reviewer thinks the song fits. Which is really all you can ask frow a review.

So what do I mean when I am the one behind the number?

I use 5 as my standard of decency. If a song is reasonably in tune and reasonably listenable, it gets a 5. A 6 is slightly better than that — I think the general average of the game is currently around my sense of 6. 7 is probably where my personal listenability rating sets in — a song that gets a 7 or better is a pretty good track, an 8 is a nice one, and a 9 means I liked it a lot, or at least couldn't find much at fault with it. To get a 10 requires something pretty special — in addition to being near-flawless in performance, I look for something that shows extreme effort, originality, feeling or something else that makes it truly memorable for me.

On the low end, a song that scores a 4 or worse is not a song I would consider listenable. 5's can have a lot of flaws in them, and even 6's, but a 4 is almost always below my tolerance level. Maybe worth hearing once to see what the art form is up to, but not worth a second shot.

Tuning is clearly the most important thing when it comes to rating a song, but a lot of other things come into account. A good soloist can raise a song, or good energy or a nifty arrangement that covers for its singers' shortcomings. If I get a good "feel" from a song I'll give it a better score — call it the Rebecca Rhyme or Reason factor. This doesn't come into play too often, but can act as a sympathy point in some cases.

There is one thing that can affect my scoring as viewed across the board; that is, the overall consistency of the album in question. If an album is pretty consistent across the board, I may spread song scores over a 3-point range, even if on another album they would all have gotten the median score in that range. This makes up for the rounding we have to do since there are no half scores. For example, if an album is basically made up of 6-level cuts and I hear one I like I might give it a 7, even if it's musically not that much better than its contemporaries. Or if one rubs me the wrong way it might get a 5, on the same rationale. And every once in a while I might raise a song 2 points, if it's the only standout on a truly monotone album, even if its quality might only get it one point highter in normal circumstances.

Also, really good albums come under different rules. Generally I outline this in my overall comments, but basically what it means is that an album which is really good across the board will have its secondary factors come into account much more. Interpretation, soloist, — all these things can have a big effect when I'm judging a good group. Not to name names, but the automatic example of this that comes to mind is the Stanford Fleet Street Singers, on their album "What You Want." That disc was definitely one of the best to come the RARB way. My lowest score on it was a 6, for their interpretation of one of my favorite standards. On any other album, its tuning and polish would have gotten it a higher score, but I couldn't stand their take on it and panned it, since I'd made it clear in the beginning that this was a great group.

More than you ever wanted to know, but to paraphrase Walter Cronkite, "that's the way it is."

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Last modified: Tue Apr 8 13:25:48 PDT 1997