THE SPECTREVIEW COLOR RATING SYSTEM

Every album covered on Spectreview is worth listening to, but music fits many different molds, and listeners want so many different things out of their music. This system is designed to highlight on a surface level the specific aspects of a piece of music as it relates to high art, to spotlight the things that make it great, while simultaneously analyzing it in a deeper critical sense through the written review.

This system is based on the Additive Color Mixing method, where hues of light are combined to form different, brighter colors. The three color bases of this method are RED, BLUE and GREEN, and three separate criteria represent these colors.

These criteria are:

AESTHETICS (A)
Judging how the music sounds on a purely sonic level. This concerns everything from production quality to how effectively the artist conjures beauty or emotion in the music. This is represented by the color RED.

Songs and albums that score high on this criteria:
-Are inherently pleasant to listen to
-Are interesting or captivating based on their sonics
-Have high production value

Since music cannot be bereft of aesthetics, this category is meant to instead critically assess how effectively the aesthetics work for the music, or whether they are specifically worth praising. In this way even music that is objectively ugly-sounding, such as noise rock or certain breeds of black metal, can still earn high marks in this category if the sound is represented well. In the same vein, albums that are well-produced may score low marks if the content ultimately betrays the quality of the production.

ORIGINALITY (O)
Judging the ambition of the music in being novel or trying something new relative to previous works. This is represented by the color GREEN.

Songs and albums that score high on this criteria:
-Sound like nothing else
-Define the artist as a producer of a unique sound
-Represent the artist working outside of their established comfort zone

Note that originality is not necessary to enjoy a piece of music. Not every artist is willing or able to create a unique sound, and many enjoy successful careers dabbling in genre templates. This category is meant to signify when an artist decides to break the mold, and it should be rewarded on its own terms.

INTELLECT (I)
Judging the capacity of the music to stimulate the mind. This is represented by the color BLUE.

Songs and albums that score high on this criteria:
-Make effective personal or political statements
-Present complex ideas
-Inspire introspection or critical thought

This category might seem at first to discriminate against music without present or coherent lyrics, but even instrumental or ambient music has the capacity to be judged on an intellectual level if the music is contextually presented as such (e.g. Brian Eno’s Music for Airports or William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops). Additionally, songs and albums with lyrics that are indecipherable or obscured on first listens could potentially contain less blue.

So, here’s how the process works:

Step 1: The music is judged based on each of the three criteria.
-There are levels to each criteria: Low, Medium or High
-If you need a numerical assessment to these criteria:
-Low (0 – 33)
-Medium (33 – 66)
-High (66 – 100)

Step 2: Each criteria resolves in a brightness level of its represented color, as follows:
-Low = no color
-Medium = half color
-High = full color

Step 3: All three colors are combined to form a single FINAL COLOR.

The FINAL COLOR dictates what kind of qualities are notable about the music. Albums with more prominent shades of RED are emotional or beautiful or have interesting sonics; those that are GREENer stand out from the crowd in some way; BLUEr albums are brain food. These colors also combine to form other colors if the albums have multiple standout qualities. For example, an album that stands out in both emotional evocation and in uniqueness would receive a YELLOW, or even a WITCH HAZE if there are also intellectual qualities present. Finally, if all of the stated qualities are present, the music earns a PEARL, while a dearth in every quality earns an OBSIDIAN.

Now, just a few important things to note:

1. Darker FINAL COLORS do not necessarily mean a worse album. While there will always be such a thing as comparison in art, and bad art will certainly be covered here, this system was designed to mitigate direct comparisons of worthiness in musical artwork, and instead focus on its individual positive traits. It’s always fun to compare though, and if you feel like making comparisons between a DARK ORANGE and a DODGER BLUE, be my guest!

2. In this fashion, a PEARL album does not by itself indicate perfection, and an OBSIDIAN album does not by itself indicate trash. Dismiss for now the notion that music could ever be perfect. All artists create music with a wide range of intentions: some artists do not try to instill intellectual qualities into their sound; some do not strive to be original; some do not care about emotion or about how their art sounds. None of this inherently diminishes the effectiveness of the artist’s work if it’s presented in the proper context. A great pop album does not need to be intellectual or original, and a great avant-garde album could potentially have no distinct melodies whatsoever. Essentially, the FINAL COLOR is there to briefly summarize traits and is not meant as an absolute critique. That’s what the review is for.

3. [Updated July 6, 2021] For records that bear one of these qualities so high that they subsume every other criteria, I add an exclamation point (!) at the end to stress how well it fits that criteria. This is reserved solely for singularly RED, GREEN or BLUE albums.

4. If you’ve gotten this far, here’s a reminder that this rating actually means nothing. Ratings are stupid and if you base your musical opinions on a simple qualitative value you need to redetermine why you enjoy music in the first place. The written word is always more important.

Here’s a full list of possible FINAL COLORs:

–OBSIDIAN–
Low A // Low O // Low I

–MAROON–
Mid A // Low O // Low I

–OFFICE GREEN–
Low A // Mid O // Low I

–NAVY BLUE–
Low A // Low O // Mid I

–OLIVE–
Mid A // Mid O // Low I

–PURPLE–
Mid A // Low O // Mid I

–TEAL–
Low A // Mid O // Mid I

–GREY–
Mid A // Mid O // Mid I

–RED–
High A // Low O // Low I

–DARK ORANGE–
High A // Mid O // Low I

–DEEP PINK–
High A // Low O // Mid I

–LIGHT CORAL–
High A // Mid O // Mid I

–GREEN–
Low A // High O // Low I

–CHARTREUSE–
Mid A // High O // Low I

–SPRING GREEN–
Low A // High O // Mid I

–LIGHT GREEN–
Mid A // High O // Mid I

–BLUE–
Low A // Low O // High I

–ELECTRIC INDIGO–
Mid A // Low O // High I

–DODGER BLUE–
Low A // Mid O // High I

–LIGHT SLATE BLUE–
Mid A // Mid O // High I

–YELLOW–
High A // High O // Low I

–WITCH HAZE–
High A // High O // Mid I

–MAGENTA–
High A // Low O // High I

–FUSCHIA PINK–
High A // Mid O // High I

–CYAN–
Low A // High I // High O

–AQUA–
Mid A // High I // High O

–PEARL–
High A // High I // High O