Albums are reviewed on a scale of one to four stars, four being excellent and zero being just plain awful.

My ratings system is different from Pitchfork’s. For example, a two-star review from me isn’t equal to a 5.0 from them. In fact, most albums would be a two-star or one-star. The best albums are going to be the ones that rise above that and grab three or four stars.

More explanation follows below.

★★★★ – Phenomenal. Infinitely relistenable and one of the best of the year if not several years.
★★★☆ – Very good. Mostly great from start to finish. Will find a place in our car’s CD changer for some time.
★★☆☆ – Decent. A solid output with a few standout tracks, which are the only ones we may listen to again.
★☆☆☆ – Mostly Forgettable. A stumbling block of an album that may only have a few elements that we enjoyed or only one good song (in that case, buy the single).
☆☆☆☆ – Terrible. Why did they even make this album? So bad we might light our copy on fire. (In fact, we probably will.)

(This post was updated on Jan. 22, 2013.)