AllMusic's 2026 Five-Star Album Update

Visiting your website recently has led to some unexpected surprises for us regular users. For anyone here who hasn't noticed yet, over one-hundred albums from AllMusic's database were re-rated in the last week and I'd say that the majority of them were worthy call-ups.

The update did bring about some ideas that I'd like to ask your editorial team about:

1. After a previous update like this one, I asked your editors if there were releases in those freshly updated discographies that were also worthy of a new four-and-a-half star rating where there no longer any. They kindly responded to that request - amongst those changes, I still remember Beach House surprisingly being given two 4.5s! I wonder if your team would be willing to do that again. There are now several artists who have multiple four-star albums but nothing in between. Here are some recommendations to help you:

    • Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies 
    • Broadcast - Tender Buttons 
    • Chris Stapleton - Starting Over 
    • Daddy Yankee - Talento de barrio 
    • Duran Duran - Their 1982 self-titled debut 
    • Jill Scott - Beautifully Human or even her new record?
    • Jimmy Eat World - Clarity and/or Futures 
    • King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon 
    • Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence and/or Did You Know There's a Tunnel.. 
    • Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire and/or The Battle of Los Angeles 
    • Sault - Untitled (Black Is) 
    • Sophie - Product 
    • Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz or their debut EP

2. In many cases, the artist's 'Album Pick' wasn't necessarilly the one given a five-star rating. While Zac has previously told to us that being the highest rated album in a discography doesn't automatically mean it gets the 'album pick' I did wonder if there was any incidents in the last week where your team had maybe forgotten to change it. If they had, would they take another look at some of them? To assist, here are a list of artists where the pick is now on a lower-rated non-compilation release:

    • AFI 
    • Ana Tijoux 
    • Bad Bunny 
    • Deerhunter 
    • Dirty Projectors 
    • Fear of Men 
    • Gorillaz 
    • Jazzmeia Horn 
    • Kenny Chesney 
    • Korn 
    • LCD Soundsystem 
    • Lil Wayne 
    • Lupe Fiasco 
    • Natalia Lafourcade 
    • Nathan Salsburg 
    • The New Pornographers 
    • Rosalía 
    • Timber Timbre 
    • Trivium 
    • Travis Scott 
    • Wilco

   Also, Ethel, Kralice and Lankum don't have an album pick. Want to pick one out for them?
   
   Not gonna recommend Cocteau Twins or TV on the Radio here because hopefully both 'Treasure' and 'Dear Science' will get a five-star rating the next time your team goes on a five-star rating spree! ;)
3. It was great to see Prefab Sprout's 'Steve McQueen' with a full five-star rating. However, the US edition of the same album - 'Two Wheels Good' didn't get the same treatment. Please can you update it to match?
4. Amongst all these ratings changes, two albums possibly got caught in the middle and are now listing as five-star albums on the Advanced Search engine despite having different ratings. You may want to check these out: 'Tubular Bells 2003' by Mike Oldfield and 'Delusion of the Fury' by Harry Partch. Can you find out if they've been flagged correctly?

Thanks to anyone who responds and keep up the fantastic work!