2

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!

Follow

2 replies

Votes Newest Oldest

@Zac: Thanks for quickly updating the ratings to Harry Partch, Mike Oldfield and Prefab Sprout.

Were the other two requests too demanding? If you felt they were, feel free to cut-out the recommendations or to rephrase it in a way that may be more acceptable. As mentioned above, the editorial team were very receptive to these same ideas the last time they did this and it doesn't seem like it would be too time-consuming.

If they had a reason for not going ahead with it this time (maybe they'd prefer to change them individually, whenever a new album by a related act is next released) I'd be interested to hear about it. 

Comment

I'm passing the comments along, and thanks for the well-detailed thinking.

In regards to artists with Album Picks on lower-rated albums, that may still remain. The Album Pick is intended to be the best gateway into an artist, or possibly the most representative of an artist's prime era. Many times this overlaps, but in some cases a five-star genre-defining album may not be the most representative of the band.

Looking at Wilco specifically, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a prickly and beautiful release, and Summerteeth is one of my favorite albums of all time, but Being There (the Album Pick) is a great introduction to the band, showcasing their transition from being a rootsy, country-influenced act into the sprawling and noisy band they would become.

I kinda get that with 'Being There', though I think two discs of Wilco is quite a way to start off for someone who hasn't heard them before - especially to anyone who may find the relatively direct alt-rock of their next two records more accessible.

I also get that the most accessible album isn't necessarilly considered the best in every discography but it's bizarre that out of the 120+ five star ratings given last month, not one of the album picks was moved. Could it be that it wasn't considered as part of the process rather than it being a deliberate choice?

Cheers for the link!

Reply