The Unquestionable 10s

Do you know what today is?

It's this blog's 1-year anniversary! That's right, exactly one year ago today I wrote my first review ever. It was terrible. Anyways, I'd like to think that I've improved a lot in the last year and to celebrate this incredible occasion, I am writing this article. Go me.

I'd like to think that the meat, the text of the review is the most important part of any review, and yet when people read my reviews they often just skim down to the bottom to see what score it received and move on. These people suck! I can often spend over an hour writing a review, but you people don't read it. All you care about is the score.

It's very rare that an album gets a perfect score from anyone other than E.A. Solinas. In my one year of reviewing and rating albums, I've only given out one 10-star rating (a perfect score), and I did so to The Flaming Lips' "At War with the Mystics" which I stand by to this day. In order for something to receive a perfect score it has to be the perfect album. Here's what that means:

You see, an album can have nothing but fantastic songs on it still receive an 8/10. When that flawless album feels like a work of true musical genius it gets a 9/10. When that work of true musical genius has the intangible quality of being an album that will be remembered for years and years, that's when it receives the 10/10 rating from me. It's not enough for an album to have no bad songs on it. It has to memorable and timeless.

So without further ado or explanation, I'd like to list all the albums I've heard that are worthy of a perfect 10/10 Stars from Audio Overflow.

The Flaming Lips: "At War with the Mystics"

Sigur Ros: "( )"


Radiohead: "Kid A"


The Shins: "Chutes Too Narrow"


The Postal Service: "Give Up"


Sufjan Stevens: "Illinois"


The Mars Volta: "De-Loused In the Comatorium"


Live: "Throwing Copper"


Eagles: "Hotel California"


The New Pornographers: "Twin Cinema"

As you can see, there aren't many perfect 10s out there. That's a good thing, really. If there were more I might have to change my criteria.

Thanks to everyone for a great first year. Let's hope the following 365 days are even better!