The guide aims to sort the wheat from the chaff. Each album is given a star rating influenced by the assessments and reviews. Qualities looked for to achieve the highest ratings are musicianship, musical structure and development, strong melody and harmony, distinctiveness, originality, creative arrangements and vocal ability. The more of these buttons that are pressed the higher the star rating achieved. Thus five star albums are regarded as outstanding, four star can be confidently recommended, three star are likely to appeal mostly to fans of the genre or artist, two star are considered to demonstrate limited musical quality, and those with just one star are deemed to have little or no musical worth. All US and UK top twenty albums will be included, plus very many others selected for their individual contribution to the popular music scene.
Each review contains an image of the LP cover, as it originally appeared when released. Also included is a list of individual tracks. A brief overview outlines the main features of interest of the album and details its chart placing and any hit singles included. The bulk of each entry is devoted to the comments of ordinary people on the qualities of the album. These views are given with style, sincerity, insight and conviction, and provide a uniquely valuable assessment and analysis of each album.
