Don’t make the mistake of thinking these are not great albums. They are. I give this out quite often, because there are a lot of albums I love, but that don’t quite qualify for the full five-star treatment. Not completely essential, but still a highly recommended purchase.

I hand this one out more frequently these days. Usually given to albums that make a decent impression on me, but don’t really cause me to hyperventilate and so forth. They can be recommended or not, so be careful when approaching these ones in the store. Purchases should be dependent on the listener's preferred genre. Or something.

Pretty self-explanatory, in that these ones aren’t quite bad enough for me to slap a one-star on them, but they certainly aren’t worth anyone’s time or effort. Stay far, far away.

I’ve barely ever given this one out, but that’s because I have so few genuinely revolting albums. Torture. Garbage. Awful. And other such synonyms. Stay further away.