Curious - after reading your comments, it would seem that you would rate Kingcrow (Right Before) higher than Symphony X. It seems like you liked the Kingcrow song quite a bit and the SX not so much... why did SX get a higher rating?
Well, two things; one, I'm trying to make it NOT 100% about just "Stadler likes it" (think that voice the Life cereal commercials). That's a shade too random. It's a big part, that's the point of a roulette, but I want to have an element of objectivity too (thus the "Lorde" discussion; I really feel like I hosed antigoon with that score). Two, the write-ups can only be so long. I LOVED the music part of the Symphony X; the vocals bothered me (TAC: Same with the DXI; it got the score in some part because I still have a grudge against Glenn Hughes for that wailing on the live Deep Purple records from '74-'76). So there was a big dichotomy between the elements of the song. The Kingcrow was more... cohesive for lack of a better word in terms of the elements of the song.
I guess that makes sense. Though I don't know the voice you're talking about, I think Stadler likes it is probably the best way to do it.
Or, I dunno, maybe it's just the only way I could do it.
To try to measure it off some invisible objective standard would just be too hard, because none of it is really objective. If I hadn't known you didn't like Joplin and gave you one of her songs, imo it would be totally fine if you gave it a low rating because you didn't like it, regardless of what critics might say or how much the song is liked on YouTube or how it might have influenced some of your favorite singers.
I would probably have considered giving you a different Symphony X song (one that I think is so beautiful), but I might also have held off because I remember you talking about not liking Russell Allen. Though I sort of assumed you didn't like his tough guy singing, but since you don't like Accolade either, I definitely won't.