Swimming in a Sea of 7s: A Playlist of Songs You'd Skip if Scores Mattered
A companion playlist for this week's post, "Album Scores Are Meaningless." More proof that finding a trustworthy source for recommendations is better than relying on soulless numbers.
I thought it would be a tough sell, claiming that scoring albums was a futile and obsolete exercise.
It turns out, you all agree! And you had a lot to say about it. If you haven’t checked out the comments, I highly encourage it1.
In any case, I hope that also means you’ll enjoy this playlist, even though it seems like you don’t need much, if any, additional convincing.
It’s filled to bursting with songs taken from albums that I was personally surprised received lackluster ratings.
What critically-panned records do you love?
Like many of my hyper-niche playlists, this one is for paid subscribers, but here’s a little preview of the albums represented within.
Remember, I don’t score, but I also don’t recommend anything that I don’t think is great!
SASAMI - Blood on the Silver Screen: The nu-metal/90’s alt indie crossover star goes pop and critics are very mixed in their thoughts. 74/100 average.
SPELLLING - Portrait of My Heart: I think this is quickly becoming one of my favorite records of 2025. This darkwave/baroque pop record was getting so much (positive) hype that I thought it was easily an AOTY contender in the eyes of many. Hardly; 77/100 on the aggregators.
Juniore - Trois, Deux, Un: Remember this one from my Yé-Yé piece last year? I was so upset with myself for forgetting to put it on my best-of list in 2024. It was actually ended up being one of the worst-scoring records of the year for everyone else, averaging 68/100.
The rest, below.
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