Welcome to Drop 22!

Welcome to Drop 22! Allow me to explain this blog, what will be contained herein, and the system associated with it. Simply put, this will be a weekly place to get music reviews, reviewing one album per week. In the future there may be more, either being an album every three days or so, or three albums per week, or whatever, but for now, we'll just stick to one album per week. I can't promise that it will be even that frequent, so don't be surprised if it isn't. I will try, though. Also, I will load up the page with a few reviews I have already written just to give you something to access other than this welcome.
The albums which will be chosen for review will be completely determined by me. I do take suggestions, however, so feel free to write in. I reserve the right to completely ignore your suggestions, so write in with care. In general, it is just what I like or am interested in, and some artists take priority over others. For instance, I am more likely to write a review on the new Jimmy Eat World release than on the latest Kanye West album. I like rock, and that's what I will be reviewing. However, rock has a pretty wide definition, and it means different things to different people. I will try to announce an album review a few weeks before the review comes out, but no promises.
Now for the format. First will come the main body of the review, where I give my impressions of the music, what I liked and what I didn't. The will come the Prime Cuts section, where I give a few songs to pay special attention to. Finally, the 22 Rating.
The 22 System is something developed by a friend, originally intended as a way to evaluate movies. Upon repeated uses, we realized that it was useful for so many other things besides movies, and I think one of them is albums. The scale goes like this:



Pretty simple, yes? We developed this scale for movies since the use of the four star scale was just entirely too limiting. The 22 scale allows us to rate things on a much more specific level, and really get down to brass tacks when deciding what is good and what is bad. This same principle can easily be applied to albums. Now we use the 22 scale for a great many things, from movies to books to TV episodes to what to do on a Friday night. However, it doesn't go across the board. For instance, it's not appropriate to rate bands on the 22 scale, since all bands have good songs and bad songs. It's also not good to rate actors or directors on the 22 scale, since all of them are prone to make a bad movie every now and then. Also, things like actors, directors and bands are not static. They change over time, and accordingly so would their rating. In this case, I think it's better to just not give them a rating at all. Albums, however, never change. Therefore, it is useful to put a stamp on them.
Well, now that you understand the system, let's get to it! Please keep in mind that these reviews are 100% my own opinion, and you can feel free to revile, belittle, or completely ignore it. After all, I'm just saying what I think, so you are completely welcome to disagree with me. Emails to that effect will be fielded with care, and some will get a response and some will not. Your comments are always appreciated, though, whether I respond to the or not. Now let the reviewing begin!