Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Albums

Hey folks, I started a discussion about a change to the singles practice for bonus tracks being released as singles a few weeks ago and have only received one response. Hoping this will increase visibility and increase participation. mftp dan ^oops 13:50, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Bumping this discussion, if you guys don't mind. mftp dan ^oops 16:20, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Many original release US versions of earlier Beatles 12" vinyl albums are under 30 minutes and played at 33⅓ RPM. These are not considered mini-LPs. 12" 45 RPM LPs under 30 minutes are a less common format. When should an LP under 30 minutes be considered a mini-LP? Do Adventure Club (12" 45 RPM vinyl format) by Laura Jane Grace at 28:40 and Titled Self (not on vinyl) by Mr. Dinkles at 21:01 count as mini-LPs, as they are not on the traditional 12" 33⅓ RPM vinyl format? Kart2401real (talk) 21:13, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Not just the Beatles, but the Beach Boys, the Crickets, Elvis Presley, the Kinks, Simon & Garfunkel and the Supremes, to name but six. It was this "twelve songs maximum" thing that U.S. record labels had for a long time: if you assume a typical song length of about 2 min 30 sec, this works out at 12 * 2 min 30 sec = 30 min. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:16, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

Would Adventure Club and Titled Self count as mini-LPs since they are not on 12" 33⅓ RPM formats? Kart2401real (talk) 23:18, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

The answer is the same as the last time you asked this. Go by what reliable sources most commonly call them. Sergecross73 msg me 23:39, 20 May 2026 (UTC)

I am not sure if Mr. Dinkles calls their short LPs mini-LPs or standard LPs. Kart2401real (talk) 00:51, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Well, look up some reliable source published reviews and see what term they tend to use. Sergecross73 msg me 01:10, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Laura Jane Grace considers Heart Burns to be an EP, but Mr. Dinkles refers to Titled Self as an album. Both are close to 21 minutes. Is the category just determined by what the artist calls it? Kart2401real (talk) 16:59, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:59, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

I've created a draft article about the album Sli'merre 2 by Young Nudy & Pi'erre Bourne, but as I'm new to editing/creating articles on Wikipedia, I would love it if I could get some help to ensure this article is fit to be published. It is located at Draft:Sli'merre 2. Mostly, I would like some more reliable sources, and some help formatting (like the infoboxes with the album cover and quick facts). thanks! Korraxyz (talk) 21:45, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Guitar Songs by Billie Eilish and Francis by Bleached are examples of non-extended playing EPs. Each EP has only two songs, an A-side and a B-side. Billboard and Apple Music consider them singles, but the artists call them EPs. I would like to know the reason why some artists call them EPs despite only being single length. What is the history behind this self-contradictory branding practice? Kart2401real (talk) 17:05, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

I think you're overthinking things. Single/EP/LP/whatever labels matter matter far less in the digital/streaming age where there's no size limitations or physical media involved. The answer is likely little more than "the marketing team thought it would perform better this way". Sergecross73 msg me 17:14, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

Non-extended playing EPs on vinyl are usually 7" 45 RPM. Many of these EPs have a physical release Kart2401real (talk) 17:18, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

The only thing you linked to was a 2022 Billie Eilish release, so I answered based on that. Regardless, my answer is largely the same. There is no "music police" enforcing these standards or labels. We just go by what reliable sources most commonly describe them. Sergecross73 msg me 17:30, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

What are some of examples of early non-extended playing EPs in the 1970s or 1980s? Kart2401real (talk) 17:32, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

I have no idea. Why are you asking me that? Sergecross73 msg me 17:43, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

What is a "Non-extended playing EP" (on vinyl or otherwise)? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 07:28, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

For real. What is the "Non-extended playing EP"? Also how do we know the history behind this self-contradictory branding practice. We are just an editor of Wikipedia... Camilasdandelions (✉️) 04:54, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Any thoughts on these newly created, almost redundant, Albums by topic categories? Category:Albums about death and dying, Category:Albums about grief, and Category:Albums about loss? Such themes are usually reserved for specific songs not entire albums, judging by the amount of subcategories under the topics cat. Starcheerspeaksnewslostwars^{Talk to me} 20:36, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

And now there's Category:Albums about heartbreak and Category:Albums about mothers and motherhood. Starcheerspeaksnewslostwars^{Talk to me} 23:07, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

Personally I don't mind them in principle, but there is a risk for overuse. As with everything else there needs to be effort made to prove that the subject is defining for the article.★Trekker (talk) 12:38, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

Is this site (about page; scroll down for the list of staff) reliable? RedShellMomentum 23:42, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

A bit late commenting here, but the brief glances that I've had of the site seemed fine to me. The list of writers looks good, considering that I recognize some names, like Colin Dempsey. Their founder/editor Jeff Terich appears to have written for American Songwriter and Bandcamp Daily as well. At the moment, I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be reliable. Fundgy (talk) 21:19, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

Example article, About Us I have seen this website very many times whenever I search sources for the articles, and I sometimes used it when the article lacks sufficient references. Btw I'm bit surprised that I couldn't find any consesus for this website, although it has its own wiki page. Is it like Yahoo or MSN websites? Camilasdandelions (✉️) 04:58, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

AOL republishes other news sources/websites, some of which are reliable, some of which are not. The example article you linked to was originally published in Elle, as it says right underneath the title. voorts (talk/contributions) 05:02, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

I'm surprised that this one hasn't gotten discussed more. Angry Metal Guy shows up a lot in the online metal scene, in my experience. It's come up a couple times before, but there doesn't seem to have been a consensus one way or the other: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Albums/Archive_37#Are_these_album_reviews_reliable?, Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Albums/Archive_63#Metal_reviews. It does get used as a reference on a lot of articles. I did some digging, and here's what I would surmise:

Pros:

• Has a staff team including editorial staff .
• Is commended in this article by a Rolling Stone staff member.
• Gets cited plenty and even discussed favorably in academic books, including here, here, , and . Is also listed in this book .

Cons:

• The writing experience of the staff outside of AMG is unclear, if there is any.
• I cannot readily determine how extensively it is routinely used by other, reliable news/review sources. So far that one Rolling Stone article is what I've found. There very well could other sources, it's hard to sift through the pages of Google results.

What do others think here? I personally think that some of book usages, especially the analysis of a review by Spraklen where he commends the reviewer's knowledge of a subgenre, solidly establish this as a reliable source.----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) --3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 12:54, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

I don't know what it is, but something about the name of this website gives me the ick when weighing it for encyclopedic merit. It sounds like an unserious project, which makes it all the more surprising that this publication appears to have a favorable reception from the community and operates in a serious manner. Their editorial staff certainly isn't written that way. I've seen this source around, and personally choose not to use it if I can help it. It's probable at times along my journey on the 'pedia that I actually removed this source from articles. I'm leaning no, but I'm open to listening. mftp dan ^oops 16:17, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

That's how I felt for what's now years at this point. But when I went digging, to my surprise I found that it is viewed by experts as helpful and even well-informed and accurate, despite the humor of the staff page.----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 01:06, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

The reviews can be very knowledgeable and professional, despite the satire of the editorial page. For example, this. So it's an odd source.----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 12:36, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

A review/report in the Arizona Daily Star also cited an AMG review: (despite the "web only" note above the headline, I also found a print version of that article via Newspapers.com.--3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 13:55, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

They're not usually my first choice as a source for the aforementioned reasons, but I do use them sometimes when I'm in need of sources to establish notability or support genres. Victor Lopes ^Fala!•C 16:58, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Another example of AllMusic changing their scores: vs. .----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 12:34, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

Their FAQ notes this can happen. Starcheerspeaksnewslostwars^{Talk to me} 18:52, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

I was just about to make a post on this. What is the consensus on handling a changed rating that is included in an album's ratings box? Someone updated the rating for this album but this is misleading as that is not the rating the critic gave at the time of the review. We should not be replacing ratings as that gives a false impression to readers about an album's reception in the era it was released. For film articles, we note in the prose if and how a film's reception changed over time. Lapadite (talk) 02:52, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

Metacritic states in its FAQ: "Metacritic only accepts the first review and first score published for a given game by a given publication. [...] It's a critic-protection measure, instituted in 2003 after we found that many publications had been pressured to raise review scores (or de-publish reviews) to satisfy outside influences." Lapadite (talk) 19:07, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

If at all possible to locate the original version of the review, that should be the rating (sometimes no archive exists, like with Hello, which was originally a full five stars). I think that the revised rating should also be noted, but noted as a revision, with the best approximate date for the change given.----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 15:03, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

A pre-revised version of the review is archived in the citation. 2011 is the earliest anrchive available. I looked through the archives and found that, at least since 2011, AllMusic changed the review's rating three times — from 3.5/5 to 4/5 between November 2020 and March 2021; from 4/5 to 4.5/5 between August 2023 and December 2023; and from 4.5/5 to 5/5 between May 2026 and June 2026. I noted these revisions in an efn beside the citation. Lapadite (talk) 12:38, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

It has been done before that contemporary ratings are differentiated from retrospective ratings (e.g. Korn (album), Rio (Duran Duran album), Marquee Moon); would AllMusic's review-change warrant a similar sort of response? JavaJourney (talk | contribs) 13:05, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

Yes.----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 13:39, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

Anecdotal, but that is the first time I have ever seen Allmusic award an album 5/5. mftp dan ^oops 12:41, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

They do with a lot of classics, like the Beatles albums.----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 13:41, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

MFTP Dan, if you want some examples: , , , , , , , .----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 12:38, 12 June 2026 (UTC)

Do we know for a fact if the reviewer that writes the prose is necessarily the original rater as it is? I've always thought of the ratings system as separate from the actual prose because of that lack of clarity, typically referring to the rating as "Editors rated Blah X out of five stars, with reviewer John Reviewer saying..." Fundgy (talk) 21:26, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

I'm sure that I've seen reviews along the lines of "the band have made no progress since the last album - three tracks are clearly reworkings of old material, another two are new lyrics for old tunes. Don't waste your money. ★★★★☆" --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:57, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

I've should've mentioned that too - reviews and initial ratings are sometimes conspicuously at odds with each other. Also, for older albums that predate All Music Guide's move to the internet, many didn't receive prose to begin with but had a rating in the book, further complicating things. Fundgy (talk) 22:06, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

Can someone give some insight on how we’re supposed to be wording record labels in album leads? On Bitch (album) a user is trying to state that its labels name is merely just "Nice Life" despite many sources and its own article page referring to it as "Nice Life Recording Company. Many sources use both Nice Life Recording Company and just Nice Life. Which is supposed to be used for the lead? I always believed per MOS in the lead you're supposed to use its full name and shortened for the infobox. If anyone can comment on the articles talk page on Bitch (album) as no one else has joined in and shared insight yet, I would greatly appreciate it. Pillowdelight (talk) 21:42, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

Hi. There has been some talk about whether or not the commonly used Metal Temple is reliable here or not. I've been told it's unreliable. However, as someone stated, it has "a certain longevity, a defined editorship, team of writers writing under their full name, and nowhere to publish your own reviews." What do you all think?SirZPthundergod9001 (talk) 23:54, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

Where was the mention of it being unreliable? I've been skeptical in the past, but the fairly recent discussion I started on the project didn't find it unreliable. However, it wasn't a ringing endorsement, either.----3family6 (Talk to me|See what I have done) 12:39, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

Seems like another one of those sources that we don't fully endorse, but don't outright prohibit, either. I'd use it in the absence of more traditional, well-established options. Victor Lopes ^Fala!•C 13:32, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Music Box (Mariah Carey album)#Requested move 20 June 2026 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. RedShellMomentum 00:04, 21 June 2026 (UTC)