Listening Techniques

After listening several times to "The Cape Verdean Blues" by Horace Silver, I gave it 3.5 stars because that's what I felt like it was at the time. But returning to it months later, I've realized that it's better than that, leading me to give it 4 stars.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that it's necessary to get to know an album before reviewing/rating it. That was precisely what I did. Unfortunately I feel I may have gotten slightly sick of the album while studying it.

That leads me to my question. Do any of you have listening "techniques" that you do, that may involve reviewing an album after abandoning it for a month or so (to listen to other albums) after listening to it several times? Or do you review an album within a week of first listening to it?

I'd say albums I'm thinking about reviewing fall into one of 3 categorys.

For more than 90% of the albums I listen to,  the 1st impression is decisive.There are  few albums that grow on me after several auditions and some albums that bore me after repeated auditions.

js wrote: I'd say albums I'm thinking about reviewing fall into one of 3 categorys. 1) I've heard the album a bunch, even better if I grew up with it, it will be easy to review any time. 2) Album I just bought that is in an easy and familiar style, I might need to hear it only once. A lot of funk-jazz albums are like that. 3) Difficult or elusive album that I just bought. I listened to Miles' "Birth of the Cool" almost a hundred times before I was ready to review it.

I'm pretty close to this method, where there are albums I've had for fifteen years that I will eventually review with just a single listen to refresh my memory. Albums that I find harder to decide what I think about them, take many listens.

New releases are my biggest problem, in that I find that I want to take some time with a new album, but that I also feel like a new release deserves a review to be timed appropriate to its release where possible. (Of course, I can always edit a review if I change my mind down the track)

smartpatrol wrote: I usually just listen to an album when I feel like listening and when i feel that ive listened to it enough times, i review and/or rate it

I suppose I'm just over-thinking it.