A dispatch from yesterday caught Patrick’s eye:

I would like to take a moment to talk about the 10.0 rating (I’ve never handed one out) and make our criteria for a perfect score clear. Personally, I think the album has to move the listener to a level where the love for the sound is indefinable, which makes clearly stating your reasons for loving the album impossible. My co-WLFY blogger, Hank, believes it’s impossible to give a current album the 10.0 rating because the album has to stand the test of time. While I agree with this notion, what’s the fun in running a music blog if you can only hand out perfect scores to re-issues? Were you really shocked when Pitchfork gave “OK Computer” a 10.0?

Interesting stuff. And while tMiM rarely does full reviews — and doesn’t give numerical scores when we do — the questions nevertheless stand: “What constitutes a perfect LP?” And “Does such a beast even exist?”

Take the subject LP, Clues by The Clues, a subdued and quirky, yet often noisy and dissonant work. Bear in mind that I type all four of those adjectives out as compliments. More compliments: it is also theatrical and inconsistent. Inconsistency is a good thing? For me, yes. A consistent work of all four-star tracks (say, From the Choirgirl Hotel by Tori Amos) does not take as many risks as an inconsistent work of five- and three-star tracks (e.g. Grace by Jeff Buckley). Risks bring returns. Returns push music forward. So while From the Choirgirl Hotel is still great listening, Grace represented an evolutionary leap forward for all of music. It has been copied ever since.

But is Grace perfect? Is Clues perfect? Maybe my long-delayed copy of Radiohead and Philosophy will shed some light on what constitutes a perfect LP, but in the meantime, oy! what a question that is. The perfect LP would not only have to break new ground, it would have to inhabit us, we could not help but dance. That feeling you get sometimes? That you need to get a song out of your blood, or you’ll go batshit crazy? Large sections of the album need to infect you that way.

So while cerebral touches like subdued, quirky, noisy, dissonant, theatrical, inconsistent, risk and returns are great places to start, the song needs to sing. And no, I do not believe such an LP exists: how could it? So while The Clues alternate between gyspy fever and scholarly intellect, the best we could offer would be an 8.75/10 and a Best of 2009 nomination.

But do listen to “In the Dream,” “Approach the Throne” and “Cave Mouth.” Great work.