Chart study #4: secretdad - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Tap
to resume download

Gender: Female
Age: 38

dividesbyzero wrote:

Just wanted to drop by and say I've been enjoying this immensely so far. One of my favorite charts of all time and (although I've only noticed your forum presence fairly recently, forgive me if you've been posting all this time and I just haven't noticed), one of the coolest users. Wonderfully eclectic taste yet totally humble and down to earth, and he can put shit into words (e.g. this thread).

Ok carry on Smile

(keep up the good work sp4ce. these threads are marvelous)

Oh wow thanks! I've been tinkering on the chart for a lil bit now but only started posting around here recently, this seems like a good spot (these threads from sp4ce in particular caught my eye). And everyone's been so nice, the score on the chart seems ridiculously high to me. But I should note that I also think it's totally ok if someone wants to express a less-than-stellar opinion of the chart. Like someone had commented on it saying something about "where's the heart?" And while I partially disagree, in that the heart would be found in the more primal elements peppered throughout, I totally get where they're coming from and think it's totally valid. There's a certain open throated full body expressiveness in music that isn't as present here (except I guess in The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, but I'm mostly thinking vocally). And I guess when I hear that stuff, like in that whole wave of popular rock-based bands that were on the radio recently and maybe still are and sang in all caps (TONIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-AYE-AYE-IGHT, etc.), I hear that and just think "oh put a shirt on". But there's nothing wrong with that stuff, I have no doubt in it's capacity for euphoria, I think I just have a preference for music that keeps its distance a little bit though, like even in real life I don't really like hugs. There's definitely a particular flavor to the selection and anyone who thinks it's too bitter, I think it's totally fair to express that on the chart, numerically or in comment form. But I really do love all the nice words, some definite mood lifting stuff there.

sp4cetiger

The time demands from my new job have turned out to be larger than I expected, so I may take a little hiatus before doing the next study. I still have some questions here, though.

Definitely enjoying the chart. Certainly one of the most interesting picks is

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Wild Why by Wobbly

secretdad wrote:

Dude tapes a bunch of commercial hip-hop radio and chops it up into fragments and builds it all into a hyperactive alien language. If it ends up making sense to you, it can be a whole lot of fun.

My experience was similar, though I'd flip it slightly -- I felt like I was the alien and I was trying to decipher the monolothic echoes of the 21st century zeitgeist. It's interesting how many of the albums on your chart seem to speak their own unique language. Is this something you look for in new music? For me, listening to new music is usually a means to an end, a quest for that "click". Would you say the same or is it more the actual process of deciphering that you crave?

Tap
to resume download

Gender: Female
Age: 38

sp4cetiger wrote:

My experience was similar, though I'd flip it slightly -- I felt like I was the alien and I was trying to decipher the monolothic echoes of the 21st century zeitgeist. It's interesting how many of the albums on your chart seem to speak their own unique language. Is this something you look for in new music? For me, listening to new music is usually a means to an end, a quest for that "click". Would you say the same or is it more the actual process of deciphering that you crave?

Oh hey sorry for the slow reply, had to sit with this question for a bit. This isn't something I actively seek out from music, I suppose it just sort of happens where that's the stuff that tends to stick with me the most. But not just that, it's also that the thing that makes it special can *only* be represented by this one album. Although I suppose that the unique language thing is a big part of what drew me to all the early electronic stuff (Xenakis, Stockhausen, Riedl, Lejeune, Ruth White, Ivo Malec, etc). But I don't think I'd really call the process deciphering. Like when I listen to Bob Dylan, that's when I feel like an alien and like I have to decipher something. And not just cause he's all mumbly, just the whole "lyrical appreciation" angle coupled with how strongly the music has resonated with people, and I'm just like "WHAT ARE YOU?! IF ONLY YOU HAD PROBE-ABLE HOLES SO I COULD UNDERSTAND!". But with stuff like Wobbly, I just forget myself, get immersed, and I don't need to look outside or inside or anywhere except for the music, because the music sort of teaches you how to listen to it, like how the first level in Super Mario Bros. teaches you the mechanics of the game in how it's structured and forces specific moves. That's more like how I feel with stuff like Wobbly.

And while I do crave that experience and seek it out, I don't feel completely disconnected from enjoying regular song structure history. Like that new St. Vincent album, I really like the song Regret. That's just a really pleasant simple song and I was really psyched when I found it (I'm a late-comer so it was only like two months ago). And then the track after that rocks out super crazy kinda like Radiohead - Myxomatosis, and then the next one gets at sounding like Grandaddy at times and I'm just like "\m/ fuck yes" the whole way through. While there is a pleasure to learning St. Vincent's distinction in how she creates things, which I think is achieved brilliantly and she completely owns what she does, but my enjoyment of all that is buoyed by the ways in which it is familiar. And that's scratching a different itch. I probably undervalue it w/r/t to list, but it's a significant part in what drives me to find new music.