Best Ever Albums

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 18:47:16 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/23/2014 22:47

Out of Focus need to get in focus

11-8

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Listmeister — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:30:28 GMT

Author: Listmeister

Posted: 06/23/2014 14:30

Giles Corey was much better than Out of Focus, because it was not dull and tuneless, and I was not bored by the middle of side one. If Brian Wilson made creepypasta, it would sound like Giles Corey, especially with a song called "Grave Filled With Books" with a slowed-down surf music vibe.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 20:27:40 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/23/2014 00:27

Looks like Brandon did my job for me just fine here while I was out, and I still have to give Out Of Focus a listen (It sounds interesting from what people have said in this thread), but yeah, Giles Corey is a pretty stunning work to me. I don't think it's up to the grand standard that Deathconciousness is, and I imagine if we had another go at this I would have nominated something else (Liars, Bedhead, Clinic, etc.), but the way way Barrett blends simple folk melodies with his own dirgey brand of post-punk on this album is pretty great. Like Brandon said, it's at its heart a pretty miserable album, but there's a sense of hope and serenity in this album that's really reassuring and ultimately lift it to a sort of life affirming album. The first few moments Grave Filled With Books always strike me with a beautifully comfortable sense of warmth, a sort of beacon in the miserable loneliness that Barrett tends to write about. Lyrically it can either be really literary and nice or very emotionally blunt, and both styles work pretty well for Barrett. It even has some of the explosions of energy and noise that were sorely missing from The Unnatural World (still a good album). The climax to No One Is Ever Going To Want Me always has me reeling in anticipation. Anyways, it's a really good album, thanks for writing about it better than I ever could Brandon.

edit: Alright, just about done with Out Of Focus and I'd say I thought it was solid enough but not nearly enough to sway me from my nom. It had some great moments but the jamming does kind of feel aimless and there were times when I thought some instrumentation and songwriting was a bit too proggy for me. Didn't feel like I wasted time with it at all, and some of the guitar work was really admirable.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 18:15:43 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/22/2014 22:15

Happymeal wrote:

Both of these albums are marvelous ... ended up voting Out of Focus, but both are still marvelous.

THIS. By far the hardest vote for me in this initial round. They both are exceptional at what they are trying to accomplish. If I was stoned and looking to chill at the beach, Out of Focus. If I was epically depressed and puttering about alone in my room, Giles Corey. The tipping point was that I could see how Out of Focus could conceivably have influenced J Spaceman. Out of Focus.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

meccalecca — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 16:59:48 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 06/22/2014 20:59

Out of Focus was a nice enough discovery for me. But I think the jammier elements were a bit much for me. I preferred the far simpler "It's Your Life" and "Fly Bird Fly" over the excruciatingly long "Whispering". It all kind of reminded me of Phish.

I don't worship Have A Nice Life like many others seem to, but I do like Giles Corey quite a bit. I think the record does a phenomenal job of creating a haunted bedroom despair that masks some of Barrett's songwriting weaknesses.

Giles Corey gets my vote.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

NickVolos — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 15:09:41 GMT

Author: NickVolos

Posted: 06/22/2014 19:09

Vote to Out of Focus. It was my nom after all, which means that I like this record...A lot... 😄

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Skinny — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 11:11:26 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 06/22/2014 15:11

Wasn't big on either, but preferred Corey.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 22:30:39 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/22/2014 02:30

RepoMan wrote:

Happymeal, this ones for you...

Link

lol

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 22:26:09 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/22/2014 02:26

Happymeal wrote:

Both of these albums are marvelous and I had listened to both previous to the tourney being conceived (they're both fairly big on certain music rating websites), but couldn't remember much of either. I re listened to both and ended up voting Out of Focus, but both are still marvelous.

Happymeal, this ones for you...

Link

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 22:11:40 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/22/2014 02:11

Both of these albums are marvelous and I had listened to both previous to the tourney being conceived (they're both fairly big on certain music rating websites), but couldn't remember much of either. I re listened to both and ended up voting Out of Focus, but both are still marvelous.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Norman Bates — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 08:08:09 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 06/21/2014 12:08

I'm voting Giles Corey, even though I don't feel raving love for this record. I don't really dig the atmosphere/champion of despair/religious undertone on the whole - but the more 'classic', folkier songs are very good and this is where it happens for me on this record. Let's say this is a 70, aka 'good'.

So, no love for Corey, but on the other hand only mild interest in Out of Focus. I'll join drako and say it's solid - well done, not disagreeable, it listens more easiley than GC. But alas for me, Out of Order work in a genre (proggish jazz-rock) I have very little interest in to begin with, and while I think it's a good proggish jazz-rock album, it's no Soft Machine, by which I mean they don't have in them to transcend my original indifference for the genre. I just can't be moved. I'd rate it 60.

Corey, however imperfect, it is then.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

drakonium — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 08:02:53 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 06/21/2014 12:02

Out Of Focus was a solid album. I tried to listen to GC yesterday but couldn't make it farther than the third song. Sorry Brandon, maybe it's a mood thing, but I'm voting for OOF.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Norman Bates — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 02:58:34 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 06/21/2014 06:58

How long are these matches up for? Got some listening to do.

EDIT: sorry Goodsir, just saw your post in the other thread.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 00:59:11 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/21/2014 04:59

Out of Focus. Entertaining psychedelic/proggy stuff that maybe sounds of its time, but in an endearing way.

I really really really really really cannot stand Giles Corey. Lame songwriting, contrived reverb-y production, obnoxious vocals arngajrngaldfkjngalsdngalkjsdgsav Sorry Brandonmiaow

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Mercury — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 23:55:29 GMT

Author: Mercury

Posted: 06/21/2014 03:55

Jesus, Brandon, tht was one of the best album descriptions/notes/off hand reviews I've ever even scene on BEA! Just beautiful! Well done.

I have heard neither and will be working in that soon. For now I have no vote, obviously.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

WindowAbove — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 22:16:38 GMT

Author: WindowAbove

Posted: 06/21/2014 02:16

Giles Corey

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 20:49:09 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/21/2014 00:49

Haven't heard Out of Focus yet, can't vote, but will talk about Giles Corey anyways.
Have A Nice Life is good but this is a masterpiece. I think it works so completely because it isn't just a lonely depressing album. It is kind of surreal and complex in a way. It is about getting close enough to death to taste it and blur reality but never quite going the whole way. It's about peeking in. This album feels like being all alone, standing in the midst of the vast universe, but feeling everything. Empty Churches is a fucking glorious anthem of "you're not alone". Ghosts, god, the universe, other people, your thoughts...this album is all about how not alone you are. I don't know...in this album of death and depression, all I see at every turn is life. And that's just beautiful. In the more human element of the album, you see a conflict between misanthropy, selfishness, self-deprecation, isolation, and devotion, love, beauty, care...Spectral Bride makes it obvious he still has things he cares about in this world. Even if he is racked with depression. I don't know, I find it oddly captivating at how a record so clearly enamored with death and so so immensely depressed betrays itself with a sort of life-affirmingness. A lot of these tracks end like anthems, like explosions. This album, like all the great "depressing" albums (I Could Live in Hope by Low comes to mind), comes across more as an album searching for hope, beauty, love and finding it. I'm Going to Do It could be a lullaby and hell, I listen to it like one. There's a lot going on in this album but I'm not going to try to pick it all apart like some academic. It is just pulsing with life, death, human nature, gosh...how I love it.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 20:28:20 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/21/2014 00:28

Giles Corey was very good, but I personally prefer Out of Focus.

Re: [CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

SuedeSwede — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 20:21:12 GMT

Author: SuedeSwede

Posted: 06/21/2014 00:21

Dan Barrett is a genius, it's just a shame that Deathconsciousness entered the top 1500 and so Silver had to change his nom. Anyways, vote to Giles Corey.

[CLOSED] +1500: Round 1: Giles Corey VS Out of Focus

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 19:49:52 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/20/2014 23:49

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Giles Corey by Giles Corey

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Link

Nominated by SilverWalrus

VS

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Out Of Focus by Out Of Focus

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Link

Nominated by NickVolos

Only vote if you have listened to both albums. Thank you.