Best Ever Albums

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

Skinny — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 11:24:16 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/22/2021 16:24

1998 wins, 11-6.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

LedZep — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 07:18:58 GMT

Author: LedZep

Posted: 01/20/2021 12:18

OK, I'm gonna do the ratings thing too since this is very close.

OutKast - Aquemini (4.5)
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (4)
2Pac - Changes (ft. Talent) (3.75)
The Roots - Adrenaline! (ft. Dice Raw & Beanie Sigel) (4)

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city (4.75)
Aesop Rock - Skelethon (4.25)
Drake - Crew Love (ft. The Weeknd) (3)
Chief Keef - I Don't Like (ft. Lil Reese) (3.5)

1998 is on 16.25
2012 is on 15.5

The thing is that I prefer 2012 albums and I really value albums as collections of songs more than individual songs... It's tough. I guess I'm gonna go with 98'.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

RoundTheBend — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 23:14:25 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/17/2021 04:14

(11.75)

OutKast - Aquemini (3)
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (2.75)
2Pac - Changes (ft. Talent) (3)
The Roots - Adrenaline! (ft. Dice Raw & Beanie Sigel) (3)

vs

(9)
Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city (3)
Aesop Rock - Skelethon (2)
Drake - Crew Love (ft. The Weeknd) (1.5)
Chief Keef - I Don't Like (ft. Lil Reese) (2.5)

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

Repo — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 15:59:20 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 01/16/2021 20:59

I'm going with the team that has two Hip Hop albums. 🤣

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

19loveless91 — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 15:37:21 GMT

Author: 19loveless91

Posted: 01/15/2021 20:37

I'll be going with 2012 actually. GKMC is my favourite here, Aquemini is also great, but I always thought it loses some steam towards the end. Skelethon is not my favourite Aesop album but it's still good, and to me about on par with The Miseducation... and, I don't know, a better "hip hop" album.
Not thrilled about any of the singles, but I do quite like I don't Like, and unlike some I like it more than I like Love Sosa.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

junodog4 — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 22:57:21 GMT

Author: junodog4

Posted: 01/13/2021 03:57

1998. By a hair.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

Repo — Fri, 8 Jan 2021 10:43:17 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 01/08/2021 15:43

OMG! Lauryn's Hill" Intro" was just foreshadowing!

Lauryn Hill. Lauryn Hill? Lauryn Hill... Where did u go, Lauryn Hill?

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

Skinny — Thu, 7 Jan 2021 11:17:11 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 01/07/2021 16:17

Chalk Aes down as another whose work I appreciate more than I enjoy. The sheer density of his words can have a calming effect if I'm in the right mood, and there's no doubt that he is an elite-level writer (and, probably since around the time this dropped, a much better on-record performer too, less likely to try to fit too many syllables into too small a space), but I want to emphasise that I really have to be in the right mood, otherwise the entire enterprise just becomes oppressively dense. Also, I've just never liked his voice, which isn't his fault but which does prove a major barrier to my enjoyment of his work. It's an album I was already familiar with, and have enjoyed in the past, but finishing it just felt like an absolute chore. Maybe a 3/5, if I was being generous, for a record that I definitely thought more of around the time of its release.

As for everything else here, 'Crew Love' is kinda everything I hate about Drake, with whom I have a love/hate relationship, whilst being saved by a strong Weeknd feature. (Let's be honest, The Weeknd is essentially lead artist here.) 'I Don't Like' is the best single across either team, just a thrilling piece of controlled aggression that feels ageless. good kid, m.A.A.d city is a masterpiece.

The problem is that the 1998 team contains two masterpiece LPs, both of which I'd say are as good as, if not better than, gk,mc. If I had to rank, I'd probably go: 1) Aquemini; 2) good kid, m.A.A.d city; 3) The Miseducation; with Skelethon in a laughably distant fourth place. Also, whilst I wouldn't rank either 1998 single amongst my favourites, they are both very good, particularly 'Changes'.

For me, the consistency of 1998 is more than enough to overcome the shining lights of Keef and Kendrick.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

travelful — Wed, 6 Jan 2021 19:12:42 GMT

Author: travelful

Posted: 01/07/2021 00:12

This round is an easy vote to 1998 for me. I thoroughly love everything on that team.

I love GKMC and I Don't Like (I agree Love Sosa would have been a better single) but I don't fuck with Drake/The Weeknd in general, nor has that Aesop Rock album clicked for me.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

babyBlueSedan — Wed, 6 Jan 2021 10:25:54 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 01/06/2021 15:25

This is a really tough match-up, as three out of these four albums are on my overall chart. I'd rank them like this:

1. GKMC: Still sounds about as fresh as it did when I first heard it, and I think listening to more of the west coast hip hop it drew influence from has only made me appreciate it more with how it's able to blend it's story together with those influences. Albums that tell stories almost never work for me, but this is one of a few exceptions.

2. Aquemini: The highs here are better than the highs on GKMC, but it's dragged down a bit by its length and skits. Those highs are incredible though, especially the title track, Da Art of Storytelling (both parts!), and Spottieottiedopalicious, the last of which is one of my 5-10 favorite hip hop songs. And despite the fact that it's one of the main culprits for this album being very long, I love how the album dissolves into a kind of weird RnB thing near the end.

3. Skelethon: This is pretty easily my favorite Aesop Rock album, combining his trademark wordy lyrics with slightly less inscrutable topics. There's enough complexity here to make multiple listens rewarding, but also enough clarity to make the themes of grief and alienation shine through pretty clearly. Cycles to Gehenna and Crows Part 1 are the highlights for me, the latter of which still awes me with how deeply it dives into the loss he feels. The production here is also great, for the first time since Labor Days it's not fighting with his voice for center stage.

4. Miseducation of Lauryn Hill: This is a pretty distant 4th for me, as I've never been able to get into this one. It has some great songs - Doo Wop first among them - but as an album it's never held my attention. I guess I can't say for sure why that is. Last year I listened to Me'shell Ndegeocello's Plantation Lullabies and remember thinking it was everything I wished this album was.

This means I greatly prefer the albums from 2012 overall, but as for the singles I greatly prefer 1998. Those 2012 singles don't do a whole lot for me to be honest. I planned to weight albums a bit more than singles when voting but I think I'm going to give this one to 1998 on the overall strength of the team. On the 2012 team Aesop Rock also kind of sticks out as a sore thumb, especially next to those singles, and while I don't plan to rate teams based on how cohesive they are (see my varied entries on my own 2002 team) since this one is so close I think 1998 is a better, more cohesive look at a year than 2012.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

Streams — Wed, 6 Jan 2021 09:35:40 GMT

Author: Streams

Posted: 01/06/2021 14:35

Love Changes and Adrenaline, and GKMC, but not a fan of anything else here. Going '12

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

kokkinos — Sun, 3 Jan 2021 05:56:36 GMT

Author: kokkinos

Posted: 01/03/2021 10:56

KitchenSink wrote:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

disclaimer i do actually apprecaite kokkinos's thoughtful takes but the meme wasn't gonna make itself

lol

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

travelful — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 21:11:22 GMT

Author: travelful

Posted: 01/03/2021 02:11

Skinny wrote:

BTW, 'Love Sosa' is a better song than 'I Don't Like'. And 'I Don't Like' is a perfect ten.

"chief keef aint no hitta"
"chief keef aint this"
"chief keef a fake"

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

RoundTheBend — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 20:18:14 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/03/2021 01:18

an-outlaw wrote:

Hang on second... Are you Satie?

No.

I have U2 on my chart, I couldn't possibly be anyone highfalutin.

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

an-outlaw — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 19:50:29 GMT

Author: an-outlaw

Posted: 01/03/2021 00:50

RoundTheBend wrote:

Like literally. 🤣 (Not everyone knows the micro font joke the BEA geezers do).

Hang on second... Are you Satie?

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

RoundTheBend — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 19:46:33 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/03/2021 00:46

Gowi wrote:

seth really out here enlarging the subtext

Like literally. 🤣 (Not everyone knows the micro font joke the BEA geezers do).

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

mickilennial — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 19:42:57 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 01/03/2021 00:42

seth really out here enlarging the subtext

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

RoundTheBend — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 19:39:06 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 01/03/2021 00:39

🤣

In case anyone missed it:

KitchenSink wrote:

disclaimer i do actually apprecaite kokkinos's thoughtful takes but the meme wasn't gonna make itself

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

mickilennial — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 19:33:49 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 01/03/2021 00:33

lmao

Re: BYHH GW1: Group A - 1998 vs. 2012

LedZep — Sat, 2 Jan 2021 19:22:07 GMT

Author: LedZep

Posted: 01/03/2021 00:22

KitchenSink wrote:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

disclaimer i do actually apprecaite kokkinos's thoughtful takes but the meme wasn't gonna make itself

Well she IS the most trusted voice of BEA after all.