Best Ever Albums

Re: testing the staying power

Tap — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 13:27:33 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 10/26/2017 17:27

oh hey glad you had that tab open, thats a good contribution. if I were you I'd set a reminder for 2024 to listen to that Frankie Cosmos album, those ones that burn bright in the moment but then fade away, I think those work very nicely as time capsules. FKA Twigs is one of those for me, like I still think she's very talented at producing and performing, but it really did lose it's pull for me and I don't think I've listened since 2014.

Re: testing the staying power

revolver94 — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 21:37:35 GMT

Author: revolver94

Posted: 10/26/2017 01:37

wow i started to do this when this was first posted but passed out in the middle and just found this tab still open... anyways..

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this is such a great idea omg! i'll do a few of mine...

1. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There (1 play 2017, 1 play 2016)

This stacks very well on my overall still (and tops this year) -- although on my recent overhaul I bumped it out of my top 10 and to 20-something. Thinking over the album, it still feels pretty perfect to me, I guess it's just slightly less where I'm at. Wouldn't call this a falling out necessarily. But... I guess it does look that way based on the numbers 😜

2. Frankie Cosmos - Zentropy (0 plays 2017, 0 plays 2016)

Wow, I really loved this album. I was so into the Frankie aesthetic. I saw her after her follow-up record came out. It was a good show, but I really did stop caring about her. Too tweet for me right now! God this was on my overall once... lol. Ok, this is definitely a good album. I just *don't care about it* right now. It's not that exciting.

3. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2 (0 plays 2017, 0 plays 2016)

I really don't care for Run the Jewels at all these days. Never listened to 3. It just sounds gross to me all of a sudden. Big, ugly music.

4. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence (2 listens 2017, 4 listens 2016)

While I've always loved Lana, it was after this year that she became my all-time favorite artist. 😜 Although I do have the most listens in 2014, which makes sense, its clear that this is some very consistent listening. If I'm being honest, this is probably the Lana album I listen to the least now, even with her pre-Born to Die debut.

5. FKA twigs - LP1 (0 listens 2017, 0 listens 2016)

Don't know why I even checked. I knew this would be zero. My interest in her dropped off so fast -- when "In Time" came out a year after this album, that was definitely cool, but I'd stopped listening to this album by even that time, I'm sure.

6. Taylor Swift - 1989 (0 listens 2017, 0 listens 2016)

To be fair, I've listened to singles from this album in both of these years. But -- this album as a whole? Side 2 -- not so hot. I've also become more interested in Swift's countrier-days, funnily enough. Especially the "Red" album, I quite love.

7. Grouper - Ruins (1 listen 2017, 1 listen 2016)

I don't listen to Grouper as much as I did when she released this album, but her place in my mind has not diminished whatsoever. I know I could go back and love it, which I have done a little, it seems. I even added it to my overall recently, even with my listening to it less than I did once.

8. Ramona Lisa - Arcadia (0 listens 2017, 0 listens 2016)

Jeez, do I listen to any of the same music I did back then?? No interest in going back to this one outside of "Dominic" (a spectacular tune).

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those are all the ones i did late that night so im gonna call it there. anyways, point is my tastes change a *lot*.

there are three albums that were lower/not on my 2014 list that are on my top 100 overall now:
- right from real - lydia ainsworth
- my everything - ariana grande
- too bright - perfume genius

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 00:50:51 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/22/2017 04:50

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

Yeah - I'd agree. There's stale shit all over the place and amazing shit all over the place. Perhaps there's an average one could take and find the golden era, etc., but the art form is only as dead as the creative process.

Re: testing the staying power

Tap — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 00:24:44 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 10/22/2017 04:24

we're kinda goin freeform with the convo but I think the idea is that genres have fertile periods where they produce classics but then things get exhausted and good albums come out but they don't have the staying power of the classics. I'd disagree tho because there is still lots of fertile territory all over the place, like so much ground getting pregnant and shit

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 00:20:22 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/22/2017 04:20

Yeah... I mean even hip-hop is something like 40 years old now.

Not sure why we are talking genre and what's hip now? Are you suggesting staying power and genre have a correlation or?

Re: testing the staying power

Tap — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 23:59:12 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 10/22/2017 03:59

there are still more jazz classics tho

Magnetoception by Joshua Abrams

and rock classics

Dan'l Boone by Dan'l Boone

Re: testing the staying power

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 23:52:08 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 10/22/2017 03:52

There are some recent albums that are guaranteed to be remembered decades from now on. My list would be (in no order):

To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar

Atrocity Exhibition by Danny Brown

The Money Store by Death Grips

Piñata by Freddie Gibbs & Madlib

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 23:41:46 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/22/2017 03:41

Also I love that album art - if you look at it right, it moves.

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 23:34:57 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/22/2017 03:34

Good points Romanelli.

And glad that album clicked. That band hasn't clicked for me either. Makes sense it takes time. I think it was Innerspeaker that I discovered some music should be discovered or enjoyed in the subconscious. Listening to it intently with the lights out can annoy the hell out of me, but subconsciously in the background, and it is fantastic.

Speaking of time - you mention there's so much music to digest. I agree. That's part of my problem... do I keep trying... for years... to spend time with art that doesn't please me? I mean as a "testament" that the answer probably is yes, I loved Hot Rocks by the rolling stones - had everything I ever wanted on it. I listened to Exile on Main St. and I actually didn't like it (3 songs on it I still am not crazy about... which is actually saying a lot). I like it now and consider it fantastic. I mean I do get albums growing. And I do get sometimes it does take years.

I suppose I'm just a junky who wants a quick hit sometimes, you know? haha. Sometimes managing a system where I go back and listen to something which might be worthwhile years from now... idk. Is that really the way to go?

Re: testing the staying power

Romanelli — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 22:52:46 GMT

Author: Romanelli

Posted: 10/22/2017 02:52

Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective

I've had this album for years now. Years. And it's frustrated me beyond what I can say, because it has always sounded like there were two albums playing at the same time. And it just gave me a big freaking headache. Until today. I put this in for my drive to work, and all of a sudden, I got it. I can't tell you how many listens over the last at least 6 or seven years I have tolerated. Today, this is a thing of beauty. The vocals are stunning, and the song structures are genius.

Sometimes music works right away for you. Sometimes it takes a few listens...or it may take years. Don't be in such a hurry to find the next great thing. You're going to listen to more crap than what you're worth. Let it settle into you. There is enough music out there from the last 70 years that you haven't yet experienced to the fullest to last you a lifetime. Don't be in such a huge hurry to find gold in the massive pile of new releases. It will be there, waiting for you. When it's time. The time is not necessarily now...

Music shouldn't be so disposable, and you don't have to listen to everything all at once. Take your time. It will all be there waiting for you.

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 19:55:25 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/20/2017 23:55

Thanks! Much appreciated!

Re: testing the staying power

Tap — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 03:08:38 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 10/20/2017 07:08

sethmadsen wrote:

Band camp and SoundCloud... Here I come again. Hehe.
Wish me luck with finding the right stuff/sorting the chaff.

nice, I'd recommend maybe finding something you already like, like you chart some shins, so you could go to this album page https://theshins.bandcamp.com/album/oh-inverted-world and then check out the accounts of people who've picked that one up and then start taking some peeks at things until something catches your ear. lots of big indie labels are on there now, sub pop, drag city, merge, fat cat. there should be some ways to start in familiar territory and find people with common ground and branch out from there.

Re: testing the staying power

craola — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 02:47:18 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 10/20/2017 06:47

sethmadsen wrote:

Band camp and SoundCloud... Here I come again. Hehe.
Wish me luck with finding the right stuff/sorting the chaff.

I don't think I had a third question. But thanks for the insight regardless!

On another note how does BEA deal with the less official release of those services? They fought me on an album released on an artist's website (official release)?

soundcloud-only releases generally don't meet the criteria here (it's something like 4+ tracks or minimum 20 minutes... it might be 5+ tracks, i can never keep it straight and probably add stuff all the time that don't meet the criteria). bandcamp releases are legit, and people don't go asking no questions bout nothin if it's the minimum length. the majority of the stuff in harkan's BEA chart are bandcamp-only releases.

but yeah, no singles allowed on this site, and generally, that's what soundcloud is a hub for.

eta: good luck!

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 22:03:20 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/20/2017 02:03

Band camp and SoundCloud... Here I come again. Hehe.
Wish me luck with finding the right stuff/sorting the chaff.

I don't think I had a third question. But thanks for the insight regardless!

On another note how does BEA deal with the less official release of those services? They fought me on an album released on an artist's website (official release)?

Re: testing the staying power

craola — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 13:44:23 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 10/19/2017 17:44

sethmadsen wrote:

1) How much time do you have to invest before you find something interesting?
2) Do you find more interesting things faster due to "knowing where to look now"?

1. generally, if i'm just looking for something new/interesting, not much. i think most things are interesting if you can set aside your biases and listen for what the artist is trying to do. i was pretty wigged out by amnesiac back in the day, but i gave it a chance on its own merits, and it's my favorite radiohead album now. you realize that people put a lot of time into their craft, you show them respect for that, and even their failures can be interesting. or maybe i'm losing my marbles. i'm a lot less picky than i used to be, and i think about 50% of the stuff i listen to offers me something... but i do avoid certain things and know where my odds are higher.

2. knowing where to look makes it easier, of course. like Tap, i have people i follow on Bandcamp and Soundcloud that essentially recommend me albums i might be into. there are also a number of labels on Bandcamp that i follow, and you have no idea how helpful it is to know which labels you like. people running those things have very specific taste, so the artists they're promoting tend to have some things in common. eh and some artists actively promote stuff through their Bandcamp pages. navigating Bandcamp is a lot less tedious than it used to be. SOUNDCLOUD is still pretty rough. i interact a lot with a number of artists through Soundcloud, and tht's maed it a very different, valuable experience. you watch for who those guys follow and what they're sharing / commenting on or who they are collaborating with. that said, Soundcloud is tedious. there's lot of great stuff, and there's a lot of ways to find it, but you're inevitably going to sift through a lot of scud. to stay out of the rocks, look at the tags, the cover art and the shape of the sound wave s. a lot of bad tracks are riddled in red flags

3. i was having a hard time finding your third question, but i think it had something to do with the contradictions between my first and second answers? on the one hand, everything is interesting, but on the other hand, i admit there's a lot of garbage on soundcloud. i guess i don't see a contradiction. i think garbage can be very interesting. it's still garbage. sometimes, i hear some garbage i like, and i don't care that it's garbage. one man's trash. one's man's treasure's. something like that. this world has a lot of garbage in it. it'd be a shame to take all of it for granted. ... .. :: i'm actively making music, so i'm always looking for inspiration, and it can be easier to find in something haphazardly thrown together on a 4-track recorder than the pristine recordings of the latest synthpop-dreamwavers.

Re: testing the staying power

Tap — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 21:51:45 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 10/19/2017 01:51

I like how this topic is bouncing around some other adjacent subjects and please anyone with thoughts on those keep em coming, but here's my next batch off the old 2014 list

41. Peder Mannerfelt - Lines Describing Circles (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
Huh I really thought I had hit this one up in 2016 at least. Really though it's just all about this track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu5kGuNkkm4 like the rest is OK but that's the track right there. That one is sticking with me to the point where it carries the album.

42. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Live Occlusions (3) • (4) (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
These are nice to have but really I'll usually just reach for the main Occlusions release. It was certainly worth hearing how the piece had developed after his tour with Mark Fell, like originally it really felt like he was working out insecurities about making rhythmic music in the past by going for something that would never repeat, except the crazy synth setup would throw up repetitions sometimes, and it just had this really cool tension to it. On these pieces it felt like more giving in to the potential of rhythm, which of course I'm down for but in this specific case it resulted in something less interesting than the struggling one. Maybe? I guess it's been a while since I heard. So yeah this one will probably stick with me by virtue of my fandom but it is a minor release in his discography.

43. Damaged Bug - Hubba Bubba (0 listens in 2017, 1 listen in 2016)
There we go! Streak broke, something I've listened to in the past 2 years. I'm a big nerd for a lot of John Dwyer stuff too (though I've gotten burnt out on the steady stream of Oh Sees stuff, though I am very excited for the upcoming stripped down OCS thing). Honestly I usually don't pull out any of the Damaged Bug albums though, I'll just put on Eggs at Night from this album or Jet in Jungle from Cold Hot Plumbs. Those songs are awesome. I really should listen to this album again soon though, it's got other solid stuff. I feel like this one will stick around with me.

44. Fennesz - Bécs (0 listens in 2017, 2 listens in 2016)
This is another one I need to pull out but Fennesz has so many solid albums, and I've really been wanting to revisit his earliest stuff. But yeah this one totally has staying power just by virtue of being one of the major Fennesz solo releases.

45. Ariel Pink - Pom Pom (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
So here's an album which I still respect and think is quite an achievement, but it's almost like too much of a concentrated does of Ariel Pink. Like normally he's a bit diluted but on here the concentration of Pink is at near fatal levels for my body weight. So I've been a baby about revisiting it but I should, I like Pink's stuff. This one may not get a ton of revisiting but it's left an impression in my mind for sure.

46. Battle Trance - Palace Of Wind (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
I did see these guys live at the start of the year thinking it would get me to revisit them more, but really it was just the ultimate experience, how can I just go to an album of 4 saxophones going at it after being in the room where that happened? I'm probably far enough removed from the live show now where I should revisit this, it is good! This may end up sticking around in my head based mostly on the power of the live show, but I guess in time it could fade too, could go either way.

47. Flying Lotus - You're Dead (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
Yeah I dunno just something about the construction of the album, it sorta feels like it'd be work to go thru? Which is weird for me to say because I listen to annoying stuff all the time and this is accessible but I don't know, the idea of going thru this album is exhausting to me now. Can't argue with anyone who says the Kendrick track is great tho, because this is great and I'll still put it on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXD0vv-ds8 so that's got staying power with me for sure, I guess that probably carries the album

48. The Soundcarriers - Entropicalia (0 listens in 2017, 2 listens in 2016)
This album doesn't reinvent the wheel but it's some excellent rock in the mold of earlier Broadcast stuff I guess. It was a weird one because I found it sorta late in 2014 I think, and then summer of 15 it was a big part of that, I probably overplayed it a little. It's due for a return tho, I'm absolutely underrating this. This one has staying power for sure. And Elijah Wood! He's on the last track, doing a spoken word thing. It's good!

49. A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Atomos (0 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
This one didn't stick with me, some Stars of the Lid affiliated ambient music. Like yeah it does have some mild twists on just being pretty but it's really hard for ambient music to stick with me when that's my main takeaway. It was nice at the time for sure, but it's very faded from me and is basically dropped. Which isn't to say it's not worthwhile and I'm sure there's a way that people could takeaway more than what I did and get something significant going with it, but I did not.

50. Circulatory System - Mosaics Within Mosaics (2 listens in 2017, 0 listens in 2016)
This is one I've been coming back to this year and I feel like I'm underrating it. It's not on the Signal Morning level (still my fav Circulatory System) but I'd maybe put it above the self-titled album, there's a lot of fun stuff in the construction of it. This one is sticking with me for sure, and seriously any Olivia Tremor Control fans who have not checked it out you really should drop everything and get on this one, Will Cullen Hart has still got it.

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 21:11:52 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/19/2017 01:11

TimeLion wrote:

Looking for innovation in the 2010s while restricting yourself to rock music is like looking for a serial killer while restricting yourself to bingo parlors.

What if you are looking for a really intense bingo game? 🤣

Good point none the less. Innovation for me is probably only 15% of what matters to me in music though.

Re: testing the staying power

TimeLion — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 21:08:15 GMT

Author: TimeLion

Posted: 10/19/2017 01:08

Looking for innovation in the 2010s while restricting yourself to rock music is like looking for a serial killer while restricting yourself to bingo parlors.

Re: testing the staying power

RoundTheBend — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 20:54:49 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 10/19/2017 00:54

cool mate - thanks for the tip.

I mostly used it for local music I like... the Provo scene.... hahaha. Kind of laughable, but actually kind of growing and getting better and better.

When I originally searched by genre or what have you I did that for like 30 minutes and got bored of it and never came back.

Re: testing the staying power

Tap — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 20:49:38 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 10/19/2017 00:49

building the feed on bandcamp took a bit, I had been using it for over a year just buying things that I'd heard about elsewhere. But I began to notice on album pages, they show the profile pics of people who bought the album, and I noticed I was seeing the same pics on things I was buying or interested in. so I realize eventually you can click on those pics, and it takes you to the user's fan page, where you can see everything they have bought, and if you have a bandcamp account, you can click follow on them. so now in the feed section on the bandcamp site, that gets populated with activity from users you follow. so over time I'd follow a bunch of accounts that I'd see frequently (which included musicians I've respected for a very long time like Daniel and Snaith, which is a nice little ego boost for sure), and now I have my feed page throwing out more music than I could ever keep up with. And a lot of it is stuff I don't really care about but it turns up some gems for sure.