Best Ever Albums

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Jameth — Tue, 2 Jul 2019 10:43:05 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 07/02/2019 14:43

Divine Music From A Jail is about as raw and devestating as music can be. My first thought was that he was singing the blues, and looking around, I wasn’t the first to think it. But I certainly don’t mean that as some base reduction, because what OVO plays is absurdly unique. No doubt, there is some appreciation for this music stranded beyond the language barrier, but not the extremely emotive quality of his voice, which is the essence of it.

Final ranking:

1. Divine Music From A Jail (******)

2. Ancestor’s Call (*****)
3. Big Blood (****)
4. Dance Of The Moon And Sun (***)
5. Depressive Silence (***)
6. Pretty Little Horses (***)

7. The Mantle (**)
8. Bergtatt (**)
9. Burial (*)
10. Blonde (*)

————

Sucks that no album won.

By the way, I’m listening to All Bitches Die by Lingua Ignota at the moment, which I wanted to recommend to you, but I checked and I see it’s already in your top 100. Spectacular album.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

guzguzgarbit — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 08:48:28 GMT

Author: guzguzgarbit

Posted: 06/24/2019 12:48

I'm done with the second half, here are my thoughts:

Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts
This was a cool psychedelic folk album. Not much for me though compared to the other albums.

The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun
Now, this is something else. Stately drone soundscapes fused with post-apocalyptic campfire guitar playing. Amazing, amazing album, and long too, lots of things to let your thoughts wander. Even by being probably self produced and amateurishly recorded, the sound is perfectly measured and controlled. Not a dull moment, I will listen to it again.

The Mantle
Second time hearing The Mantle, and as with my first, I still think it's a bit too melodic and upbeat for its own good, and I don't like the clean voice of the singer that much. It's still very dark, and very good, and the intro track is perfect.

Bergtatt
As with The Mantle, it has its moments, the beginning is perfect but after it's often too brutal, or not enough. But when it's good, well, it's really good. Oh, and I don't speak Norwegian, so i didn't get any of the lyrics.

Divine Music From A Jail
This album is... different, I guess. I think that the real beauty of this album can only be found by abstracting completely from the music. If you listen carefully, you hear all kind of background noises, from the pressing of the keys to the Russian chatter between tracks. It's creating an atmosphere; you can picture the man living in a cell, trying to express his emotions through the music. The music is not perfect, the recording is amateur, but it's what gives the record this profound bleakness: its truth. It's a record that is not pretending to be something, it's a record that is. Divine Music From A Jail is not just a name, as would be most album titles, it's what is the album. This album is literally divine music from a jail. I don't know if I can have this level of abstraction, but there is something here.

Final ranking:

The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun
Depressive Silence
All The Pretty Little Horses
The Mantle
Bergtatt
Untrue
Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts
Ancestors Call
Blonde

Divine Music From A Jail would be somewhere between All The Pretty Little Horses and Blonde I think, but it's hard to be sure.

So, my vote goes to Natural Slow Buildings' album.

This was an amazing top 10. I was already pretty sure it would be, but it went far beyond my expectations. It's coherent, packed with lots of mysterious gems and a possess a deep personal touch. I've seen it has changed a bit during the course of the month, so I'm going to hear the new arrivals and also probably some more from the chart.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

baystateoftheart — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 14:06:04 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/23/2019 18:06

Still one week left in June! Anyone else have thoughts on this cool batch of albums?

For anyone wondering where the next poll is, there will be a break from Get To Know A Top 10 for the BEA 2018 championship tournament.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Jameth — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 19:48:39 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 06/19/2019 23:48

I finally got a chance to listen to TDOTMATS. It wasn’t as uneven as I expected an album of this length to be, but it wasn’t without flaw. It dips down into mediocre territory on tracks like “Interstate Roads” and “Away, My Ghosts”, but the album more than compensates on other tracks. “Cut Joint Sinews...” felt like VU performing with Third Ear Band, great track. “Whose Eyes Are Flowers” sent me looking for te Denise Levertov poem used in the track...some really disturbing imagery manifested itself here and took me by surprise. Musically, they did a nice job of capturing the tone of the poem. Overall, I love the suffocating atmosphere the album achieves overall; but it leaves itself in special occasion territory. I’m okay with that. 70/100.

Favorite tracks:

Cut Joint Sinews...
Rain Serenade
Dance of the Moon and the Sun
A Ten Guarding Spirits...
Whose Eyes Are Flowers
The Cursed Bell
John Carpenter
Tunneling Into the Structure...

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Lowkey — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 23:34:31 GMT

Author: Lowkey

Posted: 06/18/2019 03:34

Depressive Silence II by Depressive Silence

One of the most transport-ive albums I've ever listened to. From start to finish, this album doesn't break its medieval character and that's one of the things that makes this so special. I love how I feel like I'm walking through a castle from hundreds of years ago whilst listening to this record. Forest of Eternity is a top 10 song of all-time for me and it the main highlight, though the entire record is impeccable

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Lowkey — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 17:54:58 GMT

Author: Lowkey

Posted: 06/17/2019 21:54

Untrue by Burial

This was my #1 for a few years, this really hit me when I first heard it but at the time I could not drive. Upon getting my license and a car, listening to this driving throughout the various metropolitan areas that I frequented at the time

It changed my entire mind on how effective ambiance and atmosphere can be to music

Shell Of Light is the highlight on here for me and the last minute or so of this track is one of the greatest moments in music, period.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

baystateoftheart — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 14:26:55 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/16/2019 18:26

Divine Music From A Jail by Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun

This album has a fascinating and tragic story behind it.

Some Facebook page via Boxfish in RYM shoutbox wrote:

Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun was a Tuvan man trained in traditional throat singing. He was born in the Tuva oblast in central Asia under the USSR. In the 1960’s, he was imprisoned for life on one count of youth corruption and three of murder. Some support his innocence, saying his imprisonment was political. The veracity of his guilt is unconfirmable. He threw himself into music to maintain his sanity, using only his voice and a prison bayan, a stripped-down accordion available to him. He developed a unique form of throat-singing that would come to be named after him. During his 34 years in prison, he wrote 18 songs that were recorded during his sentence. He named the album “Divine Songs from a Jail.” When the Soviet Union was disbanded, he had his freedom and his music found a following in Tuva.

It was soon after that he went missing. His whereabouts unknown, his style of music became a taboo. No one dared associate themselves with a potential pariah, lest they become pariahs themselves. The Oidupaa style of throat singing was practiced behind closed doors and the suggestion that it should be performed in public was met with wide-eyed uncertainty.

In 2007, he returned after fifteen years and performed in a public forum. His performance broke the taboo. Today, Tuvan musicians perform in his famous style without reservation; his style reminds its listeners of hardship, not glory – of the confinement of a cell, not the openness of the plains.

His decade and a half away from home is shrouded in mystery. What little is known is that he fed himself by selling tapes of his music and performing in public, getting as far as Switzerland by unknown means: likely hitchhiking. I have never met Oidupaa, but his face looks as though it tells little.

I never know what’s real. I dream of a Siberian Christ, wandering Eurasia, performing miracles. Maybe I owe it to myself that I should suspend my judgment. Oidupaa lived to atone for the crimes of a wrathful Earth and he died in 2013.

While he may be known for his distinctive and original style of Tuvan throat singing, I like it significantly less than the styles on Ancestors Call. The instrumentals are likewise not as good, although obviously constrained by the limitations of his situation. This is not a bad record by any means, but unfortunately it's not something I really enjoy as of now.

~~~~~

I am abstaining from the vote, but here's my rough ranking:

Amazing

1. Untrue by Burial

Great

2. Depressive Silence II by Depressive Silence
3. Blonde by Frank Ocean

Quite Good

4. The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun by Natural Snow Buildings
5. The Mantle by Agalloch

Pretty Good

6. Ancestors Call by Huun-Huur-Tu
7. Bergtatt - Et Eventyr I 5 Capitler by Ulver
8. Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts by Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts

Okay

9. Divine Music From A Jail by Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun

Not Listened

All The Pretty Little Horses by Current 93 [don't want to derail but the reason is somewhere in my diary]

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

baystateoftheart — Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:08:32 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/15/2019 04:08

Bergtatt - Et Eventyr I 5 Capitler by Ulver

This is pretty cool. It skips between a couple styles, and the more atmospheric the music gets, the better it is. Another great match for the cover art. There are some really good vocals on here, but also some more growling metal vocals that leave me cold. Probably not destined to be a personal favorite, but an interesting listen.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

baystateoftheart — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 20:49:13 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/14/2019 00:49

The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun by Natural Snow Buildings

I really enjoyed this album. The blend of drone and folk works quite well for me, and this is a talented duo. However, it felt pretty inconsistent, with some tracks being incredibly beautiful, while others others were merely rather nice, or even simply odd. I also found its length to be somewhat bloated and not totally necessary for what it accomplishes.

The Mantle by Agalloch

An acclaimed metal album that feels a bit tangential to the genre, with its atmospheric nature and folk elements. That's fine with me, as stylistically it's a better fit for my ears than classic riffage. While it's often beautiful and is a perfect fit for its cover art, some of the songs feel a bit aimless, and as usual I'm not a fan of growled vocals.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Jameth — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 00:49:12 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 06/13/2019 04:49

Wow! A two and half hour long album I have to play from YouTube ( 🙁 )!! I’m gonna have to skip over it until I have time to listen to it uninterrupted. But, I’m pretty excited to listen to an album as long as Scarface.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Lowkey — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 18:34:42 GMT

Author: Lowkey

Posted: 06/11/2019 22:34

Love that these records are getting more love!

My number 2:

Blonde by Frank Ocean

This album changed my life in 2016. I was going through a ton of mental turmoil and ended up coming to an epiphany with the help of this record. White Ferrari is one of the most beautiful songs in western music, Nikes is absolutely stunning, Solo and Skyline To are such great, breezy jams, and Futura Free rounds it out so well. I love every track on here, and there is not a dull moment on the entire record. I can't thank this album enough for what it did for me, and I'm eagerly awaiting what this icon puts out next.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

guzguzgarbit — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 15:36:50 GMT

Author: guzguzgarbit

Posted: 06/11/2019 19:36

Ok, I'm halfway there. I don't if my opinion is worth anything, but here it is anyway.

All The Pretty Little Horses is a worthy number one. It's almost flawless, the sounds, production, lyrics, all makes sense. I might not be much into neofolk atm, but I can see it growing on me.

Blonde is harder for me, some tracks hit me, others miss. But as baystateoftheart said, it's a deeply human record.

I might have heard Untrue four or five times already, and I still don't really get it. Except the final track (Raver), I find it a bit monotonous and bleak sometimes.

Depressive Silence is amazing. I had already heard it, but this time, I really got more into it. Stunning atmosphere. I might put it in my overall someday.

I was a bit skeptical with tuvan throat singing thing. Usually, I don't like this kind of thing, but here, it clicked. Every track sound different and I was never bored.

So far (best to worst):
Depressive Silence
All The Pretty Little Horses
Untrue
Ancestors Call
Blonde

But all are good albums (70/100+). There is a real atmosphere in this top ten, it's a really great one. Looking forward to hear the rest of it.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Jameth — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 01:08:11 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 06/11/2019 05:08

Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts by Big Blood & the Bleedin' Hearts

This was a nice stew they cooked up. They threw in Gris-gris, Elephant, and some country Americana album I’d have no way to guess. I love the surreal “freak country” vibe, and especially the pagan elements that had me conjuring visions of some unrealized backwoods Bohemia. Great album for an evening on the porch. My only complaint is that “The Birds & The Herds” is overlong.

Favorite Tracks: “Graceless Lady” & “Terrapin (Oh! Syd)”

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

baystateoftheart — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 19:30:43 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/10/2019 23:30

Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts by Big Blood & the Bleedin' Hearts

This is solid, but after listening once my impression is that it's more interesting than it is good. I don't always love the songwriting or the interplay between instrumentals and vocals. By the way, I enjoy avant-folk in general, so that's not a stumbling block. Perhaps this album will be a grower. On some of these tracks the male singer sounds like Jack White.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Anti — Sun, 9 Jun 2019 19:22:54 GMT

Author: Anti

Posted: 06/09/2019 23:22

A good quarter of my favorites have been found by browsing this chart or stemming not too far from it. Unquestionably the most influential chart on this website for my music palate.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Lowkey — Sun, 9 Jun 2019 00:45:51 GMT

Author: Lowkey

Posted: 06/09/2019 04:45

Hey guys! Sorry about the lack of response or write ups, I’ve been slammed with work, but I’ll start going more in depth on 2-10 soon 😄

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

baystateoftheart — Sat, 8 Jun 2019 22:04:19 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/09/2019 02:04

Time to address the two of these I had already heard coming in.

Here's what I wrote about Blonde in January in the canon game:

baystateoftheart wrote:

Blonde by Frank Ocean

To fully appreciate this album, I needed time and space from the lovesickness and humid summer air of 2016 in which I heard it the first two times. As Frank sings on Ivy (the best track), "We'll never be those kids again." In retrospect, at that time I was more like the kid, and now I feel nearer to Frank. A little less naïve, a little more world-weary, a little more wistful. I'm also more impressed by the production and lyrics than I was last time. There are parts of the record that hold it back, such as much of Futura Free, but perhaps the flaws further humanize an already deeply human record.

Untrue by Burial

I just heard this for the third time ever this evening, and it resonated more than ever before. With Untrue it was love at first listen, unlike Blonde, but even so there are many layers to peel back with repeat listens. This stands out among electronic albums for being poignantly emotional and painting an evocative portrait of time, place, mood, and mental state. Of course, the sound design is incredible too. As soon as we can update charts again this is going to rocket into the top third of my overall.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Skinny — Sat, 8 Jun 2019 16:05:42 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 06/08/2019 20:05

I have a friend who grabs the aux cable at parties and puts on Tuvan throat singing. True story.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

baystateoftheart — Sat, 8 Jun 2019 13:53:50 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 06/08/2019 17:53

Ancestors Call by Huun-Huur-Tu

I was pleased to hear something from this genre for the first time, and many passages of this album are simply gorgeous. The one stumbling block for me is the sound of the vocals in the lower register. If my googling is correct, this vocal style is called kargyraa. I can appreciate it, but perhaps I will need to acclimate myself more to Tuvan throat singing to truly enjoy it.

Re: Get To Know A Top 10: June 2019 Thread - Lowkey

Jameth — Fri, 7 Jun 2019 22:08:40 GMT

Author: Jameth

Posted: 06/08/2019 02:08

All The Pretty Little Horses is an album that grows on you. It’s so delicate, musically, that I wish I had a more robust stereo to listen to it through, but I suppose that’s my cross to bear. It’s definitely not an album to throw on willy nilly...it’s probably better to schedule an appointment. I’m listening to The Light Is Leaving Us All at the moment, which feels like a direct follow up to ATPLH, but that’s hard to say without hearing the intermediate albums. Did you not find it to be in the same vein, Lowkey?

Blonde and Untrue were difficult for me. 😐

Depressive Silence II was a great introduction to the dungeon synth genre. “Depths of the Ocean” especially, what an atmosphere. It’s less engaging music than what I mostly listen to, but that’s okay...contrast is important to have.

Ancestors Call is the star...it’s going on my list. The music was poignant and engrossing...track after track.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the list!