Hi Mercury, I've been listening to all these hip hop albums but to be honest I skipped quickly through most of them which means I try to listen to a few tracks completely and then try just to get the feel of the other ones by listening only to parts of them (and like I said this Nujabes was a fairly pleasant surprise because I actually felt some heartfelt soul).
I do think that people like Stevie Wonder and then of course after them performers like Grand Master Flash and so on laid the foundations and were actually very good at it but what I fail to understand is that what I see a bit as a gimmick (ie rapping, scratching and sampling which I all see as a bit derivative music) has turned into a genre.
I certainly recognize the cultural value of the genre and the fact that for many people it became a way to express themselves as well by performing or by following the general culture around it, but I have to admit it's a bit far from my world.
I know that many people find that these last years a few masterpieces in the genre have been created: Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West etc and I really tried to get into these albums, but I failed. I still have the feeling that the tone of most of these albums are or self-indulgent or self-pitying to a point where it gets a bit of a parody and where many albums seem to be copies of other ones (themselves already being samples of other albums).
But I can only repeat what I always say: no matter what people sometimes say, it's the fact that there are so many musical tastes represented on this site which makes it so interesting to make it by far my most favorite music site these past two years I've been active on it and I suppose I'm already a bit too old to suddenly change my mind.
I get your fairly set opinions on the genre. I think the basis of the beats and music has ballooned far beyond the initial descriptors of which you speak. And the music, the meat of the sound has been being played with and pushed forward by thousands of producers for decades now. The sound of Kanye's production on say late registration is worlds different than DJ Premier's on Moment of Truth for example. And that is where I I get the most pleasure and wonder when I hear the different stylistic features of the different artists who put the songs together.
As far as the rappers, I get there is a cultural and generational divide. There is for me as well. But the subject, text, and presentation of the MCs are almost as varied as that of the producers.
Anyway, in closing, I get that its not your thing. Still love a lot of the things you have to say about the other music you cover on your diary not in the Hip Hop realm. _________________ -Ryan
Nearly at the end of 2005:
- Separation Sunday by The Hold Steady (nr 55 on the overall BEA top chart of 2005): I like The Hold Steady in small chunks which means it's rare that I like a full album of them and this is the case for this album. Already the voice of Craig Finn is not the most pleasant voice in the world but sometimes the songs are quite good but on this album I don't really find a lot of those so this is a no.
- Cold Roses by Ryan Adams And The Cardinals (nr 57): sometimes Ryan Adams annoys me a bit when his country twang overtakes his quest for good songs but none of this on this album which is really very good, I suppose also because of his collaboration with a good band, the Cardinals. It's a double album and contains many tracks and maybe 18 is maybe too much but after all the album never gets boring and succeeds at keeping it interesting the whole time. Both his very slow songs and the uptempo ones are just great and this album deserves a new place in my personal top charts and is certainly one of his best and better than the Love Is Hell albums of which there is a certain unevenness in the quality of the tracks.
- The Ape Of Naples by Coil (nr 58 ): I read some enthusiastic critics on this album but I don't really follow: I like some of the coil songs but none of those appear on this album.
- Playing The Angel by Depeche Mode (nr 59): I think I had already heard this album and I certainly know the first two tracks/hits and these are not bad as are a few of the other tracks but overall this album was not completely of great quality overall.
- Worlds Apart by ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (nr 60): I love the evolution of the scores of Pitchfork on this one. They gave a full 10/10 to Source Tags and Codes and then chose to congratulate them with a mere 4/10 on this one. And to me this is completely unmerited. Sometimes the album is maybe a bit baroque but overall the quality of the songs is very good so certainly a good one. As a bonus l listened to Mach Schau and All Saints Day which are not really part of this album but appeared on EP's and especially Mach Schau is a complete Sonic Youth rip-off but sounds fantastic.
- Digital Ash In A Digital Urn by Bright Eyes (nr 61): I'm a fan of a number of tracks on I'm Wide Awake (First Day of My Life is one of all-time favorite songs) but this album which was issued around the same time doesn't appeal to me at all. I still like the voice of Connor Oberst very much but I suppose the more electronic focus on things doesn't do it for me.
The next album to listen to is Tender Buttons by Broadcast.
And this is my last contribution of albums of 2005 I listened to:
- Tender Buttons by Broadcast (nr 2449 on the overall BEA top chart of 2015 and the last album with an overall rank better than 2500): this album indeed has a bit the look and feel of Young Marble Giants, a band which I'm not particularly a fan of because the music is not very sophisticated (which is an understatement) and this is also a bit true for this album so not really my thing.
- Normally I would stop here but I decided to add two more albums of which Songs For Silverman by Ben Folds (nr 2531): I just wanted to enlarge my scope of Ben Folds album which I'm starting to like and I didn't regret it. It's not only the piano playing and the songs that do it on this album but in many cases also some very nice harmonics in the singing on tracks like Jesusland and Late. With my addition of this album to my top of 2005 I already succeeded at making it jump over a Thrice album and it only needs a few points more to get it in the top 2500 so this is a plea to the readers of this post to make it happen. 🕺
- and then one last album which is in fact a compilation but of EP's and outtakes not appearing on other albums so this should be ok:
Push Barman To Open Old Wounds by Belle And Sebastian (nr 3314 ie waydown below 2500) but I already listened partly to this album and This is Just A Modern Rock Song was already a personal B&S favorite. It's a double album and not all tracks on this album are of very high quality but overall there are enough good tracks on it to make it a very good regular album.
So this finishes my journey through 2005 which is maybe not the best musical year but however let me discover some great new albums (Cold Roses) and even bands (Avenged Sevenfold). This is the final verdict with at the beginning the BEA overall rank and after that the BEA Year rank and my personal rank before and after this listening session :
BEA Rank Title By Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before To My Rank after
320 X&Y By Coldplay 7 - 1 To 1
1894 Employment By Kaiser Chiefs 50 - 2 To 2
24680 J + Friends Sing + Chant For Amma By J Mascis 699 - 3 To 3
25332 ..Tick...Tick...Tick By Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 716 - 4 To 4
1507 Black Sheep Boy By Okkervil River 40 - 5 To 5
6016 Pocket Revolution By dEUS 158 - 6 To 6
8017 Golden Ocean By 50 Foot Wave 213 - 7 To 7
3310 Push Barman To Open Old Wounds By Belle And Sebastian 83 - Partly listened To 8
1289 You Could Have It So Much Better By Franz Ferdinand 29 - 10 To 9
13545 Siberia By Echo & The Bunnymen 388 - 8 To 10
932 Lullabies To Paralyze By Queens Of The Stone Age 21 - 9 To 11
1687 In Your Honor By Foo Fighters 43 - 11 To 12
2121 Blinking Lights And Other Revelations By Eels 56 - 12 To 13
38925 Seafood By Eden (BE) 1025 - 13 To 14
41941 Mouthfeel By Magnapop 1089 - 14 To 15
1395 With Teeth By Nine Inch Nails 34 - To listen To 16
1505 Gimme Fiction By Spoon 39 - To listen To 17
32495 Good Morning Hope By Woodface 893 - 15 To 18
33439 Fires In Distant Buildings By Gravenhurst 911 - 16 To 19
1749 City Of Evil By Avenged Sevenfold 45 - To listen To 20
2125 Cold Roses By Ryan Adams And The Cardinals 57 - To listen To 21
27503 The Deep End By Madrugada 778 - 17 To 22
57 Illinois By Sufjan Stevens 1 - Already Listened To 23
2937 Tourist By Athlete 77 - 18 To 24
1430 Twin Cinema By The New Pornographers 37 - To listen To 25
51803 Every Kind Of Light By The Posies 1348 - 19 To 26
10713 From Here To There By Girls In Hawaii 283 - 20 To 27
1188 The Back Room By Editors 27 - 21 To 28
2547 Songs For Silverman By Ben Folds 64 - To listen To 29
28131 Tanglewood Numbers By Silver Jews 789 - 22 To 30
249 Takk... By Sigur Ros 4 - 23 To 31
3057 Some Cities By Doves 78 - 24 To 32
1836 Don't Believe The Truth By Oasis 46 - To listen To 33
789 Wolfmother By Wolfmother 16 - To listen To 34
2330 Worlds Apart By ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead 60 - To listen To 35
666 Z By My Morning Jacket 14 - Partly listened To 36
266 I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning By Bright Eyes 5 - 25 To 37
24815 Face The Truth By Stephen Malkmus 702 - 26 To 38
3420 The Great Destroyer By Low 86 - 27 To 39
4195 A Certain Trigger By Maximo Park 103 - 28 To 40
2098 Leaders Of The Free World By Elbow 54 - 31 To 41
9287 A Bigger Bang By The Rolling Stones 246 - 30 To 42
10644 The Alternative To Love By Brendan Benson 282 - 32 To 43
24718 Man-Made By Teenage Fanclub 700 - 29 To 44
46760 Jeff Hanson By Jeff Hanson 1208 - 33 To 45
56437 Menteur By Cali 1468 - 35 To 46
235 Silent Alarm By Bloc Party 3 - 34 To 47
44540 Attagirl By Bettie Serveert 1160 - 36 To 48
64301 Body Of Song By Bob Mould 1662 - 37 To 49
627 Mezmerize By System Of A Down 13 - 39 To 50
64995 Grand By Monza 1680 - 38 To 51
12288 The New Fellas By The Cribs 339 - 40 To 52
17428 Bleed Like Me By Garbage 495 - 41 To 53
338 Alligator By The National 8 - 42 To 54
798 Get Behind Me Satan By The White Stripes 17 - 43 To 55
590 Deadwing By Porcupine Tree 11 - To listen To 56
3458 Make Believe By Weezer 88 - 44 To 57
1918 Coles Corner By Richard Hawley 51 - 45 To 58
15673 Rosenrot By Rammstein 447 - 46 To 59
3348 Mighty ReArranger By Robert Plant 84 - 47 To 60
499 Plans By Death Cab For Cutie 10 - 48 To 61
6165 The Loon By Tapes 'n Tapes 162 - 49 To 62
1294 Apologies To The Queen Mary By Wolf Parade 30 - 50 To 63
8222 Road To Rouen By Supergrass 217 - 51 To 64
74167 A New Order Rising By Washington 1891 - 52 To 65
74755 Arctic Death Ship By Kimono 1904 - 53 To 66
1411 The Woods By Sleater-Kinney 36 - 54 To 67
8695 12 Songs By Neil Diamond 231 - 55 To 68
5341 The Magic Numbers By The Magic Numbers 137 - 56 To 69
The next year to tackle is 2010 as I'm again jumping 5 years.
And this is already the first post of albums of 2010 I will listen to.
This is the list with at the start the BEA overall rank and after that the BEA year rank and my rank before this listening session (or to listen):
BEA Rank Title By Band BEA YearRank - My Rank before
39 The Suburbs By Arcade Fire 1 - 2
52 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy By Kanye West 2 - To listen
160 High Violet By The National 3 - 23
221 Teen Dream By Beach House 4 - Already listened
246 This Is Happening By LCD Soundsystem 5 - To listen
276 Brothers By The Black Keys 6 - To listen
334 Halcyon Digest By Deerhunter 7 - 52
340 Plastic Beach By Gorillaz 8 - Already listened
366 The Age Of Adz By Sufjan Stevens 9 - To listen
388 Innerspeaker By Tame Impala 10 - 47
449 Contra By Vampire Weekend 11 - Already listened
489 Have One On Me By Joanna Newsom 12 - To listen
539 The Wild Hunt By The Tallest Man On Earth 13 - To listen
555 The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) By Janelle Monae 14 - To listen
612 Congratulations By MGMT 15 - To listen
712 Cosmogramma By Flying Lotus 16 - To listen
760 Total Life Forever By Foals 17 - Already listened
903 The Monitor By Titus Andronicus 18 - 14
1049 Tourist History By Two Door Cinema Club 19 - To listen
1314 Broken Bells By Broken Bells 20 - To listen
1523 Treats By Sleigh Bells 21 - 48
1574 Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys By My Chemical Romance 22 - To listen
1619 Recovery By Eminem 23 - To listen
1620 Crystal Castles (2010) By Crystal Castles 24 - To listen
1679 Nightmare By Avenged Sevenfold 25 - To listen
1688 How I Got Over By The Roots 26 - To listen
1739 Swim By Caribou 27 - To listen
1867 Body Talk By Robyn 28 - To listen
1884 Heligoland By Massive Attack 29 - Already listened
1958 Speak Now By Taylor Swift 30 - To listen
1991 Queen Of Denmark By John Grant 31 - To listen
2006 Odd Blood By Yeasayer 32 - To listen
2009 Before Today By Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti 33 - To listen
2106 Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager By Kid Cudi 34 - To listen
2144 There Is Love In You By Four Tet 35 - To listen
2154 Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty By Big Boi 36 - To listen
2195 Infinite Arms By Band Of Horses 37 - Partly listened
2263 Black Sands By Bonobo 38 - To listen
2269 A Thousand Suns By Linkin Park 39 - To listen
2290 Crazy For You By Best Coast 40 - 39
2324 Go By Jönsi 41 - 15
2339 Clinging To A Scheme By The Radio Dept. 42 - To listen
2372 All Delighted People EP By Sufjan Stevens 43 - To listen
2448 Hidden By These New Puritans 44 - To listen
2456 I Speak Because I Can By Laura Marling 45 - To listen
2493 Public Strain By Women 46 - To listen
As you can see there are not many 2010 albums of the BEA top 2500 which are already in my personal top chart of the year so we will see if that will change after I've listened to the To Listen albums.
And I've already listened to one of them:
- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West (nr 2 on the BEA top chart of 2010): because it's ranked so high I've even listened to the full album and in fact it's not bad and I even liked some of the tracks like Runaway. But hiphop is still not my thing and even this album didn't change my mind.
The next album to listen to is This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
2010 is an interesting year. One of my favorite albums ever, which I have been unofficially named as the ambassador of, is The Wild Hunt by The Tallest Man On Earth. I do indeed adore it. I have a feeling you may be turned off by it. I don't know why I have that idea. But again I adore that particular folk album. So earthy and poetic and earnest and beautiful and romantic and obtuse, etc. Kristian Mattson (his real name) is a really great guitarist as well. His finger picking technique is excellent and his style of guitar is constantly interesting and varied. I hope you enjoy it.
As a side note, I know its not an album, but just a few months later in 2010 TMOE released a 5 song, 15 minute EP called Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird. Its stunning and actually may be my favorite release of his ever (which is saying something as I adore him and everything he has release). Kristian Mattson's 1-2 punch in 2010 represents one of my favorite periods of an artist in a single year ever. The EP seems to be part and parcel with his LP release of the same year (2010) kind of like a bit quieter, more contemplative and less extroverted side than what you hear on The Wild Hunt and it is my fave EP ever and that's all. Check it out if you get a chance.
Also, I cracked up that you are addressing 2010. You posted the 2010 post literally as I did my first review of a 2010 album on my diary (The Suburbs).
Edit: Oh and Cosmogramma is another classic from that year. That's some seriously complex, ingenious production there. I hope you dig it.
Sad see to the The Books' album The Way Out doesn't quite make the cut here. There is a song on there called "The Story of Hip Hop" which is one of my true all time favorites. So strange and light and wondrous and childlike. _________________ -Ryan
And my second contribution of albums of 2010 I listened to:
- This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem (nr 5 on the overall BEA top chart of 2010): some tracks are all right like You Wanted A Hit, Drunk Girls or especially All I Want, but overall this is not a completely satisfying album
- Brothers by The Black Keys (nr 6): except for maybe Sinister Kid, this is again an example of what I have against two man bands: it is difficult to create some variety. I saw a good example of that yesterday live as well with a similar Belgian band, the Black Box Revelation at a festival (Lokerse Feesten). But luckily there were also the Pixies which put on a magnificent show (the best of the three I already saw although my heroin Kim Deal wasn't there).
- The Age Of Adz by Sufjan Stevens (nr 9): at the two first tracks of this album I thought that this album good be something good if I listened back to it but I didn't like the rest of the album at all, including the very long last track which was again killed by autotune which I don't like at all.
I'm in for a long haul for the next album: Have One on Me by Joanna Newsom.
As a comment to my last comment: this was indeed a long haul not only for the Joanna Newsom album but also the rest of the albums I listened to: neither of them were bad but most of them (but one) also certainly not very good either:
- Have One On Me by Joanna Newsom (nr 12 on the overall BEA top chart of 2010): and with over 2 hours this is indeed a very long album to listen to especially also since I didn't really find a lot of interesting stuff in it with maybe the opening track as an exception.
- The Wild Hunt by The Tallest Man On Earth (nr 13): don't worry Mercury there is one exception: this album I liked very much. I wouldn't compare it to Dylan but more to an artist like Kevin Coyne and hereby I mainly refer to its unpolished sound which very much fits this album. Especially the slow A Lion's Heart is a standout. Thx for referring me to this album Mercury.
- The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (nr 14): actually this album is not bad either, it is very varied and Janelle certainly has a good voice and some writing skills. But finally there is only one track that I have put in my playlist: Mushroom & Roses, and that's not enough to finally make it to my personal top chart.
- and the next four albums
Congratulations by MGMT (nr 15),
Total Life Forever by Foals (nr 16),
Tourist History by Two Door Cinema Club (nr 17) and Broken Bells by Broken Bells (nr 18 ) are all so interchangeable and with no real highlights that I take them in one batch: but I have listened to all of them completely: just harmless stuff you would hear on the radio without the need to point your attention to it.
The next album to listen to is an album by My Chemical Romance.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
This is gonna be a mixed (and long) bag:
- Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys by My Chemical Romance (nr 22 on the overall BEA top chart of 2010): I only enjoyed Party Poison of this album and that's not enough.
- Recovery by Eminem (nr 23): I already don't really like rap but this must be the worst kind.
- Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold (nr 24): it was not so long ago that I discovered this band on these pages with City of Evil and I really liked it. Although this album is ranked than City of Evil on BEA, I didn't feel the same amount of enthusiasm for this one, maybe because the surprise have worn off but I think it's more than that: the guitars and the songs are just not as sharp as on City of Evil. I still will include this album in my top chart of 2010 but it will not receive the same overall rank.
- How I Got Over by The Roots (nr 25): not really my thing
- Crystal Castles (2010) by Crystal Castles (nr 26): same thing: there was no song that really caught my attention
- Swim by Caribou (nr 27): not the dance music i like
- Body Talk by Robyn (nr 28 ) and Speak Now by Taylor Swift (nr 30): These are the kinds of albums which are the cause that I sometimes regret doing this.
- Queen Of Denmark by John Grant (nr 31): but then an album like this comes along and I'm starting to like this project again. John Grant (old member of the Czars) lays open his soul on this album and he succeeds very well. He sounds a bit as a mixture between the best Beck and Magnetic Fields on 69 Love Songs and sometime the pianos and the violins are a bit too much but in general the whole album just sounds wonderful.
The next album to listen to is Odd Blood by Yeasayer.
More albums of 2010 I listened to:
- Before Today by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (nr 32 on the overall BEA top chart of 2010): this one just jumped over Yeasayer so it comes first: this album surprised me a bit because it has some good tracks like Butt-House Blondies (of all titles) and Revolution's a Lie. The album is a bit all over the place (from cold wave to exuberant) to be consistently good so while it was a bit of a near hit/miss I finally decided not to include it in my personal top charts.
- Odd Blood by Yeasayer (nr 33): another one of these nor fish nor flesh albums this year seems to have on offer in large sizes.
- Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager by Kid Cudi (nr 34) hiphop and not my thing
- There Is Love In You by Four Tet (nr 35): too bleepy for my taste
- Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty by Big Boi (nr 36): and another hiphop album
- Infinite Arms by Band Of Horses (nr 37): this is not a bad album and certainly Laredo is a very good song. Not everything is as good and I must admit I prefer the harder rocking tracks over the more country-ish songs but overall I decided to include this album in my personal top chart of 2010 after all.
The next album is A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park: I try to keep an open mind but some things you know in advance.
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Mercury
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