I'm still here and haven't done much with that 2000 project yet. I did listen to that PJ Harvey album and it was really really good.
Mostly have been trying to get my bearings on music and revisit favorites and re-evaluate my chart(s) etc. As a result I have again made a huge change to my chart again. I went through all the top 5000 albums on RYM and I made it a clean slate grades-wise and regraded from the top. From that I revamped my chart. Then I randomly decided to make my overall chart chronological for now. Kinda a cop out for actual ranking, but I like it for now.
I recently really fell in love with Ben Howard's album "I Forget Where We Were". Such a gorgeous, subtle, and mature album. Love the whole mood and the little delicate somber touches. Added to my chart.
Overall that's what I'm up to. _________________ -Ryan
Okay today I looked at the most glaring misses in my music listening experience based on RYM ranking and I got to work on those that interested me.
I couldn't rightly give a rating to Vespertine cuz I haven't tried listening to it in years and couldn't remember it. Remembered not liking it much. So I listened to...
...again. And... I didn't love it. IDK. The detailed tracks were cool i guess but didn't blow me away and I also remembered why I have never really loved a Bjork album and that's her voice. Amazingly unique and unpredictable but for me I don't like it. Sometimes when she kinda keens or hits these long high notes I just instantly check out and squint and cringe. I don't like it. There are some great songs on Homogenic and i like that album a good amouint. But haven't liked what I have heard on Vespertine, Post, Debut or Vulnicura (those are all the albums I've listened to be her). I will maybe revisit Debut and Post soon as they are also some of the highest rated albums on BEA and RYM that I can't honestly rate. For now I gave this a 2.5/5 on RYM.
This is simply a personal preference thing and I know that y'all ain't crazy and she is a brilliant musical mind. There may come a time I love this.
and as I listened I will admit at first I was not bowled over by it. Maybe 10 minutes in I noticed I kinda mentally phased into the sound and melodies of the album and started to really like it. Part of the issue was at the beginning and to a degree throughout this album is I was doing some chores and not focusing and I was kinda treating this as a point on a checklist and not really buying in. By the end of the album I think it was clear to me that the dreamy pop of it and the atmosphere worked on me and I was vibing. This will be revisited at some point and I liked it. I will say that generally I am not drawn to dream pop or shoegaze (which this is not I know) or a lot of the great musical movements opf the 80s and 90s. This seemed to be a very very beautiful perfection of that style and while I could apresiate the hell out of it, I never quite moved to true arms-wiode-open-embrace of the sound if that makes sense.
You may realize at this point that most of my reviews are empty and not at all illuminating. For that I apologize.
Anyway, I graded this as a 3.5/5. I think it should have been a 3.3 and maybe even a 3, but sometimes I just really recognize that it's a solid album just not yet balls deep in my mental, so to speak. _________________ -Ryan
N ext was an album I was much more familiar with but still hadn't formulated a solid idea of... that album that is hella highly rated and ranked on RYM best albums 89-2020 is this BEA darling...
This is great. Like, its so fucking gorgeous and so cinematic. I was listening out back and smoking and I was on Laura's theme (i think that is track 2...) and I looked up and on a tree branch just a few feet away - maybe 8 feet away - was a bird. and it was just there hip hoppin around on the tree in my back yard and about 10 feet to the right of the bird on a different branch of the same tree was a squirrel just being a squirrel doin squirel thinsg and I was like on cloud fucking nine . I even did a retro Keanu reeves style low "whoa" and I just watched this moment in front of me and I was like holy shit shit shit this could be a clip from the opening of Twin Peaks show.
The rest of the album is similarly effortlessly gorgeosu and mystrious and wonderous and sad and sombre and yet bright at times and sweet. Fallin is a dope closer and the whole album is just really gorgeous.
That said, about halfway through I lost some of my interest and kinda started looking at my watch (not literally but you know like i was getting bopred a little). It closes super nciely and I think its a super unique album and i like the music much more than the show. I probably need to rewatch it tho. I remember watching it and thinking that I must be a moron cuz I don't really get it. Since then I've had the same reaction to 4 or 5 lynch films so maybe its just a Lynch thing.
Anyway, I need to wrap up so this album is cool as hell and I will revisit a lot you can bet your bottom effing dollar on that! FDor now I gave it a 4/5 on RYM and honestly its more a 4.1 or 4.156/5... it's that friggin cool. _________________ -Ryan
If you enjoyed that, then you should listen to Julee Cruise's 1989 album which has "Falling" and others. Recently made it onto my overall chart. I've really taken a shine to it.
And also his Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack. It's on par with the OG series music, and I adore them both. _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
Dope! I will check out that solo album by Julee Cruise soon. Its an album I've been intrigued by and I can't recall preceisely but I think I may have spun it at one point when I was delving into 1989 albums. But I have very little recollection of the deets. Thanks for recommendation, @the1ChiefRocka!
And yeah soon on this list of albums i've not rated on the RYM list of best albums 1989-2020 is the next Fire Walk With Me Soundtrack. I am very intrigued by that. Thanks for rec, @LedZep! _________________ -Ryan
Last night I continued the wee project of listening to some classic albums I overlooked or never gave enough TLC to. The next one was from a legend in the alt rock, post punk, singer-songwriter worlds that I have never really fallen for at all, and its his highest or one of his highest rated ever (certainly the most highly rated and ranked amongst the albums from 89-2020) and that album was...
And I was doing some work and emailing people and just generally distracted last night as I listened to this.
At first, much like my eperience with heaven or Las Vegas earlier in the day, I just felt like I wasn't in the proper head space to appreciate this and I was just listening to it as a checklist item to check off so I could move on to old familiar sounds and albums. But pretty quickly I started to vibe more with it.
There is a mood here, a melodramatic, darkly-tinged romanticism which I love. Cave's vocals are not my favorite style, but once I got used to them, I started to warm to them. He has a certain passionate croon which usually works really well with the variety of dark, gothic rock on this album. The sum of the parts of this album were greater than the individual tracks overall, and I felt when I came to the end of the album that I had been through an honest to god album and statement and I wanted tor revisit.
When I was at the hbeight of spending all my money on CDs when I was maybe 17 I recall buying a used copy of Nocturne and I remember really liking it. That was the only Cave and Bad Seeds album I ever listened to for years and years. I am glad I'm starting to delve into his back catalogue.
Anyway, after one very shallow and un-thought out listen I gave this a 3.5 and earmarked it for a revisit soon.
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As I listen to these albums and rate them on RYM, I also refresh the page and the albums I rated come off the list. The highest rated and ranked albums on RYM from 1989 (when I was born into the world) through today that I felt either uncomfortable rating due to not having a clear idea or recollection of the album or from never listening at all, are as follows:
The Glow Part 2 by the Microphones
Soundtracks for the Blind by Swans
Aquemini by OutKast
ATLiens by OutKast
Deathconsciousness by Have A Nice Life
To Be Kind by Swans
Velocity:Design:Comfort by Sweet Trip
Leaves Turn Inside You by Unwound
Mm... Food by MF Doom
Songs for the Deaf by QotSA
Mount Eerie by Microphones
As you can see from those highest rated unranked albums - there are 2 from 3 of the most revered artists and groups online. Need to dive into them newly or for the first time. But the one that strikes my fancy the most at this time is that classic Unwound album. I'll be listening to that later. _________________ -Ryan
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