1) How does this have so many listens on here and RYM?
2) Why is it rated so highly?
3) How did I miss it?
It's a fine electroacousitc album, no doubt, but I didn't find anything THAT incredible on the first listen. It had a few interesting things going for it, like the way the voice was used in a few tracks, or some hard panning and exceedingly high-pitched tones that created a bizarre affect on the ear. But I didn't hear that much that made it too different from other releases of its time. Now, I've dabbled in this genre more than the typical listener, so it may just be that I've got more of this kind of stuff under my belt at this point, so I'm not as surprised by anything anymore. Dunno, it was fine, but I wasn't blown away.
Purple, as much as I love Fugazi, John Zorn comes up far less often in this game, so take a listen to Naked City.
Il Baricentro - Sconcerto
Musette - Datum
MIchael Chion- Requiem
Violent Onsen Geisha - Excrete Music
Silvio Rodriguez-Al final de este viaje
These Trails- These Trails
Anubi- Kai Pilnaties Akis Uzmerks Mirtis
Emmanuelle Parrenin – Maison Ros
Mo*Te ~ Life in a Peaceful New World
Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Flaunt It
For a country album, this was pretty good as well as pretty great. I think what prevents me from being way more ecstatic for this record, would be the palette. I'd argue the textures that would come from Mazzy Star did way more to get me to be entertained. While Uncle Tupelo, does fit the general country aesthetic and does it pretty well, never gave me that extra itch to be invested. I could see this album as a gateway record for country music, just not an essential I would go to first for country music in the 90's.
Grade:80 but might teether towards an 85.
(2)
Chief listen to Requiem
(3)
BEA: Top 100 of 1993
(12) Snoop Dogg-Doggy Style
(13) Blur-Modern Life Is Rubbish
(15) The Breeders-Last Splash
(17) Depeche Mode-Songs of Faith and Devotion
(20) Tool-Undertow
(23) U2-Zooropa (R)
(27) Jellyfish-Spilt Milk (Probably the most excited for. The write up would be longer.)
(29) The Cranberries-Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
(30) The Verve-A Storm In Heaven
(31) The Flaming Lips-Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
Two electroacoustic albums in a row, and this one is the superior of the two, because it's batshit insane. It's 70 plus minutes of experimentation that runs the gamut from laudable to laughable. It was an exhausting listen to be sure.
Go ahead and listen to Jellyfish.
Il Baricentro - Sconcerto
Musette - Datum
Violent Onsen Geisha - Excrete Music
Silvio Rodriguez-Al final de este viaje
These Trails- These Trails
Anubi- Kai Pilnaties Akis Uzmerks Mirtis
Emmanuelle Parrenin – Maison Ros
Mo*Te ~ Life in a Peaceful New World
Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Flaunt It
Sasha & Digweed-Northern Exposure
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
Wow! Why have I not heard of this before? One of the most unique albums I've heard in a while, and the best punk jazz album ever? Avant-garde jazz with experimental noise and some grindcore. Also a little bit of country twang, and some surf rock a couple of times. And not just spread out throughout the album - occasionally all of these in the same song! And if that wasn't enough add some movie theme music too. Man he makes that saxophone scream at times. My only minor complaints are I could have done without the couple of straightforward jazz tunes - well straightforward compared to the rest of the album, and the middle section of extremely short, noisy, grindcore jazz tunes while all good, were a bit indistinguishable from each other to my unaccustomed to that music ears. But that closing run of the last eight songs from Punk China Doll onwards was great, with Saigon Pickup and The James Bond Theme possibly being my two favourites from the album on first listen. I give this a strong 8/10, and it comes in at 18/52 in my 1990 chart.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik is a blast from the past I had forgotten all about until now.
8. Repeater by Fugazi
12. The Good Son by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
16. Flood by They Might Be Giants
18. Shake Your Money Maker by The Black Crowes
19. Ragged Glory by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
23. The Rhythm Of The Saints by Paul Simon
25. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 by George Michael
27. Behaviour by Pet Shop Boys
28. Jordan: The Comeback by Prefab Sprout
30. Cowboys From Hell by Pantera
So, I mentioned that I would give you a bit of a lengthy post. And I will do that. This isn't the first time I have heard of this band. I think it was the late 2000's where Youtube would be my home and witness the song Ignorance Is Bliss. That song in particular was part of this collaboration that Nintendo commissioned back in the early 90's. And even when I wasn't in this journey to go through albums, that song in particular hit a certain spot in my heart. Especially the tail end of the track where the strings give the track a climax that sends me chills. So I was somewhat ecstatic to give this a listen. And this fulfilled my expectations. Like the only complaint I would think I would have for this album would be wanting this album getting a remaster that ironed a few kinks. But there are so many highlights on this album that I was just left grinning at as well as just having my jaw dropping. Russian Hill being a prime example where the second half becomes a folk/jazz hybrid and it is very emotional. Joining A Fan Club and New Mistake hitting that high. Honestly, this album just hits that particular sweet spot that acts like Ween and Mr Bungle where this is quite varied and is just entertaining to me. If you haven't listen to this, give this a listen. Might be the best of 1993. Might actually be able to take Plexure off its throne. Also want to point out that this act should have had more records under their belt. Because with an album like this, they could have gone further and made even doper albums.
Grade:100 Might be a top 100 of all time. As well as might be God tier. That's how good this album is.
(2)
Pantera time Pash.
(3)
BEA: Top 100 of 1993
(12) Snoop Dogg-Doggy Style
(13) Blur-Modern Life Is Rubbish
(15) The Breeders-Last Splash
(17) Depeche Mode-Songs of Faith and Devotion
(20) Tool-Undertow
(23) U2-Zooropa (R)
(29) The Cranberries-Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
(30) The Verve-A Storm In Heaven
(31) The Flaming Lips-Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
(32) Aerosmith-Get A Grip
Black Bastards by KMD
Honestly if I didn't know Zev Love X was MF Doom, I never would have guessed. His style here is completely unrecognizable, the flow, rhyming, storytelling, the whole package actually is very different to what he did later in his career. Maybe a few parallels could be drawn between his style here and Operation: Doomsday, but even that is a stretch. That being said, he's not a bad rapper here by any means. In fact, Zev Love X and Subroc are a good pair, their chemistry is impressive and my favourite thing about the album. It's a shame the two brothers didn't get to make more music together. RIP Subroc. Onyx and the features are dope and fitting too. The songwriting is ok-ish, the hooks are somewhat stale and often just not interesting or catchy enough. The themes are mostly what you'd expect from 90s hip hop, but the execution is solid. My favourite lines are from Smokin' That Shit. It's a song featuring Earthquake, and he cracked me up with this one:
"I had some Digable Planets, so now I'm fat like that
280 pounds of pure funk and no junk"
He ate all of Digable Planets funk it seems. The production is some nice East Coast stuff, jazzy, lofi boom bap, relatively complex for 1993. There's a lot of cool stuff going on. That's about it, I liked it a lot, but the songwriting could've been better at times. 7.5/10
This little dive into bay's charts will turn into a relistening fest. But there's some solid albums I've not heard in a while, so why not.
Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
--------------------------------------
Kasai Allstars - In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic
Boubacar Traoré - Mariama
Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun - Divine Music From A Jail
Rokia Traoré - Bowmboï
Sun City Girls - Torch Of The Mystics
Jimmy Lee Williams - Hoot Your Belly
Soungalo Coulibaly - Dengo
Various Artists - The Roots Of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru
--------------------------------------
The National - Boxer _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
This was a lot better than I was expecting from the first ever hip-hop LP. Yes, the legendary Rapper's Delight (here in its condensed album version) is the clear highlight, but the other two disco rap songs are really groovy and fun as well. It's also notable that the first ever hip-hop LP featured female rappers from the gang's sister group The Sequence, one of whom would go on to be best known as neo-soul singer Angie Stone. And everyone complains about the r&b tracks, but I think they're actually good, if somewhat generic at times. Certainly far better than some of the dire r&b filler on other disco rap albums. Anyway, this is a danceable album with solid musicianship and quotable punchlines to make you smile. Quite good, and I'd say underrated. 3.5/5.
~~~~~
2. Yeah, my decade charts are outdated and a total mess. They'd probably be much more interesting if they were finished. Give this classic a listen:
1980 bronze: Rappin’, Dancin’, And Laughin’ - Blowfly
1981 gold: Live Convention 81 - Various Artists
1982 silver: Live Convention 82 - Various Artists
1983 silver: Whodini - Whodini
1984 silver: Escape - Whodini
1985 silver: The Album - Mantronix
1987 silver: Criminal Minded - Boogie Down Productions
1989 bronze: No One Can Do It Better - The D.O.C.
1990 bronze: The Geto Boys - The Geto Boys
2002 gold: Nada Como Um Dia Após O Outro Dia - Racionais MC's _________________ Join us in the canon game :) / Add me on RYM
So this is the third album from Tool I have listen to. First was Lateralus and then Aenima. Out of the three, I still think Aenima is the best of the three, but I would need a revisit for that album to be certain. For this album, I do think this is a great metal album, but not one where I would go as an essential listen. For the year, Undertow does sound quite unique compared what would be out there in the general metal scene. But not an album that would hit my expectations compared to Porcupine Tree or Devin Townsend. I think what might be the Achilles heel with me would be the ending where the second half is left with the sounds of nature and I feel that it could have been trimmed a bit just to get to the speech at the end. I have a hunch there is better metal music from 1993.
Grade:85
(2)
Bay listen to Whodini 1983
(3)
BEA: Top 100 of 1993
(12) Snoop Dogg-Doggy Style
(13) Blur-Modern Life Is Rubbish
(15) The Breeders-Last Splash
(17) Depeche Mode-Songs of Faith and Devotion
(23) U2-Zooropa (R)
(29) The Cranberries-Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
(30) The Verve-A Storm In Heaven
(31) The Flaming Lips-Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
(32) Aerosmith-Get A Grip
(33) Crowded House-Together Alone
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
I can be very fussy when it comes to metal, and what little Pantera I have heard has never interested me to look into them further, so this is the first album of theirs I've listened to. Apparently this was their attempt to move away from the '80s hair metal scene, and while they probably succeeded in doing that, it was still to close to that for my tastes, and not close enough to the thrash metal of others at the time. It probably didn't help that, although not the album's fault, when I listen to music like this I like to listen to it loud (duh), but for some reason this was really quiet on Spotify...even full volume on the app, and full volume on my sound system wouldn't have been enough to annoy my neighbours. 🙁 As usual I am out of sync with the majority, as the highest rated songs I liked the least, and the song I liked the most, Primal Concrete Sledge, is one of the lowest rated. And other lower rated songs towards the end of the album, was when I started to enjoy it a bit more, or was getting accustomed to the music by then. Overall then I thought this was okay, better than Judas Priest, but not as good as Megadeth or Slayer (to compare it to other metal albums from 1990 I've heard). I am in a good mood today though so I give it a generous 7/10, and place it at 46/53 for the year.
I'll come back to 1990 later, but right now I want to return to 1980 for a bit because I wanted to do Jameth's 1980 chart (I'm assuming Jameth will be back one day - it took me a couple of months to get through the Everywhere At The End Of Time project) but there wasn't enough entries I hadn't heard, however I realised I could just top it up with other current players 1980s albums from their decade chart, and a couple more from Rocka's leftovers when needed. 😁
Top 15 Music Albums of 1980 by Jameth (5 picks left)
1. Les Dragons by Ninki-Nanka
5. The Expanding Universe by Laurie Spiegel
6. Sandinista! by The Clash
8. Solid Pleasure by Yello
10. Telekon by Gary Numan
12. Haul Ar Yr Eira by Pererin
13. Crazy Rhythms by The Feelies
14. Não Me Lembre Demais, Nem Me Esqueça by Junia Horta
15. Catching The Sun by Spyro Gyra
So this is the second album from The Verve I have listened to. The first one being the 1997 album Urban Hymns. That album I really enjoyed a lot. Don't know if it would be a top 20 contender, but that would be a year end contender for 1997 whenever I decide to go back to that year and continue the year. So I was also excited for this album as well. And after the first listen, I think I love this way more than Urban Hymns. I could make an argument where Urban is more grand, more varied and while I don't mean to be brash when using this term but more "pop". (Keep in mind, when pop is great, it can challenge some of the heavy hitters and actually beat them.) But there is something about A Storm In Heaven that just hits me way more. If there were any complaints, it would probably be where I wished the closer was a bit better. And on an individualistic level, while I do see this as a positive I could see myself getting a bit bored since the way The Verve structure there songs, it tends to get a bit lethargic. And that is on a mood level because on a good day, it benefits the album. But there are many positives. For one, this sucks me in way more than Souvlaki. The haze is not only more striking but also has that aura that just feels like a hug. The other thing I would have to bring up and this is from the back half of the album is how there was more of a jazz influence. That is something that caught me off guard because I wasn't expecting it. There is a part of me that I could see how these jazz parts could be a puzzle piece where Radiohead used that idea and bring it to a higher extreme on The National Anthem.
Grade:95 but in all honesty, this might be another 100. Need to give it another listen or two just to make sure if I feel that passionate for the album. Which means, when I want to give my best list another edit. For the canon list, this is higher than Midnight Marauders.
(2)
Man I have to give the 80's more time. But Pash you need to listen to Zapp's debut. A part of me thinks you might give it a decent 6 or may give it a light 8. I enjoy it a lot but isn't what I would considered as a best of 80's but a high honorable mention.
(3)
BEA: Top 100 of 1993
(12) Snoop Dogg-Doggy Style
(13) Blur-Modern Life Is Rubbish
(15) The Breeders-Last Splash
(17) Depeche Mode-Songs of Faith and Devotion
(23) U2-Zooropa (R)
(29) The Cranberries-Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
(31) The Flaming Lips-Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
(32) Aerosmith-Get A Grip
(33) Crowded House-Together Alone
(34) Paul Weller-Wild Wood
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