From the moment that brass blasts forth in the opening track I suspected I was going to like this album. It instantly brought to mind the 2-tone and ska I was a fan of in the '80s. Not that this is ska at all and is quite different, but there are similarities and it's those similarities that are the traits of ska I love. This was more soulful but with an eccentric quirkiness that was a lot of fun. It was great to hear Geno again, which I probably haven't heard for a long time, but it was when Kevin Rowland got more passionate and emotional that where the highlights for me, as in I'm Just Looking (which I didn't recognise by the title but have heard many times before - I have no idea where), and I Couldn't Help If I tried. Those two songs were excellent. A really good album. 8/10, and 19/50 for 1980.
Chrome by Catherine Wheel has a few really good songs.
Top 45 Music Albums of 1980 by Mercury (3 picks left)
2. Group Sex by Circle Jerks
7. Never For Ever by Kate Bush
9. Ace Of Spades by Motörhead
12. Roses In The Snow by Emmylou Harris
18. The Psychedelic Furs by The Psychedelic Furs
19. Heartattack And Vine by Tom Waits
21. Kilimanjaro by The Teardrop Explodes
23. The Original Rolling Stone by Robert Wilkins
24. Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics by Jon Hassell & Brian Eno
28. No Discrimination by Tony Allen
Damn, this was an excellent album. There is a part of me that wants to rate this even higher. The presence, the energy, the vibe. This ends up being another personal favorite for rock music. Like I am somewhat waiting for a rock album where I'm more eh or trash, but I have been more positive towards the genre. Which, I wouldn't expect when I was younger. The only thing I am curious for this record would probably reading in the lyrics. But then again I don't do that.
So rating wise it is a 90 but is in the possibly a 95.
(2)
Pash listen to Kate Bush
(3)
BEA: Top 100 of 1993
(32) Aerosmith-Get A Grip
(33) Crowded House-Together Alone
(34) Paul Weller-Wild Wood
(35) James-Laid
38 Sting-Ten Summoner's Tales
(41) Manic Street Preachers-Gold Against The Soul (Let's see if this is better than Morphine's album)
(43) The Boo Radleys-Giant Steps
(44) Primus-Pork Soda
(45) Autechre-Incunabula (R)
(46) Digable Planets-Reachin (R)
baystateoftheartNeil Young as a butternut squashProfile Massachusetts
My biggest complaints about their 1997 album were excessive length and filler, and this 2002 follow-up is a double album with 37 extra minutes, so... yeah. On the plus side, the production is more interesting and varied, but that can be a double-edged sword, as the production quality is less consistent. Their rapping is really good, and there are a number of great tracks. My enjoyment is somewhat hampered by my diminishing ability to understand Portuguese, but their skills on the mic are crystal clear. I definitely prefer the first half, which has a higher killer to filler ratio. In terms of the music itself, this album is about as enjoyable as its predecessor, and I'm going to give it the same score. However, it has less replay value by virtue of its length. 3.5/5.
1981 gold: Live Convention 81 - Various Artists
1982 silver: Live Convention 82 - Various Artists
1983 bronze: Players - Too $hort
1984 bronze: Fat Boys - Fat Boys
1985 silver: The Album - Mantronix
1989 bronze: No One Can Do It Better - The D.O.C.
2002 silver: Fantastic Damage - El-P
2003 gold: Bir Pesimistin Gözyaşları - Sagopa Kajmer
2007 silver: Volume 9: Negative Thoughts - DJ Sound
2008 silver: Crazy Like A Foxxx - Bumpy Knuckles _________________ Join us in the canon game :) / Add me on RYM
Excellent, nearly flawless, DJ Mix. Maybe it's because I listened to both seperately, but I found both disc 1 & 2 to be equally engaging. Disc 1 was better though as a whole. I couldn't believe that the first track on disc 1 was a remix of Keichi Suzuki, the composer behind most of the music for the video game Earthbound, which, as some of you may remember, is one of my favorite games and soundtracks of all-time. So, yeah, it was good. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to have a house party. Consistenly engaging beats and remixes. The best stretch came on disc one between minute 40 and 60. That 20 minutes was incredible. It's too bad I just remade my top 100, because this is certainly something I would've considered adding.
Also one of the trakcs on here is literally "Clocks" by Coldplay.
I couldn't find that great a version by itself, but listen to the xylophone sounding line in the background. Clocks progression.
Crazy Like A Foxxx was an album I had to listen to for this game, so of course I'll give that to you.
Il Baricentro - Sconcerto
Emmanuelle Parrenin – Maison Ros
Charalambides- Joy Shapes
Derrick Carter - The Many Shades of Cajual
Klimperei - Les Plus Belles Valses de Klimperei
Frank Garvey - Omnicircus
Jah Lloyd- Soldier Round the corner
Rimarimba : Chicago Death Excretion Geometry (one excretion for another I suppose)
The Gray Field Recordings- Hypnagogia
Fyre - I
RoundTheBendI miss the comfort in being sadProfile Ground Control
Another album I actually had listened to but forgot this May. I guess long term cortisol make the brain fried.
Anyway, this one I agreed with - 3.5. I dug the Elvis "tribute" and the Steve Miller Band tribute. There was another song or two that stood out as well. Good album.
2. Il Baricentro - Sconcerto for ye
3. Mercury's Overall
Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams
Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird by The Tallest Man On Earth
King Of The Country Blues by Blind Lemon Jefferson
The Classic Years 1927-1940 by Blind Willie McTell
His Best (Chess 50th Anniversary Collection) by Little Walter
Looks Like Rain by Mickey Newbury
John by John Phillips (ZW)
48. Phases And Stages by Willie Nelson
49. Luther's Blues by Luther Allison
55. Leave Home by Ramones
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
To Be Kind by Swans
Okay, okay, you've broken me. This album finally made me wonder why the fuck am I doing this? Why am I listening to albums I just don't have any patience for AT THIS TIME and I just know won't be what the doctor ordered RIGHT NOW? I mean this album is 2 hours of intense, sometimes insanely loud and insanely repetitive rock of some form. It features a lot of chanting weird shit by Gira, it features a lot of crazy warbling, screaming, and lots of just intentionally off-putting music. Brilliantly realized, perfectly executed in its depiction of that writhing, wailing hateful, despairing staticy mass in your gut. The dark side that is perpetually there saying "Stop acting civilized! Let this side of you out!". Its all there. For 121 minutes of rarely beautiful, mostly crunching or creepy walls of sound. Killer riffs that repeat over and over and over etc. IDK, man, I just don't know. This is not my thing. I was not enjoying myself listening. I don't fully understand the fixation on this dark fucking shit. Like why is stuff like this considered deep and serious music by dweebs like Fantano? IDK. I'm in a bad mood a bit, but not sure if the reason I'm a bit miffed by forcing myself to sit through 2 hours of this is because the Sound and the artists behind this album TOO CLOSELY approximated that unseen part of me that I just don't like, or if its because the music is so goddamn not hopeful or traditionally pretty or beautiful that it sorta crushed all the happiness and light outta me...? Not sure.
Look in terms of ENJOYMENT or the amount of times I legitimately smiled and thought something like "Oh that was cool there," or "Ooh I liked that melody" or "That was dope riff or studio trick" This gets a 1.4/5. In terms of respect for the artists' talents and abilities to conjure up through rugged repetitive bile-filled anguish and anger these feelings in myself, this is a landmark achievement and a 4.5/5. In the middle I'll go with a 2.5. Impressive how devoid of happiness this album is but not really making me wide-eyed with the beauties of music.
Oxygen is a cool song, The opener is fucking fantastic, hell most of the individual tracks are well executed and marvelous for what they were going for and each song did beat the shit out of me in a somewhat impressive way. But as a whole, I hate these long albums and I hate how the sum of these parts effectively just water-boarded me with these oppressive negative vibes until by the end I was just an apathetic sack on the ground, beaten nearly to death.
Cheer. The. Fuck. Up. Swans!
(That last statement may seem weird because I do love me some depressing albums, mostly ones which feature pretty melodies and acoustic instruments, but not always. I guess I just wish this album had 1 hour of angry shit and 1 hour of zany, maybe even god forbid mildly happy and upbeat songs... this is not the style nor the intent, and really the solution is for me to just not listen to this style for awhile and focus on what I like ((go figure)). anyway, that's that. I think i'll switch to a genre chart or some sort of other chart so that I don't get stuck with another To Be Kind, or Deathconsciousness, or The Ascension or something designed to not be liked by me.)
Okay that was a rant. Apologies. You can still read it. I’ve cooled down. It’s a detailed and unique album. Not my thing at this time
Top 10 albums on RYM classified as Pop rock or soft rock, including albums that have merely that element in them along with other more pronounced styles.. I am sure to find something I like here. Oh and these are the top 10 albums I either haven't heard or have never listened to closely to or have forgotten the deets of.
1. The Hissing of Summer Lawns by Joni Micthell
2. Tapestry by Carole King
3. (What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis
4. Achtung Baby by U2
5. The Stranger by Billy Joel
6. דרכים (Ways) by שלמה ארצי [Shlomo Artzi] (Israeli pop rock. interesting... Its dwarfed in terms of number of ratings by everything else high on this list but has a 4/5 avg rating so the highest in that regard.)
7. Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole and The Commotions
8. Down on the Road by the Beach by Steve Hiett
9. Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey
10. One Year by Colin Blunstone
If this list looks sus its because I looked up soft rock and then noted the top 5 not listened and then after that they looked lame and so I looked up pop rock and I mixed in based off my best guess on where they'd rank if those 2 subgenres would be added together. Anyway, here are 10. _________________ -Ryan
This will be the 3rd album by Willie I've heard. Stardust has been near and dear to my heart for a while for it's subtle darkness, unrequited love, the comfort of being sad. I ended up listening to Red Headed Stranger next. Thanks for the Willie Rec. This felt like a good listen. Willie takes a long time to seep in for me somehow. It's always quality I end up loving later, but appreciate now.
2. Achtung Baby: This record according to Bono is the sound of them cutting down the Joshua Tree. It's very opposite of their 80s work... it started this era of irony for them, so much so they made fun of themselves as being big rock stars that then just turned into vegas trash. But with tracks like One, or the Judas portrayal, or wild horses, Acrobat, and Love is Blindness where Edge's guitar weeps... well ok I love the album and I hope you do too ;). In the 80s when people were doing shiny, they were wearing plaid and torn jeans, and in an era where it was cool to wear plaid and torn jeans, they were shiny.
3. Mercury's top 100
Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams
Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird by The Tallest Man On Earth
King Of The Country Blues by Blind Lemon Jefferson
The Classic Years 1927-1940 by Blind Willie McTell
His Best (Chess 50th Anniversary Collection) by Little Walter
Looks Like Rain by Mickey Newbury
John by John Phillips (ZW)
49. Luther's Blues by Luther Allison
55. Leave Home by Ramones
56. Luxury Liner by Emmylou Harris
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
The vocals of Kate Bush are the star of the album here. From delicate moments to belting it out, with a playfulness sometimes, and a passion at other times. The album opens with the classic Babooshka, which is one of my earliest memories of loving a song when it came out (yes even back then my music taste was unusual - other kids in primary school are all "how good are Kiss" and I'm "but Babooshka though, and Split Enz..."). I never fully got the story of the song until a few years later but that didn't matter. Fantastic song and video. Some of the piano led tracks on here I might have to warm up to a bit, but most of the songs were interesting, surprising sometimes, and mostly entertaining. Then the album finishes so strongly with Army Dreamers, and Breathing, two more excellent songs, either of which could be standouts on an album that didn't already contain Babooshka. 8/10 for now, but I can see this changing up if I hear it more, and 18/51 for 1980.
Ramones Leave Home should be fun, even if you probably mostly know what you are going to get with a Ramones album.
Top 45 Music Albums of 1980 by Mercury (2 picks left)
2. Group Sex by Circle Jerks
9. Ace Of Spades by Motörhead
12. Roses In The Snow by Emmylou Harris
18. The Psychedelic Furs by The Psychedelic Furs
19. Heartattack And Vine by Tom Waits
21. Kilimanjaro by The Teardrop Explodes
23. The Original Rolling Stone by Robert Wilkins
24. Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics by Jon Hassell & Brian Eno
28. No Discrimination by Tony Allen
34. Blizzard Of Ozz by Ozzy Osbourne
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Not gonna lie, I was worried when RtB nominated this and told me what he loves about it cuz I thought I'd hate it and either lie through my teeth here or trash it and make him feel not bad (as he is an adult and could handle it) but at the very least slightly bummed.
BUT no worries, I really liked this. Somehow I have never listened to this at all despite it being on all the mags I used to consume and live by back in the early 2000s. Rolling Stone at the time made me beleive this was a second masterpiece. And while I don't feel that strong, I can understand where that general conception came from. The sound is rich and detailed and while the electronic beats and aspects don't really sound great to me they do add a new texture to the band. And really just putting aside all my prehudice against annoying glasses man, I do like his vocals about 50 percent of the time here. about 40 percent is listenable but just a smidge sneer inducing and then 10 percent are passionate falsetto notes which just made me a bit annoyed.
The guitarist The Edge was one I haven't really sat down and listened to newly in literally 10 years. But I was reminded with this album how spectacularly unique his stuttery, echoey, passionate and glimmering sound it. Every time one of his kinda stacatto riffs came in I just wanted to rock out. He's truly great and unique and its cool how he took (back in the late 70s and 80s) a weakness as a guitarist and artfully changed his sound to make up for his technical limitations and ended up forging his own identity which millions fell in love with.
The rest of the band (outside of whoever was mixing the lectronic beats) is also on fire here, laying down the foundation on these sweet little rock and pop anthems.
Most of the songs have much more redeeming qualities than points that kinda irked me. For every Bono falsetto wail there are 2 bass grooves or Edge riffs that offset it in the opposite direction. While none of the songs really hit me on a deeply emotional level or made me wanna relisten to em, each had qualities which I could disconnectedly hear what made this band such a massive positive influence in so many lives.
All in all, its a solid pop album a solid rock album, surprisingly not stuffed with forgettable stuff, a lot of songs that actually were richly detailed and quite great tbh, and its just a solid album. I'll give it a 3.25/5 and round up to 3.5 on RYM.
------------------------------------------
2.
Purplepash, obviously as its my #2 and its a masterpiece in my opinion, i say listen to The Circle Jerks' "Group Sex" - its only 15 minutes so you can finish quick or can listen to it 3 or 4 times in the time it takes to listen to one album and get a deeper feel for it.
Recently discovered Bruno Pernadas and specifically the 2016 album, "Those Who Throw Objects At The Crocodiles Will Be Asked To Retrieve Them", and its blowing my mind mind six ways from sunday. So I think I'll look for other art pop albums ( a very diverse and vague genre) and make a list of the top 10 such albums. That i haven't heard or am vague on obviously.
Also side note, it only has 7 votes here and its truly special and I want all of you who haven't listened to it to go do so as soon as you can. thanks. It should be ranked higher than number 21,000 here in my opinion obviously. But its just indescribably creative in its mix of art pop, jazz fusion and half a dozen other things.
1. 加爾基 精液 栗ノ花 (Kalk samen kuri no hana) by 椎名林檎 [Sheena Ringo] (Completely new listen!)
2. Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) by Eno (Has been years very vague recollection)
3. Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg (Has been years very vague recollection)
4. Strawberry Jam by Animal Collective (Has been years very vague recollection)
5. The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do by Fiona Apple (Has been years very vague recollection)
6. Emperor Tomato Ketchup by Stereolab (Has been years very vague recollection)
7. 勝訴ストリップ (Shōso strip) by 椎名林檎 [Sheena Ringo] (Completely new listen!)
8. Revés / Yosoy by Café Tacvba (Completely new listen!)
9. Bocanada by Gustavo Cerati (Completely new listen!)
10. Paris 1919 by John Cale (Has been years very vague recollection)[b] _________________ -Ryan
After get through some days with my new job, got to give this album a revisit.
(1)
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
And man what a revisit. I always remember enjoying this album a lot. An alternative from the hardcore aggression of the early 90's. I even have the CD for this album, but never had the interest to return to it. Which is odd. And when I started, the thought where the first 6 songs were dope while the rest of the album varied in quality. But no. I would argue the album itself was way better. Like, I was having a bit of a mind fuck where there were little details like the echo effects on the rappers or musical phrases that blind sided me. Or a thing I remembered like how the record sounds like it exists in its own world with the jazz bar interludes throughout the album. Ishmael, Mariana and Craig tag team with ease. And with that I got a top 3 of hip hop for 1993. I prefer the dreamy sound of Midnight Marauders and the g-funk of Doggystyle but this is still an excellent hip hop album.
Grade:95 there is a bit of hesitance of this being a 100. Maybe Blowout Comb but still an awesome album.
(2)
Mercury listen to Bocanada. That's on my greatest list.
(3)
BEA: Top 100 of 1993
(32) Aerosmith-Get A Grip
(33) Crowded House-Together Alone
(34) Paul Weller-Wild Wood
(35) James-Laid
38 Sting-Ten Summoner's Tales
(41) Manic Street Preachers-Gold Against The Soul (Let's see if this is better than Morphine's album)
(43) The Boo Radleys-Giant Steps
(44) Primus-Pork Soda
(45) Autechre-Incunabula (R)
(47) Kate Bush-The Red Shoes
Last edited by Luigii on 12/10/2020 00:45; edited 1 time in total
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Purplepash
baystateoftheart
Tha1ChiefRocka
RoundTheBend
Mercury
