Old Chestnut by Ned Collette
Not sure if that was intentional, but this was the perfect successor to Songs In The Key Of Life by Stevie Wonder. That one was a "summer" album, so it was only natural to be followed by an album that resembles autumn. You've had your good times, now you' re lonely and sad, but is it that bad or is it a chance to move away from mundane issues, pull yourself together, dive deep into self-discovery and maybe prepare yourself for the next time "summer" finds you - no matter if it's a so very different "summer" than the previous one? It might be just the romantic silly me, but I did trace some subtle signs of optimism in there, too. A seemingly simple sound, but it's neither "keep it simple because I'm lazy" nor "keep it simple to make it accessible to everyone". It's a principled choice going for substance over style applying the well-known since ancient times motto "less is more". This might appear to come in high contrast with the album's length, but rarely -if ever- did something feel like a waste of time, pretty much every moment had something to offer, a point to make. Almost forgot it, loved the vocals as well, they served the directness/clarity of the message. Sacred Cats would be my pick for highlight of the album, but it's not an easy choice, impossible to spot a weak link. Out of all the albums I've listened for this game (unless I missed something, this was number 15) this easily takes the second spot and that's only because Carole King - Tapestry was otherworldly as I already mentioned in the relevant post. By the way, as I was browsing your chart looking for a new album to add in the shortlist for the next nomination, I noticed that they are placed next to each other, what a funny little coincidence.
2. An easy pick, I even prefer this to their -generally perceived as their magnum opus- IV album.
Faust - Faust
3.
Mercury's chart
1. Nilsson Sings Newman - Harry Nilsson
2. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight - Richard & Linda Thompson
3. So Far - Bob Theil
4. Looks Like Rain - Mickey Newbury
5. There's Nothing Wrong With Love - Built To Spill
6 Continuum - John Mayer
7. Sign 'O' The Times - Prince (unlike the others, it's not gonna be a first listen, but I really feel like revisiting this at the moment)
8. Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Beverly Glenn-Copeland
9. John - John Phillips (ZW)
10. Thriller - Michael Jackson (same as number 7)
Sorry for the bit of delay with this album. Wasn't trying to delay. Work kept me occupied. Well I hope that legend is true Mercury. Because, I love this album. Compared to the first one, I prefer the sequel way more. It was more grand. At times this did get to my feels and I was enjoying it. This is one of those moments where the grade average on this site is so full of shit. Like really? A 62? Come on. This should be at least a light 70 range. If there was anything that might have kept this from getting a 100, and it was really close, it would be the two songs that were the shortest. Mainly the former Wasted Youth where the orchestra part sounds like being in a 10 pile car crash. Though I do get in a presentation sense. But yeah this was awesome. Maybe over time, this will be a 100 in the long term. But it is a 95. Man 1993 is been so good, I don't know if this will be in the top 10 with going through other albums.
(2)
kokkinos, Thriller
(3)
BEA's Top 100 Albums of 1993
(65) The Auteurs-New Wave
(67) Buffalo Tom-Big Red Letter Day
(73) Donald Fagen-Kamakiriad
(76) The Posies-Frosting on the Beater
(79) Neil Young-Unplugged
(82) Cracker-Kerosene Hat
(84) Blue Rodeo-Five Days In July
(85) Sugar-Beaster
(86) The Lemonheads-Come On Feel The Lemonheads
(87) Kingston Wall-II
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
First off, super happy to see how much you enjoyed Ned Collette. I've never seen anyone ever talk about Ned Collette here either than myself so for the first person to take that rec to like it makes me happy. And, yeah the Ned Collette/Carole King chart proximity is a funny coincidence. Just recently - like yesterday or today - moved up Old Chestnut to where you saw it. Anyway, onto YOUR choice for ME
I went through a short lived few month phase where I was really into the german rock and experimental music of the late 60s to late 70s. In that time of course I listened to a handful of Faust this album included. At least, I thought I had. For some reason listening to the wild yet peaceful piece of music felt and sounded brand new. I think it has something to do the way there is no clear melody or refrain vocally to get stuck in your head, instead there is a sense of like being in the music for awhile, its a sort of trippy ambient album. Especially the first 16 or so minutes. There are some funky rock guitar parts in the last centerpiece track i guess but even those seem to be sort of beamed in for a brief moment of rockin before the artists move on to the next piece of fabric they are to stitch onto this strange patchwork. The sense of adventure and discovery dominates the whole affair. When I got to the end I felt both relaxed and strangely like I had been musically reprogrammed and most of my recollection of the previous 35 minutes felt like it was drifting away, barely visible as it left, like smoke or gossamer or some other poetic half-baked analogy.
Basically I respect the fuck out of the brilliance and inventiveness of this album. Nothing else exactly like it, especially not back then (of course this is just my guess based off my musical experience.)
(super happy to see you loved those Meatloaf albums. I've no foggiest recollection of them. But know they are quite famous. And yeah there are obviously some artists and styles that are very very shat upon and Meatloaf and that style of very theatrical rock n roll are included in the "Music Nerd Shit On" pile. Kinda unfair.
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3.
Top 10 albums taken strictly from AfterHours jazz and rock albums list. Actually, I lied, still a couple 2020 albums that I'd like to hold onto for this list. So 8 Afterhours and 2 2020.
1. Irrlicht by Klaus Schulze
2. Diamanda Galas by Diamanda Galas
3. Zen Arcade by Husker Du (This is one of those very rare albums I kinda hate. Have tried many times to like it even a little but failed. last attempt was 3 years ago or so so maybe time to give it one last try before moving on.)
4. Third by Soft Machine
5. Parable of Arable Land by The red Crayola
6. Yerself Is Steam by Mercury Rev
7. Y by The Pop Group
8. Twin Infinitives by Royal Trux
9. ๅ่ฅฟๅๆ่ทฏ่ก (Inside the Cable Temple) by ไธ่ฝ้ๅนดๆ ๅบ [Omnipotent Youth Society]
10. Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain by Gwenifer Raymond _________________ -Ryan
Back in early 2015, I liked Travis Scott well enough and listened to Days Before Rodeo. Then I bought into all the criticism of him being a shameless style-biter with little personal talent who was coasting through the industry on his contacts. Between that and not being a fan of Antidote, I never listened to Rodeo until today. There is at least some truth to the narrative: Scott is neither a technically talented rapper nor an acclaimed producer, he's long had an elite Rolodex, and his music has tons of obvious influence from Kanye (among others). However, I don't care anymore. Now it's only about whether the music sounds good, and it absolutely does. Rodeo boasts excellent beats from a wide variety of producers, but they all come together in a really cohesive way to create a dense, psychedelic haze. This pairs really well with Scott's rapping and his guests. In particular, 3500 and the 90210 to Nightcrawler run are great. There are definitely misses along with the hits, with Piss On Your Grave being a standout dud. And some tracks feel half-baked and more about atmosphere than anything. Overall though, I enjoy this a lot. 3.5/5.
~~~~~
2. This is my favorite of the three I've heard. Good luck.
3. Hip-Hop Medalists (slightly modified For Black History Month)
1981 silver: 8th Wonder - Sugarhill Gang
1982 silver: Live Convention 82 - Various Artists
1983 bronze: Players - Too $hort
1984 bronze: Fat Boys - Fat Boys
1985 silver: The Album - Mantronix
2003 bronze: Center Of Attention - InI
2007 silver: Volume 9: Negative Thoughts - DJ Sound
2009 gold: The LP - Large Professor
2014 bronze: Piรฑata Beats - Madlib
2017 silver: The G.A.Tโฆ - Mach-Hommy _________________ Join us in the canon game :) / Add me on RYM
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
I can see why this is a well respected influential album. It has good beats, interesting samples, passionate rapping, and (mostly) good story telling. Apart from a few exceptions though I just struggle to "enjoy" ,in the true sense of the word, most gangsta rap. It's not my world. I appreciate it though, and always love to get a listen of a classic or critically acclaimed album under my belt. I give this a light 7/10, and 53/60 for 1990.
Top 69 Music Albums of 1990 by Tha1ChiefRocka (3 picks left)
3. Frizzle Fry by Primus
5. Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em by Reverend Horton Heat
7. One For All by Brand Nubian
15. Intelligent Hoodlum by Intelligent Hoodlum
18. World Clique by Deee-Lite
19. Funky Technician by Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth
21. Black Angels by Kronos Quartet
22. Jordan: The Comeback by Prefab Sprout
24. Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em by Eric B. & Rakim
25. Into Darkness by Winter
Well, way quicker than the last one. And while I do feel this record is good even great, I wouldn't say this one wowed me as much. After coming from BOOH 2, this feels like a bit of a come down. The qualities are there. There is a laid back demeaner, and most of the tracks are 2 to 4 minutes tops. Except the closer. But that is the 90's quip of wasting time with a bonus track. Otherwise it does feel like I am repeating myself with other records off this list. Grade wise:80
(2)
Pash, listen to Prefab Sprout.
(3)
BEA's Top 100 Albums of 1993
(65) The Auteurs-New Wave
(67) Buffalo Tom-Big Red Letter Day
(71) Crash Test Dummies-God Shuffled His Feet
(73) Donald Fagen-Kamakiriad
(76) The Posies-Frosting on the Beater
(79) Neil Young-Unplugged
(82) Cracker-Kerosene Hat
(84) Blue Rodeo-Five Days In July
(85) Sugar-Beaster
(87) Kingston Wall-II
88 Rush Counterparts
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
This wasn't bad. Didn't really connect and have no interest in listening again and almost no songs that I thought were great, but at least I don't hate it.
I think I went and bought an overpriced NEW CD version of this when i was 16. I had just read "Our Band Could Be Your Life" by Michael Azerrad. An amazing book which introduced me to half a dozen new all time faves - Double Nickels On The Dime, Tim, Signals Calls and Marches, Minor Threat's Complete Discography, Repeater, Rite of Spring, Superfuzz Big Muff, You Turn Me On, You're Living All Over Me, Daydream Nation and on and on... and yet the only album I couldn't find used to match my financial situation was this Classic of Classics Zen Arcade. Finally I forked over the 18 bucks and went home and listened and I was thoroughly underwhelmed. I couldn't understand how this was really that great. This was supposed to be the next big thing in my life. But I was a stupid emotional kid (yet somehow didn't like this? weird) and I resented it.
I proceeded to live life and for a decade kept hearing about this amazing album, kept pushing play again and again and kept being unimpressed. This is weird. At some point you'd think the first 5 songs which I listened to at least 20 times would be familiar and at least liked by me. But no. Not at all.
This time at least I could finish the album including the long end track and say "Yeah, that's pretty good." The production sounds ass, and the songs aren't really that great despite all the praise that gets heaped on them, but some of the stuff was good. Of course, and as you all know, this is just my opinion. A lot of smart people with good taste really like this.
Anyway, that's enough.
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2.
Luigii, you're getting to the part of the list where I am unfamiliar with all of the albums. I'll just pick the first one.
I have decided what makes a rock album truly transcendent to afterhours or scaruffi does not fully jive with me. Although the 4 albums I plucked from him were all Great to tolerable, I just don't think I want to continue with that for now. So... let me see... I think I'll be boring and now that I've fleshed out 2020 a bit, I'll go one year earlier, to the year 2019 where I've heard like 12 albums and flesh that out by taking the rateyourmusic 2019 albums that I either am foggy recollecting or I have never heard. (I am absolutely being selective here, so no albums I have no interest in. These are 10 albums I actually really really wanna hear.)
1. ๆญณๆ่จ (Saijiki) - 3776
2. Magdalene - FKA Twigs
3. Bandana - Freddie Gibbs and Madlib (I really love Pinata so how come I never listened to this? Man, I was really disengaged from music that year.)
4. Little Electric Chicken Heart - Ana Frango Elรฉtrico
5. Grey Area - Little Simz
6. Pang - Caroline Polachek
7. Caligula - Lingua Ignota
8. Somewhere City - Origami Angel
9. ใใใใใฏ6 (Kikuo Miku 6) - ใใใ [Kikuo]
10. Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery - The Comet is Coming _________________ -Ryan
Well, this album joins my short list of albums that uses no noise and I end up not getting annoyed. But compared to the last album, I enjoy this more. Musically it was more varied and hit me a little harder. But like the album, I have started to repeat myself where there has been better rock albums that hit me harder. And that would be in a technical level. An energy level. Or a vibe level. But still kept me impressed with its play time. And for now, scrapping the top 50 in a canon sense. Might tackle a few ambient albums from 1993. Also after finishing up this, I Tunes recommended a song from The Bluetones 2006 album. And so far I'm enjoying that. Grade for New Wave is an 85.
(2)
Mercury, Bandana it is.
(3)
BEA's Top 100 Albums of 1993
(67) Buffalo Tom-Big Red Letter Day
(71) Crash Test Dummies-God Shuffled His Feet
(73) Donald Fagen-Kamakiriad
(76) The Posies-Frosting on the Beater
(79) Neil Young-Unplugged
(82) Cracker-Kerosene Hat
(84) Blue Rodeo-Five Days In July
(85) Sugar-Beaster
(87) Kingston Wall-II
88 Rush Counterparts
Glad that I noticed I was missing an album from the top 100 for this year. This is getting close.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Just a really fabulous album. Only one listen so can't say how it compares to Pinata. But the beats are consistently funky and lush and yet complex and kinda hard to get my head around. And Freddie has become one of my favorite rappers ever. He isn't the most technical or anything, its just that he is so fucking cool and yet at times wuite heartfelt, he's brilliant. Overall, its a fast moving, succinct album with so much music packed in to its 46 minutes that it requires many listens to unpack. Quite liked.
I paired my 2019 chart down to albums that I 1. for sure remember listening to the whole thing and 2. actually remember. Now my 2019 chart is 9 long lol even including Bandana. haha. I will hopefully be fleshing this out with this game and personal exploration.
Purple Mountains, Igor, and another album (forget which) were removed because I don't really remember these albums.
1. ๆญณๆ่จ (Saijiki) - 3776
2. Magdalene - FKA Twigs
3. Kiwanuka - Michael Kiwanuka
4. Little Electric Chicken Heart - Ana Frango Elรฉtrico
5. Grey Area - Little Simz
6. Pang - Caroline Polachek
7. Caligula - Lingua Ignota
8. Somewhere City - Origami Angel
9. ใใใใใฏ6 (Kikuo Miku 6) - ใใใ [Kikuo]
10. Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery - The Comet is Coming _________________ -Ryan
So first off, The Bluetones album from 2006 was excellent. Don't know if it would make my top 100 for 2006 but that is only if I decide to go through that year. Which I have no idea when that will be. Now on to this album, this was excellent. From the explanation that I had from New Wave, this does hit the energy as well as the vibe that I adore from a rock record. When it wants to slam, it can do that. And if it wants to be a mood. It can be like the closer or the other 6 minute song. Though, that first one just ended abruptly and made me feel wanting more. Even though it is a 6 minutes. The only thing that I would question the quality is probably the technical level, but this impressed me a lot. But when comparing to other rock albums from 1993, the competition has been quite ridiculous. Grade wise:90. And with the canon, it has cracked the top 40.
(2)
Mercury, Magdalene
(3)
BEA's Top 100 Albums of 1993
(67) Buffalo Tom-Big Red Letter Day
(71) Crash Test Dummies-God Shuffled His Feet
(73) Donald Fagen-Kamakiriad
(79) Neil Young-Unplugged
(82) Cracker-Kerosene Hat
(84) Blue Rodeo-Five Days In July
(85) Sugar-Beaster
(87) Kingston Wall-II
88 Rush Counterparts
(89) Iggy Pop-American Caesar
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Mercury
baystateoftheart
Purplepash
