How dare you. I will not stand for such sacrilege! I'm not newbie to getting bored at shows. The War on Drugs bored the crap out of me a couple of nights ago. The couple of times I've seen Low were both great, and totally dynamic.
Mercury, May I suggest The Great Destroyer? As much as Low is a slowcore band, there's a point around the 2000s where they really became much more than that - dynamic, heavier, and their albums really started to vary more sonically. I love the early stuff, but I think it's around Things We Lost in the Fire where they really became a consistently great band.
Okay, somehow I missed this post earlier. Yeah I am very very intrigued by later era Low. I understand why their debut is a classic. But yeah a more dynamic and heavier Low sounds awesome and Things We Lost In The Fire has been on my Get-To-This list for a decade. _________________ -Ryan
turns out i don't really like listening to lots of low and then saying something about it.
slowcore, or whatever you wanna call this slow, faded, in-no-rush, somewhat dreamy version of indie, isn't my thing.
and even when it IS something that strikes a chord, it is not something I can interestingly express it.
sorry.
i think i will soon or at least eventually think of something i'd be interested in posting here.
How about, idk, your favorite metal albums from, hmmmmm... what year would be good?! ๐ค๐ค๐ค
Oh. I got it! 1983!!! :twisted:
hahaha I have gone and looked at 1983 metal and posted some thoughts on it. I am super curious if you have ever heard that G.I.S.M. album and if you would consider cheating and including it...? (Cheating because it 65% disgusting absolutely in your face Hardcore and about 30-35% some sort of weird old school heavy metal... its kind of glorious) _________________ -Ryan
turns out i don't really like listening to lots of low and then saying something about it.
slowcore, or whatever you wanna call this slow, faded, in-no-rush, somewhat dreamy version of indie, isn't my thing.
and even when it IS something that strikes a chord, it is not something I can interestingly express it.
sorry.
i think i will soon or at least eventually think of something i'd be interested in posting here.
How about, idk, your favorite metal albums from, hmmmmm... what year would be good?! ๐ค๐ค๐ค
Oh. I got it! 1983!!! :twisted:
hahaha I have gone and looked at 1983 metal and posted some thoughts on it. I am super curious if you have ever heard that G.I.S.M. album and if you would consider cheating and including it...? (Cheating because it 65% disgusting absolutely in your face Hardcore and about 30-35% some sort of weird old school heavy metal... its kind of glorious)
Hell yeah!!! Can't wait to check it out with a few beers maybe even tonight!!! Sounds right up my alley!!!
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
@Repo, Fuck yeah! I hope you like it. Lead singer is LITERALLY a fucking cray wild anarchist man and he sounds like a literal sociopath at times. The production is so "bad" (meaning raw and wild and disgusting) that it is good. And, again, the fact that at times the punk gets pushed aside for these fleet-fingered shredding Ozzy Osbourne high pitched guitar solos - all still coming out of those ugly amps and being recorded just as nastily - is something that I legitimately loved and enjoyed but also laughed at.
I look forward to your thoughts. This is some of the earliest Japanese Hardcore as well. Which is kind of interesting. _________________ -Ryan
A few months back, LedZep commented that the more he looked at the year the more he came to the conclusion it was the most stacked year in music history. (said something like that). At the time I was a bit reticent to agree. I was thinking 1969 or '77 could compare. But recently I'm looking again and ... y'know he is probably right.
Of course the whole idea of a year being the best, its hard to quantify. Amongst us music nerds, and more specifically, us Hip Hop and Indie Rock ALBUM-based music fans, its hard not to recognize to some degree how many classics are there.
Recently I spent hours upon hours upon hous=rs exhaustively combing through my CDs, my charts, opther charts, (shit tons) of RYM year charts and genre charts as well as lists from influential publications in my life such as Pitchfork and RS, all in an effort to find as many albums or EPs or releases as possible that I have a blindspot on or have had recommended to me or that I've started and never finished or even ones I feel need/deserve a new listen for whatever reason. By the time I finished this list (or, felt I got to a solid stopping point because it was getting out of hand) I was at 2.498 albums on my "To-Listen" list.
Of that nearly 2.5 thousand releases, the year with the most by a good margin was 1994 with 85. Next biggest was 1992 and 1977 I think with about 70. The point is, if I were to make a personal statistic of year with most releases that have intrigued me or been recommended to me all time, 1994 wins.
In terms of current size of chart, I recently whittled most of my year charts down to album I really am familiar with. After that project, 1994 had 72 albums which is probably 2nd or 3rd most (outside of 2021 which trounces everyone by 3-4X... I went nuts last year by my standards.)
So, I wanted to look at why, why is 1994 for so many music nerds like us a year which looms large in album history? Is it simply because (for me anyway) the most represented genres for me growing up reached peaks or "Golden Ages" in that year and more broadly 1992-1996? Indie Rock was in the middle of a golden age, Black Metal was exploding while Death Metal was still huge and producing classics just before getting really weird, Hip Hop was in a Golden Age, IDM was blowing up (not that IDM is really my thing, but that was the year Aphex Twin was peaking),... and lets see... oh! Trip Hop, Brit Pop, the last vestiges of peak Grunge, so called Alternative Rock (a "genre" that always felt squishy to me and I often get mixed up with Indie Rock), Pop Punk, etc etc... all were hitting new levels of perceived quality of popularity or both.
I am not a historian at all and so won't try to find some big trends or causes back of the brilliance of pop/rock music in 1994. BUT I did wanna look at what were the 10 most HUGE or representative or popular or important albums amongst music fans from that year. For me the top 10 albums in terms of hugesness and "influence" not in terms of personal preference:
Now I wanna stress this isn't my top 10 faves, but maybe my quickly assembled most "representative" albums of that seminal year. And It was tough leaving out landmark classics and major major releases that were influential from that year like:
Smash by The Offspring
Grace by Jeff Buckley
the one two punch that blew Britpop up big, Definitely Maybe by Oasis and Parklife by Blur.
Jar of Flies, weirdly named Burzum album, Welcome to Sky Valley, Gravediggaz album, Bee Thousand, Darkthrone, Korn, Outkast debut, Autechre, Beastie Boys etc etc etc etc... I could go on for a long time.
Pretty cool stuff.
Just for the record my personal FAVORITE albums/releases of 1994 as of now are:
#1 - There's Nothing Wrong With Love by Built To Spill
#2 - Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices
#3 - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement
#4 - Illmatic by Nas
#5 - Talking Timbuktu by Ali Farka Tourรฉ With Ry Cooder
#6 - The Blue Album by Weezer
#7 - Far Beyond Driven by Pantera
#8 - In The Nightside Eclipse by Emperor
#9 - Ready to Die by The Notorious B.I.G.
10 - Let's Go! by Rancid
As I made that list I discovered that while there are a lot of classics in 1994, for me personally there are no top tier all time favorites. The top 2 come closest obviously. But none of the albums I see released in 1994 were are like jockeying for top 10-20 all time first ballot hall of fame albums. 1995 has Liquid Swords and, of course, To Bring You My Love. Both of which wipe the floor with any of these albums for me personally. BUT 1995 doesn't seem to have quite as many benchmark almost epochal genre-defining classics as 1994. There is a give and take.
-----------------
I think I will maybe do some focused listening to 1994 stuff. But not intensely or wildly. Recently I finally checked out D.I. Go Pop, which has been on my to-listen list for awhile. It was cool. Very cool.
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Anyway, what are for you guys the best and your fave albums of this incredible year? Do you feel it really does stand out for any reason within that very exciting period/decade of music?
And what are the 10 most EPOCHAL, or IMPORTANT, or TREND_SETTING, or blah blah albums of that year? _________________ -Ryan
Here is a more full and flesh out list of notable classics or "Important" albums within their respective genres or transcendant for all pop music in some way (mostly the former because not everything is Illmatic):
Illmatic - Nas
Ready to Die - Biggie Smalls
Stress: The Extinction Agenda - Organized Konfusion
The Main Ingredient - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
Blowout Comb - Digable Planets
The Diary - Scarface
6 Feet Deep - Gravediggaz
Ill Communication - The Beastie Boys
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik - OutKast
Hard To Earn - Gang Starr
Dummy - Portishead
MTV Unplugged In New York - Nirvana
Yank Crime - Drive Like Jehu
At Action Park - Shellac
New Plastic Ideas - Unwound
Human = Garbage EP - Dystopia
Diary - Sunny Day Real Estate
Jar of Flies EP - Alice In Chains
Superunknown - Soundgarden
The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails
American Recordings - Johnny Cash
Parklife - Blur
Definitely Maybe - Oasis
Dog Man Star - Suede
His 'n' Hers - Pulp
Grace - Jeff Buckley
Let Love In - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Geek The Girl - Lisa Germano
CrazySexyCool - TLC
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement
Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices
There's Nothing Wrong With Love - Built To Spill
The Blue Album - Weezer
Bakesale - Sebadoh
The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
Live Through This - Hole
Welcome To Sky Valley - Kyuss
When The Kite String Pops - Acid Bath
In The Nightside Eclipse - Emperor
De mysteriis dom Sathanas - Mayhem
Transilvanian Hunger - Darkthrone
Hvis lyset tar oss - Burzum
...For Victory - Bolt Thrower
Tales From The Thousand Lakes - Amorphis
Blasphemy Made Flesh - Cryptopsy
Need To Control - Brutal Truth
Far Beyond Driven - Pantera
Selected Ambient Works Volume Two - Aphex Twin
76:14 - Global Communicationm
Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Underworld
Lifeforms - The Future Sound of London
Music For The Jilted Generation - The Prodigy
I Could Live In Hope - Low
The White Birch - Codeine
Hex - Bark Psychosis
Chocolate & Cheese - Ween
Mellow Gold - Beck
Korn - Korn
Roman Candle - Elliott Smith
Vauxhall & I - Morrissey
Wildhoney - Tiamat
The Mask and Mirror - Loreena McKennitt
Purple - Stone Temple Pilots
Dookie - Green Day
Smash - Offspring
24 Hour Revenge Therapy - Jawbreaker
For Your Own Speacial Sweetheart - Jawbox
Punk In Drublic - NOFX
D.I. Go Pop - Disco Inferno
Holiday - Magnetic Fields
Throwing Copper - Live
Under The Table and Dreaming - The Dave Matthews Band
etc etc etc etc...on and on and on... and that list is with allll my many biases. There are many more major classics within various genres I saw but skipped due to bias or ignorance.
Anyway, Incredible intrigueing moment and year and stuff. _________________ -Ryan
This is an interesting project someone on RYM did. 1969 reigns supreme. Then 1997 and 1991 are higher ranked on RYM big picture things than 1994. Maybeโฆ itโs not the clear cut greatest Iโd all years. But idk, obviously this isnโt scientific, nothing is. Feels like 1994 was a major changing year for a lot of styles and scenes.
โโโ
Then we have this site that used our very own Besteveralbums charts to do a similar thing
On this list. After the BEA behemoths โ69, โ71, and โ68 - coming in at #4 - is 1994! Woohoo! Maybe it isnot just my imagination that โ94 is heavily weighted on this siteโฆ _________________ -Ryan
recent listening and relistening (last couple weeks, 0-5 scale and the ranges are basically idk how high or low I could see this going depending on how Iโm looking at it.)
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'77 Live by ่ฃธใฎใฉใชใผใบ [Les Rallizes Dรฉnudรฉs] 77 Live Les Rallizes Dรฉnudรฉs/1991/3.7-4ish. It's wildly explorative and ahead of its time. Also 90+ minutes and drags a bit. But really need to listen again because its wild this was 1977โฆ could have been released and been pretty goddamn boundary pushing still in 1985 or 87 or even 93. Or 2006...you get the idea. Live noise rock, psychedelic insanity.
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Moving Pictures by Rush Moving Pictures by Rush/1981/3.7-4 I liked this a lot more than before. It's growing on me. Stellar musicianship, melody, and songcraft. Also way way less longwinded than I thought or remembered. Mostly 5 minute gems. Really never expected I would enjoy a Rush album this much. And if I do end up loving this, their Discography is suuuperrr stacked.
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Indecent And Obscene by Dismember Indecent & Obscene by Dismember/1993/3.6 I am a sucker for this brash, hardcore punk influenced Death Metal sound. Some songs kick fucking ass. Sort of similar to other DM and their debut. Need to listen again. Their debut is a classic and to this day one of the most exhilerating first listen experiences I've ever had. There's a little diminishing return here. Or maybe I just wasn't quite in the right mood when I listened. Again, will return.
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...For Victory by Bolt Thrower โฆFor Victory by Bolt Thrower/1994/3.5-4 It was awesome but I wasn't paying as much attention as I should. Bolt Thrower quickly becoming one of my fave DM bands - their sound is soo chuggy and harsh and sick and classic and pure unadulterated DEATH METAL. I think I prefer their earlier more grindy sound and maybe slightly prefer their most famous album Those Once Loyal... but honestly its been a long while since I heard 'em. They are for sure great on everything I've heard (4-5 albums).
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Bonded By Blood by Exodus (US) Bonded by Blood by Exodus/1985/3.6 this time I was less smitten. The sound is soooo classic Thrash which makes sense considering when recorded/released. Vocals are strange and playful. Lyrics are corny as fuck. Not exactly top tier Reign In Blood or Master of Puppets-level thrash, but right below in next tier I think.
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Heaven Or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins/1990/3.5 its nice. Not really fitting my mood at the time of relisten, but I am starting to hear why people revere it so. Still not hitting me and maybe just never will...?
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Treasure by Cocteau Twins Treasure by Cocteau Twins/1984/3.7 For some reason on this listen I was not feeling it. Last couple times I heard it, I was floored. But this time it left me feeling not cold but lukewarm. Need to come back later when I am more in the dreamy mood. This has been on my overall in the past...I know there is an album I love in here.
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Vengeance by Tragedy Vengeance by Tragedy/2002/3.5 solidly good to great. The tone of the guitars and bass the sound of the record is stellar. Itโs a bit more clean than I would want my crust punk. But the melodies and the moods are appropriately large and, paradoxically, somberly triumphant.
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South Of Heaven by Slayer South of Heaven by Slayer/1988/4.7 Just an absolute classic and if not for Reign In Blood would perhaps be my fave metal album ive heard from the 1980s. The drumming is fantastic - some of the best ever - and it's recorded so crisply and so beautifully. This is the best Lombardo showcase album.
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Ugly Season by Perfume Genius Ugly Season by Perfume Genius/2022/3.4-4.2 That's a wide, Wide rating range because depending on my mood this is either really good if uneven or itโs a modern near-masterpieceโฆ this time I lean more to the former - I like it and itโs a beautiful, almost avant-garde, album. Deserves many returns. Strikes me as somewhat analogous to Perfume Genius's answer to Aviary.
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Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell by Killing Joke Hosannas from the Basement of Hell by Killing Joke/2006/3.9-4.1 what a badass album. Not QUITE great through and through but, idk, it may get there for me. This is just the coolest industrial metal album i've heard in years. Its eerie and off putting but also swaggeringly badass. As a kid I adored Ministry. And comparisons can be and have been made between Ministry and Killing Joke. I really really wish I woulda been listening to Killing Joke when I was a 13-16 year old. Never too late to try to fill in the gaps, it would seem.
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Night Time by Killing Joke Night Time by Killing Joke/1985/3-3.3 first listen and wasn't paying much attention but it sounded good and solid but also kind of just not my style and I had just gotten done listening to Hosannas... a couple times and in comparison to that, this underwhelmed.
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Ultimate Success Today by Protomartyr Ultimate Success Today by Protomartyr/2020/3.4-3.7 finally starting to really get what this band is all about. Noisy and dark and on-edge atmospheres, cool rock music at its core and some badass songs. One of the better recent post punk/noise rock albums that I have heard. EDIT: A few days after this little note was added to my spreadsheet, I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with Protomartyr's album that came out before this one. So I am pretty sure when I return to this (which is the plan) I will love this more.
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Seasons In The Abyss by Slayer Seasons In The Abyss by Slayer/1990/4-4.4 still consider this a tier below their previous 2 LPs, but HOLY SHIT this is stellar. Slayer were just on another plane of existence from 85-91. Sort of straddles a line between the brutal speed and heaviness of Reign In Blood and the slower and more atmospheric heaviness of South of Heaven. Badass stuff.
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Metempiric by Knoll Metempiric by Knoll/2022/3.6-4 very good very wild and the band seems more mature even after just one year. Trumpets!!! ... cool. The sound is a slight perfecting of earlier debut LP mix of harsh noise/noise/mathcore/GRINDGRINDGRIND/Deathgrind. These kids (they are all between 19-22 or so) are just so insanely talented and I really think these first 2 albums make for one of the best and most promising starts to an extreme metal band's career that I can think of.
D. I. Go Pop by Disco Inferno D.I. Go Pop by Disco Inferno/1994/3.2-3.7 Not AT ALL what I envisioned for All these years. Completely unique take on "rock" if you wanna call it that. This is one of those albums, like say Idk, the first time I heard Pere Ubu or whatever - that absolutely REQUIRES multiple listens in order to give yourself some time to adapt and get comfortable with these strange new avenues. Still, after one solid listen I can say I was impressed. (Also, Note, Because I am so shallow and hypnotically-susceptible, I thought based on the cover and band and album name this was like a synthpop or indie pop album with aesthetics that are twee and โquirkyโ and cute โ stuff I dislike. That preconception is probably what stopped me from checking this out for a decade.)
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Relatives In Descent by Protomartyr Relatives In Descent by Protomartyr/2017/4.1-4.6 - absolutely one of the best and most brilliant and engaging and moving and just plain SICK rock albums I have heard in a long time. Excellent start to finish. As I wrote on the You Must Listen To The Album Just Below You Canon Edition, I adore this. Listened again today and its still in that 4.4 range. Its just sick and maybe my favorite of the recent LPs within that revival of dark, brooding, noisy post punk. _________________ -Ryan
oh and since I'm talking to you, I wanted to shamelessly plug my just now fully updated 1980s decade chart! I'm kinda proud of it. soooo much more amazing and interesting stuff to hear from the 1980s.
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Mercury
Repo
