Listed below are the overall rankings for the best albums in history as determined by their aggregate positions in over 59,000 different greatest album charts on BestEverAlbums.com! (Chart last updated: 1 hour ago).
"You can hear it on "If Looks Could Kill". This band not only evokes Belle and Sebastian but shows potential to surpass them. Yes, it's a lazy comparison but it's so obvious it's undeniable. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken" pays its own homage as a beautiful way to start off their brand of swe...""You can hear it on "If Looks Could Kill". This band not only evokes Belle and Sebastian but shows potential to surpass them. Yes, it's a lazy comparison but it's so obvious it's undeniable. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken" pays its own homage as a beautiful way to start off their brand of swelling strings and harmonies. Hear them fill your heart on "Come Back Margaret" and "Country Mile". Yes, it reminds me of Belle & Sebastian, but at the same time, they've stepped so far on their own with this album that such comparisons should stop, as easy as they are."[+]Reply
"I have had a hard time (relatively hard time) expressing myself regarding this album. I think the reason for this is despite being a mesmerizingly produced and detailed and professional, chiseled piece of music, featuring super well written songs that have a certain throwback sound that St. Vince...""I have had a hard time (relatively hard time) expressing myself regarding this album. I think the reason for this is despite being a mesmerizingly produced and detailed and professional, chiseled piece of music, featuring super well written songs that have a certain throwback sound that St. Vincent puts her own modern spin on,... it doesn't deeply move me. As I listen and without fail every time I listen I am blown away by the technical details and the execution of the songs and the way the bass sounds and the way her voice is recorded and the way that these elements of 70s cool are brought in and mixed and all that. I am never in a state of rapture, annoyance, I never close my eyes and feel a need to focus on the emotional heft of the words and the message, nor do I ever feel repulsed by some ugly mess of a turd of a song nor do I ever look forward to a particularly stellar standout track later. This is a great album technically and yet it has yet to really capture on an emotional, physical, or spiritual level.
So, anyway, I have heard this album half a dozen times and the listens have been spaced out, meaninbg I have never listened to this album in twice in a week not to mention a day. Instead I listen, I am impressed and I may move it up or down on my charts and then I move on and then I come back a month later and see that this is the one album that I never worked myself up to saying a damn thing about and I listen again with the intention of saying what I feel and formulate somewhat concrete thoughts on this album. I never have the will or interest to do any writing however.
Anyway, enough weird meta bullshit that no one cares about including me tbh. Instead now I am listening and I am starting to have some thoughts on this record outside of the one-liner "Really well recorded and solid 70s throwback album". For some reason the first 2 songs here never really hit me on any level, outside of the fact that they are sexy and they have these bass lines and grooves that are so slinky and cool and effortless sounding. Only after those first 2 does this album kind of start coalescing with the title track. The title track is great, the drum fills and that sexy full-throated soul scream noise she makes vocally...hot damn. This is followed by a very VERY Pink Floyd-esque slow burning psychedelic lullaby-esque tune which is beautiful. Love the big chorus. Like the guitar which sounds like a slightly dirtier and much less emotionally impactful take on David Gilmour's style and sound. By this point of this little album I am thinking "great we are onto something tangible and sweet if still not particularly inspiring to me."
Then, holy shit, something wild happens. That something is called "The Melting of the Sun". jiminy cricket this song! This is so luscious, so rich, so detailed, so absurdly well engineered and produced it almost gets to be TOO produced. Not quite does it cross that line. But holy shit. This is like one of those songs that should be on a stereo system salesman's speed dial. The way the keyboard's funky bass notes work with the bass guitar, the way the St. Vincent vocals work with the back up singers, the way the drum fills - ever so precise and perfect - oscillate between left and right and the way guitar comes in and almost crackles, the subtle honking horn sound effect or the instrument that makes that sound early on, the way the song ends and builds up to that ending, everything about this sounds so full-bodied. The song itself? like, what its about and what it makes me feel? not much to say there. This maybe is a bit indicative of my thoughts on this album as a whole. The album and the song is a technical accomplishment of great merit. The actual enjoyment of the material is mixed at best.
The funk of "Down" is well executed and pretty cool and retro, the corny police call at the center of "The Laughing Man" feels, well, corny and strained (if, predictably and again, well produced), the humming interludes are fine and as interludes they aren't nonsensical or obtrusive to the flow of the album nor do they provide much to the album that I have discerned.
The final 35% or so of the albums provides some really quality stuff, not going to lie. As a song that actually moved me and I thought was just a great song full stop (and not just a miracle of production) "Somebody Like Me" is much appreciated. The melody and the steel guitar and the vocals here are all tops and I just really love this song. I have located a genuinely felt favorite on this record with this track #10 and actual song #8. Phew! I was starting to worry! This gem is followed up by another gem with "My Baby Wants A Baby". Although this is less of a gem than the previous track, I still quite like its corny straight out of 1975 sound and those big drum sounds and that vocal delivery and the way the bass rumbles along and kills it here, its alllll gooood. Oh and it climaxes beautifully and passionately. Then this gem is followed by a third straight morsel of 70s soul and funk goodness with "...At the Holiday Party", which features an incredible drum sound and drum work in general with some added spicy percussion. And damn those horns and those back up singers and the way Clark comes in with those falsetto vocals and the way she songs this song is gorgeous. Then "Candy Darling" is a very fine, woozy, piece of sleepy pop, which I like as a closer.
Okay, so that listen was productive and somewhat illuminating. The last run of songs saves it for me from being a technically solid if soulless album to being a pretty soulful and lovingly crafted album. Yet... I still feel mixed about it. It feels like this was just a project that St. Vincent had been hankerin' to do for years. She clearly has a deep and basic understanding and love of psychedelic soul, funk rock, soft rock, psych rock, yacht rock and other mid 70s musical trends and it seems like she wanted to flex her muscles a bit by making this album sound as good and as sexy as possible while making the mid 70s her musical sandbox. And she pulled it off. But I don't feel like the themes or subjects or the whole sweep or concept of the album provides much to me.
In fairness, St. Vincent is one of the most acclaimed artists that I have yet to "get". There is clearly some brilliant genius at work. I have just never quite cracked the code or heard what so many other music fans have heard over the last 14 or so years. This album is pretty cool and I can hear that I am listening to a total musical boss. But it didn't yet show me or make me see what exactly makes St. Vincent such a titan in music. I will soon go back and give some of her other classics more spins, such as Strange Mercy, but until then I am feeling like this was a very very solid album with God-tier production and engineering but not much real emotional or otherwise heft."[+]Reply
"Blue Valentine turns whatever you're doing into a movie scene. Something late 70s/early 80s, dark and moody, probably set in New York (though any urban area will do). I get in late from work, throw my Harrington on the hanger and whack this on. Turn the lights on low and pour some wine, and settl...""Blue Valentine turns whatever you're doing into a movie scene. Something late 70s/early 80s, dark and moody, probably set in New York (though any urban area will do). I get in late from work, throw my Harrington on the hanger and whack this on. Turn the lights on low and pour some wine, and settle in on the sofa, watching whatever view happens to be out of the nearest window. Waits plays out the rest of the scene with his gravely serenade and sleazy instrumentation.
Blue Valentine's individual tracks are damn good in their own right, but when you listen to the whole record in one piece, it achieves a whole new status. Have a gander at the artwork too, both front and back of the sleeve look outstanding."[+]Reply
"I would imagine that if a member of Fleet Foxes decided to leave and make their own solo album, it would sound like this album. With a voice that sounds like Devendra Banhart and Lou Reed had a baby, Kurt Vile has created quite an interesting album. A great folk-rock album that has bits of multip...""I would imagine that if a member of Fleet Foxes decided to leave and make their own solo album, it would sound like this album. With a voice that sounds like Devendra Banhart and Lou Reed had a baby, Kurt Vile has created quite an interesting album. A great folk-rock album that has bits of multiple bands in it, but also has a uniqueness to it. Very dreamy sounding folk, which is not really something I come across often in folk music. The only other time I’ve really heard a dreamy, ethereal sound to folk music is from Fleet Foxes. And it’s been working pretty well for them. That’s why I like this album. It’s pleasant to listen to but it also has an interesting quality to it. It’s simple, but complex at the same time. And it’s quite good."[+]Reply
"I shouldn't like that album and that band but I can't help myself. "The Distance" is great. the texts hilarious, the melodies catchy. And that version of "I Will Survive" on which the singer sounds half dead or full-gone on Prozac. Too lol."Reply
"Janet packed up and recorded in minneapolis with jimmy jam & terry lewis to finally step outside of brother jacko's shadow with fine beats and cool choreography in her videos. Six of the 9 tracks were radio hits speaking to both the appeal of janet and her ability to establish her own "nasty" ide...""Janet packed up and recorded in minneapolis with jimmy jam & terry lewis to finally step outside of brother jacko's shadow with fine beats and cool choreography in her videos. Six of the 9 tracks were radio hits speaking to both the appeal of janet and her ability to establish her own "nasty" identity."[+]Reply
"A comprehensive conclusion in catharsis and joy Jim O'Rourke has never ceased to confuse me. The more I learn, the less I know, but I guess that's with anything. I think I first discovered this album through BEA on some random chart I can’t remember. I was, like most, visibly and audibly shocked ...""A comprehensive conclusion in catharsis and joy
Jim O'Rourke has never ceased to confuse me. The more I learn, the less I know, but I guess that's with anything. I think I first discovered this album through BEA on some random chart I can’t remember. I was, like most, visibly and audibly shocked by the cover. Who wouldn’t be? Bright pink and some fat dude pleasuring himself with what appears to be a plush bunny. The stuff of fever dreams and nightmares. Suffice to say, my expectations were far off from what this album truly is. Because there isn’t an album more gorgeous.
The night is dark and full of bad memories. The dreams didn’t live up to reality and now you’re stumbling on the sidewalk towards the opposite direction of wherever you need to be going. There is no work, there is no school, there is no joy, there is no love. There only is the life you’re running from and the few people who are also up and out in these wee small hours. There is only the sidewalk that fills vision. The dew makes it into your shoes and the grime covers your hands; car exhaust fills your nostril and tears fill your eyes. Stupid tears. It is over. Once again, this time is the last, it is utterly and completely over. Fatigue increases and the stumble slows. You give up on walking, just like you’ve given up everything else. You pick a nice spot on the sidewalk at your side. You sit up against a wall and rest for just a few minutes. You look up for the first time in what seems like your whole life. In one fleeting moment, the crack of thunder in a brain fog, the dawn breaks above. The world is tremendous.
I can’t explain the effect this album has had on me. When I learned there was a movie, I had to see it. Yurika by Shinji Aoyama is a deep expression of a human cry into the night. A dark, cynical movie about trauma and loneliness. It is one of the greatest films ever made. The title track of this album, Eureka, plays a prominent role. The greatest 9 minutes in all of cinema. It hasn’t left my head since and it never will. This album will always be here for me. This is the album.
-Sen
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"You can always rely on Caribou putting together a pleasant album but sometimes the "pleasantness" gets a little samey. Thankfully Our Love doesn't suffer from that - even when two or three tracks in a row sound similar, he throws in something like Second Chance. Best track: Second Chance. It's th...""You can always rely on Caribou putting together a pleasant album but sometimes the "pleasantness" gets a little samey. Thankfully Our Love doesn't suffer from that - even when two or three tracks in a row sound similar, he throws in something like Second Chance.
Best track: Second Chance. It's that wonky Boards of Canada sound mixed with post-R&B, with Jessy Lanza singing on top. Great stuff."[+]Reply