Listed below are the overall rankings for the best albums in history as determined by their aggregate positions in over 58,000 different greatest album charts on BestEverAlbums.com! (Chart last updated: 6 hours ago).
"Having conquered synth pop with their two previous LPs, the duo decided dance music was next in their sites. Introspective is House music the whole family can dance along to. Their classic pop brilliance is still there, but it's lengthened out and doused in a healthy dose of acid-influenced synth...""Having conquered synth pop with their two previous LPs, the duo decided dance music was next in their sites. Introspective is House music the whole family can dance along to. Their classic pop brilliance is still there, but it's lengthened out and doused in a healthy dose of acid-influenced synths.
It lacks the depth that made their previous two releases so good, but at the same time offers a lot more contemporary house albums of the time thanks to its radio-friendly credentials. And as always, Neil Tennant's voice is fantastic.
The drama in that orchestration on Left To My Own Devices immediately capture an essential feeling of tension. Always On My Mind is the real high point of the record, and indeed is one of my favourite covers of all time, though it's certainly matched by the groovy I Want A Dog and the poetically dystopian It's Alright, which also happens to add another excellent socio-political pop track to the PSB's roster.
An outstanding bridge between pop and house that doesn't end up being weak for trying to compromise between the two. An essential late 80s record."[+]Reply
"The addition of the orchestra makes Portishead sound even more dramatic and haunting. In particular, the alternative version of Sour Times is magnificent."Reply
"Bob Seger is a musician, born and raised in the Detroit-area . As Bruce Springsteen is to Jersey, Bob Seger is to Michigan. The rootsy crunch of Seger’s Rock 'n' Roll is a bit glossier. This is the R&B-based rock sound of blue-collar America in 1978. He writes for the common man. This album is fi...""Bob Seger is a musician, born and raised in the Detroit-area . As Bruce Springsteen is to Jersey, Bob Seger is to Michigan. The rootsy crunch of Seger’s Rock 'n' Roll is a bit glossier.
This is the R&B-based rock sound of blue-collar America in 1978. He writes for the common man. This album is filled with track after track of heart and soul.
Bob Seger is a impassioned Midwestern rocker, celebrating "Old Time Rock & Roll" ."[+]Reply
"This is an interesting approach to a double-disc collection. Disc 1 is the kind of stuff he's known for, namely self-promotion and booming bass (there's another installment in his series of songs about subwoofers). Disc 2 is more personal and earnest. So you can decide which K.R.I.T. you want; th...""This is an interesting approach to a double-disc collection. Disc 1 is the kind of stuff he's known for, namely self-promotion and booming bass (there's another installment in his series of songs about subwoofers). Disc 2 is more personal and earnest. So you can decide which K.R.I.T. you want; there's strong tracks on both discs.
Favorite tracks: (1) Confetti, Get Up 2 Come Down; (2) Miss Georgia Fornia, Price of Fame"[+]Reply
"Post Punk and Art Punk. Oh and REALLY GREAT Post Punk and Art Punk. Oh and this band and album is fucing awesome. And the lead speaker is already a first ballot hall of fame vocalist. Florence "Flo" Shaw, remember that name.) You ever hear one of those albums that, for some reason, makes you smil...""Post Punk and Art Punk. Oh and REALLY GREAT Post Punk and Art Punk. Oh and this band and album is fucing awesome. And the lead speaker is already a first ballot hall of fame vocalist. Florence "Flo" Shaw, remember that name.)
You ever hear one of those albums that, for some reason, makes you smile, instantly and then the whole way through? An album that just sounds so right, so in step with the way you feel and the way you want to express those feelings, you can't help but feel instantly like you are hearing an old favorite despite it being the first time you've ever heard the artist? Yeah, those are great times. And, guess what? That is EXCATLY how I felt about this here debut LP by English Post Punk wry jokesters Dry Cleaning! Isn't that a crazy twist I just concocted there? Bet you didn't realize those first sentences were about this album here!
Anyway, enough of that. More about New Long Leg. Its brilliant. It's the best Post Punk album I've heard in awhile. It is, musically, a tour-de-force of at times ice cold repetitive riffs and at times quite lively, buttery almost funky riffs. The bass playing and the way it is highlighted at times reminds me of the bass heroics of Wobble on Metal Box (don't get yourself in a twist, I'm not saying its exactly the same, just at times that heavy, funky, wobbly dub bass vibe comes through here and there), and other times the bassist is always holding that groove down with such sexy greatness. The drumming is that post punk simplicity with just enough wiggle to keep you guessing.
The songs are all cool and all built around these varying phases of lowkey post punk excellence. Sometimes the songs take weird left turns, such as on the hypnotic second half of album closer "Every day Carry" and the way that weird synth melody is just battered and slashed by these weird effects that get more and more random and unexpected and manic, is glorious.
Yet, really, I'm burying the lead. The star is the utterly unique Florence Shaw. Her wry humour, her at first glance monotone spoken word delivery, the way she takes no one and nothing seriously in the words she graces these tracks with (including herself), the wit and the absurdity of some of these seemingly throw-away lines, everything about her is brilliance. I think some may say she is boring and monotonous, well I don't, and those people are wrong. She is the heart and soul of this album with all due respect to the perfectly done post punk jams that she talks over.
This whole album just feels right. It feels cool, equal parts warm and cold, funny and thought provoking and the perfect antidote to so much of this other (also quite great in most cases) post punk/art punk coming out of England the last few years. Whereas they are oh so earnest and angry and angsty and dour, here comes this gem of an album and band that maintains those similar musical aims and influences but flips the package on its head with a wise crack, a pointless monologue, and a sly smile. Oh and the music is better executed, more unique and more inspired to boot.
In case you can't tell, I just love this album."[+]Reply
"idk why early sonic youth is so underrated, i find it more amusing than the most famous albums the mixing of this album is great, though confusing as songs begins one minute into the previous one. the soundscape is genius love it, my key to be a SY fan"Reply
"Criminally underrated. This is what pop albums should sound like and this is what smart producers should be doing with sampling. They make good videos too. Check out Junior Kickstart where they somehow manage to turn NYC into the world's largest Ms. Pac Man maze. Outstanding."Reply
"Its basically just a silly experimental parody of pop music...but underneath that there is something weirdly sad and moving about the resident's music. Like one moment their are funny squonking noises or something, but then we get some pretty minor key piano playing, or that funny but kinda sad c...""Its basically just a silly experimental parody of pop music...but underneath that there is something weirdly sad and moving about the resident's music. Like one moment their are funny squonking noises or something, but then we get some pretty minor key piano playing, or that funny but kinda sad choir at the end of n-er-gee.
I get the sense that they are a lot more musically competent than they often sound."[+]Reply
"ON THE ROAD Strollin' down the highway I'm going to get there my way Dusk till dawn I'm walkin' Can hear my guitar rocking? (Strolling Down The Highway) If Neil Cassady & the gang (from Jack Kerrouc’s classic On The Road) weren’t so into jazz - if they had been born perhaps just five years years ...""ON THE ROAD
Strollin' down the highway
I'm going to get there my way
Dusk till dawn I'm walkin'
Can hear my guitar rocking? (Strolling Down The Highway)
If Neil Cassady & the gang (from Jack Kerrouc’s classic On The Road) weren’t so into jazz - if they had been born perhaps just five years years later - Jansch is the kind of music they would have been into. Music about the inherent conflict born of being human and having human desires. Between freedom & responsibility. Safety and comfort vs. excitement and adventure and the desire for something new. The freedom to explore and not be tied down while searching for the ultimate expression of who your are. In a way, this is the folk equivalent of that Southern Rock archetype that The Allmans' & Skynyrd loved to wax poetic about - The Ramblin' Man. The Renegade. The Outlaw. “Ain’t no girl going to tie me down.”
Hey girl, oh how my heart is torn
Hey girl, now that your baby's born
What shall it cost? Is my freedom lost?
What is the price of nature's own way (Oh How Your Love is Strong)
But there’s a weariness in this album. A realization that this particular path is not the easiest. There’s an internal conflict. That maybe he’s got it all wrong. That maybe he’d been better off - happier, more content, even more self-realized - if he had just stuck back home. Married that love that he knocked up back in his early twenties. Settled down & relaxed. Been a good father. Because life on the road ain’t easy. Loneliness ain’t easy.
Because restlessness is just greed in another form. It’s an impatience. An inability to surrender to the moment and just be.
Ask me why a rambler ain't got no home
Ask me why I sit and cry alone
I wish I knew
I wish I knew
If I knew, I'd know what to do (Rambling’s Going To Be the Death of Me)
But like Cassidy and the rest of the beats, Jansch probably had no other choice. And this is THE album for embracing those regrets you’ve made along the way with a kindred spirit. For accepting that a part of you never would have been satisfied with that orthodox life. The wife you no longer found attractive. The 2.5 kids and the hour commute to that cubicle 8 floors up in the sky. It’s an album that helps you embrace the randomness of life. Accepting that life doesn’t go according to expectations. For accepting the regret. For accepting that you’ve probably made your life a whole lot more difficult than it had to be because that’s part of who you are. That’s part of being human. We’re never satisfied. Never content. And that Jansch is able to capture this uniquely human quality and the conflict born of it in a folk album is staggering. And makes it one of the true great masterpieces of 60s music.
I love what I wrote about this album a few years back when I first heard it shortly after joining BEA…
Herein lies sparse, finger-picked folk songs on acoustic guitar mostly about how one's quest for personal freedom can sometimes be the very cause of our loneliness & isolation. In a sense one's quest for freedom to find the ultimate can leave you old and exhausted at the side of the road. Wearied. Jealous of all the smart folks who were satisfied with less.
Because less is almost always more. But some of us alas need to go On The Road to learn this.
Grade: A+. Do you want a kickass record collection? Of course you do! Why else would you be here, right? Well then there are two folk albums from 60s that EVERY music aficionado NEEDS. One has to be Dylan. Duh. So take your pick between Freewheelin’ and Another Side. It doesn’t really matter. They’re both Dylan at his folk peak before he plugged in. And then get THIS. Jansch’s debut. England’s true answer to Dylan (it certainly wasn’t Donovan. Donovan was something else completely.) Jansch was already rocking on just a acoustic guitar on this here album. His guitar playing lightyears beyond what most of The Village doing across the pond. And then you’ll be set. Sated. Satisfied to have two of the best folk albums of all time.
Until you’re not. "[+]Reply