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: 5 hours ago).
"(Post Hardcore meets Noise rock meets noise pop at points. Some cool electronic bits, some messy hardcore excellence as well as bits of mathy virtuosity, this album is just a really LOUD, at times thrilling, always interesting mix of genres that mostly work really well. Check it out if you like t...""(Post Hardcore meets Noise rock meets noise pop at points. Some cool electronic bits, some messy hardcore excellence as well as bits of mathy virtuosity, this album is just a really LOUD, at times thrilling, always interesting mix of genres that mostly work really well. Check it out if you like these styles or if you want to damage your ears as efficiently as possible.)
This is the 3rd (or is it 4th?) official album by this Detroit hardcore punk/post hardcore band The Armed. In prep for this anticipated release of went back and listened to some of their earlier songs and albums. They were loud, wild, mathcorey, knotty bits of post hardcore and quite good. But, based only on the singles from Ultrapop, it felt like they had drastically changed their sound. This interesting and pretty cool evolution made me even more hyped about this album.
All in all Ultrapop lived up to my hype. The main surprise was that the 3 songs I had heard on repeat before hearing the whole thing - “All Futures”, “An Iteration”, and “Average Death” - are probably 3 of the 5 most divergent songs from their post hardcore sound. Most of the other tracks, while having a ridiculously loud mix and some elements added, were essentially “classic The Armed” - meaning a majority of the songs here are gnarly and nasty and discordant walls of hardcore insanity. The strangely pop-oriented, tuneful experimentation is much less present in the songs that were not released early on streaming services. This wasn’t blatant, like, false advertising and I’m not mad, just surprised.
As for the album as a whole, it’s very good, bordering on GREAT. The production is really ridiculous. By ridiculous I mean LOUD like REALLLLY LOUD. It’s almost Sleigh Bells-level of tinnitus-inducing. And actually it works really well for the music. The music being this maximalist melding of incredibly forthright and aggressive post hardcore with noise pop and subtle electronic and pop elements nestled underneath. The walls of unhinged sound that storm out of my headphones when I hear this record are brilliant and mostly invigorating.
The musicianship is pretty solid. It’s not the most mind-bogglingly complex and the chops aren’t on another plane, but they suffice. (Note: I’m not a musician and for all I fucking know a musician may hear this and think these guys are the second coming of the Mahavishnu Orchestra or something. Just my perception as a neophyte.) But, honestly, the fact that at times the band sounds, well, like a hardcore punk band rather than a Mathcore band, is what makes a lot of the unhinged moments work more. It sounds slightly off time at points, the band isn’t always in perfect lockstep, and it makes for a more classic punk experience in amongst all these distinctly alien-to-punk-and-Hardcore elements.
The critiques I have and the reason this album isn’t quite the AOTY candidate that I thought it may be based off first listen and those excellent pre-release singles, are vague and somewhat two-fold. And, again, both critiques are somewhat vague and incredibly personal no doubt.
For one I feel that the album somehow has a mild personality crisis. When it is going ape shit with the noisy, oppressively loud hardcore it is consistently awesome. When the band is doing a weird quasi-MBV kinda thing where there is clearly some gorgeous melodies underneath thick slabs of noise and muck, it sounds absolutely awesome. EDIT: hey this is me. That MBV comparison was sticking in me craw and I think that is because it’s a bit of a stretch and they aren’t too similar stylistically. But at points there is a certain element of hiding rich and sweet melodies under lots of noise that is somewhat similar). And yet I don’t personally feel these two styles are melded or meshed into a beautiful and brilliant complete cohesive whole. The sum of the parts is somehow less than the 2 individual stylistic achievements.
The other thing is that I feel this album doesn’t quite consistently blow me away. This is much less of a clear-cut, in my mind, problem. And honestly both issues may slowly dissolve into time as I revisit this beast. But for now I feel that the initial momentum of the album which is created by a brilliant and visceral run of tracks to start, is dampened quite a bit in the middle before the album ends with a pretty brilliant run of gems again. Again, with almost any album that I love the core sound of, this critique usually abates over time and many listens.
Overall, this is indeed a creative, blistering, intense and loud (loud in ways I haven’t heard in almost any other album this year) record that, for the most part, sticks the landing on integrating some electronic, noise pop, and other disparate sounds into the post-hardcore central sound/style. Really excellent album and recommended.
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"This album has grown on me over time, and is now among my favorite albums of all time. One of the most unique voices I've heard, and a very moving album emotionally. "Unmarked Grave" is possibly the saddest song I've ever heard."Reply
"In October 1968, before any Poco or Eagles or even Flying Burrito Brothers albums, and just a mere month after the monumental release of The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Dillard & Clark released this landmark album. Arguably the first country rock album, this album is not great merely for reas...""In October 1968, before any Poco or Eagles or even Flying Burrito Brothers albums, and just a mere month after the monumental release of The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Dillard & Clark released this landmark album. Arguably the first country rock album, this album is not great merely for reasons of historical significance. No, the songs, the Freaking Songs, are out of this world. The music is backbeat drivin', pastoral packin', gorgeous harmonica laced, harmony heavenly, BLISS! The tight harmonies between Doug Dillard and Gene Clark are truly incredible. And even at this stage in his career, it was clear gene Clark was already a songwriters songwriter.
This album has become so much a part of me and is so goddamn seemingly CUSTOM BUILT for my enjoyment and adoration, that it is hard to explain how much I love it or why for that matter. It's just a wholesome, earthy, perfectly structured rock album, country album, songwritrer album (I am mostly thinking of Gene Clark here. I know it is cheating cuz this ain't marked as Singer/Songwriter on RYM...but it is clear to me the lyrical content and much of the music is Gene Clark through and through.) and just album period. Its 28 minutes of Americana at its best. There is absolutely nothing off about it, there is nothing "merely good" about it, and , okay, I'll just say it, its better than even Gilded Palace of Sin! There! I said it! Now get out of my sight so I can think about what I've said. Ignore that... I am vacillating pretty heavily here. They're both perfect!
Grade: 9.7/10"[+]Reply
"A couple years later and I certainly have changed my opinion from that previously commented. There are still a few bangers as previously listed, but the rest of the album although thoughful and express meaningful commentary, they're just not that powerful enough both lyrically & musically. None o...""A couple years later and I certainly have changed my opinion from that previously commented. There are still a few bangers as previously listed, but the rest of the album although thoughful and express meaningful commentary, they're just not that powerful enough both lyrically & musically.
None of the tracks are on my playlists
Great Album, they're still rocking some Great songs. This has become my 2nd fav album, American Idiot being the best. They followed the same formula and put together some hard core chanting songs, Dilema, Bobby Sox and One Eyed Bastard"[+]Reply