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: 7 hours ago).
"In my view this album is misunderstood and highly underrated - unfortunately that's the case for the band in general. This shows the beginnings of their experimentalism with the Indian and Eastern sounds, less exotic than Edges of Twilight, but for me it is so beautifully crafted, with stunning s...""In my view this album is misunderstood and highly underrated - unfortunately that's the case for the band in general. This shows the beginnings of their experimentalism with the Indian and Eastern sounds, less exotic than Edges of Twilight, but for me it is so beautifully crafted, with stunning six and twelve string guitar, sublime bass playing, rock solid drumming/percussion and a very strong and cohesive mystical theme that binds it all together. The light and shade is very well balanced on this album with great songwriting structure constructed with awesome rock riffs to go with folkier elements, blending Celtic, Eastern and Indian flavours sometimes all within the one song. One is very easily reminded of Led Zep in some of these songs (and some might say The Doors), but it doesn't at all sound like an impersonation (unlike some bands that are quite obviously guilty of this) - it just draws from that realm and takes it to new places."[+]Reply
"This album makes me shed tears, and then the tears form a giant dragon that destroys everything in it's path while we just all sit and enjoy the carefully controlled chaos. All Im saying is it's a beautiful album."Reply
"This is the greatest 15 minute "LP" I own! It's literally every great element of rock and roll and punk and hardcore just jammed into the amount of time it takes me to get to work! It's amazing! And if you wanna know my vote for greatest sub 1 minute song ever - it's "Red Tape" all the way! OMG! ...""This is the greatest 15 minute "LP" I own! It's literally every great element of rock and roll and punk and hardcore just jammed into the amount of time it takes me to get to work! It's amazing! And if you wanna know my vote for greatest sub 1 minute song ever - it's "Red Tape" all the way! OMG! It's got drum fills and a couple quick guitar solos all stuffed in there! You gotta hear it to believe how perfect it is."[+]Reply
"While on 1998's TNT it seems like the drums are the instrument that everything is centered around and that we are focusing on the most, here on their debut it's all about the bass. There's some interesting stuff happening on the drums and other percussion instruments, like marimbas and stuff, but...""While on 1998's TNT it seems like the drums are the instrument that everything is centered around and that we are focusing on the most, here on their debut it's all about the bass. There's some interesting stuff happening on the drums and other percussion instruments, like marimbas and stuff, but everything is centered around the bass, which gives a very different listening experience when compared to TNT. It's hard to choose a favorite out of the two, but I have to say this is much better than 2001's Standards."[+]Reply
"This album is an excellent starting point for a life-long love affair with this band (it worked out like that with me anyway). All the material is from the so-called 'core-7' albums from '67 to '72, recorded by the classic line-up of Hayward, Pinder, Thomas, Lodge and Edge. No crappy disco-ish/sy...""This album is an excellent starting point for a life-long love affair with this band (it worked out like that with me anyway). All the material is from the so-called 'core-7' albums from '67 to '72, recorded by the classic line-up of Hayward, Pinder, Thomas, Lodge and Edge. No crappy disco-ish/synth-pop stuff then. Although technically a compilation, this 2LP features a couple of new (that is 1974) re-mizes by the sixth Moody Tony Clark, the differences might not be huge, but the new versions always gain, especially the sped-up Eyes of a Child and Legend of a Mind with the flute solo more in synch and a more lucid coda. There are a couple of bars missing (The Actor)or appearing (Have You Heard)in other songs, too, always to the point (apart from the cut-off punch-line of Dear Diary) Plus there are those beautiful segues (And The Tide Rushes into New Horizons - magnificent): another early Moody Blues trademark and with a compilation you had obviously more possibilities for clever blends. The mixes of Legend of a Mind, Question, Watching and Waiting (backing vocals' prominence restored!,) Actor and Eyes of a Child as featured here I consider definitive. There are hundreds of Moody Blues compilations available but this is the only reasonable one."[+]Reply
"Until this album Amy Ray may have been a little in the shadow of Emily Saliers, when it came to songwriting. It's beyond question that Ray adds a lot of edge (necessary) to the sound of the Indigo Girls; but with songs like "Three Hits", "Jonas and Ezekial" and "Nashville" Amy's songwriting is al...""Until this album Amy Ray may have been a little in the shadow of Emily Saliers, when it came to songwriting. It's beyond question that Ray adds a lot of edge (necessary) to the sound of the Indigo Girls; but with songs like "Three Hits", "Jonas and Ezekial" and "Nashville" Amy's songwriting is also beginning to catch up with Emily's.
In fact, I think that several of Emily's songs on this album are harder to get into than hers usually are. My favourite Emily songs here are "Galileo", "Let it Be Me" and "Airplane".
This is one the most consistent Indigo Girls albums, and one of my favourites!
Once again the girls are supported famous friends such as Benmont Tench, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and regulars Sara Lee, Lisa Germano and Jerry Marotta. "[+]Reply
"A very good debut album. Some people call it "Britpop," and while it has some elements of that, it really feels more like it's influenced by "The La's." It doesn't quite have the songwriting strength of Barlow, but it is varied and takes risks that "Take that" would never take. 9/10!"Reply
"(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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