Greatest Albums of All Time (Rock & Jazz) - Music Diaries

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

AfterHours wrote:

Beethoven's 9th, especially my listed recording/album ... then all the "Greatest Classical" selections from the top down on my list (and the hundreds I havent rated/ranked yet Wink

Maybe not exactly what you meant though... Very Happy

For Rock, I used to rate lots of them before Scaruffi throughout the 2000s, and once he rated it they were usually the same or very close, particularly after circa 2006 as my ratings scale got increasingly similar to his. I think Ys was the highest one (8 at the time, more recently a 9 for me).

Theyre fewer and farther between these days. With how busy my life is, efficiency for me is very important, and I dont have time to go through lots of lower rated works to find the better ones. So I "use" Scaruffi for this for the most part (therefore I dont often discover many before him)

That said, I think Father Murphy's Croce and Dirty Beaches Stateless (7.5 each) are the highest rated Rock on my list that he hasnt rated yet. Though there were lots of Jazz before recently when he finally got around to them (we agreed about 75% overall ... above 80% pre 90s).

Actually, add Hval's Apocalypse girl (7.6), Girl Band Holding Hands With Jamie (7.6) and Pyrrhon's latest (7.9) though these will need to be revisited while I am going through so many of my selections to see if they still hold up. Holter's Aviary might be up there too, though I havent rated it yet (so not actually sure) and dont know if I will get to it (so much to assimilate) before he does
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts

AfterHours wrote:

add Hval's Apocalypse girl (7.6)

Good choice. Have you listened to Blood Bitch? I like them about equally.
_________________
Add me on RYM

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

baystateoftheart wrote:

Good choice. Have you listened to Blood Bitch? I like them about equally.

Nope not yet. Thanks for the rec!
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

craola
crayon master

Location: pdx

AfterHours wrote:

Nope not yet. Thanks for the rec!

another must-hear, though it's more susanna than jenny, is the collaboration Jenny Hval / Susanna did, Meshes of Voice. one of my all-time favorites.
_________________
follow me on the bandcamp.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

craola wrote:

another must-hear, though it's more susanna than jenny, is the collaboration Jenny Hval / Susanna did, Meshes of Voice. one of my all-time favorites.

Thanks craola, Hval is a fascinating artist. I would recommend to anyone that is a fan of hers, to delve into Jane Siberry & Julia Holter's best (especially Tragedy, Ekstasis, Aviary ...When I Was a Boy, No Borders Here, The Walking, Speckless Sky...) if not done already
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

craola
crayon master

Location: pdx

AfterHours wrote:

Thanks craola, Hval is a fascinating artist. I would recommend to anyone that is a fan of hers, to delve into Jane Siberry & Julia Holter's best (especially Tragedy, Ekstasis, Aviary ...When I Was a Boy, No Borders Here, The Walking, Speckless Sky...) if not done already

i've worked through julia's, but i'm unfamiliar with jane. thank you likewise for the rec.
_________________
follow me on the bandcamp.

pmachale23

I would like to recommend Schlagenheim by Black Midi (2019) [available on YouTube]. It seems like it would be right up Scaruffi's alley. He hasn't got around to reviewing it yet but it would be surprising if he didn't eventually.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

pmachale23 wrote:

I would like to recommend Schlagenheim by Black Midi (2019) [available on YouTube]. It seems like it would be right up Scaruffi's alley. He hasn't got around to reviewing it yet but it would be surprising if he didn't eventually.

Thanks, I am sure Scaruffi will get to it as he is such a completists but also because it is right along the family tree of several works he rates highly.

I momentarily ejected from Classical music (Mahler's 9th) just to get a quick first impression and it seems to echo masters such as Slint, Rodan, Don Caballero, 90's era grunge acts (can't quite put my finger on it after a few min but...). This is just at a glance after just a 3 min impression so Im sure there are more exact comparisons... and they seem like they may diversify their sound throughout, so Ill be interested to hear the rest and see how poorly my inital comparison holds up Laughing

Seems like it has lots of promise, and Ill give it a more thorough look when Im not so gobsmacked and immersed in Classical Very Happy

_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

Amirkhosro

Gender: Male
Age: 36
Location: Tehran

woah what happened with Black Saint and A Love Supreme? Why the huge drop

I wanna recommend Locust Abortion Technician by Butthole Surfers, probably because I used to think like you and rate Psychic Powerless as their peak, like 8/10 or something. Now I'm convinced Locust is even better, 8.5-9/10 stuff and truly mind bending. Maybe you'll love it too.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

Amirkhosro wrote:

woah what happened with Black Saint and A Love Supreme? Why the huge drop

I wanna recommend Locust Abortion Technician by Butthole Surfers, probably because I used to think like you and rate Psychic Powerless as their peak, like 8/10 or something. Now I'm convinced Locust is even better, 8.5-9/10 stuff and truly mind bending. Maybe you'll love it too.

Re: ALS & Black Saint... Not a huge drop at all -- just a few tenths of a point! Smile

But... Theyd both been gradually downtrending (9.6 to 9.5 to 9.4 to 9.3 and ALS down to 9.1/9.2...) for the past few years before that, more or less parallel to my increased frequency of updates of Classical ratings/rankings over that same time frame and a more assertive or finite example of what constitutes a "10/10", as opposed to being more "theoretical" (evaluations of The Sistine Chapel Ceiling + Last Judgment culminating in this "discovery" in the last few years ... and in music the likes of Beethoven's 9th reaching 9.8/10, and others like Mahler's 9th approaching, alluding and pointing towards this level very closely). As I became more and more familiar with this degree of impact/profundity (especially of 9.5-10/10 range), I got better and better at observing the increments between those and slightly lower ranges. Some months ago, with Black Saint and ALS on the edge of dropping in the 9s (from 9.3) and ALS already having done so before, I went ahead with it. Along with the above factors, this was a combo of my own direction of thought (gradually downtrending and heading that way for the last couple yrs) and Scaruffi's own new updates showing them as 9s. This influenced me to revisit ALS/BSSL more immediately and several time over, in a much shorter span than I wouldve otherwise, and then make the decision faster than I wouldve otherwise. Had he not updated, it was still the direction I was going eventually and had already talked about/alluded to in comments/replies before his updates ... however I probably wouldve put it on the back burner longer than I did if those updates didnt inspire me to speed up my revisits and make a faster, more decisive change.

Very fundamentally and in short: ALS and BSSL are two incredible all time masterpieces and deserve very lofty praise but are probably somewhat (not majorly, just "somewhat") short on "conceptual expression" in order to reach the very highest ratings. All the works above them are not only highly emotionally expressive and just as impacfully consistent, but do so in creative and conceptually expressive sound/visionary worlds that add much meaning and profundity to their overall merit and cumulative, perhaps more expansive, impact. ALS and BSSL are far from weak in these areas and are both highly creative in these ways on their own, just not quite enough to elevate to 9.3 or above. Maybe that seems like unfair standards, but the higher the rating the more "impossible" the requirements become. Those are 2 of my all time favorite albums so I hope that doesnt come across like Im being overly critical of 2 works that I love deeply; I am simply pointing to what is probably the main element holding them back from an even higher rating/ranking than they already have (which is already among the highest).

Annnnnnnnnd... thanks for the rec! Very Happy

_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings