You must listen to the album below you: canon edition

[baystateoftheart]

1.

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King Of Kings by The Pyramids (1970s)

Great stuff! This is definitely one of my favorite listens in this trip through the alphabet. Decades before their second act in the 2010s, The Pyramids recorded their three 1970s albums as an Afrocentric spiritual jazz group out of Yellow Springs, Ohio (Antioch College). Led then as now by saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, The Pyramids included flute, cello, and harp in addition to both the traditional jazz combo and a wide variety of African percussion instruments. The band members are all adept at playing this array of instruments improvisationally, which solidifies sonic diversity as their biggest strength (also flute and harp are two of my favorite instruments in jazz). You'll find plenty of moments of sublime, transcendent beauty on King Of Kings, especially in the middle two songs that make up the bulk of the record. At its worst, the album can sound slightly clunky, typically in the integration of the afro-jazz elements. For instance, the very beginning of the album has a couple awkward moments instrumentally, and it gets corny when they're just singing the names of different countries in the final song. Those are quibbles though. This is a well-made and gorgeous album. Recommended to fellow fans of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane. 4/5.

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2. Try this next, Luigii. It's a fun album:

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Saturday Night Fever by Various Artists

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3. Alphabet Game, Cohort 5 (5 picks left)

N: In Search Of… (2002) - N.E.R.D.
O: The Masterplan - Oasis
P: The Comforts Of Madness - Pale Saints
Q: Sheer Heart Attack - Queen
R: Pet Grief - The Radio Dept.
S: Stronger Than Pride - Sade
T: The Slider - T. Rex
U: War - U2
V: L'apocalypse Des Animaux - Vangelis
W: Live Drugs - The War On Drugs
_________________
Add me on RYM

[LedZep]

[Applerill]

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Kollage by Bahamadia

Team, I have very scary news. After hearing these pleasant-but-bland DJ Premier beats, I have no choice but to out Gabe as a boomer I hope you will all give him privacy during this tough time.

2.

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Frengers by Mew

3.

Top 100 Albums of All Time By Kitchensink (9 remaining?)
4. Milford Graves-Percussion Ensemble
5. Blind Lemon Jefferson-Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order, Volume 3
7. Freestyle Fellowship-To Whom It May Concern... (I still haven't heard Innercity Griots Sad )
8. Geto Boys-We Can't Be Stopped
9. Sun Ra- Live From Soundscape
18. Larry Heard-Parrains de la house
19. Prince Far I-Under Heavy Manners
21. José Alfredo Jiménez-Lo Mejor de José Alfredo Jiménez
24. Hard to Earn-Gang Starr
27. James Brown-In the Jungle Groove

[baystateoftheart]

1.

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War by U2

Wow. I never expected to love a U2 album, but here we are. Sunday Bloody Sunday was already my favorite U2 song (from listening to my mom's U2 singles collection when I was a kid), and it gets the record off to a great start. New Year's Day is another clear highlight. But while the songwriting is good to great throughout, the real difference-maker is the post-punk sound. They do it very well and sound very cool, to the point where it's almost hard to believe this is the same band that recorded their 90s output and beyond. Great guitars, great bass, great drumming, all coming together to provide a driving energy and vital edge (sorry) to the music. If not for Bono's distinctive vocals, you could mistake some of these for songs by the likes of prime-era Mission Of Burma or Gang Of Four, and that's high praise. War is a very consistent album with no real duds, and I look forward to coming back to it. 4/5.

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2. This is a great compilation:

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In The Jungle Groove by James Brown

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3. Alphabet Game, Cohort 5 (4 picks left)

N: In Search Of… (2002) - N.E.R.D.*
O: The Masterplan - Oasis*
P: The Comforts Of Madness - Pale Saints
Q: Sheer Heart Attack - Queen*
R: Pet Grief - The Radio Dept.
S: Stronger Than Pride - Sade*
T: The Slider - T. Rex*
U: The Flesh Of The World (EP) - Uboa
V: L'apocalypse Des Animaux - Vangelis
W: Live Drugs - The War On Drugs*

*Last chance!
_________________
Add me on RYM

[LedZep]

(1)

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Frengers by Mew
The first song starts as a noisy indie rock track, but the album goes through the indie pop and dream pop phases as well. Nothing too spectacular genre-wise, it feels very much like 00s indie, but the wide array of used instruments was really cool. Apart from the usual guitar/bass/drums/synths/piano, there's trumpets, mellotron, some symphonic parts... I wasn't too crazy about the songwriting, felt a bit bland and cliche (exactly what I've discussed in the last review). The euphoric, anthemic power pop parts were especially unbearable, they weren't gritty and punky enough for my liking, nor were they particularly catchy. The androgynous vocals by Jonas Bjerre certainly didn't help, instead of sounding mysterious and hazy (I think that was the intention), vocally everything just sounds very weak. The more adventurous parts with loads of instruments were definitely better and kept the album interesting. Those few ballads were cool too, especially Symmetry. 6 or 6.5/10

(2)
Not a big Queen fan, but Sheer Heart Attack has several nice tracks including (maybe) their best and (certainly) coolest one Stone Cold Crazy. In fact it has the most "good" tracks out of any Queen album I've heard, although II has less bad tracks and is more consistent.

(3)
Leftovers list + some 2021

Meridian Brothers - Desesperanza
Lawrence - The Absence of Blight
John Talabot - Fin
Flamengo - Kuře v hodinkách
Sadaf - History of Heat
Ataraxie - Slow Transcending Agony
Kauan - Sorni Nai
The Koreatown Oddity - Little Dominiques Nosebleed
Beck - Modern Guilt
Rochelle Jordan - Play With the Changes
_________________
Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

[EyeKanFly]

(1)

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Dark Magus by Miles Davis

Wow this album is interesting. Glad I listened but not even close to the top of my Miles ranking. I adore early Miles but I've never really truly loved the late 60s/70s funk-infused stuff he eventually developed. This falls right into that category. It's clearly a masterful jam set, but I don't know how much more there is for me to say beyond that. I know it's a live album but for listening at home, it perhaps goes on a little too long. I could easily see myself being totally entranced if I had seen something like this live though.

Towards the end of the first part of Tatu there's this awesome go-go beat which really perked me up while listening. Pretty cool album.
3/5

(2)
LedZep listen to Meridan Brothers. Personally I preferred their 2020 album but that one is much different.

(3)
RYM overall chart (minus archival releases)
- Swans Are Dead by Swans (live)
- Live After Death by Iron Maiden (live)
- Soundtrack from Twin Peaks by Angelo Badalamenti (soundtrack)
- Live Rust by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (live)
- Unleashed in the East: Live in Japan by Judas Priest (live)
- Roseland NYC Live by Portishead (live)
- Sun Bear Concerts Piano Solo: Recorded in Japan by Keith Jarrett (live)
- Irish Tour '74 by Rory Gallagher (live)
- Larks' Tongues in Aspic by King Crimson
- It's Alive by Ramones (live)
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51 Washington, D.C. albums!

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale- Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale


I really wanted this to be better considering the dark ambient and progressive electronic genre tags, but this didn't capture my psyche at all. Oh well.

EKF, let's go with King Crimson.


A Tent- Six Empty Places
AD- Conspiracy
ADN' Ckrystall- Jazz' Mad
Agencement- Agencement
Alvaro the Chilean With the Singing Nose- Drinkin My Own Sperm
Amber Route- Snail Headed Victrolas
Andrea Centazzo- Ictus
Andy Giorbino- Lied an die Freude
Anima- Stürmischer Himmel
Anna Homler- Dō Ya Sa' Di Dō

[Purplepash]

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All That You Can't Leave Behind by U2

U2, a band most people seem to either love or love to hate. I get both but I don't have strong feelings either way. I love some of their songs (including one I would call an all time top 100 favourite), like some, don't like some, whatever. Albums wise I haven't listened to their whole discography (this is my 6th U2 album), but apart from one I have really liked, the rest have all just been okay. This one was okay too, and is a good example of me and my reactions to U2 - there are songs I really like (Beautiful Day, New York), songs don't like (Elevation), and a lot of okay but nothing special songs. At times I found the lyrics and vocals a bit emotionally manipulative instead of sincere (Peace On Earth), but I guess that's the Bono effect at play. 7/10, and 52/67 for 2000.




Hard to go past something called Alvaro the Chilean With the Singing Nose- Drinkin My Own Sperm without wanting to know what it sounds like.

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Drinkin My Own Sperm by Alvaro Peña-Rojas




Top 64 Music Albums of 2000 by RoundTheBend (last pick)

3. Designing A Nervous Breakdown by The Anniversary
10. The Million Dollar Hotel (Music From The Motion Picture) by Various Artists
12. Promotional Copy by Reggie And The Full Effect
14. Machina/The Machines Of God by The Smashing Pumpkins
15. The Rock Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Piebald
20. Hasta La Vista Baby! U2 Live From Mexico City by U2
25. The Best Of Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
26. Greatest Hits by Lenny Kravitz
27. Private Party, Minneapolis, Minn., November 21, 1948 by Leadbelly
29. Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park

[LedZep]

(1)

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Desesperanza by Meridian Brothers
This was really interesting at the start, but it didn't go anywhere. Cool experiment with psychedelic digital cumbia, the songs are hypnotic but often not engaging enough. It had serious potential, it's a shame the songs weren't better. 7/10

(2)
Linkin Park should be a controversial one. Or maybe not.

(3)
Leftovers list + some 2021

Lawrence - The Absence of Blight
John Talabot - Fin
Flamengo - Kuře v hodinkách
Sadaf - History of Heat
Ataraxie - Slow Transcending Agony
Kauan - Sorni Nai
The Koreatown Oddity - Little Dominiques Nosebleed
Beck - Modern Guilt
Rochelle Jordan - Play With the Changes
Smif-n-Wessun - Dah Shinin'
_________________
Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

[Mercury]

1.

Pink by ボリス [Boris]

Have less to say about this one than most. I listened once like 5 days ago then came back and listened topday. Its really cool and very very heavy and noisy. The guitar tones are incredible, just mesmerizing whether in brutal heavy dirty form or in biting, cutting form. Its incredible. The vocals are better here than on Feedbacker in my opinion, there's also more vocals and they seem more substantial. The long loooong drone part on the super long song was not my thing. It maybe caught me at a bad time because I loved or at least really liked the drone noise parts of Boris at Last Feedbacker, so maybe when I return I will love the long extended noise and drone part(s).

Overall, yeah like I said not much to say, it was really good 70% of the times and the stoner riffs and the very emotional builds on top of the heavy riffage was at times transcendent and brilliant. The other 30% I haven't bought into much and it irked me a little.

ranks again because I already had it on previous post and may as well just add to it as I go. I may delete it next time or soon. But for now here it is:

Dead as Dreams (5/5)
Obscura (4.75)
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (4.75)
Jane Doe (4.5)
Verisäkeet (4)
Boris At Last - Feedbacker (4)
Ashes Against The Grain (3.75-4)
The Sound of Perseverance (3.75-4)
None So Vile (3.75)
White Pony (3.5)
Pink (3.5)
From Mars to Gojira (3.25-3.5)
Blackwater Park (3.25)
Crimson (3-3.25)


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2.

@LedZep this was recently nominated for me, and it was really solid and you may like it or even love it:

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Little Dominiques Nosebleed by The Koreatown Oddity



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3.

1. Still Life by Opeth/1999/#6 metal album since '96 (Yes Opeth's Time out has ended --yay! I have grown a little on Blackwater Park and this is same era and just a little earlier in their discog. Note: there are another 2 after this one waiting on the list excluded only due to one album rule lol. the love for this band is wild.)
2. Panopticon by Isis/2004/#17 metal album since '96 (Atmospheric sludge and post-metal designation tend to scare me off due to not yet finding an album I really liked in or loved in that mix. Remember listening to this and being a bit bored. Will try again.)
3. Close to a World Below by Immolation/2000/#18 metal album since '96 (okay, now that a spot has freed up, this brand new listen of this classic DM album is now a possible Nom)
4. Crack the Skye by Mastodon/2009/#19 metal album since '96 (for the love of fucking god don't make me confront this album again! )
5. Those Once Loyal by Bolt Thrower/2005/#20 metal album since '96 (really like to near-love their early stuff, never heard this latter-career peak album)
6. At the Heart of Winter by Immortal/1999/#24 metal album since '96 (lets see if this classic of classic black metal album hits different now with my new self.)
7. Times of Grace by Neurosis/1999/#25 metal album since '96 (atmospheric and straight up sludge --- maybe earlier than silver in blood neurosis will be more to my liking.)
8. Paracletus by Deathspell Omega/2010/#32 metal album since '96 (Finally, the first album included from 2010 onward. This is a very respected name, this band, and a band I have never pushed play on. Black metal of a modern sort? sign me up!)
9. Paysage d'Hiver by Paysage d'Hiver/1999/#35 metal album since '96 (I read this is as close anyone has come to managing to create the same dreary wintery atmosphere of Burzum. Not sure if true, but I'm interested in checking out this classic black metal album for sure.)
10. City by Strapping Young Lad/1997/#37 metal album since '96 (This is an album and band that has been on my radar since I was a 12 year old reading about them in a metal mag. Industrial metal. Like Devin Townsend so maybe I'll like this.)

i find it funny my obsessive need to add comments and factoids to my lists until they look like that ^ lol
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!