You must listen to the album below you: canon edition

[EyeKanFly]

1)

Peace Beyond Passion by Me'shell Ndegeocello
I enjoyed this. Not quite as much as the other Meshell Ndegeocello music I've heard, including most of Plantation Lullabies or Cookie which I think is my favorite. I definitely want to listen to more of her though. Also, Spotify kept suggesting that her genre falls into acid jazz and were recommending other acid jazz artists/albums. This album is decidedly NOT acid jazz, more like neo-soul/R&B, but maybe she has other stuff in her discography which falls more in that category, so I'm inclined to listen. Cookie certainly has more hip hop and rap on it rather than being strict soul/R&B, and I know some of her more recent stuff has fallen more into a pop or alt rock category, so maybe there's some acid jazz stuff out there.

The trio of "Deuteronomy: Niggerman", "Ecclesiastes: Free My Heart" and "Leviticus: Faggot" were incredible, and I most definitely need to re-listen because I'm sure there's subtext to the songs (and the whole album) that I'm missing. From my understanding, it's a put down of the way our society treats black and/or gay(/LGBTQ+) people but with a decidedly Christian subtext. I'm also not great at interpreting poetry, so I need to dig deeper.

The Bill Withers cover was excellent, and the interpolation of Marvin Gaye in the closing track "Make Me Wanna Holler" was also incredible, with Ndegéocello really making it her own. Side note, the spelling of Meshell Ndgeocello's name has changed over the years mainly due to what the record company decides to print on the labels. On this album it's listed as Me'shell Ndegeocello on the front cover but Me'Shell Ndegéocello is the spelling credited as writer/arranger/etc. Later albums seem to credit her as a musician as Meshell Ndegeocello and as a writer as Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur. She adopted her surname when she was 17, and a combination of that fact and it being translated from Swahili seems to have made it difficult to pin down a spelling.

3/5 for now but this warrants another listen.

2)

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Get Up With It by Miles Davis
This was recommended to me earlier on in this thread. Not sure I was a huge fan but maybe you'll like it.

3)
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
59. Indigo Girls by Indigo Girls
61. The Writing's on the Wall by Destiny's Child (know most of the tracks but never listened to the album in full)
65. Blue Light 'Til Dawn by Cassandra Wilson
68. King's Record Shop by Rosanne Cash
71. Blacks' Magic by Salt-N-Pepa (this album doesn't have the hits by SnP that I know, so I might be going in blind)
76. Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette
83. Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
85. Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez (surely there must have been a more notable 60s Baez album to put on this list instead? Maybe I'm sleeping on this one)
93. ...Baby One More Time by Britney Spears (same deal as Spice Girls, definitely listened to this when it came out but don't remember all the tracks)
94. Tuesday Night Music Club by Sheryl Crow
_________________
51 Washington, D.C. albums!

[Purplepash]

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Petals For Armor by Hayley Williams

I'm sort of surprised this isn't in the top 100 here. As far as I remember it got decent critical reviews, pretty good word of mouth, and there were three songs on this album that got a decent amount of airplay on the radio station I listen to all day at work. It straddles the border quite well of artiness and accessibility. Maybe there is a bit of backlash against it from Paramore fans because it's so different? But I was never a fan of Paraamore so that didn't bother me in the slightest. It was probably a bit too long, and the second half wasn't as strong as the first, but overall it was some good solid likeable synthpop art pop. 7/10.




I haven't heard any of these so going with the one I would choose to listen to out of these - Indigo Girls. I didn't think much of them at the time, but my tastes have matured over the years so I'm prepared to give them a proper go.

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Indigo Girls by Indigo Girls




Top 100 Music Albums of 2020 by EyeKanFly (5 picks left)

4. Acts Of Rebellion by Ela Minus
5. Sex, Death And The Infinite Void by Creeper
9. Here To Stay! by Grrrl Gang
11. Out Of My Province by Nadia Reid
16. Ocean Bridges by Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic & Damu The Fudgemunk
17. Woman Call by Angel-Ho
19. Cape God by Allie X
20. Éons by Neptunian Maximalism
25. Optimisme by Songhoy Blues
30. Im Wald by Paysage d'Hiver

[LedZep]

(1)

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Get Up With It by Miles Davis
For the first 20 minutes of the opening track I thought I was listening to my new favourite Miles album. 11/10 psychedelic ambient jazz fusion. He Loved Him Madly started losing steam a bit towards the end, but despite that this was one of the best first listens ever as far as songs/compositions are concerned. Still can't believe they were crazy enough to use wah wah on a trumpet, that's the most brilliant idea ever. Seriously might be my favourite song of his. Tough to compare something like Nefertiti or Freddie Freeloader to a 30 minute track though. I expected the album to be with its fair share of highs and lows considering the length and the fact that these were leftovers from various sessions, but to my surprise there was barely any lows which just shows Miles' and the band's insane talent. Maiysha was a welcome change of pace after the 32:13 lull, a wonderfully psychedelic fusion gem. There was a great guitar solo towards the end, pretty distorted and fuzzy even for a Miles song and those last several minutes were another big highlight for me. Honky Tonk was fine, not really too interesting but groovy and fun. Rated X had an organ and sounded completely alien. It was like Faust IV meets On The Corner, if He Loved Him Madly didn't blown my mind this certainly would. I kept thinking "there has to be an off moment somewhere". Calypso Frelimo surely cannot be another 32 minute banger, right? Wrong. While it's hard to digest it all at once, the sheer amount of crazy licks, bits and pieces of improvised melodies makes this yet another stellar song. It's like they wrote hundreds of fantastic melodies, broke every single one of them in half, put them in a blender and improvised on top of that. The rhythm session keeps it all intact, even during the quieter parts. Ok, it did drag a bit towards the end, but I can easily look past it considering there's at least 20 minutes of near perfect music here. Next we have Red China Blues which was the most disappointing of the bunch, but it's also just 4 minutes of jazz/blues hybrid, so not too bad for the "worst" moment on the album. Mtume brings some talking drums into the mix, the percussion as well as the occasional organ licks sell the song for me (especially the part around 12-14 minutes). We also have some more funky wah guitars which are the staple of most Miles songs of this period. Billy Preston wasn't too crazy considering the other cuts, but it's a tasteful blend of a lot of things that were introduced earlier on the album. While not an absolute highlight, it was still a decent closer.

It's pretty incredible how creative the band was during this period. And Get Up With It is by far the best collection of styles and ideas Miles has ever had on a single record. Not sure why it's in the shadow of the 3 predecessors since it's easily more entertaining than any of them. Every song brings something new to the table, it's an exhausting but unpredictable and thrilling listen. 9.5 or 10/10.

My top 2 tiers of Miles Davis now roughly look like this.

S tier: Kind of Blue, Nefertiti, Get Up With It
A tier: Miles Smiles, Filles de Kilimanjaro, Sketches of Spain, Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud

(2)
Let's jazz it up a bit with Ocean Bridges

(3)
Turnstile - Glow On
The Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
David Craig - More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art
Lorde - Solar Power
The Pyramids - King of Kings
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms...
The Chasm - Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Kanye West - Donda (I have to make myself listen to it somehow lol)
_________________
2021

[Mercury]

1.

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Pierced From Within by Suffocation

Okay, this is an album I will mostly just have general thoughts and at times scattered opinions on. First off, after hearing that Cryptopsy classic, I expected a similarly violent onslaught. And perhaps that album just raised the bar so high in terms of unimaginable extremity both for me and the genre, but in comparison this album didn't really overwhelm me. It was indeed extreme and heavy and pretty fast, but it was slowed down enough to give some room to the arrangements to breathe.

I love that the bassist got his time in the spotlight and sun here. That too often doesn't happen. But here, jesus christ the LOw End is so wildly at the forefront, at first I thought it was a flaw or bug or something wrong with the mix, but I think that is what they are going for. The deep rumbling low notes just utterly dominate the sound of this album. This alone makes it stand apart from other eath metal records I've heard.

The solos though kind of few, are excellent and the band does slow it down and explore interesting almost tech death side detours which is always a refreshing change of pace. The vocals are cool, not too cartoonish and not too clean, just right for a DM album in my opinion. I listened to a bit of their equally famous debut album Effigy of the Forgotten from 1991, and the vocals there are actually way more burpy and cartoonish. I much prefer the vocal work here.

This album is great. It doesn't seem to overstay its welcome and there is enough variety of sound and enough riff change ups and unique parts to make it somewhat thought provoking, but not so much that it becomes some cerebral Death-esque or Gorguts-esque album, which is good because I wasn't in the mood for that when I listened and at this time. Right now I want some extreme metal that just seems to be capturing that pure rage state. And this generally did it.

It isn't fully top tier DM or metal that I have heard recently either. I put my first experience with None So Vile above this. But this holds its own at least within my limited experience with DM and Brutal DM albums heard. I didn't finish their classic debut, but I'll check it out in full this time sometime soon.

-------------------------

2.
@LedZep, so happy to see Get Up With It became a favorite! I love that album but haven't returned to it in quite awhile. You have inspired me to do so which I'll do between this post and the next album chosen.

Anyway, your next album is.... some good ones there, but I choose the only one amongst them that I consider an all time favorite:

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Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement

perhaps their finest hour. certainly up there.



------------------------

3.

You know me by now. I'm always thinking of new gimmicks. So my newest gimmick is I will take the top 1000 albums on RYM. I have 400 or so albums to hear on it and what I will do is Pick ONE album from each page of 40 albums (the last page will be more like 50 albums...) and I will pick one album off the list that I am most intrigued by or most interested in hearing again for more thorough evaluation or reminding. Still excluding any sort of soundtrack or classical music ( so the rank is in a list of all LPs and Mixtapes excluding live, archival, western classical and any sort of soundtrack/score.)

1. The Ape of Naples by Coil/1999/RYM #276 all time album (Apparently a super cool post industrial album that I listened to once a few months back but i forgot everything about it and wasn't paying much attention.)

2. Angel Dust by Faith No More/1992/RYM #407 all time album (Totally classic album by Faith No More and very influential. Never heard it in its entirety. Not sure why but this album and the alt metal milestone tag connected to it just never drew me in. But now for some reason I have a newly awakened interest.)

3. And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out by Yo La Tengo/2000/RYM #567 all time album (Yesterday on a whim I listened to the most famous YLT album, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. and it blew me away. I loved it and I have no idea why it took me so long to recognize its greatness. Now today I make the 3rd option here another YLT album. If its even 80% as beautiful a dreamy pop/indie rock/quasi-psychedelic experience as their '94 album, then I will love it. - ALSO i have a rarely enforced rule that if one of my choices has another album by same artist on the same RYM page opf 40 albums, I will listen to it as well. So Painful by YLT is just 2 spots later than this one.... I'll listen to it as well if this is picked.)

4. By Inheritance by Artillery/1990/ RYM #654 all time album (of all the completely classic peak-thrash albums this one I perhaps have given the least attention to. I have never even pushed play on this album, never had much inclination to. But yeah I am interested in getting back into some sweet old school thrash.)

5. Jeopardy by The Sound/1980/RYM #682 all time album (This post punk album looks interesting despite early post punk not generally being my thing. Also their other very acclaimed album From The Lion's Mouth is only 1 or 2 pages on in this RYM list. So if I like this Jeopardy record I'll check that one out as well.)

6. A Sun That Never Sets by Neurosis/2001/RYM #787 all time album (One of if not the last classic Neurosis album I haven't heard. Recently absolutely fell head over heels in love with Through Silver In Blood and Souls at Zero. Definitely wanna hear this atmospheric sludge masterpiece. - or so I have heard)

7. Alien Lanes by Guided by Voices/1995/RYM #816 all time album (I need to relisten to this one. Love Bee Thousand but this one and no other GbV album every really became a favorite when I loved Bee Thousand. But anyway, this one is one I know is quite loved and apparently on par with their 1994 classic.)

8. Milestones by Miles Davis/1958/RYM #893 all time album (I kind of worship Miles. Musically he is a hero of mine. He'd be on my Mount Rushmore of artists. I went on a weird obsessive listening and buying tear about 10 years ago and amongst the dozens of albums heard and bought was this album. But... its Hard Bop, and I have a history of having a hard time "getting" even the classics of this genre and... also, I can't remember a single second of this album. Like, when I look at that cool as fuck cover not even a single Note of music comes to mind. I now will start working through many miles classics starting with this. Note: Nefertiti is also on this page. I love Nefertiti but recently removed the rating so that I would be incentivized to revisit some Miles classics that I am vague on. So will listen to both.)

9. Unhalfbricking by Fairport Convention/1969/RYM #968 all time album (Okay, so I will for sure be listening to their other TWO 1969 albums as well, at the very least Liege and Lief. But yeah these are albums and an artist that I have heard but for some reason and for various random chance moments I've yet to really sit down and just listen to these classics. These folk albums seem right up my alley as much a s it is possible to be. So yeah, this is a special limited time 3 for one deal.)

10. We Are The Romans by Botch/RYM #996 all time album (Listened to this only recently after getting into Jane Doe. I was looking for that classic Mathcore fix. This was awesome, but only listened once and wanna listen again. If you choose this I will listen of course that is how this works. But I am sooo chomping at the bit I will probably listen to this very very soon whether picked or not.)
_________________
-Ryan

Top 100 Albums of 2021 by Mercury, well, myself
101-200 Albums of 2021 by Merc-- by ME

[EyeKanFly]

1)

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Indigo Girls by Indigo Girls
Quite frankly this was a surprise to me. I had heard of Indigo Girls but must have mixed them up with some other 80s/90s band because I was NOT expecting folk rock. Nor was I expecting R.E.M. to show up on a few tracks. I suppose Indigo Girls are from Georgia hence the connection there.

Anyway, I did like this, but not by a ton. I think I liked it about as much as I like any given R.E.M. album, which is "it's good but will probably never be a favorite". The duo of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray seem like solid songwriters, and I wish I would've enjoyed the sound of this album better. But the instrumentals are just so samey. A good 3 or 4 songs opened up with a short guitar intro that sounded identical. So while the songs are good, they just seem too similar. 3/5 for now.

2)

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Milestones by Miles Davis
This is an underrated Miles album IMO, though I'm not surprised it's forgettable. I think once you (re-)listen, you'll recognize everything on side 2: Miles/Milestones, Billy Boy (an Ahmad Jamal arrangement), and Straight No Chaser (Thelonious Monk cover, easily my favorite on the album). As with almost all of Davis' albums, there's some incredible talent including Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane shortly before they each began solely focusing on their solo careers.

3)
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
61. The Writing's on the Wall by Destiny's Child (know most of the tracks but never listened to the album in full)
65. Blue Light 'Til Dawn by Cassandra Wilson
68. King's Record Shop by Rosanne Cash
71. Blacks' Magic by Salt-N-Pepa (this album doesn't have the hits by SnP that I know, so I might be going in blind)
76. Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette
83. Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
85. Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez (surely there must have been a more notable 60s Baez album to put on this list instead? Maybe I'm sleeping on this one)
93. ...Baby One More Time by Britney Spears (same deal as Spice Girls, definitely listened to this when it came out but don't remember all the tracks)
94. Tuesday Night Music Club by Sheryl Crow
96. Hard Core by Lil' Kim
_________________
51 Washington, D.C. albums!

[LedZep]

(1)

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Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement
Oh man I'm not a big Pavement fan in terms of songs but absolutely LOVE their lofi sound. Generally seem to prefer 90s indie rock which borders on alternative, lofi, math rock or whatever to the more polished indie rock with electronic and pop elements which seemed to dominate the 00s. Pavement, being one of the progenitors of such raw indie, have been on my radar for a long time but until now I've only heard Slanted & Enchanted which I liked quite a bit. This one is not as noisy and lofi but the songwriting's still tight. I do think I prefer their debut since even the less interesting tunes from that one were very well written as opposed to the lesser songs on Crooked Rain which were just ok-ish. Although that could be due to it being Friday and the weather being awful for the first time in weeks Deserves another listen, that's for sure, but for now it's low 8/10

(2)
Lil Kim next

(3)
Turnstile - Glow On
The Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
David Craig - More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art
Lorde - Solar Power
The Pyramids - King of Kings
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms...
Kanye West - Donda
Cursed - II
Blackdown/Burial - Shock Power of Love EP
_________________
2021

[EyeKanFly]

1)

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Hard Core by Lil' Kim
This was a fun album, I'm familiar with most of the tracks here so it was sort of nice to revisit it in full. Although... holy hell... I'm SO glad the late 90s/early 00s trend of adding skits in rap albums has died out. I honestly can't think of a single album where I've actually enjoyed listening to those. The Biggie influence on this album is incredibly strong, and I'm honestly not sure it's the better for it. It's a raunchy album which is sort of awesome, there's some anthems in here that I remember hearing as a kid and absolutely having no idea what they meant haha. It's good to go back to it. Can't believe Lil' Kim ended up on the Moulin Rouge album. There's also a tremendous lineup of guest musicians on Hard Care from Jay-Z to Puff Daddy (or whatever his name was at the time). 3.5/5

2)
yeah let's go with Donda. It's about 2 hrs though so if you want an out, go for Twilight Sad

3)
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
61. The Writing's on the Wall by Destiny's Child (know most of the tracks but never listened to the album in full)
65. Blue Light 'Til Dawn by Cassandra Wilson
68. King's Record Shop by Rosanne Cash
71. Blacks' Magic by Salt-N-Pepa (this album doesn't have the hits by SnP that I know, so I might be going in blind)
76. Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette
83. Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
85. Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez (surely there must have been a more notable 60s Baez album to put on this list instead? Maybe I'm sleeping on this one)
93. ...Baby One More Time by Britney Spears (same deal as Spice Girls, definitely listened to this when it came out but don't remember all the tracks)
94. Tuesday Night Music Club by Sheryl Crow
97. Daydream by Mariah Carey
_________________
51 Washington, D.C. albums!

[baystateoftheart]

1.

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A Stairway To The Stars by The Caretaker

This is tagged as "scary" on RYM, and the reviews are full of similar sentiments. So I was expecting this album to be much darker and more sinister, and bracing myself because I dislike horror. After listening I'm a bit confused, because it was actually a fairly easy listen for me. A Stairway To The Stars is a bit of an embryonic form of An Empty Bliss Beyond This World and Everywhere At The End Of Time - not necessarily in concept, but in sonic palette. An ambient album with British dance band samples is basically the trademark Caretaker formula. The whole thing is good to great, and it closes on a high note with two excellent final tracks. I guess that's appropriate given the title. Definitely one to check out if you like his later work. It's perhaps one of The Caretaker's better sounding records, because these songs aren't decaying due to memory loss. That said, the concept in his dementia-focused work is probably the most compelling aspect. Very close call on the score, but I'll start this at a high 3.5/5.

~~~~~

2. I love this album. A country soul classic.

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Ode To Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry

~~~~~

3. Alphabet Game, Cohort 13 (2 picks left)

A: Hours Were The Birds - Adrianne Lenker
A2: King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo
B: À Vontade - Baden Powell
B2: Marcus’ Children - Burning Spear
B3: Wish You Were Here - Badfinger
B4: Tunes 2011-2019 - Burial
C: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You - Caravan
C2: Twelve Deadly Cyns… And Then Some - Cyndi Lauper
C3: You Should Be At Home Here - Carissa’s Wierd
D: Live At The Jazz Cafe, London - D’Angelo
_________________
Add me on RYM

[EyeKanFly]

1)

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Ode To Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
This was an interesting listen, definitely not what I was expecting. Gentry's voice is a lot harsher on most of the album than on the title track, and I think that makes the rest of the songs even better. And the fact that the title track is really good also elevates the album. There's a lot of great stuff here, it's sort of a shame that she's only really known for the one song. I'm going to need to listen again, but this is a high 3/5, definitely a solid early country album. VERY blues-infused, and with the Robert Johnson-esque growl that few male singers can imitate.

2)

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King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown by Augustus Pablo
There's a lot of good stuff here but I gotta go with this classic. This is the standard for dub music.


3)
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
61. The Writing's on the Wall by Destiny's Child (know most of the tracks but never listened to the album in full)
65. Blue Light 'Til Dawn by Cassandra Wilson
68. King's Record Shop by Rosanne Cash
71. Blacks' Magic by Salt-N-Pepa (this album doesn't have the hits by SnP that I know, so I might be going in blind)
76. Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette
85. Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez (surely there must have been a more notable 60s Baez album to put on this list instead? Maybe I'm sleeping on this one)
93. ...Baby One More Time by Britney Spears (same deal as Spice Girls, definitely listened to this when it came out but don't remember all the tracks)
94. Tuesday Night Music Club by Sheryl Crow
97. Daydream by Mariah Carey
100. It's My Way by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Now that I'm getting to 100 (out of 150), I'm going to start transitioning to another list. Still TBD although I have a few ideas, and I'm always open to suggestions
_________________
51 Washington, D.C. albums!

[Purplepash]

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Ocean Bridges by Archie Shepp, Raw Poet... Fudgemunk

So here we have a collaboration album between a jazz saxophonist, a rapper, and a DJ/producer (who from what little I researched seems to focus on jazz drumbeat samples) improvised in the studio. A rather interesting album that is more a jazz album with some hip hop rather than the more common jazz hip hop albums. I preferred the longer songs over the short (mostly under 2 minutes) Professor Shepp's Agenda pieces of music which alternated in between every other song (although they did get better as the album went along). Mention must be made of the 12 1/2 minute song Apertures which was an awesoe track and easily the highlight of the album. 7/10




I liked the only Buffy Sainte-Marie album I've heard so lets go with It's My Way!

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It's My Way! by Buffy Sainte-Marie




Top 100 Music Albums of 2020 by EyeKanFly (4 picks left)

4. Acts Of Rebellion by Ela Minus
5. Sex, Death And The Infinite Void by Creeper
9. Here To Stay! by Grrrl Gang
11. Out Of My Province by Nadia Reid
17. Woman Call by Angel-Ho
19. Cape God by Allie X
20. Éons by Neptunian Maximalism
25. Optimisme by Songhoy Blues
30. Im Wald by Paysage d'Hiver
34. Room For The Moon by Kate NV