My discoveries per year - Music Diaries - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Repo
BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

dihansse wrote:

These are the two albums of 1997 I listened to:

An album on my wishlist:

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Blue Sky On Mars by Matthew Sweet
In the beginning of the nineties, Matthew Sweet had his best period with albums like Girlfriend and 100% Fun. But according to Allmusic this period stopped here with the departure of guitarist Richard Lloyd. But I don't agree. This is a very good Matthew Sweet album. Of course, Sweet doesn't really change his style and many of his albums are interchangeable, but he remains a very fine songwriter and knows how to deliver them, both on the powerrock songs and on the softer ones. No real outstanding songs here but 100% of them are of the same top quality we're used of him. This album enters at the 23rd rank of 1997.

Cool! Checking it out now! Very Happy

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

Repo wrote:

dihansse wrote:

These are the two albums of 1997 I listened to:

An album on my wishlist:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Blue Sky On Mars by Matthew Sweet
In the beginning of the nineties, Matthew Sweet had his best period with albums like Girlfriend and 100% Fun. But according to Allmusic this period stopped here with the departure of guitarist Richard Lloyd. But I don't agree. This is a very good Matthew Sweet album. Of course, Sweet doesn't really change his style and many of his albums are interchangeable, but he remains a very fine songwriter and knows how to deliver them, both on the powerrock songs and on the softer ones. No real outstanding songs here but 100% of them are of the same top quality we're used of him. This album enters at the 23rd rank of 1997.

Cool! Checking it out now! Very Happy

And what did you think of it?

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

These are the two albums of 1998 I listened to:

An album I already own:

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Snake Bite Love by Motörhead
My mantra still is: I still haven't heard a bad album by Motörhead. And that other mantra not invented by me is that they keep on making the same record and I do agree with Trexasle that nothing could be further away from the truth. And both points are proven by this album and the one thing you can say about it is: it bites and it bites hard as is proven by tracks like Don't Lie To Me and Better Off Dead. But then they also smuggle in a semi-ballad like Dead And Gone which is as fantastic as all other tracks here. It is maybe not one of their top three albums: for that their end of seventies albums are more likely candidats. But this album closely follows those. All in all this album remains at a steady 3rd rank of the year.

An album on my wishlist:

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Try Whistling This by Neil Finn
His first solo album after Crowded House and it definitely feels like a CH album which only proves the point that he was one of the, if not THE most important member of that fantastic band. There are some weaker tracks near the end but songs like the title track prove that Neil Finn can do it very well in his own. The album enters at the 27th rank of the year.

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

Two albums of 1999 I listened to:

An album I already own:

Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers
This is the RHCP I like especially when they do the softer but but very guitar based songs like Parallel Universe, Scar Tissue, Californication, Easily and of course the absolute highlight Otherside. It's not that I don't like some of their more funky tracks like Around The World but the RHCP I like is to be found mainly on the first half of this album. And it's about on par with that other great album of theirs, By The Way. And it goes from the 23rd to the 11th rank of the year.

An album on my wishlist:

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Veterans Of Disorder by Royal Trux
One of their more accessible albums which proves that band is not really my thing. A song like Sickazz Dog are just absolute chaos with nothing to like in my opinion. And indeed there are some more accessible tracks like Waterpark and the long freaky but fairly good Blue Is The Frequency, but that's not enough to let it enter in my personal top chart.

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

I saw Parquet Courts live yesterday and they were very good: fantastic combination of old (post-)punk and new more danceable rhythms and it was proven what a good album Sympathy For Life is.
And they showed a great funny no nonsense attitude: "this was our last song (What Colour Is Blood) but no problem: we immediately start with the encore (Pulcinella)".
And I used the occasion to listen to their albums again.

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

Two albums of 2000 I listened to:

An album I already own:

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Parachutes by Coldplay
I saw them live at a festival when this album had just been released together with a number of the hits and Chris Martin already claimed that Coldplay would become the biggest band in the world. And nobody believed him and also I didn't believe him. I just thought the hits were not more than cute and alike to many of the singles released around that time but nothing more.
And then I heard Clocks for the first time and thought: there's more to this band and there was more for a couple of albums.
Just to say that I have alway underestimated this Parachutes because there are some really good tracks on here and that were not always the hits. Especially Don't Panic and Everything's not Lost are just wonderful.
And so this album rises from the 43rd to the 10th rank of the year 2000.

An album on my wishlist:

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Excuses For Travellers by Mojave 3
I mainly know Puzzles Like You by them but also this album was a pleasant surprise. It's not much more than just sunny rock but that suffises and it goes to the 16th rank of the year.

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

As I saw them live yesterday and I listened back to a number of their albums here is my current ranking of Parquet Courts albums:
7. Tally All The Things That You Broke (2013): only a mini-album where I only really like the first two tracks
6. Content Nausea (2014): Pretty Machines is the highlight
5. Wide Awake! (2018): Not everybody will agree but I miss a real highlight here
4. Human Performance (2016): I know that lots of people would mention Dust and it is a real live staple but also here I miss a real highlight
3. Light Up Gold (2012): with Stoned and Starving as the highlight
2. Sunbathing Animal (2014): very good album with the title track, She's Rolling and Ducking & Dodging as the highlights
1. Sympathy For Life (2022): yes I do think that their latest is their best and also live it really shone with Black Widow Spider, Homo Sapien and especially Walking At A Downtown Pace as the highlights. This last one might be very Franz Ferdinand and the closest to ever writing a hit song but live it really managed to make everybody rock their heads off.

Purplepash
ranker, rater, & music list maker

Gender: Male
Age: 54
Location: Western Australia

dihansse wrote:

I saw Parquet Courts live yesterday and they were very good: fantastic combination of old (post-)punk and new more danceable rhythms and it was proven what a good album Sympathy For Life is.
And they showed a great funny no nonsense attitude: "this was our last song (What Colour Is Blood) but no problem: we immediately start with the encore (Pulcinella)".
And I used the occasion to listen to their albums again.

Parquet Courts are great live. I've seen them three times now and thinking of going to see them again in July. Every time was great - 2014 when they pretty much just played all of Light Up Gold but in a different order, 2017 where they had a much bigger catalogue to draw on but still played a few Light Up Gold tracks although sadly nothing from Sunbathing Animal, and 2019 on a stinking hot day where the ground was dry dirt and the dust was everywhere kicked up from all the dancing while they were playing Dust - an unforgettable experience.

dihansse wrote:

As I saw them live yesterday and I listened back to a number of their albums here is my current ranking of Parquet Courts albums:
7. Tally All The Things That You Broke (2013): only a mini-album where I only really like the first two tracks
6. Content Nausea (2014): Pretty Machines is the highlight
5. Wide Awake! (2018): Not everybody will agree but I miss a real highlight here
4. Human Performance (2016): I know that lots of people would mention Dust and it is a real live staple but also here I miss a real highlight
3. Light Up Gold (2012): with Stoned and Starving as the highlight
2. Sunbathing Animal (2014): very good album with the title track, She's Rolling and Ducking & Dodging as the highlights
1. Sympathy For Life (2022): yes I do think that their latest is their best and also live it really shone with Black Widow Spider, Homo Sapien and especially Walking At A Downtown Pace as the highlights. This last one might be very Franz Ferdinand and the closest to ever writing a hit song but live it really managed to make everybody rock their heads off.

Nice! Love seeing Sunbathing Animal so high. I hope you don't mind me popping in for a visit with my ranking?

8. Monastic Living - didn't click with me
7. Content Nausea - some hits and misses in the middle but I like the experimentation here...the opening and closing tracks are my favourites
6. Human Performance - a good album, and Berlin Got Blurry is one of my favourite Parquet songs, but I like their other albums more
5. Sympathy For Life - I don't get some of the lukewarm reception this album got. I think it's great. Plant Life captures me in it's groove every time and is my favourite from this album...and again the opening and closing tracks stand out
4. Wide Awake! - Almost Had To Start A Fight / In And Out Of Patience is a clear highlight but the whole album is great!
3.5. Milano by Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts - often overlooked but I love the dark pop of this, especially the middle section of the album featuring Karen O sharing vocals
3. Tally All The Things That You Broke - I love this little EP. Light Up Gold was one of my most listened to albums of 2013 but it was a bit short and I always wanted more so I used to listen to the version on streaming with this EP tacked on the end. He's Seeing Paths with all of it's bells and whistles, (including literal bells and whistles as it was apparently inspired by past esperiences as a bike courier) quickly grew to be a favourite, and Fall On Yr Face is the only (relatively) weak spot as the other 4 tracks are all so good
2. Light Up Gold - so good I immediately played it again after first listen and I rarely ever do that...and my #1 album of 2012...agree with Stoned and Starving as the highlight
1. Sunbathing Animal - love it...in my all time chart (as is Light Up Gold)...Black and White, the title track, and Duckin And Dodgin are the peaks on an album full of highs for me

Repo
BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

Love the rankings!!! Parquet Courts rule!!! \m/

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

Thx Purplepash (and of course also Repo).
I think we agree on a lot of things here like our love for Sunbathing Animals (and Light Up Gold). They only played one song from Sunbathing Animals on the concert, What Colour Is Blood which of course is also a great track, but as you might expect most of the concert (7) came from the new album.
I didn't know Monastic Living and Milano before but listened to them just before the concert and must admit I didn't really connect with either of them. And like you I also have the CD which contains both Tally... and Light Up Gold.
And agreed, they are a great live act I didn't know that so many Belgians like them (they are never played on Belgian radio even not more indie stations): people were even singing along to some of the lyrics.