Ranking Discographies

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Ben4



Gender: Male
Age: 26
United States

  • #1
  • Posted: 04/08/2018 02:17
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Hello all, this is my new music diary where I will be going through all of the albums released by a certain artist in chronological order, and rank them. I am doing this because I feel like it. I do not claim to be an expert on any of these bands. Some of the albums that will be written about will be ones I know very well beforehand, and others will be ones I need to familiarize myself with before I can truly judge them.

To start off, I will be looking at Pixies, starting with their debut, Surfer Rosa.
Surfer Rosa by Pixies
This is a very good debut from a very good band. One of the best things about this album is just how weird it is. It does have songs that could appeal to a more mainstream audience, but it also has a lot of bizarre music like Oh My Golly and Vamos (Surfer Rosa). It is a very energetic album, and many of the songs have a big punk influence. My favorite tracks are Gigantic, and Break my Body. One deep cut that I really like is Brick is Red. It has a really good groove to it.

Since this is the first entry to this diary, and since I've only talked about one album, I wont be ranking anything today. Hope you enjoy, if there is anyone reading this.
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Ben4



Gender: Male
Age: 26
United States

  • #2
  • Posted: 04/10/2018 17:34
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Hello to anyone reading. Today I will be talking about the next Pixies album, Doolittle.

Doolittle by Pixies

This is a fantastic album, and the one that first got me into the Pixies. It took me about a year to really get into it. When I first borrowed my parents cd of it, I liked the song Debaser, but I mostly thought it was just really weird and not very melodic. I kind of just forgot about it until about a year later, when I decided to give it another chance. I still found it really weird, but I realized under the weirdness there were great melodies and hooks. I found the bass line from the beginning of I Bleed and the chorus of Here Comes Your Man stuck in my head. The more I listened to it the more I appreciated it. I noticed more of the little nuances, like the guitar part at the end of Baby No 13. This album was highly influential on the alternative landscape of the 90's. Bands like Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins cited this band as one of their biggest influences. The bass line and quiet loud dynamic of I Bleed reminds me a lot of Lithium by Nirvana, and the guitar bends in Hey sort of sound like Grounded by Pavement. While not as weird as its predecessor, this is still a very weird album, with tracks like Dead and La La Love You, and the bizarre lyrics for Monkey Gone to Heaven. In conclusion, this album rules. Definitely a must have, and one of the best albums of the 80's. And now for the ranking of the Pixies albums so far:

1. Doolittle (1989)
2. Surfer Rosa (1988)

Next time I'll be looking at 1990's Bossanova.
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BeA Sunflower



Location: Forest Park
United States

  • #3
  • Posted: 04/10/2018 17:37
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Great project. I would include Come On Pilgrim in this ranking. Totally essential EP & arguably the best stuff they ever did.
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YoungPunk





  • #4
  • Posted: 04/11/2018 04:02
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I never bother with entire discographies, like I have an anonymous friend on this site who I think listened to every single Dream Theater album, and turned out a lot of those were some of the worst rated on his profile. It actually looked like he did that with a bunch of artists and the worst rated section of his profile was clogged with what I presume to be his favorite artists (it was evidently the same situation for most). Usually I listen to an artist's big hit, then dig up some more nice ones on BEA (Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest is an example for me, never would have found that without BEA). Then move on to the next artist. Mean but efficient...
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BeA Sunflower



Location: Forest Park
United States

  • #5
  • Posted: 04/11/2018 11:05
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YoungPunk wrote:
I never bother with entire discographies, like I have an anonymous friend on this site who I think listened to every single Dream Theater album, and turned out a lot of those were some of the worst rated on his profile. It actually looked like he did that with a bunch of artists and the worst rated section of his profile was clogged with what I presume to be his favorite artists (it was evidently the same situation for most). Usually I listen to an artist's big hit, then dig up some more nice ones on BEA (Sad Wings of Destiny by Judas Priest is an example for me, never would have found that without BEA). Then move on to the next artist. Mean but efficient...


R u saying he should stop after Trompe Le Monde? Mr. Green
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Ben4



Gender: Male
Age: 26
United States

  • #6
  • Posted: 04/15/2018 19:16
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YoungPunk wrote:
I never bother with entire discographies


I agree with this, and I generally don't listen to an artists entire discography. This diary is just a project for me to try doing something different with my music listening, I'm not sure how long I will stick to it. I will probably try to choose artists with short discographies, or at least moderately consistent discographies. I probably wont be doing bands like Metallica who have a handful of great records, and then a long string of albums that at best could be called mediocre.

In response to Tilly, I was originally planning on only ranking the album releases by artists. I will probably end up giving my thoughts on EPs, b-sides, or live albums, but not adding them to the rankings. So I'll get to Come On Pilgrim.

Now for the review of Bossanova.

Bossanova by Pixies

Right off the bat this album has a very different sound from the previous records. The opener Cecilia Ann is an instrumental, and it has almost a metal feel to it, with galloping guitars reminiscent of Iron Maiden or Barracuda by Heart. This album lacks the raw and unpolished quality of Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, which is probably its biggest flaw. The songwriting is still very good, and most of the songs are pretty catchy. Some of my favorites are Hang Wire, Velouria, and Is She Weird. There are a few songs on here that I would say are just shy of being really great songs. The Happening is really good, but I don't really like the chorus. Blown away has a cool guitar part, that sounds a little bit like Red Brick from Surfer Rosa, but the verse is a little weak. The weakest track is probably All Over the World. There are things I like in it, but for the most part, it is a little boring, and it is long. Putting this track right in the middle of the album deflates some of the energy that the first few tracks had built up. But it picks up again quickly with Digging for Fire. Ana is an interesting song, it has a very laid back and relaxed feel to it, almost like a Slowdive song. The final track Havalina is another one that isn't quite like anything the Pixies have done. Almost an instrumental track, it closes out the album with a beautiful acoustic guitar and clean electric guitar melody. All in all, this is a different album than you would expect from the last two, but still a very good album and well worth owning, especially for fans of early alternative music.

Updated Ranking:
1. Doolittle (1989)
2. Surfer Rosa (1998)
3. Bossanova (1990)[/quote]
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Ben4



Gender: Male
Age: 26
United States

  • #7
  • Posted: 04/25/2018 03:53
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Hello everyone, today I am talking about, that's right, you guessed it:

Trompe Le Monde by Pixies

The fourth album by the Pixies, and their last album before they broke up. This album has a different sound from the previous three. It is less pop-y than Surfer Rosa, but less weird than Doolittle and Surfer Rosa. It has moments that are reminiscent of these albums, but for the most part, this album is a straight forward rock album, or about as close as you can get to one from this band. The opener and title track has galloping guitars which reminded me of Cecilia Ann, the opener of the last album. The next track Planet of Sound is different from anything else I have heard by them so far. The rest of the album is very solid, and is full of great songs. I would say all of the songs on this album are at least good. Some of my favorites are Letter to Memphis, Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons, and Motorway to Roswell. These are also some of the pop-iest tracks on the album. The beginning of Olympus Mons reminds me of U2 for some reason, maybe the bass line and lower register vocals that it starts with sound a little like With or Without You. The weirder songs on this album are Space (I Believe In), and Subbacultcha. These two sound the most like something you would hear on their first two albums. The beginning of Space actually kind of reminds me of Guns n Roses, specifically Mr. Brownstone, but maybe I'm just crazy. My least favorite is probably the last track, The Navajo Know. It's alright, but I feel like Motorway is the climax of the album, and this track doesn't quite follow it up. I would strongly recommend this album. If you have heard their first ones but not this one, give it a shot, it's pretty damn good.

Now to add this to the list:
1. Doolittle (1989)
2. Surfer Rosa (1988)
3. Trompe Le Monde (1991)
4. Bossanova (1990)

I actually like this one more than Bossanova. Bossanova is still a great album, but I feel like it is the weakest of the four. I also noticed that on my last entry, I put the year for Surfer Rosa as 1998, not 1988. Do with that information what you will.
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BeA Sunflower



Location: Forest Park
United States

  • #8
  • Posted: 04/25/2018 11:31
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Ben4 wrote:
Hello everyone, today I am talking about, that's right, you guessed it:

Trompe Le Monde by Pixies

The fourth album by the Pixies, and their last album before they broke up. This album has a different sound from the previous three. It is less pop-y than Surfer Rosa, but less weird than Doolittle and Surfer Rosa. It has moments that are reminiscent of these albums, but for the most part, this album is a straight forward rock album, or about as close as you can get to one from this band. The opener and title track has galloping guitars which reminded me of Cecilia Ann, the opener of the last album. The next track Planet of Sound is different from anything else I have heard by them so far. The rest of the album is very solid, and is full of great songs. I would say all of the songs on this album are at least good. Some of my favorites are Letter to Memphis, Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons, and Motorway to Roswell. These are also some of the pop-iest tracks on the album. The beginning of Olympus Mons reminds me of U2 for some reason, maybe the bass line and lower register vocals that it starts with sound a little like With or Without You. The weirder songs on this album are Space (I Believe In), and Subbacultcha. These two sound the most like something you would hear on their first two albums. The beginning of Space actually kind of reminds me of Guns n Roses, specifically Mr. Brownstone, but maybe I'm just crazy. My least favorite is probably the last track, The Navajo Know. It's alright, but I feel like Motorway is the climax of the album, and this track doesn't quite follow it up. I would strongly recommend this album. If you have heard their first ones but not this one, give it a shot, it's pretty damn good.

Now to add this to the list:
1. Doolittle (1989)
2. Surfer Rosa (1988)
3. Trompe Le Monde (1991)
4. Bossanova (1990)

I actually like this one more than Bossanova. Bossanova is still a great album, but I feel like it is the weakest of the four. I also noticed that on my last entry, I put the year for Surfer Rosa as 1998, not 1988. Do with that information what you will.


Totally. I would put Trompe Le Monde 2nd or 3rd as well. It's a great album.
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RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad



Location: Ground Control
United States

  • #9
  • Posted: 04/28/2018 04:45
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I did such a project when I first joined the site. It's a fun project to watch artists grow.

I approached it by the top ranked artists on the site and just went down the list:
I think I did the top 100 artists at that time, and then a few select ones after that. Wish I would have documented thoughts, etc. to review like you are now.

https://www.besteveralbums.com/bandstats.php

Enjoy!
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Ben4



Gender: Male
Age: 26
United States

  • #10
  • Posted: 05/08/2018 02:08
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Hello everyone! Today I'm going to do some backtracking and talk about the Pixies' 1987 debut EP Come on Pilgrim.


Come On Pilgrim by Pixies

To be honest I don't have a whole lot to say about this EP other than that it's really good. There really isn't a bad song, and if you are a fan of the band, you will like it, obviously. If you are a fan of Surfer Rosa, I would especially recommend this, since it sounds the most like that album.

As I said, the songs are all good, so picking standout tracks is difficult. If I had to say a few that are the best, I'd go with Caribou, Holiday Song, and Nimrod's Son. There is also an earlier version of Vamos, although I prefer the version on Surfer Rosa. The last track Levitate Me reminds me of Nirvana's All Apologies, with the lyric "if all in all is true." I wonder how direct of an influence this song was for the Nirvana song, since Cobain had cited the Pixies as one of his influences.

I'm not going to add this one to the list, just because I don't like comparing EPs to full albums, and because I don't feel like it. I am working on Indie Cindy, and once I've listened to it a couple more times I'll do my write up on it. Until then I hope this tides you over! (As if people are actually anticipating these haha)
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