Phaedra is another album that is played on infinite loop in heaven. An album of prettiness that can only be experienced, Phaedra is Tangerine Dream's most musically consistent album and their first breakthrough.
I love this album because, much like Ambient 1, it is a very calm and soothing collection of lovely and sweet sounds. The swirling landscapes created surround you and amaze you as the tower landscape of sound permeates your environment. This album demands either headphones or a really good sound system for a truly immersive listen.
This is a really great place to start with Tangerine Dream, and if you want something more harsh and less peaceful, I would recommend their album Zeit for you (and your troubled soul).
Dear friends, it it with great sadness that I admit that I have made a great error. Above, you'll see my write-up for the album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream. However, while describing this album, I was thinking of the album Rubycon by Tangerine Dream which is *checks internet* not the same album. I have brought great shame upon me and my family, and I shall restore my family's good standing by committing seppuku.
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Okay maybe I shouldn't be that hard on myself. I usually re-listen to the albums on my list before doing the write-ups, and this time, for some stupid reason, I didn't. But no more excuses, here's a write-up of Phaedra! But I'm really talking about Phaedra this time!
Okay, so Phaedra is a high-tempo and intense electronic ambient album. Where Rubycon is a sweet and methodical album, Phaedra is pretty much the opposite.
The entire album sounds like it could've been the model for the Blade Runner score, or any sort of intense 70s sci-fi movie like Logan's Run or THX 1138. It's a quick moving piece of music that sounds like it would be mostly perfectly used in a chase sequence in a 70s adaptation of I, Robot.
It's a very good album, but is far different album than Rubycon, and I still can't believe I conflated the two albums.
Well that's all I got, sorry about the confusion!
For reference, Phaedra is still my #77 album, but here's a link to Rubycon for you.
Yes, another Twenty One Pilots album. I'm sorry if my midwesternness offends you, but you're still here, so I must be doing something right.
Regardless of your opinion of me, the midwest, music associated with the midwest, and my thread, Trench is a fantastic album that is Twenty One Pilots most accomplished album, and may be a watershed moment in their history. Though this album only came out a couple of months ago, I was immediately floored with the incredible music and variance on display, all while being completely subdued.
With Vessel and Blurryface, the sound was pretty chaotic and seemed like a schizophrenic's interpretation of popular music. The music is abrasive with clashing styles intersecting with depressing and existential lyrics to boot. While this doesn't make the music bad (Vessel is rated higher than this album, FYI) it just makes the repeated listens of the albums tedious at times. Trench is much different in that it's a very laid bad and relaxed version of Twenty One Pilots we haven't seen before.
A lot of critics are saying that Twenty One Pilots has "matured" and this album is much more "mature" than their previous albums, which I think isn't the best way to describe the album. I would say that they have refined their sound more than matured. They're essentially doing the same thing they've done on their first two albums, but must a more subdued version of their style. It's less frenetic, more condensed, and decidedly more low-key. Maturing and refining might even be the same thing in this case, but I never felt their music before this was sophomoric or immature, hence why I feel refined is the better way to describe their sound on this album.
I've recommended this album to a lot of people since it came out, and almost all of them have expressed trepidation over listening to it. On one hand I get it. It's Twenty One Pilots, they're a hot topic band, their fanbase is annoying, and I'm sure everybody has like super infuriating cousin that can't shut up about them. But on the other hand, how big is your fucking ego? Do you really think your above an artist to the point that you can mock them without ever listening to their music? Grow the fuck up. If you're going to mock something, shouldn't you at least be informed in your mocking? It doesn't make any sense. I've recommended this album to people who are always looking for new music, and they laughed when I recommended them this album. The hypocrisy in people's selective music is astounding.
Can you tell I'm upset? I might have repeated some of my rant from Vessel, but this shit really bothers me.
Anyways, Trench is a great album from a great group with an infuriatingly annoying fanbase. This may end up as my favorite in some time, but we'll see about that.
Key tracks: Morph, My Blood, Neon Gravestones, The Hype, Bandito, Legend, Leave the City.
That's the best way I could describe Sigur Rós, especially Ágætis Byrjun. I realize this may be reductive and not the most accurate characterization, but it's the first thing that popped into my head, and how I describe this to people who are tepid about listening to music from Iceland.
Regardless of my inability to properly take the time to put some genuine and heartfelt thought into giving a piece of art the proper respect it deserves, this is flat out a fantastic album. There are swirling landscapes, mighty rocking bits, and enough drones to make the NSA blush. The vocals, while incoherent (because they're singing in Icelandic, a language I don't, you know, speak) are abrasively soothing (if that makes sense).
Also, I've thought about it more, and this album is a cross between Tangerine Dream and Radiohead. This is probably a more accurate description, as TD has the electronic rock and more "out-there" aspects while also possessing the cohesion and the impressive musical composition and progression of Radiohead.
So while you may not speak Icelandic (or maybe you do, I don't know your life) that's really not imperative to enjoy the incredible album set before you.
And now we swing back around to Yes, a personal favorite artist of mine.
Yes' second album is their first truly outstanding album. Their first, while still very good, is a tad inconsistent and you can tell the group is still fleshing out how to compose their own material. Time and a Word is the whole piece of music that Yes put out, and is a slightly different album composition-wise than their "classic" period. The album is filled to the brim with lush string arrangements rounding out every piece. The integration of strings and rock music would be critical for bands ELO in the very near future.
Though Deep Purple and The Nice had done something similar before, Yes was able to accomplish this in a far more concise manner, and though they never really returned to the strings, they proved that, had they pursued this route, they could've been massively successful.
Fun fact: Despite playing zero of the music on the album, longtime guitarist Steve Howe appears on the US cover due to Peter Banks leaving almost as soon as the album was completed.
Regardless of the allotted time each member had on the album, this album is a strong piece of music from a group that went far beyond the scope of this one album.
Billy Joel is an artist that is both loved and hated. He's released several classic albums over his career, toured extensively for several decades, and put out enough classic songs to fill 3 greatest hits CDs. However, Piano Man is played enough for it to be permeated into every human's brain to be a pavlovian response whenever the first two notes are played. Also, Uptown Girl. This album falls into the former category.
Turnstiles is Billy Joel's stepping stone to the worldwide success he would find with his follow-up, The Stranger. Before Turnstiles, Joel had been wasting away in LA and found very little success despite having a hit in Piano Man (in the albeit terrible single version). He moved back to NYC and was revitalized by his familiar surroundings and thus Turnstiles is a delightfully comfortable album.
The styles are varied and a tad inconsistent, but the songs themselves are quite wonderful and my favorite Billy Joel song ever, Summer, Highland Falls, is on this album. For the longest time (unintentional pun) I didn't really pay much attention to Billy Joel other than his hits because he's a pop artist. Pop artists tend to have the shallowest discography, and their hits are most often their actual best songs. Joel is quite the exception, with a deep and rich catalog that is well on display here, with hidden gems like Angry Young Man and Summer Highland Falls, and hits like New York State of Mind and Miami 2017.
Seen the lights go out on Broadway... Saw the Empire State lay low...
for the next member who's thinking of doing this, maybe doing it in reverse, starting with the lowest ranking and slowly counting down to the best could be exciting!
Of the 15 Hip-Hop albums I've listened to (not exaggerating by much) this is by-far the most enjoyable album I've encountered. Though there are definitely "better" albums on this list, Low End Theory's light and fun music with deep and introspective lyrics that make this an album worth taking a deep dive into.
As a huge jazz fan (as evidenced by my top 100) I really appreciated all of the samples and styles of the songs. I was even taken aback by the Ron Carter billing, a bassist who has played with jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and even collaborated with Black Star a couple of years after this. The whole album glides along smoothly without any clunky stylistic shifts, and, if they wanted, could've crossfaded every song and created one continuous piece of music.
So grab a seat, lean back, take a deep rip of a fat blunt deep breath, and enjoy the ride.
Well I'm back with another album that drips with pure beauty. Freddie's vocals and lyrics, Brian's soaring guitar, Roger's thunderous drums, John's solid bass, and, of course, wondrous harmonies. It's truly incredible that Queen followed up their (now so-called) magnum opus with an album that I think is superior. The monumental expectations set before them should've been too much to surpass, but they found a way to do it.
I could talk in circles, but that wouldn't be fun. So, I'm gonna do what I did for Made in Japan and use a gif/pic to describe every song.
Tie Your Mother Down:
*Couldn't find a good clip or gif for the situation. Just think of the scene in Natural Born Killers where they kill Juliette Lewis' parents*
You Take My Breath Away:
Long Away:
Millionaire Waltz:
Read the lyrics
You And I:
Somebody to Love:
White Man:
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy:
Drowse:
Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together):
This actually took way longer than I expected. It's a great album, people. Give it a listen!
Another album in the Yes canon that absolutely kicks ass.
Coming hot off the heels of the tour for Tales from Topographic Oceans (an album I loath), and worsened by the loss of Rick Wakeman, this album could've very easily been terrible. They were burned out from massive touring, and replacing a key member of a group is never easy.
Luckily, Patrick Moraz stepped in and kept the Yes ship afloat. Relayer is a decidedly jazzier album than Yes had previously put out, but still contains that envelope pushing insanity that makes them so great.
The Gates of Delirium is especially insane, stretching over 20 minutes and featuring a lengthy instrumental section that was meant to sound as though a war was occurring. Well, mission accomplished.
Sound Chaser and To Be Over are the jazz fusion and funk inspired tracks of the album, which is a nice change of pace from previous albums. The main problem I have with Tales From Topographic Oceans (other than it's massive length) is that there is nothing unique to the tracks that differentiates themselves from the of album. On Relayer, there is a diverseness to the 3 tracks that maintain a solid cohesion.
I've always loved Yes because of their commitment to the music, and the unwillingness to compromise. The purity and magic of the music begs for repeated listens, and with each listen the music becomes more and more entrancing.
So have yourself a listen friends, and take a journey to Yes' musical landscape.
Nice pick and review! This is a relatively underrated Yes album but stands well alongside their bigger releases. Sound Chaser still never fails to amaze.
Good down home southern rock. All ya need is some Skynyrd and a Miller Lite and you're set, bud.
In all seriousness, I think Lynyrd Skynyrd is a criminally underrated band. Though they come off as stereotypical southern racists, they are actually very intelligent. Take for instance, Sweet Home Alabama, the national anthem for people who use the phrase "the south will rise again" and "it's not racist its heritage." It's actually a pointed commentary on 70s politics, as well as a big "fuck you" to Neil Young, who assumed everybody from the south was a racist idiot. In fact, you could argue that Sweet Home Alabama is the first ever diss track.
But that's not important because that song isn't even on this album.
Like REM's Murmur, Skynyrd's first album in emblematic of everything they are, and is the perfect representation of them as a group.
Skynyrd hit the ground at 100 miles an hour and they didn't stop for nuthin' at all. Whether they were musing about lost time or being free as a bird, their sound was delicate and massive simultaneously. I love this album because it's an extremely fun album to just throw on and jam to in the blistering heat.
I went to college in South Carolina, and boy, let me tell you, the southerners love them some Skynyrd, man. I started playing this album in my room one time and my roommate came in to discuss the amazingness of Skynyrd, and he stopped dead in his tracks once Tuesday's Gone came on. He then told me that he gets pretty emotional at that song because it was his uncle's favorite song and he was super close with his uncle. His uncle lived and died with Skynyrd, so I guess it makes sense he should too.
Skynyrd is highly underrated as a serious group of musicians, and they need to be given a bit more respect when discussed in the annals of music history.
I did tire of Skynyrd, especially the overplay of Sweet Home Alabama (although I'm fully on board with anyone who gives the finger to Neil Young).
That said, this is the one Skynyrd album I never tire of. so many truly outstanding cuts and even the filler holds it together nicely. Awesome album, the likes of which we may never see again.
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