part 3 of You must listen to the album below you:canon edition
by 
Mercury 
- Chart updated: 07/02/2022 01:15
- (Created: 03/15/2022 16:51).
- Chart size: 15 albums.
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I have not been in the mood for funky or soulful music recently, so getting into this and chiseling out a time to just vibe with this great artist and this album has been a long time coming. Well, I am feeling the inclination now and I am listening a couple times and my basic as basic gets thoughts can now flow forth.
This is a work of profound genius. My mind has only processed probably 10% of its details and brilliance, but I feel like I'm listening to something completely new and artistically free, utterly uninterested in compromising anything for popularity or for a hit or for slightly easier digestion. The music is Neo-Soul, sure, but it feels like this record goes to places that few others within Neo-Soul ever went. I was expecting something brilliant because it is Badu we are speaking of, but I wasn't expecting this. This album is completely unpredictable and yet it flows from one fascinating message and point and sound and style to the next with nimbleness. Politically unflinching, these songs are deeply affecting and in your face and they tackle shit that most artists wouldn't and if they did, they'd do it in a more palatable way. Badu and Co. instead just dive in bravely and brazenly.
Musically this is, again, so detailed and nearly all-encompassing it is hard to express. The usual soul and hip hop elements are here as can be expected from a Neo-Soul album. But that doesn't fully express it. There are tracks here that seem to be growing out of other songs and pulling in elements that, at first, seem too different and alien to work. But without fail those sounds grow and by the time you are in this new sound, it feels right and natural and purposeful.
All in all, the vocals and lyrics here are fabulous and inspiring. The music is equally fabulous and mindboggling. The flow is excellent. This album can be listened to as a vibe, while you write or clean or whatever, but it can also be poured over and dissected and listened to with eyes closed as you try to listen closely to every sound possible. Its an artistic achievement.
It feels like by this point in her career Badu was not interested in gaining platinum recognition, she was there at the forefront of the Neo-Soul explosion a decade or more earlier, and that was nice but she seems utterly rebellious, completely committed to the integrity of her vision and her messages and her sound. Its an amazing thing. Her other albums I've heard are also great to masterpiece level as well, and perhaps as of now I still prefer Mama's Gun, but this sounds like an extension or next stage in her music. More complex and even less interested in easy listening or I suppose more accurately, easy classification than even Mama's Gun. The albums or records I can most easily compare this to (although still very different, similar only in their unflinching sound and the tendency to float from sound to sound with no clear hook or easy description) would be D'Angelo's 2014 album Black Messiah, or perhaps J Dilla's music.
Anyway, I am underqualified after 2 listens to describe much more about what I loved or thought about this album. I think its fantastic and damn near a transcendent experience. I also am just not a good enough writer or smart enough musical mind to dissect this album even with 20 listens. It should just be experienced.
Later added thought: I just looked and she apparently hasn't released an LP since 2010. With an artist as brilliant as her I can only respect this, but man, this is a bummer. Is she just kind of done with the whole music making nonsense at this point in her life? D'Angelo similarly has a tendency to release no albums for years and years and it is amazing that these 2 artists are so connected in my mind, like the twin towers of Neo-Soul genius. I have no data on either's lives or their relationship or whether they are friends, but man can you imagine if they collaborated on an album? that would be badass. And what if they also contacted Lauryn Hill and got her out of retirement and they came together to make a double album of brilliance. Silly thought, but that is where my mind goes when I see these things. That would be the most anticipated album ever fucking made. [First added to this chart: 03/15/2022]
This is a work of profound genius. My mind has only processed probably 10% of its details and brilliance, but I feel like I'm listening to something completely new and artistically free, utterly uninterested in compromising anything for popularity or for a hit or for slightly easier digestion. The music is Neo-Soul, sure, but it feels like this record goes to places that few others within Neo-Soul ever went. I was expecting something brilliant because it is Badu we are speaking of, but I wasn't expecting this. This album is completely unpredictable and yet it flows from one fascinating message and point and sound and style to the next with nimbleness. Politically unflinching, these songs are deeply affecting and in your face and they tackle shit that most artists wouldn't and if they did, they'd do it in a more palatable way. Badu and Co. instead just dive in bravely and brazenly.
Musically this is, again, so detailed and nearly all-encompassing it is hard to express. The usual soul and hip hop elements are here as can be expected from a Neo-Soul album. But that doesn't fully express it. There are tracks here that seem to be growing out of other songs and pulling in elements that, at first, seem too different and alien to work. But without fail those sounds grow and by the time you are in this new sound, it feels right and natural and purposeful.
All in all, the vocals and lyrics here are fabulous and inspiring. The music is equally fabulous and mindboggling. The flow is excellent. This album can be listened to as a vibe, while you write or clean or whatever, but it can also be poured over and dissected and listened to with eyes closed as you try to listen closely to every sound possible. Its an artistic achievement.
It feels like by this point in her career Badu was not interested in gaining platinum recognition, she was there at the forefront of the Neo-Soul explosion a decade or more earlier, and that was nice but she seems utterly rebellious, completely committed to the integrity of her vision and her messages and her sound. Its an amazing thing. Her other albums I've heard are also great to masterpiece level as well, and perhaps as of now I still prefer Mama's Gun, but this sounds like an extension or next stage in her music. More complex and even less interested in easy listening or I suppose more accurately, easy classification than even Mama's Gun. The albums or records I can most easily compare this to (although still very different, similar only in their unflinching sound and the tendency to float from sound to sound with no clear hook or easy description) would be D'Angelo's 2014 album Black Messiah, or perhaps J Dilla's music.
Anyway, I am underqualified after 2 listens to describe much more about what I loved or thought about this album. I think its fantastic and damn near a transcendent experience. I also am just not a good enough writer or smart enough musical mind to dissect this album even with 20 listens. It should just be experienced.
Later added thought: I just looked and she apparently hasn't released an LP since 2010. With an artist as brilliant as her I can only respect this, but man, this is a bummer. Is she just kind of done with the whole music making nonsense at this point in her life? D'Angelo similarly has a tendency to release no albums for years and years and it is amazing that these 2 artists are so connected in my mind, like the twin towers of Neo-Soul genius. I have no data on either's lives or their relationship or whether they are friends, but man can you imagine if they collaborated on an album? that would be badass. And what if they also contacted Lauryn Hill and got her out of retirement and they came together to make a double album of brilliance. Silly thought, but that is where my mind goes when I see these things. That would be the most anticipated album ever fucking made. [First added to this chart: 03/15/2022]
Year of Release:
2008
Appears in:
Rank Score:
327
Rank in 2008:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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This is nice. Got slowed down on listening to this due to a couple little listening projects in recent weeks. Today I finally listened to this in full. I must say that the rock instrumentation and the more full-bodied pop rock sounds here are well done but they don’t hit me like his earlier albums. I think it reminds me most of XO but I suppose I have had more time and way more listens to that 1998 LP so that album has become more emotionally moving for me.
This album is full of the expected Smith melodies, and they are incredible. He just had a way with creating some truly amazing tunes. And, despite being draped with many layers of pop and rock and much more production work, the lyrics are brutal at times and really make things tragic sometimes right in the middle of a bright, sing-songy track. Which is dope.
I don’t have much else to say. I like this album a good deal and will return soon. [First added to this chart: 03/15/2022]
This album is full of the expected Smith melodies, and they are incredible. He just had a way with creating some truly amazing tunes. And, despite being draped with many layers of pop and rock and much more production work, the lyrics are brutal at times and really make things tragic sometimes right in the middle of a bright, sing-songy track. Which is dope.
I don’t have much else to say. I like this album a good deal and will return soon. [First added to this chart: 03/15/2022]
Year of Release:
2000
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,512
Rank in 2000:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Okay, I get not really beingi nto Grind and wanting to nominate things you have a bit more love for. It just so happens this is a pretty damn extreme screamo album, so it is a nice appetizer for other more absurd stuff like Nasum. Anyway, where next?...
Okay, so this is as I said an extreme screamo bordering on emoviolence album from a pretty iconic screamo band. This is punk as hell, abrasive, emotive, with some surprisingly sick playing as well. These folks can play the shit out of their instruments and, as the opening sample spoken word mentions, this is good and full of passion. So it works.
It's 27 minutes of pretty cool and passionate stuff. I can't say I loved it. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to appreciate it and at times the guitars and the drums were a bit TOO clattery and messy. And the screamo vocals, while being damn great and exemplary for the style, were rubbing me the wrong way while I listened to this a couple times yesterday.
Still, if you like emocore or emo or screamo or post hardcore or or or ... you should check this out if you haven't already as it is some of the most viscerally passionate and intense shit that I have heard within that umbrella of related genres. There is a bit of a screamo revival happening the last couple years and I have heard a lot of those more recent albums and generally liked them a lot (hell just last year one of my fave albums was the new Dreamwell), so it was great hearing one of the older and very influential bands and albums in that genre's history. [First added to this chart: 03/15/2022]
Okay, so this is as I said an extreme screamo bordering on emoviolence album from a pretty iconic screamo band. This is punk as hell, abrasive, emotive, with some surprisingly sick playing as well. These folks can play the shit out of their instruments and, as the opening sample spoken word mentions, this is good and full of passion. So it works.
It's 27 minutes of pretty cool and passionate stuff. I can't say I loved it. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to appreciate it and at times the guitars and the drums were a bit TOO clattery and messy. And the screamo vocals, while being damn great and exemplary for the style, were rubbing me the wrong way while I listened to this a couple times yesterday.
Still, if you like emocore or emo or screamo or post hardcore or or or ... you should check this out if you haven't already as it is some of the most viscerally passionate and intense shit that I have heard within that umbrella of related genres. There is a bit of a screamo revival happening the last couple years and I have heard a lot of those more recent albums and generally liked them a lot (hell just last year one of my fave albums was the new Dreamwell), so it was great hearing one of the older and very influential bands and albums in that genre's history. [First added to this chart: 03/15/2022]
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I found it hard to get through this album. It was partially because this is 2 hours and 25 minutes. Partially because this is some deeeeeply disturbing and harsh and pained and brutal music - for 2 and a half hours?!? Partially because this album (unlike other TODAY IS THE DAY albums I am learning from listening to their other LPs from same era) is very very roughly and jadedly and gratingly recorded. Part of the reason for having a hard time finishing this is it is a classic example of a double album, or in this case, triple album - their are long droning songs and there are short tracks that seemingly have no purpose and are there simply as a garnish or something. Etc etc etc... But I listened in full once. I may come back to this when I have explored more fully their back catalogue. This may be an album that is revered by fans of this band because this is their culmination point in styule and development. Or maybe if I understand more about where this brutally hateful, anguished, pitch-black sound and emotion comes from I will more fully appreciate it. But as of now, I don't love this. Nor did I really even *like* big portions of it.
The production as I mentioned is sharp and grating and tough on my ears. But the music is generally pretty great. This is a band that experiments with so much varying soundscapes and mixes them well. The sludge is just so fucking punishing and brutal, the grindy and faster stuff is suitably intense and scathing, the noisey and noise rock parts are off-kilter and unusual, the whole vibe is dark and psychotic and self-destructive/loathing. And its a truly EPIC album that thoroughly delves into these deep, disturbing emotional pits. The music matches the words and vocals and mood beautifully.
Yeah, anyway, so this album while not my fave, did the job of getting me interested in this band and I have enjoyed their other, shorter, more clean and beautifully produced albums. I suspect I'll return to this big one later and enjoy it more with greater familiarity with the whole style and artistic vision of the group.
The production as I mentioned is sharp and grating and tough on my ears. But the music is generally pretty great. This is a band that experiments with so much varying soundscapes and mixes them well. The sludge is just so fucking punishing and brutal, the grindy and faster stuff is suitably intense and scathing, the noisey and noise rock parts are off-kilter and unusual, the whole vibe is dark and psychotic and self-destructive/loathing. And its a truly EPIC album that thoroughly delves into these deep, disturbing emotional pits. The music matches the words and vocals and mood beautifully.
Yeah, anyway, so this album while not my fave, did the job of getting me interested in this band and I have enjoyed their other, shorter, more clean and beautifully produced albums. I suspect I'll return to this big one later and enjoy it more with greater familiarity with the whole style and artistic vision of the group.
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Sorry I was away so long. A series of distractions later, here I am again. So... this is a compilation of Asterisk's lone LP released in 2000 as well as some EPs including their half of a split EP with Nasum in 2000 and their half of a split EP with Jenny Piccolo in 2001. Some other stuff too I think. Anyway, its a nice over view of this band that existed for a few years in 1999 through early 2000s. This is 41 tracks in 42 minutes (classic grindcore pacing).
The sound at first (the first half is their debut album) is insanely aggressive and noisy as hell and harsh grindcore with a similar agitated, complex start-strop dynamic as Discordance Axis. There are some really nifty riffs when they change shit up, and when they get kind of avant garde and move away from the screeching fast-as-humanly-possible-grind. The occasional blasts of harsh noise is sometimes quite fun and refreshing and sometimes a bit annoying. The annoying bits (just like with everything) come and go fast so I can't say I was spending a good portion of my time annoyed with this beast of an album/comp. The debut album overall is pretty stellar eccentric, agitated, wildly mercurial grind/noise/avant garde/artsy weirdness and I liked it.
In the second half, when this album covers the post-LP EP stuff, is when for me this album surprised me even more and I think I may enjoy the last 40-50% a bit more. Its more adventurous and while still laying the grind on thick plenty, there are even more moments when the band seems to just say "fuck it - we aren't a grind band exclusively, lets explore this weird noodly riff or time signature". And in those moments I felt almost in awe of how creative and talented the musicians here were/are.
Overall, very cool. I put this off because I was feeling a bit daunted by 41 minutes of noise and grind along with the aforementioned distarctions. But I am glad I finally just sat down and listened top this a couple times today. Highly recommended to Discordance Axis or Knoll or Full of Hell or even Today Is The Day fans... or anyone who really just wants to listen to music so erratic and unpredictable that you end up listening on the edge of your seat.
3.75 to 4.1/5
The sound at first (the first half is their debut album) is insanely aggressive and noisy as hell and harsh grindcore with a similar agitated, complex start-strop dynamic as Discordance Axis. There are some really nifty riffs when they change shit up, and when they get kind of avant garde and move away from the screeching fast-as-humanly-possible-grind. The occasional blasts of harsh noise is sometimes quite fun and refreshing and sometimes a bit annoying. The annoying bits (just like with everything) come and go fast so I can't say I was spending a good portion of my time annoyed with this beast of an album/comp. The debut album overall is pretty stellar eccentric, agitated, wildly mercurial grind/noise/avant garde/artsy weirdness and I liked it.
In the second half, when this album covers the post-LP EP stuff, is when for me this album surprised me even more and I think I may enjoy the last 40-50% a bit more. Its more adventurous and while still laying the grind on thick plenty, there are even more moments when the band seems to just say "fuck it - we aren't a grind band exclusively, lets explore this weird noodly riff or time signature". And in those moments I felt almost in awe of how creative and talented the musicians here were/are.
Overall, very cool. I put this off because I was feeling a bit daunted by 41 minutes of noise and grind along with the aforementioned distarctions. But I am glad I finally just sat down and listened top this a couple times today. Highly recommended to Discordance Axis or Knoll or Full of Hell or even Today Is The Day fans... or anyone who really just wants to listen to music so erratic and unpredictable that you end up listening on the edge of your seat.
3.75 to 4.1/5
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Somehow I had forgotten that Tragedy was composed of previous members of the seminal 1990s crust punk band His Hero Is Gone. When I discovered this or connected the dots, I was quite excited. And after 2.5 listens, I am not majorly disappointed. This is not on the same level of mind-blowing excellence as His Hero Is Gone's masterpiece, Monuments to Thieves. BUT it is some melodic, anthemic, atmospheric and slapping crusty punk.
The sound is soooo thick. The bass is this rumbling omnipresent beast. The guitar tones are these thick slabs of melodic hardcore beauty. The vocals are standard impassioned Hardcore vocals. The flow of the album is consistent to both a plus and a minus - a plus because the sound is style is so engaging and energized and the atmosphere is so dope that wanting them to radically change it is not present with me. A minus because there isn't too much variation or explorative change ups, which can make for a less inspired and relistenable LP.
Overall, this sound is made for me and my tastes quite nicely. This is just dark, brooding, epic hardcore with some crusty sludge sounds especially in the bass and riff work. My main gripe (if this can be called a gripe) is for something labeled Crust Punk and for an album created by people who just 4 or 5 years earlier created Fifteen Covnts of of Arson and Monuments to Thieves, this sounds quite clean, produced and contained. There is a trade off when you get more produced and clear and clean and melodic. When this happens it makes for some really engrossing and badass music. But also, especially for this genre, this cleanness can undercut the overall experience.
Anyway, what I will close with is saying if you want some epic, sludgy, thick hardcore sounds that will potentially amp you up and make even the smallest tasks seem like fucking acts of resistance, listen to this and maybe you will be satisfied. Its a good 'un.
Idk, i'd give this like a 3.7-3.8/5 on the RYM scale (actual rating is 3.5 there). And a 77 on BEA (actual score given is 80 - I know mathematically this makes no sense.
The sound is soooo thick. The bass is this rumbling omnipresent beast. The guitar tones are these thick slabs of melodic hardcore beauty. The vocals are standard impassioned Hardcore vocals. The flow of the album is consistent to both a plus and a minus - a plus because the sound is style is so engaging and energized and the atmosphere is so dope that wanting them to radically change it is not present with me. A minus because there isn't too much variation or explorative change ups, which can make for a less inspired and relistenable LP.
Overall, this sound is made for me and my tastes quite nicely. This is just dark, brooding, epic hardcore with some crusty sludge sounds especially in the bass and riff work. My main gripe (if this can be called a gripe) is for something labeled Crust Punk and for an album created by people who just 4 or 5 years earlier created Fifteen Covnts of of Arson and Monuments to Thieves, this sounds quite clean, produced and contained. There is a trade off when you get more produced and clear and clean and melodic. When this happens it makes for some really engrossing and badass music. But also, especially for this genre, this cleanness can undercut the overall experience.
Anyway, what I will close with is saying if you want some epic, sludgy, thick hardcore sounds that will potentially amp you up and make even the smallest tasks seem like fucking acts of resistance, listen to this and maybe you will be satisfied. Its a good 'un.
Idk, i'd give this like a 3.7-3.8/5 on the RYM scale (actual rating is 3.5 there). And a 77 on BEA (actual score given is 80 - I know mathematically this makes no sense.
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part 3 of You must listen to the album below you:canon edition composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1970s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1980s | 2 | 13% | |
| 1990s | 4 | 27% | |
| 2000s | 6 | 40% | |
| 2010s | 3 | 20% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Assück | 1 | 7% | |
| Lord Snow | 1 | 7% | |
| Erykah Badu | 1 | 7% | |
| Today Is The Day | 1 | 7% | |
| Elliott Smith | 1 | 7% | |
| Asterisk* | 1 | 7% | |
| The Pogues | 1 | 7% | |
| Show all | |||
part 3 of You must listen to the album below you:canon edition chart changes
| New entries |
|---|
| Solitude by Lord Snow |
| Sadness Will Prevail by Today Is The Day |
| Dogma by Asterisk* |
| Vengeance by Tragedy (2000s) |
| Relatives In Descent by Protomartyr |
part 3 of You must listen to the album below you:canon edition similarity to your chart(s)
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