My Top Albums (now numbered & ranked!!!)
Submitted by AsColdAsIce on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 03:22
Tags:
- Alright, I've decided to start ranking them, and I'll use Scaruffi's numbering system loosely. Anything not numbered, I haven't decided on yet, and there are plenty more to put up.
- Also, albums 7.5 or lower are generally great albums, but are lacking in something, maybe emotion, or heart, or more killer songs, or are too patchy as a whole.
- ***
- 9.5
- The Doors - The Doors
- 9.0
- Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
- Sasha and Digweed - Northern Exposure
- 8.75
- The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
- Slint - Spiderland
- 8.5
- The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
- DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
- Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers - One Hot Minute
- 8.25
- _Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
- King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
- The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground and Nico
- 8.0
- Electric Six - Fire
- Faust - Faust
- Butthole Surfers - Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
- John Frusciante - To Record Only Water For 10 Days
- 7.5
- Aglaia - Three Organic Experiences
- Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principles
- Talking Heads - Remain in Light
- Banco De Gaia - Last Train To Lhasa
- Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of the Stars of the Lid
- *****
- Below are the descriptions of albums that I have done so far.
- Electric Six - Fire
- Genre:
- Pop Rock Disco
- Year:
- 2003
- My Review:
- I don’t listen to much modern music, but Electric Six are one band that rocks my socks off, with their mishmash of rock, pop, disco and EDM perfectly formed on their debut album Fire.
- Fire is fun personified. Nothing more, nothing less. Every song is catchy, rocking, and will make you want to dance, jump around, singing “FIRE IN THE… TACO BELL”.
- It’s hard to pick out what’s wrong with Fire. The guitars are brilliant, the bassing is funky, the drumming hard, and the vocals…. Dick Valentine’s voice is hilarious. All the falsetto singing and witty and sometimes downright childish lyrics you can handle. I mean, one of the songs is called Naked Pictures…. Of Your Mother!
- This is what all pop rock should be like. I picked this up really cheap on holiday, and I’m extremely glad that I did.
- One Hot Minute - Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Genre:
- Psychedelic Rock/Alternate Rock
- Year:
- 1995
- My Review:
- The Chili’s are my favourite band, due to a great back catalogue of albums, as well as what I consider their peak; One Hot Minute.
- Now, this album is unloved by most, even hardcore RHCP fans (who should be hating their recent crap instead, but I digress). Why? Because it “deviates too much from what they were being before”, or “Dave Navarro doesn’t fit the band”. Now that is totally unfounded, because One Hot Minute is a great album, in fact, probably their best.
- The thing I like most about OHM is the diversity in the song styles. Several sub genres of rock are represented, from psychedelic (Warped, Deep Kick), to hard rock (Coffee Shop), to the standard Chilli’s funk (Aeroplane, Walkabout). Hell, they even throw in some awesome ballads, which I usually abhor (Tearjerker, Transcending). And of course, all are done extremely well, and the drumming is a feature, showing what a talented drummer Chad Smith is.
- This is one album I can never get sick of, or lose interest in. I must have heard it nigh on 100 times at least, and it still sounds as good as the first time. Get OHM to see what great things the Chili’s were up to before John Frusciante ruined the band.
- Northern Exposure – Sasha & Digweed
- Genre:
- Classic Trance / Ambient Breaks
- Year:
- 1996
- My Review:
- Quite simply, the greatest trance album ever.
- The two discs are perfect in every way, in different ways. With Disc 1, it's the constant meandering, the jungle sounds, the calm aura, held together by brilliantly unobtrusive breaks. The songs invoke a feeling of nature, a glide through a misty forest at night, a dip in a cool stream, a flight through a primitive Earth Eden.
- While Disc 2 isn't as breathtaking as Disc 1, it is somehow mixed even more masterly. If Disc 1 is the wild power of nature at its greatest, Disc 2 is a tale of the corruption of man. I can almost sense the melancholy in "Sound System", as man enters the world, and starts to become the dominant force of the planet. The next few songs have a much more malicious edge as such, and as the CD goes on, we get a view of the destroyed environment ("Heliopolis" remix) and a look into the progression into outer space ("Plan 94"), before ending up in the technological future ("Dark and Long"). Evolution documented in two CDs of bliss.
- Which songs are my favourites? They are all extremely good, but Dark and Long, Out of Body Experience and These Waves are the stand-outs for me. While Northern Exposure is both hard to find and expensive (I still don't have a copy), I implore you to pick up a copy. You'll thank me later.
Neu! is quite underrated and simply essential... Do not hesitate to purchase Neu!zwei and Neu!78 if you have the luck of finding them in shops.
So you mean the two Neu! albums after 75?
There was only one after 75, it was 4, and it's really kind of unfinished. 75 is the best in my opinion.
Then what the hell is the guy above me talking about?
I've got Neu! 4, I may give a listen later today.
As far as I know, Neu! was 72, Neu!2 was '73, and Neu!75 of course was '75. There was a live album that came out but it really sucks - much better (and easier to find) is the Bremmen Radio show with Kraftwerk in '71 I think. If you really want more, Neu! 4 is okay, there's a few good tracks there and a lot of repitition (clearly, it was never finished). You may want to check into the La Dusseldorf albums though (especially VIVA)
Yeah, I'll have to track down some La Dusseldorf and that radio show.
Hey, great reviews (especially Northern Exposure), and excellent list. You seem to see music in a similar way to how I do.
Cheers for the kind words, but I have you to thank for my musical tastes.
You've seriously introduced me to good trance, house and EDM in general, as well as Faust and the Orb, as well as listology in general.
I somehow feel that without your lists, I'd still be into Groove Coverage :).
Great list, And so you have introduced some great electronic albums to me. I'm an amateur in electronic music, I've heard just some, like Underworld and U.F.Orb by The Orb. By the way, what do you think of U.F.Orb ?
U.F.Orb is really good, and will definately be on the list when I get a hold on it, which should only be a few more listens. Maybe 7.5 or so?