Music: Last Album You Listened to and Rate It II

[Spring in Fialta]

Top 20 that can change on a whim depending on mood. I had gotten to around 45 songs already, realized I had forgotten songs that should have been higher and even entire bands that I loved and just scrapped it. I really don't know how other posters can do it. I'm not even confident in that 20 (perhaps only the first 10 is really solidified).

1. Peon by Captain Beefheart - Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)
2. Heroin by The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
3. Venus in Furs by The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
4. Tape Kebab by Can - The John Peel Sessions (1974)
5. Ceremony by Joy Division - Single (1980)
6. Golden Hours by Brian Eno - Another Green World (1975)
7. Leave Me Alone by New Order - Power, Lies & Corruption (1983)
8. Oh Yeah by Can - Tago Mago (1971)
9. Burning Airlines Give You So Much More by Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain (1974)
10. Tommorow Never Knows by The Beatles - Revolver (1966)
11. Candle Mambo by Captain Beefheart - Shiny Beast (1978)
12. Blown a Wish by My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
13. I Believe in You by Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden (1988)
14. When I See Mommy I Feel like a Mummy by Captain Beefheart - Shiny Beast (1978)
15. Transmission by Joy Division - Single (1979)
16. Veridis Quo by Daft Punk - Discovery (2001)
16. Nathalie by Jean Leloup - L'amour est sans pitié (1990)
17. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (45 rpm edit) by Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1970)
18. Everything in Its Right Place by Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
19. Sang D'Encre by Jean Leloup - Le Dôme (1996)
20. Flavor Bud Living by Captain Beefheart - Doc at the Radar Station (1980)

 

[Shareefruck]

I've only listened to a few tracks from them and the only one's that really blew me away were Memories and Swan Lake, with Memories I think besting any Sex Pistols songs.

And yeah, personally I don't think there's a false note on Another Green World. My favorite tracks are Golden Hours, Another Green World, St.Elmo's Fire and Sky Saw.

By the way, how the hell did Venus in Furs shoot up so high and Heroin plummet so low? I remember them being in the conpletely opposite positions when you made a ranking of VU tracks. They're my two favorites, though.

It might just be that I've listened to Heroin a million times and have always found it really accessible, whereas Venus in Furs used to be something I was more impressed by but found challenging/daunting and less instantly infectious. I've been listening to it more and warming up to the sound. There's barely any separation between alot of the tracks on the list, though (especially beyond the top 10-15).

Metal Box has fewer individual standouts than something like Unknown Pleasures, but I prefer the way it sounds and feels overall. It has more of a crisp, minimalistic no wave feel, which I prefer.

I don't think there's a weak track on Another Green World either. I think what it is about Sombre Reptiles that feels arbitrarily disrupting to me is that it reminds me of a videogame theme or something (Cosmo Canyon theme from Final Fantasy VII?). I think that the thing that grabs me about Another Green World, even more than the ambient side of it, is the burpy/bassy post-punk feel of Sky Saw, Over Fire Island, and In Dark Trees.

 

[aufheben]

Metal Box has fewer individual standouts than something like Unknown Pleasures, but I prefer the way it sounds and feels overall. It has more of a crisp, minimalistic no wave feel, which I prefer.

Brilliant record on all fronts, but just absolutely f***ing miserable to listen to.

Another Green World (1975) by Brian Eno - Not my first spin but it's the one I had spun the less out of Brian Eno's mid 70s three-peat. It shot up past Taking Tiger Mountain for me and Golden Hours has surpassed Burning Airlines Give You So Much More as my favorite Brian Eno song. Just a perfect, seamless record which soothes you with beautiful melodies, but never leaves you itchin and yearning for more despite it's often minimalist aesthetic. Just cradles you like you were a sleepy child. I think I've also recognized my new favorite song lyric ever, too.

'' The passage of time
Is flicking dimly up on the screen ''

Beautiful imagery.

Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols (1977) by The Sex Pistols - I had never thought much of them but I decided to give this one another spin after a discussion about punk music. It really grew on me and I didn't remember the music being as tight (despite the sloppy aesthetic) as it was and Lydon's voice is a pleasure. Great manic energy too. I was surprised by the actual musicianship. Better than I've heard people give credit for previously, including me.

Yeah, whatever one may think about Sid Vicious, Malcom McLaren, or just the entire "punk" aesthetic, Never Mind the Bollocks is actually an awesome album. It is often not just underrated, but also when promoted, it's usually for the wrong reasons.

 

[Shareefruck]

Brilliant record on all fronts, but just absolutely ****ing miserable to listen to.

Maybe this is all revealing evidence that I'm secretly a sociopath and I'm just unaware of it or something, but for some reason I've never related to the whole "you have to be in the right mood for it/it can be mentally draining/it's great but makes me feel miserable/depressed afterwards" thing. Personally, I'm always in the mood for albums like Closer and Metal Box and come out of them beaming with unbridled enthusiasm and joy.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

It might just be that I've listened to Heroin a million times and have always found it really accessible, whereas Venus in Furs used to be something I was more impressed by but found challenging/daunting and less instantly infectious. I've been listening to it more and warming up to the sound. There's barely any separation between alot of the tracks on the list, though (especially beyond the top 10-15).

Metal Box has fewer individual standouts than something like Unknown Pleasures, but I prefer the way it sounds and feels overall. It has more of a crisp, minimalistic no wave feel, which I prefer.

I don't think there's a weak track on Another Green World either. I think what it is about Sombre Reptiles that feels arbitrarily disrupting to me is that it reminds me of a videogame theme or something (Cosmo Canyon theme from Final Fantasy VII?). I think that the thing that grabs me about Another Green World, even more than the ambient side of it, is the burpy/bassy post-punk feel of Sky Saw, Over Fire Island, and In Dark Trees.

Man, I tried doing a long list. Impossible. Not because I like or know so much music, but just because I always forget something and end up getting frustrated and figuratively flipping the table over. But yeah, I'll end up giving it a full spin. I can just be lazy about it. By the way, have you ever listened to Talk Talk? I think their last 2 or 3 albums might be something that's up your alley, if you haven't checked it out already. Venus in Furs was also Sterling Morrison's VU song. I think he put it nicely when that song is the one song that exemplifies everything the VU had set out to achieve, sonically. It's hard to put into words, but when listening to the song, sonically, I think the statement makes perfect sense, in contrast with the rest of their songs.

I agree that Sombre Reptiles is one of the least good tracks on the album - and really the 2nd side, outside of Golden Hours - isn't as strong as the first.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Brilliant record on all fronts, but just absolutely ****ing miserable to listen to.

Yeah, whatever one may think about Sid Vicious, Malcom McLaren, or just the entire "punk" aesthetic, Never Mind the Bollocks is actually an awesome album. It is often not just underrated, but also when promoted, it's usually for the wrong reasons.

Yeah, I'm really not big on punk, personally - although I've had an unabashed major love for Last Caress by The Misfits since I've been like 12 years old - but it's a really infectious record.

 

[aufheben]

Maybe this is all revealing evidence that I'm secretly a sociopath and I'm just unaware of it or something, but for some reason I've never related to the whole "you have to be in the right mood for it/it can be mentally draining/it's great but makes me feel miserable/depressed afterwards" thing. Personally, I'm always in the mood for albums like Closer and Metal Box and come out of them beaming with unbridled enthusiasm and joy.

I don't think there even is a mood for Metal Box. It's like listening to severe mental illness, which is impressive in itself. To me it's more a piece of art than music. The drums, bass, guitar, Lydon, everything sounds terrific in themselves. But hearing it all together, plus the repetitive beats, basslines, and songs, it's just totally disorienting. It's weird, definitely an album which I think is great, but hate listening to lol.

Yeah, I'm really not big on punk, personally - although I've had an unabashed major love for Last Caress by The Misfits since I've been like 12 years old - but it's a really infectious record.

I would not trust any person who didn't think that song just rocks.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Maybe this is all revealing evidence that I'm secretly a sociopath and I'm just unaware of it or something, but for some reason I've never related to the whole "you have to be in the right mood for it/it can be mentally draining/it's great but makes me feel miserable/depressed afterwards" thing. Personally, I'm always in the mood for albums like Closer and Metal Box and come out of them beaming with unbridled enthusiasm and joy.

I've never actually understood listening to music that makes you feel depressed. Why listen to it if you get no joy out of it? Or perhaps, we get joy out of that misery and the music helps to elevate it, but I don't want to go down a Dostoyevsky path in this thread.

 

[aufheben]

I've never actually understood listening to music that makes you feel depressed. Why listen to it if you get no joy out of it? Or perhaps, we get joy out of that misery and the music helps to elevate it, but I don't want to go down a Dostoyevsky path in this thread.

Personally, it's about relating to the music. Sometimes that relationship can be more comforting than countering it with upbeat music.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Personally, it's about relating to the music. Sometimes that relationship can be more comforting than countering it with upbeat music.

I mean, but isn't that still joy? The comfort that comes with relating to the music? Yeah, you may still feel like garbage, but do you feel as garbage as much after listening to the music? I'd have a hard time understanding responding with the affirmative and still indulging yourself with the music.

I mean, it's kind of like movies. Even when life seems terrible on a TV screen, on a record, or in a book, it still seems better or more enthralling at least, than the real life we're all stuck with, despite how terrible the things portrayed in art actually are.

 

[Shareefruck]

I've never actually understood listening to music that makes you feel depressed. Why listen to it if you get no joy out of it? Or perhaps, we get joy out of that misery and the music helps to elevate it, but I don't want to go down a Dostoyevsky path in this thread.

One of the reasons I like art in the first place is because there can be a sort of strangely liberating beauty in expression of bleak, nihilistic, and unsavory but honest ideas-- it's sort of centering and helps me stop feeling depressed about facing that stuff, if anything.

It's closer to a grounding/coping tool than something that ever puts me in a worse mood.

But yeah, if it's actually depressing torture porn and the point of it is to make you feel bad, I couldn't care less if it's a respectable or well-made work.

 

[aufheben]

I've never actually understood listening to music that makes you feel depressed. Why listen to it if you get no joy out of it? Or perhaps, we get joy out of that misery and the music helps to elevate it, but I don't want to go down a Dostoyevsky path in this thread.

^ Should clarify, (still using Joy Division as an example): I don't only listen to them when I'm depressed. That band was able to create such a powerful space emotionally and aesthetically, sometimes you just want to be in that space. And while Joy Division is almost as far as you an get from upbeat, their catalog contains a whole expansive and icy world of love, shadows, monotony, nothingness, industrialization, grief, alienation, and mania. In other words, there is just a lot more there than just sadness.

Sometimes it's not even about a mood, it's just about listening to brilliant songs.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

^ Should clarify, (still using Joy Division as an example): I don't only listen to them when I'm depressed. That band was able to create such a powerful space emotionally and aesthetically, sometimes you just want to be in that space. And while Joy Division is almost as far as you an get from upbeat, their catalog contains a whole expansive and icy world of love, shadows, monotony, nothingness, industrialization, grief, alienation, and mania. In other words, there is just a lot more there than just sadness.

Sometimes it's not even about a mood, it's just about listening to brilliant songs.

I agree completely. The clarification really helped.

 

[aufheben]

I mean, but isn't that still joy? The comfort that comes with relating to the music? Yeah, you may still feel like garbage, but do you feel as garbage as much after listening to the music? I'd have a hard time understanding responding with the affirmative and still indulging yourself with the music.

I mean, it's kind of like movies. Even when life seems terrible on a TV screen, on a record, or in a book, it still seems better or more enthralling at least, than the real life we're all stuck with, despite how terrible the things portrayed in art actually are.

Hmm, I think you're on to a good point here, although that's a question for the philosophers.

This is honestly the first time I've thought that far into describing Joy Division in detail. They've always been to me just a tangible place, and I've been listening to them for so long, and from such an early age, that they've become of part of me, like several other bands have.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Hmm, I think you're on to a good point here, although that's a question for the philosophers.

I don't know if you've ever read Notes from Underground but my mind immediately went to Dostoyevsky writing about a man with a painful toothache finding a certain joy and happiness in it through the pain his moans inflict on others and himself.

 

[aufheben]

I don't know if you've ever read Notes from Underground but my mind immediately went to Dostoyevsky writing about a man with a painful toothache finding a certain joy and happiness in it through the pain his moans inflict on another and himself.

I have, The Brothers Karamazov is one of my all-time favorites, although the last time I read it was probably seven years ago, at least.

Edit: side-note: this conversation just made me chuckle, as I'm currently listening to (and writing a couple words about) The Dirt of Luck (1995) by Helium, lol

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I have, The Brothers Karamazov is one of my all-time favorites, although the last time I read it was probably seven years ago, at least.

Edit: side-note: this conversation just made me chuckle, as I'm currently listening to (and writing a couple words about) The Dirt of Luck (1995) by Helium, lol

Yeah, I've always been interested in tackling the big one's from Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy as I'm very fond of their shorter works but between work, life and my own little endeavors I don't think I have the necessary amount of time to dedicate myself to the work it would take to truly relish the experience. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is another and I actually own a copy of that one. I've always felt his The Depressed Person to be one of the greatest short stories I ever read.

With that said, @Shareefruck, I listened to Metal Box in full. I enjoyed it but found it kind of uneven, finding the long tracks too long for what they were doing and not engaging enough to make it Worth it. Memories and Careering are spectacular tracks though, particularly the latter.

 

[aufheben]

The Dirt of Luck (1995) by Helium - 3.5/5

Depressed by the current state of the world? Nostalgic for the 1990's? Add to blender: 1 cup ice, 1 part Garbage, 1 part Pavement, handful of Xanax; blend; out pours Helium, topped with a cocktail umbrella.

Yeah, I've always been interested in tackling the big one's from Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy as I'm very fond of their shorter works but between work, life and my own little endeavors I don't think I have the necessary amount of time to dedicate myself to the work it would take to truly relish the experience. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is another and I actually own a copy of that one. I've always felt his The Depressed Person to be one of the greatest short stories I ever read.

With that said, @Shareefruck, I listened to Metal Box in full. I enjoyed it but found it kind of uneven, finding the long tracks too long for what they were doing and not engaging enough to make it Worth it. Memories and Careering are spectacular tracks though, particularly the latter.

Funny you mention that, I was about to say after reading Infinite Jest, not much else seems too daunting lol.

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

I think Memories is probably the best song on Metal Box... or Second Edition, I guess, cause that's the one I have. That album sounds like pretty much nothing else I've ever heard, and it proves that John Lydon is one of the greatest singers of all time.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I think Memories is probably the best song on Metal Box... or Second Edition, I guess, cause that's the one I have. That album sounds like pretty much nothing else I've ever heard, and it proves that John Lydon is one of the greatest singers of all time.

Oh yeah, the more I listen to John Lydon the more his voice blows me away.

 

[Shareefruck]

I was actually pretty dismissive of Lydon until I heard this album-- now he's one of my favorites. Jah Wobble's bass is perfect for that album too.

I love and think I prefer the single version of Memories-- it doesn't have the alternating bass effects, which I find needlessly distracting.


I also think that the single version of Death Disco sounds far superior than the album version as well. Cleaner, more raw, and more scathing.

With that said, @Shareefruck, I listened to Metal Box in full. I enjoyed it but found it kind of uneven, finding the long tracks too long for what they were doing and not engaging enough to make it Worth it. Memories and Careering are spectacular tracks though, particularly the latter.

Gaah, that's too bad. Personally, I prefer when songs with simple ideas are lengthened and given time to breathe and hypnotize. If Tomorrow Never Knows was lengthened to four or five minutes rather than kept concise as possible, I'd probably love it even more.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I was actually pretty dismissive of Lydon until I heard this album-- now he's one of my favorites. Jah Wobble's bass is perfect for that album too.

I love and think I prefer the single version of Memories-- it doesn't have the alternating bass effects, which I find needlessly distracting.


I also think that the single version of Death Disco sounds far superior than the album version as well. Cleaner, more raw, and more scathing.

Gaah, that's too bad. Personally, I prefer when songs with simple ideas are lengthened and given time to breathe and hypnotize. If Tomorrow Never Knows was lengthened to four or five minutes rather than kept concise as possible, I'd probably love it even more.

I'll give it another shot soon enough. But while not as repetitive as Hallogallo, the feeling it gave me as was kind of similar. But John Lydon's voice is special enough that I'll go back to it. Ever tried Talk Talk?

 

[Shareefruck]

Dreamtime Return by Steve Roach - 1.5 (Neutral)
First try.... it was alright-- the tribal angle isn't as effective as when Jon Hassell does it, and there appeared to be some new-age-y things happening on it that seemed to put me off. I tried this because I loved Structures From Silence and this was just as highly praised, but I'm not really feeling it.

I was pretty quickly dismissive of it, though, so maybe I'll revisit it some time.

I'll give it another shot soon enough. But while not as repetitive as Hallogallo, the feeling it gave me as was kind of similar. But John Lydon's voice is special enough that I'll go back to it. Ever tried Talk Talk?

Minimalistic repetition is bar none the thing that I gravitate towards most in music (can kind of tell from the list ).

Oh yeah, I completely forgot to respond to that. Yeah, I'm familiar with Talk Talk. I think they're excellent and their songs/albums are immaculately made, but they're firmly in that second or third tier for me, primarily because Mark Hollis' voice doesn't work that well for me (it has this mopey, wrenching, ghostly quality that puts me off for some reason.... similar to the way that Thom Yorke's does, but not as severe). I think Spirit of Eden is my favorite album of theirs.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Eyehategod - Take As Needed For Pain

9/10

 

[Spring in Fialta]

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel (1998) - Utterly boring and unengaging. There were a few songs that I liked and added unto my spotify playlist and I can't even remember their names. Modern folk music (and even 60s folk to a certain extent) really isn't my cup of tea at this point. Will probably end up trying it again sometime soon, considering the acclaim.

Low by David Bowie (1977) - Excellent, albeit with a couple of misfires (I tend to find Bowie hit and miss, personally), with Warszawa being the most striking one IMO, despite the Eno connection. I was blown away by the instrumental tracks, though, with that subtle electronic sound that serves as a tasteful pinch of salt under the layers of rather straight-forward and dominant rock arrangements. Speed of Life and A New Career in a New Town are my favorites.