Okay, 111 titles covered so far of the 500 so 22.2% of the total. I have in my personal Top 50 just 14 titles of the 111 or only 12.6%. At that rate when the 500 are reviewed I will have 63 titles to chose from for my Top 50. Slim pickens from previous lists like this but I still like playing the game all the same...
I am a Fan of Danger Mouse, especially his Broken Bells Albums. Somehow, this Album slipped by me, but I am behind checking out several Albums released during the past few years. Looking forward to given Cheat Codes several listens.
Cheat Codes There's quite some interesting stuff going on with the music and the background sounds, but the monotonous rapping is a turn off, which I did with this album about half way through.
Thoughts on some of the recent albums: Wipers - Youth of America A bridge taking some of the elements of punk, presaging and influencing what would come later in the decade and the early 90s. A breakneck and thrilling album; the title track always feels a hell of a short ten-and-a-half minutes of music. The sinister 'Pushing the Extreme' is another highlight. Immolation - Close to a World Below Impressive technically but the vocals sound so generic - I'm not much a fan of the extreme end of the metal genre and if I am to listen to an album like this, I want it to at least hint at some underlying evil and malice. This makes the list over Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas for example? I'm not having it. Rainbow - Rising This has long been a favourite album. Sure, like a lot of hard rock it can feel dated, accentuated by Dio's Dungeons and Dragons lyrical approach. But there isn't a minute of this album I don't enjoy, and it's one of the few that I have a clear memory of both hearing for the first time and having a visceral reaction to - a 5am insomniac moment where I lay on the sofa entranced by it from start to finish. 'Stargazer' topped only by 'Gates of Babylon' on the follow-up. Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes Some recency bias here perhaps. I would expect it to drop in the passage of time. That said, I rated Cheat Codes as my no.5 album of 2022, and certainly one of the better hip-hop releases in recent years: "A classy, conscious hip-hop album capable of throwing in the unexpected; the opening song begins on a Gwen McCrae sample with a reference to Harry Potter in the opening bar. Nary a trope in earshot and some sparkling production; the spacey sample of an obscure prog song (Biglietto Per L'Inferno - 'L'Amico Suicida') on 'Saltwater' the highlight."
388. Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) (Rolling Stone 500 #253) 387. Opeth - Ghost Reveries (2005) Producer: Jens Bogren, Opeth Ghost Reveries is the eighth studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. It was released on 29 August 2005. It was their first album after signing with Roadrunner Records, and first album since Still Life (1999) to not be produced by Steven Wilson. Ghost Reveries is the first album by Opeth to include keyboardist Per Wiberg as a "permanent" member (although Wiberg contributed keyboard work to Opeth's live performances starting around the time of Lamentations), and it is the last Opeth album to include drummer Martin Lopez and long-time guitarist Peter Lindgren. The album's only single is "The Grand Conjuration". A music video of the song was released, although about half of the song was edited from the video, due to the length of the song. Lopez does not appear in the video, as he was sick and was temporarily replaced by Gene Hoglan. Style The album marks a temporary return to the progressive metal styles of the previous albums and features death growls, though still includes some of the progressive rock elements of Damnation. Ghost Reveries was initially intended to be a concept album, with numerous tracks linking together a story of a man's turmoil after committing an unconscionable act, symbolised by killing his own mother. However, Mikael Åkerfeldt commented: "I had intended to do a occult concept piece lyrically and got off to a great start with some downright evil lyrics like "The Baying of the Hounds" and "Ghost of Perdition", then I did "Isolation Years" which had nothing to do with the intended concept but I liked it so much I decided to ease up on the concept idea in favour of this one lyric. Why I decided on a occult theme? Well, I've always been intrigued by it, especially Satanism and stuff like that. I studied some books that oddly enough my wife had in her collection like "Servants of Satan" as well as "Witchcraft and Sorcery" + some more. I figured it'd be interesting to see what a mature 31 year old mind would make of this subject as opposed to the 16 year old kid who used to pose in front of his Bathory poster. I'm quite happy with them to be honest, and they're ... evil!" The album only partly portrays a concept, not fully arranged in the poetic manner as previous releases such as Still Life and My Arms, Your Hearse. "The Baying of the Hounds" is partially inspired by lyrics from the song "Diana" from Comus's album First Utterance. Reception Ghost Reveries peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 64 and number 62 in the UK. The album reached number nine in Sweden, higher than any previous Opeth release. Ghost Reveries received widespread acclaim upon release. Thom Jurek of AllMusic cited Ghost Reveries as a culmination of everything Opeth had worked towards throughout their career. Jurek defined the album as "fully realized, stunningly beautiful, and emotionally fragmented; it's a terrain where power, tenderness, and sheer grief hold forth under heavy manners. Awesome." Billboard described the album as delving further towards Opeth's progressive tendencies, commenting that the "alternating between powerful metal bursts and gauzy atmospheres requires patient listening, but it allows for better exploration of the beautifully dark world Opeth creates." Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork praised Opeth's diverse musical influences and instrumentation, as a blend of "prog, jazz, stoner haze, blues-rock, Indian raga, pastoral tips, and acid-tinged freakers." Exclaim! reviewer Max Deneau similarly praised their songwriting and musicianship as key to Opeth's formula, whilst commenting on the addition of keyboardist Per Wiberg as having added "a volatile new dynamic to the band." Keith Bergman of Blabbermouth.net gave the album ten out of ten, one of only 21 albums to achieve a perfect rating from the site. Decibel called Ghost Reveries "achingly beautiful, sometimes unabashedly brutal, often a combination of both." The Aquarian Weekly placed Ghost Reveries among the band's finest work, writing: "This record was in the running for best metal release of the year before it even came out and now that it has, it may very well have decimated any competition." Ghost Reveries was named the best album of 2005 by Metal Hammer. It was also ranked No. 1 on PopMatters "Best Metal Albums of 2005" and on webzine Metal Storm. Ghost Reveries appeared on many end of year lists, including Kerrang!, Terrorizer, Drowned In Sound and The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll. In a retrospective list, Loudwire named it the best metal album of 2005. In 2014, TeamRock put Ghost Reveries at #46 on their "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums of All Time" list commenting that "this was a partial concept album, with Satanism as its theme. It’s now regarded as one of the defining albums of 21st-century progressive metal." Loudwire placed the album at #3 on their "Top 100 Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Albums of the 21st Century" list, only being beaten out by System of a Down's Toxicity (#2) and Tool's Lateralus (#1). Critical Reception Allmusic 5/5 Alternative Press 5/5 Blabbermouth.net 10/10 Drowned in Sound 10/10 Kerrang! 5/5 Pitchfork 8.4/10 Popmatters 9/10 Rock Hard 9/10 Rock Sound 9/10 Stylus B Terrorizer 9.5/10 Tracklist
I seem to overlook some of the double title posts... 390. Sly & The Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On (1971)(Rolling Stone 500 #82) 3.5/5
Piper at the Gates of Dawn As a Pink Floyd fan, I have to admit, I don't listen to this album as much as it's reputation would suggest I ought to. When I want to listen to 'early' Pink Floyd I'd rather play Atom Heart Mother or Meddle (in fact I think that run of three albums prior to Dark Side Of the Moon is magical). Piper at the Gates of Dawn sounds nothing like any of their other albums with its goofy child-like lyrics and slices of psychedelic pop but if you don't try too hard to compare like-for-like (and accept that it is a product of It's time) you'll find much to enjoy. I do think it is a highly enjoyable listen, however I think I prefer many of the Syd Barett era singles that were omitted from this album.
Ghost Reveries This is my favourite metal album. This was the first album I heard where death metal growls made sense to me. The songs often tread a fine line between heavy and quiet, and there are plenty of moments that are genuinely beautiful (listen to the closing track Isolation Years or Atonement). My favourite track is Baying Of The Hounds which takes its title from the lyrics of a Comus track (hope to see that album in the list later). This is progressive metal at It's finest, and in my mind it's one of the finest albums of the 2000's.
Ghost Reveries I have this album, which I bought based on its stellar reputation, but never play it anymore. Excellent music, but again I could do without the cookie monster vocals. The good thing is that those are intermittently applied, so it's just about tolerable. Funny enough, Åkerfeldt's "normal" voice is not very distinctive and even a bit boring, so I wonder if there could have been a middle ground between the growling and the normal singing that would have made his delivery a bit more interesting. But listening to the album again after a long time, the music is way ahead of most in the metal genre, with a good variety of moods. "Atonement" and its transition into "Reverie" is particularly pretty with its progressive rock leanings, which become more prominent as the album progresses. Not hard to see why Steven Wilson is a fan of Opeth, especially when listening to the final track.
Ghost Reveries Well, I managed 45 minutes of this before I gave up. Yes, it mixes metal styles, the vocals alternate between trad singing & Cookie Monster man, plus they utilized a range of dynamics and tempos. The biggest stumbling block for me, though, was that the songs were too indistinctive. Nothing particularly memorable. And those widdly widdly guitars just went round in ever decreasing creative circles. I got bored. Miss.
386. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret (1999) Producer: Phil Ek, Doug Martsch Keep It Like a Secret is the fourth studio album released by American indie rock band Built to Spill, and their second for Warner Bros. Records. The initial tracks for the album were recorded in November 1997 at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington by Phil Ek, with overdubs recorded on mid-1998 at Avast! Recording Co. in Seattle, Washington. Keep It Like a Secret was released on February 2, 1999. The album spawned two EPs: Carry the Zero and Center of the Universe. Reception Keep It Like a Secret received mostly positive reviews when it was first released. On Metacritic, the album has a score of 79 out of 100, indicating "generally positive reviews." Pitchfork's Jason Josephes praised the album, writing "at the risk of hopping on a cliché wagon, I think I'm gonna tell all my friends about Built to Spill." In another positive review, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Keep It Like a Secret "the most immediate and, yes, accessible Built to Spill record," writing that the band "embraced the sounds of a big studio and focused their sound without sacrificing their fractured indie rock aesthetic." Kim Stitzel of MTV called the album "a great (and different) Built to Spill record, proudly displaying its strengths and reveling in its uniqueness even while making concessions to a changing world." Christopher Hess of The Austin Chronicle wrote that Doug Martsch's "guitar vocabulary [...] gives 'Center of the Universe' an intrinsically bright tone, and infuses 'Else' with stunning beauty," while praising Scott Plouf's drumming as being "spot on throughout, providing active punctuation for the multiple layers of guitar." Spin's Will Hermes also praised Martsch's guitar playing, writing that "Martsch is still [...] making the most beautiful baroque electric guitar murals in modern rock. Robert Christgau gave the album a two-star honorable mention rating and selected "You Were Right" and "Center of the Universe" as highlights. Legacy In 1999, Pitchfork ranked the album at number 41 on their "Top Albums of the 90s" list. In a retrospective review published in 2013, Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club called the album "perhaps the best encapsulation of the band's oeuvre and the ever-simmering public response in a single phrase." Critical Reception Allmusic 4/5 Austin Chronicle 5/5 Entertainment Weekly B Melody Maker 4/5 NME 7/10 Pitchfork 9.3/10 Rolling Stone 3.5/5 Rolling Stone Album Guide 4/5 Select 3/5 Spin 9/10 Tracklist
Cheat Codes A- One of the best albums of the 2020s, IMO. You can almost never go wrong with Danger Mouse.
I sat idly by and read people trashing Rainbow - Rising…if anyone has something bad to say about this, another of my favorites of all time, we’ll have to meet in the parking lot after school. Put up your dukes!
Ghost Reveries A- One of Opeth's best. The growling vocals don't bother me here in the slightest; they're an essential part of the tapestry, IMO. Before they became a garden-variety prog band, Opeth was a superlative death metal band, and IMO they should probably get back to that.
Keep It Like a Secret A A near-perfect album, IMO. Potentially an A+. There's wit, riffs, lyrical insight and fun.
Keep It Like a Secret Well, the secret is out now: It's a damn good album. Love it how they regularly go off on a tangent with the guitars, which is also what I love about Modest Mouse. But unlike The Dismemberment Plan's Emergency & I which we had a few days back, Built To Spill actually pull it off and then some. This is how Indie Rock should sound.
385. Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1997) Producer: Eirik Hundven, Ihsahn, Samoth Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk is the second studio album by Norwegian black metal band Emperor. It was released on 8 July 1997 through Candlelight Records and Century Black. Reception According to Steve Huey from AllMusic, the album is a "magnificently-conceived and executed opus that fulfills all of Emperor's promise and ambition. The biggest difference from its predecessor [being] the crisper, clearer production, which allows details in the arrangements to emerge far more readily." He added that there's greater use of classical flourishes, greater variety in Ihsahn's vocals, more audible guitar interplay between Ihsahn and Samoth and more complex and melodic keyboard work. "It definitely builds on the groundwork laid by extreme metal pioneers Celtic Frost and Bathory: the former with its restless experimentalism, and the latter with its determination to create something quintessentially Scandinavian." Finally, he concluded: "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk cemented Emperor's reputation as black metal's greatest band, and Ihsahn as its foremost musical visionary; it also firmly established black metal as an art form that wasn't going away any time soon, and opened up a wide range of creative possibilities to the more progressive, eccentric wing of the genre. In the Nightside Eclipse might epitomize black metal better than any other album, but divorced from outside context, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk is black metal's greatest stand-alone creative achievement." In June 2016, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk was inducted into Decibel Magazine's Hall of Fame, becoming the second Emperor album to be featured in the Decibel Hall of Fame, the first being predecessor In the Nightside Eclipse. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk as 57th on their list of 'The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.' In 2018, Loudwire named it the best black metal album of all-time. In 2020, Metal Hammer included it in their list of the top 10 1997 albums. Critical Reception Allmusic 4.5/5 Chronicles of Chaos 8.5/10 Sputnikmusic 4.5/5 Tracklist
Anthems to the Welkom at Dusk I listened to a few songs. My poor old head can't handle more. But I will say that this is genuinely extreme music. A relentless bulldozing of the senses. And for that it gets my respect.
Keep It Like A Secret Gave this two full listens. It only really comes alive during the final four songs. For the majority of the time it's far too musically undistinguished, sounding like the stepchild of Weezer & Dinosaur Jr. I also thought that Carry The Zero was going to turn into the Manics' Motorcycle Emptiness at any second. Hmm. Things only pick up when we reach Else, with its fab stop-start guitars & drums. Then onto the equally great, instrumentally muscly, You Were Right. Built To Spill suddenly find their signature sound, and rattle along vibrantly to the end. But, it's too little too late. Overall, there's nowhere near enough 'oomph' & originality. Would have made a good EP, but as it stands.....MISS. We've already had one Emperor album too many. Their (second) drummer, 'Faust', was jailed for stabbing and kicking a defenceless gay man to death. Guitarist, 'Samoth', was also imprisoned for burning down several Norwegian churches. The band swirled around in a 'scene' which was a cesspit of extreme violence, virulent bigotry, racism, neo-Nazism, and actual murder. I won't give them one second of my listening time.
In this case RS seems more clued in than RTM, There's a Riot Going On is some serious **** and not exactly party music but it's seriously messed up music of genius. The upside of the RYM list is that it's not just the usual suspects, the downside is that I'm not familiar with many of them and to judge by my brief sampling probably never will be.
...but it does appear on both lists. At the end of the exercise, I will post the top 25 albums that appeared on the RS list but not the RYM, as well as the reverse. We can then talk about which one is "better."
Keep It like a Secret. Electric guitars ringing out in joyous cacophony. Doug Martsch's thin nasally murmur that he can still make to soar like a bird. Songs that are serious, silly, sarcastic, but overall sensational. A keeper for me.
384. Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (1984) (Rolling Stone 500 #267) 383. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997) Producer: Roger Moutenot I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is the eighth studio album by the American indie rock band Yo La Tengo, released on April 22, 1997, by Matador Records. It was produced by Roger Moutenot and recorded at House of David in Nashville, Tennessee. The album expands the guitar-based pop of its predecessor Electr-O-Pura to encompass a variety of other music genres, including bossa nova, krautrock, and electronic music. Most of the songs on the album deal with melancholy emotions and range from short and fragile ballads to long and open-ended dissonance. Upon release, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One reached number 19 on the Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart, becoming the first Yo La Tengo album to enter the charts. Three songs from the album, "Autumn Sweater", "Sugarcube", and the cover "Little Honda", were released as singles. The album received widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised the band's ability to successfully expand the boundaries of nearly any pop style. The album is widely regarded as the band's best work and is frequently included on several publications' best album lists. In 2020, Rolling Stone included it on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Reception Upon release, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One received widespread acclaim from music critics. Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone felt that the album "proves that Yo La Tengo can master nearly any pop style [...] the music's ominousness is undercut by Yo La Tengo's infectious joy at simply making noise. It's just this joy that makes Yo La Tengo stand out amid their indie-rock peers". Similarly, in his review for Spin, Robert Christgau said that the album gave the band "the grace to professionalize toward the pop melodicism they've always loved." He also felt that the first nine songs were perfect and considered "Autumn Sweater" as the "very peak" of the album. Chicago Tribune reviewer Greg Kot highlighted the album's diverse influences, stating that the band "fashions sprawling albums out of minimal instrumental strokes and soft voices." The album's range of power and soft elements was noted. Writing for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne said that, while the band has always been "adept at striking a balance between hurricane-force dissonance and fragile serenity", Yo La Tengo "crack open their sound even wider here. Their muted, after-hours guitar drone is in full effect [...] As adults who still need to make a racket, they remain addicted to noise, but now the trio integrates the feedback into the arrangements, like squalls rumbling in the distance." Dele Fadele of NME also praised the open-ended nature of the album, but criticized the instrumental "Spec Bebop" for being "constructed around some hurtful feedback, to end up as an endurance test." In a very positive review, Jason Josephes of Pitchfork praised the album for exploring new directions, commenting that the band takes its "sonic inventions to new levels." I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One was ranked number 5 in The Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop critics' poll, the band's highest position to date. In the poll's accompanying essay, Christgau referred to the album as one of his "favorite albums of the year, easy", alongside those by Pavement, Sleater-Kinney, and Arto Lindsay. Similarly, editors of NME magazine placed the album at number 19 in their albums of the year list for 1997, while Spin journalists placed the album at number 8 in their list of Top 20 Albums of the Year. Legacy Retrospectively, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is widely regarded as the band's best work. AllMusic reviewer Fred Thomas described it as "a definitive master statement. The subtly shifting moods and wide, curious palette of stylistic exploration resulted in a lasting indie rock classic, essential listening and also something of a blueprint for much of what followed from like-minded bands for years to come." The A.V. Club editor John Krewson remarked that the album marked the point when the band started to "[dabble] on electronica" with songs such as "Moby Octopad" and "Autumn Sweater", calling it "an example of a band having great fun exploring the possibilities of pop music." In his review of the band's 2003 album Summer Sun, Christgau praised I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One as Yo La Tengo's "career album", commenting that "It's no challenge or insult to state categorically that they'll never top it." In 2017, Pitchfork writer Marc Hogan described the record as the band's "first true masterpiece." I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is frequently included on several publications' best album lists. In 1999, the record was ranked number 78 on Spin's list of The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s. In 2003, Pitchfork ranked it number 25 on its list of the Top 100 albums of the 1990s, later placing it at number 73 in an updated 2022 list. Similarly, Rolling Stone placed the record at number 86 on its 2010 compilation of 100 Best Albums of the Nineties. In 2012, the album appeared at number 22 on Paste's list of The 90 Best Albums of the 1990s. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Beating as One number 423 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Critical Reception Allmusic 5/5 Chicago Tribune 3.5/4 Entertainment Weekly A- Guardian 4/5 NME 8/10 Pitchfork 9.7/10 Rolling Stone 4/5 Rolling Stone Album Guide 5/5 Spin 9/10 Village Voice A Tracklist
"carry the zero" is one of the best tracks of the nineties imho... better than any manics songs from this period...
"I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One" Yo La Tengo: The greatest indie-rock band most people never heard of. They released their first album in 1986 and their most recent in February this year. This album may be their best, but they released at least five more albums at the same high level. There's no band I know of that manages to combine the most insane guitar shredfests with very quiet and introspective little songs, all with a good dose of psychedelia and humour. Their capacity to churn out cover songs instantly on request is legendary and their shows are great. I last saw them last month in Bilbao, Spain. Oh, and they are really fine and unpretentious people. The best band ever to have come out of New Jersey. OK, I'll stop now. You got it. I'm a fan.
