Top vs Spiro - 100 Album Challenge

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 22nd, 2016, 12:17 pm

Revolver is great too but I love tracks on Rubber Soul like "I've Just Seen A Face" (only on the US version, I think it was on an earlier album in the UK), "Norwegian Wood", "Michelle"... There's just something comfy about the whole album.

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 23rd, 2016, 4:07 pm

Your one Pro for White Pony I would actually have to disagree with. Deftones musicians are not technically skilled. XD

Your Cons, on the other hand, would be my Pros. The production and tone is what makes Deftones Deftones, in my ears. Especially that drum tone. The kick and toms have plenty of low end and are nowhere near tinny. I think what you may be not liking is the snare tone? I don't know. It's a VERY tight sound with plenty of pop to it. Almost like a piccolo snare. During pre-production of my old band's 1st EP, the engineer asked what sport of drum sound I liked. I gave him this album. Hahaha

Some of this album is heavily shoegaze influenced or just outright shoegaze. Not sure where the distinction or connection with that was disregarded.

Chino's vocals are top notch as well. I guess this whole album boils down to the beauty of subjectivity.

All your cons are my pros, man. I'm at a loss.

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 23rd, 2016, 4:33 pm

Day 28
Car Seat Headrest- Twin Fantasy

Haven't even heard OF them.

Pros:
- Most of the songs had ok parts in them , mainly builds, but

Cons:
- Any good build or part was stripped of dynamic because of the terrible production. I get that it was supposed to be lo-fi, but yeeeeesh. The vocals were waaaaaaay too high in the mix. There was ZERO low end for the entirety of the album to the point that any part I started to consider decent, I instantly dismissed as it led into the next part, because it all just sounded so awful. I mean...I get garage rock. There are 3 such bands on my chart, but there was literally no good point to the production, which made this a very difficult listen.
- Another album that just overall felt lazy. :/

Highlight: Somehow, the last song, "Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)" had the production I think would be acceptable for the rest of the album, due to full sounding keys, bass at the end and percussive hits.

There were a few moments in each song that were enjoyable, but ultimately destroyed by the lack of low end. I would listen to this album remixed and mastered and have a much better time, I'm positive.

Overall Score: 2/10

Coming up next...
Day 29
Animals As Leaders' Animals As Leaders and Rodriguez's Cold Fact

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 23rd, 2016, 4:54 pm

End of Week 4

The story so far...

Hidden:

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 23rd, 2016, 4:54 pm

Pretty hilarious we landed on a mutual "I like it for the reasons you hate it" day.

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 24th, 2016, 4:24 pm

Day 29
Rodriguez - Cold Fact

Name and his backstory sound reeeeallly familiar. I'm sure I've heard or heard of him.

Pros:
- The songs were simple, but with very weird...flourishes in them. Weird in a great way. Examples: Synth in the middle of "Sugar Man", noises in "Inner City Blues", "Gomorrah (A Nursery Rhyme)", etc.
- Unexpected heaviness in second track, "Only Good For Conversation" and a sort of guitar/vocal combo that instantly made me think, "This is a Black Keys influence."
- Great guitar playing and tone throughout. It was overall my favorite thing.
- He's got very solid vocals. I liked them at every note.

Cons:
- The straight folk tracks were just ok. Not bad by any means, though. Definitely room to grow on me. Examples: "This Is Not A Song, It's An Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues", "Forget It", "Like Janis", etc.

Highlight: I really liked "Gomorrah (A Nursery Rhyme)" a lot. It was sort of twisted thematically, and the kids singing, key changes and instrumentation added to it in a very bizarre way.

Overall Score: 7/10

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 24th, 2016, 5:37 pm

Day 29
Animals As Leaders - Animals As Leaders

You've said this is like... instrumental jazz prog metal or something? Interesting haha

Pros:
- The first few tracks remind me a fair bit of Dream Theater. Not sure how you'll take that comparison haha, but it's that same sort of technically impressive playing, and a similar sound to the instruments, particularly the guitars.
- There was a stylistic shift on tracks like "On Impulse" and "Tessitura" to a math rock sort of sound, not unlike This Town Needs Guns, with some glitchy beats reminiscient of The Flashbulb or The Age of Adz. Really liked this section of the album.
- Also liked "Behaving Badly" and "The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing". Can't place why but these two really engaged me.
- The drums were insane on tracks like "CAFO".
- Good running time; I think prog as a genre has a tendency of getting too self-indulgent, often with running times that aren't justified by the music they contained, but this one quit before I got bored.
- The more acoustic guitar stylings on the last few tracks were a nice way to come down from the intensity of the rest of the album.

Cons:
- This album also reminds me a fair bit of Dream Theater's uglier side too, in that it can feel just really... overindulgent and... wanky?
- Again my usual problem with instrumental music applies here... I didn't get anything like the feelings of disaster Beacons elicited in me from this album.

Highlight: "On Impulse"

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Coming up next...
Day 30
Nero's Welcome Reality + and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 25th, 2016, 9:48 pm

Day 30
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

I've heard a few songs, but not the whole album. I....have only enjoyed one Bowie song in all I've heard, and I couldn't tell you the name of it. XD It was an older one. Well...here it goes...

Pros:
- The music isn't ever bad, really.
- I enjoyed "It Ain't Easy" and "Star". "Star" had a QOTSA piano banging sort of feel. An influence on them, for sure.

Cons:
- I don't like Bowie's voice 95% of the time. I can't explain why very well. He almost sounds...much...older than he really is. Feeble in a way. I don't know...I've always struggled to get past it. Other times he sounds like a Plant rip off, but...not as good.
- There isn't really anything special about most of the music. It all feels like generic run-of-the-mill early 70s rock.

Highlight: "It Ain't Easy" had great guitar and I actually liked Bowie's voice in it.

Overall Score: 4/10

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 25th, 2016, 9:57 pm

Generic is certainly not the term I would use for lots of the music on here... Bowie's writing is deceptive and comes across as more simple than it really is. There's plenty of interesting stuff going on, the strings of "Five Years" and the chaos of its conclusion, the instrumental interlude of "Moonage Daydream"...

I totally get where you're coming from about his voice though, it was certainly an acquired taste for me. Later on Blackstar his age had finally come to match his voice haha.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 26th, 2016, 2:20 am

Day 30
Nero - Welcome Reality +

The cover makes me think electronic music of some sort.

Pros:
- Nice atmosphere throughout established by the opening two tracks and the cover art... post-apocalyptic future EDM!
- The vocals on many of the tracks were great, kind of that element I felt was missing from 4x4=12... If you're going to make catchy electronic music, you gotta have a hook!
- Catchy and dancy... feels like good music to game to.

Cons:
- "Crush On You"... the vocals were kind of obnoxious, and the WUBS got a little out of hand.
- My usual problem with instrumental music... even though there were vocals on much of this, most of the time they were just a hook... there's just nothing I can take away from this other than "that sounded good." yknow?
- The beginning of the album seemed like it was building up on a concept, but it never got fleshed out, and the album ended kind of abruptly.

Highlight: "Fugue State" - The most gripping track for me. A sinister beat opens it, with gaps that grab the attention, leading into a track with great anticipation, a creepy synthline, spoken word vocals... there's even some chopped vocal samples in there almost like NOTM. And then the piano outro. Loved, loved this track.

It was a more engaging listen than deadmau5 if anything but still not really something for me.

Overall Score: 6/10

Coming up next...
Day 31
Muse's Origin of Symmetry and ミラクルミュージカル's Hawaii, Part II

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 26th, 2016, 2:59 pm

Day 31
Muse - Origin Of Symmetry

Quuuuiiiite familiar with this one. I think it's easily the strongest album in Muse's discography. It's been a while, excited to listen.

Pros:
- "New Born" is a totally killer opener. The keyboard intro leading into that totally crunchy guitar riff, and then non-stop rocking.
- Bellamy's vocals are melodramatic in the best way throughout, flying effortlessly into an operatic falsetto, then down to biting and spitting, sometimes in the same breath.
- It sounds like space! The songs are larger than life, carried by dramatic vocals and pianos, with a touch of synth and keyboards here and there lending it that future feeling.
- The long tracks don't feel their length cause there's so much going on. Some nice song transitions going on, like "Citizen Erased" -> "Micro Cuts"
- There's real bite to the guitar, bass, and drums too that lets them stand out even among the spacier elements.
- There's a nice stylistic shift towards the end of the album where the songs slow down and get darker and broodier.

Cons:
- The style shift is a little TOO abrupt, one second we're being assaulted by "Micro Cuts" and the next we're supposed to soak in "Screenager"? Yikes.

Highlight: "Plug In Baby" - that riff, that hook, and Bellamy's performance man! Though structurally this is one of most straightforward tracks on the album, it's a definite high point for me.... most of the album is a high point tho haha.

I love this album man, maybe even a little more than I remembered. Might need to bump it up a tier on my chart haha.

Overall Score: 9/10

Applequest · **Posted:** October 26th, 2016, 6:35 pm

Spirographed wrote:

I....have only enjoyed one Bowie song in all I've heard, and I couldn't tell you the name of it.

I wouldn't call myself a David Bowie fan, but have only enjoyed one song?? I only know a few of his, but Changes and Life on Mars on undeniably great songs. I also really like Young American but I can see that being more polarizing. And Space Oddity is pretty overdone, but it's definitely enjoyable.

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 26th, 2016, 7:35 pm

Yeah. I've never been a fan of his voice, man. :/ Also, his...persona and attitude and lyrics...I've always thought he was not my kind of odd.

This album did raise my perception on him as a whole, though.

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 28th, 2016, 9:05 am

Day 31
ミラクルミュージカル - Hawaii, Pt. 2

Have no clue even how to say the name of this band. XD

Pros:
- Some really great sounds throughout the whole album, from fantastic arpeggiators to 8 bit synth.
- I liked the old school feel of a lot of the vocals.
- Decent electronic/acoustic instrument mix.
- Decent production.
- The drums were great.Almost...jazzy

Cons:
- The asian character named song or "The Mind Electric" O didnt really enjoy because one was in another language, amd the other was backward and the muskc wasn't interesting enough for that to work.
- The album was pretty spastic. Fast and abrupt changes in the music even within the same song, which left me feeling overwhelmed and like I had ADD.

Highlight: "Murders" was a cool song. Awesome arpeggiators and piano with some pretty theatrical vocals and lyrics. All around great track with more fluidity than the rest of the album.

Overall Score: 6/10

Coming up next...
Day 32
Mudvayne's The End of All Things To Come and Ayreon's The Human Equation

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 28th, 2016, 11:28 pm

Day 32
Ayreon - The Human Equation

The name of this band sounds familiar...but I can't remember why. The album cover looks like a death metal cover. Let me find out the rest of your list is death metal... XD

Pros:
- The musicians are technically skilled, especially the drummer and guitarist/s
- The female vocals were really good. I wish they were on the whole album.
- Some of the best synth arpeggiators/gates I have ever heard (apparent on "D2:I")

Cons:
- 90% Cheeseball deluxe. The vocals, composition and lyrics were so cheesy....'80s style...Those theatrical '80s metal-style vocals have never been my thing. With the music, it seemed like a...rock opera, which I just think is cheesy. The production was the cherry on top of this cheesecake of an album. It was unfortunate that this album was as long as it was. :/

Highlight: "Day Two: Isolation" actually had a heavy riff in one part that wasn't cheesy. It was good! This song had a fantastic synth part (mentioned above) as well.

Overall Score: 3/10

I think even set to a film I couldn't get into this album. It was too over the top and '80s sounding for me.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 29th, 2016, 2:51 am

Day 32
Mudvayne - The End of All Things To Come

aaaaaaaaaaa

Pros:
- When I could focus on them the drums were actually pretty good throughout. Good sound there.
- There were some bits with a cleaner guitar and clear bass that were alright.
- Musically it was well put together and nothing terrible.

Cons:
- The vocals. Just everything to do with them. Whether they were growling, or clean, they were just unpleasant in the style, delivery, the EDGY lyrics. I tried my best on my second listen to listen past them for the music but it was honestly really hard. They were a very dark cloud over the whole album.
- Even if this was suddenly an instrumental album and the vocals disappeared, this album would still just be alright to me. Most of the time it's just not doing something that's interesting or pleasant to me.

Highlight: Like described earlier, there were some cleaner bits in "Mercy, Severity" and "World So Cold" that were alright. I can't call the tracks as a whole a highlight though.

Overall Score: 3/10

Coming up next...
Day 33
Mindless Self Indulgence's Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 29th, 2016, 10:55 pm

Day 33
Mindless Self Indulgence - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy

I've actually heard an MSI album before; You'll Rebel To Anything.

Pros:
- Catchy and energetic. I was at least engaged by it.
- Unique... it's definitely got its own identity that it's comfortable in.
- The absurdity of it is humorous and even endearing at times.

Cons:
- The spastic yet simple music is interesting at first but it quickly just comes across as a novelty...
- The lyrical themes are just... even if it's satirical, just awful. I found myself laughing at them at times, just because of how ridiculous they were. Perhaps that's the intended reaction.
- Holy waaaaaaaaaaaay too long Batman. MSI's shtick kind of grew tired in the 26 minutes of You'll Rebel..., so 55 minutes of it was a little much for me to handle.

Highlight: I... don't really have one. The tracks were so short and spastic that I really can't recall which of the tracks I liked... There WERE parts I liked though.

I didn't hate it but I really can't see this as more than a novelty yknow? It's certainly not something I'd listen to in full again anyways.

Overall Score: 4/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 30th, 2016, 9:28 pm

Day 33
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

I remember listening to this album yeaaaars ago, but I don't remember why I didn't keep listening to it. This band and genre was an influence on a few bands I like. One of them being the one you liked the least (Deftones) and I don't really understand that. Maybe I will with this listen:

Pros:
- Decent sound on the songs with drums. Nothing unpleasant. They picked good chords to chug away on.
- The vocals were great. The best part, really. I had no complaints with them the whole time. Good melodies.
- Good production on most of the songs. I liked the guitar tone, especially.
- "Sometimes" was decent. Good chords. Definitely a Deftones inspiration........

Cons:
- Wow, did this get old quick. I get that the whole Shoegaze shtick is to drone on with heavily effected guitar, but yeeeesh. It would have been wonderful to hear a lead line at least once. Not even something spectacular...some ambient SINGLE note tremelo picking here and there or something.
- Not sure what tracks 2-4 (off the top of my head, as there were more) were trying to accomplish. Just...noise, imo.

Highlight: I thoroughly enjoyed "Only Shallow" Great start to a mediocre album. I found myself wishing more songs were like it, and when some seemed to appear ("Come In Alone", etc.) they still seemed to fall short or be a less interesting copy of it.

Overall Score: 4/10

Coming up next...
Day 34
Lamb of God's Sacrament and Childish Gambino's Because The Internet

Topsummoner · **Posted:** November 1st, 2016, 1:18 am

Day 34
Lamb of God - Sacrament

Know the name but can't say I've heard anything by them.

Pros:
- Great drum and guitar rhythm throughout. Lots of energy and interesting patterns. Special mention to the bass drum.
- Great guitar solos throughout with a tone I liked. I feel like this was a big factor in why I haven't liked many of the metal-like albums so far; I feel like metal is an inherently indulgent genre, so don't half ass it and give me something that sounds cool and captures my interest yknow? haha
- I didn't actually mind the metal growl in most places on this album, which I know is really weird because I've listed it as a con on a FEW albums already. I can't even put into words what the difference was either.
- Liked the production and the transitions on a few of the songs. This almost felt like just one big piece of music.

Cons:
- Lyrical content
- A little homogenous

Highlight: "Pathetic"

I liked this one far more than I expected to.

Overall Score: 7/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** November 1st, 2016, 3:33 am

Day 34
Childish Gambino - Because The Internet

I have a buddy that is into this dude, so I've heard a song or two. Lol @ album name.

Pros:
- Great beats throughout. Very interesting. Nice use of guitar as well.
- The dude actually flows. Hip Hop/Rap today, unfortunately, is just...talking most of the time. No rhythm or syncopation. This dude actually had flow, especially heard on songs like "I. The Party".
- I liked the switch from and combination of rapping and singing.

Cons:
- Way too long. I had to listen twice, because I zoned out a couple times during the first listen. And mostly during the downtempo songs...actually, I guess it lost me after "Zealots of Stockholm [F. I.]" The album seems to slow down a lot after that track. Not a very strong finish.
- The lyrics were ok. Pretty standard, imo, although I did like some of the references I heard.

Highlight: I thought it was going to be "IV: Sweatpants" but then "Z.o.S.c [F.I.]" happened. Man. This track starts like a dream, gets real distorted, and then pulls it together for a clear finish. Liked the changes a lot.

Overall Score: 6/10

Totally fell asleep during the second play through. I am old man. Hear me snore.

Coming up next...
Day 35
Zao's The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here and Portugal. The Man's Evil Friends

Top vs Spiro - 100 Album Challenge

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