Top vs Spiro - 100 Album Challenge

Spirographed · **Posted:** September 28th, 2016, 1:53 pm

Day 6:
Closure In Moscow - Pink Lemonade

I've never heard of this band.

Pros:
- This music JAMS. Lots of space was left for the musicians to the their thing, and they were great. Great guitarists and drummer.
- Prog rock, in general, is my thing. Loved the touch of psychedelic, too.
- It tells a story. I've always liked albums that tell a story and this album tells one, front to back. I was listening to it while working, so I my attention wasn't honed in enough to fully grasp the story, but a lot of the points the story made were welcome (although the lyrical themes to get to those points I didn't necessarily like) and there seemed to be a lot of nonsense as well. This is a plus. I like nonsense as long as it rhymes and/or is alliterative. :laugh:

- The vocalist had a great voice. Theatrical without being cheesy. He had a wide range and was dynamic.
- I really enjoyed the incorporation of electronic instrumentation and augmentation.
- DAT PLAYTIME DOH. I love long albums/songs. There weren't any songs over 10 minutes, but plenty over 5.

Cons:
- From a production standpoint, it was waaaay to polished for me. There were riffs that had grit, but didn't sound gritty due to production. I like a little grit in my prog rock.
- The journey through pride and lust could have been done without the references to Christianity mixed in, which grated on me at points even thought it wasn't necessarily an anti-Christian theme.
- I didn't enjoy the non-rock songs/parts as much as the rock songs/party, specifically the really dancy parts.
- The weird 8-bit J-Pop song at the end just wasn't my thing at all.

Highlight:
"That Brahmatron Song". Especially the guitar within. Fantastic guitar throughout the album, really.

Overall Score: 8

This album will definitely work itself into my rotation at some point after we are done with all this. I really need to see this band live. Like....soon.

Coming up next...
Day 7
Cloudkicker's Beacons and Death Cab for Cutie's Transatlanticism

Topsummoner · **Posted:** September 28th, 2016, 7:19 pm

Day 7
Cloudkicker - Beacons

No clue what to expect, here we go!

Pros:
- I like the sound throughout the album. It feels like an instrumental Porcupine Tree album, which I can really get behind because the vocals are frequently the weakest part of Porcupine Tree records
- Despite being instrumental, I got the feeling the album was telling me a story. There was something to the way the highs and lows came and went. Combined with the track titles I got the impression the album is detailing in musical form some sort of tragedy, an accident of some sorts perhaps, or a terrible storm.
- It's pretty impressive to be able to convey this feeling instrumentally if that is what they were going for.
- The pacing is great. It goes from intensity to reprieves at just the right time. I compared it to Lateralus favorably.

Cons:
- Instrumental albums are just inherently less memorable for me. It has to do with how I connect with music, which is usually through the lyricism.

Highlight: Push It Way Up! I loved the rising intensity through this track exemplified in the droning guitar in the background. Really nice.

I'm not great at writing about instrumental albums. It's a lot harder for me to comment on instruments than on vocals and lyrics, so you'll have to pardon me for my brevity. I liked it a fair bit though.

Overall Score: 7/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** September 28th, 2016, 8:03 pm

Day 7:
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism

Always dug Death Cab's single on the radio and whatnot. I've been meaning to sit down and listen to an album of theirs for a few years, but, well...I didn't. And here we are!

Pros:
- This album is actually not as Pop-oriented as I thought it would be. I mean, the song format is, but the feel is not.
- More rock oriented than I thought it would be. I was expecting more...samples and synths, I guess.
- I really like the layered/overdubbed guitar work throughout. It creates a really nice atmosphere throughout.
- The song-writing is there. I've only heard singles before this, and didn't know what to expect from other songs.
- The production is great. I especially noticed certain effects on the vocals that I liked. Great guitar/drum tone as well.

Cons:
- Not much variety, stylistically from song to song but not even necessarily to a fault.
- There's a very specific mood I need to be in to listen to music like this. I'm not even sure what that mood is.

Highlight:
"I need you so much closerrrrrrr......
So come ooooonnnnnn....."

Overall Score: 7

Great album. It was just easy to listen to. I may come back to it when I'm feeling introspective and chill. It seems like it would be great traveling music. Or even great music to have in a movie soundtrack. Honestly, I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics, Top. I'm kind of the opposite of you when it comes to how I relate to or remember songs. It's the music that gets me. The melody of the vocals does too, sometimes, but there are albums I know every note the instruments hit, but couldn't tell you the lyrics to most of the songs.

Coming up next...
Day 8
Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and Radiohead's Amnesiac

Spirographed · **Posted:** September 28th, 2016, 8:09 pm

I'm really glad you liked Beacons, Top. The song titles are actually the last words of pilots going down in a plane. I googled that once, and it was a crazy find. Wasn't expecting that. I think you would really dig his other stuff. Let Yourself Be Huge would be up your alley, after having listened to over half of your Top 10! It's his "acoustic" album.

P.S. Excited to listen to Amnesiac tomorrow. It has my fav Radiohead song on it.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** September 28th, 2016, 9:06 pm

End of Week One

The story so far...

Hidden:

Topsummoner · **Posted:** September 29th, 2016, 2:35 pm

Day 8
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Once apon a time this album was on my top ten. Always a treat to revisit.

Pros:
- The production on RAM is absolutely stellar. When I was first getting into music, crisp production was one of the things I looked for in an album (Probably because of DSotM), so RAM was immediately pleasurable to me.
- There's a certain magic this album has, that even on my first time hearing it, it sounded nostalgic. Now this artificial nostalgia has blended with actual nostalgia, making hearing this really like coming home.
- The features throughout the album are all spectacular. Special shoutout to Julian Casablancas on "Instant Crush", Paul Williams on "Touch" (whose vocals lend the track a certain musical theater feeling), and Pharrell Williams on "Get Lucky".
- Nile Rodgers guitar work on "Give Life Back To Music" and "Get Lucky" is funky fresh.
- Despite largely being composed of real instruments and performers, the electronic sections on tracks like "Giorgio by Moroder", "Touch", "Motherboard" and "Contact" give the album its "sound of the future" and remind us that yes, this is still Daft Punk.
- Good mix of catchy tunes, slower ballads, and experimental bits.
- The tracks "Instant Crush" and "Fragments of Time" sound like they could be straight from an Alan Parsons Project album.
- "Motherboard" sounds like nothing else.

Cons:
- "The Game of Love" takes out all the wind the album had built up in its sails with "Give Life Back To Music". I like the track, but it could have been placed better.
- "Lose Yourself To Dance" goes on for way too long, and just isn't as catchy or interesting as "Get Lucky".
- The fact that the beat at the end of "Giorgio by Moroder" doesn't continue on into "Within" is a huge waste of potential.
- RAM sounds kind of 'sterile' compared to some of the music I've explored more recently. It's difficult to put this as a con because this also something I like about it, but I felt it was worth mentioning.

Highlight: Touch. By no small margin this is my favourite piece of music Daft Punk have ever put out. The word that comes to mind to describe it is "soundscape".

RAM is still a treat to listen to, but I feel like I've gotten all I'll ever get out of it which is a shame.

Overall Score: 9/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** September 29th, 2016, 3:26 pm

Day 8:
Radiohead - Amnesiac

I am very familiar with it. This album contains my favorite Radiohead song, but isn't in my Top 5 Radiohead albums.

Pros:
- I'm just going to start out with my favorite part, and favorite Radiohead song, "Dollars & Cents". This is a perfectly written song. Three things meld together in perfection: The groove set by the bass and drums, the down-stroked 8th note guitar and the vocals/strings. They all meet for a moment halfway through the song, in a wonderful crescendo followed by a breakdown and then fall right back into it, and all so subtly.
- When those drums and bass come in on "Pyramid Song". Ugh.
- I normally hate horns or horn sections in music, but the ones in "Life In A Glasshouse" are delightful.
- A few of the songs have an old ragtime band feel that is great.
- The sound manipulation added to songs is perfect.
- There are certain transitions that completely work from song to song.
- It's Radiohead. They are just fantastic all around. Great song writing. Thom Yorke's vocals are always hauntingly fantastic. The different styles/influences of the different musicians come together so well. Bizarre timing is always great.

Cons:
- "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" just sucks. Just really, really sucks.
- "Morning Bell/Amnesiac" feels like filler. I don't hate it, but I'm glad it's only 3 minutes long (because I don't skip songs).
- I've always thought Radiohead do Rock and Roll best, and this album seems to have less of it.

Highlight:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Overall Score: 7

I'll keep listening to this album every now and again, most likely for the rest of my life.

Coming up next...
Day 9
Converge's Jane Doe and Bomb The Music Industry!'s Vacation

Spirographed · **Posted:** September 30th, 2016, 1:26 pm

Day 9:
Bomb The Music Industry! - Vacation

I have no idea what I'm getting into, here, but I like the name!

Pros:
- The lyrics were decent.
- The first 3 minutes of the album were really good. I thought this was going to be a chill new wave-ish album, at first.
- The last 45 seconds of the album were good.

Cons:
- Everything in between is a con, due to punk rock. I am just not a punk rock fan. I can appreciate aspects of punk, and can get into a lot of bands that are partially punk, but it's a smaller portion. The bands with a larger portion of punk, I just can't get into. I think the genre is lazy. The beats, chord progressions, vocals, themes, etc etc are all very similar to me. I get the punk attitude, and why it exists. I just can't take it seriously. There are moments of punk that could very well be serious pieces of music, but I just can't bring myself to take it seriously. This album, specifically, did just that. There were moments that I almost took seriously, but they were followed up with lazy, lazy punk guitar and vocals.
- There were also moments that sounded like 1950's rock and roll, but weren't special musically, and just seemed like regurgitated Chuck Berry B-Sides.

Highlight:
I really did like the intro.

Overall Score: 3

I concede that this album is no worse than any other punk album. In fact, it is not 100% punk and is therefore, in essence, not all bad. I just don't like the it.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** September 30th, 2016, 6:41 pm

Day 9
Converge - Jane Doe

You've been pretty sure I won't like this one, but I'm not so sure. Time to see.

Pros:
- Exhilirating! It's high energy from start to finish. I was reminded of A Wilhelm Scream but harder.
- The instrumentation is impressive on a technical level. There were lots of cool bits from the guitars and drums that kept it interesting throughout.
- The way the vocals blended with the music and the textures the instruments gave off in tracks like "Phoenix In Flight" reminded me of shoegaze... just with the bpm kicked up quite a notch!

Cons:
- The screeching vocals. Just kind of annoying and distracting throughout.
- Couldn't make an emotional connection to the music.
- "Phoenix In Flames"... yikes... glad that one was so short.

Highlight: The title track. A post-rock like creshendo was the perfect way to end this album.

I actually enjoyed this! The aggression was quite engaging... but it's just lacking a certain SOMETHING keeping it from becoming part of my "rotation" so to speak.

Overall Score: 7/10

Coming up next...
Day 10
'68's In Humor And Sadness and St Vincent's Actor

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 1st, 2016, 5:01 pm

Day 10
'68 - In Humor and Sadness

Not a clue what to expect!

Pros:
- The distortion is used well. It almost feels like DFA1979 at times with the heavier bassy parts.
- Raw. It doesn't feel 'touched up' at all in the studio, so it feels like the band just did their thing and genuinely put all their aggression into the album.
- I quite liked the last two tracks! I think I would feel better about this album if the rest were more like them.

Cons:
- Mostly abrasive vocals again... really not my thing. :X
- I can't really put my finger on why but this album just didn't engage me.

Highlight: Track 9, "T". Something about the barebones nature of it and the heavy distortion and echo effects. It was the most interesting track on the whole thing.

NOT WHAT I EXPECTED FROM THE COVER AND TITLE HA. And especially after you basically dismissed punk rock as a genre just the other day .-.

Anyways. I don't know. I'm pretty impartial to this one... don't have a lot to say about it. It just didn't engage me like Jane Doe.

Overall Score: 5.5/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 1st, 2016, 7:52 pm

Day 10:
St. Vincent - Actor

The name sounds familiar. I have no clue what they sound like, though.

Pros:
- Man. I listened while playing Minecraft, and this honestly fit as a good MC soundtrack. Very cool, chill music.
- I'm not sure what this is, as in a band, producer or if the singer is the sole artist, but I like it a lot. It reminds me of a less sad/creepy version of Portishead (which is to come, on my list), but with that same touch of weirdness.
- Wide variety of instruments and instrument voices used.
- There is some really cool layering going on.
- I have a soft spot for female vocalists that sound jazzy.
- Some NIN style industrial moments.
Cons:
- A lot of the beats are repetitive, 4 to the floor variations.
- A lot of the songs had short playtimes, it seemed. I didn't check any of them, but they seemed short.
- I liked it all, but none of the tracks really stuck out as instant favorites. They were all pretty similar. Although, now that I think of it, there was a cool build on one of the songs that stood out. I don't remember the name, though.

Highlight:
Knowing I would love this whole album on the first song, "The Strangers".

Overall Score: 8

I really enjoyed this album. I'll definitely be listening to it again and checking out other albums.

Coming up next...
Day 11
The Chariot's Long Live and Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 1st, 2016, 7:57 pm

St Vincent is the stage name of musician Annie Clark. The writing/composition, vocals, guitar, and production are all her.

The buildup you were thinking of is probably track 5, 'Black Rainbow'. Glad you enjoyed it!

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 2nd, 2016, 7:17 pm

Yeah. Relistened. It was "Black Rainbow".

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 2nd, 2016, 7:34 pm

Day 11:
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Ah, yes. It's been a while. Pretty excited to listen.

Pros:
- The synth on this album is my favorite synth on any PF album. "Welcome to the Machine", has my favorite synth on any classic song. It's juat so full. And those chords...
- The first stroke in all the guitar solos are so defining. The tone, the lead ins, and and how well the solos complement the rest of the song is perfect.
- "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" always reminds me of one of my favorite autobiographies, because that lyric is the last line in the book.
- There is a lot of instrumental spaces. When the vocals come, they command attention.
- All Pros from DSotM apply here, I'm sure. Floyd is Floyd. Been a fav of mine for a long time. So chill. I could never write such full songs at such slow BPMs.

Cons:
- This album seemed short. I didn't time it, not check the playtime, but I must have forgot how short it is.
- I never thought the lyrics in the choruses were as catchy as, say, DSotM. Not knocking the lyrical content, just that the hooks could have been better or phrased better.

Highlight:
The opening and closing tracks hold a special place in my heart.

Overall Score: 9/10

That was great. It had been too long. Even more excited for Animals.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 2nd, 2016, 8:40 pm

Day 11
The Chariot - Long Live

Pros:
- That bit in "Calvin Makenize" where it broke into "That's my hometown" got a chortle out of me. Definitely didn't anticipate that.
- The rare backing vocals were always a nice surprise and added an interesting element, especially when they contrasted with the brutal music.
- Aggressive!
- The album subverted my expectations at several points. I was very pleased to discover it wasn't just a one-dimensional aggressive RAAAAAAAAAAAAH album.

Cons:
- Again.... not my kind of vocal style. Anything that sounds painful for the vocalist tends to take me out of the music, especially if it's also painful for me to hear. :X
- The feedback in the intro and throughout went a little over the line at times.
- Maybe... too aggressive!

Highlight: "David De La Hoz" - The different vocal style pulled me in, but the outro won my heart.

I'm going to be honest, I started this album with a really bad first impression. I was pondering if this was going to be my first 3... or lower, depending on what came next!
But the aforementioned moment in "Calvin Makenize" clued me in there was a little more to this album, and moments towards the latter half of the album like on "The Earth" "David De La Hoz" and "Robert Ross" won me over a little.
I'm still giving it a mixed score because I really was not enjoying the first half, but I might come back to this actually. It intrigued me enough.

Overall Score: 6/10

Coming up next...
Day 12
Ascend The Hill's Take The World, But Give Me Jesus and Pink Floyd's Animals

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 3rd, 2016, 4:45 pm

Day 12:
Pink Floyd- Animals

After yesterday's listen, I'm pretty excited to listen to this.

Pros:
- I've always liked the lyrical content of this album. It gets me pretty introspective, in a good way.
- That vocoder/synth part that goes with the the dog bark in "Dogs" is so good.
- Long songs, man. Five songs at forty-two minutes is my kind of album.
- Gilmore and Waters' guitars compliment each other in a very linear way. This is the one PF album that the guitars work with each other in a way that if you took the other out, it would still be a solid album. In other PF albums, I really like how different the guitars sound at the same time. This album doesn't do that, but it completely works.
- All Pros from DSotM apply here, I'm sure. Floyd is Floyd. Been a fav of mine for a long time. So chill. I could never write such full songs at such slow BPMs.

Cons:
- For some reason, I found myself disliking the production. Having just listened to DSotM and WYWH, I noticed something different and for the worse on Animals, production-wise. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Less....ambience, I think, with tones (not song writing).
- Those pig squeals. Ugh. I get the point, but I never liked 'em.
- Seems to be less Gilmour vocals on this album. I like his vocals.

Highlight:
"Dogs"

Overall Score: 9/10

I haven't listened to Animals or WYWH in a couple years, but I always liked Animals better. My taste has changed, apparently, because I find myself having enjoyed WYWH a bit more. Which will probably change again in a couple years. So it goes...

Applequest · **Posted:** October 3rd, 2016, 8:38 pm

Spirographed wrote:

Day 11:
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

The title track is one of a few songs that bounces around my favorite song of all time title. The guitar intro is about as good as music gets.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 3rd, 2016, 10:50 pm

Day 12
Ascend The Hill - Hymns: Take The World, But Give Me Jesus

Anticipating a similar experience to Asaph... Hoping to be pleasantly surprised though.

Pros:
- It's pleasant to the musical palate.
- The musicians are clearly passionate about the subject matter.

Cons:
- The lyrical content... just doesn't do anything for me most of the time. And it's the most prominent feature of the album too...
- There's not really interesting going on in the music. I just felt bored
- The Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" reference... ugh. Most covers of this song seem to miss the point of it entirely, and this sample of it is no exception.
- I got really sick of hearing "Jesus" or "God" quite literally every few seconds. The problem with this kind of religious music is the message seems the exact same all the time.

It's got a little more kick to it than Asaph but I've got a lot of the same problems with it. The kick just ends up making it sound generic, like any other christian rock band I've ever heard. I'm sorry, this really isn't my thing at all. I just found myself wishing it would end soon. :\
I really struggled to find anything positive to say about it. Sorry.

Overall Score: 2/10

Coming up next...
Day 13
The White Stripes' Elephant and Sufjan Stevens' Seven Swans

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 3rd, 2016, 10:52 pm

Applequest wrote:

Spirographed wrote:

Day 11:
Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

The title track is one of a few songs that bounces around my favorite song of all time title. The guitar intro is about as good as music gets.

Yeah it's pretty great. Have you heard this alternate version from the Experience edition of the album? I prefer it to the original ever so slightly.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 4th, 2016, 8:12 pm

Day 13
The White Stripes - Elephant

I've heard this album before but don't remember too much about it. I remember vaguely liking it and of course the opening track. Let's get to it.

Pros:
- The guitar work is great and has a great tone throughout.
- I always like it when an album has multiple vocalists.
- There's something interesting about the sound that comes with a two-person act (See DFA1979, early AJJ, The Black Keys, Royal Blood) even though there's 'less going on'.
- The intro to Little Acorns

Cons:
- The vocals are pretty unexciting.
- While I don't hate "Well It's True..." it seems out of place as the closer to this.

Highlight: I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

While it was good there wasn't anything about it that really wowwed or hooked me. Still a nice listen though.

Overall Score: 6/10

Top vs Spiro - 100 Album Challenge

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