Top vs Spiro - 100 Album Challenge

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 16th, 2016, 9:42 am

Upon further thought, I think the production has a lot to do with my score, as well. It touches on that over-polished cheesball -deluxe '80s production that I can rarely get past. Most new wave and 80s rock/metal I can't get into because of production that just seems to take the life out of most sounds, by putting too much life into them.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 16th, 2016, 3:35 pm

Day 23
Gorillaz - Demon Days

I've heard this album a few times but Plastic Beach left a stronger impression on me that led me to kind of neglect this one. So I'm not sure how I feel about it yet! Let's go.

Pros:
- The simple but in-your-face bass riffs are like a strong underline across the album.
- The incorportation of different musical styles throughout the album makes it much more interesting than a simple hip hop album. The rock, pop, funk influences...
- Creating a virtual band opens up a world of freedom for an already established artist like Damon Albarn, not unlike what The Beatles tried on Sgt. Pepper's, and the wealth of companion material associated with Gorillaz reflects how Albarn used this to his advantage.
- The choir on the last track is a great left-field closer which was a breath of fresh air.

Cons:
- Gorillaz kind of have a "lazy" feeling to them that makes it difficult for me to listen to them for long periods of time. Not lazy in terms of effort put into the music, more the music and vocals just feel weighed down by this lethargy. It's hard to describe but 2D's almost out of breath vocals and the slow repetitive basslines kind of outline what I mean. This isn't a necessarily bad thing, but it just makes me feel fatigued listening to them.
- I didn't really care for some of the features and the monologue in "Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head".

Highlight: Feel Good Inc. Kind of a weak pick considering it's the huge single from the album, but the bassline is great, the verses are great, the contrast of the chorus is great, and the De La Soul feature is great.

This is a great album if you're really into the chill aesthetic, and it's certainly got something to say. It just kind of tires me out for reasons I can't adequately explain.

Overall Score: 7/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 16th, 2016, 9:57 pm

Day 23
AJJ - Can't Maintain

AJJ = Andrew Jackson Jihad. Interesting name. Haven't heard them.

Pros:
- The production was great. Raw but not necessarily lo-fi.
- The dude's voice was interesting enough.
- I liked the Irish-esque feel of the album, as a whole.
- It had a sort of charm that I can't really explain.
- The fiddle and backing vocals on "LitToHP" were great.
- I liked the lyrics for the most part. Good humor, however...

Cons:
- The self deprecating got pretty old pretty quick.
- "Olde Fuzzy Bunny

Tyme [Y]" & "Kazoo Sonata in Cmaj" I just did not like at all.
- The strumming pattern of the guitar was the same for every song but with the tempo changed and that made the album blur together, unfortunately.
- The lazy punk thing, again. It wasn't nearly as bad as BTMI!, though.

Highlight: "Truckers Are the Blood ". I really liked the lyrics to this one. Reminded me of my grandfather. He retired as a steel hauler from Gary Transfer.

Overall Score: 5/10

Coming up next...
Day 24
Further Seems Forever's How To Start A Fire and Archive's You All Look The Same To Me

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 17th, 2016, 10:29 pm

Day 24
Further Seems Forever - How To Start A Fire

Pros:
- Strong rhythm guitar and drums throughout.
- Got a real TTNG vibe from the guitars on "I Am", which along with it being the first real change of pace on the album made it stand out.
- I really liked the style change after "I Am". The direction the album went in was way more palatable to me.

Cons:
- I didn't like the vocals on a few of the tracks especially early on the album. Just don't like the voice and style.
- There just weren't any moments on here that really wowed me or won me over I'm afraid, besides the closer.
- I almost feel like the album would be better off just losing the whole first four tracks.

Highlight: "Aurora Borealis (In Long Form)". Great emotional climax. I always love a strong style shift for closers, and the more atmospheric buildup to the powerful vocal performance made this a clear standout.

Not a strong first impression on this one but it really turns it around and holds that stride the rest of the way.

Overall Score: 7/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 18th, 2016, 2:35 am

Day 24
Archive - You All Look The Same To Me

Pros:
- Great mix of classic and modern sounds.
- Really cool post production and sound manipulation.
- Had a couple >15 min songs.
- I liked the distorted electronic/industrial feel a few songs had, such as "Again", "Numb" and"Finding It So Hard"
- The female vocals were solid.

Cons:
- The male vocals got weaker the more intense they got.
- Really wasn't a fan of the feel of "Goodbye".
- The order of the tracks was a bit odd. The last song could have been first and led into "Again". The last two songs felt out of place, actually.

Highlight: The evolution of the opener, "Again", was brilliant. It was a very good first impression.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

The vocals really took away from the generally great music. I really just wasn't a fan of his voice most of the time. I only gave this one listen, but will most likely listen again in the future and/or check out some other work by them.

Coming up next...
Day 25
Queens of the Stone Age's Lullabies To Paralyze and Timber Timbre's Hot Dreams

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 18th, 2016, 7:10 am

Topsummoner wrote:

Day 24
Further Seems Forever - How To Start A Fire
...
- I almost feel like the album would be better off just losing the whole first four tracks.
...

I really enjoy this whole album, including the 1st 4 track, but can see where you are coming from. However...

"A Blank Page Empire", man. This is probably my favorite on the album. The jazzy vocals and music, I really enjoy. And the lyrics. They climax. Dude sings his heart out.

I'm glad you noticed the guitars and drums though. I really enjoy this album for mostly those reasons. The guitar work is just so different. Very oddly timed minor chords and scales. The drumming is masterfully unique as well.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 18th, 2016, 8:41 pm

Day 25
Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze

I've heard Songs For The Deaf from these guys, but that's it. And even that's a pretty recent addition to my chart. Looking forward to hearing more though.

Pros:
- "This Lullaby" starts things off right where "Mosquito Song" left off. A nice eerie opener.
- I can't help but notice the influence of The Strokes in the production, the distorted vocals on tracks like "Tangled Up In Plaid", the guitar on "Little Sister"...
- Inversely I can't help but feel The Black Keys must've been influenced by tracks like "Burn The Witch" haha. The circle of life I suppose.
- Good mix in intensity and tone throughout.
- There's something to the thick production I really dig that's difficult to put into words.

Cons:
- For their repetitiveness, a few of the tracks could have stood to be catchier.
- The "Hidden Finale" didn't really need to be hidden. I think it would have worked just fine or possibly better had "Long Slow Goodbye" sequed into it proper, for a more impactful curveball. Bit of wasted potential on the conclusion here.

Highlight: "Someone's In The Wolf". This track, what a ride. The rhythm guitar is never more exciting, and the vocals are ethereal and ominous. But the real highlight is the last two and half minutes... there's an almost Animals-like atmospheric instrumental break, before the band comes back in HARD, and just progressively increases in tempo and intensity over and over until POP- and it's over.

I kind of missed the radio interludes that were scattered throughout SFTD haha... but this was a really solid listen. I'll definitely be listening to this some more, and may even explore the rest of the Queens' discography.

Overall Score: 8.5

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 18th, 2016, 9:49 pm

Yeah. I think "Tangled Up In Plaid" was my initial favorite song, and then "Someone's In The Wolf" and now it's "Everybody Knows That You're Insane". The way the song opens blows my mind.

Agreed on the hidden track.

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 18th, 2016, 10:10 pm

Day 25
Timber Timbre - Hot Dreams

Haven't heard.

Pros:
- Funny tongue-in-cheek humor throughout.
- An updated classic sound. Some reminded me of Quentin Tarantino soundtrack music. Some reminded me of Surfer Rock. Some reminded me of Trip Hop. Some reminded me of a spaghetti western movie. Very, very cool sound.
- Seemed like the perfect runtime.
- "Beat The Drum Slowly", "Resurrection Drive Pt 2", and "Run From Me" were a cut above the rest.
- Neat electronic parts.

Cons:
- I enjoyed it all, but nothing really stood out enough for me to be really excited to revisit it.
- Veeeeeeryyyyyyyy sloooooowwwwwww

Highlight: "BTDS" was a great forest impression, with a really great ending. I knew I was in for something different after hearing it.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

It was good, but I'd have to be in a very specific mood to listen to it again. I'm not really even sure what that mood will be.

Coming up next...
Day 26
Deadmau5's 4 x 4 =12 and Porcupine Tree's The Incident

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 18th, 2016, 10:31 pm

It took some warming up to, but "Grand Canyon" has far and away become my favourite track on Hot Dreams. I recently discovered it's got a pretty surreal music video too.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 19th, 2016, 6:38 pm

Day 26
deadmau5 - 4x4=12

I don't listen to a whole lot of electronic music, but I have dabbled in Dead Mow Five a few times before. Not this album though. Here goes.

Pros:
- Love the seamless transitions from track to track.
- Great production and sound throughout... I'd probably really dig most of this stuff in like a club environment... not that I go to clubs though.
- A few tracks I thought were really cool like "Animal Rights", "Right This Second" (the bit at the beginning where it kind of feels like the beat and the rhythm are getting away from eachother was cool), "Raise Your Weapon" (great vocal feature, a much needed breath of fresh air haha)

Cons:
- Whole lot of beat-CLAP-beat-CLAP going on in a few tracks here which I just got sick of really fast.
- Didn't really care for the SOFI features. The almost rap-like manner of her vocals was just kind of annoying.
- "Cthulhu Sleeps" had this really unpleasant and aggressive WUB thing going on which I really didn't like even if the rest of the track was alright. And the track was so long and this WUB was present on almost the whole thing uggggh
- Too long for an instrumental album imo. Like I've mentioned before I can't connect emotionally to instrumental music as easily, and music like this doesn't even seem to be trying to elicit an emotional response anyways. So I just got sick of it really.

Highlight: "Animal Rights" Loved the uh... for lack of a better term, beep-boops in this one. Both the rhythm and the melody on this one really stuck out.

While there were some bits I enjoyed I really think this is... not what I look for in music. I certainly don't think it's BAD but it's definitely not something I liked.

Overall Score: 4/10

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 20th, 2016, 1:30 pm

Day 26
Porcupine Tree - The Incident

Gave this one a listen when it came out. I've given all of PT's discog a listen, at least once. I plan on getting familiar with them all eventually. It's.....a lot of time to put in, though.

Pros:
- Technically/rhythmically advanced progressive rock, which is right up my alley. I liked the song structure and the exploration of riffs and sounds.
- Great production on guitars and vocals.
- I like the soft/heavy mix.
- Vocal style/effects on certain songs, such as "The Seance".
- Cool electronic nuances.
- The song writing is just really, really great and evident especially on songs like "The Blind House", with the layered guitar work.

Cons:
- Wasn't a fan of the drum sound/production (the drums were played well).
- Wilson's vocals are so so. Kind of bland.
- Doesn't get heavy as often as I'd like.

Highlight: "Time Flies", obvi. Everything about this song was great. Acoustic intro>other instruments join>kick it up a notch>quit acoustic>spooky build w/great atmosphere>now familiar acoustic rhythm>kick it up one last time>ambient outro. I love good long songs. This was a perfect example of: IF YOU HAVE A GREAT RHYTHM OR RIFF, WHY ONLY PLAY IT ONCE?!

Overall Score: 7.5/10

It was a lot to take in. I only played through once, and revisited some highlights. Porcupine Tree is just one of those bands that I keep meaning to get fully acquainted with, but the discography is intimidating, and there are other bands that I'd rather explore first, because, in my head, PT will never be as good as, say, Tool or Cloudkicker. One day...

Coming up next...
Day 27
Curtis Mayfield's Superfly and The Beatles' Abbey Road

Spirographed · **Posted:** October 21st, 2016, 1:24 pm

Day 27
The Beatles - Abbey Road

This album is on my list as my fav Beatles album. The Beatles are the band I've been into for the longest. A compilation album of their's is the 1st album I ever owned. I'd say in 3rd or 4th grade I got into them.

Pros:
- Amidst the feuding and turmoil within the band, they recorded together one final time. They came together to record "Come Together" and company. This has always blown my mind. They had a couple albums, in my opinion, where the experimentation just did not pan out. A. R. was the final culmination of their experimentation and songwriting, together, and it came out fantastic. Within the struggle to coexist in a band together came vocal harmonies that were transcendent of personal feelings toward each other. The writing credits from song to song were the most defined they had ever been, but somehow they made a cohesive album when put together.
- The guitar work throughout is a leap above any other Beatles album (IMO, mostly due to McCartney).
- The intense vocal harmonies paved the way and inspired the likes of Queen and Zeppelin.
- Great mix of pop and experimentation.
- I could get into specifics of every song, honestly, but I won't. I will say that I like the 1st half of the album better. It's the individually written songs. The latter half, although great, always seemed a bit rushed to me, and I understand why. They didn't want to write together.

Cons:
- "Octopus's Garden" is just a....cheesy, I guess, song.
- Second half songs could have been expounded upon.

Highlight: "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Take away the longest playtime of the album, the catchiness, amazing vocal harmonies, fantastic organ playing and what do you have? My favorite guitar work in TB's discog.

Overall Score: 9/10

Applequest · **Posted:** October 21st, 2016, 1:35 pm

Interesting you don't like the medley as much, I think it's amazing. Abbey Road and Revolver are my two favorite Beatles albums.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 21st, 2016, 1:47 pm

Good taste apple, those are my favorites too.

When it comes to Revolver though, which version? Cause there's a few out there. The version specifically represented on my chart is the US Tracklisting Mono Mix.

EDIT: MY BAD I CONFUSED REVOLVER FOR RUBBER SOUL

Applequest · **Posted:** October 21st, 2016, 2:44 pm

Topsummoner wrote:

Good taste apple, those are my favorites too.

When it comes to Revolver though, which version? Cause there's a few out there. The version specifically represented on my chart is the US Tracklisting Mono Mix.

The one Im familiar with is the UK version I guess, listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(Beatles_album)#Track_listing. How is yours different?

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 21st, 2016, 3:02 pm

Man for some reason I confused Revolver with Rubber Soul, my bad. Rubber Soul is the one I was thinking of. >_> My mistake dude.

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 21st, 2016, 3:03 pm

Day 27
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

The soundtrack to a movie neither of us have seen. Fascinating!

Pros:
- The drumming was the most immediately striking feature of the music, and damn was it a breath of fresh air after weeks of rock/metal drums. Those bongos dude...
- Curtis's voice is smooth like butter and just nice to hear.
- The use of the funky guitar as more of a flourish than a dominant instrument was certainly interesting and let the bass, drums and vocals stand out.
- Love the brass and strings throughout.

Cons:
- The instrumental and monologue that opened "No Thing On Me" were a little cheeseball for me, but luckily the track mostly improved as it went on.
- Solid throughout but lacking those real great moments that push an album over.

Highlight: "Think". This was a great instrumental.

Pretty solid and fresh listen. I might try to get more into Soul cause of this.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Coming up next...
Day 28
Deftones' White Pony and Car Seat Headrest's Twin Fantasy

Topsummoner · **Posted:** October 21st, 2016, 7:59 pm

Day 28
Deftones - White Pony

I've heard this album before on recommendation a few years ago, I don't remember liking it. Trying to go in with a clear mind though.

Pros:
- There were a few tracks that were alright like "Knife Prty", "Korea", "Pink Maggit".
- Obviously there's technical skill involved here.

Cons:
- Couldn't stand the vocals all the way through. They sound bad when they're more abrasive, and they're just annoying when they're clean.
- There's like... a really obnoxious tinny sound to the drums at times. It's really prominent on "Elite" for an example.
- Don't like the production, or the tones on pretty much any of the instruments. It all just blends together, and not in a good shoegazey way.

Highlight: "Knife Prty"

Yeah I'm not going to lie I was... almost immediately turned off by this one. As early as the second song I was just waiting for it to be over, and I was bored or displeased for much of the running time. I can't stomach the idea of listening to it again to better articulate why I didn't like it.

Overall Score: 1/10

Sorry. This has been easily the least pleasant listen of the challenge so far for me :\

Applequest · **Posted:** October 22nd, 2016, 10:06 am

Topsummoner wrote:

Man for some reason I confused Revolver with Rubber Soul, my bad. Rubber Soul is the one I was thinking of. >_> My mistake dude.

I have never understood the love for Rubber Soul. Outside of a couple songs, that album does nothing for me.

Top vs Spiro - 100 Album Challenge

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