Lurker > FoolFantastic

Up

I made a playlist with the sample songs, though I think the Polysics album nominated is a live one not on Spotify (or anywhere? My googling makes me think it is a DVD concert film and not an album...)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mPvhgY8mOWpkTUefoe2vj?si=5b28c190f4814a3a

my vote:
1. Bjrk - Homogenic
2. ABBA - Arrival
3. Natalia Lafourcade - De todas las flores
4. dEUS - The Ideal Crash
5. Fishmans - Uchu Nippon Setagaya

Cowboy Bebop track ranking

17. Memory (Track #17)
Score: 28 (Average Rank: 13.4/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mega_Mana, rwlh (#17)

rwlh: the only ones i don't like (alongside "The Egg and I")

16. Digging My Potato (Track #16)
Score: 29 (Average Rank: 13.3/17)
Biggest Fan(s): rwlh (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica, Fluttershy_Pony (#17)

jcgamer107: slightly better harmonica than Spokey Dokey. Now I want a baked potato.

15. Felt Tip Pen (Track #14)
Score: 29 (Average Rank: 13.1/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Mega_Mana, jcgamer107 (#9)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, MaxGalactica, Fluttershy_Pony (#16)

jcgamer107: this ollll' Ruby rider.......is Ruby ridin' alonnngggg . This is what you hear when you hit the ol' dusty trail.

14. Cosmos (Track #6)
Score: 37 (Average Rank: 12.4/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#17)

jcgamer107: OK little trumpet interlude

13. Spokey Dokey (Track #3)
Score: 38 (Average Rank: 12.4/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Mega_Mana (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, HBJDubs (#17)

Sheep007: Im sorry, but can we please have a tiny, teensy bit less harmonica? Just a tad? A smidgen toned down, perhaps? I promise, I like it. I love your harmonica, Ms Kanno, I really do. Its just a lot, yknow?

jcgamer107: kinda grating harmonica that goes on for too long. decent slide guitar.

12. Pot City (Track #10)
Score: 49 (Average Rank: 11.1/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mega_Mana, FoolFantastic (#15)

jcgamer107: Kinda similar to Cat Blues, not quite as good

11. Car 24 (Track #12)
Score: 54 (Average Rank: 10.7/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Mega_Mana, jcgamer107 (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic (#17)

rwlh: sitcom music, a little too cheesy for me

10. The Egg and I (Track #13)
Score: 72 (Average Rank: 8.8/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Mega_Mana (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): rwlh (#16)

jcgamer107: cool slide guitar, and interesting use of fife. Sounds like some PilotWings shit or somethin.

rwlh: the only ones i don't like (alongside "Memory")

9. Cat Blues (Track #5)
Score: 74 (Average Rank: 8.7/17)
Biggest Fan(s): rwlh (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mega_Mana (#14)

jcgamer107: chill & groovy. Begging for someone to recite beatnik poetry over it.

8. Waltz for Zizi (Track #8)
Score: 75 (Average Rank: 8.8/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#17)

jcgamer107: Pleasant enough. Sounds like something I'd have on while sitting by the fireplace around Christmas time.

7. Rain (Track #15)
Score: 76 (Average Rank: 8.5/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Mega_Mana (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#15)

jcgamer107: wtf is this. No lyrics allowed. Pretty jarring to throw this in near the end.

6. Too Good Too Bad (Track #11)
Score: 90 (Average Rank: 7/17)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, jcgamer107 (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#12)

jcgamer107: fun brass & sax. Snare makes it into like a jazz-march ?

5. Bad Dog No Biscuits (Track #4)
Score: 99 (Average Rank: 6.9/17)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007 (#16)

jcgamer107: this song goes HARD right from the start - the brass, the drums, the radio static sounds - everything is great. Really pushes the boundaries of hard jazz. Then opens into this wild ska section just over a minute in. I eat it up every time. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3) allowed you to insert your own custom soundtrack into the game - I put this song in, and for some reason it always played whenever the game started up, at the title screen. It was bad-ass and got me pumped for some hard drivin'.

4. Piano Black (Track #9)
Score: 109 (Average Rank: 5.5/17)
Biggest Fan(s): rwlh (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mega_Mana (#13)

jcgamer107: more dope jazz. Not enough piano though, given the title.

rwlh: lovely repetitive crunch

3. Rush (Track #2)
Score: 114 (Average Rank: 5.2/17)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107, Seanchan (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#14)

jcgamer107: This is quite my tempo - jazz with some real punch. The Bond motif section is neat.

2. Space Lion (Track #7)
Score: 142 (Average Rank: 4.4/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Mega_Mana, MaxGalactica, rwlh, Fluttershy_Pony, HBJDubs (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): jcgamer107 (#17)

Sheep007: I very nearly like this more than Tank and thats high praise indeed.

MaxGalactica: This is one of my favorite songs of all time. The ambient intro with the gorgeous sax is incredible. Amazing melody, amazing chords, amazing soundscape, I love everything about this song.

jcgamer107: wow this is long, it's puttin' me to sleep. I'm sure it serves its purpose within the context of the show, but I wouldn't ever listen to it on its own. Plus the vocals are just weird.

rwlh: 10/10 song for me, an all-timer

Fluttershy_Pony: I love this song enough that I listened to the entire album just so I could give it first place. I kinda hoped to find something on its level on this soundtrack, but alas, this song is *way* beyond anything else here. I'm not sure any other album we've covered has such a massive gap between first & second place.

1. Tank! (Track #1)
Score: 155 (Average Rank: 2.8/17)
Biggest Fan(s): Sheep007, FoolFantastic, Johnbobb, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): rwlh (#10)

Johnbobb: might be the most obvious winner we've had, and that's stiff competition

jcgamer107: an all-time great TV show theme, that I can only ever hear with Bill Cosby (impersonations) thanks to YTMND

Fluttershy_Pony: Eh. I've honestly never been a fan of this song and kinda hate the shorter intro version of the track. I blame Super Robot Wars T; whenever any of your characters attacks or gets attacked, their anime's theme will play. So if you use Spike, you're going to hear "Tank!" whenever he does anything. And since he's a pretty decent character--very evasive, decent damage, and you get extra money for each enemy he shoots down--you'll probably hear the song hundreds of times per playthrough. After three trips through that game, my distaste for the song has turned to hatred.

BUT this extended version isn't all that bad. There are enough new moments that it feels different & the instruments are much clearer and high quality than the game's rendition. I still don't like it--and the fact that it's so high up on my list should tell you how I feel about the album as a whole--but... this song is pretty okay.

The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
MaxGalactica (28)
HBJDubs (34)
Johnbobb (40)
FoolFantastic (46)
Sheep007 (48)
Seanchan (50)
rwlh (54)
jcgamer107 (60)
Fluttershy_Pony (70)
Mega_Mana (74)

General Album Comments

Seanchan: Not sure I'll rank this week. 17 songs, mostly instrumental...

But it was generally enjoyable!

Sheep007: I love Bebop, I love this soundtrack as a soundtrack, I dont care for it so much as an album. A lot of other soundtracks work better in album form, and either feel more wildly varied (like, game soundtracks tend to cover wider tones) or like they have more cohesion without getting tiring. Rains vocalist was a jumpscare and a half the first listen, and the actionier songs didnt tend to sit so highly with me past the opening two. The 1-2 punch of Spokey Dokey and Bad Dog No Biscuits was rough following that, and I dont think they led well into the rest of the album. Most of the rest flows decently, given its not really intended to be a typical album. Still obviously so much great music here! I feel like I'm being very critical but it's unfortunately hindered by not being the best way I've experienced this soundtrack. Go watch Bebop (the anime version please) if you haven't already - one of the best animated shows of all time.

FoolFantastic: "Tank!" is pretty much the greatest theme song ever written (the other contender being the theme from Twin Peaks). Few shows make such perfect use of its music, but the team behind Cowboy Bebop knew exactly what they were getting with Yoko Kanno. She is not merely scoring scenes - in several of the best moments, it's more that the scenes are set to her music. As such, the songs have a leading quality where many soundtracks try to operate in the background. The wide range of genres make another strong selling point. This is one of the few OSTs that I would actually recommend as its own entity.

MaxGalactica: There are probably about 20 Kanno soundtracks that I have rated higher than this one (including Ragnarok Online II that we covered a couple of months ago), as it does have a few more filler tracks than I'd like. However the good tracks on here are really, really good and Space Lion is my overall favorite Kanno song which is saying a lot. There's a lot of variety genre-wise with the spaghetti western, big band jazz, blues, and other influences. If you enjoyed this soundtrack, definitely check out the second (Cowboy Bebop 2: No Disc) and third (Cowboy Bebop Blue) soundtracks as well as the Vitaminless EP. They're all quite varied and include more vocal songs if you felt those were missing from this soundtrack (The Real Folk Blues, Adieu, Call Me Call Me. Blue, Fantasie Sign, and Don't Bother None being highlights amongst them).

rwlh: I liked this a lot more on my first listen. There are some songs I really like here, particularly Space Lion, and there's a wide enough range of styles that I could see myself gravitating toward different songs on subsequent listens. That sax is pretty great.

Seanchan: Fine, I did do a ranking, just not to my usual level of effort, though I did do my normal 3 listens. The album starts off really well, outside of Spokey Dokey. Lots of big, jazzy, upbeat numbers. Then there's the rest of it. Nothing too bad, it's just an album that peaks early.

HBJDubs: Not my style of music typically, but Yoko Kanno just knows how to make good music out of anything. The top songs can definitely stand on their own without the context of the show.

Comments from nominator - I have added a link to the most streamed song on Spotify if the nominator did not include any

ABBA - Arrival:
ABBA is a Swedish pop band that that put out a series of hit albums and songs in the 70s and 80s. Arrival is considered one of their best albums and has a few big hits you've heard before, like Dancing Queen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s , Money Money Money https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0 , and Knowing Me, Knowing You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUrzicaiRLU . If you want fun, easy listening pop, this is the album for you!

Babymetal - Babymetal:
Babymetal basically created an entirely new genre with this album that by no means should have actually worked, combining heavy metal instrumentals with j-pop vocals. Somehow it ended up capitalizing on the best of both genres, making something that is legitimately metal as all hell while having a wildly differnet sound from anything that came before it. I considered going with one of their other albums, Metal Resistance or Metal Galaxy (all three are great) but I feel like it makes more to introduce them via their self-titled debut which pretty much immediately knocked it out of the park.

This song is what made them go viral initially and the one that introduced most people to the band to begin with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKqgE4BwAY

Bjrk - Homogenic:
A beautiful, otherworldly album. Bjork has four albums I would love to cover, but Homogenic has always stood out as her best to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5hMHLwqPR4

Blmchen - Jasmin:
Style: Ballad, Euro House, Happy Hardcore, Synth-pop (according to Discogs)

I don't think that this topic series has covered this style of pop yet (correct me if I'm wrong). Album is in German.

Note, the original release of this album had 13 songs but the version on Spotify/Youtube has 15 (after some research I discovered that this was a special edition released like a year later). Normally I wouldn't be pushing for bonus songs to be included, but one of those extra songs is one which I think people are most likely to have heard before, so it feels right that it should be ranked. So I'm nominating all 15 songs even though it adds an extra 7 minutes.

Sample song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsAISp5C8CE

dEUS - The Ideal Crash:
Belgian art-rock band. The Ideal Crash isn't as experimental or artsy as predecessor 'In a Bar, Under the Sea', but the creativity and art is still there, it's just interwoven into the music more subtly. The band at its peak, an album with amazing consistency and quality throughout.

Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0hPLvWPvac

Enya - A Day Without Rain:
AKA the album with Only Time on it. Her most acclaimed album is Watermark, but when I listen to it I get mostly vibes and that doesn't work very well in this format. My favorite album is Dark Sky Island, but I'm more curious to see the opinions of the rest of A Day Without Rain when put up against the most pervasive song in Enya's discography. Plus I think this album is great too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfYIMyS_dI

Fishmans - Uchu Nippon Setagaya:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_GjLs9YOrcLCgTdhrb4xr6DUA5cAuSmJ

Japanese psychedelic rock band beloved by Rate Your Music. I'm not familiar with most of their work. Their highest rated album, Long Season, is one continuous song, so I'm nominating this instead. Open to changing based on feedback.

KMFDM - Nihil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdmhFhxJIXQ

Natalia Lafourcade - De todas las flores:
Since we recently did a Portuguese-speaking album with Clube da esquina, I figured it'd also be cool to cover a Spanish-speaking album. It's a really cool modern take on Mexican folk music. Some really good songwriting and Lafourcade's voice is fantastic.

Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx5CZ83o1Z8

Lordi - The Arockalypse:
Just pure fun heavy metal out of Finland. This album has Hard Rock Hallelujah, which made history when it won Eurovision in 2006. Link to that song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H4mJXcQaRU

Machinae Supremacy - A View From The End Of The World:
machinae supremacy are a swedish metal (but not particularly heavy) band who sing mostly about video games and use a SID synthesizer, the chip from the commodore 64, to get authentic 8-bit sounds. this is my favourite album of theirs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJXLqqKB1w

Nouvelle Vague - Novelle Vague:
This French-based band basically does bossa nova covers of rock and pop tunes with a heavy focus on the 80s. So it's kind of in line with the stuff I typically nominate with a bit of a deviant twist. They're pretty catchy and I honestly feel like I've heard their cover of "I Melt With You" in commercials before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeX8Ah1eSt8

Polysics - Now is the Live!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBhxnlnLIM

Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEUjbBMOUBg

Beyond the Anglosphere nominees (rank your top 5):
ABBA - Arrival
Babymetal - Babymetal
Bjrk - Homogenic
Blmchen - Jasmin
dEUS - The Ideal Crash
Enya - A Day Without Rain
Fishmans - Uchu Nippon Setagaya
KMFDM - Nihil
Natalia Lafourcade - De todas las flores
Lordi - The Arockalypse
Machinae Supremacy - A View From The End Of The World
Nouvelle Vague - Novelle Vague
Polysics - Now is the Live!
Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Thursday, May 2nd at 8:00 AM Central Time; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered.
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain track list:
(1. Overture)
2. Vaudeville Villain
3. Lickupon
4. The Drop
5. Lactose and Lecithin
6. A Dead Mouse
7. Open Mic Nite, Pt. 1
8. RaeDawn
9. Let Me Watch(/Can I Watch?)
10. Saliva
11. Modern Day Mugging
12. Open Mic Nite, Pt. 2
13. Never Dead
14. PopSnot
15. Mr. Clean
16. G.M.C.
17 (hidden track). Change the Beat

Future weeks:
5/2: Garbage - Version 2.0

"Tank!" is pretty much the greatest theme song ever written (the other contender being the theme from Twin Peaks). Few shows make such perfect use of its music, but the team behind Cowboy Bebop knew exactly what they were getting with Yoko Kanno. She is not merely scoring scenes - in several of the best moments, it's more that the scenes are set to her music. As such, the songs have a leading quality where many soundtracks try to operate in the background. The wide range of genres make another strong selling point. This is one of the few OSTs that I would actually recommend as its own entity.

Tank!
Space Lion
Rush
Too Good Too Bad
Bad Dog No Biscuits
The Egg and I
Piano Black
Waltz for Zizi
Cosmos
Memory
Spokey Dokey
Cat Blues
Digging My Potato
Rain
Pot City
Felt Tip Pen
Car 24

It's feel-based. When I give a score to an album, I look at my excel sheet and find albums I feel have a similar level of quality.

I update my rankings once a year to calibrate those placements. Though I do also keep strict limits for anything 8.0 and above. With my music sheets currently separated by decade, I limit the 9.0+ albums to 150 total split evenly (with the 10.0s taking a small chunk of the 9.9s) and the 8.0-8.9s to the next 300. So my scores do have a meaning in a comparative sense - giving an album a 9.7 means it is in my top 45 for the decade. Of course, this means a 9.7 for the 90s and a 9.7 for the 2010s might hold different weight, but I find nothing to feel off by more than .1 point (part of my interest in art is a work's place among its contemporaries, so it's not purely qualitative - which is not to say I bump up an album because of social impact as much as most albums within a few tiers of each other cause an indistinguishable level of enjoyment, and I'm going to favor works that clearly influenced other music or is doing something unique if my general enjoyment is the same).

For me, individual songs don't matter too much in my album rankings. There are a ton of albums with great singles and a bunch of bloat. There are some albums that are more about creating an emotional experience for 40+ minutes. Since I view albums in the sense of being an artistic statement, the former feels really lazy, like the musician views the album more as an obligation.

My most listened to album ever is probably Sleigh Bells' Treats (either that or The xx's self-titled). I'm not sure if any individual track of that album lands in my top 1000 songs, but the overall experience of hearing those tracks back to back hits different. A great album makes me want to hear the whole thing - if I find myself enduring a track to get to the next hit, that's a problem.

If anything, you can probably judge an album better by comparing its lesser tracks!

I am probably going to alternate between themed and non-themed sets. For the themed weeks, they are largely going to be like this, based more around the artist or a period of time rather than the style of music. Essentially, I want the range of genres to remain wide open - I do not want us to end up with five weeks in a row of very similar music. So, there will never be an alternative rock week or whatever, but you should still be able to nominate an alt. rock album whenever (there just might be constraints on which one).

I'm hoping this is satisfying for everyone. Especially since a big concern was more niche albums having a harder time with this format, I'm hoping this narrows the playing field where they have a better chance. (At the same time, Knower and Viktor Vaughn felt like unlikely victors when a band like RHCP didn't make the cut, so I don't think this system is as hard on niche albums as people think)

One of my favorite bands is German but Kraftwerk does not mesh well with this format. All of their albums have very few tracks - the ones I would nominate have between 6-8 songs. The one with 8 songs is my favorite, but also three of those songs are essentially one track split into three parts...

I would like to properly cover Daft Punk someday but I think I'll pass on Homework for now.

So I will go ahead and nominate:
Bjrk - Homogenic

A beautiful, otherworldly album. Bjork has four albums I would love to cover, but Homogenic has always stood out as her best to me.

All is Full of Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5hMHLwqPR4

Here are the albums we have already covered that would have qualified for the theme (unless I overlooked someone):
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amaedeus Phoenix (France)
U2 - Achtung Baby (Ireland)
Air - Moon Safari (France)
The Knife - Silent Shout (Sweden)
Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal (Iceland)
Opeth - Damnation (Sweden)
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue (Ireland)
Sigrid - Sucker Punch (Norway)
Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica (Finland)
In Flames - Colony (Sweden)
Bob Marley - Exodus (Jamaica)
Sabaton - The War to End All Wars (Sweden)
Zuntana - G-Darius (Japan)
Desired - Lovestory (Russia)
Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges - Clube da Esquina (Brazil)
Nekomata Master - Follow Slowly (Japan)
Yoko Kanno - Rangarok Online II OST (Japan)
The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop (Japan)

Knower Forever track ranking

11. Same Smile, Different Face (Track #7)
Score: 20 (Average Rank: 9.78/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): NFUN, Johnbobb, Seanchan, rwlh (#11)

jcgamer107: very bittersweet, there's times when I can't listen to it cuz it'll make me too sad. Strong "Yesterday" Beatles vibes.

10. Knower Forever (Track #1)
Score: 25 (Average Rank: 9.22/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, MaxGalactica, FoolFantastic, jcgamer107 (#11)

9. Ride That Dolphin (Track #9)
Score: 42 (Average Rank: 7.44/11)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107 (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#10)

jcgamer107: Extra groovy. Opening is Vulfpeck af. YEAH YEAH.

8. It's All Nothing Until It's Everything (Track #5)
Score: 46 (Average Rank: 6.89/11)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107 (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#10)

Fluttershy_Pony: I kinda love the very beautiful outro in the last 30 or so seconds of the song, but I'm really not into the rest of it. Which is possibly intentional given the title (the song is nothing, until it isn't), but doesn't make me enjoy it as a whole.

jcgamer107: absolutely sick, stupid, insane rhythm, with the playing and the stuff. It's so ridiculous you almost laugh, but so locked in and technically impressive you can't help but be into it.

7. It Will Get Real (Track #10)
Score: 54 (Average Rank: 6.33/11)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#11)

jcgamer107: Great energy in this one, really fun groove and outro fill from Louis. I love the keyboard solo near the end, it's so freaking fun. Then Sam Gendel comes in and almost matches it.

6. Real Nice Moment (Track #4)
Score: 58 (Average Rank: 5.89/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): NFUN, rwlh (#9)

jcgamer107: a much needed breather before 'It's All Nothing.' Relaxing groove, but also with a hint of melancholy, reflecting on the fleetingness of time.

5. Crash the Car (Track #11)
Score: 61 (Average Rank: 5.67/11)
Biggest Fan(s): NFUN (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, MaxGalactica (#9)

jcgamer107: strong & existential finale, almost haunting - the strings are beautiful.

4. The Abyss (Track #3)
Score: 73 (Average Rank: 4.67/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb, Sheep007, FoolFantastic (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): jcgamer107 (#10)

jcgamer107: almost borders on too weird for me, but it's still fun. I want to hear more of the slow motion outro tbh.

3. Nightmare (Track #6)
Score: 76 (Average Rank: 4.33/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#9)

jcgamer107: The half time electronic break in the middle is so fucking cool, as is the extended outro with those offbeat hits and Genevieve's silky smooth tones. The first couple minutes is just 'OK' in comparison, musically, but the lyrics are great. A better kind of fear, cuz real life is not here.

2. Do Hot Girls Like Chords? (Track #8)
Score: 96 (Average Rank: 3.11/11)
Biggest Fan(s): NFUN, Fluttershy_Pony, jcgamer107 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#7)

jcgamer107: Is Knower popular? Does purgatory have snacks? I dunno, but this song kicks a lot of ass. God-tier guitar solo and drum fills, holy shit.

1. I'm the President (Track #2)
Score: 106 (Average Rank: 2.67/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb, Sheep007, MaxGalactica, FoolFantastic, rwlh (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): jcgamer107 (#7)

Johnbobb: that horn loop is so addictive

jcgamer107: Landslide-fucking-Genevieve. I can't believe I have to put 'President' this low, it's like a 9/10 song, and the outro always makes me smile (WHO CARES) - this was one of my favorite jams last summer. But then the rest of the album came out and blew me away.

Knower - Knower Forever results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
FoolFantastic (10)
Johnbobb (12)
MaxGalactica (14)
rwlh (16)
Seanchan (18)
Sheep007 (18)
NFUN (20)
jcgamer107 (38)
Fluttershy_Pony (42)

General Album Comments

PeaceFrog: This is a good reminder to listen to it some more! I remember really liking Do Hot Girls Like Chords? a lot when I listened upon release.

Seanchan: Initial reaction was "ugh, another of these albums". But there seemed enough variety that it shouldn't be too bad to rank.

jcgamer107: My 2023 album of the year, looking forward to ranking this one. The lyrics are sometimes whatever but the musicianship and arrangements are insane. It's like a huge, talented band formed around Clown Core.

Sheep007: First listen done, but mostly in the background. Definitely need another one before even thinking about rankings. The vocals and even sometimes the lyrics remind me of Kero Kero Bonito. I don't get the same delirious euphoria from them, but I also find the songs sufferable so it's a mixed tradeoff. Also, holy shit the arrangements are wild. They had a lotttt of fun making this.

NFUN: They clearly just made this album to have a good time. It was all recorded in Cole's house with goofy videos and excessive solos that take up half of some of the songs and a good portion of the time they're intentionally making the songs stupid as fuck. And you know what? That's perfect. Sometimes straddling the boundary between shit-ass and great makes a product that can't be matched.

Fluttershy_Pony: This album's selection is rather conveniently timed for me. NFUN assumed I'd be into at least one song on this album and had to gamble on which one, so I felt I'd need to look over the entire album and rank them anyway. I can now confirm that he was right & I would say "Do Hot Girls Like Chords?" is my favorite on the album, though "Real Nice Moment" is close and I might prefer it some days.

Johnbobb: Knower is always so much fun

Sheep007: This might be one of the hardest albums to rank so far, three and a half listens and I don't think I'm any closer to reaching a conclusion. Just gonna throw something in that vaguely reflects my feelings. There's lots of things that are very catchy here which I don't actually like as much as the songs I find less catchy, and Artadi's voice is slowly driving me to the Kero Kero Bonito delirium I hinted at prior. This feels much more ambitious musically, overall better and bit less mind-boggling though. Despite actually leaning into weirdness through the lyrics, where KKB would be singing about like, going to school and drinking plenty of water or some shit.

Seanchan: I'll put up my ranking later today, but I'm signing on to both of Sheep's blurbs about the album.

MaxGalactica: KNOWER FOREVER is a pretty significant departure from their previous electropop/glitch pop style with a major focus on more orchestral sounds paired with funk and a heavy emphasis on crazy solos. Oftentimes a departure like this for an artist leads to a weak entry in a style that's outside of their comfort zone. In KNOWER's case, they created the best album they've made to date. Every track is engaging, the solos are wild, the production is top-notch, and the sheer technical prowess on display is admirable (Louis Cole's drum-playing is out of this world). The only thing that keeps me from rating it higher is that Genevieve Artadi doesn't exactly have my favorite voice out there, but I guess it works well enough to not detract from the overall experience too much. Great album all in all.

rwlh: Fun album! Lots of variety, which made ranking individual songs easier for me than it normally is for these topics. There was one song above an 8 and one song below a 5. The variety actually makes for a cohesive album experience. This was my second time listening; this time the vocals didn't bother me like they did before and I think I appreciated more of the instrumentation.

I also want to add that, despite everyone saying the lyrics are nonsense, Ride That Dolphin has an all-time great line in "Things are more real when they're hard to believe."

The theme for the next set is albums by artists outside the core Anglosphere countries.

This means no albums by artists born/raised in these countries:
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
United Kingdom
United States

The album can still be in English, since plenty of people outside the Anglosphere perform in English for a variety of reasons.

The reason for this week is simply the fact most successful music comes from these countries - 2,714 of the top 3,000 albums on Acclaimed Music are from here! Obviously, the majority of this is the USA and UK, but even Canada and Australia both have more albums than any other country. Here's a breakdown of the countries I noticed with 10 or more albums in that list:
USA: 1,750
UK: 792
Canada: 110
Australia: 56
Germany: 52
France: 44
Jamaica: 32
Ireland: 30
Brazil: 27
Sweden: 16
Spain: 15
Iceland: 13
(New Zealand only has six, but alas - we also already covered the big one)

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Thursday, April 25th at 8:00 AM Central Time; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered.
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop track list:
1. Tank!
2. Rush
3. Spokey Dokey
4. Bad Dog No Biscuits
5. Cat Blues
6. Cosmos
7. Space Lion
8. Waltz for Zizi
9. Piano Black
10. Pot City
11. Too Good Too Bad
12. Car 24
13. The Egg and I
14. Felt Tip Pen
15. Rain
16. Digging My Potato
17. Memory

Future weeks:
4/25: Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain (+ voting on future albums)
5/2: Garbage - Version 2.0

I'm the President
The Abyss
Crash the Car
Nightmare
Do Hot Girls Like Chords?
Real Nice Moment
It Will Get Real
It's All Nothing Until It's Everything
Ride That Dolphin
Same Smile, Different Face
Knower Forever

I don't think Speak Now should be taken as representative. It was a really odd pick for an artist with several better regarded albums...really, I think all but her debut are probably more acclaimed. Red, 1989, Folklore, and Evermore are the big ones.

An admin with 86 karma, ew

bump

Innervisions track ranking

9. All in Love is Fair (Track #7)
Score: 27 (Average Rank: 7.4/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb, MetalmindStats, Mega_Mana (#9)

8. Visions (Track #2)
Score: 34 (Average Rank: 6.6/9)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica, Seanchan (#9)

7. Too High (Track #1)
Score: 37 (Average Rank: 6.4/9)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#9)

6. He's Misstra Know-It-All (Track #9)
Score: 40 (Average Rank: 6.1/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): MarkS2222222222 (#9)

5. Jesus Children of America (Track #6)
Score: 52 (Average Rank: 5.2/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb, HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Sheep007 (#9)

4. Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing (Track #8)
Score: 66 (Average Rank: 4.2/9)
Biggest Fan(s): MaxGalactica, Seanchan, MarkS2222222222 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#9)

3. Golden Lady (Track #4)
Score: 68 (Average Rank: 4.2/9)
Biggest Fan(s): MarkS2222222222, HBJDubs (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#8)

2. Higher Ground (Track #5)
Score: 94 (Average Rank: 2.5/9)
Biggest Fan(s): MaxGalactica, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#6)

1. Living for the City (Track #3)
Score: 102 (Average Rank: 2.4/9)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, Fluttershy_Pony, Sheep007, Johnbobb, MetalmindStats, Mega_Mana (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#7)

MetalmindStats: Has what might be my favorite first ten seconds of any song, not that it renders the rest any less masterful to me.

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
Mega_Mana (4)
MaxGalactica (10)
FoolFantastic (12)
MarkS2222222222 (14)
Sheep007 (14)
Johnbobb (16)
MetalmindStats (16)
Seanchan (16)
Fluttershy_Pony (20)
HBJDubs (20)

General Album Comments

Seanchan: I was a little disappointed and bored? Stevie Wonder has a ton of big hit singles that everyone knows and this had...maybe 2 of them but lesser ones at that? Higher Ground I think of RHCP first. Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing has been sound clipped into too many commercials. The rest just did not grab me very much.

What was the reason behind specifically this album for Stevie? On the whole, is he more of a "singles" than an "albums" kind of artist?

FoolFantastic (responding to Seanchan): This album is ranked #48 of all time on Acclaimed Music and #96 on Rate Your Music. His album Songs in the Key of Life is even higher on both lists, but I wanted to tackle this first both because I personally prefer it and it's earlier (and also the latter is a double album). It's also massively influential on several genres.

He's definitely key to both songs and albums - he even won Album of the Year at the Grammy's 3 times, with this being his first. Not that I hold much weight in the Grammy's of all things, but this is pretty much universally regarded as one of the all-time greats.

FoolFantastic: Innervisions is such a rich, complex album. It's hard to think of anything that truly compares to Stevie Wonder at his peak. His influence on future artists is obvious, but few cover such a range all at once. Wonder is in full control of his sound; he's mainly known as a pianist, but he's tackling the drums and various synths here as well. And then there's his vocal range! Part of what makes this work so well is Wonder's sense of energy. No matter how complex a piece gets, he keeps pushing us right along. "Living for the City" is a progressive soul epic tackling broken dreams and systemic racism, but growing layers and shifts in mood make its seven minutes pass like a breeze. The blending of the synthesizers into the general sound throughout is also impressive, especially for the time.

Fluttershy_Pony: Pretty good album.

Sheep007: I really liked this album, it felt like there was a ton of variety in songs' structure and themes and even the ones I didn't care all that much for sounded good. Living For the City was a particular standout.

Seanchan: I enjoyed this a lot more with my second listen. Partially that my expectations were better but mostly that I had a better listening environment (quieter and better headphones).

MaxGalactica: This album is simply fabulous. While not as strong as Songs in the Key of Life, this album is full of some real heavy-hitters, namely Living for the City, Higher Ground, and Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing. Living for the City is funky, energetic, and full of raw emotion. Higher Ground has got an awesome clavinet riff and melody. And Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing is one of Wonder's most memorable songs along with Superstition. The rest of the album is great too, there's not a single track I dislike here. An essential album that I'm glad we got to cover. If you enjoyed this album, then Songs in the Key of Life is pretty much required listening.

Seanchan: An album I really came around on after a tough opening listen. I know I'm out of sync with the group on Living for the City; I don't think it's a bad song, there's just others I liked more.

MetalmindStats: There's a noticeable gap between my third and fourth-ranked tracks, though I still like them all, as well as the ways they fit together.

HBJDubs: For a genre I'm not into, this was pretty good

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Thursday, April 18th at 8:00 AM Central Time; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered.
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

Knower - Knower Forever track list:
1. Knower Forever
2. I'm the President
3. The Abyss
4. Real Nice Moment
5. It's All Nothing Until It's Everything
6. Nightmare
7. Same Smile, Different Face
8. Do Hot Girls Like Chords?
9. Ride That Dolphin
10. It Will Get Real
11. Crash the Car

Future weeks:
4/18: The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop (+ nominations)
4/25: Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain (+ voting on future albums)
5/2: Garbage - Version 2.0

Reminder that voting closes tomorrow morning

Bump

Living for the City has always been my favorite, which is another reason I wanted to cover this album. Sir Duke, Superstition, and Higher Ground would be my next set.

Up

Seanchan posted...

What was the reason behind specifically this album for Stevie? On the whole, is he more of a "singles" than an "albums" kind of artist?

This album is ranked #48 of all time on Acclaimed Music and #96 on Rate Your Music. His album Songs in the Key of Life is even higher on both lists, but I wanted to tackle this first both because I personally prefer it and it's earlier (and also the latter is a double album). It's also massively influential on several genres.

He's definitely key to both songs and albums - he even won Album of the Year at the Grammy's 3 times, with this being his first. Not that I hold much weight in the Grammy's of all things, but this is pretty much universally regarded as one of the all-time greats.

Innervisions is such a rich, complex album. It's hard to think of anything that truly compares to Stevie Wonder at his peak. His influence on future artists is obvious, but few cover such a range all at once. Wonder is in full control of his sound; he's mainly known as a pianist, but he's tackling the drums and various synths here as well. And then there's his vocal range! Part of what makes this work so well is Wonder's sense of energy. No matter how complex a piece gets, he keeps pushing us right along. "Living for the City" is a progressive soul epic tackling broken dreams and systemic racism, but growing layers and shifts in mood make its seven minutes pass like a breeze. The blending of the synthesizers into the general sound throughout is also impressive, especially for the time.

Living for the City
Higher Ground
Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing
Golden Lady
Too High
Visions
He's Misstra Know-It-All
All in Love is Fair
Jesus Children of America

The Colour and the Shape track ranking

14. The Colour and the Shape (Track #14 (bonus))
Score: 30 (Average Rank: 11.67/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente, MaxGalactica, Great_Paul, HBJDubs, ChichiriMuyo (#14)

13. Enough Space (Track #9)
Score: 31 (Average Rank: 11.56/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007 (#14)

12. Doll (Track #1)
Score: 39 (Average Rank: 10.67/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, RyoCaliente, MaxGalactica, Great_Paul, Johnbobb (#12)

11. Walking After You (Track #12)
Score: 43 (Average Rank: 10.22/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Sheep007 (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Johnbobb (#14)

10. Wind Up (Track #5)
Score: 48 (Average Rank: 9.67/14)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, RyoCaliente (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica (#13)

9. My Poor Brain (Track #4)
Score: 49 (Average Rank: 9.56/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente (#13)

8. February Stars (Track #10)
Score: 54 (Average Rank: 9/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#14)

7. See You (Track #8)
Score: 67 (Average Rank: 7.56/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Sheep007, Seanchan (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#13)

6. New Way Home (Track #13)
Score: 74 (Average Rank: 6.89/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007 (#13)

5. Up in Arms (Track #6)
Score: 75 (Average Rank: 6.67/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan, MaxGalactica, ChichiriMuyo (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#12)

4. Hey, Johnny Park! (Track #3)
Score: 86 (Average Rank: 5.44/14)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, Sheep007, RyoCaliente, Great_Paul (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica, Johnbobb, ChichiriMuyo (#7)

3. My Hero (Track #7)
Score: 123 (Average Rank: 2.67/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Sheep007, MaxGalactica, Great_Paul, HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#4)

2. Monkey Wrench (Track #2)
Score: 130 (Average Rank: 2.33/14)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, MaxGalactica, Great_Paul, HBJDubs (#3)

1. Everlong (Track #11)
Score: 159 (Average Rank: 1.11/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Everyone but ChichiriMuyo (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#2)

Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
Great_Paul (10)
ChichiriMuyo (16)
MaxGalactica (16)
RyoCaliente (16)
FoolFantastic (22)
Sheep007 (26)
Seanchan (30)
HBJDubs (36)
Johnbobb (38)

General Album Comments

FoolFantastic: Foo Fighters have never done much for me. Their big singles are fun enough, but they're never pushing any boundaries. At the same time, they must be doing something right, because they certainly stand a league above other ordinary rock bands. I'll never seek out their music, but I'll also never complain if they come up on their own.

Like, even without being a fan, nothing on this album drags.

Sheep007: I'm a big Foo Fighters fan (less so these days, but I was particularly in my late teens and early 20s, where they were probably my favourite band), and while I don't think this is their best album (that title goes to Wasting Light), it's got their best song on it. Everlong is an absolute classic rock song. Dave Grohl is ridiculously talented as a vocalist, drummer, and guitarist, and all three of them shine through in this album. I think the songs surrounding the top four are unfortunately not the strongest - Foo Fighters songs often lack a bit of substance, and when the hook isn't straight up one of the best you've ever heard, they're "just" excellent sounding rock songs. Then again, just about every band out there would kill to have an album with no misses and multiple of the best songs of their genre. Like FoolFantastic says, they sound head and shoulders above your typical rock band. When you sound that good, you can get away with pushing the boat out less.

Seanchan: The top 2 are head and shoulders above the rest. The other tracks are fine but nothing special. I will say though that I was shocked the bonus track was actually good as those tend to be throwaway nonsense.

Foo Fighters is a band that I've tended to enjoy their various singles over the years and yet never listened to an album. This album did not convince me to change my mind. That said, in my mind they are a quintessential band of my initial formative music listening years, when 92.3 K-Rock in New York was where it was at.

Also going to pile on to the Everlong being "an absolute classic rock song" bandwagon. Funny thing, the first time I heard that song (and probably the Foo Fighters) was an acoustic cover, which the internet has thankfully archived: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-89uZOIFok

. I eventually heard the "real" version and it kind of blew my mind a little; both are good, each in their own way.

RyoCaliente: Foo Fighters are fine. There's some really great songs, but generally speaking they're just solid imo.

MaxGalactica: I have very mixed feelings about this album. The big three songs from this album are all fantastic, particularly Everlong that's probably one of my top 50 songs of all time. The rest of the album is just kinda there to me and doesn't do anything to stand out or make me want to revisit it. I'll be satisfied keeping Everlong, My Hero, and Monkey Wrench on my regular rotation while ignoring the rest.

Fluttershy_Pony: I'll be sitting this one out; haven't had a chance to start listening until this morning & I'm not really feeling this after the first five tracks. Monkey Wrench was good though.

Great_Paul: Very solid album overall. My top 3 are definitely in a league of their own, which makes sense seeing as they're on the Greatest Hits album. Everlong also happens to be my #1 favourite song of all-time.

HBJDubs: Echoing the sentiments of others here, the singles are great (with Everlong being elite), and the rest is just solid. But hey, nothing wrong with being solid

ChichiriMuyo: This is a "loved the singles, not the the album" situation for me. There was a huge gap between the top three and number four, and the bottom three all made me want to give up on this one. I understand everyone in the band was going through some shit, especially Dave, and it shows. I definitely felt some of the pain they went through and didn't like it.

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Thursday, April 11th at 8:00 AM Central Time; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered.
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions track list:
1. Too High
2. Visions
3. Living for the City
4. Golden Lady
5. Higher Ground
6. Jesus Children of America
7. All in Love is Fair
8. Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing
9. He's Misstra Know-It-All

Future weeks:
4/11: Knower - Knower Forever
4/18: The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop (+ nominations)
4/25: Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain (+ voting on future albums)
5/2: Garbage - Version 2.0

Xiahou_Shake posted...

The real question is how does everyone in this camp that universally says it tastes like soap know what soap tastes like

Taste and smell are linked and cilantro tastes how soap smells

It tastes faintly like soap and I'm indifferent

Bump

Foo Fighters have never done much for me. Their big singles are fun enough, but they're never pushing any boundaries. At the same time, they must be doing something right, because they certainly stand a league above other ordinary rock bands. I'll never seek out their music, but I'll also never complain if they come up on their own.

Like, even without being a fan, nothing on this album drags.

Everlong
Monkey Wrench
My Hero
Hey, Johnny Park!
Wind Up
My Poor Brain
Up in Arms
New Way Home
February Stars
See You
Doll
The Colour and the Shape
Enough Space
Walking After You

The Downward Spiral track ranking

14. The Downward Spiral (Track #13)
Score: 51 (Average Rank: 11.36/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Jesse_Custer, Sheep007 (#14)

13. Big Man with a Gun (Track #9)
Score: 58 (Average Rank: 10.86/14)
Biggest Fan(s): plasmabeam (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): PunishedJeezy, MaxGalactica, MarkS2222222222 (#14)

12. Eraser (Track #11)
Score: 76 (Average Rank: 9.71/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#14)

11. A Warm Place (Track #10)
Score: 82 (Average Rank: 9.29/14)
Biggest Fan(s): MarkS2222222222 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): plasmabeam, Johnbobb, rwlh (#14)

Johnbobb: very effective for its place in the album as a whole, but less so on its own as a song

10. Piggy (Track #2)
Score: 83 (Average Rank: 9.36/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, hotdogturtle (#14)

Johnbobb: The back third of this song is one of my favorite drum breakdowns of all time

9. Reptile (Track #12)
Score: 104 (Average Rank: 7.71/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Jesse_Custer, Fluttershy_Pony (#12)

Johnbobb: it hurts to not also be able to put this as #1. When I think of industrial metal, this is the song I think of

8. I Do Not Want This (Track #8)
Score: 105 (Average Rank: 7.57/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Sheep007 (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#12)

7. Mr. Self Destruct (Track #1)
Score: 121 (Average Rank: 6.86/14)
Biggest Fan(s): plasmabeam (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#14)

6. Ruiner (Track #6)
Score: 121 (Average Rank: 6.71/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Sheep007, hotdogturtle (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb, MarkS2222222222 (#13)

5. The Becoming (Track #7)
Score: 122 (Average Rank: 6.86/14)
Biggest Fan(s): MaxGalactica (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente (#14)

4. March of the Pigs (Track #4)
Score: 132 (Average Rank: 5.93/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Jesse_Custer (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente, HBJDubs (#12)

3. Heresy (Track #3)
Score: 138 (Average Rank: 5.79/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Jesse_Custer, PunishedJeezy, rwlh (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#13)

Johnbobb: still a great song but I don't like it quite as much as I did as an edgy teen

2. Closer (Track #5)
Score: 185 (Average Rank: 3.86/14)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, Sheep007, PunishedJeezy, rwlh, Seanchan, hotdogturtle (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#11)

1. Hurt (Track #14)
Score: 190 (Average Rank: 3.14/14)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente, Fluttershy_Pony, HBJDubs, MarkS2222222222 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): rwlh (#9)

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
FoolFantastic (16)
PunishedJeezy (22)
Jesse_Custer (24)
MaxGalactica (26)
Sheep007 (32)
hotdogturtle (34)
Seanchan (34)
Fluttershy_Pony (36)
rwlh (36)
RyoCaliente (42)
plasmabeam (54)
Johnbobb (58)
MarkS2222222222 (66)
HBJDubs (70)

General Album Comments

Johnbobb: One of my favorite albums, excited to listen again as if I don't already pretty regularly

FoolFantastic: The major achievement of The Downward Spiral is taking one of the most intentionally cold styles of popular music and drawing raw emotion from it. It is exactly what it says on the tin, a downward spiral into growing self-loathing. Trent Reznor found human meaning in mechanical sound. It might not be a traditionally 'pleasant' experience, but it's certainly one of the most successful concept albums out there. "Closer" remains one of the most terrifying songs ever written, a total breaking point disguised as animalistic lust. "Hurt" gets unfairly overshadowed by Johnny Cash's cover - while I agree Cash's version is better, part of that is how he recontextualizes an already powerful song. The way that final line of hope is almost completely silenced by the music always gets to me. The perfect closer to a phenomenal album.

Seanchan: As usual, yes, this was really a first listen, other than Closer and Hurt. I guess I didn't get it? I didn't necessarily expect to, based on my usual listening tastes and not being particularly high on Pretty Hate Machine. But I know this is an album held in high regard.

Maybe that partly comes down to a bad listening environment? I was in my car and I found the mix, especially the first few songs, to be not good, though maybe it was done on purpose? The lyrics were very low and completely overwhelmed by the instrumentation.

Johnbobb: I think this is honestly a top 10 album for me

Sheep007: Took me a few songs to get into this, but this is a really strong concept album. Closer in particular is absolutely phenomenal. The whole thing is almost a little too intense, a little too focused on a glob of thoroughly negative feeling for me to enjoy it as much as I might other albums. That said, I don't have to want to listen on repeat to recognise how good it is.

MaxGalactica: Incredible album. The synth production in particular feels way ahead of its time. I love how brutally aggressive Trent Reznor's vocals and the instrumentals are. The bottom three in my ranking (The Downward Spiral, A Warm Place, and Big Man With a Gun) are the only tracks I think aren't stellar. Very glad we got to cover this.

Also worth mentioning that this album coming up is what finally motivated me to start going through the rest of NIN's discography, since this album was the only one I was already familiar with. I still have 6 albums left to go through, but The Fragile in particular was awesome. Pretty Hate Machine was good for the most part, but felt pretty raw and a lot less developed than Trent's future projects.

rwlh: An interesting album. It took a second listen for it to click. Hurt is a curious song. I didn't enjoy it (not because of the challenging subject matter, it just didn't click with me as a song), but it was still compelling.

Seanchan: I'm very conflicted about how I feel about this one. I did another listen to Pretty Hate Machine to compare and that one has got a few more songs that I enjoyed but it doesn't feel as cohesive. Like Sheep007, I found The Downward Spiral to be a lot to take in; it's a harsh and at points overwhelming album. On my 2nd listen it was such a relief to get to A Warm Place because of the songs preceding it, which is likely exactly the point.

My other odd thought was that I was reminded of Slipknot in just the general soundscape and intensity of the music and emotions. As I've said multiple times in the past though, I'm just not at a point in my life now where I want to hear and revel in brooding, depressing, angry music. It makes it hard to judge because there's the opposing thoughts in my head of "this is probably good and effective at what it's trying to do" and "this is just not for me".

HBJDubs: Incredible album. A ton of these songs get shuffled around with each listen, but the top 3 are set in stone. Eraser in particular is so anxiety-inducing, there's nothing quite like it for me

MarkS2222222222: Lot more ******* and dick stuff than I expect.

Overall this is kind of like Requiem for a Dream (which is also a downward spiral) in that it's "good", but once is enough.

Hurt is still great. Maybe a few others are good stand alone, but most are really only interesting within the concept album. I actually like Closer a lot more now that I get it in the context of the descent

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Thursday, April 4th at 8:00 AM Central Time; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered.
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape track list:
1. Doll
2. Monkey Wrench
3. Hey, Johnny Park!
4. My Poor Brain
5. Wind Up
6. Up in Arms
7. My Hero
8. See You
9. Enough Space
10. February Stars
11. Everlong
12. Walking After You
13. New Way Home
14 (bonus track). The Colour and the Shape

Future weeks:
4/4: Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
4/11: Knower - Knower Forever
4/18: The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop (+ nominations)
4/25: Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain (+ voting on future albums)
5/2: Garbage - Version 2.0

bump

So close to my second #1 nominated album after Silent Shout - not that I can complain about my third favorite winning

Thanks for hosting this!

Expected Muse to be the overall winner and am pleasantly surprised it's not. Now I'm guessing Smashing Pumpkins?

Very happy to see Illinois reach the top 4. I wanted to nominate my favorite album of last year once everything was said and done but that ended up being Sufjan Stevens' Javelin and I was afraid people didn't click with Illinois. The other two Sufjan albums we should probably cover at some point are at least only half the length of Illinois (if dealing with much heavier topics)

Also, damn, we really need to cover Funeral if The Suburbs did so well

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast

I came in with these four in mind, so good to see someone else voted the same set

Bump

Good news, Joni Mitchell has finally returned to Spotify, just in time to not be featured in the current batch of albums

Finally stopped being lazy and created the fourth page:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

Who have we had so far? Nine Inch Nails, Taylor Swift, Gorillaz, The Beatles, and Jack White if we include The White Stripes? And somehow Yoko Kanno will be joining them within a few weeks of each other.

There are times in this game where it feels like it forgets its own mechanics, with the very final fight with Cloud and Aerith being the worst offender. It's specifically two elements - first is Heartless Angel. I'm conceptually fine with a 'reduce everyone to 1 HP' move, but the fact it is unavoidable essentially forces you to horde ATB charges. You have to respond immediately, and if you happen to have an auto-whatever materia on Aerith she is going to waste her ATB (was there a way to edit this during just that fight? Because no way was I restarting the entire ending sequence. They gave this option during the Zack segment but I saw nothing for this part). So I spent most of the fight with Cloud at full charge, too afraid to use any move lest Sephiroth get off an undodgeable all-but-1-HP attack (I was unfortunately low on team-targeting health items so I needed both charges). Which, all of this would be fine if it was broken apart from the other fights, but it feels like the whole thing is set up around a specific materia setup that you would have no reason to expect ahead of time.

Then is the final super attack he does which ends in an instant ko if you don't kill him in time. It's total RNG nonsense - he doesn't appear to enter it at any set point. One time I had him already all but staggered from the previous phase, but that actually screwed me over because his instant ko goes off after he recovers. I only managed to get through this phase because I got lucky enough to have him hit the lowest HP possible before he enters the state after 10+ attempts. It's insane to end the game on a timed sequence but where the parameters of that sequence are incredibly variable.

And it's so freaking long, with an unskippable cutscene right before it. It's 2024 and they're still doing unskippable cutscenes? So it ends up being an entirely ordinary fight except for two specific moves that completely screw you over if Sephiroth uses them at a bad time. It never comes off as a hard fight but a cheap one.

It's been a few days and I still feel like it's among the worst boss fights I've ever encountered. Just a failure from every angle - tedious, unengaging, cheap, and not even giving you a meaningful way to take a break.

The major achievement of The Downward Spiral is taking one of the most intentionally cold styles of popular music and drawing raw emotion from it. It is exactly what it says on the tin, a downward spiral into growing self-loathing. Trent Reznor found human meaning in mechanical sound. It might not be a traditionally 'pleasant' experience, but it's certainly one of the most successful concept albums out there. "Closer" remains one of the most terrifying songs ever written, a total breaking point disguised as animalistic lust. "Hurt" gets unfairly overshadowed by Johnny Cash's cover - while I agree Cash's version is better, part of that is how he recontextualizes an already powerful song. The way that final line of hope is almost completely silenced by the music always gets to me. The perfect closer to a phenomenal album.

Closer
Hurt
March of the Pigs
Heresy
The Becoming
Ruiner
I Do Not Want This
Piggy
Mr. Self Destruct
A Warm Place
Big Man with a Gun
Reptile
Eraser
The Downward Spiral

Dawn FM track ranking

15 (tie). Dawn FM (Track #1)
Score: 32 (Average Rank: 12/16)
Biggest Fan(s): PunishedJeezy (#9)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#15)

15 (tie). Best Friends (Track #9)
Score: 32 (Average Rank: 12/16)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica (#16)

13 (tie). Here We GoAgain (Track #8)
Score: 33 (Average Rank: 11.88/16)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, Seanchan (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony, Sheep007 (#16)

13 (tie). A Tale by Quincy (Track #6)
Score: 33 (Average Rank: 11.88/16)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Seanchan, HBJDubs (#16)

12. I Heard You're Married (Track #14)
Score: 38 (Average Rank: 11.25/16)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): PunishedJeezy (#16)

11. Starry Eyes (Track #11)
Score: 43 (Average Rank: 10.88/16)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#15)

10. Phantom Regret by Jim (Track #16)
Score: 49 (Average Rank: 10/16)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic (#15)

9. Every Angel is Terrifying (Track #12)
Score: 51 (Average Rank: 9.88/16)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): PunishedJeezy (#15)

8. Don't Break My Heart (Track #13)
Score: 56 (Average Rank: 9/16)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, PunishedJeezy (#12)

7. Is There Someone Else? (Track #10)
Score: 68 (Average Rank: 7.63/16)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#16)

6. Out of Time (Track #7)
Score: 69 (Average Rank: 7.38/16)
Biggest Fan(s): PunishedJeezy, Seanchan (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#14)

5. Sacrifice (Track #5)
Score: 78 (Average Rank: 6.63/16)
Biggest Fan(s): MaxGalactica (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#15)

4. How Do I Make You Love Me? (Track #3)
Score: 99 (Average Rank: 4.38/16)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony, Sheep007 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#8)

3. Less Than Zero (Track #15)
Score: 105 (Average Rank: 3.75/16)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, PunishedJeezy, Seanchan (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#8)

2. Gasoline (Track #2)
Score: 107 (Average Rank: 4.25/16)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony, Johnbobb, Sheep007 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#9)

1. Take My Breath (Track #4)
Score: 123 (Average Rank: 3.25/16)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, PunishedJeezy, Seanchan, HBJDubs, MaxGalactica (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#11)

The Weeknd - Dawn FM results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
Sheep007 (29)
MaxGalactica (32)
Seanchan (39)
PunishedJeezy (40)
FoolFantastic (47)
Fluttershy_Pony (53)
HBJDubs (67)
Johnbobb (76)

General Album Comments

FoolFantastic: Dawn FM is the first Weeknd album I've loved beginning to end since his debut mixtape. Most of his albums contain a couple greats and empty space between, but this one makes a stunning whole. The "skits" really sell the atmosphere, this idea of a late night radio station. One of those throwback albums that builds off its inspirations while still feeling like the genuine article.

Fluttershy_Pony: Good album. Had a hard time finalizing my ranking.

PunishedJeezy: Pretty good album! I enjoyed the interludes and the overall vibe. Does maybe drag a little bit in the second half.

Johnbobb: So The Weeknd is an odd case, as I think his music in general is fine, not entirely my thing but I certainly don't mind it, it just doesn't stick out much. But the album itself is great. I love when albums really make the extra effort to sound like a cohesive piece, not just with songs leading into each other, but with a very distinct vibe being established. The interludes were often my favorite part of it, and I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much without them.

Sheep007: Great album. Starts off incredibly strong, and I think it's a little weaker in the middle and towards the end. Overall it's got pretty great theming - the intermissions really bring things together. I kinda wish the best songs were dotted around a bit more, because I was really excited after the first four, and then it mostly didn't hit the same highs, although Less than Zero is very good as well. I'm a little surprised to see The Weeknd at #1 on monthly streams on Spotify, but Blinding Lights was huge, and there's some great tracks on here - it's overall a super palatable album, without totally playing it safe.

Seanchan: Overall, an enjoyable album. Even the skits/interludes aren't too bad, though I did rank them at the bottom.

After 2 listens, I thought of Take My Breath as the Daft Punk song. Obviously that's not true but there was something about the beat that just reminded me a lot of the French duo.

HBJDubs: While nothing individually stands out, this album flows really well and I was grooving throughout the whole thing. Very good album

MaxGalactica: Not sure if this is my favorite album by The Weeknd, but it's up there. It's Abel's most consistent album and the immersion with the radio station setting is done really well. It is a bit front-loaded, but there are a handful of great tracks in the second half as well. Take My Breath, Sacrifice, How Do I Make You Love Me?, Less Than Zero, and Gasoline were all big highlights for me. Great album overall.