Lurker > Seanchan

I think there's a large portion of urban and suburban people who would love to have the magical combination of big single family home with a nice sized yard, that's also somehow within very short (5-10 minutes max) walking distance of lots of amenities (grocery store, gym, coffee shop, restaurants, etc.).

Unfortunately, that's simply not a reasonable reality for a very large swath of the country. You can have the home you want, but you've got to drive for the amenities. Or, you can have the amenities but you have to settle for a apartment/condo/townhouse/rowhouse.

Bizarrely, I live in one of those few areas where that magical combo is possible and the prices are fucking astronomical (think $1.5-2+ million for a SFH). They're trying to build out more "missing middle" types of housing (think duplexes, triplexes, etc.) but there's so much pushback from the NIMBY home owners who "got theirs" and also complain about taxes being too high because their land is now worth a fortune.

#23 - Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell
Average - 17.71
Average without outliers (removing best and worst score) - 18.60
Rank without outliers - 23 (no change)

7 - Johnbobb
14 - HBJDubs
17 - Fluttershy_Pony
17 - FoolFantastic
21 - Seanchan
24 - Sheep007
24 - MaxGalactica

Songs of the Cycle - 2 votes for 2 songs from 2 rankers:
1. Peter Piper - Johnbobb
9. You Be Illin' - Fluttershy_Pony

Fluttershy_Pony - I want to hear some more classic hip hop (and modern hip hop for that matter), but there wasn't much that I could get into on this album. "You Be Illin'" is catchy enough that it's been stuck in my head all week and funny enough that I don't mind it getting stuck... but I really need at least two songs that I'm into to say I really liked an album and sadly, this just has the one. Still, getting a song onto my "top songs" list is more than most albums managed and I'm glad we covered something *like* this album, even if I'm not that into it in practice.

Seanchan - Another album I wasn't a particular fan of. There are some classic of the rap genre on here, like It's Tricky and Walk This Way, but I found myself getting tired of the album as a whole.

Kings

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mToA6WQILJDcfMyB3yNLwVUb0Q-_vp6gk&feature=shared

PKs, naturally

#24 - Weird Al Yankovic - Off the Deep End
Average - 18.71
Average without outliers (removing best and worst score) - 20.80
Rank without outliers - 24

2 - Fluttershy_Pony
10 - Johnbobb
23 - FoolFantastic
23 - Sheep007
23 - Seanchan
25 - HBJDubs
25 - MaxGalactica

Songs of the Cycle - 4 votes for 4 songs from 2 rankers:
1. Smells Like Nirvana - Johnbobb
9. Airline Amy - Fluttershy_Pony
10. The Plumbing Song - Fluttershy_Pony
11. You Don't Love Me Anymore - Fluttershy_Pony

Fluttershy_Pony - This album rose quite a few places from where I had it originally, down towards the middle of the pack. I think my problem with the album is that all the songs I don't like are placed at the front, causing it to start off on the wrong foot; I really dislike the first three tracks and may even kinda hate the Nirvana track that opens it... but if I just skip down a few tracks, it's one of the most delightful albums we covered this cycle. Is it cheating to give high marks to an album where I refuse to listen to half of it? Probably. Do I care? No. These rankings are based only on where I *want* to place each album and I definitely got enough enjoyment out of this to place it rather high up. [LATER: I had this in fourth place, but I'm really feeling like putting it into second. "You Don't Love Me Anymore" is my favorite song of the cycle & everything after the polka is great. Were it not for the first four songs on this album (I do like the Polka, just not nearly as much as everything that follows), this might actually take the top slot... but, as is, I'll settle with it in second. Which is not even remotely an objective score, but again, I don't care.]

Seanchan - Another album I'm personally glad ranked low...but I'm slightly surprised as a group it was this low? I guess I expected a bit more love for Al? For me, I'm just not a big fan of his whole parody shtick, especially a whole album worth. It's not terrible but it's also not something I was looking forward to relistening to.

Not sure if I'm rooting for or against Arsenal in extra time...

Deadlifts felt damn good today. Only 280x5 for the heaviest but there was more in the tank if I had wanted it. My hip/glute issue thankfully was very quiet today, likely owing to taking it easy on squat day. It's nice to know that I can continue to progress with heavy deadlifts.

Day

Waluigi

With the song list, I initially had almost 40 selected. It was some tough calls to cut it down to 25. Felt bad about quite a few of them. In a different world I would have selected both renditions of Lovesong (The Cure and Adele).

Also, I forgot to put the Songs of the Cycle for Disco Volante!

3. Carry Stress in the Jaw - Johnbobb
6. After School Special - Johnbobb

No surprise that its top ranker would pick some of the songs.

Rodri is such a great player, and carries on the recent tradition of City midfielders anchors from Gundogan, Fernandino, and Yaya Toure. Not all were the same level of being defensively minded but their presence just calms everything down and allows all our attacking talent to do their thing. They also all had the innate ability to step further forward score a killer goal when need be.

Something I always have to keep in mind is that I'm 5' 6'', ~150lbs.

I'll watch some videos on Youtube and see guys doing 200 pound OHP for reps. But most of those dudes are 6+ feet tall and 220+ pounds. Everyone's always talking raw numbers and not strength to weight.

This one guy did something like a 220 lb OHP and mentioned that he's recovering from injuries and that's not yet a body weight rep. Granted, this motherfucker is built like a house and 100% objectively stronger than me by any measure. But it puts things in perspective. There is literally no way on Earth I will ever OHP 220 pounds. But I should be proud that I'm able to OHP 95% of my bodyweight, not dejected that it's only 65% of what this big ass dude is doing.

#25 - Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Average - 20.14
Average without outliers (removing best and worst score) - 22
Rank without outliers - 25

6 - Johnbobb
19 - FoolFantastic
21 - HBJDubs
22 - Fluttershy_Pony
23 - MaxGalactica
25 - Sheep007
25 - Seanchan

Fluttershy_Pony - Oof. I had this album in third place on my preliminary rankings, but I'm just... aggressively not in the mood for this right now. There are times when I love what this album is doing (see: the week we actually covered it and I was almost ecstatic about it), but right now I'm just.... not. I'm sorry. Try asking me again in a few months and this album might reclaim some of its former glory, but right now it's near the bottom.

Seanchan - Very happy to see this come in last. Easily my least favorite album of this cycle. And actually my least favorite of all the albums we've covered in the 150+ weeks of Rank the Tracks. An aggressively annoying album that I found hard to listen to. I honestly have no idea who this is supposed to appeal to.

Here's the average results:
6.14
6.29
6.57
6.57
9.14
10.86
11.00
11.57
12.29
12.43
13.00
13.43
13.57
14.29
14.57
14.57
14.71
14.86
15.00
15.43
16.57
17.00
17.71
18.71
20.14

Pretty close between the top 4! My guess when this started was that Muse or Adele would come out the winner but we shall see. I've not spoiled the results for myself yet, so I genuinely don't know.

With the Songs of the Cycle, every single album except 1 got votes, which was Sade - Love Deluxe. On the other side, only 1 album got votes from all 5 who submitted song lists, but I'll save that reveal for later. Also, every album except Love Deluxe had at least 2 different songs selected, with 2 different albums maxing out at 7 songs.

In total, from the 125 song votes, there were 88 different songs selected. Or to put it another way, 28.5% of the 309 total songs garnered votes.

The results for Rank the Albums 6 are now upon us!

As ever, huge thanks to FoolFantastic for running the weekly track ranking for these albums, without which this would not be possible. If you'd like to participate in the ongoing Rank the Tracks, the latest is here, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80715150v, or search the board for the newest topic.

The 25 albums, in the order we covered them in Rank the Tracks:
Desired - Lovestory
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A.
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Madonna - Like a Prayer
Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Rusted Root - When I Woke
The Cure - Disintegration
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!
Sade - Love Deluxe
FKA twigs - Magdalene
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
The Cars - The Cars
Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges - Clube da Esquina
Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell
Simple Plan - Get Your Heart On!
Crash Kings - Crash Kings
Weird Al Yankovic - Off the Deep End
R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas
Adele - 21
Meshell Ndegeocello - Peace Beyond Passion
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Nekomata Master - Follow Slowly

We had 7 of Board 8's most illustrious users submit ranking lists, with 5 also giving me their Songs of the Cycle (i.e., their favorite 25 songs from those albums):
Seanchan (that's me!)
Fluttershy_Pony
Johnbobb
FoolFantastic
Sheep007
HBJDubs
MaxGalactica

A big thank you to every one of you!

Nice to see someone making progress!

On squat day I skipped back squats after I felt my usual right hip/glute discomfort even at very low weight. Instead I substituted a bunch more low weight Zercher sets. Max was 10 reps at 125. I'm kind of enjoying the very different feel of the Zerchers at the moment. Also did some leg press, which I'm not really a fan of, but it's better than nothing.

OHP went really well on its day though. My shoulders were feeling the best they've felt in weeks with no soreness. Was able to do 2 singles at 142.5. First single felt really good and strong, just not enough in the tank for another rep. Took a brief rest and then was able to get another.

Maybe it's just my age and not growing up with and playing them over and over (like I did with 3 and World), but I have no recollection of any stages/worlds from the "New" games. I generally enjoyed them at the time, but it's really only the general look of the games that stuck with me.

I somehow found myself watching 5 of the 10 Best Picture nominees this year. Of those, my ordering would be:

Poor Things > Past Lives > Oppenheimer > Barbie > Killers of the Flower Moon

Poor Things was a fucking wild movie. Whatever ads and previews I saw on TV did not give away (to me at least) what that movie was truly about.

Past Lives surprised me quite a bit. It's a movie of quiet, silence, and unspoken things. I could see many finding it to be boring and slow, yet I oddly enjoyed it very much.

Oppenheimer was good but wasn't a real favorite of mine.

Barbie was much more subversive than I expected. Absolutely not a movie for kids. Mostly enjoyable, with Ryan Gosling being the standout.

I didn't really enjoy Killers of the Flower Moon. Lots of big names giving good performances but I didn't enjoy the plot. I just spent the entire movie waiting for DeNiro's character to get his comeuppance.

Yup, I got lists from MaxGalactica and HBJDubs, which takes us to 7! That's about how many I was expecting.

I should be putting up the results topic later this evening.

Side

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I am not as high on 64 as most people - I feel like Banjo-Kazooie did a lot of things better than it just a short time later - and while it's a lot of people's favorite, I don't see a reason to put it above any of the four I included.

While I agree B-K > 64, the impact of 64 cannot be denied, which is why it should make a Mt Rushmore.

Okay, I've got lists so far from myself, Fluttershy_Pony, Johnbobb, FoolFantastic, and Sheep007.

A draw was probably the right result. Feels like both City and Pool had chances they didnt put away.

Advantage Arsenal in the title fight, however slight it may be.

Ifrit posted...

Super Mario Brothers
Super Mario Brothers 3
Super Mario World
Super Mario 64

It's kind of hard to not say this.

Okay, after a second listen I want walk back my prior comments a bit. This is a genuinely good album and I see the appeal.

That said, I don't feel like this is a good album for a track ranking. This plays like an album (i.e., as a long singular piece), rather than a collection of songs. If you're not looking, it's very hard to know when a particular song begins or ends. And that's the point that bothers me a bit. I get wanting to share personal favorites, but are people asking themselves "is this a good choice for a track ranking?". As a personal example, I'm a big fan of Deadmau5's Random Album Title, but I'd never nominate it because it plays best as an album with the songs flowing into each other.

Awful by Ederson

Good first half City/Pool. Lots of energy and intensity from both sides.

Liverpool had some good chances but City gets a brilliant goal from a corner.

Feels like well get a goal or three in the 2nd half.

Chrono

Drake

First listen done.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea that I did a relisten to Disco Volante just before this, because while it's not in the same county it's certainly in the same country. Both sound like the bands did a whole bunch of drugs and just did a jam session. The only difference is Shpongle at least seems like they tried to make something palatable because this at least doesn't make me want to rip my ears off.

Honestly, I'm just kind of sick of all the fucking instrumental, ambient, moody, "artsy" shit at this point. Not that all those (or sometimes any...) apply to every album this cycle, but lets just say it's not been a good last 4-5 weeks for my listening tastes. There's also the compounding factor of me listening to the bottom half dozen of Rank the Albums 6 in the past few days. So yeah, just venting a little; I know there's certainly people who feel the exact opposite of me on this stuff.

Kratos

Final weekend!

That said, if you're thinking of participating and need a bit more time, please let me know!

Animal

GLaDOS

Oh shit, he's running it back!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/07/politics/george-santos-running-again/index.html

I really wanted to nominate Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition), but it's 23 songs and 90 minutes long...

So, I'm going to go with something short and sweet and likely one some have heard at least parts of before and

nominate Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e9NSMY8QiQ

This is the only album of theirs I've heard. My understanding is this is a bit of an anomaly (or at least it was at the time) for being much more pop and upbeat than their usual fare.

1. Nobody
2. Remember My Name
3. Why Didn't You Stop Me?
4. Washing Machine Heart
5. Two Slow Dancers
6. A Pearl
7. Pink in the Night
8. Geyser
9. Old Friend
10. Lonesome Love
11. Blue Light
12. Me and My Husband
13. Come Into the Water
14. A Horse Named Cold Air

I have no strong feelings on this album, I guess I kind of liked it? It really made me want to listen to that Japanese Breakfast album again (which I did and enjoyed more than this). Nothing super memorable outside of Nobody. I'm not a fan of long albums, but on the other side, 14 songs in 32 minutes is kind of whiplash.

Also...not a great start for submissions with the new weekly timing. Hopefully this just people getting used to it (or not realizing)...
EDIT: Naturally 2 more submissions as I was making this post ;)

Done done with Marsupilami now.

Missed 1 feather (in the last level that I don't want to play again), 8 of the cataclysm stones in the bonus world, and all the time trials after the first world. I could get those but I'm feeling satisfied now.

Bowser
Ganondorf
Sephiroth
Revolver Ocelot

4th one's pretty tough call

ctesjbuvf posted...

FCK literally has as much of a B-team on the field there as City.

Only half watching and they did mention injuries for Copenhagen. They're not a team I'd have much idea of the regular starting lineup for, so hard for me to judge.

ExThaNemesis posted...

City are 100% going to have an eye on Liverpool. That's why it was such a massive result for them to be up by two coming home. They can kind of just coast. If you guys were to get an early goal, I think it'd be the best bet. Because it's really hard to switch from coasting to "Oh shit we have to get another goal"

The other thing they may do is just try to blow you away in the first 45 so they can rest and rotate for the second half. If you can keep it 0-0 for a long time, you may be right that you can throw the kitchen sink at them late.

They have chosen option 2, and that's with the B team out there.

ctesjbuvf posted...

- Goalkeeper needs to bring A game

He did not.

But hey, he's only got like, what, a 50% chance of winning in NC? Maybe 55% at best?

I had an idea for a possible "theme" though I know this is very specific...

Best non-Beatles Beatles albums

In particular about covering 1 post-Beatles album each from John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

Final Fantasy

Bump

Got my preliminary bottom 5 to still listen to, so...not looking forward to that...

If anyone wants to participate and needs a little extra time, please let me know. Life circumstances may end up necessitating me pushing this back anyways.

Marsupilami beated!

I'll echo KCF's thoughts. Really only the last boss stage proved tough.

I did the first level of Hidden World but didn't feel like doing more tonight. Might (or might not) go back to finish it.

<turns on the Bayern/Lazio game because it's 2-1 on aggregate>

<the stream kicks in just after Kane scores his second>

<turns the stream off>

Both big boys advancing today.

Nintendo