LogFAQs > #971898656

clipping. - Splendor & Misery results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
ChichiriMuyo (18)
Johnbobb (20)
TheArkOfTurus (20)
FoolFantastic (30)
Seanchan (36)
Natalie (40)
Raetsel_Lapin (46)
HBJDubs (58)

General Album Comments

Johnbobb: what a cool fuckin album. I'm a total sucker for a great concept album and this one just has everything. A twisted narrative of the lone survivor of a futuristic slave ship taking over the ship and forming a relationship with its AI and taking revenge on the slaver colonies and getting lost in space. Incredible sound mixing, different song types and genres altogether, hidden messages. I've loved everything clipping. has put out but S&M is just on a different level altogether.

Seanchan: I was generally enjoying thisbut at the same time I kept thinking that this is a terrible choice for a track ranking since it feels like a contiguous piece.

ChichiriMuyo: I feel bad ranking the tracks here, because it's obviously a concept album meant to be taken as a whole. And what a concept. Unless I'm imagining things here we have an interstellar slaveship, an uprising, the computer siding with (loving?) the surving slave, and said slave just dreaming of returning to the life taken from him. Does he keep his hope or lose his mind? I'm not sure, I'm not sure he's even still alive by the end. Is the last track the AI trying to do right by the fleshy little human it is carrying? Acknowledging that it can float in space forever, but the man inside needs more? And there is no resolution, no solid answers to how it all turns out. No mention of reaching a destination, or of what happened to "the cargo."

What a piece of art.

Seanchan: An interesting album, though I don't think I ever enjoyed it more than I did on my first listen. In many ways it's a silly exercise trying to rank the tracks here, like trying to judge a casserole or cake by its components rather than the end result. This was especially apparent to me doing my out preliminary ranking order listen.

HBJDubs: Real tough to rank individually as others have said, but since we also rank the albums I don't mind getting something like this to listen to. The album sounds really unique which is always cool. I didn't really get into it at times but it did leave enough of an impression that I want to give this another go somewhere down the line

Splendor & Misery track ranking

15. Long Way Away (Instrumental) (Track #9)
Score: 15 (Average Rank: 14.13/15)
Biggest Fan(s): Natalie (#10)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Johnbobb, ChichiriMuyo, HBJDubs, TheArkOfTurus (#15)

14. Interlude 02 (Numbers) (Track #7)
Score: 32 (Average Rank: 12/15)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): Natalie, Seanchan (#15)

Johnbobb: This is barely a song, but it's also a big part of what makes me love the album. The letters being read out are a cipher that require a keyword (that's later provided in Air 'Em Out, "the keyword is Kemmer") and ultimately spells out "The target is Amy Clark" but it's theorized that it refers to Dr. Clark (a character that appears in Story 2, a song on their prior album that also connects to this album's Story 5) but it's also the name of a real-life escaped slave.

13. Interlude 03 (Freestyle) (Track #11)
Score: 38 (Average Rank: 11.25/15)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): Natalie, Johnbobb (#14)

12. Interlude 01 (Freestyle) (Track #4)
Score: 45 (Average Rank: 10.38/15)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Natalie, TheArkOfTurus (#13)

Johnbobb: There's an argument to be made that trading out atmosphere in place of the ability to actual hear the lyrics is a bad thing. I won't make the argument, but it could be made.

11. Long Way Away (Intro) (Track #1)
Score: 48 (Average Rank: 10/15)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic (#14)

Natalie: Listening through for this ranking made me realize how much of the heavy lifting on this album is done by interlude tracks, even though it might not be apparent from their placement in lists. Long Way Away (Intro) has always been striking to me for its introduction of that haunting melody which acts as a refrain throughout the record. It does come back on Long Way Away, which is similar but a little less impactful, and Long Way Away (Interlude) with less structure but a very nice use of theremin, but the intro version sticks out to me the most.

Johnbobb: Natalie nailed it in their comments about this song. A big part of what makes this album so incredible is the interludes. They aren't silly unrelated sketches like often appear in rap albums; they're atmospheric and intense and often contain brief chunks of excellent lyricism

10. The Breach (Track #2)
Score: 49 (Average Rank: 9.88/15)
Biggest Fan(s): TheArkOfTurus (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#14)

Natalie: This is basically the intro to All Black and it's difficult to evaluate it on an individual basis, but the force with which you're introduced to Diggs here is remarkable. The first time I heard this absolutely perfect diction at speed it was mind blowing and that effect has never fully worn off.

Johnbobb: I will stand by the opinion that Daveed Diggs is the most talented rapper working today. He doesn't just rap quickly, he does so in such a way that the lyrics are always crisp and precise and comphrensible so that even tiny songs like this are startling

9. Long Way Away (Track #6)
Score: 59 (Average Rank: 8.63/15)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, TheArkOfTurus (#11)

Johnbobb: Look, I already rambled about how cool the very basis of this album's story is (lone survivor of a space slave colony) but pairing the style of slave hymns in a sci-fi setting interspersed with the rap is just so good