LogFAQs > #966261332

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ALBUM

(Apologies for the brutality. I normally would not post anything like this outside one of my topics where my opinion is explicitly requested.)

If an album has at least two songs that I would rank a 6/10, then I consider it to have been worth my time. That's the level where I'm willing to say I liked a song without additional caveats and if I geniunely liked at least two tracks, then I got something positive out of the experience. "Elephant" more than passes this test with three songs I think I'd say I liked, but it also has a lot of songs that I just do not care about While there are no songs I hated, I think I'm just not a fan of Jack White in general. I'm not going to take an aggressive "grr, argh, I never want to hear him again" stance (whenever I make a ludicrous claim like that, someone comes along and finds a song from an artist I allegedly hate which I absolutely love, so I've learned my lesson about completely dismissing people), but it's likely not a coincidence that my top two songs from the album include the one song performed by Meg & the one song done in a completely different style

While I dislike most of the album, it is notable that it does include at least some songs that are different enough experiences that I can say it's worth giving a listen even if you're not a fan in general, as it might offer a few surprises. It's also an oddly easy ranking; while I can't say it's an overwhelmingly diverse set of tracks, I find they all left a distinct enough impression that they were easy to score without falling into the "these songs are all so similar in quality that they're hard to rank" trap several other albums fall into.

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The Hardest Button to Button: I hate repetition. I know it's ironic that I've said that a million times and if you were to make a drinking game of "take a shot everytime Raetsel says she hates repetition" you will die of alcohol poisoning because I will repeat my hatred of repetition several times a day until the end of all time, but I do not think my hatred of lyrical repetition can ever be overstated. So would you care to guess what my reaction to a song that ends with THIS would be?:

<quote>The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
Uh-oh
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
Uh-oh
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
The hardest button to button
Uh-oh</quote>

I don't hate this song. I cherish finding songs that I hate. They provide a unique opportunity to analyze why I have such a strong negative reaction, to do some real soul-searching, to try and understand myself better, to try and grow as a person and learn to appreciate new things. Anyone who successfully finds a song that I hate earns my gratitude, even if I don't properly show it, because finding that which I hate is arguably more important than finding that which I love. No, I do not hate this song. It commits the worst sin possible: It has "go away heat", to borrow a wrestling term. I'm not booing this song because I hate it, I'm not booing because it's doing it's job well, I'm booing because I want it to go away forever. I want to never hear it again. I want to live in a glorious world in which repeating one blasted sentence fragment over-and-over does not count as "lyrics" and I will never be troubled by songs like this again.

And there's nothing to analyze here, it is doing the ONE THING that I have complained about more than anything else in the history of the universe. I very strongly dislike this song because it is doing the thing that i very strongly dislike. ...And before anyone asks, no, i wasn't a fan of the song *before* it became completely intolerable. The outro just dropped the score from "actively disliked" to "very, very aggressively dislike and want to eradicate from existence". And normally I would not post anything this harsh because I don't want to ruin anyone else's enjoyment, but I guess we need to clarify things this week??

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Ball and Biscuit: A seven and a half minute long song that feels as though it takes a half-hour. The song starts off fine, but I lose interest in it well before the halfway point and then it just. never. ends. Cut the song off after the second verse and it rises several places--though I still wouldn't say I *liked* it--but this.... uggh... it's another song that goes on well after the point it ran out of things to say or do, becoming a miserable excercise in tedium. I don't want to eradicate it like "Button", but I'm okay with never having to endure it again.

[While not directly relevant here, I will say that I can make exceptions and give very high marks to songs that should have ended earlier *if* I love the rest of the track enough. For a song relevant to this series, the Kanye West song with the Chris Rock comedy bit stapled onto the end comes to mind. I wasn't wild about the comedy and think the song would be much stronger without it, but I feel the actual song was strong enough that I can say I liked it quite a bit even if I have to hit the skip button at the point it should have ended. The song I'm quoting in my sig is also the same way; I do not care even slightly about the prolonged instrumental that takes up half the song's runtime, but I've since come to love the first half of the song as 10/10 perfection so I'd say it's pretty damn fantastic even if I'm rarely going to listen to the full thing again. At no point does BaB do anything I enjoy enough to get a special exception.]

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Seven Nation Army: Honestly, I was not looking forward to this album because I had heard this song before and I absolutely did not care for it. I certainly don't hate it, more like I have a complete inability to care about any aspect of this song on any level. It is not for me, it is very much not for me, but it's... I acknowledge that it's for other people and that's as positive as I'm willing to get for it. Point is knowing that THIS song was the band's biggest hit and knowing how little I wanted to hear it again, I was concerned that this was going to be an album that I absolutely hated or possibly even the first one I had to skip out on ranking because it may have been too rough to endure, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that *most* songs are better than this one.

...and yes, regardless of how it sounds, I did give it a fair chance. There are plenty of songs that I've hated or aggressive disliked and learned to love; it was hypothetically possible that I could have learned to see the song in a new light or gain some new appreciation for it. It's also entirely possible I'll develop a fondness for it at some point in the future. But right now... no, no I still definitely dislike this.

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Okay, I do not have the energy to burn on wruteups for every single song. Let's just say everything I ranked in sixth through eleventh place is somewhere between "3/10" and "5.3/10" (which is still way beyond Seven Nation Army, which is probably around a 2) on the scoring chart and move along.