Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 78: The Ataris' So Long, Astoria (+RATM results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

First, can anyone familiar with this album tell me if the hidden tracks are considered part of the album proper? These things go back and forth depending on the album - one of them is an acoustic version of another song on the album, while the other appears to be a distinct track? So I don't know if these should be ranked by everyone

The version of this I downloaded back in the day included both of those tracks, so I didn't even know they were considered "hidden".

I'm a fan of "I Won't Spend Another Night Alone", so I'd hope that one would get ranked.

I'm not too high on either version of "The Saddest Song", so I don't care too much about that one. But if it was ranked I cannot imagine there'd be a significant spread between the two versions.

Third, I added the Acclaimed Music Bot to the cycle - I think my plan for that is it will choose the top three artists we have not yet covered according to Acclaimed Music, and then choose their highest rated album. That way it doesn't suggest yet another Beatles album every time...

That means the first selection would be (unless someone else gets us to cover them earlier):
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St.
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

I am also going to allow people to suggest alternatives in the week leading up to the poll - both Blonde on Blonde and Exile on Main St. are rather lengthy and I imagine their next highest albums might be the better choices, for example

Third, I added the Acclaimed Music Bot to the cycle - I think my plan for that is it will choose the top three artists we have not yet covered according to Acclaimed Music, and then choose their highest rated album. That way it doesn't suggest yet another Beatles album every time...

That means the first selection would be (unless someone else gets us to cover them earlier):
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St.
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

I am also going to allow people to suggest alternatives in the week leading up to the poll - both Blonde on Blonde and Exile on Main St. are rather lengthy and I imagine their next highest albums might be the better choices, for example

Could you arrange it so it never has the same album twice in a row? That's really the only issue I see with this. We'll keep getting the same albums again and again until they're covered, and I'd think adding some variable to allow for a little more variety would be huge.

I like this idea. There have definitely been times I've wanted to nominate stuff like Green Day's American Idiot or Pearl Jam's Ten but haven't because I know they'd annihilate any other lesser known favorites I'd put against them in the poll

Neither of those artists will actually come up via the Acclaimed Music poll for a very long time as things stand, even if we entirely swap out each artist-slate as with my radical proposal above. IMO, the answer is to include those two alongside another similarly popular album you also really enjoy in one of your polls.

I would probably cycle through the artists. Maybe I could go three artists at a time, and when we eventually reach a certain number (#100, probably), I would cycle back to the beginning. That way, we don't have certain artists clogging up the feed, but everyone still gets a second chance eventually.

I, uh, think I'm going to sit the ranking out this week

Not a fan of the album?

I added it to my album ranking spreadsheet and, of the 3,300 albums I have listened to, it landed in the bottom 10 (do note, however, that I mostly listen to music I expect to like, so I'm not saying this is an 'all-time worst album' as I haven't listened to much notoriously bad music - I'm certain there are thousands of albums worse than this I would rather not subject myself to)

Just, half the stuff here sounded to me like the montage transition music of a mid-2000s teen drama. The other half was rejected Sonic the Hedgehog background music. I already find pop-punk vaguely annoying and this had the added layer of being overly long and largely generic. I got a headache a few tracks in. The only moment that felt okay to me was a cover song, of which I greatly prefer the original.

American Idiot should absolutely be an album we cover at some point. Honestly, now that you mention it, Im a little surprised it didnt come up during the initial phase. Maybe it being overplayed has caused a negative backlash.

Miles Davis is actually a good reason not to use the pure album ranking - the artists who perform notably better there than in the song list usually have a clear reason. Davis, for example, tends to only have a handful of songs on each album. His big one, Kind of Blue, has only 5 tracks, each near 10 minutes long.

I would probably cycle through the artists. Maybe I could go three artists at a time, and when we eventually reach a certain number (#100, probably), I would cycle back to the beginning. That way, we don't have certain artists clogging up the feed, but everyone still gets a second chance eventually. And, either way, this bot will only be coming up, what, 2.5 times a year?

1. Summer '79
2. So Long, Astoria
3. Looking Back on Today
4. All You Can Ever Learn is What You Already Know
5. In This Diary
6. The Boys of Summer
7. I Won't Spend Another Night Alone
8. Unopened Letter to the World
9. Takeoffs and Landings
10. Radio #2
11. My Reply
12. The Hero Dies in This One
13. Eight of Nine
14. The Saddest Song - Acoustic
15. The Saddest Song

There are all-time classic pop-punk albums but this isn't one of them. Blue Skies, Broken Hearts Next 12 Exits is a much better effort from this band. This was their major label debut and the result is an album that's overall way too polished, safe, and long.

• There is an acoustic version of Looking Back On Today on a Warped Tour Compilation and I might like that version even more than this version.
• There is a different version of I Won't Spend Another Night Alone on their earlier album that is way better. Something about this version feels off...
• Whoever said their acoustic stuff is quite good is definitely on to something - It's not on this album, but San Dimas High School Football Rules is one of their best songs and their acoustic version is even better.

1. The Boys of Summer - One thing: Who the hell is Black Flag? That's an example of trying to "update" something timeless like the Deadheads and changing it to something that would become woefully outdated quickly. That's my only complaint - this song is awesome no matter who sings it.
2. I Won't Spend Another Night Alone
3. The Saddest Song (Acoustic) - This version works better. They should've given a few other songs on this album this treatment, which would've made some of the others more memorable as well.
4. The Saddest Song
5. So Long, Astoria
6. In This Diary
7. My Reply
8. Takeoffs and Landings
9. The Hero Dies in This One
10. Radio #2
11. Summer '79
12. Looking Back on Today
13. All You Can Ever Learn is What You Already Know
14. Eight of Nine
15. Unopened Letter to the World

Black Flag is one of the most famous hardcore punk bands of all time. The juxtaposition still works perfectly and fits into the punk scene rather than the rock scene Don Henley was referencing - it still shows that anti-materialism clashing with someone "selling out". There's nothing outdated about either band and it was a smart update to what the Ataris' audience would more likely understand.

I.didn't get the reference either. A review I read praised the updated lyric, but didn't offer any context on why it was changed. Thanks for that!