Board 8 > Rank the Tracks 155: Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible + ~NOMINATION PERIOD~

(+) Yeah! (+)

THIS IS AN OPEN NOMINATION WEEK! EVERYONE CAN NOMINATE A SINGLE ALBUM TO COMPETE NEXT WEEK!
Feel free to PM me if you want your choice to be anonymous

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

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, March 14th 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

Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible track list:
1. Dorset Perception
2. Star Shpongled Banner
3. A New Way to Say 'Hooray!'
4. Room 2
5. My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
6. Shpongleyes
7. Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness
8. Around the World in a Tea Daze
9. Flute Fruit

Current Cycle:
3/14: The Weeknd - Dawn FM
3/21: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

I noticed a while back that we haven't done Foo Fighters yet.

Nominate Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape

Do we just nominate albums as-is? Or would it be preferable to include a description with sample tracks? Or is that something well do later?

You should include descriptions and sample tracks now if you are wanting them

Nominate Garbage - 2.0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je-CPZRwbh8

I have been on vacation and am catching up on a lot of things. I am sorry for my lack of activity in recent memory here, and hope to rectify that starting next week (I still got a lot to do this week so I doubt I'll be able to get two listens in).

Anyway my nomination is:
Garth Brooks - No Fences

Mitski - Be the Cowboy results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
PunishedJeezy (16)
FoolFantastic (22)
MaxGalactica (24)
Sheep007 (26)
Seanchan (34)
ChichiriMuyo (40)
Fluttershy_Pony (40)
HBJDubs (52)

General Album Comments

mcflubbin: Best song on Be The Cowboy is 'A Pearl', because Mitski looked me dead in the eye while she was singing it when I saw her in concert

jk it's 'Me and My Husband'

FoolFantastic: Mitski albums tend to be uneven (outside her most recent which I love beginning to end); the strong stuff here is fantastic, but half of it is whatever. It still works more than it doesn't due to the short length of everything. Her songs are always straight to the point.

Sheep007: This is a weird album which I think starts off fine, but really comes into its own by the end. The best songs dont start hitting til Me and My Husband, and theyre almost all very short, with only two longer than 3 minutes. It feels pacy as a result, and coupled with Mitskis lyrics being very sharp, the album feels snappy and as though its over very quickly.

Im not sure its my favourite album by her (Bury Me At Makeout Creek and Puberty 2 are both phenomenal, and I think theres more songs I love on them), but it has a lot of variety as well as having a little more mainstream appeal. It feels like pop-rock, definitely poppier than her earlier music, but I always enjoy artists who I cant pin down to one genre.

Seanchan: 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.

HBJDubs: Great opener, very good songs at the end, and then the middle is just kind of meh.

MaxGalactica: Tbh, Geyser and Nobody were the only songs to really stand out to me on this one. The rest just kind of existed. Similar to last week's album, but marginally better because of the two aforementioned tracks.

ChichiriMuyo: So this was an album, and some decisions were made. There were hints of things I like, but oh man... If I'm listening to this album as a whole, I kinda feel like I should call the cops to do a welfare check on the person who wrote these songs... This is worse than sad girl break up songs when you think about her saying she wants this person, but not for them to touch her, she's staying with her husband, she's desperate to be touched, desperate to be kissed... like, seriously, wtf?

Be the Cowboy track ranking

14. A Horse Named Cold Air (Track #11)
Score: 18 (Average Rank: 12.75/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony, FoolFantastic, PunishedJeezy, Seanchan (#14)

13. Come Into the Water (Track #8)
Score: 25 (Average Rank: 11.88/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#9)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica (#14)

12. Lonesome Love (Track #5)
Score: 40 (Average Rank: 10.25/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, ChichiriMuyo (#14)

11. Old Friend (Track #3)
Score: 42 (Average Rank: 9.75/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007 (#14)

10. Blue Light (Track #13)
Score: 49 (Average Rank: 9/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic (#13)

9. A Pearl (Track #4)
Score: 58 (Average Rank: 7.75/14)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, Sheep007 (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#13)

8. Why Didn't You Stop Me? (Track #2)
Score: 60 (Average Rank: 7.88/14)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#13)

7. Two Slow Dancers (Track #14)
Score: 65 (Average Rank: 6.88/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007 (#11)

6. Me and My Husband (Track #7)
Score: 66 (Average Rank: 6.88/14)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, HBJDubs (#12)

5. Remember My Name (Track #6)
Score: 70 (Average Rank: 6.5/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#11)

4. Pink in the Night (Track #10)
Score: 85 (Average Rank: 5.13/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Sheep007, HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#10)

3. Washing Machine Heart (Track #12)
Score: 90 (Average Rank: 4.5/14)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica (#8)

FoolFantastic: I was curious why Washing Machine Heart had 600 million streams on Spotify; apparently it became a TikTok hit.

Sheep007: The bassline here is exquisite. Theres a ton going on in this song instrumentally, especially for something so short. Its amazing it doesnt feel messy in the slightest. I also love the crusty alarm coming in at the end.

2. Geyser (Track #1)
Score: 109 (Average Rank: 3.25/14)
Biggest Fan(s): PunishedJeezy, HBJDubs, MaxGalactica (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#8)

1. Nobody (Track #9)
Score: 119 (Average Rank: 2.63/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony, FoolFantastic, Sheep007, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#7)

Fluttershy_Pony: This song was nominated way back at my first ranking topic and it was a real treat (which was probably ranked too low back then, but I digress). Even years later, I still kinda love this song and it was a nice treat to run into it again & finally see what the rest of the album was like.

Sheep007: Hits a perfect blend of wit, melodrama and sadness

FoolFantastic posted...

The top ~5 will then be covered.

What does this mean? The top 5 will be used for the next 5 weeks? Or am I reading it wrong?

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

What does this mean? The top 5 will be used for the next 5 weeks? Or am I reading it wrong?

Yes, though the specific number is not concrete.

damn I listened to Mitski but forgot the date changed to Wednesday

without putting together a full ranking I remember offhand really liking Nobody, Remember My Name and Me and My Husband

nominate Viktor Vaughn (aka MF Doom) - Vaudeville Villain

One of MF Doom's many aliases, and an incredible concept album about a Dr. Doom-inspired time traveler trapped in 90s NYC. I've loved pretty much all of Doom's stuff but I think I'd call this my favorite album of his, with a very grimy sci-fi feel to the production

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

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.

Nominate Joni Mitchell - Blue

Joni Mitchell is an artist I've always meant to listen to more of. Blue is probably her most acclaimed album, 10 songs of singer-songwriter goodness.

Sample song: A Case of You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqYpK3CFmMk

Seanchan posted...

nominate Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob

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.

If you like Tegan and Sara you absolutely need to listen to So Jealous and The Con

Seanchan posted...

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

I was also gonna nominate this! My first thought for my week was doing 90s/00s solo women pop artists (Britney was also gonna be there). Just a shame how chunky that album is, I'd love to cover it, but might be kinda exhausting to go through.

Not gonna nominate for a little while unless anything big comes to mind. Was going to pick Foo Fighters too, as they're one of my favourite bands and we still haven't had them come up. Prefer Wasting Light as an album overall and think it's more interesting to rank, but I think more people will recognise the hits on Colour and Shape.

....Am I allowed to just 2nd Knower Forever...?

1. A New Way to Say Hooray
2. Around the World in a Tea Daze
3. Star Shpongled Banner
4. Dorset Perception
5. Room 23
6. My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
7. Flute Fruit
8. Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness
9. Shpongleyes

Shpongle is great. I've not found many bands that combine all the sounds they combine into something this amazing. A New Way to Say Hooray is my easy pick for first place - that song gives me chills. I would best describe it as "psychedelic Space Lion."

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.

Nominate Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4

This has been my most anticipated album over the past 4 years since Vol. 3 released, and it finally released a week ago. And it lived up to my expectations and more, which was a pleasant surprise. It's Collier's most cohesive and accessible album, while sticking to his roots in complex harmonies, rhythms, and genre exploration and variety. It includes elements of synthpop, symphonic, djent, hyperpop, soul, gospel, rock, house, folk, R&B, yacht rock and much more. His songwriting abilities and production quality are at their best in this album. There's also a lot of cool features throughout including Arch Echo, Lawrence, Michael McDonald, Kirk Franklin, Lizzy McAlpine, John Mayer, Chris Martin, aespa, Tori Kelly, and others. I'll only post one sample, but if you have time to check out a couple of others, I'd recommend 100,000 Voices and Wherever I Go.

https://youtu.be/IzGXQraNoLc

Seanchan posted...

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.

The next two albums are definitely a departure from that.

nominate SEATBELTS - COWBOY BEBOP

Mind, this nomination is for the first volume. The greatest soundtrack to one of the greatest stories ever told.
https://youtu.be/6MkiydRXDe0?si=VjRwe4_k8sMFYg1G

1: Star Shpongled Banner
2: A New Way to Say 'Hooray!'
3: Flute Fruit
4: Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness
5: Shpongleyes
6: Room 2
7: Dorset Perception
8: My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
9: Around the World in a Tea Daze

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.

I decided it might be fun to listen to all the nominated albums in advance of next week. (I would then rank them by how much I want to listen to them again.) Does anybody have a good upload for Garth Brooks - No Fences? The Youtube uploads are incomplete (at least one song is missing). I even registered an account on Spotify but it doesn't seem to be there either. It'll have to get place by default if I can't even listen to it in full.

I listened to the album but I tend to do so while I'm working and wasn't paying close enough attention to notice the transitions so I'm probably not going to bother ranking the tracks. The music was fine enough if a little tiring by the end.

this album fucking rules, guess I'm a shpongle fan now

1. Dorset Perception
2. A New Way to Say 'Hooray!'
3. My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
4. Star Shpongled Banner
5. Room 2
6. Around the World in a Tea Daze
7. Shpongleyes
8. Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness
9. Flute Fruit

1. Dorset
2. Around the World
3. Say Hooray
4. Star-Spangled
5. Frisbee
6. Shpongleyes
7. Blissful Awareness
8. Room 23
9. Flutes

I am completely gestunkenflucht. This album is such an amazing conglomeration of random things I love--weird semi-ambient New Age electronica, psychedelic rock, overuse of samples for context in lieu of vocals, and whatever the fuck Osamu Sato does. WHY IS THIS THIRD EYE. WHY IS THIS BOSSA NOVA. WHY IS THIS BEYOND THE BOUNDS. I've heard a few albums that absolutely love to play with genres (usually because of Steiner), but this album is much more... I don't want to say "coherent", because it really isn't; maybe subtle? Often, when the song isn't doing something overtly ridiculous, I don't even really notice that the genre had slid over the course of the song to something entirely different yet still quite natural. Given how each individual song is kind of several songs and the album as a whole is kind of one song, I should be a little annoyed at this being hard to rank, but fuck it, I don't care. Fuck you. This album rules.

Not sure if I'll be able to get round to this, but for anyone discovering Shpongle here and enjoying this: their next album (Nothing Lasts... But Nothing is Lost) is even better!

(I also prefer their fourth album to this one too, but that's more or a minority opinion)

Someone double check that I'm not missing anything for the nominations so far

Garth Brooks - No Fences
Jacob Collier - Djesse Vol. 4
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Garbage - Version 2.0
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Knower - Knower Forever
The Seatbelts (Yoko Kanno) - Cowboy Bebop
Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
Viktor Vaughn (MF Doom) - Vaudeville Villain
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

I also can't find No Fences - Garth Brooks is kind of notorious about not streaming

Well if 2nding Knower is of no benefit then....

Nom: Jukebox the Ghost - Safe Travels

Nominate: Was (Not Was) - What Up, Dog?

Anything Can Happen:
https://youtu.be/dT0i6v-cfh4

I tried nominating it once before, but I didn't do a great job of selling it--honestly, there was another album by the band that I preferred and I was bitter about feeling forced to nom the popular pick. But now I've come around on this one. It features the perfect blend of David's pop/funk sensibilities & Don's strangeness. Come for two top ten hits (Walk The Dinosaur & Spy In The House Of Love) and stay as they erratically bounce between genres and subjects so wildly that you never know what's going to happen. You want incredibly emotional and moving songs? We've got one! Kinda generic but catchy pop music? You betcha! Frank Sinatra Jr.? Hell yeah, we got Frank Sinatra Jr. for no apparent reason! Experimental nonsense? Short stories? This album has it all. Seriously, if you're tired of albums with "similar songs" and "coherent styles", then join me for an album that very much does not have that problem. Nothing on the album is like anything else, so it should provide a variety of rankings and stand out.

1. Dorset Perception
2. Around the World in a Tea Daze
3. My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
4. Star Shpongled Banner
5. A New Way to Say 'Hooray!'
6. Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness
7. Shpongleyes
8. Room 2
9. Flute Fruit

A fairly arbitrary ranking due to the nature of the challenge, though I'm feeling pretty confident about first and last.

There's two questions I ask myself at the end of each week. Would I listen to this again? and Would I listen to something else from this group? With Shpongle, the answer to both is definitely yes! It's certainly hard to place this album, with it's EDM-ish bits, the samples, and the general bits of weirdness that reminded me a tiny bit of Rusted Root. But it all managed to come together!

I have No Fences lying around somewhere, if needed I can upload it. As for my nomination, I'm gonna follow Great_Paul's lead and put up a popular artist we haven't covered yet

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

StarShpongled Banner
Dorset Perception
Once Upon The Sea Of Blissful Awareness
Shpongleyes
Around The World In A Tea Daze
Room 2
My Head Feels Like A Frisbee
A New Way To Say Hooray!
Flute Fruit

This was my introduction to psychedelic music, and I was immediately blown away by how good this album, and Shpongle in general, is. I had more to say, but NFUN pretty much sums it up! If you enjoyed this, definitely check out Nothing Lasts...But Nothing Is Lost; it was the other album I was considering for nomination, but Tales just has a little more sentimental value to me.

No Fences is on Amazon Music if anyone has that.

https://music.amazon.com/albums/B01LYCHD0R

1. Dorset Perception
2. Around the World in a Tea Daze
3. My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
4. A New Way to Say 'Hooray!'
5. StarShpongled Banner
6. Shpongleyes
7. Flute Fruit
8. Room 2
9. Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness

Yeah, this album's pretty awesome. Only one song felt like it dragged too long, and the rest felt like fountains of creativity exploring all sorts of different sounds. I especially loved the incorporation of flute with all of the unique synths used. Dorset Perception was a clear standout to me, but I really liked nearly every song on the album. Great pick for this week.

1) Dorset Perception
2) Around the World in a Tea Daze
3) StarShpongled Banner
4) Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness
5) My Head Feels Like a Frisbee
6) A New Way To Say Hooray!
7) Shpongleyes
8) Room 2
9) Flute Fruit - I love you Flute Fruit. I promise it's not personal, but I can't justify putting the mellow outro ahead of anything else here

What an incredible album. Gestunkenflucht indeed. I'm fine with a track ranking for something like this, I think by my third listen they were distinct enough to pick one song out from another. The only reason I'd consider avoiding ranking is that it would be a disservice to Shpongle to put one part of this album above any other. I have been listening to Shpongle constantly this past week while writing my thesis and I can feel my mind expanding. I really, really cannot emphasise how much I enjoyed this. Listen to Shpongle.