Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 67: blink-182's Enema of the State (+ Portishead results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks

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 Sunday, June 19 at 8:00 AM EST - though if you are for whatever reason listening to the album around that time, just say so in the topic and I can delay a bit
7. You can sign up to be added to the user cycle - the next person on the list will choose 3 albums which the other users will vote on for the next topic.
7a. To ensure people are being given an actual choice, the three nominated albums must be by different artists. You can otherwise stick to a similar sound or era.
7b. The tiebreaker for these polls will be whichever is listed first in the poll options - make sure to deliver the results in order of your own preference (which will hopefully have the added benefit of influencing people toward your first choice if they can't decide).

blink-182 - Enema of the State track list:
1. Dumpweed
2. Don't Leave Me
3. Aliens Exist
4. Going Away to College
5. What's My Age Again?
6. Dysentery Gary
7. Adam's Song
8. All the Small Things
9. The Party Song
10. Mutt
11. Wendy Clear
12. Anthem

User Cycle:
6/19: Giggsalot (Love - Forever Changes)
6/26: RyoCaliente (The White Stripes - Elephant)
7/3: darkx
7/10: neonreaper
7/17: Great_Paul
7/24: jcgamer107
7/31: ChichiriMuyo
8/7: BlueCrystalTear
8/14: MetalmindStats
8/21: HBJDubs
8/28: Raetsel_Lapin
9/4: TheArkOfTurus
9/11: Steiner
9/18: Snake5555555555
9/25: Jesse_Custer
10/2: ZaziGuado
10/9: firefdr
10/16: Johnbobb
10/23: VeryInsane
10/30: CasanovaZelos
11/6: Seanchan

Portishead - Third results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
CasanovaZelos (14)
HBJDubs (14)
RyoCaliente (14)
Giggsalot (20)
BlueCrystalTear (20)
VeryInsane (20)
Seanchan (26)
Johnbobb (26)
Raetsel_Lapin (32)
MetalmindStats (40)

General Album Comments

CasanovaZelos: It took 11 years for Portishead to release their third album, and times had changed. Trip hop, the genre they helped define during the 90s, had largely played itself out. Instead of revisiting their familiar sound, they went in an entirely new direction, a style I have never seen properly imitated in the 14 years since. This is a dense atmospheric trip, harshly metallic in its sound design. Few albums have ever sounded this straight-up intimidating, yet Beth Gibbons' angelic voice offers the perfect counterbalance. The full album feels like the soundtrack to some future war, the entire world in paranoid shambles. The one moment of sonic relief comes in Deep Water, and the transition from that into Machine Gun might just be my favorite juxtaposition on any album.

(Also, if this is your introduction to the band and you enjoy it, make sure to check out their debut, Dummy - I actually like Dummy even more!)

Seanchan: First listen done. Can't say I was digging this very much. There were bits and pieces where I was like "okay, alright" but overall my first reaction was more on the negative side.

BlueCrystalTear: what is this

like... seriously

I've never heard anything like this

To put it bluntly: I... both love it and hate it? I honestly don't know what to make of it.

A few of the early tracks definitely blended together but the later ones all felt distinct enough; like last week, this works as a complete whole yet doesn't feel like one super long track. There's some great stuff on here, like "Machine Gun" sounding like an actual gun, but it went on a bit too long and started giving me a headache.

We'll see if I can find a ranking I'm happy with, because I don't expect I'll be doing more than two listens to this one.

Giggsalot: cool pick, definitely happy to have an excuse to listen to this for the first time in a few years. I have lots of little issues with this record that stop me returning to it more often - some of the song structures feel completely unfinished, the production is oddly thin compared to their other albums, and in some ways it feels more like a grab bag of great ideas than a cohesive, complete work of art - but overall this is really great stuff. re-listening to it reminded me not only how much variety and creativity there is in this record, but also how much every song here really just bangs. I have Plastic as the second weakest "proper" track here, and that song is cool as hell. a deserved modern classic!

BlueCrystalTear: I still don't know what exactly this album is, but it's certainly one of the most unique things I've ever listened to. I did enjoy it, though it's not exactly my cup of tea. It's just... I wanted to say "uneven" but that's not the right descriptor. There are things I like about this cohesive whole but there are other things I don't. A few of the songs definitely felt a bit redundant but that's okay here - this isn't the kind of thing you want to diversify from TOO much.

Seanchan: I FUCKING HATED THIS! Granted, I don't think doing my normal "out of order" third listen helped, but this was torturous to listen to. This is one of the few albums we've covered where I can't even say I enjoyed my top 1-2 songs very much. Certainly an album I will not be revisiting anytime soon.

BlueCrystalTear (responding to Seanchan): I only listened to it twice. I didn't hate it, but I didn't really like it, either. Very unique musicianship like this one has makes an album polarizing. Most will either love it or hate it, but I'm just one of those people who understand both sides and says "It's very unique and well-crafted, but not really my thing."

VeryInsane: It took a little while for me to get back into this album, it was my introduction to Portishead but I got more acclimated to the trip hop styles of Dummy, especially since I listened to it a lot after the Massive Attack nom. The main song I distinctly remember is Machine Gun. Definitely different, but I enjoyed the experimentation and found the album interesting again.

MetalmindStats: I might be the only one to feel this album's sort of frontloaded, but my fourth spin in three days attests to how fond of it I've become anyways.

Third track ranking

11. Nylon Smile (Track #3)
Score: 32 (Average Rank: 9/11)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): CasanovaZelos, RyoCaliente, Giggsalot, BlueCrystalTear (#11)

BlueCrystalTear: I think that bassline just drowns out a lot of this. Beautiful vocal, but I take nothing from it.

10. Deep Water (Track #7)
Score: 41 (Average Rank: 8.1/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, VeryInsane, Johnbobb (#11)

BlueCrystalTear: A standout because it's acoustic folk hidden between the heavy instrumentation. It doesn't make any sense here, which is why I enjoy it. It's a very deliberate pace changer that only feels heavy because of the cloud engineered around this album.

9. Silence (Track #1)
Score: 42 (Average Rank: 7.8/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Giggsalot (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente, BlueCrystalTear, MetalmindStats (#10)

BlueCrystalTear: Weird voices to start and no vocals until halfway through. It's... interesting.

8. Magic Doors (Track #10)
Score: 51 (Average Rank: 7/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Giggsalot (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#10)

7. Plastic (Track #5)
Score: 53 (Average Rank: 6.8/11)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Giggsalot (#9)

BlueCrystalTear: Another great harmony of vocal and instrumentation. Even if I can't understand the lyrics.

6. Threads (Track #11)
Score: 60 (Average Rank: 6.2/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#11)

5. Small (Track #9)
Score: 66 (Average Rank: 5.7/11)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#10)

BlueCrystalTear: This is tiringly long and feels like it's trying to do what The Rip and Machine Gun already did better. That said, it does those really good things, so points for that.

4. Hunter (Track #2)
Score: 78 (Average Rank: 4.9/11)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): VeryInsane, Johnbobb (#9)

BlueCrystalTear: Sleepy, yet haunting. The focus on the vocal is great at getting the desired effect. The early placement also helps it.

3. We Carry On (Track #6)
Score: 79 (Average Rank: 4.9/11)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#11)

BlueCrystalTear: It's a bit long, but it's good, and highlights the uniqueness of this band pretty well.

2. The Rip (Track #4)
Score: 113 (Average Rank: 3.1/11)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos, Raetsel_Lapin, BlueCrystalTear, Seanchan, VeryInsane (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#11)

BlueCrystalTear: The payoff here is so good. So, so good.

1. Machine Gun (Track #8)
Score: 115 (Average Rank: 2.5/11)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs, Giggsalot, Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, MetalmindStats (#5)

BlueCrystalTear: The sound effects are so epic here and it definitely sounds like a machine gun. The only downside is that they get tiring by the end of the song.

darkx's comments on this week's choices:

Appetite For Destruction:
This is a very different set of albums from my last set, timeline-wise. Last time, my most recent album was from 1981. This time the earliest is from 1987. Guns n Roses have the best-selling debut album of all time, and it's not hard to see why. 12 straight bangers here, including the monster hits Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, and Sweet Child o' Mine.

Into the Great Wide Open:
Hot off the heels of Full Moon Fever, Tom Petty's 9th album definite has some similar-sounding but clearly distinct and beloved songs, such as Learning to Fly, Too Good to Be True, All or Nothing, and the titular track.

Heard It in a Past Life:
Maggie Rogers' debut album features the original two singles that launched her to stardom years earlier, Alaska and On + Off, but is highlighted by the hit Light On, which was played absolutely everywhere.

Quite possibly my favorite blink song, which isn't on this album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0g16_LQaQ

bump

up again

Fuck, it's like I somehow forgot just how good this album is. Been a while since I'd sat and listened to the full thing though. It was less sophomoric than I remembered but then again, I was constantly remembering the little skits and changed lyrics from their live album.

I'll also say, I certainly have a strong preference for my preferred lead singer. It isn't exactly surprising to me, it just was never quite so evident until I sat down to do a preliminary ranking.

Fell down the blink rabbit hole after my listen. Again, despite how much I loved the band back in the day, it was kind of surprising to me the seeming reach and import of the band's legacy. I certainly nominated the "right" blink album but Dude Ranch, Take Off Your Pants, and their self titled album are really fucking strong too.

I didn't realize they've put out 3 albums post break-up. I listened to a few random songs from those albums and I should probably listen to them for real at some point, even if they're not the same band, in makeup or lyrical content as the band I loved from my teenage years.

Another great blink song, again, not from Enema:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7hhDINyBP0

This is an album that sits in a weird place in time for me, where I was old enough to remember the big singles playing on the radio and MTV but not old enough to have any meaningful opinion. One of those intimately familiar works that is hard to judge on its own merits because it helped shape my knowledge of music in the first place.

1: Don't Leave Me
2: Adam's Song
3: What's My Age Again?
4: All the Small Things
5: Mutt
6: Going Away to College
7: Wendy Clear
8: Dumpweed
9: Dysentery Gary
10: Aliens Exist
11: Anthem
12: The Party Song

Here's probably the best song from their self titled album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY

That self titled album was a pretty big shift for the band. I remember being a little off put by it at first but it still a great album and quickly grew on me.

In listening to it again the other day, I noticed one distinct thing that I'd never realized before. On all their previous albums, including Enema, songs were either Mark songs or Tom songs. Whoever was the lead did nearly 100% of the vocals, except for maybe some harmonizing during the chorus. That suddenly changed with the self titled album, and you'd have them both switching off between verses in many songs. It maybe makes the album feel a bit more cohesive overall, rather than feeling like a bunch of individual tracks.

I've been meaning to count this - here is the decade breakdown so far, up through Appetite for Destruction's inevitable win:
1960s: 5
1970s: 7
1980s: 10
1990s: 18
2000s: 16
2010s: 10
2020s: 4

Considering our demographics, I think a peak in the 90s and 2000s makes sense.

What's My Age Again?
Adam's Song
Dumpweed
Anthem
All The Small Things
Mutt
Going Away To College
Wendy Clear
Don't Leave Me
Aliens Exist
Dysentery Gary
The Party Song

up

What's My Age Again?
Adam's Song
Aliens Exist
All the Small Things
Don't Leave Me
Dumpweed
Wendy Clear
Going Away to College
Mutt
Anthem
The Party Song
Dysentery Gary

A personal favorite of mine that I'd never actually watched the video of before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6kfin-UeAQ

1) Adam's Song
2) Mutt
3) What's My Age Again?
4) Wendy Clear
5) Going Away to College
6) Dysentery Gary
7) Don't Leave Me
8) Dumpweed
9) Aliens Exist
10) All the Small Things
11) Anthem
12) The Party Song

1. Wendy Clear
2. Going Away to College
3. Don't Leave Me
4. The Party Song
5. All the Small Things
6. Dumpweed
7. Adam's Song
8. What's My Age Again?
9. Anthem
10. Dysentery Gary
11. Mutt
12. Aliens Exist

I'm so glad this album still holds up. I can't remove my nostalgia for it from my viewpoint but, compared to so much of the music from that time, this is one I'm not "embarrassed" by in 2022. Yes, it's squarely aimed at a teenaged audience (or at least capturing the teenaged mindset), but it's a fun, goofy album that doesn't really take itself too seriously and made me want to sing along.

Oh, and I am definitely locking up highest deviation this week. Ain't nobody else putting Wendy Clear at #1; that's just been a personal favorite of mine forever. And no one else will have The Party Song outside the bottom 3; I know objectively I should have that closer to the bottom but there's just something kind of frenetic and manic about it that I love. I've always felt Aliens Exist was the weakest song here; it's not bad, it's just outclassed, especially being sandwiched between Don't Leave Me and Going Away To College.

Final day!

And so I'll give my last musical bump with 2 songs.

From their first album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPBAkLXfpjE

And another of their big singles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVy9Lgpg1m8

1) What's My Age Again?
2) Adams Song
3) All the Small Things
4) Dont Leave Me
5) Dumpweed
6) Wendy Clear
7) Aliens Exist
8) Going Away to College
9) The Party Song
10) Mutt
11) Anthem
12) Dysentery Gary

What's My Age Again? (#1771 all-time)
Don't Leave Me
All the Small Things
Adam's Song
Dumpweed
Going Away to College
Mutt
Wendy Clear
Anthem
The Party Song
Aliens Exist
Dysentery Gary

Anyone else?