Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 49: Tom Waits' Rain Dogs (+ Dua Lipa 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, February 6 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).

Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia track list:
1. Singapore
2. Clap Hands
3. Cemetery Polka
4. Jockey Full of Bourbon
5. Tango Till They're Sore
6. Big Black Mariah
7. Diamonds & Gold
8. Hang Down Your Head
9. Time
10. Rain Dogs
11. Midtown
12. 9th & Hennepin
13. Gun Street Girl
14. Union Square
15. Blind Love
16. Walking Spanish
17. Downtown Train
18. Bride of Rain Dog
19. Anywhere I Lay My Head

User Cycle:
2/13: RyoCaliente (Bloc Party - Silent Alarm)
2/20: darkx (The Beatles - Rubber Soul)
2/27: neonreaper
3/6: Great_Paul
3/13: jcgamer107
3/20: ChichiriMuyo
3/27: ChainLTTP
4/3: BlueCrystalTear
4/10: MetalmindStats
4/17: HBJDubs
4/24: TheArkOfTurus
5/1: Snake5555555555
5/8: Jesse_Custer
5/15: ZaziGuado
5/22: firefdr
5/29: SpikeSetsFire
6/5: Johnbobb
6/12: VeryInsane
6/19: CasanovaZelos
6/26: Seanchan
7/3: Giggsalot

Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia Results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
BlueCrystalTear (8)
CasanovaZelos (10)
VeryInsane (14)
MetalmindStats (16)
Seanchan (20)
ChichiriMuyo (22)
neonreaper (24)
Johnbobb (24)
Raetsel_Lapin (26)
Mr Lasastryke (34)

General Album Comments

Seanchan: Very interested to see the reaction to Future Nostalgia. It's so damn pop I think it's going to be pretty mixed, a few who love it, a few who hate it because it's not their style, and a few who think it's just "fine" but that it's been overplayed.

CasanovaZelos: Future Nostalgia is probably my favorite mainstream pop album ever. 4 songs in my all-time top 1000 (even my #1 album only has 3!) and another not too far outside it. The remaining songs are all fairly good except for one obvious dud. The pacing is fairly strong outside of petering out at the end, largely alternating between the mega hits and the backing tracks to never lose steam. A pure pop album hasn't been this good since Thriller.

ChichiriMuyo: A lot of people would probably sleep on this album, but as far as dance-pop goes it shows a lot of range and intellect. You can hear bits and pieces of decades worth of inspiration that went into this work scattered throughout. The most stand out to me was the moment when a sample best known from 1997's "Your Woman" (White Town) plays, though it is itself a slightly altered sample from 1932's "My Woman" (Lew Stone & his Monseigneur Band). Generations on generations of collected knowledge. Is it perfect? Certainly not. Is it art? Absolutely. If there's one thing Andy Warhol got right it's this - something can be both art and a product meant for mass consumption.

Seanchan: No surprise, since this is my nomination, but I think this album is fucking great! I've probably listened to it a dozen times in the last 6-8 months and it hasn't gotten old. It's just an album I can turn on and enjoy, front to back. It's poppy, it's upbeat, it's got some cool beats. It's exactly the type of thing I enjoy listening to.

I'm not going to break down each song, but I will say there's a distinctive gap in my mind between the top 3, the middle 4, and the "bottom" 4. And even though I have Boys Will Be Boys ranked last, I "enjoy" the message of that song. Its lyrics resonate because they're sadly still relevant. I know it's a movie about older times but I couldn't help but think of that song when I watched the movie The Last Duel.

Mr Lasastryke: Dua Lipa's debut was good but Future Nostalgia is a huge improvement. This is an album filled with instant classics and it justly won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. There are no bad songs to be found here.

I absolutely adore "Levitating", it might be my favorite song of 2020. I love the chord changes and spacey feel of the song. "Cool" perhaps best exemplifies the retro '80s synthpop sound of this album. "Pretty Please" is so funky, it could have been a lost Prince track. "Good in Bed" doesn't make my top 3, but I still think it is a fantastic pop song and I'm not sure why people seem to be really down on it? I hope it's not because we're offended by a young woman singing about sex in 2022 >_>

The only two songs that keep this album from being perfect are "Love Again" and "Boys Will Be Boys". "Love Again" is fine but it doesn't leave much of an impression on me; I thought White Town utilized this sample better. The baroque pop of "Boys Will Be Boys" is uh... kind of a weird choice to end the album on, after all the pop-disco-funk music, and unfortunately, it's not a particularly great baroque pop song. Still, amazing album!

MetalmindStats (responding to Mr Lasastryke's comment on Good in Bed): To be clear, I personally am offended by anyone, young or not, woman or otherwise, singing about sex! /s

In all due seriousness, there's not a single song here I don't like (with my top seven being outright great IMO), and something has to be last. Also, that something was never going to be Boys Will Be Boys; for me, its placement and deviation from the rest of Future Nostalgia only enhances its impact.

VeryInsane: Kinda forgot how strong this album was

Johnbobb: Dua Lipa really isn't the type of music I normally go for but something about her voice is just so addicting

BlueCrystalTear: I went into this with doubts since I'd only ever heard "Levitating" before this, but found this ripe with catchy hooks and fun, lively beats. The ones toward the bottom for me were simply less memorable; my top 7 were all ones I can recall after listening, and it's a mighty big feat for an album to pull that off after two listens. The others aren't bad, just dwarfed.

Future Nostalgia Track Ranking

11. Good in Bed (Track #10)
Score: 23 (Average Rank: 9.7/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Mr Lasastryke (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): CasanovaZelos, Raetsel_Lapin, MetalmindStats, Johnbobb, BlueCrystalTear (#11)

10. Boys Will Be Boys (Track #11)
Score: 33 (Average Rank: 8.8/11)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, Seanchan, Mr Lasastryke, VeryInsane (#11)

9. Pretty Please (Track #6)
Score: 44 (Average Rank: 7.7/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Mr Lasastryke (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats, Johnbobb, BlueCrystalTear (#10)

8. Hallucinate (Track #7)
Score: 47 (Average Rank: 7.3/11)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#10)

7. Future Nostalgia (Track #1)
Score: 51 (Average Rank: 7.1/11)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#11)

6. Love Again (Track #8)
Score: 70 (Average Rank: 5.3/11)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mr Lasastryke (#10)

5. Cool (Track #3)
Score: 74 (Average Rank: 5.3/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#10)

4. Break My Heart (Track #9)
Score: 86 (Average Rank: 4.3/11)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo, Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mr Lasastryke (#9)

3. Physical (Track #4)
Score: 87 (Average Rank: 4.1/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin, VeryInsane (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats, Johnbobb (#8)

2. Don't Start Now (Track #2)
Score: 95 (Average Rank: 3.8/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper (#9)

1. Levitating (Track #5)
Score: 120 (Average Rank: 2.6/11)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos, neonreaper, Mr Lasastryke, MetalmindStats, VeryInsane, BlueCrystalTear (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#8)

neonreaper included these sample songs in the PM and may provide further comments soon

Lake of Tears - Forever Autumn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_F6CHZi13A

Green Carnation - Acoustic Verses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pHZpEzhSB8

Opeth - Damnation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSpqLqC7U6g

I'm really interested to see the reaction to Tom Waits by the unfamiliar. I expect some people to hate him for the same reason I love him - Tom Waits is one of the all-time great vocalists. It's not that he has a particularly beautiful voice. Quite the opposite, actually. He's the gruffest of the gruff, the type of voice one might associate with harsher genres that he uses for whatever he feels like. Rain Dogs (alongside Swordfishtrombones) is the turning point of his long, wonderful career, where he fully embraces his strange voice to start making music that belongs to him alone. An early exposure to these two albums was what convinced me to draw a line between someone being great at singing and being a great vocalist. To be great at singing simply implies having an impressive range. A great vocalist, who benefits from also being a great songwriter, can craft a song that fits their own voice like a glove. Tom Waits may not be capable of belting it out like a pop star, but they would similarly be incapable of burying these songs with covers.

1. Time
2. Downtown Train
3. Singapore
4. Hang Down Your Head
5. Walking Spanish
6. Jockey Full of Bourbon
7. Clap Hands
8. Anywhere I Lay My Head
9. Gun Street Girl
10. Cemetery Polka
11. Rain Dogs
12. Big Black Mariah
13. Tango Till They're Sore
14. 9th & Hennepin
15. Midtown
16. Blind Love
17. Union Square
18. Diamonds and Gold
19. Bride of Rain Dog

I forgot how much this album is in general, it's just a good time musically where lyrically it can be pretty dark (Waits in a nutshell really).

Just did a first listen to Rain Dogs and...what the fuck did I just listen to?!? I felt like I was at some weird buffet where I have no idea what's on my plate but I'm going to eat it anyway and then onto the next thing. With each song I didn't know if I was going to get blues or jazz or rock or country or even vaudeville.

But you know what? I kinda didn't hate it? Actually I feel like I kind of love it a little.

That voice is certainly something. And now I understand why you'd say great vocalist but (maybe) not great singer. He certainly appears to fit the songs like a glove.

Also, while listening, I thought about 2 other artists. The eclectic nature of the album made me think of Gorillaz, though obviously a very different sound. And then near the end I got to thinking about Springsteen, in terms of the voice and maybe some of the storytelling aspect of the songs. I know, weird, but that's where my brain went.

I'm not great at describing bands/albums but...

Lake of Tears is a gothic metal band - a lot of doom elements and a lot of melodic elements. Forever Autumn is fairly easy to listen to, has some catchy riffs and some sentimental stuff. They have faster paced stuff for sure. If you like various rock genres, there's definitely something in their catalog for you. I picked a somewhat sappy song because I like it. 45 mins

Green Carnation - I'd call them progressive rock with a bit of riff heavy doom elements from time to time, but this album is generally fairly chill with the riffs. These guys are great and thoughtful though I would say their songwriting probably isn't for everyone. Again I picked a sappy song, this one about growing up. 43 mins

Opeth - one of the big progressive death metal bands, they released this album with all clean vocals. I enjoy how haunted the whole album sounds. In my late 20s this was a good "sitting in my room thinking about stuff" album. Maybe one of my top 10 all time albums. 43 mins

I picked two lesser known albums - the sort of bands I was grateful for having recommended to me. And then Opeth in case people just want something they already know. My original three were easier/bigger albums but then some tragedy and was feeling a bit more introspective I guess.

Singapore
Downtown Train
Hand Down Your Head
Time
Rain Dogs
Clap Hands
Cemetary Polka
Blind Love
Union Square
Tango Til They're Sore
Diamonds and Gold
Gun Street Girl
Walking Spanish
Jockey Full Of Bourbon
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Big Black Mariah
Midtown
Bride of Rain Dog
9th and Hennepin

I can name the top 5 songs I like from this one easy enough, and then it gets kinda muddy.

Also, while listening, I thought about 2 other artists.

For me, the influence on Mr Bungle is pretty clear.

1: Hang Down Your Head
2: Downtown Train
3: Walking Spanish
4: Time
5: Jockey Full Of Bourbon
6: Singapore
7: Tango Till They're Sore
8: Blind Love
9: 9th & Hennepin
10: Midtown
11: Clap Hands
12: Bride of Rain Dog
13: Rain Dogs
14: Diamonds & Gold
15: Gun Street Girl

16: Anywhere I Lay My Head
17: Union Square
18: Big Black Mariah
19: Cemetary Polka

bump

I did a first listen but this is going to need a second. Should post my list tomorrow.

oh right bumping

Up

Second listen done. This is such an oddly interesting album. It reminds me of how I felt about Silent Shout.

"Singapore" really started this off with... an odd bang. It was like a drunken, comical Disney villain song that I couldn't understand. I went in knowing that Tom Waits is eccentric, but this is something else, and I enjoyed it at the same time I was confused by it. Musicianship is great. I have no idea what to make of his voice even still (the only song I'd heard from this was "Downtown Train" and that was just once, stemming from me liking the Rod Stewart version and wanting to check out the original... which is very different, but just as excellent). I really needed a third listen but I'm not going to have that kind of time.

1. Downtown Train
2. Hang Down Your Head
3. Singapore
4. Clap Hands
5. Time
6. Blind Love
7. Gun Street Girl
8. Tango Till They're Sore
9. Walking Spanish
10. Rain Dogs
11. Anywhere I Lay My Head
12. Union Square
13. Midtown
14. Diamonds & Gold
15. Cemetery Polka
16. Jockey Full of Bourbon
17. Bride of Rain Dog
18. Big Black Mariah
19. 9th & Hennepin

bump

bump

Bump. I'll be doing my 3rd listen later tonight...

1. Hang Down Your Head
2. Time
3. Singapore
4. Big Black Mariah
5. Tango Till They're Sore
6. Gun Street Girl
7. Downtown Train
8. Jockey Full of Bourbon
9. Rain Dogs
10. Union Square
11. Walking Spanish
12. Clap Hands
13. Blind Love
14. Anywhere I Lay My Head
15. Diamonds & Gold
16. Cemetery Polka
17. 9th & Hennepin
18. Bride of Rain Dog
19. Midtown

This is such an odd duck of an album and yet it's kind of oddly endearing. I enjoyed it quite a bit! I have to say though, I think I'm higher on the album as a whole than I am on any individual song. It's this crazy maelstrom of influences that keeps you on your toes the whole time. I ended up putting 2 of the more "traditional" songs at the top of my list, even though I think they're less "interesting" than some of the other songs like Singapore or Big Black Mariah.

unfortunately had personal stuff going on this week and didn't get to listen

Ugh I deleted my ranking midway through, heres hoping I got everything I remembered correctly

Clap Hands
Jockey Full of Bourbon
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Gun Street Girl
Downtown Train
Rain Dogs
Tango Til Theyre Sore
Singapore
Time
Diamonds and Gold
Cemetary Polka
Hang Down Your Head
Walking Spanish
Big Black Mariah
9th and Hennepin
Midtown
Blind Love
Union Square
Bride of Rain Dog

Always an artist that I mean to explore more of beyond this and swordfishtrombones but I never really do. I think I listened to Mule Variations once?

1. Cemetery Polka
2. Union Square
3. Tango Till They're Sore
4. Rain Dogs
5. Big Black Mariah
6. Clap Hands
7. Blind Love
8. Gun Street Girl
9. Singapore
10. Downtown Train
11. Hang Down Your Head
12. Jockey Full of Bourbon
13. Walking Spanish
14. Bride of Rain Dog
15. Time
16. Diamonds & Gold
17. 9th & Hennepin
18. Midtown
19. Anywhere I Lay My Head

It should come as no surprise I'm a huge fan of Tom Waits! This album is excellent front to back. The whole time I feel like I'm trapped in this demented, haunted carnival ride where the main attraction is this barker that combines the lyrical storytelling of a Bob Dylan with the psychobilly of The Cramps, the fearless experimentation of The Residents, and the tribal horror ambience of Aphex Twin all wrapped up in a Lynchian fever dream. And yet, all those descriptors don't quite do Waits justice because he's in a league truly all his own.

my ranking:
Time (#843 all-time)
Jockey Full of Bourbon (#852)
Downtown Train (#864)
Union Square
Cemetery Polka
Rain Dogs
Singapore
Clap Hands
Walking Spanish
Blind Love
Big Black Mariah
Hang Down Your Head
Tango Till They're Sore
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Gun Street Girl
Diamonds & Gold
9th & Hennepin
Midtown
Bride of Rain Dog

1. Downtown Train
2. Time
3. Hang Down Your Head
4. Clap Hands
5. Singapore
6. Rain Dogs
7. Blind Love
8. Gun Street Girl
9. Tango Till They're Sore
10. Walking Spanish
11. Anywhere I Lay My Head
12. Midtown
13. Union Square
14. Cemetery Polka
15. Diamonds & Gold
16. Jockey Full of Bourbon
17. Big Black Mariah
18. 9th & Hennepin
19. Bride of Rain Dog

1. Gun Street Girl
2. Clap Your Hands
3. Time
4. Singapore
5. Hang Down Your Head
6. Tango Till Theyre Sore
7. Rain Dogs
8. Midtown
9. 9th & Hennepin
10. Big Black Mariah
11. Walking Spanish
12. Cemetery Polka
13. Anywhere I Lay My Head
14. Diamonds & Gold
15. Downtown Train
16. Bride of Rain Dog
17. Union Square
18. Jockey Full of Bourbon
19. Blind Love

Be them sea shanties (the jaunty opener Singapore), drinking ditties (the offbeat Tango), funeral dirges (the reflective Time), folksong odysseys (the melodic Gun Street Girl), all of the above (the beguiling Clap Hands), or none of the above (the wistful Hang Down Your Head and the ferocious then vaudeville closer Anywhere I Lay My Head), Tom Waits wrote and composed a set of songs that fit his voice like a good glove on hand while somehow feeling of a kind. Theyre just not entirely my cup of tea.

oh hey, it's my week! like most tom waits records, rain dogs is an absolute mad carnival of an album, but this one has a consistency of purpose and quality (especially in its first half) that I've never found in any of his other records. a totally singular and brilliant album.

1. Rain Dogs
2. Anywhere I Lay My Head
3. Clap Hands
4. Jockey Full of Bourbon
5. Diamonds & Gold
6. Downtown Train
7. Singapore
8. Hang Down Your Head
9. Walking Spanish
10. Time
11. Big Black Mariah
12. 9th & Hennepin
13. Tango Till They're Sore
14. Union Square
15. Cemetery Polka
16. Midtown
17. Gun Street Girl
18. Blind Love
19. Bride of Rain Dog

This album isn't not my kind of music, but the parts I enjoyed the most were definitely the sort I'd need to be in the mood to really enjoy. As I was listening to the album I kept thinking of Aurelio Voltaire and, no surprise, he was influenced by Tom Waits. The creepy circus-polka-nightmare bits of the album are great, and if I ran a Halloween event of any sort I'd certainly want that kind of music to be played. It is pure nightmare fuel in the most fun of ways. However that is only half of what the album had to offer, and the other half was a mixed bag to say the least. It lacked a flow or narrative sense that I like to experience when listening to an album as a whole. It almost felt like the tracks were chosen completely at random. It's an okay album, I just wish the artist had one idea in mind.

01 Rain Dogs
02 Time
03 Cemetary Polka
04 9th & Hennepin
05 Clap Hands
06 Singapore
07 Diamonds and Gold
08 Downtown Train
09 Jockey Full of Bourbon
10 Tango Till They're Sore
11 Midtown
12 Anywhere I Lay My Head
13 Gun Street Girl
14 Hang Down Your Head
15 Walking Spanish
16 Bride of Rain Dog
17 Big Black Mariah
18 Union Square
19 Blind Love

1. Downtown Train - I just love this song. It's got such a nostalgic feel to it.
2. Time - This one made me tear up a tiny bit.
3. Hang Down Your Head
4. Union Square - This one had me dancing in place a bit. :)
5. Jockey Full of Bourbon
6. Diamonds & Gold - Reminded me of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" musically, and lyrically of the Old Joe scene from A Christmas Carol. I liked it.
7. Gun Street Girl
8. Blind Love - This was the hardest song for me to rank. It has a lot of the melodic and lyrical elements that just absolutely endear me to a song, but something about it just doesn't come together in a way that makes me love it.
9. Rain Dogs
10. Singapore - I hadn't listened to this album in almost a decade before now. This was the only other song besides Downtown Train that I remembered.
11. Clap Hands - If I had listened to this out of context I might have thought this was Dr. John.
12. Cemetery Polka
13. Walking Spanish
14. 9th & Hennepin - Gets points for being interesting. I don't find too many spoken-word-over-musical-accompaniment tracks on music albums.
15. Anywhere I Lay My Head - What a weak ending.
16. Big Black Mariah
17. Tango 'Til They're Sore
18. Bride of Rain Dog - Pointless.
19. Midtown - This one legitimately hurt my ears. It was mercifully short but that earns it no favors from me.