Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 50: Bloc Party's Silent Alarm (+ Waits' Rain Dogs 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 20 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).

Bloc Party's Silent Alarm track list:
(note: there appear to be various track listings for this album - both Spotify and Tidal have "Little Thoughts" added to the original release, so I am including that here)
1. Like Eating Glass
2. Helicopter
3. Positive Tension
4. Banquet
5. Blue Lights
6. She's Hearing Voices
7. This Modern Love
8. The Pioneers
9. The Price of Gas
10. Little Thoughts
11. So Here We Are
12. Luno
13. Plans
14. Compliments

User Cycle:
2/20: darkx (The Beatles - Rubber Soul)
2/27: neonreaper (Opeth - Damnation)
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
7/10: RyoCaliente

Tom Waits' Rain Dogs Results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
ZeroSignal620 (38)
RyoCaliente (44)
neonreaper (44)
Seanchan (50)
BlueCrystalTear (52)
CasanovaZelos (58)
darkx (64)
VeryInsane (72)
MetalmindStats (82)
ChichiriMuyo (88)
Raetsel_Lapin (90)
Giggsalot (90)
Snake5555555555 (100)

General Album Comments

CasanovaZelos: 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.

RyoCaliente: 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).

Seanchan: 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.

neonreaper: 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.

BlueCrystalTear: "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.

Seanchan: 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.

Snake555555555: 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.

MetalmindStats: 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.

Giggsalot: 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.

ChichiriMuyo: 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.

Rain Dogs track ranking

19. Bride of Rain Dog (Track #18)
Score: 6 (Average Rank: 17.23/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#12)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente, VeryInsane, CasanovaZelos, ZeroSignal620, Giggsalot (#19)

darkx: Pointless.

18. Midtown (Track #11)
Score: 27 (Average Rank: 14.77/19)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, darkx (#19)

darkx: This one legitimately hurt my ears. It was mercifully short but that earns it no favors from me.

17. 9th & Hennepin (Track #12)
Score: 35 (Average Rank: 14.15/19)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, BlueCrystalTear (#19)

darkx: Gets points for being interesting. I don't find too many spoken-word-over-musical-accompaniment tracks on music albums.

16. Big Black Mariah (Track #6)
Score: 45 (Average Rank: 13/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, BlueCrystalTear (#18)

15. Diamonds & Gold (Track #7)
Score: 49 (Average Rank: 12.38/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Giggsalot (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente (#18)

darkx: Reminded me of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" musically, and lyrically of the Old Joe scene from A Christmas Carol. I liked it.

14. Blind Love (Track #15)
Score: 61 (Average Rank: 12/19)
Biggest Fan(s): BlueCrystalTear (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats, ChichiriMuyo (#19)

darkx: 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.

13. Anywhere I Lay My Head (Track #19)
Score: 61 (Average Rank: 11.77/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Giggsalot (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Snake5555555555 (#19)

darkx: What a weak ending.

12. Union Square (Track #14)
Score: 62 (Average Rank: 11.92/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Snake5555555555 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): VeryInsane, ChichiriMuyo (#18)

darkx: This one had me dancing in place a bit. :)

11. Walking Spanish (Track #16)
Score: 75 (Average Rank: 10.31/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#15)

10. Cemetery Polka (Track #3)
Score: 76 (Average Rank: 10.77/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Snake5555555555 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#19)

9. Tango Till They're Sore (Track #5)
Score: 89 (Average Rank: 9.31/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Snake5555555555 (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): darkx (#17)

8. Gun Street Girl (Track #13)
Score: 91 (Average Rank: 9.38/19)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Giggsalot (#17)

7. Jockey Full of Bourbon (Track #4)
Score: 97 (Average Rank: 9/19)
Biggest Fan(s): VeryInsane, CasanovaZelos (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#18)

6. Rain Dogs (Track #10)
Score: 128 (Average Rank: 6.77/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Giggsalot, ChichiriMuyo (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#13)

5. Clap Hands (Track #2)
Score: 135 (Average Rank: 6.15/19)
Biggest Fan(s): VeryInsane (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#12)

darkx: If I had listened to this out of context I might have thought this was Dr. John.

4. Hang Down Your Head (Track #8)
Score: 142 (Average Rank: 6.08/19)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#14)

3. Singapore (Track #1)
Score: 143 (Average Rank: 5.54/19)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): darkx (#10)

darkx: 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.

2. Downtown Train (Track #17)
Score: 164 (Average Rank: 4.85/19)
Biggest Fan(s): BlueCrystalTear, ZeroSignal620, darkx (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#15)

darkx: I just love this song. It's got such a nostalgic feel to it.

1. Time (Track #9)
Score: 165 (Average Rank: 4.62/19)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente, CasanovaZelos (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Snake5555555555 (#15)

darkx: This one made me tear up a tiny bit.

Another reminder that I will be doing a Rank the Albums thread for albums 26-50 (Are You Experienced and on if you check the wiki) next week. It will be open for a month, but I want to give people a heads up so they can have time to catch up on anything they missed.

I unfortunately know nothing about two of the three albums this week, so I can't comment.

This is an album I didn't pay too much attention to when I first heard it a decade back, but I realize now that every track here is pretty strong.

My ranking:
Banquet (#508 all-time)
Helicopter (#2347)
Little Thoughts
So Here We Are
The Pioneers
Like Eating Glass
Positive Tension
Luno
The Price of Gas
Plans
She's Hearing Voices
This Modern Love
Blue Lights
Compliments

bump

1. This Modern Love
I started every workday last year listening to this song. I think it's really sweet and musically, I love the explosion at the end before the final questions when it slows down again.

2. So Here We Are
"I figured it out" is a pure goosebumps moment.

3. Banquet
This is such a great, fun song to listen to.

4. Like Eating Glass
This one definitely grew on me, but I love the sounds at the beginning, the imagery in the lyrics,... a great intro to the album, which Bloc Party usually does well.

5. Helicopter
My love for Helicopter has waned over the years. It was definitely my favourite ten+ years ago, and it's still a great, fun, rockin' song, but I definitely prefer others over it.

6. Plans
I love this one for the Tower imagery and because the song is kinda about me (unfortunately?).

7. Pioneers
Has a great, frenetic energy, and the final verse is so good.

8. She's Hearing Voices
This is one a lot of people are generally down on, but I think it's very interesting musically and nothing beats shouting RED PILL BLUE PILL MILK OF AMNESIA

9. Price of Gasoline
Love the march/stamp energy this one has.

10. Blue Light
It truly pains me to rank Blue Light so low, because I LOVE IT and it's such a lovely, tender track. It might have been my first favorite when I listened to Silent Alarm for the first time.

11. Little Thoughts
Had to dig through my own files to grab this one as this one doesn't exist on my Spotify. I do like Little Thoughts, but I don't feel it does anything extraordinary.

12. Luno
Kinda the same sentiment as Little Thoughts. It's a great rocking song, but it doesn't stand out too much to me.

13. Compliments
Probably the weakest BP album ender (or We Are Not Good People), I do still enjoy this song a lot. The lethargic energy really fits the subject matter, but the song doesn't get boring to me. The hidden track is a bit unnecessary though imo.

14. Positive Tension
A surprise to me! I like this song, and I used to like it way more, but this song is really just building up to "fuckin' useless" and the parts before it aren't that interesting. Bloc Party do this thing better with Uniform and Better Than Heaven.

Anyways, I love this album. It's just a good time, as there isn't really a dull/weak track on here. Although as mentioned with the nomination, I am blinded by nostalgia for it!

Did a first listen of this today. It all sounded pretty good but definitely going to need some more listens. At a certain point it all glommed together in a mix of British vocals and guitar riffs.

bump

1: So Here We Are
2: Plans
3: This Modern Love
4: Compliments
5: Little Thoughts
6: Banquet
7: Blue Light
8: Luno
9: Helicopter
10: The Price of Gasoline
11: Like Eating Glass
12: The Pioneers
13: She's Hearing Voices
14: Positive Tension

up

bump

Fuck you, whoever put this album up. I wanted to skip an album ranking this week because I was deep-dive into one I think I'm sure I'm going to nominate... but damn, this album is so fucking good. I need to listen to this album more because I need to listen to this album more. I don't even want to try to think about ranking these songs...

I'm going to put them on loop now...

"She's scared of the blacks and she's scared of the Jews"

It took me multiple listens to pick up on that and WTF?

I was liking this music, but wtf are those lyrics?

Lyrics websites confirm those are the words, too. WTF?

I dunno if maybe there is something I'm missing, but what the fuck?

I really liked the tone of the album, I was ready to listen to it on repeat, really. It's some fine enough sounding music...but is it?

ChichiriMuyo posted...

"She's scared of the blacks and she's scared of the Jews"

It took me multiple listens to pick up on that and WTF?

I was liking this music, but wtf are those lyrics?

Lyrics websites confirm those are the words, too. WTF?

I dunno if maybe there is something I'm missing, but what the fuck?

I really liked the tone of the album, I was ready to listen to it on repeat, really. It's some fine enough sounding music...but is it?

Song is about paranoid schizophrenic friend of frontman Kele Okereke. Don't really see the big deal?

Second listen done. This is a very enjoyable album! But holy crap does my preliminary seems completely arbitrary. It's just hard to rank these songs.

RyoCaliente posted...

Song is about paranoid schizophrenic friend of frontman Kele Okereke. Don't really see the big deal?

That's obv a tough subject. I don't know that it sounds better in context, nothing about mental illness sounds good, but it makes more sense.

Even knowing that lyric is there, I still didn't pick it up on my 2nd listen.

1. This Modern Love
2. Banquet
3. Luno
4. Helicopter
5. Like Eating Glass
6. She's Hearing Voices
7. Little Thoughts
8. So Here We Are
9. The Price of Gas
10. Positive Tension
11. The Pioneers
12. Compliments
13. Plans
14. Blue Lights

There's a list of 14 songs from Silent Alarm above. This might be one of the most arbitrary lists I've ever submitted, and it's not from a lack of listening to the album. As I said in my prior listens, I think this is a really great album overall. I just think this list might be very different after a 4th or 6th or 10th listen. There's literally not a bad song on this album!

last day to vote

I've listened to this album a few times, but it was over ten years ago. I almost completed a full listen for this topic, but other stuff got in the way. I won't manage to get a ranking in, but I would have Blue Light top 3 so I know I would dissent from the norm big time there. Also at the top would be the three big singles in Helicopter, This Modern Love, and Banquet. Everything else kind of blends together for me. I wish I liked this album more. They are definitely a "like the singles but don't stray too far from that" kind of band for me.

First listen: tbh this wasn't really my thing. Was never really into these kinds of vocalists back in the day. I really enjoyed "Blue Light" but many of the others felt interchangeable. Did enjoy the guitar on "Little Thoughts" quite a bit - and tended to enjoy tracks more when they focused on instrumentation as opposed to the vocal.

Second listen: This grew on me considerably. I dont LOVE it, but I do like it. And I feel I underrated Like Eating Glass my first time. My top two and bottom two were still the same, and the ones to round out the top 3 and bottom 3 are also starting to become obvious, but everything else is very much a blur and I cant decide which goes where because of how redundant they are. This includes the singles.

Third listen: I now realize it's the punch of the drums in the opener that makes me like it more each time. The rest of the songs still are relatively interchangeable, aside from my top two and bottom two. This is just one of those albums that's too hard to rank. Too many songs are too interchangeable. But in the end, I'm glad I got to listen to it the three necessary times. This wasn't too bad in the end, but it's not necessarily something I see myself going back to.

1. Blue Light
2. This Modern Love
3. Like Eating Glass
4. So Here We Are
5. Helicopter
6. Luno
7. Banquet
8. Compliments
9. Little Thoughts
10. The Pioneers
11. Plans
12. She's Hearing Voices
13. The Price of Gasoline
14. Positive Tension

Blue Light
This Modern Love
Banquet
Like Eating Glass
Positive Tension
Pioneers
Compliments
So Here We Are
Luno
Price of Gas
She's Hearing Voices
Helicopter
Plans
Little Thoughts

Incredible album that had a pretty profound impact on 18 year old me. I don't think it would be a top 5 all-time album for me anymore, but certainly top 50 or top 25. Too much love for this record. That said, the older I get, the more I actually think A Weekend in the City is better and Bloc Party's finest work. Took me a while to finally admit that, but that opinion has been cemented for a few years now.

An album as remarkably consistent as this is really hard to rank. I will say that those top 4 are in their own league but everything else is basically negligible ranking-wise. I want to comment on every track, but I'm about to go to work so will have to skim for now. This Modern Love and Blue Light flip flopped a couple times for the top spot, but I think Blue Light holds the most personal meaning for me of any song here. (Won't lie that seeing the low rankings also gave me a vitriol reaction that likely contributed to the flip flop). Positive Tension was probably younger me's favorite on the record and still explodes in glory. Helicopter is great despite the low ranking, but I've always thought it was highly overrated and one of the weakest songs here. The riff does slap, but it's also lyrically really boring, and this album has some damn good lyrics throughout.

Also, Little Thoughts was a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition re-release. However, it makes no sense to include it but not Two More Years which was also on the same re-release (and is way better).

Compliments
Plans
Blue Light
Price Of Gas
So Here We Are
Shes Hearing Voices
Pioneers
Little Thoughts
This Modern Love
Like Eating Glass
Banquet
Luno
Helicopter
Positive Tension

Very good album and one of the pioneering albums of the indie rock explosion of the zeroes, along with Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut. Comparing Silent Alarm to albums by other indie rock bands, it sounds fairly unique. This is partially because Matt Tong is a far more competent drummer than many other indie rock drummers, and also because this is actually a more ambitious and diverse album than some people give it credit for (particularly the reviewer at Pitchfork). Bloc Party switches from soundscapes ("Blue Light") to multi-layered vocal rock ("This Modern Love") to ambient ("So Here We Are") to hard rock ("Plans" - nice use of the dual guitars) to shoegazing ("Compliments"). "Like Eating Glass" and "Banquet" are 10/10 songs for me. I don't care for the bottom three songs and my ranking of those is somewhat arbitrary.

For the record, "Two More Years" would be #8 on this list.

1. Like Eating Glass
2. Banquet
3. This Modern Love
4. So Here We Are
5. Blue Light
6. Little Thoughts
7. Helicopter
8. Plans
9. Pioneers
10. Compliments
11. She's Hearing Voices
12. Luno
13. Positive Tension
14. Price of Gas

Banquet
Like Eating Glass
This Modern Love
Helicopter
So Here We Are
Little Thoughts
Luno
Positive Tension
Compliments
The Price of Gasoline
Blue Light
Plans
Shes Hearing Voices
The Pioneers

This was an enjoyable album. There were only a couple of true standouts for me, but in the end I did listen to this album more times than any album I've ranked so far. I would be surprised that I never heard this album before, but most of the 2000s was a black hole for new music for me (unless it was trance/house/eurobeat stuff). This sounded a lot like the stuff I had been listening to five years before it came out, and I think maybe it just took them too long to break out. In fact, with how fickle the music industry is, it's a surprise they made it when they did. Well worth a listen.

1. Blue Light
2. Banquet
3. Positive Tension
4. Like Eating Glass
5. Helicopter
6. This Modern Love
7. So Here We Are
8. Little Thoughts
9. Luno
10. Plans
11. She's Hearing Voices
12. The Pioneers
13. The Price of Gasoline
14. Compliments

1. Positive Tension
2. Luno
3. Like Eating Glass
4. Helicopter
5. Compliments
6. The Price of Gasoline
7. This Modern Love
8. The Pioneers
9. So Here We Are
10. Banquet
11. Plans
12. Little Thoughts
13. She's Hearing Voices
14. Blue Light

Bloc Party drinking game: For each song on the album, skip ahead to a random spot and listen to the first lyric you hear. If it repeats that lyric again in the next 10 seconds, take a shot. If you're still conscious by the end of the album, you win! There's a difference between repetition for emphasis and repetition for whatever this is, but most songs on the album sound pretty much the same and most songs themselves sound about the same throughout, just repeating the same notes and lyrics over and over until they've worn themselves out and move on to the next song. I wasn't a fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rre3zgL7eMk