Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 60: Black Marble's It's Immaterial (+Master of Puppets res)

(+) 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, May 1 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).

Black Marble - It's Immaterial track list:
1. Interdiction
2. Iron Lung
3. It's Conditional
4. Woods
5. A Million Billion Stars
6. Missing Sibling
7. Frisk
8. Golden Heart
9. Self Guided Tours
10. Portland U
11. Collene

User Cycle:
5/1: Jesse_Custer (The Eagles - Hotel California)
5/8: ZaziGuado (Taylor Swift - Folklore)
5/15: firefdr
5/22: SpikeSetsFire
5/29: Johnbobb
6/5: VeryInsane
6/12: CasanovaZelos
6/19: Seanchan
6/26: Giggsalot
7/3: RyoCaliente
7/10: darkx
7/17: neonreaper
7/24: Great_Paul
7/31: jcgamer107
8/7: ChichiriMuyo
8/14: BlueCrystalTear
8/21: MetalmindStats
8/28: HBJDubs
9/4: Raetsel_Lapin
9/11: TheArkOfTurus
9/18: Steiner
9/25: Snake5555555555

Metallica - Master of Puppets results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
VeryInsane (6)
TheArkOfTurus (8)
CasanovaZelos (8)
neonreaper (10)
MarkS222222222222222 (10)
Panthera (12)
Seanchan (12)
HBJDubs (12)
Janus5k (12)
Snake5555555555 (14)
BlueCrystalTear (14)
firefdr (14)
Johnbobb (14)
Raetsel_Lapin (16)
Steiner (16)
ZeroSignal620 (16)
rwlh (16)
MetalmindStats (16)
lordjers (20)

General Album Comments

BlueCrystalTear: First listen down. I can see why I didn't go back to this. Lots of noise. Lots of yelling. This was the kind of thing I expected Dream Theater to be. Is the musicianship great? Absolutely. But the heavy, thrashy stuff is simply not my speed, even if it's genre-defining. I did really love a couple tracks though. Will listen again tomorrow to see how this first take holds up.
(...)
I definitely enjoyed my second listen more than the first. Going in knowing just how loud this was compared to The Black Album singles I've heard helped. The ass-kicking riffs are something, even if it's something I need to be in the mood for. My rankings are gonna look different from everyone else's so I'm expecting to have the highest deviation already lol
(...)
I think I'm happy with this. I love the beautiful instrumentation of Orion - and that shouldn't be a surprise because I'm not one for the screaming. While my rankings kept changing as I listened, the #1 and #8 were the same the whole time. The Thing That Should Not Be went from enjoyable on my first listen to forgettable, dwarfed by the great hooks of the effectively creepy Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and the epic title track surrounding it. Only Disposable Heroes went on for too long and just felt too noxious to be enjoyable for me. I enjoyed every other song at least somewhat - the higher it is, the more of it I enjoyed. Definitely plan on coming back when I'm in the mood, but to me, that's all this is - I need to be in the right mood for it. And that's just me.

Snake5555555555: You know, I don't often give much thought to what my ACTUAL favorite album is - I prefer let to my favorites float in a nebulous void amongst others which have affected my life and emotions so, but if I did have to choose one, if it really came down to the wire, I would choose Metallica's magnum opus, Master of Puppets. An absolutely blistering powerhouse of thrash metal. A game changer for music. My personal heavy metal Year Zero, the one that started it all. This album still holds a certain power over me, a certain mystique and monolithic mythology placed behind every riff and drum hit, even after 500 or so plays later. It's an ever-evolving beast of a record - there's always something to be gleamed again from its frightful lyrical content and adrenaline-pulsing music. Indeed, Metallica's peak would be more defined by warnings of drugs, total control, insanity, and horrific war than it would be about kicking ass and taking names (though that's certainly here too). It's an album of terror heralded by the Four Horsemen - James' hypnotizing rhythm guitar and effortless vocals entrancing the listener with a barker-like flow, Kirk's blistering solos dragging the listener down to hell and spitting them out again, Lars' anxiety-inducing drumming constantly setting the tone no matter the point in any given track, and Cliff's god-like bass providing the bumping heartbeat and tension for a truly complete listen that's a monumental tour de force that takes the breath away, from the opening acoustic of Battery to the last angry snarl on Damage, Inc.
(...)
In short, yeah I fucking love this album. There's so much to chew on, and absorb, and just plain rock out to when you want to. Metallica solidified themselves here as a band with as much depth as hooks to latch on to, and that's what really makes this album so timeless for me and countless others. Here's to another 500 more plays to come!

Panthera: Metallica instrumentals are always bad. Other than that I like every song on this album but even the best tracks are only good, not great. Definitely falls short of the high points on Ride the Lightning.

BlueCrystalTear (responding to Panthera's comment on instrumentals): This is so, so wrong.

Seanchan: Just an absolute classic of an album, and the title track is one of my favorite songs of all time.

As I've probably said previously, I wasn't much into music as a kid. I didn't start paying attention to music until the late 90s with the local rock station. And the band that always had me stop to listen was Metallica. Hearing Master of Puppets (the song) for the first time was revelatory. Sanitarium, Ride the Lightning, Enter Sandman, Unforgiven, One, etc.; the amount of great songs they had which got radio play was staggering.

I think Metallica is the first band that I really dove into to explore their full catalog, rather than just the radio hits. And so in many ways they feel like the first band that was "mine", rather than being the result of family musical tastes. Hell, I even enjoy some of their "hated" albums like Load and Reload, though I think some of their general vitriol has subsided over the years. I also want to shout out Garage Inc.'s disc one, which is one of my favorite "deeper cut" Metallica albums.

Of course, the funny thing is that the next big album Metallica released was St. Anger, which is dog shit. I remember trying so hard to like it and knowing it wasn't good. Those fucking drums were atrocious! I've never really given Death Magnetic enough listens, though I've always liked what I heard. And in all honesty, I didn't even know they had released the album Hardwired to Self Destruct until just a few days ago.

HBJDUbs: Very strong album, the top five have all been #1 at some point in my life

Janus5k: Never really thought about how lopsided this album is until now - the top two tracks are incredible (likely my two favorite Metallica songs) and then the bottom half is all just okay.

rwlh: As someone who often struggles with listening to metal, Ive nevertheless generally enjoyed a lot of Metallicas catalog. Id never heard this album before. Im very familiar with S&M, their collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony, but this was my first time hearing the original versions of a lot of these songs. I was also familiar with the Apocalyptica version of Welcome Home (Sanitarium), which had spurred me on to look up the original recently.

So these songs take themselves probably too seriously for my tastes, but I did appreciate how playful they were with things like tempo and meter. I was always kept on my toes, even with the songs I sort of already knew. Ive always liked James Hetfields vocals too. The sheer ferocity of the guitars and drums made this an album I had a hard time putting on in the background it really demanded my full attention.

The instrumental section of Master of Puppets was my highlight of an otherwise ponderous song and one of the highlights of the album overall. However, I thought Orion, the all-instrumental song, was a bit boring, lacking a lot of the fun flair of the rest of the album.

MetalmindStats: There's lots of ways I could have ranked this album, but they all would have had Disposable Heroes at the top.

Master of Puppets track ranking

8. Leper Messiah (Track #6)
Score: 49 (Average Rank: 6.42/8)
Biggest Fan(s): Steiner, ZeroSignal620, neonreaper, Janus5k, lordjers (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): Snake5555555555, CasanovaZelos, Johnbobb, MetalmindStats (#8)

Snake5555555555: Leper Messiah features a theme I enjoy a lot - religion. The older I get, the more I grow disillusioned with the nature of it and how controlling and more specifically, strangling it can be to certain people. I believe people should be in charge of their own destinies, not told it or ordained it by someone else. Yet, the song isn't strictly critical of religion itself - but rather the people in charge of delivering it - money-grubbing priests and trickster televangelists stealing the money right from your very pockets. Musically though, Leper is honestly not one of my favorites on the album - the riffs feel a bit more clunky here and the drumming more forced. If it's forgettable, it's only because the rest of the album is so astounding and effortlessly jaw-dropping and ultimately I still like it of course. The little outro break section at the end is really fun!

7. Damage, Inc. (Track #8)
Score: 56 (Average Rank: 6.11/8)
Biggest Fan(s): firefdr (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Steiner, ZeroSignal620, neonreaper, VeryInsane (#8)

Snake5555555555: We conclude the album with Damage, Inc., a perfect bookend together with Battery. Back to the ass-kicking side of metal - we wrestled back our control with Orion, and we're ready to give back to others as much as we took ourselves. Yet, true to the album, there's still a certain shadow hanging over here, as in the end vengeance solves nothing and perhaps we are just doing what those in charge always wanted from us to begin with. Metallica ends riotously but with a warning of caution, and in riffs and lyrics that call back to Kill 'Em All, the band looks to the past just as much as it sets up warning for the future. Perfect capstone to the album.

6. The Thing That Should Not Be (Track #3)
Score: 80 (Average Rank: 5.37/8)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): TheArkOfTurus, firefdr, Seanchan, HBJDubs, Janus5k, MarkS222222222222222 (#8)

Snake5555555555: The horror continues on The Thing That Should Not Be, the greatest musical ode to Lovecraft there is. Metallica trades the thrash for doom here, and the atmosphere is created with tense, teeth-gritting guitar work from Kirk, with the rising dynamic terror of Lars' drumming and the constant pulsing of the bass giving the cosmic fear the reverence it deserves. This track doesn't do anything TOO crazy, it's just a solid piece of moody doom metal that fits into the themes of control and horror all over the album with the literal fear of the unknown, whether that be a monster lurking beneath the sea or the capacity for violence found in any individual.

5. Orion (Track #7)
Score: 87 (Average Rank: 5/8)
Biggest Fan(s): BlueCrystalTear, lordjers (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Panthera, rwlh (#8)

Snake5555555555: Orion is an impressive instrumental track. Cliff Burton really takes the center spotlight here, and for good reason. You just need to point here to show how marvelous a bassist and musician he was. This song is as much metal as it a sort of updated take on the classical passage - anyone could stumble on this without knowing it's Metallica and find it really sort of beautiful and moving I think. It's enigmatic and spacey and progressively dynamic throwing up new surprises every new minute or so. ~4:30 just makes me shut my eyes and nearly brings me to tears. In an album so full of darkness and dread, Orion is the hope in that darkness and the shining beacon of human creativity and wonder in the world.

4. Battery (Track #1)
Score: 107 (Average Rank: 4.11/8)
Biggest Fan(s): ZeroSignal620 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): lordjers (#8)

Snake5555555555: Battery is a sort of "false start" to the album - a ruse. The dazzlingly beautiful acoustic intro gives way to intense power and the ass-kicking part of metal - it's a transition from the early days of Metallica to the darker middle years. Kill 'Em All was all violence and strength, Ride the Lightning slowed things down here and there but the control was still in your grasp, and at first glance at the album, Battery appears to continue that tradition. The title is obvious - Battery, power, guns, assault on another - I mean choose your definition. It's a song that spits on the weak and positions those that don't stand with the band as lesser individuals - but look deeper and you can see the cracks of insanity beginning to show, that control loosen, this feeling of power slowly being lost. Musically, there's a lot of tricks being done to make the standard metal beat feel a little "off", especially in Lars' and Kirk's playing at the beginning before the vocals come in, that I feel really make the listener drawn into the song instantly.

3. Disposable Heroes (Track #5)
Score: 112 (Average Rank: 4.11/8)
Biggest Fan(s): Janus5k, MetalmindStats (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): BlueCrystalTear (#8)

Snake5555555555: Disposable Heroes is the beginning of "Side 2" or "Act 2" if you wish to be cinematic. To me, this is actually Metallica's scariest and most scathing song on the whole album. It shows a different side of control - from an institution, continuing on the themes from Welcome Home but this time turning sights towards America's war machine and becoming a mindless cog in said machine. This song contains some of Kirk's most desperate playing (emotionally not actually desperate playing because he kills it here), with constant ascending and descending dynamics like the tides of war itself, a cry for help amongst meaningless death.

2. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (Track #4)
Score: 155 (Average Rank: 2.74/8)
Biggest Fan(s): TheArkOfTurus, Raetsel_Lapin, Steiner, Panthera, HBJDubs, VeryInsane, rwlh (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Snake5555555555, firefdr (#6)

Snake5555555555: Welcome Home (Sanitarium) is the epilogue to "Side 1" of Master. It's the culmination of the control and insanity that was beginning to show in Battery, preyed upon in Master, and festered upon in Thing. Welcome Home is a relatively more peaceful break in the album at this point, though it by no means holds back in the lyrical side of it harshly criticizing the mental health system and how it's quick to judge those who seek or need help. This song has one of my favorite climaxes and solo in any Metallica song and overall the rising tension controls the flow of the song perfectly.

1. Master of Puppets (Track #2)
Score: 171 (Average Rank: 2.16/8)
Biggest Fan(s): Snake5555555555, CasanovaZelos, firefdr, Seanchan, neonreaper, MarkS222222222222222 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, rwlh (#4)

Snake5555555555: Battery is amazing, but Master of Puppets is where the album truly begins for me. The opening staccato, the three follow-ups, then the iconic riff. I've heard this song way too many times - and yet it always feels fresh again once I hear that intro all over again. The band is on a WHOLE different plane of existence on this whole track and I think it demonstrates Metallica's biggest strength - their catchiness. There's always some kind of hook to look forward to - little guitar passages here, a bass line there, the way the lyrics all flow and rhyme and fit together and make you sing along despite the dark subject matter. The change in mood mid-way through is brilliant as well, a faux heavenly break giving in to your inner demons in beautiful irony. What keeps me coming back ultimately is this song's message - whatever your vice is, if you're not careful, it will control and destroy your life. Drugs, alcohol, gaming, whatever it is, and the fact that Metallica paints such a grim portrait while still making a song this "fun" is a testament to how good they were here.

firefdr on the choices this week:

These are the first three albums I've owned and the ones that got me into music to begin with.

Linkin Park has been my favourite band for quite some time, and would still rank high nowadays. Hybrid Theory was a banger debut album which marked my teenage years.

Californication I got as a gift for my birthday. It's an album I consider to have many great songs, and many forgettable ones.

The Marshall Mathers LP is an album that I also got as a gift. I have probably never listened to it back to back due to how long I found it to be back in the days. It has my favourite songs though, ones I would listen to over and over again.

Wow, 3 albums I'm familiar with!

I've toyed with the idea of a nom for Hybrid Theory myself but, having not listened to it in a long time, I'm not sure it holds up to a non-teenager's sensibilities.

I imagine Californication is still a great album, though I've no idea if it's the "best" RHCP album since, aside from this I'm only familiar with their radio hits.

Marshall Mathers LP is one I loved as a teen but have had problems going back to. I find some of lyrics here to be offensive to the point of making me uncomfortable. Which is, in many ways, the difference between a teen's mindset of loving the "edgy" and "subversive" versus an adult's mindset of "I'd feel embarrassed having this blasting out of my car speakers". It's a product of it's time but it's not a time I'm necessarily proud to revisit.

I'm excited to see what people think of this week's album. I will have my ranking soon.

1. Frisk
2. Iron Lung
3. Portland U
4. A Million Billion Stars
5. Woods
6. It's Conditional
7. Interdiction
8. Golden Hearts
9. Self-Guided Tours
10. Missing Sibling

First of all I need to talk about the AMAZING cover art - it's the first thing that drew me to this album initially after all. It really sets up the listening experience perfectly - this dark-haired, mysterious woman with black suit to match, hair blowing in the breeze, meditative pose, she's at once ominous and yet strangely inviting. She's set against this typical suburban backdrop, with a very Colonial style building behind her. Basically, this is a house and a setting anyone could've seen before - and that's part of the album's allure for sure. This sense of nostalgia and relatability gives the album such a universal appeal I think, while the woman serves as this transitory figure urging you to move on and have these memories melt and fade away into the background as life moves on - equal parts melancholic and uplifting, and you're trapped somewhere in the middle.

And that's what the music of It's Immaterial does best. It starts off very cold and chaotic - harsh screeching, electronic noise - the name "Interdiction" tells you everything you need to know - the track is the sound of change and our mind's rejected reaction to it. It's a sort of gatekeeper - like the woman on the front cover - keeping the listener away from the purgatorial feel of the rest of the album's core 9 tracks. When I put this album on, I don't think of it as a normal experience to jam out too and pay close attention to the lyrics and everything else - to me it's a vibe, a mood, a feeling, and I think that's an intentional choice on Chris Stewart's part. Often times it melts smoothly into the background, like a distant but fond memory, the cold synths and minimal production carrying the deep recesses of my brain to a better place even if I'm unaware of it. It brings to mind futures to come, experiences long since past, and the comforting fact that I'm here and aware in the present. This album does everything it set out to do and it's a perfect listening experience. So glad I discovered it.

Aren't you missing a ranking for the last track, Collene?

Did a first listen to this today. I was a bit conflicted. After the first track, I was kind of enjoying its general chillness and kind of 80s-ish vibes. But I also found myself irrationally annoyed/angry at not being able to understand the lyrics. There was a certain...mumbling/ethereal/dreamy quality to them that I found hard to grasp onto. My mind was trying so hard to hear the words and usually falling short. My reaction was so clearly at odds with the vibe the album is going for. Eventually I calmed down and just went with it but definitely going to need some more listens to process. I do like that it's a short album though!

Oh yeah, whoops it must've got deleted somehow.

1. Frisk
2. Iron Lung
3. Portland U
4. Collene
5. A Million Billion Stars
6. Woods
7. It's Conditional
8. Interdiction
9. Golden Hearts
10. Self-Guided Tours
11. Missing Sibling

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2nd listen done. There's something entirely video game soundtrack about this, if you take away the lyrics. Like I could imagine hearing some of these as part of some indie game like Fez.

But also, I've got practically no separation of the songs in my mind. This one is going to be a pain to rank.

1: Self Guided Tours
2: It's Conditional
3: Collene
4: Frisk
5: A Million Billion Stars
6: Missing Sibling
7: Golden Heart
8: Portland U
9: Woods
10: Iron Lung
11: Interdiction

I planned on posting my ranking earlier, but decided I liked the album enough that I wanted to give it a few more listens than normal. Unfortunately, I find this album virtually impossible to rank properly--I like every song on it, so there isn't a clear last place; I'm not in love with any of the tracks, so there isn't a clear winner either. My current first place song was actually ranked last after my first two listens! So, I enjoyed every second of this album, but don't have any strong feelings towards where any of it should be ranked... this is just how the list turned out after five listens and I'm going to say it's how I feel "right now", but don't expect any positions to remain constant ever.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Unfortunately, I find this album virtually impossible to rank properly--I like every song on it, so there isn't a clear last place; I'm not in love with any of the tracks, so there isn't a clear winner either. My current first place song was actually ranked last after my first two listens! So, I enjoyed every second of this album, but don't have any strong feelings towards where any of it should be ranked... this is just how the list turned out after five listens and I'm going to say it's how I feel "right now", but don't expect any positions to remain constant ever.

Yeah, this sums up my feelings so far too.

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I hated the first track since it sounded like static noise, nothing more (would have easily been in last). Things got better after that, but these songs are... interchangeable. Like I've heard the same tune ten times and couldn't tell you which song was which since they're so musically identical. I don't understand this album and I'm not in the right headspace to. I don't think I'm gonna bother ranking this week.

I'll give this another spin in a day or two but... IDK.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I hated the first track since it sounded like static noise, nothing more (would have easily been in last). Things got better after that, but these songs are... interchangeable. Like I've heard the same tune ten times and couldn't tell you which song was which since they're so musically identical. I don't understand this album and I'm not in the right headspace to. I don't think I'm gonna bother ranking this week.

I'll give this another spin in a day or two but... IDK.

basically this i think it's just a genre thing for me because my brain just doesn't process any of this

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I hated the first track since it sounded like static noise, nothing more (would have easily been in last).

I know I have Interdiction in last place and I fully expect it to be last in most people's rankings, but I'd like to reitirate that I liked everything on the album including Interdiction. I'm not as into chaos and atonal things as I once was, but I would have been perfectly content had the album kept the crazed experimentation going for the entire runtime. Like, "there is no chance anyone managed to get an entire album of THIS type of music into the series, but I personally wish we did" was my first thought on Interdiction.

But then I wound up liking the other, less experimental songs more. To paraphrase Snake, the rest of the album is a "vibe"/"mood" and it is a vibe I liked getting to experience for its fairly brief runtime. So while there are a number of albums where I'd easily take Interdiction over their best tracks, here I'd rather spend more time in the VIBE than be weird.

...still, good to get confirmation that I shouldn't push for anything too... "unique" with my nominations. Not that I planned on nominating a bunbleman album or anything, but if this is the reaction to Interdiction, something like bun would just kill the series entirely. (Which I already knew, but still, nice to have a more official confirmation on how people would react than mere speculation/common sense).

Now I know what to put into my nominations next (and not get any votes for it)!

I'm in a very dark place so if we're looking for a "mood" album like this, it works. But even after listen #2, it's nothing but basslines and drum machines on repeat. It's good to set my dark moods today, but nothing sticks with me. The second listen did help me distinguish things a little more, but... I just don't think I can rank this, aside from Interdiction being last.

As for my next set of nominations, I'm hoping to pick things that people haven't heard before - indie stuff. My previous set was all influential early 80s albums that had enough variety of songs to be able to discern how they could be ranked. With picking albums, you have to remember that it must be an enjoyable listen at the same time as having tracks that are rankable. This is precisely why I didn't vote for folklore last week - I'm not going to be able to rank the tracks on it, because there are a lot of them that sound very similar. The same goes for this album.

Sometimes people forget the ranking part. You're supposed to study the songs to see what you like the most. It's impossible to do that when there's excessive overlap.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

With picking albums, you have to remember that it must be an enjoyable listen at the same time as having tracks that are rankable. This is precisely why I didn't vote for folklore last week - I'm not going to be able to rank the tracks on it, because there are a lot of them that sound very similar. The same goes for this album.

Sometimes people forget the ranking part. You're supposed to study the songs to see what you like the most. It's impossible to do that when there's excessive overlap.

I don't really agree with the songs on Folklore sounding that similar.

I think it's only a problem at the most extreme. For example, one of my favorite albums from last year, Promises by Floating Points and Pharaoh Sanders, has 9 tracks, but they are all movements in one big piece. Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express is similar, having several tracks that are just extensions of the previous piece. I love these albums but would never consider them here.

Maybe some of the lesser tracks on Folklore might blur together, but I think that has been true of most albums we have covered. I can recall a significant portion of the album to the top of my head and I have only listened to the album in full a handful of times over a year ago now. Especially with a big emphasis of folk music being on the lyricism, I don't really think there is much overlap (other than, you know, them all being part of the same genre which is true of almost every album).

To be honest when I pick albums I don't necessarily have the ranking aspect in mind. I just like for people to listen to albums I personally find cool or interesting or I just love a lot, and seeing people's thoughts and opinions on it; because for me I find ranking tracks of any album sort of difficult because I tend to like more than I dislike and so some rankings can feel arbitrary to me.

I found this to be a somewhat engaging throwback to an era I really love, but a lot of these tracks meander too much for me to care. It picks up by the end, but it just leaves me wanting to check out a more consistent post-punk/synthpop record from the 80s instead.

My track ranking:
Self Guided Tours
It's Conditional
Collene
Portland U
Iron Lung
Frisk
Woods
A Million Billion Stars
Golden Heart
Missing Sibling
Interdiction

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Sometimes people forget the ranking part. You're supposed to study the songs to see what you like the most. It's impossible to do that when there's excessive overlap.

Isn't it kinda difficult to tell what other people would have a hard time distinguishing? To go back to my bunbleman example, I can--and have--ranked everything from their album "anthill":

https://inpuj.bandcamp.com/album/anthill

"fissure queen" feels kind of tedious at first, but there are points where it transitions into this really dark song with really low tones (around 2:50 is a good example) and I really, really love those sections. Are those sections, brief as they are, enough to overcome my dislike of the more boring parts of the song? Depends on my mood at the time, but I certainly have opinions on it.

"hellride simulation center" is snazzier and has more static, so that's neat.

"focus tous" is one of my absolute favorite songs of all time.

"widow game (battery mode)" has the feeling of being trapped inside a malfunctioning washing machine and seems to laugh in the face of anyone who felt the previous tracks were weird... to start with and then it basically transitions into a completely different soundscape--the second section feels very "desert ambiance" to me and is also a highlight, though I begin to lose interest after that and ultimately find the track goes on too long (I'd love the first two sections to be broken into their own tracks though).

You probably wouldn't be able to rank them because it's all atonal, almost cacophonic and noise-like* music that uses static as an instrument. But I can--and do so quite happily because I legitimately like this album. It was my first exposure to IDM and the album I compare all other experimental music to.

Meanwhile... well, I don't want to complain about any specific albums, but there have been some I found a bit rough as I didn't care for their style of music. What sounds distinct enough to be an interesting ranking to one person can be dismissed as "style I don't care enough to have an opinion on" to someone else. Which isn't a bad thing--it'd be quite dull if we all had the same taste--but I find the concept of trying to find an album where every song is so distinct from every other one that no one would find them similar to be... impossible? Without resorting to soundtracks or "NOW That's What I Call Music" compilations or something anyway. [Though since nominations have to be by different artists, I suspect compilation album are *implicitly* banned either way... not that I was suggesting one or ever wanted to suggest one, I've just gotten wildly distracted once again.]

...I think I had a point a half-hour ago... ah yes: I haven't listened to Folklore, but as someone who generally enjoys most Taylor Swift songs I've heard, I suspect it'd be a relatively easy ranking for me. And while I appreciate that it'd be too difficult to be worth it for you, the concept of "songs are too similar" feels like one that is too personal to each individual for me to look at an album and go 'ah yes, these are all significantly varied for everyone' with any certainty. It's something I plan on trying to keep in mind, but...

[*Apologies to bunbleman for comparing the music to noise. I sometimes listen to actual noise (seriously, if you are the rare breed of person who finds bunbleman too pleasant, I can go much harder and static-ier), but I lack other adjectives to describe how a normal person would react to it.]

Some albums take more time to enjoy and/or distinguish the songs than a week allows. I'd imagine that most people are nominating albums they are very familiar with over a period of years. It's just a different perspective than someone like myself that's coming to most of these for the first time.

I'm fully on board with people not paying attention to what's easy to rank. Nominate what you enjoy or what you want to highlight. Just be prepared that something totally avant garde may not get the reception you expect. But if 9 people hate it and 1 person finds a new love, doesn't that make it worth it?

Well, I fell back down the Metallica rabbit hole again and had to listen to Ride the Lightning and ...And Justice for All. Both of those are also killer albums. I'm almost inclined to say Justice > Master > Ride, though you really can't go wrong with any of the three.

Anyway....on to this week...

1. Self Guided Tours
2. It's Conditional
3. Collene
4. Iron Lung
5. Portland U
6. Golden Heart
7. Frisk
8. Woods
9. A Million Billion Stars
10. Missing Sibling
11. Interdiction

I enjoyed this album as a whole more than I enjoyed ranking it, meaning it was more fun to have it on in the background rather than doing active listening. This is probably a little bit more arbitrary a ranking than a lot of albums we've covered, but at the same time I feel pretty good about the top 3 being the top 3 in some way.

A Million Billion Stars
Collene
Woods
Iron Lung
Frisk
It's Conditional
Portland U
Golden Heart
Missing Sibling
Self Guided Tours
Interdiction

listened to it today
might try and listen again tomorrow because a lot of the songs kinda blended together

Gave the album a couple of listens and I echo many of the comments here. The sound is good for what it is and I can see the appeal, but it sits in the background much too easily to be rankable, so I'm not going to. Iron Lung is the standout for me, though.The album does feel soaked a bit in nostalgia and provides almost a certain kind of warmth despite it's distant sound and vocals. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the album doesn't overstay its welcome which I appreciate.

It actually reminds me of Blaqk Audio, a band fronted by AFI lead singer Davey Havok heavy with dark and brooding synth and bass lines but the vocals are more at the forefront because Davey Havok has a pretty unique voice. Just a suggestion if Snake5s hasn't heard of them before. I've only heard the first album from back in 2007 and have very little remembrance of it outside of one song, but it still feels similar.

I used to listen to them ages ago! I gotta give them a revisit for sure.

Last day

I'd probably compare Interdiction most to Akira Yamaoka's work, most especially SH1 and some SH2 & 4 tracks.

Four listens and yeah, I ain't gonna be able to rank these. Part of it is the album feeling like one massively long track. Part of it is the state of mind I'm in is still all over the place.

At least next week I can just post and be done lol

1. A Million Billion Stars
2. Its Conditional
3. Self Guided Tours
4. Iron Lung
5. Golden Heart
6. Woods
7. Portland U
8. Missing Sibling
9. Collene
10. Interdiction
11. Frisk

I found the individual tracks mostly rather difficult to distinguish and rank, but as an album, it impressed me.

Sneaking one in

Self-Guided Tours
Frisk
A Million Billion Stars
Iron Lung
Collene
Golden Stars
Woods
Portland U
Its Conditional
Interdiction
Missing Sibling

I can barely understand the vocals, but the beats are nice, has a bit of a new wave esque feel to it

I am now preparing to post the results, so no more votes