Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 88: Arctic Monkeys' WPSIATWIN (+ Far East Suite results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2

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, November 13 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 (a new user will be added to the end of the current cycle as long as there are four weeks remaining) - 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).
7c. I have added a tiered vote structure - the least popular album will be removed and its backup votes distributed to the other two entrants.
8. Starting with the next cycle, every four weeks will be a competitive week where those listed choose a single album to face off against others.

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not:
1. The View from the Afternoon
2. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
3. Fake Tales of San Francisco
4. Dancing Shoes
5. You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
6. Still Take You Home
7. Riot Van
8. Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured
9. Mardy Bum
10. Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
11. When the Sun Goes Down
12. From the Ritz to the Rubble
13. A Certain Romance

Current Cycle:
11/13: darkx (Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill)
11/20: neonreaper (Black Sabbath - Paranoid)
11/27: Great_Paul
12/04: jcgamer107
12/11: ChichiriMuyo
12/18: BlueCrystalTear

Future cycle (dates subject to change if anyone new signs up before 11/27):
12/25: MetalmindStats
1/1: HBJDubs
1/8: Raetsel_Lapin
1/15: BlueCrystalTear/darkx/neonreaper
1/22: Steiner
1/29: Snake5555555555
2/5: Jesse_Custer
2/12: RyoCaliente/VeryInsane/FoolFantastic
2/19: ZaziGuado
2/26: firefdr
3/4: Johnbobb
3/11: Steiner/ChichiriMuyo/Great_Paul
3/18: VeryInsane
3/25: FoolFantastic
4/1: Seanchan
4/8: Johnbobb/ZaziGuado/jcgamer107
4/15: Giggsalot
4/22: RyoCaliente
4/29: darkx
5/6: Snake5555555555/Raetsel_Lapin/Seanchan
5/13: neonreaper
5/20: Great_Paul
5/27: jcgamer107
6/3: Giggsalot/MetalmindStats/Jesse_Custer
6/10: ChichiriMuyo
6/17: BlueCrystalTear
6/24: HBJDubs/firefdr

As with previous weeks, the previous topic is still open until later this evening:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80215539

My ranking:
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
A Certain Romance
When the Sun Goes Down
Fake Tales of San Francisco
The View from the Afternoon
Dancing Shoes
Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
Mardy Bum
Still Take You Home
You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured
Riot Van
From the Ritz to the Rubble

Easy nom vote this week!

I've almost nominated both American Idiot and Black Parade so many times but knew they would destroy whatever I put them against in the poll and wanted to get others in first

Elect the Dead is also great

WHEN I WAS

1. From The Ritz to the Rubble
2. A Certain Romance
3. When The Sun Goes Down
4. Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured
5. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
6. You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me
7. Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But...
8. Mardy Bum
9. Fake Tales of San Francisco
10. Riot Van
11. The View from the Afternoon
12. Dancing Shoes
13. Still Take You Home

• Funny how this used to be my favourite track off this album.

RyoCaliente posted...

13. Still Take You Home

Funny how this used to be my favourite track off this album.

What changed, if you don't mind me asking?

(Tag, will do a first listen today)

I don't really know, I just like the other songs much more now. Still Take You Home isn't a bad song, but I don't feel like there's a moment in it that I'm always drawn to, like with the other tracks.

First listen done.

As you might expect, I enjoyed this quite a bit. Lots of fun little grooves.

My immediate comparison point was to Bloc Party. Because Brits. So I need to revisit Silent Alarm but I think this is maybe a little more funky and dance-y.

Looking forward to some more listens!

Duke Ellington - Far East Suite results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
Giggsalot (8)
Snake5555555555 (12)
neonreaper (14)
Seanchan (14)
ChichiriMuyo (16)
Johnbobb (16)
BlueCrystalTear (18)
FoolFantastic (26)
hotdogturtle (26)
Raetsel_Lapin (30)

General Album Comments

Seanchan: That was enjoyable! I felt like I was doing the album an injustice by multitasking, rather than just sitting back, closing my eyes, and simply listening.

Raetsel_Lapin: I'm glad that we got a chance to cover something different, even though this isn't a style of music I'm particularly into.

FoolFantastic: I'm happy to have revisited this - it was sitting in my 8.3/10 zone but now appears likely to crack my 9/10 range. As far as jazz goes, I've always been drawn toward the more chaotic side, and Duke Ellington is not that. But Far East Suite really clicked this time around - not that I have the language to really express why. There's just so much motion to these pieces.

As far as ranking these pieces go, I feel like this could go in any order - I really prefer this as a full work.

ChichiriMuyo: I'm glad we went with one of the more foundational, easy to listen to jazz albums. I find the genre intimidating, but this was a pretty reasonable introduction. I was wondering for a bit if I was going to like the album. I like Tourist Point of View but right after it goes into slower/quieter stuff that just didn't do it for me. Once Mount Harissa hit, though, I noticed that I was subconsciously moving along with it. I almost made it my top song, but the last two minutes really dragged it down for me. And that's kind of the problem for me - this album is all over the place, there's not even internal consistency in many of the songs, let alone the album as a whole. I know some people love that about jazz, but it doesn't work for me. Overall a good experience, though.

Giggsalot: Interesting to hear what folks think of this one. In a lot of ways it's a fairly unique record, but it marries a lot of different strains of jazz together - traditional big band, classical influence, hard bop, vaguely conceptual stuff - in a pretty fun and representative way. I also love that all of these songs are so dynamic - there's such a great sense of motion throughout here, and even the songs where I dont love the main theme have at least one section that bangs. I could imagine this being a pretty decent intro to jazz, if this was the first album someone actively listened to. I guess that's why I nominated it!

Johnbobb: Fantastic album start to finish; not a bad track among the bunch

hotdogturtle: It's so hard to rank an album like this compared to most other genres because you don't really have a "main part" of each song to latch onto, like a chorus or a leitmotif. You really have to consider every song as a beginning-to-end entity. And then Ad Lib on Nippon was the hardest song to rank because it's so many different things at once.

BlueCrystalTear: This album is equally strange. I don't even know what it's supposed to be. This album excels when trying to simply be jazz, which is Duke's forte. However, it fails when he tries to make it a jazz/world music crossover, largely because Duke is trying to convey Eastern sounds with Western instruments. I'm left wondering what I'm supposed to be feeling, particularly because I don't sense anything "Far East" about this (the track titles imply Iran and India, save for #9). I too don't like ranking this - this was meant to be a single entity, so ranking each movement "from start to end" is tough since it's meant to flow together, which it does. I have no idea what I'm left feeling here. Just... groove, maybe? And I couldn't even tell you which song was which, but I only listened once. So... yeah.

Far East Suite track ranking

9. Agra (Track #7)
Score: 27 (Average Rank: 7.5/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, Johnbobb, Snake5555555555, Seanchan, BlueCrystalTear (#9)

8. Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah) (Track #2)
Score: 38 (Average Rank: 6.3/9)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, Giggsalot, Snake5555555555, Seanchan (#8)

7. Depk (Track #4)
Score: 43 (Average Rank: 6/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, Giggsalot (#9)

6. Ad Lib on Nippon (Track #9)
Score: 53 (Average Rank: 4.9/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb, Snake5555555555 (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#9)

neonreaper: A good closing track, it takes it's time going and goes in a few different directions, and feels a bit like an overture. I think if I consumed this track outside of the album, I wouldn't like it as much.

Giggsalot: perfect closing overture

5. Isfahan (Track #3)
Score: 60 (Average Rank: 4.9/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#9)

Raetsel_Lapin: I do enjoy this track. It's very soft and relaxing, which isn't a bad feeling at all.

Giggsalot: lovely ballad

4. Amad (Track #8)
Score: 66 (Average Rank: 4.3/9)
Biggest Fan(s): hotdogturtle (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic (#7)

3. Tourist Point of View (Track #1)
Score: 68 (Average Rank: 4.3/9)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo, Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Seanchan (#7)

neonreaper: Perhaps guided by the title, this track makes me think about a visitor to a new place, perhaps from a bus or stopped train, gazing out at the hustle and bustle of a foreign land. If this album is about a tour, this is a terrific first track imo.

Giggsalot: awesome evocative intro

2. Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues) (Track #6)
Score: 75 (Average Rank: 3.9/9)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, neonreaper (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): hotdogturtle (#9)

Giggsalot: banger

1. Mount Harissa (Track #5)
Score: 90 (Average Rank: 2.9/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Giggsalot, Snake5555555555, Seanchan, BlueCrystalTear (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, neonreaper (#6)

Giggsalot: all time bop

Bump

When the Sun Goes Down
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Mardy Bum
From the Ritz to the Rubble
Dancing Shoes
Still Take You Home
A Certain Romance
You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
Fake Tales of San Francisco
The View from the Afternoon
Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
Riot Van
Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured

1: Riot Van
2: Dancing Shoes
3: Mardy Bum
4: A Certain Romance
5: When the Sun Goes Down
6: Red Light Indicates Doors
7: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
8: Fake Tales Of San Francisco
9: The View From The Afternoon
10: From the Ritz to the Rubble
11: Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong
12: You Probably Couldn't See
13: Still Take You Home

bump

i was once offered an amount of money to review every arctic monkeys album on this board and i got two songs into this (their first) album before quitting. for me, the most grating artist of all time, it's hard for me to imagine music i would hate more than this.

Steiner posted...

i was once offered an amount of money to review every arctic monkeys album on this board and i got two songs into this (their first) album before quitting. for me, the most grating artist of all time, it's hard for me to imagine music i would hate more than this.

I'm really curious why this band, specifically. Their sound doesn't feel distinct enough that other artists wouldn't be right there with them.

This era/style of music missed me. There are some 00s indie albums I do enjoy, but, not so much this one.

I do like some Arctic Monkeys albums though! Just not the first two.

Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured
Mardy Bum
Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
Still Take You Home
Riot Van
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
From the Ritz to the Rubble
The View from the Afternoon
You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
When the Sun Goes Down
A Certain Romance
Fake Tales of San Francisco
Dancing Shoes

1. Mardy Bum - the very first Arctic Monkeys song I heard back in high school and still probably my favorite by them
2. When the Sun Goes Down
3. Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
4. Riot Van
5. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
6. The View from the Afternoon
7. Dancing Shoes
8. Fake Tales of San Francisco
9. You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
10. Still Take You Home
11. Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured
12. A Certain Romance
13. From the Ritz to the Rubble

FoolFantastic posted...

I'm really curious why this band, specifically. Their sound doesn't feel distinct enough that other artists wouldn't be right there with them.

you have to understand how ubiquitous this album was in the UK, especially the lead single which is the most streamed song in the UK from that year

1. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
2. Dancing Shoes
3. Still Take You Home
4. From the Ritz to the Rubble
5. Mardy Bum
6. When the Sun Goes Down
7. You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
8. Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured
9. Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
10. A Certain Romance
11. The View from the Afternoon
12. Fake Tales of San Francisco
13. Riot Van

I feel like if I continued to do more listens this could be a very different ordering. I like the overall sound, and found it to be very listenable, but ultimately a little hard to rank. While I disagree with Steiner calling this "grating", I think I could see where some people might find this a bit...cloying, especially if they were inundated with it. Nonetheless, I could see myself listening to some more Arctic Monkeys in the future.

Tell me you're British without telling me you're British, Arctic Monkeys. Why not drive around in a Mini Cooper with the Union Jack painted on it while you're at it. A decent album well worth the listen, but I'm unlikely to go back to anything other than a couple favorites.

(Song titles truncated because I'm on my phone)

1. When the Sun Goes Down
2. From the Ritz
3. Red Light
4. The View
5. Perhaps Vampires
6. I Bet
7. A Certain Romance
8. Mardy Bum
9. You Probably Couldn't See
10. Dancing Shoes
11. Riot Van
12. Fake Tales
13. Still Take You Home

From The Ritz To The Rubble
A Certain Romance
Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured
Fake Tales Of San Francisco
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Mardy Bum
When The Sun Goes Down
Dancing Shoes
You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me
Still Take You Home
The View From The Afternoon
Riot Van

Never got into Arctic Monkeys, and that's still the case here

ChichiriMuyo posted...

Tell me you're British without telling me you're British, Arctic Monkeys. Why not drive around in a Mini Cooper with the Union Jack painted on it while you're at it.

yeah this is probably the other reason i hate them so much

I was too @___@ the other day to do anything with this. Let's try this again. For Alanis, I'll do it earlier in the week - that's an album with which I am familiar!

This one is... okay, I guess? Definitely reeks of the mid-00s alt-punk scene, and it's very good for that. I note that some of these have Steinman-length titles, but none of the songs have the length to match; it's quite obvious that the shortest song was given a ridiculously long title for irony's sake. But I am getting at an issue here in that most of these songs are under three minutes, and since many of them sound similarly enough, this doesn't serve well for their memorability. They don't last long enough to deliver upon hooks, repetition which gets me disinterested quickly, until the album delivers "Riot Van" - a pace changer sorely needed, a standout because it does something different, and just as well. I've faulted several albums for not having something to balance their sound, to get the other tracks to stand out more. I really can't explain why I put certain songs in certain places here - I only had time for one full listen. And I don't intend on going back to this. Not really my speed.

1. Riot Van
2. When the Sun Goes Down
3. Mardy Bum
4. Dancing Shoes
5. Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured
6. Fake Tales of San Francisco
7. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
8. A Certain Romance
9. From the Ritz to the Rubble
10. Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But...
11. You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
12. The View from the Afternoon
13. Still Take You Home

Deleted and reposted to change my ranking of a song, since I still have time:

1. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor - I actually wish it had another repetition or two of that catchy, energetic pre-chorus.
2. Riot Van - An effectively hazy, transitional song that stands out to me.
3. Dancing Shoes
4. You Probably Couldnt See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight at Me
5. Mardy Bum
6. A Certain Romance
7. The View from the Afternoon
8. Fake Tales of San Francisco
9. When the Sun Goes Down
10. From the Ritz to the Rubble
11. Still Take You Home
12. Red Lights Indicates Doors are Secured
13. Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But

~~~
Also, I'd like to skip my next solo week while still preserving my place in the user cycle, if that's ok.