Board 8 > Rank the Tracks 100: David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust (+Birthday Massacre results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

poll for Johnbobb's week:
clipping. - Splendor & Misery
vs.
Madvillain (M.F. Doom and Madlib) - Madvillainy
vs.
Tyler, the Creator - Goblin

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, February 5th at 4:00 PM Central Time
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.

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars track list:
1. Five Years
2. Soul Love
3. Moonage Daydream
4. Starman
5. It Ain't Easy
6. Lady Stardust
7. Star
8. Hang On to Yourself
9. Ziggy Stardust
10. Suffragette City
11. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

Current cycle:
2/5: ZaziGuado (Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News)
2/12: firefdr (blur - Parklife)
2/19: Johnbobb
2/26: Steiner/ChichiriMuyo/Great_Paul
3/5: VeryInsane
3/12: FoolFantastic
3/19: Seanchan
3/26: Johnbobb/ZaziGuado/jcgamer107
4/2: Giggsalot
4/9: RyoCaliente
4/16: darkx
4/23: Snake5555555555/Raetsel_Lapin/Seanchan
4/30: neonreaper
5/7: Great_Paul
5/14: jcgamer107
5/21: Giggsalot/MetalmindStats/rwlh
5/28: ChichiriMuyo
6/4: BlueCrystalTear
6/11: rwlh
6/18: NFUN
6/25: HBJDubs/firefdr/NFUN

Future cycle:
6/25: MetalmindStats
7/2: HBJDubs
7/9: Raetsel_Lapin
7/16: competitive week
7/23: Steiner
7/30: Snake5555555555
8/6: Jesse_Custer
8/13: competitive week

Instead of indefinitely extending the deadline, I am now changing it to 4:00 PM central time - I really need to process the results on Sunday or else they will be seriously delayed as they have been the last couple months. 4:00 gives me enough time to go to my usual Sunday board games and then come back home and calculate the results (and, hopefully, gives people a bit more on Sunday morning instead of rushing to listen).

Only four people voted last week - if you were still planning to participate, go ahead and post your ranking in this topic by 4ish.

Here's Johnbobb's comments on his choices this week:

"Brief writeups for the week of experimental alt. hip-hop:

clipping. - Splendor & Misery
Possibly my favorite rap album. Clipping is a group fronted by rapper Daveed Diggs (aka that guy from Hamilton) with incredible experimental beats by two nerdy white dudes. I've been very tempted to nominate one of clipping's later horrorcore albums, but ultimately always come back to S&M, their weird interstellar sci-fi concept album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUR_ChqUJbc

Madvillain - Madvillainy
A collaboration between rapper MF DOOM and producer Madlib. Again, tough choice to nominate between this, which is often considered Doom's best album and one of the most influential rap albums of the last 2 decades, and Mm..Food, which is probably Doom's best solo album and possibly a little more easily digestable than Madvillainy. A little weird, a little jazzy, and some of the best work Doom ever did. RIP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSJeHDlhYls

Tyler, The Creator - Goblin
A rapper directly inspired by MF DOOM! Goblin is not an EASY album to listen to by any means. It's long and violent and abrasive and disturbing in a way that is by all means horrorcore, despite Tyler's own insistence at every breath that it's NOT horrorcore (seriously, the album directly features the lyrics "We don't ****ing make horrorcore, you ****ing idiots" despite still being labeled as horrorcore on wikipedia). It's an album I'm personally really conflicted on because Tyler himself is pretty hateful and his lyrics are controversial for good reason, but the album is still filled with excellent flow and production to the point it's absolutely worth hearing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSbZidsgMfw

I'm sorry for fucking things up for anyone. I did not mean for my comments to be taken the way they were. I am sorry to anyone I offended. I really didn't mean for what I said to come off as offensive. While I like participating when I do, I can see that I'm clearly having a negative impact so for the time being I suppose it's best I don't. I'm sorry.

Madvillain (M.F. Doom and Madlib) - Madvillainy > clipping. - Splendor & Misery > Tyler, the Creator - Goblin

Madvillainy sits in my all-time top 100, I love the one other clipping. album I have heard, and I would probably be more supportive of Tyler's last couple albums over Goblin

Ziggy Stardust manages the unusual feat of being the best album by one of my all-time favorite artists despite not having a single track that would crack his overall top 10 - his career was just that good. Where this album must obviously excel is its consistency; there is only one track here I would not consider great, and it happens to be a cover (and I still think it's a good song simply lost among greats). He never repeats himself here, instead showcasing the infinite potential of art rock.

My ranking:
1. Ziggy Stardust
2. Moonage Daydream
3. Starman
4. Five Years
5. Suffragette City
6. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
7. Hang on to Yourself
8. Lady Stardust
9. Soul Love
10. Star
11. It Ain't Easy

Also, here's my overall Bowie top 10 since I mentioned it (Ziggy Stardust sits right at #11):
1. Life on Mars
2. Lazarus
3. Heroes
4. Young Americans
5. Blackstar
6. The Man Who Sold the World
7. Warszawa
8. Sound and Vision
9. Space Oddity
10. Ashes to Ashes

I've never participated in this before, but considering this is one of my favorite albums of all time (by my favorite artist of all time) I'll join in.

I will respect the rules and listen to it all the way through before posting my ranking even though I'm pretty sure I can sing the album in it's entirety from memory >_>

I hadn't heard Walking With Strangers before, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the album. Unfortunately I wasn't able to listen to it enough to properly rank the tracks.

clipping. - Splendor & Misery > Tyler, the Creator - Goblin > Madvillain (M.F. Doom and Madlib) - Madvillainy

Glad a lot of people enjoyed WWS!

(Obviously this is a ranking for The Birthday Massacre...)

1. Falling Down
2. Kill the Lights
3. Walking with Strangers
4. Science
5. Goodnight
6. Red Stars
7. Weekend
8. Looking Glass
9. Remember Me
10. Unfamiliar
11. Movie
12. To Die For

A fairly arbitrary ranking but there was nothing here that stuck out much either positively or negatively. As I've said previously, I generally enjoyed listening to this, but at the same time, I've a strong feeling this album won't stick out in my mind at all in 6 months.

Did a first listen to Ziggy Stardust.

A shorter album than I expected at 40 minutes. Need to focus a little more on a second listen but I was enjoying what I was hearing. It has a distinctive sound of an older era of music. ...I suppose there's no need to say it, but I've never heard this album before, aside from Starman and maybe the title track.

(Walking With Strangers comments):

I didn't want to bring it up myself, but I agree with neonreaper's comment:

If you folks like this album but it feels a little samey from track to track, I advise you to check out their album Violet. Imo has some obvious standouts

Because while WWS is a fine album and possibly more accessible, I didn't think any of the songs really showcased the full ability of the singer. Besides the clean pop vocals heard on WWS, she can also deliver raspy & almost inhuman growled vocals--easily switching back and forth between them. That duality is my favorite part (see their song "Blue" for an example), but WWS was just so... normal.

Which is fine! It's not that I disliked Walking With Strangers. But I do suggest anyone that wanted to hear more variety from the band check out Violet and give them another shot. You might be surprised.

I tried listening to some of Violet today, but felt like I was just "Birthday Massacred out". Probably not in the right headspace to listen...

I've taken a break from this for multiple reasons - part of it is that I wasn't enjoying it as much for a spell, part of it was that I'm not in an overly sane head space, and the last part of it was how a few certain things left a bad taste in my mouth. I think you guys know what.

I'll listen this week to such an iconic album and I hope it gets me back into doing this. Not sure what kind of time I'll have so it may just be two listens, but we'll see!

Seanchan posted...

I tried listening to some of Violet today, but felt like I was just "Birthday Massacred out". Probably not in the right headspace to listen...

That's definitely fair. Listening to multiple albums by the same band without a break between them can be a bit much... still, thank you for giving it a chance!

Fully intended to get a ranking in this week, thought I'd have a chance yesterday and then didn't, and haven't really had time today either

Started a new job this week that's been taking up most of my focus. For what it's worth I did listen to Walking With Strangers and really dug it, great recommendation

Also goddamn were at 100 already? Great choice for album #100

Splendor & Misery > Madvillainy > Goblin

The Birthday Massacre - Walking With Strangers results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
Snake5555555555 (19)
Seanchan (21)
ChichiriMuyo (29)
MetalmindStats (32)
Raetsel_Lapin (32)

General Album Comments

ChichiriMuyo: Yeah... whoever nominated Birthday Massacre - thank you. I doubt I would have ever found this without you.

Seanchan: This is one of those "going in completely blind" albums for me. I'd say it was a generally enjoyable listen. My maybe slightly odd thought is that a lot of these songs sound like what you'd hear during the end credits of some movie.
(...)
I enjoy the general sound of this album, but two listens in it's hard to separate out the individual songs. ...which unfortunately is something I feel like has been an issue with the last few albums we've covered... (I'm hoping I'm not the only one...)

neonreaper: If you folks like this album but it feels a little samey from track to track, I advise you to check out their album Violet. Imo has some obvious standouts

ChichiriMuyo: It is a bit samey from track to track even though I really do like it.
(...)
I like this album, I really do. However it was very difficult to actually rank the tracks. Let's just say the band was very consistent throughout. There's nothing wrong with a band or an album having a sound, but it does leave me feeling like the ranking is less defined than usual. If I had discovered this years ago and listened to it a lot more I might feel better about this ranking.

MetalmindStats: I was looking forward to this album after voting for it before, and it definitely did not disappoint me, from front to back. Thank you for nominating it, Snake!

Great_Paul: I hadn't heard Walking With Strangers before, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the album. Unfortunately I wasn't able to listen to it enough to properly rank the tracks.

Seanchan: A fairly arbitrary ranking but there was nothing here that stuck out much either positively or negatively. As I've said previously, I generally enjoyed listening to this, but at the same time, I've a strong feeling this album won't stick out in my mind at all in 6 months.

Raetsel_Lapin (agreeing with neonreaper's earlier comment): Because while WWS is a fine album and possibly more accessible, I didn't think any of the songs really showcased the full ability of the singer. Besides the clean pop vocals heard on WWS, she can also deliver raspy & almost inhuman growled vocals--easily switching back and forth between them. That duality is my favorite part (see their song "Blue" for an example), but WWS was just so... normal.

Which is fine! It's not that I disliked Walking With Strangers. But I do suggest anyone that wanted to hear more variety from the band check out Violet and give them another shot. You might be surprised.

Johnbobb: For what it's worth I did listen to Walking With Strangers and really dug it, great recommendation

Walking With Strangers track ranking

12. To Die For (Track #9)
Score: 11 (Average Rank: 10.8/12)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Snake5555555555, Seanchan (#12)

11. Movie (Track #12)
Score: 20 (Average Rank: 9/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#11)

10. Unfamiliar (Track #4)
Score: 24 (Average Rank: 8.2/12)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Snake5555555555, Seanchan (#10)

9. Remember Me (Track #8)
Score: 29 (Average Rank: 8/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#12)

8. Weekend (Track #11)
Score: 32 (Average Rank: 6.6/12)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#8)

7. Falling Down (Track #3)
Score: 33 (Average Rank: 7.2/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#11)

6. Walking With Strangers (Track #10)
Score: 33 (Average Rank: 6.8/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Snake5555555555, Seanchan (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#11)

5. Red Stars (Track #5)
Score: 37 (Average Rank: 6/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#12)

4. Goodnight (Track #2)
Score: 43 (Average Rank: 5/12)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Snake5555555555 (#8)

2 (tie). Kill the Lights (Track #1)
Score: 52 (Average Rank: 3.8/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Snake5555555555 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#8)

2 (tie). Looking Glass (Track #6)
Score: 52 (Average Rank: 3.8/12)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#8)

1. Science (Track #7)
Score: 59 (Average Rank: 2.8/12)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#5)

Starman
Ziggy Stardust
Suffragette City
Moonage Daydream
Five Years
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
Hang On to Yourself
Star
It Ain't Easy
Soul Love
Lady Stardust

Ziggy Stardust
Moonage Daydream
Starman
Five Years
Soul Love
It Ain't Easy
Suffragette City
Lady Stardust
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
Star
Hang On to Yourself

sorry for missing Birthday Massacre - the ranking is like, Red Stars, Looking Glass, and then everything else the same score. it's a nice album but more of a consistent vibe as opposed to having different sorts of songs - again, if you liked this album I would heavily recommend Violet to you.

(I say this knowning I have submitted Opeth - Damnation which is very same-y on the first few listens)
will post a bit about Bowie later

"Red Stars" would have been my easy #1, so it would have done better if neonreaper and I voted (I just don't feel comfortable voting when everything beyond the top spots feel the same general quality)

FoolFantastic posted...

"Red Stars" would have been my easy #1, so it would have done better if neonreaper and I voted (I just don't feel comfortable voting when everything beyond the top spots feel the same general quality)

My feeling is who cares! Theres no science to this. Its all just for fun. Plus, its better when more people submit. I certainly try my best to get my ranking right but sometimes youre simply just capturing your thoughts at a singular moment in time.

I agree with that for the most part!

1: Lady Stardust
2: Ziggy Stardust
3: It Ain't Easy
4: Soul Love
5: Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
6: Suffragette City
7: Hang on to Yourself
8: Star
9: Five Years
10: Starman
11: Moonage Daydream

Getting a ranking in early because the rest of my week may be a bit hectic. Hoping to get comments in later because this album is important to me.

easily one of the greatest albums ever written and composed, front to back

1. Five Years
2. Moonage Daydream
3. Ziggy Stardust
4. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
5. Soul Love
6. Starman
7. It Ain't Easy
8. Lady Stardust
9. Suffragette City
10. Star
11. Hang On to Yourself

(General Comments)

This is a rather special album to me because it's the first album that I actively sought out and chose on my own. I know that sounds ridiculous and your reaction is probably a sarcastic "you managed to discover one of the most popular albums by one of the most popular musicians? Good for you," but it was a big deal to me! I've mentioned before that we didn't exactly have many albums or listen to much music growing up, so seeking out an actual album by a real musician was a pretty big step for me. Until then my interest amounted to novelty albums & greatest hits collections, but I had a passing familiarity with David Bowie due to how omnipresent his music was & got really intrigued by everything I heard about this album.

It didn't exactly click the first time I listened to it. I was immediately drawn to "Lady Stardust" as I'd always had an interest in... let's say playing with gender concepts, but I didn't really "get" the other songs. Still, I kept at it; I listened to it a few more times, tried looking up reviews and discussions about it. It wasn't just the first real album I chose for myself, but my first attempt at trying to actively engage with music on... well, any type of level at all, to be blunt. I know it's ridiculous, but Ziggy Stardust feels like it was a tremendously important milestone in my personal growth. And I eventually grew to love it! It was my favorite album for a few years--not that it had much competition as "Wrestlemania the Album" was likely my favorite up to that point, but still, it was definitely my favorite for a while.

I did eventually lose interest in Ziggy for a while. I'm the type to listen to music that I love on an endless loop until I tire of it and after years of regular play, it did get a bit stale. I also looked down on it for a while because, for a concept album, I wasn't convinced it managed to tell a coherent story--the songs on the first half feel barely related at best & like they came from a completely different story at worst. Likely because it wasn't actually written as a concept album from the start, but I digress. I never disliked the album, but I did kinda sour on it for a few years. Now enough time has passed that I can say I still really like it. There's a lot of nostalgia associated with it, appreciation for the role it played in my life, and every song here is pretty great so I honestly don't care if it's not the most coherent narrative. Ziggy Stardust is not my absolute favorite anymore, but it's something I always enjoy and go back to occasionally.

bump

up

bump

1. Starman
2. Soul Love
3. Five Years
4. It Ain't Easy
5. Lady Stardust
6. Moonage Daydream
7. Suffragette City
8. Hang On to Yourself
9. Ziggy Stardust
10. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
11. Star

I like this album; there's not really a bad song here. At the same time, I didn't quite love it. I've a feeling 3 listens isn't really enough, just based on how much my ranking moved around from prelim to "final". At any rate, I'm glad to have finally gotten to listen to a Bowie album!

Forgot to rank Birthday Massacre but I did listen to it. The songs individually didn't stand out but the flow of the album was really good. Definitely a "sum greater than their parts" album for me

Madvillain > clipping. > Tyler, The Creator

It Ain't Easy
Ziggy Stardust
Suffragette City
Moonage Daydream
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
Star
Lady Stardust
Starman
Five Years
Hang On To Yourself
Soul Love

Not super into Bowie but he's pretty consistent with his albums: one or two really good songs and the rest are decent. Can't complain.

Everyone still has around 7 hours left - though I am visiting family today so you can probably add an extra hour or two.

Super quick ranking

Moonage Daydream
Ziggy Stardust
Five Years
Rock and Roll Suicide
Starman
Soul Love
Suffragette City
Lady Stardust
Hang onto yourself
Star
It Aint Easy