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You're all making a total meal of this joke.
*Looks for where The Argument places on the Reader's Top 200 Albums Of The Last 25 Years list on The Other Site. *Slaps forehead when said album isn't there.
Possibly my least favourite album by my all-time favourite band, which is to say it's still pretty great and this write-up makes me keen to revisit it. This album did at least provide me with the name of a student radio show I ran for a year or two. Before "Ancient Melodies Of the Future" I had another show, the Broken Social Scene-inspired "Superconnected", an hour-long show where each song/artist had a (frequently tenuous) link to the preceding one and went full circle so that the show started and ended with the same artist. That was fun for a while but became increasingly difficult to pull together each week. My love for Built to Spill also led to me running a music blog for a couple of years called "Keep It Like A Secret"; unfortunately its somewhat meagre following meant that its title became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I assumed Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds would be a shoe-in here, until I realised that album was Nocturama.
Sleeping Ute is the perfect distillation of everything I love about GB. That near-minute instrumental intro just blows me away every time and the song only goes into ascent from there.
When it comes to Grizzly Bear, I'm team Yellow House, but I would definitely take both Shields and Painted Ruins over Veckatimest any day of the week - both tragically overlooked albums, PR in particular. The revelation for me with PR was the discovery of a third great voice within that band in Chris Taylor and Systole - I love what Rossen and Droste bring to the band vocally but how come it took this long to bring Taylor to the forefront?
The Runners Four was maybe only my fourth or fifth favourite Deerhoof album when I first bought it, but I found that over time it became my go-to Deerhoof album, until I had to acknowledge that I liked it even more than my long-standing #1 Apple O. Funnily enough, Offend Maggie was never one I really connected with - it's a solid album but not one I found to be particularly fun to listen to. You've convinced me to go back and re-evaluate it though. Leaving out Love-Lore (which I'm listening to for the first time as I write this) and Future Teenage Cave Artists (which I've only listened to a couple of times so far but liking very much) my ranking would be: 1. The Runners Four 2. Apple O 3. Friend Opportunity 4. Milk Man 5. La Isla Bonita (absolutely love this one of all their recent albums) 6. Breakup Song 7. Reveille 8. Green Cosmos 9. Offend Maggie 10. The Magic 11. Mountain Moves 12. Deerhoof vs. Evil 13. Holdy Paws (the only album here I have little desire to listen to again)
Great writeup, but no mention of Blue As Your Blood? One of my all-time favourite Walkmen songs. You & Me will always be my favourite Walkmen album, but this comes a close second.
I'm with you, Little Sister sounds like QOTSA going through the motions. Shame they'd already named a previous song "Auto-pilot".
No way, I'm from Kidderminster too, though I moved away about 25 years ago. Not sure if it's the music shop you're referring to, but last time I was in the town centre (must've been about 10 or 12 years ago) I visited a music shop which I think was in the Swan shopping centre, and who should be stood right there in the middle of the shop but Robert Plant! I love how he's remained close to his roots - my mum and uncle used to work in Halesowen and apparently used to see him in one of the local boozers quite often. Back on the subject - this album rules. In fact I love Grandaddy way more than is rational because of this album - I really like Under The Western Freeway too but none of their other albums touch this in my opinion. Jason Lytle's sigh of a voice is just perfect for these odd but melancholic little songs about robots going on drunken benders, forgotten astronauts, and woodland animals taking refuge in discarded kitchen appliances. This, The Soft Bulletin and Deserters Songs makes for a perfect trilogy of albums.
Focusing on the choices from Z, Anytime and Lay Low are good songs, sure, but better than Dondante? Or Gideon? Or Wordless Chorus? It Beats 4 U? Or even Into The Woods (I might be in the minority on this one)? Decent list otherwise.
Absolutely - there's a woozy, analogue warmth to those Butch Vig-produced albums that makes them such a comforting listen, even when they're shredding your face off.
That's a prettty unfuckwithable list, and having turned 33 the other day, this band's been on my mind quite a bit just lately. 1. Thru The Eyes Of Ruby 2. Tonight, Tonight 3. Soma 4. Hummer 5. Cherub Rock 6. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans 7. Drown 8. The Aeroplane Flies High... 9. Stand Inside Your Love 10. Daphne Descends
This fantastic write-up has made me want to revisit an album I haven't listened to for years, so thank you. I was a massive PJ fanboy some 10 or so years ago, and Ten was my all-time favourite album for many years. I've cooled somewhat on both Ten and PJ in the subsequent years, but mid-period albums like Vitalogy and No Code have risen in my estimation to classic status, and being reminded of the tracklist for Yield makes me think this album may belong with them. No mention of Brain Of J though? That song f**king rocks.
Fantastic album, with so many brilliant lyrical nuggets. Terrific writeup, and that's without you mentioning Racing Like A Pro and Ada, possibly my two favourite songs on the album.
This is one of the first albums I really got into in my teens, and for me has held up remarkably well all these years later. This is head and shoulders above any other Foos album for me; this and their debut record are their only albums I would seriously consider listening to now. Also, a special shout-out to New Way Home, which isn't mentioned in the article above, but is an absolute barmstormer of a closing track.
"They ended up with a landmark album that only gets better with age, eight essentially flawless tracks that you could make a case for as the greatest indie rock album of the ’90s." And there - in a single sentence - you have it. This album above all others for me defines everything indie-rock could ever hope to be, the monumental, ever-shifting song structures and swirling, perfectly interlocking guitars perfectly offset by the keen ear for melody and a sense of humility in the lyrics which have always been at the heart of BTS' music. A great write-up of probably my all-time favourite album with one minor criticism - you made no reference to Velvet Waltz, surely the high-water mark of the album and BTS' career as a whole. Doug Martsch - the most understated, underrated musical genious of our generation.
Seriously, this article and all these comments, and not one person has mentioned just how awesome a song "I Spy" is?
Now can he explain why the last Modest Mouse album sucked?
A good list but would've liked to have seen a slightly wider scope. Some of the artists I would've included, some of which have already been mentioned: - Some key early British artists such as late-period Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis, as well as the likes of Hood and Disco Inferno. - Disappointing that there are no Japanese inclusions. Mono are pretty much a post-rock institution, and then you have the likes of World's End Girlfriend (one of the most stunning live acts I have ever seen). - Also I can't believe nobody has mentioned Swans. A significant proportion of their last two records could loosely be classed as post-rock, but 1996's Soundtracks For The Blind is a key document in the development of post-rock. I wouldn't dream of putting together a post-rock playlist without including The Sound. But fair enough, you've explained your choices, and I look forward to listening through the stuff I'm not familiar with, and hopefully discovering some gems.