Top 10 Albums of the Week (2008)

I know what you mean. His themes can be totally insane/silly while the compositional complexity and emotion can be intense and profound. It's quite a dichotomy.

Well, I should know soon enough. Just finished Low Kick and Hard Bop which was amazing, and now I am listening to Ocean Songs. Freak Out! is next, either later tonight or early on tomorrow.

An 8.75/10 is still easily one of the greatest albums ever made. At this point in time the more I listen to them the more I realized there is a definite and clear separation between the four albums I "demoted" and the remaining 9.0/10's. So I have to ask myself: if there is such an obvious difference how can these be of the same rating?

That being said, it was no easy choice. I've been considering it for weeks now and I wanted to make sure. Still, I wouldn't be surprised at all if some or all of them returned, especially Mu and Double Nickels...Mu for sure...I suspect I have another "echelon" remaining to 'get it' on. Double Nickels as well actually. At this point the album kind of jumps back and forth for me between 9 and 8.75, so we'll see...I can always tell that I am still just a step away with an album when it continually fluctuates between ratings. It is more likely that Loveless and Spiderland are permanent though, as I have thoroughly devoured each of these albums for years, and they have not been fluctuating at all. They are both still totally astonishing, just as much as yesterday, weeks ago, or when they first appealed to me on that level. It is not really a "demotion" for them more than it is a "promotion" for all the others. They just got supplanted because all the higher ranked 9.0/10's got better.

Nice. What did you think?

Ahh no worries I've figured it out, Tabula Rasa is the name of one piece (from 1977), whereas there is a cd called Tabula Rasa (from 1984) that has the original song on it, along with a few others. The actual music itself is awesome, I think it could be one of my favourite classical pieces ever.

I love Tabula Rasa! I can't believe I waited so long to check it out!

Re: description of Mahler's 9th. I hope it works out for you. It is very necessary to play the work on a very powerful system. My 320 watt one can barely handle it outside of a 10 by 10 room, so dimensions and system are very key as this works' overall expression is among the ultimate diversities of sound and form in all of music. To be honest, I am actually a bit upset at my inability so far to explain just how incredible it really is. I am not sure I have the writing chops to describe a 9.75/10. That level is simply too unbelieveable. I really didn't think it existed before a week ago. But yea, the degree of emotion drifting and exploding and colliding into and out of Mahler's 9th is remarkable beyond words. Once I fully connected to all of this I was so overtaken I nearly wept multiple times. It was a validation of everything I've ever dreamt of in music, especially over the last 2-3 years.

That's the one I have (borrowed from Parable). It's amazing. I'll rate Fratres in the near future.

As a separate note, there are hundreds of classical pieces I've heard that I haven't rated or ranked yet on here or my other lists, mainly due to the fact it's been in some cases 10 years since I've last heard them. I am in the process of gradually rediscovering them, as well as discovering ones I hadn't yet heard. It has and will continue to be a profound musical experience for me, aided now by my increased emotional response to such music, thanks in large part to my journey through so many masterful jazz and rock albums.

Third is an overwhelming, epic masterwork. I've heard really good things about their others but haven't listened to them myself yet. Lukeprog could probably give you some answers on those.

Funny, I just finished listening to the album as I was reading your comment. Yes, Heroin is certainly among its multitude of crown jewels, along with 5 other absolute masterpieces (European Son, Venus in Furs, All Tomorrow's Parties, Black Angel's Death Song, I'm Waiting For The Man), and a couple close ones (Sunday Morning, Femme Fatale), not to mention the devastatingly simple, icy beauty of I'll Be Your Mirror, the emphatic violence of There She Goes Again, and the ear-splitting ramble of Run Run Run, the album is an astonishingly rich and vivid gallery of lost hopes, of street life, of decadent and deviant rituals and fetishes, with the climaxes of the work erupting in sustained majestic ecstacy as if the only fruitions in life are cast in those shadows, in the back alleyways, in the corners and with prostitutes and the drug dealings and the lonely, Sunday mornings. It's one of the greatest (most emotionally impinging and effective) works in the history of art, bar none.

Especially as of today (see "Unit Structures" above) it's been a spectacular last 2 weeks.

I've mainly been revisiting a number of 8.5's I thought might have a good shot at making the masterpieces (9+) list and a handful of them happened to make the jump over the last 2 weeks. Listening to them, realizing more about them, being more in touch with their emotions & structures after having already listened to them many times previously--doing this opens the door more and more, ever so closer if the album is infact a masterpiece. I constantly cycle through all my favorite albums (anything 8/10+ and especially 9/10+...generally, the higher they're ranked the more I listen to them). If one keeps going through the list (especially per my recommended order guide or something similar) sooner or later he has a very good chance of really connecting to and getting each and every album on their most incredible and powerful levels. That is the most effective and efficient way I've found to go about it, but it definitely takes a certain dedication and strong interest towards all of them to really see it through to completion.

Ah wait...you don't appear to be using the .25, .5, .75 scale anymore. Never mind. :)

Nice. By the way, Ys is nothing new for me. I didn't mean to insinuate that it was. It came around for me 2 years ago and has been on my list(s) [8/10+] ever since. Amazing album and fully deserving of numerous listens.

Appetite for Destruction seems 7.5ish, though it's been a long time...as a matter of fact I don't even know if I've heard all of it...that one goes way back.

So far (only one listen) Chinese Democracy is their masterpiece (or Rose's) though don't take my rating too seriously yet. I need to listen to it a few more times to see how it holds up. Give me a few days or a week--I'll make it known on here when it is my "official" rating.

Yea, oh well...it happens...sometimes an album can catch me off guard (I'm used to classic Guns and Roses so I wasn't expecting it to sound the way it did, so I began the album surprised which helped considerably in influencing my initial rating) plus I was tired and wiped out which made it's exciting sound seem even more alive and exciting than usual, so it happened to be at the exact right time I wanted to hear something like it, and I ended up overrating it. If I would've listed to Black Saint I would've moved it up to a 12/10.

I went back and listened to some of Appetite For Destruction before I re-listened to Chinese Democracy and it was then that I started to realize that I was probably going back in for some disappointment--'cause Appetite For Destruction smoked--I'll have to relisten to that now to see if it can make it to an 8.

I'll get back to you on favorite tracks. I'm probably going to go through the album once more tonight (best out of 3 right?) and I'll note down my favorites then.