The Syndicate

Quin has opened the gates to 3/4 star ratings on the Rico scale.

I'd like to rate Faces in the Rocks at ★★★7/8

A little about my submission this week:

Faces in the Rocks is not an album I would call massively important to me, or influential upon my listening habits, or even one I have revisited that frequently. It is just a simple, therapeutic folk album from a woman with a very appealing voice and sometimes that's all I need. As you may have guessed from her name, the music is heavily influenced by Native American art -- I'd call it a secondary component of the sound rather than the primary appeal. It's something a little different while also being accessible and pleasing (at least to me).

Epignosis wrote: ↑Sat Aug 19, 2017 3:24 pm By the way, my earlier mention of "prog rock done right" was meant to be a self-depreciating jab, but I realized it sounded like I was having a go at 3J's opinion, which wasn't my intention. Being funny on the Internet is hard.

It's fine either way. I don't figure you and I would be in agreement about much in the realm of prog.

I listened to it again today and couldn't even find the moment that most appealed to me before. I am doing other things at the same time though. Anyway it was still good tunage.

#expertanalysis

Quin wrote: ↑Thu Aug 17, 2017 5:21 pm I'm gonna try and get back into this when I get home tonight

Good call, Johnny Quinn.

To be honest I am not 100% certain that was the song, because it's difficult to tell them apart in a combined YouTube video and different versions of the release have different track lengths. It could have been the very end of the second track instead. I'll listen again tonight and see if I can figure it out.

3.5 for Comus for now.

I'm listening to Comus now. It's been pretty cool. The third track "Drip Drip" was excellent -- prog done right. The strings caught my ear immediately.

Since it's a four-way tie we go in order of submission. Comus is first. I can't properly introduce it currently, but it's underway now.

That's fine, I meant to do that myself.

The poll is up. It's only 4 this time, both to get us back on track and also because 5/6 would have been silly.

Y'all listen to sprityo's album!

Good call, Rico.

thellama73 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 28, 2017 1:49 pm If it's not too late for submissions, I'd like to submit the 1970 acid folk masterpiece First Utterance by Comus, because every time I listen to it I literally cannot believe how good it is.
Full album on youtube:

Gotcha both, thank you.

It's not an issue at all.

This is all we have for submissions right now, and with only three it'd be pointless to bother with a poll:

Submitting:

A Person - Moor Mother - Fetish Bones / 2016 / Noise/hip hop / 13 tracks / 30:16 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify

Epignosis - Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair / 1985 / New wave / 8 tracks / 40:27 / YouTube and Spotify

JaggedJimmyJay - Mariee Sioux - Faces in the Rocks / 2007 / Contemporary folk / 8 tracks / 49:40 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify

Ricochet - Phoenix - Mugur de fluier / 1974 / Progressive folk / 14 tracks / 45:56 / YouTube and Spotify

thellama73 - Comus - First Utterance / 1971 / Psychedelic folk / 7 tracks / 42:08 / YouTube

triceratopzeuhl - Townes Van Zandt - Townes Van Zandt / 1969 / Country/folk / 10 tracks / 34:33 / YouTube and Spotify

I'll give it another day.

Example:

The Flaming Lips sound persisted through the full album for the most part. That's not a bad or a good thing, just a thing. I thought it was generally enjoyable, and that the first half in particular was quite good. I do think the momentum stalled some over the latter half. I gave it 3 stars. I did consider a 3.5 given the strong start, so it's a positive product for sure.

I've just started the album myself. "Dawn of Man" is very Yoshimi-era Flaming Lips.

Submitting:

JaggedJimmyJay - Mariee Sioux - Faces in the Rocks / 2007 / Contemporary folk / 8 tracks / 49:40 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify

Ricochet - Phoenix - Mugur de fluier / 1974 / Progresskve folk / 14 tracks / 45:56 / YouTube and Spotify

We're in the last album of this block, so while we listen to sprityo's submission we can also select new albums for the following queue. Remember, those who were in this most recent block should wait for the next queue. Later in the week we'll do another poll.

speedchuck wrote: ↑Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:17 am I may not be able to do much more than "impression" reviews, but I think I'm going to try and stick with this a little better.

Also I'm going to nominate A City Dressed in Dynamite by That Handsome Devil

I shall keep the nomination handy, but be aware that you won't be eligible until the voting cycle after next (those who get selected one cycle are not eligible during the following cycle). You should certainly share your take on our albums as we go though, even if it's just a basic take. There are no wrong answers in music creation or interpretation.

It had been a long time since I'd listened to The Stooges, so I decided to play this week Rico style by running through more than one album -- I covered the three from '69 to '73 that made them famous. Go figure, I enjoyed the other two more than Fun House. They're all worthwhile though, and their influence over punk rock is obvious. I think my favorite of the three was Raw Power, since that one was a little more eclectic (they even gave blues rock a shot for at least one track).

The best quality of these albums is that they're short and very easy to digest. Put 'em on, rock out for a bit, and go about your day. 3 stars for Fun House.

I am unable to transition the album right now, but anyone else is welcome to.

Muse wrote the book on ripping off Queen. At least Toehider left a citation in their lyrics.

I'm mostly through the Toehider album now. It has been a bit of a mixed bag, but mostly positive. What I like is that it's more diverse than it appears on the surface. It seems to be a semi-concept album and those aren't known for broad genre interactions. I think they're at their best when they emphasize the vocalist, because I agree he has talent. They seem to have a decent knack for writing an electric rhythm and it works well throughout the middle portion of the album. I'm even tempted to call it power pop. The prog elements aren't egregious in their noodling and don't detract from the cohesiveness of the thing, so that's good too. The longer tracks have dragged though. I'm wondering if I'd have actually liked it more if it was less variable.

Light 3.5.

Irrelevant complaint: I can't stand their release covers. They really annoy me to look at. That alone might drive me away long-term, silly as it may be.

Hey gang, listen to Circlesongs!

It happens everywhere, not just RYM. It's not like I am going to riot though. Anyway, y'all listen to the tunes and share your thoughts on the tunes.

By all means the artist can be categorized however appropriate. I mean the specific genre label for this album does not fit, IMO. It actually peeves me a bit when albums get lumped into the wrong genres simply because of who created them.

I'm almost through Circlesongs for the first time. My first thought is that I'm not sure why the genre voters on RYM (there aren't many of them, this album seems somewhat obscure) have called this "vocal jazz" and a capella. It seems purely the latter to me.

The concept here is something I haven't heard before and that's pretty neat. The vocals function essentially as another musical instrument as opposed to a medium for delivering clear lyrics. At first it benefited from that fresh sound, but it did wear on me as the album progressed. As I near the end I find myself wishing there was something else here. In purely sonic terms it does sound good so I can't outright dislike it. My interest hasn't quite held though. The first spin is about 2.5 stars for me. It'll likely get at least one more opportunity later in the week though.

I've listened to a number of Dead Can Dance albums now, and it seems clear to me that this one was their best. I even listened to a compilation without realizing it (ewww compilation) and preferred this.

I listened to three other Dead Can Dance albums and they were all decent. They didn't inspire me, but they were decent. They were Dead Can Dance, Spleen and Ideal, and The Serpent's Egg.

nutella wrote: ↑Wed Jul 12, 2017 1:19 am Fun reading through your list Jay. I have a lot of comments but I don't want to ramble about it here as I could never have the patience or decisiveness to make such a list myself, but might there be a way to leave comments on specific slot descriptions on the list? I had several thoughts/agreements/disagreements while reading through it that could be fun to discuss. Maybe on discord. Also some surprising absences (personally the Decemberists come to mind, I wouldn't leave The Crane Wife out of a top 100 myself, but maybe you never got into them or they're not your thing and that's fair but slightly surprising to me based on others you have up there) -- I can think of a couple artists that I could recommend based on your taste if you're not familiar with them.

There's unfortunately no way to comment on individual entries, but you can comment on the list itself in the top right corner. That requires an account though (nudge nudge ). I'm always happy to talk about the tunage though, and Discord is probably the best place for that.

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:41 am Jay's list might have a full 10% that is New Zealand music. When are you moving over here, Jay?

Just a rough count in my head:

6 Crowded House
2 Split Enz
1 Neil Finn
1 Finn Brothers
2 Shihad
1 Bic Runga
2 Lorde
1 Julia Deans

16/150 = 10.7%

Yes, it's not just the scenery that makes New Zealand my top travel target.

I reproduced/updated an old list of my favorite albums, and a couple of our SAW entries have found a place.

Hm. Tough call. The final track is slightly cheesier than the prior track, but still not offensively so. I think I'll stick with my 3.5, but it's closer to the 4 end than the 3 end. Very good tunes.

The worst thing this could do is end up sounding great this time and demand a rating increase. That'd suggest there might be countless hidden gems in my one-off rating pile.

Unfortunately for me that seems to be the trend if the last song holds the momentum. I considered briefly that "Summoning of the Muse" might cross the threshold of tasteful cheesiness, but I don't think so. It skirts the line very well.

To be fair, the music does warrant a unique, non-rock genre name. I don't think it would fit adequately under any of that. Just "darkwave" should be sufficient.

I first listened to this album in April of 2011 and apparently found it enjoyable (3.5 rating). I don't believe I have listened again since though. There's an unfortunate sea of music I have heard once and never revisited simply because there isn't enough time in the universe. In that regard it's good to return to this to see if my initial impression had any meaning, or if it still does six years later. This will be important to me in that it'll lend a little support to (or take away support from) the notion that music doesn't necessarily need to be heard repeatedly to be worthy of a good rating. Sometimes I am tempted to just drop ratings by default of things I haven't heard in eons, but it isn't logical in my opinion. If I had enough time to listen to everything more than once I would do so.

I'm halfway through it now and it's very cool.

I am starting "In the Realm of a Dying Sun" now. Before I get too deep I want to comment on the name of the genre. I understand G-Man's incredulity, though I don't think there's anything silly about "neo-soul", here we have "neoclassical darkwave".

Neoclassical darkwave.

Neoclassical darkwave.

Come on.

I seem to be the opposite on some of these CBR judgments. I think her albums are ranked:

Debut > THSW > The Sea

Don't worry MP, I'll probably get to Dead Can Dance today. I've actually heard that album already, but I don't remember much about it so it'll still feel fresh.

I gave it a second listen today and it remained an easy-to-enjoy experience. I fell asleep at one point, but that wasn't Corinne's fault -- I was tired.

It's nice to have an album that doesn't demand that much of the listener without losing any emotive power.

I just finished a listen. I think you did the right thing when you expanded your original submission to include the bonus tracks, because "High" is the biggest immediate standout for me. The whole thing is very good though; Corinne Bailey Rae has always been easy for me to appreciate. Her voice isn't going to explode out of anyone's speakers and change their lives, and frankly I think that gives her more soulful power -- its her capacity for emotive delivery which makes it work, not her range or some other irrelevant technical thing.

I'm glad we finally managed to get this album into the thread. It was long overdue, and your patience is appreciated Golden. It was worth the wait.

I'll start it at 3.5 stars, but it could push for 4 with another spin. I might still prefer her debut, but it's close.

It's a tie. The new queue:

~ Golden - Corinne Bailey Rae - The Heart Speaks in Whispers (Deluxe) / 2016 / Neo-soul / 16 tracks / 75:32 / YouTube and Spotify
~ MovingPictures07 - Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun / 1987 / Neoclassical darkwave / 8 tracks / 38:43 / YouTube and Spotify
~ nutella - Bobby McFerrin - Circlesongs / 1997 / Vocal Jazz / 8 tracks / 42:42 / YouTube (nutella please verify) and Spotify
~ speedchuck - Toehider - What Kind of Creature Am I? / 2014 / Progressive rock/metal / 10 tracks / 51:45 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify
~ G-Man - The Stooges - Fun House / 1970 / Proto-punk / 7 tracks / 36:35 / YouTube and Spotify
~ sprityo - Michael Guy Bowman - Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido / 2011 / Synthpop / 9 tracks / 39:21 / YouTube and Bandcamp

Sorry y'all, I forgot about the poll. I've been prepping for/at a conference. I can't do it now either, so it might have to be pushed back a day or two.

Whoops, my bad. I have shimmied you in there.