The Syndicate

NOTE: if you didn't express interest originally, you can still participate! Everyone is welcome, just hop in and talk about whatever album is the flavor of the week with us.

Original description of the idea:
*crickets*




Previously visited albums:

1. nutella - The Family Crest - Beneath the Brine / 2014 / Chamber pop/Indie rock / 11 tracks / 53:12 / (Spotify and YouTube) --- Discussion
2. MovingPictures07 - Fishmans - 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare / 1999 / Dream pop / 14 tracks / 2:10:19 --- Discussion
3. Boomslang - Goat - World Music / 2012 / Psychedelic rock / 9 tracks / 37:10 / (Spotify) --- Discussion
4. insertnamehere - Scott Walker - Bish Bosch / 2012 / Experimental / 9 tracks / 73:04 / (Spotify) --- Discussion
5. thellama73 - Arthur Brown - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown / 1968 / Psychedelic rock / 10 tracks / 36:39 --- Discussion
6. G-Man - Chuck Berry - Chuck Berry Is on Top / 1959 / Rock and roll / 12 tracks / 29:26 / (YouTube Playlist- Listen to the first six tracks (through Johnny B Goode), then listen to this solo track (Little Queenie), then resume the playlist.), available on Spotify --- Discussion
7. JaggedJimmyJay - Crowded House - Woodface / 1991 / Rock-oriented pop / 14 tracks / 48:03 / available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
8. triceratopzeuhl - The Kinks - Arthur / 1969 / Rock-oriented pop / 12 tracks / 48:43 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
9. A Person - Vanessa Rossetto - Whole Stories / 2014 / Field recordings/Musique concrète / 2 tracks / 39:39 / available on Bandcamp --- Discussion
10. Marmot - deadmau5 - > album title goes here < / 2012 / House / 13 tracks / 79:53 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
11. Ricochet - Jethro Tull - A Passion Play / 1973 / Progressive Rock / 2 tracks / 45:05 / available on YouTube / (Post site resurrection) Discussion)
12. Epignosis - echolyn - echolyn / 2012 / Progressive Rock / 8 tracks / 70:44 / available on bandcamp --- Discussion
13. Quin - Last Dinosaurs - In a Million Years / 2012 / Indie Pop / 11 tracks / 42:56 / available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
14. thellama73 - Pandora's Box - Original Sin / 1989 / Art Pop / 14 tracks / 67:11 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
15. insertnamehere - The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas / Lo-Fi / 14 tracks / 42:02 / available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
16. Golden - Corinne Bailey Rae - The Heart Speaks in Whispers (Deluxe) / 2016 / Neo-soul / 16 tracks / 75:32 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
17. MovingPictures07 - Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun / 1987 / Neoclassical darkwave / 8 tracks / 38:43 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
18. nutella - Bobby McFerrin - Circlesongs / 1997 / Vocal Jazz / 8 tracks / 42:42 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
19. speedchuck - Toehider - What Kind of Creature Am I? / 2014 / Progressive rock/metal / 10 tracks / 51:45 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify --- Discussion
20. G-Man - The Stooges - Fun House / 1970 / Proto-punk / 7 tracks / 36:35 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
21. sprityo - Michael Guy Bowman - Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido / 2011 / Synthpop / 9 tracks / 39:21 / YouTube and Bandcamp --- Discussion
22. thellama73 - Comus - First Utterance / 1971 / Psychedelic folk / 7 tracks / 42:08 / YouTube --- Discussion
23. JaggedJimmyJay - Mariee Sioux - Faces in the Rocks / 2007 / Contemporary folk / 8 tracks / 49:40 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify --- Discussion
24. Epignosis - Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair / 1985 / New wave / 8 tracks / 40:27 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
25. A Person - Moor Mother - Fetish Bones / 2016 / Noise/hip hop / 13 tracks / 30:16 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify --- Discussion
26. triceratopzeuhl - Townes Van Zandt - Townes Van Zandt / 1969 / Country/folk / 10 tracks / 34:33 / available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
27. sprityo - Ratatat - Classics / 2006 / Alternative indie rock / 10 tracks / 39:01 / available on YouTube -- Discussion
28. Ricochet - Phoenix - Mugur de fluier / 1974 / Progressive folk / 14 tracks / 45:56 / available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
29. G-Man - A Flock of Seagulls - A Flock of Seagulls / 1982 / Synth-pop, New Wave / 11 tracks / 41:06 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
30. MovingPictures07 - Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Leucocyte / 2008 / Avant-Garde Jazz / 10 tracks / 74:38 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
31. nutella - Woodkid - The Golden Age / 2013 / Orchestral Pop / 14 tracks / 48:34 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
32. speedchuck - That Handsome Devil - A City Dressed in Dynamite / 2008 / Experimental alternative rock / 41:42 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
33. insertnamehere - Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On / 2011 / Freak Folk / 10 Tracks / 39:28 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
34. Epignosis - Chris Squire - Fish Out of Water / 1975 / Symphonic Prog / 5 tracks / 42:30 / available on YouTube --- Discussion
35. JaggedJimmyJay - Joanna Newsom - Ys / 2006 / Folk / 5 tracks / 55:41 / Available on YouTube --- Discussion
36. dunya - Drake - Take Care / 2011 / Pop rap / 17 tracks / 80:23 / Available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
37. G-Man - Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas / 1965 / Christmas music / 11 tracks / 34:29 / Available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
38. MovingPictures07 - Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma / 2010 / Intelligent dance music / 17 tracks / 45:47 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
39. JaggedJimmyJay - CunninLynguists - A Piece of Strange / 2005 / Southern hip hop / 16 tracks / 54:19 / YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify --- Discussion
40. speedchuck - Rishloo - Feathergun / 2010 / Prog Rock / 11 tracks / 58:15 / Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
41. nutella - Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Stuart Duncan, Yo-Yo Ma - The Goat Rodeo Sessions / 2011 / Bluegrass/Classical fusion / 11 (+2 bonus) tracks / 57:18 (without bonus tracks) / Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
42. Epignosis - Kansas - Somewhere to Elsewhere / 2000 / Progressive rock / 11 tracks / 68:09 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
43. MovingPictures07 - Ryoji Ikeda - dataplex / 2005 / Microsound / 20 tracks / 55:31 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
44. dunya - Pescado Rabioso - Pescado 2 / 1973 / Psychedelic Rock / 18 tracks / 73:40 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
45. G-Man - Local H - Pack Up The Cats / 1998 / Rock / 15 tracks / 47:38 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
46. JaggedJimmyJay - Marina & the Diamonds - The Family Jewels / 2010 / Electropop / 13 tracks / 46:22 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
47. speedchuck - Ayreon - Universal Migrator Pt I: The Dream Sequencer / 2000 / Rock Opera / 11 Tracks / 70:14 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
48. MovingPictures07 - Madvillain - Madvillainy / 2004 / Abstract Hip Hop / 22 tracks / 46:13 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
49. Ricochet - Igor Stravinsky - Petrushka / 1910-11 / Classical, Ballet Music / 4 tracks / parts / 34:58 / YouTube and Spotify (multiple different performances) --- Discussion
50. ColinIsCool - Los Campesinos! - No Blues / 2014 / Indie rock/indie pop / 10 tracks / 41:39 / YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
51. nutella - Esben and the Witch - A New Nature / 2014 / Post-rock/Darkwave / 8 tracks / 54:28 / Youtube, Bandcamp, and Spotify --- Discussion
52. dunya - Emilíana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman / 2005 / Contemporary Folk / 12 tracks / 39:22 / Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
53. G-Man - Explosions In the Sky - The Wilderness / 2016 / Post-Rock / 9 tracks / 46:20 / Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
54. JaggedJimmyJay - Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime / 1988 / Heavy metal/Rock opera / 15 tracks / 59:12 / Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
55. speedchuck - Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark? / 2017 / Alternative Rock / 10 tracks / 34:25 / Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
56. MovingPictures07 - Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica / 2011 / [Experimental Electronic] [Ambient] [Plunderphonics] / 10 tracks / 40:57 / Available on Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
57. Ricochet - Aphrodite's Child - 666 / 1972 / Rock opera/Psychedelic, Fusion / 24 tracks / 77:58 / Available on Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
58. Nutella - The Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord & Melody / 2008 / Jazz-y indie rock / 12 tracks / 58:23 / Available on Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
59. G-Man - Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose / 2004 / Country / 13 tracks / 38:30 / Available on YouTube and Spotify --- Discussion
60. JaggedJimmyJay - Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion / 2015 / Pop / 12 tracks / 44:02 / Available on Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
61. Speedchuck - Theophany - Time's End / 2012 / Rearranged Soundtrack / 10 tracks / 54:33 / Available on Youtube and Bandcamp --- Discussion
62. M Plus 7 - Sun Ra - Lanquidity / 1978 / Jazz Fusion / 5 tracks / 42:07 / Available on Youtube and Spotify --- Discussion
63. Golden: Itzhak Perlman - Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn Violin Concertos / 2003 / Classical / 7 tracks / 75:55 / Available via Golden's reconstructed playlist (click spoiler tag)


Current Queue:
64. Sprityo: Young the Giant - Home of the Strange / 2016 / indie rock / 11 tracks / 39:50 / Available on YouTube and Spotify


65. ColinIsCool: Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle / 1973 / pop/rock, singer/songwriter, jazz rock / 7 tracks / Spotify and YouTube
66. Nutella: The Books - Thought for Food / 2002 / aleatoric/folktronica/sound collage / 12 tracks / 38:31 / available on spotify, youtube and bandcamp
67. G-Man: Chumbawamba - Tubthumper / 1997 / anarcho-punk/dance-pop / 12 tracks / 58:49 / available on YouTube and Spotify
68. JaggedJimmyJay: There Will Be Fireworks - The Dark, Dark Bright - 2013 / Indie rock / 12 tracks / 48:26 / YouTube and Spotify
69. Speedchuck: Alan Parson's Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination / 1976 / Progressive Rock / 11 tracks (on youtube) / 42:38 / available on Youtube
70. M Plus 7: M Plus 7 - Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out / 2000 / Indie Rock/Dream Pop / 13 tracks / 77:15 / Available on Youtube and Spotify

I'm glad to see this getting some support.

If y'all like, we can just start throwing out nominations now. I'll say we can take nominations until 2 PM EST on Saturday (could be extended if necessary). If we have more than 5 nominations by that point, we'll do a poll to determine which 5 we will start with and in what order.

Please, no more than one nomination per person. I'll get us started:

Nominations:

Crowded House - Woodface
Corinne Bailey Rae - The Heart Speaks In Whispers
deadmau5 - > album title goes here <

Don't worry, you're not the only curmudgeonly prog hater around.

Golden wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Don't worry, you're not the only curmudgeonly prog hater around.

I like prog.

No, no, no, you hate it. I tell you what your opinions are.

I'd be fine with skipping the nomination/poll. My only intent was to prevent 80 nominations from coming in and leaving us with an immensely long list. If it's capped at whatever number, maybe still 5, then sure I don't object to that. All in favor say aye.

As for the duration, I don't see a viable alternative. It definitely takes more than a week to get properly acquainted with some things, but it isn't reasonable to spend that much time on one album for an exercise like this. It's only meant as an introduction to the music anyway.

Or you may have meant to suggest that a week is too long?

If so, could be. I left that much time because people have things to do and lives to lead; I don't know how often y'all actually sit down to listen to albums. If that's more time than is necessary then I am open to changing that too.

How about 5 days? A bit more difficult to track, but I guess it's still just basic math.

Truly all the details aren't that important, I just want to listen to music.

Nominations/Queue/Whatever:

Crowded House - Woodface (on Spotify or I can individually link YouTube videos when the time comes)
Corinne Bailey Rae - The Heart Speaks In Whispers
deadmau5 - > album title goes here <
Echolyn - Echolyn
The Family Crest - Beneath the Brine (Spotify and YouTube)

I definitely had an answer in there. Stupid phone.

That's fine with me G-Man.

Nominations/Queue/Whatever:

~ JJJ - Crowded House - Woodface / 1991 / Rock-oriented pop / 14 tracks / 48:11 / (on Spotify or I can individually link YouTube videos when the time comes)
~ Golden - Corinne Bailey Rae - The Heart Speaks In Whispers / 2016 / Neo-soul / 12 tracks / 55:31
~ Marmot - deadmau5 - > album title goes here < / 2012 / House / 13 tracks / 79:53
~ Epignosis - Echolyn - Echolyn / 2012 / Progressive rock / 8 tracks / 70:44
~ nutella - The Family Crest - Beneath the Brine / 2014 / Chamber pop/Indie rock / 11 tracks / 53:12 / (Spotify and YouTube)
~ Ricochet - Jethro Tull - A Passion Play / 1973 / Progressive rock / 4 tracks / 45:11 / (Spotify)
~ MP07 - Fishmans - 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare / 1999 / Dream pop / 14 tracks / 2:10:19
~ Boomslang - Goat - World Music / 2012 / Psychedelic rock / 9 tracks / 37:10 / (Spotify)
~ INH - Scott Walker - Bish Bosch / Experimental / 9 tracks / 73:04 / (Spotify)
~ llama - Arthur Brown - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown / Psychedelic rock / 1968 / 10 tracks / 36:39
~ G-Man - Chuck Berry - Chuck Berry Is on Top (YouTube Playlist- Listen to the first six tracks (through Johnny B Goode), then listen to this solo track (Little Queenie), then resume the playlist.) 1959 / Rock and roll / 12 tracks / 29:26
~ trice - The Kinks - Arthur / 1969 / Rock-oriented pop / 12 tracks / 48:43

That's 11 submissions, which I think is plenty for now no matter how we proceed.

So lemme know everyone, how would you prefer to do this?

~ Shall we go with a hard queue as above?
~ Shall we do a poll vote to cut it down and then revisit the rest later?
~ How many days do you want to spend on each album?

These details mean little to me, so I am very open to your preferences.

Note: if we end up doing a poll, I would gather some basic information about each album to make the choices feel a little less abitrary:

- Release year
- [Parent] genre
- Number of tracks
- Duration

If anyone wants access to these little "Spotify" nuggets we're dropping that doesn't already have it, I'm pretty sure it's free if you don't mind a commercial here and there.

I don't work for that organization.

Also, anyone who voted yes in the poll that hasn't submitted an album yet, please go ahead and do so. Don't let me stop ya.

triceratopzeuhl wrote:What is duration doing to be? The OP says 5 weeks, I'm interested if it will be shorter than that

One week per album was the original intent with a 5-week queue.

Since it appears most people don't mind the notion of a poll, I'll just roll with that so we can get started here.

Gonna need a little time to compile the details though.

MovingPictures07 wrote:Sounds good. Let me get the details for Fishmans for you too.

Should we just keep the discussion / poll in this thread and change the thread title?

Works for me. I was considering a separate thread for each album, but that wouldn't take long to become spam city.

Thanks gang. I've got all the info now, poll going up soon.

The poll is up. It's only running for a day so we can get moving with this. If an extension is needed we'll play it by ear.

We're each selecting 5 of the albums in the poll (or up to 5) not including our own submissions. That would kind of defeat the purpose. If your submission doesn't happen to be selected, please don't take it personally. The choices are limited and I'd like to hear them all as time permits. Just save it for next time.

There's Rico voting for his own album.

I think there's a greater likelihood that a hard queue would leave the last few people on the list waiting long enough that they'd no longer care when their turn arrives. I'm hoping to prevent that, and a repeating poll might help. It's just a guess though, and if the poll ends up being pointless we don't have to do it that way next time. I welcome all feedback on that stuff as we proceed.

The most important thing is that we're sharing music with each other.

Ricochet wrote:Wait a minute, since when does A Passion Play have "4 tracks"?

RYM reports 4, though only two have a duration. So maybe it's 2 tracks?

I'm afraid to change the poll options; I don't want all the votes to vanish.

It's two tracks, gang. Two tracks.

nutella wrote:also slight nitpick bc I just noticed this, the youtube version of Beneath the Brine is missing the last track for some reason? you have the running time correct but there are 12 tracks and I guess when it comes up I'll point it out if anyone uses youtube.

RYM also reports 11 tracks on that one, maybe the 12th is a bonus track added later? Spotify has 12 though so I'll change it.

I guess if there's a tie I'll just include everything within the tie. That might look shady since my submission is currently tied for 5th, but a coin flip wouldn't really be fair (this ain't no lynch). So whatever.

Golden wrote:I'm fine with a coin flip, even if it goes against my submission. The thing will still be there next time.

A question - what to do with the submissions that aren't in the top 5? Just roll them over to the next poll? Does that mean people who are successful get to nominate another, the others don't?

My original intent was for the second (and beyond) poll to just be whatever people want to submit, regardless of what was in the first. Previously successful people could submit new things, and the others can either re-submit their prior entries or something else. The logistics of this process are very loose. I was going to see how the first set of album goes to determine whether another poll is even necessary. I'm open to ideas, because this is the stuff I want to avoid:

~ A gigantic queue of albums forming similar to the old Mafia game queues here. I want people to have a glimmer of hope that an album they submit will be heard here in their lifetimes.

~ Newcomers to the activity being essentially screwed out of submitting an album that will be heard any time soon.

~ Someone finally getting to do their album after a long wait and getting minimal participation because it's unpopular.

Those things all favor a polling process. However, this also warrant consideration on the flip side:

~ I don't want a small portion of the participants getting all the glory, and that's possible with repeating polls.

Golden wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:~ I don't want a small portion of the participants getting all the glory, and that's possible with repeating polls.

A one poll stand down after your album is selected? Or is that discouraging.

I wouldn't say it's discouraging, though the results would end up basically being identical to a queue anyway.

Thanks for voting folks. For the four tied at 6 votes I set the queue in order of submission. For the two tied at 5, I've deferred to llama. So our first queue:

1. nutella: The Family Crest - Beneath the Brine
2. MovingPictures07: Fishmans - 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare
3. Boomslang: Goat - World Music
4. insertnamehere: Scott Walker - Bish Bosch
5. thellama73: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

I've updated the OP to reflect that and added links where necessary.

First poll:

I'm on my first pass through it now. I'll listen a couple times at least before commenting in depth, but I do appreciate the dramatic flair of the album. There's a momentum that starts rolling in the first track which hasn't relented through #8 so far, and I dig that. So often there seems to be a sort of intermission track jammed into albums that disturbs the momentum and that hasn't happened yet with this one.

It makes me chuckle because I'm 8 years old. Different ideas are welcome.

Sure I'm down. And hey look at the thread title!

nutella wrote:What about "Album Sharing Shenanigans" or ASS for short?

Coming up next Sunday, in our secondly weekly ASS...

We're obviously not going to like everything we hear here. Honesty is ideal, so long as nobody is an arse (and I don't anticipate that). My first exposure to the album was positive though. I'll probably listen again tomorrow and see how my feelings develop.

Yeah I think that's just Epi making a joke. He hasn't heard it yet, and the qualities he was disparaging are hallmarks of his precious progressive rock anyway.

I'm pretty sure a long time ago there was a regular on the RYM boards with "Walter" in his username who would insist that music made after 1989 was all bad. Same reference I guess? Or maybe the same person?

Anyway, that's complete nonsense.

G-Man wrote:What exactly are we evaluating?

Whatever you want.

G-Man wrote:Are we using any kind of common rating scale for the songs and album as a whole?

Nah. Whatever you want.

G-Man wrote:I have two rating scales at my disposal, personally. Are we just judging for discussion or are we going to come up with an average group rating to track as we go along? Am I over-thinking this already?

If enough people rank (keyword rank, not rate) the tracks on the album, I will compile a group average ranking just for kicks. It'll be a neat little bit of numbers porn for those who enjoy that sort of thing, but it isn't required. I intend to do a ranking once I have more exposure.

I'm on my third run through the album now. I definitely think the first half is stronger than the second, though I can't tell if that's the product of the music truly being more appealing or me simply running out of gas as a listener. I quite like the album though and am glad you brought it to us, nutella. I intend to listen to their other album The Village too soon. It's a pleasing sound.

I like the vocals too. I think they suit the music very well. I tend to be a fan of this sort of colorful indie stuff though.

It doesn't appear "ranking" is going to be a prominent thing here, which is perfectly cool with me. So I'm pulling it from the name. I think just Syndicate Album of the Week is fine. SAW.

We'll see if the name changes again tomorrow.

When I initially included the word "ranking", I was talking about tracks. I won't be ranking the albums as we go (I'll feel bad about whichever one inevitably finishes last), but of course y'all treat the activity as you like.

thellama73 wrote:Does anyone find it useful to rank tracks on an album? I find it very strange. I view an album as a coherent unit of music, not just a collection of songs.

I wouldn't call it "useful" to rank anything in music. There is no objective good or bad anyway. It's just numbers porn for people who like numbers. I'm not even that into it personally. This activity springs from a similar one I used to do waaaaaaaay back, and in that case they liked to rank the tracks.

I'd never heard of the guy you were referencing, Rico, but it's clear you were dedicated to the joke. Well played, sir. The review was interesting too. I encourage you to make those at your leisure as time permits.

I'm giving their debut album a spin now just to see how it compares.

Their debut album The Village sounded a lot to me like a precursor to Beneath the Brine. By that I mean it sounded like a less refined expression of the same basic thing. Of course my perspective is influenced by having heard the latter first, so I don't know if I'd feel differently otherwise. I wouldn't say The Village was bad, but I did enjoy it less -- at least at first exposure.

I probably won't be able to "officially" shift us to the second album, but any moderator can feel free to edit the OP. MP, go ahead and introduce your album whenever you're ready tomorrow.

Thanks, nutella, for kicking us off with a strong selection.