The Syndicate

I got this idea after seeing the rainbow colored album rankings in G-Man's The Wall (Speed Game) thread.

I'll give you all an artist or band, then you give me your ranking of their albums. We can always take turns nominating bands and artists as well, whatever you all want. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Feel free to use whatever colors you want, but I'm going to be using the following color/ranking scheme, comparable to a 5-star rating on RYM or PA:
Perfect -- 5.0
Almost Perfect -- 4.5
Awesome -- 4.0
Good -- 3.5
Average -- 3.0
Somewhat Poor -- 2.5
Poor -- 2.0
Abysmal -- 1.5
Anti-Music -- 1.0

First up... how about David Bowie, in honor of his legacy and unfortunate passing earlier this year?

Low
Station to Station
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Hunky Dory
Heroes

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
Aladdin Sane
Diamond Dogs

Lodger
Blackstar
The Man Who Sold the World

Young Americans
The Next Day
Outside
Heathen

David Bowie
Earthling
Let's Dance

Hours...
Reality
Black Tie White Noise
Tonight
Never Let Me Down

Sheesh, MP! One band/artist at a time. I'm working my way through Pink Floyd for the other thread right now but maybe I'll tackle Bowie next week.

G-Man wrote:Sheesh, MP! One band/artist at a time. I'm working my way through Pink Floyd for the other thread right now but maybe I'll tackle Bowie next week.

Fine with me, take your time.

I'll do some for bands that I think most would recognize:

Led Zeppelin

Physical Graffiti
Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin [IV]

Presence
In Through the Out Door

Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin

Coda

Note -- bad colors don't necessarily mean I dislike the albums. I'm just using the spectrum more completely.

You think Led Zeppelin albums are more recognizable than Bowie?

I'm fine with doing multiple artists at a time though, so let me mull over that and I'll provide my Led Zep rankings in accordance with my rainbow system above. Warning: My list is likely to be controversial, since I like Bowie a lot more than Led Zep.

Beatles, from 1964 onward:

Abbey Road

Revolver
Rubber Soul

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
Help!
A Hard Day's Night

Let It Be

The White Album

Led Zeppelin

Physical Graffiti

Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin IV

Presence
Led Zeppelin I
Led Zeppelin II

In Through the Out Door

Coda

I'm not the biggest Zeppelin fan, and always found them to be a bit overrated particularly when compared to some peers. I can appreciate the impact they had on rock music though, and I certainly don't dislike them.

Intriguing to see that we have a really similar ranking though, Jay. I always thought my ranking of LZ albums was particularly unconventional.

MovingPictures07 wrote:You think Led Zeppelin albums are more recognizable than Bowie?

I'm fine with doing multiple artists at a time though, so let me mull over that and I'll provide my Led Zep rankings in accordance with my rainbow system above. Warning: My list is likely to be controversial, since I like Bowie a lot more than Led Zep.

No, I actually missed the part in your original post where you meant for everyone to follow with the artist you named. My bad.

David Bowie:

Low
Hunky Dory

"Heroes"
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Alladin Sane
Station to Station

Black Star

Heathen
The Next Day

That's all I have heard.

Alright, I'll do Beatles 1964-onward as well, curious to see what everyone else thinks.

Beatles, from 1964 onward:

The White Album

Abbey Road

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Magical Mystery Tour

Rubber Soul

Revolver

Let It Be
A Hard Day's Night

Help!

I actually hated The Beatles for a while, especially because my brother went through a period of obsession with their earlier material (he preferred it, I have no idea why). Eventually I opened my mind enough, and consider The White Album to be an essential album (in fact, I ranked it #1 on my essential albums list). I still much prefer later Beatles though, and only consider Sgt. Pepper's, Abbey Road, and White Album to be heavily worth listening to. My opinions on The Beatles are likely very unconventional.

How's that, G-Man, Mr. 1 band per week? :P

I'm going to do my favorite prog band.

Camel

Dust and Dreams
The Snow Goose
Harbour of Tears
A Nod and a Wink

Mirage
Moonmadness
Rajaz

Rain Dances
I Can See My House from Here
Stationary Traveller
Camel

Breathless
Nude

The Single Factor

I haven't heard enough albums from any of the artists mentioned so far to do a rainbow.

Oh good, something to consume my weekend.

So far members who ranked Led Zep's first as low as a yellow or orange are confirmed FOOLS.

I can probably managed a rainbow of Zep and Camel. I couldn't do a full Bowie one, because upon listening to his albums one by one in chronological order, getting past Station to Station was the equivalent of trying to stay awake. The Beatles would show up almost entirely in red, so no fun there.

MovingPictures07 wrote:How's that, G-Man, Mr. 1 band per week? :P

Well on you, sir. To be accurate and hold myself accountable and consistent through all of my future discography rainbows, I created a spreadsheet and a rating system for grading each song individually, thereby allowing me to give each album a sum-of-its-parts average score. I will then attempt to adapt said score to the rating system you are using here. I will then be able to step back and ultimately rank every album on every rainbow list I make by their score.

MovingPictures07 wrote:Alright, I'll do Beatles 1964-onward as well, curious to see what everyone else thinks.

Beatles, from 1964 onward:

The White Album

Abbey Road

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Magical Mystery Tour

Rubber Soul

Revolver

Let It Be
A Hard Day's Night

Help!

I actually hated The Beatles for a while, especially because my brother went through a period of obsession with their earlier material (he preferred it, I have no idea why). Eventually I opened my mind enough, and consider The White Album to be an essential album (in fact, I ranked it #1 on my essential albums list). I still much prefer later Beatles though, and only consider Sgt. Pepper's, Abbey Road, and White Album to be heavily worth listening to. My opinions on The Beatles are likely very unconventional.

I think 'from 1964 onwards' is not all of the Beatles output

Also, I personally love Revolver, it's probably my favourite. I agree with you that Rubber Soul is generally overrated. I think possibly I feel that way about the White Album too, although there are quite a few tracks on there I love I feel on a track by track basis it comes out weaker for me. Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road get the most play.

Extra pointless post from me, because I apparently accidentally hit "notify me when new posts" which is wtf.

Ricochet wrote:Extra pointless post from me, because I apparently accidentally hit "notify me when new posts" which is wtf.

G-Man wrote:

Ricochet wrote:Extra pointless post from me, because I apparently accidentally hit "notify me when new posts" which is wtf.

wut?

The White Album is very love/hate for most people. For me, it's the only Beatles album I didn't give at least a decent rating (I'd classify that as 3.0 or better).

I only did the albums starting in 1964 because I never bothered listening to the earlier ones.

Generally, I think Led Zeppelin music gets worse as it gets heavier. Not always, but usually. That's why I don't care as much for LZ1 and LZ2. They're at their best when they show off their capacity for diversity in songwriting. PG and HOTH are the best in that regard by far, in my opinion.

I always felt Physical Graffiti's first CD is almost 5 stars (yes, even with Kashmir), but then the second CD is like a violent carcrash.

I think Ten Years Gone is the best LZ song, so there's that. I absolutely love Down by the Seaside and Night Flight, those feature some of Plant's best lyrics ever. Sick Again is a moment of good heavy LZ. I could do without Boogie With Stu. I really think 90% of the album is great, and that's hard to manage with a double album.

Radiohead

Kid A

The Bends
OK Computer

In Rainbows

The King of Limbs
Amnesiac
Hail to the Thief

Pablo Honey

Here's a good place for some shameless self promotion.

Favorite Radiohead songs

Favorite Pink Floyd songs

Favorite Led Zeppelin songs

Favorite Beatles songs

Favorite Camel songs

Led Zep


Houses of the Holy
Led Zeppelin
The Song Remains the Same
Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin III
Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin II

BBC Sessions
In Through the Out Door
Presence

Coda

Radiohead

OK Computer

Amnesiac
In Rainbows

The Bends
The King of Limbs

Hail to the Thief

Pablo Honey

Kid A

Given JJ had to move out of his house and pack up all his stuff, it's nice of MP to build him a new house to make his own.

Ricochet wrote:So far members who ranked Led Zep's first as low as a yellow or orange are confirmed FOOLS.

I concur. I once heard someone say that the early Beatles albums are the soundtrack to young people falling in love. If that's the case then Led Zeppelin's first two albums are the soundtrack for sweaty, lust-fueled one-night stands.

MovingPictures07 wrote:Radiohead

Kid A
OK Computer

The Bends
Amnesiac

The King of Limbs

In Rainbows

Hail to the Thief

Pablo Honey

Ah, Radiohead. I think my rainbow list for their albums might be in stark contrast to the opinions of many. They were one of those 90s bands that I simply never got into. I think the only reason I ever tuned into one of their songs on the radio was to annoy my parents.

I'm going to do Rush, because they're one of the few bands whose complete discography I own.

Hemispheres
A Farewell to Kings
Moving Pictures
Signals
Permanent Waves
2112
Caress of Steel
Power Windows
Grace Under Pressure
Presto
Fly by Night
Clockwork Angels
Counterparts
Vapor Trails
Snakes and Arrows
Rush
Test for Echo
Roll the Bones
Hold Your Fire

Oooooh Rush! I'm going to do that too.

I might as well do Queen too while I'm here.

Queen II
A Night at the Opera
A Day at the Races
Sheer Heart Attack
News of the World
Jazz
Queen
Innuendo
The Works
The Game
The Miracle
A Kind of Magic
Hot Space

Warning: Extremely major fanboy alert.

Rush

Moving Pictures
Hemispheres
Clockwork Angels

Power Windows
Permanent Waves
Hold Your Fire
Signals
Counterparts
Roll the Bones
A Farewell to Kings
Grace Under Pressure

Caress of Steel
Snakes and Arrows
Vapor Trails
2112

Presto
Fly by Night
Test for Echo

Rush
As many bands and artists as I've grown to love and continue to know and love, nothing will ever top Rush for me.

thellama73 wrote:I'm going to do Rush, because they're one of the few bands whose complete discography I own.

Hemispheres
A Farewell to Kings
Moving Pictures
Signals
Permanent Waves
2112
Caress of Steel
Power Windows
Grace Under Pressure
Presto
Fly by Night
Clockwork Angels
Counterparts
Vapor Trails
Snakes and Arrows
Rush
Test for Echo
Roll the Bones
Hold Your Fire

Amazing! If I recall, you only had the first half or so as recently as a couple months ago.

Y'all can count on several rainbow lists from me in the near future.

MovingPictures07 wrote:I got this idea after seeing the rainbow colored album rankings in G-Man's The Wall (Speed Game) thread.

I'll give you all an artist or band, then you give me your ranking of their albums. We can always take turns nominating bands and artists as well, whatever you all want. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Feel free to use whatever colors you want, but I'm going to be using the following color/ranking scheme, comparable to a 5-star rating on RYM or PA:
Perfect -- 5.0
Almost Perfect -- 4.5
Awesome -- 4.0
Good -- 3.5
Average -- 3.0
Somewhat Poor -- 2.5
Poor -- 2.0
Abysmal -- 1.5
Anti-Music -- 1.0

Rating scale question- Say I have an album I feel is worth a 4.25 (again, I'm grading each song and taking an average for my album score)... Do I color it in Awesome Green (4.0) or in Almost Perfect Blue (4.5)? Would you say that a perfect album is strictly 5-stars or anything 4.6 stars and up? Just trying too hard to be accurate here.

Sounds like a good time for some turquoise.

The Rush albums I've heard:

Permanent Waves

Moving Pictures
Snakes and Arrows

2112
A Farewell to Kings

Hemispheres

Dream Theater

Images and Words

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

Systematic Chaos

Train of Thought
Octavarium
Falling into Infinity
A Change of Seasons

A Dramatic Turn of Events

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Hemispheres

We can never be friends.

Voting JaggedJimmyJay

He suggested the use of turquoise, but didn't used it in either of his rainbow lists.

To be fair, I remember nothing about it after all this time. That's what my old ratings tell me.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Dream Theater

Images and Words

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

Systematic Chaos

Train of Thought
Octavarium
Falling into Infinity
A Change of Seasons

A Dramatic Turn of Events

I really love Octavarium. I think that isn't a popular opinion though.

Dream Theater


A Change of Seasons
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Falling into Infinity
Images and Words
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
Octavarium
Train of Thought
Systematic Chaos

Golden wrote:
I really love Octavarium. I think that isn't a popular opinion though.

Wait til you see mine.

Dream Theater

Images and Words
Octavarium
A Change of Seasons
Awake
Train of Thought
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes from a Memory
Systematic Chaos
The Astonishing
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Dream Theater
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Falling into Infinity
When Dream and Day Unite

G-Man wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I got this idea after seeing the rainbow colored album rankings in G-Man's The Wall (Speed Game) thread.

I'll give you all an artist or band, then you give me your ranking of their albums. We can always take turns nominating bands and artists as well, whatever you all want. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Feel free to use whatever colors you want, but I'm going to be using the following color/ranking scheme, comparable to a 5-star rating on RYM or PA:
Perfect -- 5.0
Almost Perfect -- 4.5
Awesome -- 4.0
Good -- 3.5
Average -- 3.0
Somewhat Poor -- 2.5
Poor -- 2.0
Abysmal -- 1.5
Anti-Music -- 1.0

Rating scale question- Say I have an album I feel is worth a 4.25 (again, I'm grading each song and taking an average for my album score)... Do I color it in Awesome Green (4.0) or in Almost Perfect Blue (4.5)? Would you say that a perfect album is strictly 5-stars or anything 4.6 stars and up? Just trying too hard to be accurate here.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Sounds like a good time for some turquoise.

Rush

This is an incredibly hard one, and one that would change if you asked me again tomorrow, but here goes anyway. Also, some would call me weird for ranking Moving Pictures so low and Presto so high.

Permanent Waves
Presto
Clockwork Angels
Power Windows

Grace under Pressure
Signals
A Farewell to Kings
Hemispheres
Snakes & Arrows
Counterparts
Moving Pictures

Vapor Trails
Test for Echo
Roll the Bones
2112
Hold Your Fire
Caress of Steel

Fly by Night

Rush

Time to kiss any musical credibility you folks may see in me by posting my Pink Floyd discography rainbow. I have Ummagumma as a combined album but also scored and positioned for the live record and the studio record on their own. I wasn't sure how others were scoring them. Nothing fell into the "Good" range, which surprised me. This is a very crude scoring system that I'm using though to evaluate each track on its own and then averaging them together. I'm curious to see how some of my favorite artists fair in this system.

For the record, in using MP's color scale, I'm operating such that point level he listed is the maximum value for the cateogry (in other words, anything between a 4.5001 and a 5 is in the 5.0 color. You can figure it out from there.) Animals and Obscured by Clouds are the only two albums that have the exact same score. I think my spreadsheet put Obscured ahead of Animals because it has an earlier release year. Maybe I'll alphabetized tied album scores in the future.

The Dark Side of the Moon

Wish You Were Here

A Saucerful of Secrets
The Wall
Meddle

Ummagumma (Live Tracks)



Obscured by Clouds
Animals
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Atom Heart Mother
Ummagumma (Combined)
The Division Bell
More

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Endless River
The Final Cut

Ummagumma (Studio Tracks)

Since others are just throwing their lists out there, next week I will do The Beatles. I own all of their studio albums except for Yellow Submarine and am much more familiar with how much I like/dislike certain songs than with Pink Floyd. If I can find all the Rolling Stones albums on YouTube, I'll do them after that. After all, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones pretty much set the stage for everything that came after them. Might as well start at the source!