The Syndicate

I liked your ATGR review. It made me want to break out all of my Neil Young which I don't do as often as I should.

You are very kind, SVS. I don't know why people always call you a bear.

thellama73 wrote:My next post in the series is delayed because Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom is apparently out of print and hard to get a copy of. I'm expecting to receive it on Monday.

Oh man, you've never heard Rock Bottom? Prepare yourself for an awesome album. Love that one.

So while I was active at ProgArchives almost 10 years ago I did some music reviews/ratings, but wasn't that prolific. Since then I've largely discovered music without reviewing or giving any ratings; even though I've used RYM ratings and reviews as a primary source of discovering new music for the last 5+ years, for example, I've never rated a single piece of music myself.

Starting tomorrow morning I think I'm going to try giving a quick rating on RYM to everything I'm listening to by the time each album is complete -- just a gut-based evaluation. It's daunting, but exciting, and as necessary for my current schedule will demand very little time commitment (since I won't be writing reviews). We'll see how long I can keep this up.

MovingPictures07 wrote:So while I was active at ProgArchives almost 10 years ago I did some music reviews/ratings, but wasn't that prolific. Since then I've largely discovered music without reviewing or giving any ratings; even though I've used RYM ratings and reviews as a primary source of discovering new music for the last 5+ years, for example, I've never rated a single piece of music myself.

Starting tomorrow morning I think I'm going to try giving a quick rating on RYM to everything I'm listening to by the time each album is complete -- just a gut-based evaluation. It's daunting, but exciting, and as necessary for my current schedule will demand very little time commitment (since I won't be writing reviews). We'll see how long I can keep this up.

I look forward to disagreeing with your ratings.

thellama73 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:So while I was active at ProgArchives almost 10 years ago I did some music reviews/ratings, but wasn't that prolific. Since then I've largely discovered music without reviewing or giving any ratings; even though I've used RYM ratings and reviews as a primary source of discovering new music for the last 5+ years, for example, I've never rated a single piece of music myself.

Starting tomorrow morning I think I'm going to try giving a quick rating on RYM to everything I'm listening to by the time each album is complete -- just a gut-based evaluation. It's daunting, but exciting, and as necessary for my current schedule will demand very little time commitment (since I won't be writing reviews). We'll see how long I can keep this up.

I look forward to disagreeing with your ratings.

I already disagree with his future ratings.

It's a good thing the RYM:OT forum is gone or they'd have made fun of your prog ratings.

thellama73 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:So while I was active at ProgArchives almost 10 years ago I did some music reviews/ratings, but wasn't that prolific. Since then I've largely discovered music without reviewing or giving any ratings; even though I've used RYM ratings and reviews as a primary source of discovering new music for the last 5+ years, for example, I've never rated a single piece of music myself.

Starting tomorrow morning I think I'm going to try giving a quick rating on RYM to everything I'm listening to by the time each album is complete -- just a gut-based evaluation. It's daunting, but exciting, and as necessary for my current schedule will demand very little time commitment (since I won't be writing reviews). We'll see how long I can keep this up.

I look forward to disagreeing with your ratings.

I thought we had similar music taste.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:It's a good thing the RYM:OT forum is gone or they'd have made fun of your prog ratings.

Oh, I'm sure. Though I'm suspecting that current MP will be harsher on prog music than any past version of MP would have been. We'll see.

It may take a bit to find out though since I'm not necessarily going out of my way to rate anything, just in the course of normal listening habits. So it'll be weird to not have rated all these prog albums I spun the fuck out of years ago, but I have to start somewhere I guess!

MovingPictures07 wrote: I thought we had similar music taste.

We do, but you gave Pawn Hearts one star, so I have to tease you about it.

I still don't like Pawn Hearts. Every few years I give it another spin to see if it has grown on me. Nope. Never.

H to He is where it's at. And Wave to Each Other.

thellama73 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote: I thought we had similar music taste.

We do, but you gave Pawn Hearts one star, so I have to tease you about it.

I definitely don't agree with that now. I prefer Still Life and Godbluff, but Pawn Hearts would get a solid 3 from me now, I suspect. I'd need to give it a fresh listen though; it's been at least a year or two since I've heard it.

Epignosis wrote:I still don't like Pawn Hearts. Every few years I give it another spin to see if it has grown on me. Nope. Never.

H to He is where it's at. And Wave to Each Other.

I'm actually with you on this. I like Pawn Hearts okay, but those other two are much better.

thellama73 wrote:

Epignosis wrote:I still don't like Pawn Hearts. Every few years I give it another spin to see if it has grown on me. Nope. Never.

H to He is where it's at. And Wave to Each Other.

I'm actually with you on this. I like Pawn Hearts okay, but those other two are much better.

I dislike agreeing with Llama, so I'll agree with Epignosis instead. H to He is masterliness.

So I started rating albums today. If any of you all actually care about following along whenever, here's my RYM page.

I decided to start the morning/ratings process with two of my all-time favorites, first my namesake, then its chronological follow-up (Signals), which set the tone for high-ranking albums (5.0 and 4.5 respectively). I don't intend on giving out 5-star ratings more than very seldom.

My rating scale is:
5.0 -- pinnacle of musical perfection
4.5 -- mindblowingly stunning
4.0 -- thoroughly outstanding
3.5 -- solidly awesome
3.0 -- marginally enjoyable
2.5 -- epitome of unimpressive
2.0 -- somewhat repulsive
1.5 -- waste of sound waves
1.0 -- horrendously putrid garbage
0.5 -- anti-music destroyer of ears

Listened to 11 albums today. It was a good day for music since I listened to a few of my current/all-time favorite bands (Rush, Fishmans, The Jesus and Mary Chain), but also a handful of releases that are relatively new to me that ended up in the "marginally enjoyable" range. Over the weekend I'm going to try to make sure to throw in plenty of music that's brand new to my collection as well.

2017 is going to be a year of musical discovery as much as possible, in stark contrast to how it's been for me since I started the PhD program. Very much looking forward to revisit old favorites and new material with this rating process.

Don't you find the gap between 2.5 and 3.0 to be rather larger than in any other case?

thellama73 wrote:Don't you find the gap between 2.5 and 3.0 to be rather larger than in any other case?

You mean based on my text descriptions? I'm not the best with words, but nonetheless wanted to convey them rather than just numerical ratings alone. I also struggle to come up with a record that would fall in between those two categories off the top of my head.

Not sure though. It's naturally a work in progress and may benefit from some fine tuning. I'm happy with the numerical ratings I gave today though, just haven't maybe nailed down the accompanying text descriptions.

Random speculation... perhaps "marginally enjoyable" would be better. I think I'll change it to that.

EDIT: Yep, it is. Changed. Thanks for the observation.

Having finally received an exceptionally delayed shipment from England, my belated review of Robert Waytt's "Rock Bottom" has been posted. There should be no more such interruptions for several months, until I hit the next out of print album on the list, at least.

The Top 100 Albums of the 1970s keeps right on truckin' with #97, The Harder They Come.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Actually I'll take one thing back: there is nothing good about popular country music. All of it is bad. Every song.

Shame on you, Jay

Rolling right along, this week's review is for Iggy Pop's The Idiot.

I prefer Disc 2 of Physical Graffiti.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I prefer Disc 2 of Physical Graffiti.

That's an extremely interesting preference.

I think 'Ten Years Gone' is the best Led Zeppelin song, the end. 'Night Flight' is among my favorite lyrical accomplishments of theirs. I think 'In the Light' is more interesting than 'In My Time of Dying'. 'Sick Again' is one of my favorite Page riffs. 'Down by the Seaside' never fails to hit the spot. 'Black Country Woman' and 'Boogie With Stu' don't offer much, but I appreciate efforts at diversity.

I hate 'Trampled Under Foot' which drags down Disc 1. 'Kashmir' is great for the first five minutes. 'The Rover' is probably my favorite on that disc.

Oversteps is the best Autechre album. Discuss.

thellama73 wrote:Oversteps is the best Autechre album. Discuss.

No.

thellama73 wrote:Oversteps is the best Autechre album. Discuss.

It's in my top 5.

On the way home, I tuned into the middle of a song on the classic rock radio station. It had a sound that felt familiar but I couldn't quite place it. It was an instrumental part that was great. As I got closer to home, I began hoping for the singing to return or for the song to end and the DJ say what it was. The instrumental sounded similar to good/early Black Sabbath but I could tell it wasn't them. I was loving it!

Then the singer came in. Freaking Geddy Lee.

When it comes to music, I'm a sum-of-all-parts kind of guy. Amazing how a vocalist can take me from to

But you Rush fans can take heart in the fact that their music at least appealed to me in a vacuum.

G-Man wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2017 7:44 pm On the way home, I tuned into the middle of a song on the classic rock radio station. It had a sound that felt familiar but I couldn't quite place it. It was an instrumental part that was great. As I got closer to home, I began hoping for the singing to return or for the song to end and the DJ say what it was. The instrumental sounded similar to good/early Black Sabbath but I could tell it wasn't them. I was loving it!

Then the singer came in. Freaking Geddy Lee.

When it comes to music, I'm a sum-of-all-parts kind of guy. Amazing how a vocalist can take me from to

But you Rush fans can take heart in the fact that their music at least appealed to me in a vacuum.

What piece was it?

"Working Man"

Ella Fitzgerald's version of my favorite jazz piece, "Stella by Starlight."

I can never get enough.

So for whatever reason, I'v been listening to Rush's "Working Man" quite a bit lately. It's only one song but I've come to appreciate Geddy Lee's vocals on the track. They work well with the down-tuned sort of Black Sabbath sound the song possesses. If I didn't have so much catch-up listening to do, I might actually listen to the whole album.

Can any of you Rush fans tell me when Rush ditched the Sabbath sound for the lighter fare they play on classic rock radio?

1977.