The Syndicate

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:09 pm 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

I thought I was in the perfect state of mind when I started Faces in the Rocks. I was tired, in a good enough mood and just wanted some downtime. I wanted to throw out my typical philosophy of 'let whatever play alongside whatever I'm doing at the time and judge it as background noise'. Here's a track-by-track evaluation.

The first two albums were very good. The instruments meshed together well and was overall very relaxing. The lyrics didn't do much for me though (though they weren't something I made an effort to focus on). That said, the singer's voice was such a good match for the vibe of the thing that it'd be a waste to exclude it. This is a recurring opinion through pretty much all of the tracks. If I were so inclined, I'd listen to these whenever I was feeling particularly stressed.

Friendboats and Wild Eyes weren't as interesting. Previously, I had the impression that the vocals were being treated as more of an accompaniment to the instrumentals, though in these tracks the vocals were more obtrusive. Wild Eyes was particularly dull, 9 minutes long and it never really seemed to draw me in in the same way the previous tracks did. It's the big exception to my prior thoughts that the vocals were a necessary part of the track.

Bravitzlana Rubakalva wasn't bad. Better than the previous two tracks, but not as good as the two before it. I made more of an effort to focus on the lyrics this time; it was cute. Gonna try keep it up in the next few tracks.

I can't really put my finger on exactly how I felt about Two Tongues. It brought a lot of what I disliked about previous tracks, like obtrusive vocals and a lack of structure, but it had a certain charm to it. It came closest to eliciting some description of an emotional reaction from me.

Bundles came closer to the first two tracks, but it was a lot faster paced which I consider a negative. I don't think these tracks have business being fast paced. It was another long one too, without much in the way of evolution. I started to get a bit bored with the album here.

Flowers and Blood was a thing. Yeah. I was in Discord as it played so it didn't get the same attention as the rest. General opinion: it was nice.

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I'm a fan of the genre. There wasn't a track that I disliked, though there were only a few that I really, really liked. There might be better albums out there in this genre, but this one does it justice, methinks.

3.75

Listening to Faces in the Rocks right now. I'll give more elaborate thoughts later tonight, but right now I've gotta say this has gotta be some of the most relaxing shit I've ever heard.

I'm gonna try and get back into this when I get home tonight

I am very behind.

I really enjoyed album title goes here. I'm learning that I've got a thing for good background noise. I'm not the kind to stop everything to properly take in what I'm listening to, so being able to spend my night on other things while letting this play worked well for me. I was able to enjoy it this way even more given that the majority of tracks had no lyrics. Sound alone was engaging and had me hooked for the entire thing. 4.5 stars.

juliets wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:44 pm The youtube link to this week's deadmau5 says "video is unavailable".

For me too.

I'll go with Last Dinosaurs - In a Million Years

Find it here

I'd vote C, but I'd also make it so one person can only have one Album in the queue at a time - once their first album finishes, they can submit the next one.

For those I've listened to so far:

Chuck Berry is on Top - 3/5
Woodface - 3.5/5
Arthur - 2.5/5
Whole Stories - 2/5

I can appreciate what it's trying to do, but I can't get into it. I don't either strongly like or dislike it, it's just really...'uh'. Giving it 2 stars.

first impression:

huh

thellama73 wrote:Quin, do you think your enjoyment of Australia was mitigated by the fact that you live in New Zealand?

Probably. Those assholes think they invented pavlova.

My thoughts usually get less and less front-of-mind by the time I finish the album, so putting my thoughts out gets butchered a lot of the time. Instead, I'll give some thoughts on each track as they happen and then give one at the very end with a proper rating.

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Victoria was great. I enjoyed the uplifting vibes and the pacing of the song. For a song from 1969, it really doesn't feel too outdated. I wouldn't mind coming back to listen to it every now and again.

I couldn't get into Yes Sir, No Sir. I feel like it tried to go in three directions at once - I was getting country, something else and marching band vibes all at once. They didn't do it well.

Some Mothers Son was okay all around. I think you need to be able to really connect with the song to enjoy it so it's definitely outdated for my demographic.

I completely tuned out of Drivin'. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing, because it did make for some alright background listening. To me though, it's not the kind of thing you sit and really 'listen' to.

Brainwashed was mediocre. Nothing good or bad to say about it.

Not a fan of Australia (lol). I couldn't get into it at all, and unlike Drivin I didn't like it sitting in the background either. Too long for very little payoff, imo.

My thoughts of Shangri la were pretty much identical to Drivin'. I was slightly more captivated in parts though, so I give this one a thumbs up.

Mr. Churchill Says was a good listen. Funnily enough, I think I'd have enjoyed it more without the lyrics. The parts where that was the case were fantastic.

Feeling very meh about Princess Marina. That is all.

Young and Innocent Days was nice. Not particularly engaging but if you stop everything and just listen it's definitely enjoyable.

Nothing to Say is another example of good background noise.

As for Arthur, I only say this because of the order of the album I listened to, but it's not a good fit for the concluding song of the album. My interest sort of fizzled out towards the end and Arthur didn't do much for me. On it's own, it's good background noise.

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There were a few good tracks, namely Victoria and Mr. Churchill, but most of them were pretty mediocre. It's not something I'd ever seek out to listen to again, but it was fun to give it a once-over. I'd give it a 3/5.

Only in this conversation did I realise that in a scale between 0-5, 3 is not the middle ground.

I'm just talking out of my ass.

This is the kind of music that my parents listen to, so I've actually heard a few of these before. The first few tracks were engaging and I didn't really want to do much else besides sit there and listen, but that feeling started to go away towards the second half. Still, it was great background noise so I give it a thumbs up overall.

nutella wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Maybe Back to the Future is an early option for Movie of the Week [Week 1].

Let's do it.

Rico's never going to let me go

juliets wrote:

Quin wrote:I'm torn between obediance and defiance to watch bttf just so I can hear more of Rico's beautiful voice.

Why do you think watching bttf will give you the opportunity to hear Rico some more (also, I haven't seen it either)?

i want him to yell at me more

I'm torn between obediance and defiance to watch bttf just so I can hear more of Rico's beautiful voice.

nutella wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I absolutely recognize what Chuck Berry did for music, and the man was a complete legend. I therefore feel a bit terrible saying this, but...

Spoiler: show

...in terms of enjoyment this release was barely a 3.0-star ("marginally enjoyable") affair for me. If not for "Johnny B. Goode" and "Maybellene", it would be a 2.5 ("epitome of unimpressive").

There's no denying the quality and influence, but it's just not really my thing at all, and I honestly wish it was. I just was never much of a Rock & Roll, R&B, and blues rock guy, and that's perhaps the one constant that's remained in my musical taste over its entire development (save a few exceptions that would be lucky to be considered for a 3.5 or 4.0 rating).

The aforementioned two cuts are classics, but other than that I found myself just really bored more than anything. I don't think this would normally be anything I would ever play of my own freewill pretty much ever again.

Now with all of that said, especially given its length, I'll be listening to it a handful of times or so I'm sure before the week is up.

I agree with 100% of this post. It's really not my thing/is pretty uninteresting to me, but I appreciate it for what it is and his/the genre's place in music history.

I might. It'll be a while before I'm caught up though.

Should I be spoilering my thoughts or is it fine to just throw it into the thread as is? I'll spoiler it this time just in case.

They all do. That might be because the album was released in the 50's.

This is that 'pretending to know what I'm talking about thing', right?

Just starting this. The first track reminds me of something I'd hear playing in a stereotypical 50's diner. Or in a Fallout game.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Rico is an authoritarian recruiter. Welcome to SAW, Quin, where we say things about music and pretend to know what we're talking about.

what is a song

Rico yelled at me so now I'm doing this