Parama's Accidental Top 50 Albums List! (Current: #1)

[Sacul]

I do like some pop, but more towards the Art-pop side. So you lost me again. 

[Crow]

what if I never wanted you to begin with 

[425]

I just ordered this album, actually, as part of the first round of purchases from my roulette. I really liked Buzzcut Season (which, in case anyone is wondering, Parama sent me in said roulette) a lot. I'll let you know what I think of it!

[Crow]

unfortunately i did send you the best song, but that's not to say the others aren't great stuff 

[425]

damn you for sending the best song in the competition where you have to try to send the best song 

[Fluffy Lothario]

I do like some pop, but more towards the Art-pop side. So you lost me again. 

Lorde is art pop. Definitely not regular pop, anyway.

[Sacul]

I'll have to give her a try then.

[Crow]

#43: Bodies of Water - A Certain Feeling

At the intersection of 70's prog, indie rock, and folk, we get Bodies of Water. This album is certainly interesting and diverse. Under the Pines is a song I've sent a ton in roulettes and it's generally received a positive response, and it's my personal favorite off the album as well I'd say, though there's really a lot to love here. It's hard to talk about this album without diving into each of the songs, since every one does something different and unique. Gold, Tan, Peach, and Grey is the intro track, building up slowly to its huge chorus, with a lot of great rock between choruses that keep my attention. Only You is a downtempo folk rock song that serves as a nice cooldown from the first two high-energy tracks. Water Here sounds more like russian folk rock than anything else to me, with a slow first half and faster second half. Keep Me On is the true ballad track of the album, getting pretty big by the end with a nice guitar solo and group vocals. Darling, Be Here is a very 70's-sounding song with a lot of guitar and a cool jam section in the middle. Even In A Cave is... an odd beast, for sure, with a very slow and plodding first half, and an instrumental, proggy jam in the second half. If I Were A Bell tricks you with a slow intro before turning into another very 70's track, with a really extended groove throughout half the song that I just plain love. The Mud Gapes Open is a brief closer, ending on a weirdly dark but at the same time bright tone.

I really have a hard time giving a general feel for this album because it's so diverse but every song works for me and I always enjoy relistening to it. Their first album didn't do much for me and I haven't checked out their third but I probably should at some point since this is a very interesting band that I'd love to hear more from.

[bl5150]

Fates Warning is the only album I can comment on so far.........I enjoy it and I have said before that one of the things that really stands out for me is Zonder's drumming (and I rarely rave over drumming )

[wolfking]

I'm lost after Fates and BTBAM.

[Crow]

i promise we'll get back to prog metal eventually 

[Fluffy Lothario]

By the way, Gregor Samsa is nestled somewhere on my priority list, which means I may get around to it sometime in the next decade, and Agaetis Byrgun is an awesome album, and has some of the best SR songs on it, though I prefer a few of their albums to it.

[Sacul]

By the way, Gregor Samsa is nestled somewhere on my priority list, which means I may get around to it sometime in the next decade, and Agaetis Byrgun is an awesome album, and has some of the best SR songs on it, though I prefer a few of their albums to it.

Come on, can't be that long 

[jjrock88]

only know FW at this point

[Fluffy Lothario]

By the way, Gregor Samsa is nestled somewhere on my priority list, which means I may get around to it sometime in the next decade, and Agaetis Byrgun is an awesome album, and has some of the best SR songs on it, though I prefer a few of their albums to it.

Come on, can't be that long 

That was meant in some degree of jest, but you’d be surprised. I don’t hurry myself, and I’m stretched fairly thin. I often find myself checking out a band many years after originally bookmarking them.

[Sacul]

By the way, Gregor Samsa is nestled somewhere on my priority list, which means I may get around to it sometime in the next decade, and Agaetis Byrgun is an awesome album, and has some of the best SR songs on it, though I prefer a few of their albums to it.

Come on, can't be that long 

That was meant in some degree of jest, but you’d be surprised. I don’t hurry myself, and I’m stretched fairly thin. I often find myself checking out a band many years after originally bookmarking them.

So you have a written list or something? Just curious.

[Crow]

#42: Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind

Another one of those albums that I just let flow as I listen to it. A brilliant post-rock album, with heavy orchestration and a big wall of sound. It's just simply beautiful. Ashes in the Snow is one of the best post-rock songs there is, and Everlasting Light isn't far behind. Everything inbetween those two is great as well, but I just get lost in it, it's just, really beautiful stuff. I don't think there's much else I can even say about this one. I have a few other Mono albums but this is the one I started with and it's still my favorite, for sure.

[Bolsters]

Altered State and Pure Heroine are the only two I'm familiar with so far. Not really top 50 material for me, but good albums.

[mikemangioy]

 

[ThatOneGuy2112]

That Mono album is fantastic. Great pick.

[Tomislav95]

My favorite post-rock album

[Fluffy Lothario]

Mono played nearby a few years ago, so I checked out this album. Listening to it again, I get the same impression. Pretty good, but nothing that really floors me.

By the way, Gregor Samsa is nestled somewhere on my priority list, which means I may get around to it sometime in the next decade, and Agaetis Byrgun is an awesome album, and has some of the best SR songs on it, though I prefer a few of their albums to it.

Come on, can't be that long 

That was meant in some degree of jest, but you’d be surprised. I don’t hurry myself, and I’m stretched fairly thin. I often find myself checking out a band many years after originally bookmarking them.

So you have a written list or something? Just curious.

Yeah, I keep a number of lists as Word documents to help me keep track of stuff I mean to check out.

[Crow]

#41: Caligula's Horse - Moments From Ephemeral City

I get to claim hipster cred on this because I was into Caligula's Horse way before anyone else here knew about them, nerds.
This debut really impressed me, and I still come back to listen to it. It's just good progressive metal, though generally on the lighter side of things. Sam Vallen is a very talented guitarist with a knack for writing good hooks and riffs as well as some very pretty quiet parts, and the vocalist of his band can really make those hooks work. The City Has No Empathy has an incredibly good chorus and some fantastic instrumentation under the two big solos, plus a really rockin' outro that goes on for juuuust long enough. Silence is a mostly mellow song with a few louder moments at the start, but the entire song is just a buildup to its fantastic solo section and outro. Singularity is a prog metal instrumental that basically amounts to being one long guitar solo, but a damn good one and it's not like the other instrumentation is week.

The big "epic" of the album is Alone In The World, which is basically just two different songs stuck together, but that's the only really fault I have with it. The first half has quiet verses and louder everything else, with a pretty impressive solo before the transition to the second half, and the second half is mostly quiet except for THAT BLOODY BEAUTIFUL OUTRO SOLO. Seriously, best solo on the album, probably the best solo the band's ever put out, I just love it. After that point come the three songs I don't love as much as the first four, but they're all okay in their own rights - Ephemera is a short ballad with an acoustic solo at the end, Equally Flawed is a pretty standard progressive metal song that does stretch its outro a little long, and Calliope's Son is a more standard progressive metal instrumental with a lot of cool riffs and some good soloing too. If the rest of the album was as strong as the first four tracks this would be far higher on this list, but it's still a great album from a great band.

[jjrock88]

not a clue

[TAC]

not a clue

[Sacul]

i like this one a bit

[Crow]

#40: Devin Townsend - Ziltoid the Omniscient

Considering the survivor I'm running I'm sure some people were waiting for Devin to show up on my list somewhere, well, here's the first of definitely-not-the-last Devin albums on this list.

I like this one a lot because Devin really created a certain sound that's unique to this album, though that could be said about many Devin releases, I'm sure. It's heavy, but not ridiculously so, it's silly, but not over-the-top, and it's got a lot of good melodies too. Some of the tracks on this album line up with the best Devin's ever put out. Solar Winds especially, but I also like By Your Command, Colour Your World, and The Greys a ton, and Planet Smasher and Hyperdrive are pretty great too. I think what keeps this from rating higher is the weaker tracks, Ziltoidia Attaxx!!! and N9. The former is a straight-up heavy song that doesn't really have the most interesting of riffs, and the latter is just really redundant and unnecessary, musically. I don't think either are awful songs though, at the very least.

It's a shame Devin went in a different direction on the follow-up, Dark Matters is far, far too over-the-top to where the story overtakes the music, but here? Great balance of both, and the story starts out pretty silly but delves into more serious themes as the album progresses, who would've thunk it. Not my favorite Devin album but a great one, and considering how many he has...

[TAC]

I've tried.

[Crow]

oh my god have you tried

[jakepriest]

The first album I have actually heard of on this list. And one that I love quite a bit too. 

A lot of people say ZTO is an overrated album but I find it to be one of Devin's best. Definitely beats out Ocean Machine and Terria for me.

[Train of Naught]

The first album I have actually heard of on this list.

Never heard of Colors 

[jakepriest]

The first album I have actually heard of on this list.

Never heard of Colors 

I didn't even know a band called Between the Buried and Me exists.

[Crow]

you're gonna be pretty pissed that there's no periphery on my list i bet 

[Sacul]

Boring.

[Obfuscation]

I actually really like lists that have bands or albums I haven't heard so that way I find more new music to check out.