Ultimate Battle (Debut Album Division, Group B): Boy vs. Chronic Town vs. Kill 'Em All...

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b9/U2Boyalbumcover.jpg/200px-U2Boyalbumcover.jpg
1980: Steve Lillywhite's children... and everyone else's.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/ChronicCover.jpg
1982: They'd become America's Biggest Band, but they'd never put five stronger songs back to back on record.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/MetallicaKill%27EmAll.jpg/200px-MetallicaKill%27EmAll.jpg
Metal Up Your Ass.

― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Hmmm.

Boy?

― Davey D (Dave Depper), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:29 (seventeen years ago) link

they'd never put five stronger songs back to back on record

They did exactly this on Murmur and Reckoning.

― Start two Beatles threads before I start two Beatles threads and then I sta (Tim, Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Correct answer:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/f/f1/250px-Fishbone_Fishbone_EP.jpg

― Candy: tastes like chicken, if chicken was a candy. (Austin, Still), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm sorry Tim, but you are mistaken.

― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:37 (seventeen years ago) link

The songs are more mature on those two albums. And better.

― Start two Beatles threads before I start two Beatles threads and then I (Tim Ell, Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I rate these largely in terms of how "interesting" they are: Chronic Town, then Kill 'em All, then Boy.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link

The songs are more mature on those two albums. And better.

Meh. As parts of a landscape, maybe. On a track-by-track basis, no way.

― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Reckoning, in particular, hasn't aged well for me.

― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Kill 'Em All > Chronic Town >>>>>>>>>> Boy

― the new sincerity (Pye Poudre), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I think you'd be saying the same thing about a landscape if "Stumble" had been on an album rather than an EP. It seems easy to me to make an EP out of five tracks from Murmur or Reckoning that would have been better than Chronic Town.

― Start 2 Beatles threads before I start 2 Beatles threads and then... (Tim Elliso, Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:49 (seventeen years ago) link

"1,000,000" is weaker than any song on Murmur.

― Start 2 Beatles threads before I start 2 Beatles threads and then... (Tim Elliso, Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I think you'd be saying the same thing about a landscape if "Stumble" had been on an album rather than an EP. It seems easy to me to make an EP out of five tracks from Murmur or Reckoning that would have been better than Chronic Town.

Fair point maybe - though you could also argue that Stumble just turned into West Of The Fields... Murmur seems so of a whole I'd hate to touch it. Reckoning might have been better off as an EP.

"1,000,000" is weaker than any song on Murmur.

The drum track alone crushes "Laughing," "We Walk," and maybe "Catapult."

― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 25 January 2007 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Boy is, in all honesty, an amazing debut from a buncha kids, and hands down my favorite of anything they ever did. Chronic Town is a great EP but, as an entity, Murmur is more cohesive and solid. Never having enjoyed having metal up my ass...

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Thursday, 25 January 2007 21:35 (seventeen years ago) link

CT = KEA > Boy for me

― LO-NRG (teenagequiet), Thursday, 25 January 2007 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I think Chronic Town is really unique in REM's catalogue in terms of what the rhythm section does. They groove in a way that's certainly far more noticeable than on anything post-Reckoning. I think of it as Velvets/Byrds meeting Joy Division/Wire, miccio calls it psych-disco-folk or somesuch. Kill 'Em All doesn't do much for me although I love Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All. I've never heard all (or probably most) of Boy. If we're just talking early-80s debuts that sound different from the rest of the artist's catalogue, I'll put in a word for Confusion Is Sex.

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 25 January 2007 22:54 (seventeen years ago) link

i like kill 'em all but it's relatively weak compared to ride the lightning and master of puppets.

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 January 2007 23:08 (seventeen years ago) link

FWIW, though, Chronic Town was a stronger debut than Kill'em All (well, to me anyway).
-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), August 11th, 2004 8:53 AM. (vassifer)

Alex in NYCstradamus!

― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Monday, 29 January 2007 06:12 (seventeen years ago) link

replace chronic town with murmur and rem would win by miles and miles

as it stands, my soft spot for kill em all doesn't quite get it over the line. chronic town wins.

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Monday, 29 January 2007 09:33 (seventeen years ago) link

eight years pass...

good times...

― resulting post (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 20 May 2015 01:53 (eight years ago) link

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