Post a controversial music opinion

imo "cloying sentimentality" has been an implicit part of SW's artistry since he was making records, way more than 90% of his 60s/70s contemporaries; that he was able to keep the excesses largely at bay in the 70s is an achievement

I have fond memories of Sigur Rós but no desire to revisit their music in the near future.

There’s quite a lot of good German schlager, actually.

...and then there’s Jürgen Marcus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx22fGJ4PjI

(it was a (smallish) part of what I grew up with too, and rediscovering this has made my day, and then some. I love everything about that song and that performance)

i'm trying to be open-minded but when i watch that i mainly see something that lacks the subtlety and good taste of liberace. dude looks like he's going to break into a trololo at any second. you know, respect to anyone who likes that, but i will never understand why.

curious as to what else is on that list of "worst albums to be regarded as classics"

In an Aeroplane Over the Sea, surely. Cool indie folk album, but one of the absolute greatest albums of all time? Get out of here

seeing Nevermind rank really high on a bunch of all-timer lists is always odd to me. I mean its better than say "So Much For the Afterglow" by Everclear but by how much, exactly

agree on both counts

Nevermind appearing on all-time lists mostly bothers me mostly just because In Utero is a far superior album

disagree strongly on both of those counts

those are two of my favorites

Huh I rather like that NMH album and its appealingly poor mix decisions

Indie folk as Raw Power.

Aeroplane has a way of recapturing my admiration every time I think it can't be that good.

Calling it "the greatest album of all time" is not helpful, I agree.

that's part of it, i think. just a singular work that inexplicably resonated widely with the public

wrt In an Aeroplane it's funny that people always say oh it's overrated blah blah blah and listen I'm as big a douchebag as anyone Dusk at Cubist Castle rules blah blah blah why isn't Sparklehorse in the rock n roll hall of fame blah blah blah

but like it's gotta be SOMETHING right? like something that resonates with people in a way that other things don't?

I'm a fan of the album and it was there when i was a sad college kid that drank too much

the mixing is part of it.

there is no "greatest album of all time" because all great for different reasons

but like it's gotta be SOMETHING right? like something that resonates with people in a way that other things don't?

i think a lot of it is the lyrics. pretty opaque and hallucinatory for the most part but then it startles you with something really direct. "dad is dreaming of all the different ways to die"; "it's so sad to see the world agree that they'd rather see their faces filled with flies"'; "and in my dreams you're alive"

I feel like saying In An Aeroplane Over The Sea is a good album is a controversial music opinion these days (on this board at least). It's a good album, not just lyrically or whatever, it has a unique sound and feel that creates something really moving.

That being said, I don't know if I'd like it as much if I heard it for the first time now. That album came at the right time for me.

Really Blues Traveler wasn't that bad

one good moment is when he blurts "For instance" going into the harmonica solo on "All In The Groove"

Jeff Mangum's voice is grating to me. I would of fit right in with the early 00's punk rock.

it*

his style seems to be "sing as loud as possible without actually yelling"

I listened to it for the first time ever last year, as part of MWE (music writers listen to an album they've never heard every day in February and tweet their thoughts).

#MWE Day 23: Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998). Eh, I've heard worse. The main dork can kinda sing, at least. pic.twitter.com/br8cEq8SfM

— burning ambulance (listen to the podcast!) (@burn_amb) February 23, 2018

guys there are a zillion records out there, this one^ is certainly one of the "best"

like there are 80,000 albums released every year, what is the threshold? I haven't listened to NMH in many years probably suspecting that it won't affect me the same way it did in my youth, but that doesn't mean it's not one of the "best"

statistically!

well yeah

(i'm sarcastically excited about the popular opinion of what the "best" albums are)

the "best" albums:

summoning: stronghold
summoning: oath bound
summoning: let the moral heroes sing your fame
summoning: dol goldur
miles davis: kind of blue

The Dooleys - Full House
Bradley Walsh - Chasing Dreams
The Donkey Derbies - Frank Zappa Is Fucking Awful

kind of blue more like kind of decent

Parallel lines is the best album

kind of blue more like kind of fucking awesome!!!

"indie" (ie not jazz, metal, hip-hop, or classic rock) records worthy of their reputations imho, as determined by my impressions upon revisiting them within the past year:

Disintegration
Spirit of Eden
Hounds of Love
Loveless
Daydream Nation
Marquee Moon
Entertainment!
Zen Arcade
Deserter's Songs
Psychocandy
It's A Shame About Ray
Double Nickels on the Dime

maybe not controp, but all of these wipe the floor with Nevermind, ITAOTS, and Is This It

Been going back and listening to a lot of things I liked 15-20 years ago for some reason, so this discussion is somewhat timely

Prefer Kind of Court and Spark

*pushes glasses up nose*

Pierro Scaruffi sez Aeroplane is the 7th "Best pop (melodic) albums of all times.". One bester than the DB's Stand For Decibels but not quite as best as a record by the 6ths

70. Jason Falkner: Author Unknown (Elektra, 1996)

obviously 73 or 74 but whatever

i'd like to add copeland's blushing and autopsy's mental funeral to that list of "best" albums, they must have slipped my mind

i don't think very many records wipe the floor with nevermind. nevermind, every time i revisit it, seems to wipe the floor with everything

and i like in utero slightly more myself but come on

getting across that kind of power pop clarity and simplicity through angry punk songs, harder than you think

i think Nirvana at the time was a band i was a bit cool on but every single time i hear a Nirvana song now, anything from Bleach or Nevermind or In Utero, i wonder why i wasn't more into them. I think Unplugged is actually the one i've cooled on more when at the time of its release i maybe liked it the most.

but then again a lot of those early '90s grunge albums sound a lot better now than they did at the time. i always liked them but even moreso now Pearl Jam completely owns, for example.

when Cornell died (RIP) I went back to Soundgarden for the first time in forever and goddamn what a fucking band, what great sounding records

yup

i spun Superunknown for the first time in a million years after he died and that's a massive album.

yes

the best

soundgarden were the real deal

have put on Superunknown to try and resolve my one hang-up with the record: its opening stretch. from Head Down onward it's a perfect record but...OK I've gone in let's do this