... And You Will Poll Us By The Trail Of Dead - album poll

Century Of Self is good but it'd be better imo (and a candidate for #1) if it didn't have Isis Unveiled OR Halcyon Days on it. (LJ, hating on the longest songs??) But seriously - after the jet-fuelled opening duo, to skip the Will You Smile Again retreads and head straight for Bells Of Fucking Creation - and then the rest? I just find the long songs unwieldy on this one.

ST&C is probably everyone's favourite because of the bassline on It Was There That I Saw You. Maybe all the basslines. They lost an awesome bassist, but I think they probably grew as songwriters.

I also listened to Tao Of The Dead and it didn't quite grab me as I'd hoped, except for Summer Of All Dead Souls and maybe the one after it. But it wasn't exactly dull either so I'll have to give it more listens

i can't even hear the bass on ST&C!

but man. "Baudelaire" just BANGS. such a killer fucking song

the bass on 'IWTTISY' is maybe the single greatest thing this band has ever done

I've read the P4K reviews of all their albums today. ST&C got a 10 rating, which seems about right. I can't find a single flaw in that album. They've been kind on the band after they tanked it with Worlds Apart, rightfully so as they managed to fight their way back again (even though I still love Worlds Apart in all its glorious bombast). The last two albums I feel I've neglected, so will put those on again tonight.

I honestly do not why I created this poll when I did, it just felt like a right time to revisit this band. And it has been.

the bass on 'IWTTISY' is maybe the single greatest thing this band has ever done

― imago, Thursday, 20 October 2016 17:59 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

on further consideration, the answer to this is the bridge of 'bells of creation', which might be in the top ten rock bridges ever

i think the song "So Divided" might be my favorite thing they've ever done

it's really great yeah

I've listened to ALL THEIR ALBUMS now and worked out my TOD CD-80! It features tracks from all but one of their albums:

1) Open Doors
2) Novena Without Faith
3) It Was There That I Saw You
4) Will You Smile Again
5) Summer Of All Dead Souls
6) Wasted State Of Mind
7) The Ghost Within
8) Flower Card Games
9) Bells Of Creation
10) Heart In The Hand Of The Matter
11) So Divided
12) Luna Park
13) Lost In The Grand Scheme
14) Caterwaul
15) Intelligence

Brad and flappy will be pleased to note their own favourites in here, because they really are great songs. Nothing from Madonna though! I didn't really get on with it. Maybe if Aged Dolls had had that outro removed I might have included it, but the songwriting didn't really hit me. I think they got much better after that. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this playlist. If only it could be made to segue properly - most of the tracks end mid-segue into something completely different

Great list LJ. Mistakes & Regrets a serious Madonna-ommission imho, but I can see it wouldn't fit in the run you put together.

that's a pretty solid effort imago! They are not an easy band to anthologize in this way, especially since they are deceptively diverse sonically.

You ought to check out Elena's Tomb. Shouldn't be ignored if we're starting to talk about songs.

did you read my playlist lol

Heh, overlooked

Have put together a (chronological) CD-80 of my own, heavier on the first few records and only two tracks in common with Imago's but I do plan on giving all his picks a second chance:

1. Fake Fake Eyes
2. Prince With a Thousand Enemies
3. Mistakes and Regrets
4. Claire de Lune
5. Sigh Your Children
6. How Near, How Far
7. Heart in the Hand of the Matter
8. Relative Ways
9. Crowning of a Heart
10. A Classic Art Showcase
11. The Rest Will Follow
12. Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
13. So Divided
14. Isis Unveiled
15. Fall of the Empire
16. The Doomsday Book

haven't really thought about what my favourite trail of dead song is but my instinct would be to say another morning stoner, and i am perplexed and dismayed at its omission from these cd80s.

Gavin's taste is much more in line with mine it seems. For instance, speaking of Elena's Tomb, I do not like the last two tracks and for awhile Crowning of a Heart was my favorite song by them.

this has been one of my favorite youtube videos for years. Trail of Dead in 2003, they start going into Richter Scale Madness but the stagehand is desperately trying to signal that their set time is up. they keep playing out of spite and the dude starts getting really heated and they start fucking with him hard. then they trash the stage lmao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shYl9-zDb64

idk if this fits on one cd but my essential tod would be something like:

let it dive
wasted state of mind
how near how far
all saints day
awestruck
ebb away
bells of creation
the dragonfly queen/how to avoid huge ships
baudelaire
pictures of an only child
fields of coal
relative ways
weight of the sun
a classic arts showcase
the wasteland

Hahahaha. That is amazing. Seriously what is the dude's problem? Xp

i guess that was their thing, i saw them on the co-headline tour with qotsa in 2002 and they played way into qotsa's time. jason took the drum kit apart mid-song and put it back together out on the floor in the crowd. was a top 5 live show for me for sure. not for the qotsa set tho, for some reason they seemed ticked off.

Haha are you sure that isn't some character one of their roadies is playing? It was kind of too perfectly timed and executed!

Great stuff from whoever doesn't cut their power

Also great stuff in these alternative mixtapes. They have a lot of v good material

a classic arts showcase is v underrated

the lyrics are extremely dumb but "a classic arts showcase" -> "let it dive" is my favorite moment in the tod catalog

That whole album is like that

ah i love the lyrics in ACAS, but yeah that run is great

The only song I'm sometimes unsure about on WA is The Best and even that's pretty great some days

"the best" rules

and yes "the lyrics are extremely dumb" goes for basically any song on worlds apart except for like "caterwaul"

for 'wasted state of mind' alone, i am very tempted to drop a vote on divided.

and the title track ..

the two on my mixtape ^_^

I'm still torn between WA and IX btw - although for a band with such a contentious discography, 'returns to form' etc I find their albums from ST&C onward to be of remarkably consistent quality

i clearly need more albums by this band.
i only have source tags, so divided and lost songs.
but each time i play them i end up realising how awesome they are.

i will not rest until you are in love with tao of the dead imago, stick with it imo

It's my own poll ffs, but the deeper I delve into their discography, the less sure I am of what to vote. Probably still ST&C. And yet, and yet...

Really feel Madonna isn't getting nearly the love it deserves. The obliterating rage, the palpale sense of having been deceived and mislead and dealing with it by scorching the earth, it's here mannnn. Lyrically they've not been that brutally honest, ugly even, before or ever after. Mistakes + Regrets ("If I could make a list / Of my mistakes and regrets / I'd put your name on top / and on every line under it"), Clair de Lune ("What good are promises, if nobody honours them... I DONT KNOW!"), all of Flood of Red, and even the forgiving sounding, melodic Mark David Chapman. They all completely floor me.

and yes "the lyrics are extremely dumb" goes for basically any song on worlds apart except for like "caterwaul"

I find the evolution of their lyrics post-WA to be really interesting, going from the cringeworthy rockist diatribes of that album's title track to the more resigned, yet hopeful (and much more realistic!) "Pure Radio Cosplay" on Tao - the rare rock song that admits the genre is pure, silly dressup and revels in the artifice.

Really feel Madonna isn't getting nearly the love it deserves

I was delighted to hear that Kevin Shields was a fan of "Mistakes and Regrets," or at least its opening.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

forgot all about this band. Tried source tags again. eh.

I picked up Lost Songs again today - damn that opening run of tracks is a rush, has kind of an uptempo-Gish feel

yes! i think ToD got reamed for Worlds Apart because it reminded writers of Mellon Collie. also, Conrad's voice is much higher and drier in the mix on WA than ST&C. from the p4k review: "I hear a gun held up to the head of Conrad Keely-- maybe the world's most terrible singer-- and a masked man telling him to sing pretty or die." He reminded them of Billy Corgan.

it was an extremely tough one but I voted with my Pitchfork

hope IX doesn't get 0 now

I picked up Lost Songs again today - damn that opening run of tracks is a rush, has kind of an uptempo-Gish feel

this post made me hit lost songs today : you are spot on.
its an insane rush.

^^ same! And the comparison rings very true. It's the drums especially bringing that Gish feel.

it was an extremely tough one but I voted with my Pitchfork

― imago, Wednesday, October 26, 2016 10:24 PM

Don't know what this means but it sounds awful tbh :-/

THAT WAS FOR 4.0 MOTHERFUCKERS *clicks vote*

lol

Haha awww yeah :)