[Heccubus]

I'm not kidding you. And the vast majority of the reviews I read after first hearing it were exactly the same as my initial opinion:

"The direction in which Bloc Party has traveled is entirely unsuited to its strengths."

"It’s a difficult album to love, or even like. But, for all its faults — and there are many — there is enough here to make one think that maybe, just maybe, Bloc Party are capable of making, with their third LP, the kind of challenging yet highly accessible pop album they think they’ve made here."

"Okereke now sings instead of barking, and, well, oops on him."

"A Weekend in the City borders on emo in its wordy self-obsession, so even though the record is actually more sonically adventurous than its predecessor, it seems like a massive step backward."

"They play things way too safe... which makes for a rather boring listening experience."

And so on, and so forth. The album wasn't inherently BAD, I suppose, but after the amazing debut that was "Silent Alarm", this was just a lousy follow up effort. They completely fell into the stereotypical sophomore slump.

[Casual]

Yes silent alarm was fantastic I got hooked on repeatedly listening to compliments and helicopter for quite some time its just a shame that if a band makes a second album that doesn’t follow the template of the first exactly then inevitably some people are going to slam it. There’s just no accounting for peoples taste even if the band did take a shift toward the emo that’s not necessarily a bad thing it just means they've taken a new direction. Seeing Bloc Party live playing their weekend in the city line up was one of the best gigs I've ever been to and in the UK at least they still have a massive following.

[Heccubus]

You've totally missed the point of the criticisms the album faced. No one panned it for being different from "Silent Alarm". Hell, if anything, that's one of the few things they did right. It was regarded as being inferior because they completely failed on their experiments, and while they did experiment with new sounds, they took a safe road and shot for pop accessibility, rather than trying to genuinely explore any actual new territory.
What you said makes no sense. If people slammed albums for being different from their predecessors, then how in God's name could you explain bands like Radiohead that receive constant critical praise? They've never released two albums back to back that sounded similar, aside from "Amnesiac", which doesn't exactly count. If anything it's far more common for a band to receive harsher criticism for doing the same thing over and over again.

[wallabyeyes]

I'm just here to say that i cringe at all the lists i've concocted on topics like this.
I could give a "current top X most influential bands and artists" thing, though I'd have to do a write-up for each so it probably won't happen.

[Casual]

Fair points but when it comes down to it I don’t need a critic to tell me what to think about an album, their personal opinion on something isn’t the final word. I could just as easily find dozens of critics showering the album with praise. Furthermore I don’t think you can reasonably expect every album to be ground breaking stuff most bands are lucky to come up with one truly ground breaking album in their careers.

[Heccubus]

Fair points but when it comes down to it I don’t need a critic to tell me what to think about an album, their personal opinion on something isn’t the final word. I could just as easily find dozens of critics showering the album with praise. Furthermore I don’t think you can reasonably expect every album to be ground breaking stuff most bands are lucky to come up with one truly ground breaking album in their careers.

Oh I don't doubt that there were some praising reviews for it. It was an insanely divisive record. Their sold-out tour proves that they didn't exactly have much reason to lose sleep over some lousy reviews.
And I fully agree that it's not up to critics to decide what is and isn't good. I'm a staunch supporter of a number of not-so-well-reviewed bands. For instance, I fucking love Hella, but those guys get average reviews, at best. I've always chalked it up to tastemakers like Pitchfork when it comes to wondering why so many shitty bands get so much attention. (See: Vampire Weekend, the most overrated band of the year so far.)
I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I don't care what the mountains of praise say, The National's "Boxer" fucking sucked.

This post has been edited by Heccubus: 11 March 2008 - 07:10 AM

[Wind Rider]

Well, I'll post mine but it's not nearly as expansive or diverse as some people. Oh, well...

5) Reise, Reise - Rammstein
4) Inhuman Rampage - DragonForce
3) Eliminator - ZZ Top
2) Master of Puppets - Metallica
1) Surfing With The Alien - Joe Satriani

Honorable mentions go to:

Mutter - Rammstein
Sehnsucht - Rammstein
Screaming For Vengeance - Judas Priest
Ride The Lightning - Metallica
Sonic Firestorm - DragonForce
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Appetite For Destruction - Guns N' Roses
The Black Halo - Kamelot
Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd
Black Holes & Revelations - Muse
High Voltage - AC/DC
Hybrid Theory - Linkin Park

Before you all start W-T-F-ing at DragonForce in my Top 5, let me explain myself. My first listen to DragonForce was "Through the Fire and Flames" on Guitar Hero III. Now, I have a habit of falling in love with something at first sight and never letting go, so when I heard "Through the Fire and Flames", I knew we were destined to be. I bought a few of DragonForce's song ("Through the Fire and Flames", "Soliders of the Wasteland", and "Valley of the Damned") and eventually decided to buy Inhuman Rampage. It was slow to pick up but it eventually grew on me and now I can listen to the whole album in one sitting.

DragonForce (read: IN MY OPINION) has enough flow, fluidity, and mind-numbingly blistering riffs to keep me occupied for a long time. It's, like, the music of my dreams; the twin brother I never had; long-lost relatives united after years of separation. That kind of thing. So, nay-say all you want, DragonForce and I love each other dearly and we're never letting go.

Also, for the record, I've never been to any of their live performances but I have seen some of their live vids on Youtube and wasn't impressed at all. Still, their live performances are irrelevant to the quality of their studio albums because I sure don't hear them missing any notes on those.

EDIT: All of this talk about not-well-received bands makes me think of Hoobastank and how I own two of their albums. Also, how they were one of the first bands I truly looked into. Yeah.

This post has been edited by Wind Rider: 06 June 2008 - 12:41 AM

[Dr Lecter]

1. Appetite for Destruction - Guns N' Roses
2. Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield (Only two tracks, but whatever)
3. ...And Justice for All - Metalica
4. Evil Empire - Rage Against The Machine
5. System of a Down - System of a Down

[joshofalltrades]

I just know I'm going to get crucified, but whatever.

1) Figure 8 -- Elliott Smith
2) OK Computer -- Radiohead
3) Chutes Too Narrow -- The Shins
4) Sha Sha -- Ben Kweller
5) Lost and Gone Forever -- Guster

[Spann]

1) Master of Puppets - Metallica
2) Live & Dangerous - Thin Lizzy
3) Means to an End - Farse
4) A Perfect Life With a View of the Swamp - Miocene
5) The Silent Circus - Between the Buried and me

Special mention goes to:

Hello Everything - Squarepusher
Babylon - Skindred
The Ruff Guide to Genre Terrorism - Sonic Boom Six
Colors - Between the Buried and Me
Dillinger Escape Plan Ft. Mike Patton - Irony is a Dead Scene
The Escapist - The Streets
The Death of Mary Poppins - Ladyscraper
Mclusky do Dallas - Mclusky
Hello Rockview - Less Than Jake
Death Valley High - Zombina & the Skeletones

[ShiverMeSideways]

Of course my top 5 changed, and I even started the thread :

1) Pink Floyd - The Wall
2) Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
3) Metallica - Master of Puppets
4) Nightwish - Oceanborn
5) Megadeth - Youthanasia
6) Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
7) Iron Maiden - Brave New World
8) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
9) Metallica - ...And Justice For All
10) Guns N'Roses - Use Your Illusion I

(As you can see, I have a thing for grand albums)

Yarr! By tomorrow, things'll probably change again!

This post has been edited by ShiverMeSideways: 23 December 2008 - 02:17 PM

[joshofalltrades]

Yep, I messed up and haven't ever listened to Neutral Milk Hotel -- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea before about 2 weeks ago.

It's definitely on my list somewhere.

[Heccubus]

I find NMH are a tad overrated. They're good, sure, but I can't understand the mountains of praise that get heaped upon them.
Maybe I just don't "get" that whole Elephant 6 scene.

This post has been edited by Heccubus: 15 January 2009 - 07:34 PM

[joshofalltrades]

I find NMH are a tad overrated. They're good, sure, but I can't understand the mountains of praise that get heaped upon them.
Maybe I just don't "get" that whole Elephant 6 scene.

To be honest, it took a few spins and I haven't listened to anything other than Aeroplane. I can see how someone might not think of them as completely awesome. To me, it's a combination of the honesty in the record ("You never read Diary of a Young Girl until you were in your mid 20's? Really?" and also, "Holy shit, I would never write songs this personal and revealing") and the fairly impressive array of nerdy instruments they can actually play (singing saw, bagpipes, etc.)

But I can completely see how someone might not agree with the critical acclaim. It's probably one of those records that either speaks to you or doesn't.

[Gobbler]

Fuck, this was harder than I thought it would be. Never imagined that I could come up with a list of 30 albums to choose from...

1. Laith Al-Deen - Die Liebe zum Detail
2. Kate Nash - Made of Bricks
3. Snow Patrol - Eyes open
4. Black Eyed Peas - Elephunk
5. Röyksopp - The Understanding

Edit: Also, do I win a prize for saying that Pink Floyd is really impressive, but not that impressive? Or that most of Metallica's tracks are boring and poorly produced/recorded? And that Rammstein is cool for the lyrics but otherwise a bit predictable?

Edit 2: And don't point my girlfriend to this list, she'll rip my head off for leaving out Avishai Cohen's Continuo.

Edit 3: And Me'Shell NdegéOcello's Bitter.

Edit 4: Though they are brilliant! Extremely good stuff for the right mood, but it just so happens that I'm more often in some other mood. Honest! Have mercy love.

This post has been edited by Gobbler: 16 January 2009 - 01:33 PM