I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud this much because of a SOMB thread. "This dad approves", the Weezer blurb and simakos' mention of Frightened Rabbit's lyrics about "juicy sexual mechanics" are still making me laugh.

mmmmm, Gingersnaps...

I don't even know what M83 sounds like. Would not have had it pegged for top three. I kind of want to listen to it now.

I am not really here.

so, 4 songs on the Kanye album is the extent of what I like in the SOMB top 20.

np: "Carouselambra"

superlolz

Sorry for doing this again Montana, but for some reason I always find this hilarious.

“Dude this is the most boring album they have made - that's why some people aren't digging it. If this was an exciting record, I wouldn't be having this reaction.” - Montana

#3.




M83 - Saturdays = Youth
(5117 Points, 78 Votes, One #1 Vote)

US Chart Position:

UK Chart Position:

Charting Singles:

SOMB Says: At first I didn't "get" Saturdays=Youth. It was too bratty, too sugary for what I had come to know as M83. But like an ever changing universe, M83 has proven they can change on their own terms. This was another step in the evolution, a strangely colored but bright star that my ears had yet to adjust to. However a question remains as to wether this album is a dying star or one that has plenty of life left. I'm tending to lean towards the former based largely on the imagery presented on Saturdays = Youth. Take for example the sad piano fade in on "You Appearing" that seems to encapsulate time itself, with shimmering rays of light and goodness trailing out across the endless galaxy, still all powerful, but perhaps not as powerful as a star should be. The song builds off the same chord, adding layers that indicate implosion. It then fades away again, or perhaps we fade away to the green lawns of suburbia, where we hear the story of "Kim and Jessie". Everything about this track is a throwback, but with a tinge of forward msical ideas, a quick silver flash on the edges indicating the future. It's a sweet, sugary pop song about two girls in high school, just eating ice cream or whatever the hell they are doing (maybe buying trapper keepers at old man Dentson's pharmacy on main street), walking down a cracked sidewalk somewhere in the universe, enjoying the care free nature of youth and innocence, An updated version of "Jack and Dianne", two American lesbians doing the best they can.

After the story of Kim and Jessie is told, we get hammered in the head with Miami Vice sounding drums on "Skin of the Night", a pounding track with a very sensual sounding female vocal conveying things such as "pulling apart her skin to show her ribs". A grotesque image to contrast with a beautiful voice, however, the ylric aso aludes to "shooting stars", indicating we are a part of everything. Deep inside of us, even something as insightly as our guts are really beautiful. THat's what makes us fucking live. Sure, no one wants to see it, but it's essential. Should we gasp in horror over what we are made of? A rib is a star, a star is a rib. It's life. It's beautiful. You are blessed to be experiencing it right now. This point is hammered home as layers are added to the chorus, creating a giant anthem, a triumph of light and life.


On the next track, "Graveyeard Girl" we are privy once again to a similar contrast of death and life - a cute loner girl that is "friends" with the cemetary. She likes to hang out there and write poetry. Is she stpid? Maybe. I wouldn't hang out in a cemetary and talk to the grave stones. To me that seems like inviting trouble. In this case however, it comes off as wreaking of innocence. The middle of the song gives us the cheesiest slice of teen angst since "Blossom" was on NBC. It's a spoken word section about "being invisible, even to the night". That said, the song is strong enough to survive the assault. In fact, it celebrates it with some very bratty bird like calls and a floating DX7 arepeggio which precludes a powerful. celebratory buildup. Did the Graveyard girl get her way?

We leave the Graveyard for "Colours", a beautiful, dancey instrumental track that at first seems paint-by-numbers, but on repeated listens reveals astonishing texture and precise tracking, and something much bigger than an ordinary dance track. You can feel the galaxy flying by you on this one. This is a ride. A very big ride. This aint no disco. This aint no Hot Chip. This ain't no fooling around. This is interplanetary travel courtesy of M83.

The pulsating, exhilirating ride of "Colouers" gives way to "Up!" which again is backed by a sensual female vocal (Morgan Kibby). You get the feeling that this is some space chick who you happeend to encounter on the previous journey of "Colouers". She's trying to get you on her "rocketship", and she does. She's singing you a lullaby as she drives you around the galaxy. This song is just another phase of the journey:


{italics)Up to the planets up to the bodies of the galaxy
We fly we feed we suck we bleed we need... (italics)


The trip of a lifetime.

"Up" fades into the power synth propellant of "We Own The Sky". Drama unfolds right from the start. There's a wall of galliant synths and swirling choirs, like electric horsemen and a siren from some otherworld. Hand claps slow down to millisenconds, and you can feel the sweat coming off the hands and disapearing into time on the chorus as your sweetheart lightly sings out to you on this bluebird sky day. At that point, a thumpy littyle synth throttles in slowly, with repeated, forceful vocals...



(italics)It's coming, it's coming now!
It's coming, it's coming now!
What's coming? What's coming now?
What's coming? What's coming now?

It's coming from the sky
It's coming from the wind(italics)



Where could you possibly go from owning the sky? There's the "Highway of Endless Dreams" which of course offers an entirely different experience. The possibilities are endless as long as you stay on the road, which itself seems a contradiction unless you know exactly what you want, and it's out there somewhere along one of those exits at some old barn, or a rural cafeteria that still has a vinyl jukebox. We are treated to one line at the beginning:

"I'm going to drive until it burns my bones". This turns into a gigantic wall of guitar and synths, ever surging, ever moving forward. This point of "Saturdays = Youth" becomes electronica's answer to Abbey Road for all intents and purposes. Even before hearing the thing out, you can sense the buildup throught the earlier portions of the album. But this is where Hal and Dave come across the monolith. This is the game changer. This is the new. And then it's gone in a flash. Crossing a dream.


The Highway of endless dreams turns into "Too Late". What happened? Did the driver make a wrong turn? We are treated to a melancholy piano that slowly moves it's way into a galloping close with heavenly choirs swirling all around us and light flashes of synth solos glimmering thousands of feet up across the sunset sky.....


(italics)
Like a wall of stars
we are ripe to fail

And if you are a ghost
I’ll call your name again
And if you are a ghost
I’ll call your name…

You, always.(italics)




No matter what happens to someone you care about, you will always call their name. Always. No matter what happens to any of us, or the universe. It's the ultimate act of devotion...seeking someone even though they may have moved on to another dimension yuo have really no knowledge of - the ultiamte theoretical physics love story. Endless.


So were left with the feeling that the Highway of Endless Dreams may have been a wrong turn, that the driver realized it was "too late", but still called out her name. Sometimes that's the way it goes. The ultimate highs and fantastical journeys on earlier portions of the record are left behind us as tragedy strikes. Luck of the draw......but it's not too late. "Dark Moves of Love" is the comeback of all comebacks, The hero gets his girl! She's calling out to him in that other dimension, from some far off void. Take heed of the lyrics that swirl around in this super universal stew:

(italics)
Everything is wrecked and grey
I’m focusing on your image
Can you hear me in the void?

I will fight the time and bring you home
I will fight the time and bring you home(italics)


The sonic soup of whizzing synth leads, sucker punch drumming and warm butter pads pulsates and fluctuates, creating a 360 vortex that rips a fabric in time as "I will fight the time and bring you home" is chanted over and over.


Finally, this wall breaks down, the hero is at last reunited with his girl, and nothing but love flows forth in the guise of "Midnight Souls Still Remain" - just oozing warmth. All is right with the world, whichever dimension it may be in. Ultimately, time is happy with this outcome. As the credits fade and "Midnight Soulds Still Remain" oozes on, the eye of life slowly foats over the warm summer nights of suburbia as people finally sleep, endlessly capturing the memories and patterns of generations of people and things - of what is to come and everything that has passed. It sees the teens become old, and the baby boomers retire. It sees the babies grow, the abandoned strip malls where kids once hung out with bright cheery faces become weed lots and the ant-workman like construction crews make new strip malls down the road. It sees all the proms and the golfers, the tv watchers and lawn jockeys. It sees the breakups, first kisses and the love affairs under the humid, green landscape.


And it just goes on forever. - Montana

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Albums Lists: “Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts” (#16 of 2003), “Before the Dawn Heals Us” (#8 of 2005)

Ranked Highest By: The Luscious Phil (#1)

Also Ranked By: Montana, Heretix, caley, SmashNapCrash, no magnets, Plate, Hero, souviaki (#2), hinsey21, spiritofeden, Bhickman, holidayinrisk (#3), simulatedstereo, stphone, RustyTrombone (#4), vamos, street samurai (#5)

Amazon Link

Guys is Bun B still gonna place?

You don't like to have fun? Come on, there's some good stuff on here.

don't do the grammer thing.

your better then that.

paul is a great man.

That Bun B album sucked balls, IMO.

HE'S NEXT DUDE!

now time for one of the best and one of the worst albums of the year to place

(italics)

Fuck, if Portishead doesn't take this... LOL.

lmao @ Montana

Well done people guessing the top three, very incisive of you all.

funny how?

Montana just made me cry into an endless galaxy.

tv on the radio is just bloc party, but with more gay black men

top five favorite zeppelin tune. it's the sound of your mother trying to cheer you.

I sort of liked Kim and Jesse too, I guess, but no, Kanye is the only thing I voted for (#21?), and that was for the strength of Love Lockdown and Paranoid, mostly.

I've never been happier with a SOMB ranking ever. I don't even need to check out the rest of the countdown. TVOTR wins, right?

Bahhhhh, good shit.

Please insert more line breaks into a review.

MBV w/o all that noise.

I know it wasn't meant to be funny and I'm not taking the piss, but it was just worded in a way that made me laugh.

“lets people know that black people aint all hip hop and criminals. i know some latte liberals are throwing up their cappacino at that last comment, cause u know, all rappers are tortured geniuses to dem. but still, i thought black kids ( the group) was the only semi negroes out dere doing non hip hop. good to see these indie cats at least doing something different, even if its wack.” - Jigga

#2.




TV on the Radio - Dear Science
(6701 Points, 79 Votes, Six #1 Votes)

US Chart Position: #12

UK Chart Position: #33

Charting Singles: n/a

SOMB Says: I don’t think TV on the Radio has produced anything so great as the second half of “Dear Science.” This is a stretch of six songs that slinks between genres with ease, leaving a sticky trail of instruments and textures in its path. At no point does it ever seem like experimental dress-up for the band. The songs are entirely organic, and even the mid-song introductions of fluttering pan flutes or thumping Reznor drum-tracks feel like natural biological outcroppings. The first time I heard “Family Tree,” I fell in love with the orchestral eddies and their sly absorption of the “Be My Baby” beat; as the weight of the sanguineous lyrics sank in, the swirls became the tendril branches of the monstrous blood-fed titular figure. For all the attention paid to the funk of singles “Dancing Choose” and “Golden Age,” the best horns punch up “Red Dress.” Listen at 1:11 as they coyly begin sparring with each other; the band has the great instinct to give them some breathing space before affixing them in the dense production. Also check out the myriad accentuations that magnify each lyrical beat in “Love Dog”: a synthetic snare, then a dull chime, then a timid pizzicato. The most rock-rooted songs, “Shout Me Out” and album highlight “DLZ,” make the climactic build an obsession; Tunde Adebimpe hollers with joy and rage respectively, as the rhythm sections propel towards their peaks. “Lover’s Day” offers the record’s most purely beautiful moment around three and a half minutes in, when flutes quiver eagerly around the central come-on. The first half of “Dear Science” has its fair share of brilliant moments, as does the rest of this band’s catalogue, but these six consecutive tunes represent TV on the Radio’s boldest and most mesmeric strokes. - Man Is Matter

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Albums Lists: “Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes” (#19 of 2004), “Return To Cookie Mountain” (#2 of 2006)

Ranked Highest By: SonicAlligator, elementus attacks!, birdistheword, Guy, TheNameOfThisPosterIsDave, Kicker of Elves (#1)

Also Ranked By: arkin, simulated stereo, The Luscious Phil, BigUps, Ella Isquire, DemoAndrew, RustyTrombone, surlacarte, Asher Ford, Man Is Matter (#2), SmashNapCrash, farawaysoclose, Hans Christian Anderson, Johnny’s Shack (#3), brobee, Gluehead, Greg Kot, greekgoat91, holidayinrisk (#4), Liffey, carl (#5)

Amazon Link







“SO THIS IS PRETTY GOOD GUYS.” - st. park

#1.




Portishead - Third
(7752 Points, 83 Votes, Thirteen #1 Votes)

US Chart Position: #7

UK Chart Position: #2

Charting Singles: n/a

SOMB Says: 2008 will be forever remembered as the year that Guns n Roses finally released their long-awaited third full-length original album, Chinese Democracy. The album was, needless to say, well worth the wait, as it not only sold well, but was universally acclaimed by critics and beloved by the band's long-time fans, many of whom claimed it superior to the band's previous albums, even their classic debut, Appetite for Destruction. Even more impressive than the multitude of breathtaking songs featured on the album was the evolution the band had taken since their heyday, bearing only a minor resemblance to the sound they became famous for so many years ago, and instantly pushing the band to the forefront of metal's cutting edge, earning them comparisons to groups like Opeth, Mastodon and Lamb of God.

Now of course none of that actually happened, but the very obvious point I'm making here is that what we would laugh at the suggestion of Guns and Roses pulling off in 2008 is essentially what Portishead actually did this year with their similarly long-awaited comeback album, Third. Though it's true that Axl and company faced far more in terms of expectations due to the band's previous astronomical commercial success, the greater length of the layover in between albums, and the near-mythical recording history of Chinese Democracy, it could be argued that what Portishead was facing with their third album was even scarier: total irrelevancy. Dummy was great and all, but that was almost 15 years ago, and timeless as it sounded then, it sounds very much the by-product of the year 1994 today. Portishead was pretty good too, but it was basically Dummy II: Trip-Hopera, and when we didn't hear anything more from Beth, Geoff and Adrian for the decade afterwards, it seemed pretty fucking likely that the band's place in history had been sealed. Consequently, most reactions to the news of Third finally leaking were along the lines of "yeah, I guess I'll give it a shot, for old time's sake."

To say that Third was the pleasant surprise of the year is nowhere near sufficient, because all it does it make it seem ridiculous that our expectations of it were so unbelievably low to begin with. But sure enough, the album demolished just about everything we've come to expect of comeback records, sounding every bit as original, urgent and stunning as anything the band had done before. The guttural intensity of "Machine Gun," the disembodied drift of "Deep Water," the hypnotizing pulse of "We Carry On"--they're all unmistakably Portishead, but rather than sounding like a boring return to form or a self-conscious reinvention, they just kind of sound like the music that Portishead should be making 14 years after Dummy, as if they had continued to make albums all throughout that time period, improving and evolving their sound. And more importantly, they don't sound like anything else on the planet.

Third expands the loneliness of Dummy to heartbreaking proportions, and transforms the claustrophobia of their self-titled album into near-maniacal paranoia--one of the most disturbing albums of recent years, and without being anything of a chore to listen to. Before Third, Portishead's peers were artists like the Sneaker Pimps, Everything But the Girl and Morcheeba. After Third, it's more like Bjork, Timbaland and Radiohead. One of the greatest comeback albums of all-time? Get the word "comeback" out of there, and now we're getting somewhere. - The Good Dr Bill

Artist's Previous Rankings on Our Albums Lists: n/a

Ranked Highest By: James Iha, demoncleaner, Vivian Darkbloom, Badger, sttignasty, greekgoat91, johnny largesax, +marios+, surlacarte, undo, Wolfgang, Insane, Bobzilla (#1)

Also Ranked By: Mitchell, Hans Christian Anderson, UselessRocker, Bleep Blop, The Good Dr Bill (#2), st. park, Blue Straggler, Slap Nutz, ____________________________, Pookie, mouthbreather, Duff., Midnite_Vulture (#3), spiritofeden, Saskadelphia, Rez, Waterloo, DemonAndrew, dicorice, Ramona (#4), hinsey21, Dr. Rosenpenis, Very Metal, elementus attacks!, Pavement Ist Rad, bleach (#5)

Amazon Link

Portishead!

portishead at #1. good work guys. im proud of the somb as i always will be.

im gay

Madrox, you contribute so much. Thank you.

and quote the whole thing.

Ehh srry about the spelling, I wrote that up early this AM. Those line breaks are Paul's fault.

YES. THANK GOD.

like a clown?

Fantastic Portishead blurb and a good #1.

thank god this is over

see you guys never

Yay Portishead. When does the >100 come out?

huh... guess maybe i'll have to revisit that Portishead album...

but then again i was never a huge fan in the 90's really either.

Nice blurb Man.

ITS BEEN EMOTIONAL GUYS

That's exactly how you sent it to me. I copied all the blurbs out of the reply window from the PM as to maintain the formatting that people intended.

solid list somb

tv on the radio is pretty waaaaack but that portishead album is one of the tightest jams ive smoked in years

Third: It's like Dear Science for people who hate living!

Not sure if I'll go with the 3mm or the 5mm blade tonight when I spin this tonight and get to cuttin!

sonicalligator, if hadn't already bumped your rating downwith my alternate accounts i swear to god i'd be doing it right now

Excellent job, Paul

thank god this is over... i feel like i need a shower.