The Discography Ranking Thread

[Tristan_Geoff]

I'll start with Swans

S

Great Annihilator - Absolute favorite Swans record and pretty high up my top 100, this album I feel like captures the sounds of both the earlier goth and industrial side of swans and the later post-rock and folk influences that they picked up, bringing an exceptional middle ground and some of the most chilling songs they've created as well as more experimental tracks

Children of God - This is the second Swans album I listened to, and while it may border on being a tier down in some moments I feel a very close attachment to this one in my early college years, the Jarboe tracks especially

The Glowing Man - I listened to this on mushrooms, enough said. Nevermind, it's Swans most ambient release, with tracks filtering in and out these timbres and instruments and hypnotic rhythms that give me increddy vibes

A

White Light from the Mouth of Infinity - A really good record, some of their best folkier material paired with absolutely beautiful tracks such as Love Will Save You that got stuck in my head for months with their melodies

Soundtracks for the Blind - I haven't listened to this one as much as some, but it's really good and Volcano is a banger

To Be Kind - Some tracks off this I keep coming back to a lot, but the length of it doesn't do it justice as much as The Glowing Man for me personally

The Seer - Same as above

B

Cop - Dun dun DUN dun dun DEEEEE *loud chants abt violence and religion*

Filth - This was the first Swans record I heard in an era of time I was heavily into sludge metal, and I considered this at the time one of the sludgiest things I had heard so far, still do too

Love of Life - My brother bought me this on vinyl and it's really good, She is incredible in particular

C

Holy Money - I didn't like this one as much, kinda got tired of the formula at this point and felt this release wasn't as strong. The EBM version of A Screw is really cool tho

The Burning World - Honestly don't hate this album at all, God Damn the Sun and their Blind Faith cover are really good in particular but this album just has a vibe I like as well

D

Greed - Oh I forgot about this record

My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky - Probably need to relisten to this one

Leaving Meaning - The krautier tracks were fine but kinda a dissapointment considering Ben Frost was on this record

[Tristan_Geoff]

Originally Posted by Norg

S tier

Syotos- WIth the b sides this is a long album great album produced by atticus !!!

Untouchables- Production production !!!!!

SOS-Modern KORN !

issues-SOmething about playing this with the light off candles lit while playing FF8 awww childhood memories

Life is Peachy on the bottom? For why

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by Anteater

C'mon Charles, we need a tier breakdown for Bolt Thrower up in this ****.

Manowar surely, or Slayer?

[Frownland]

billy woods (not including Super Chron Flight Bros or Reavers)



S: History Will Absolve Me, Terror Management, BRASS, Shrines, Haram - History Will Absolve Me is woods' true opening statement. Literally covers a whole world of subject matter over really grimy production with no misses. Terror Management marked woods going into exceptionally cryptic territories that have insane replay value. Shephard's Tone has his best lyrics. BRASS was a huge positive surprise with Moor Mother and they both bring their a-game for their best output. The production on it is dark, atmospheric, and perfectly complementary to each performer. Shrines and Haram had Armand Hammer refining the high watermark they set for themselves in Rome & Paraffin and excelling. If I wasn't picky this tier would be more crowded.

A: Rome, Paraffin, Hiding Places, Today, I Wrote Nothing - Rome was where Armand Hammer introduced their standard uncompromising dark sound with ultradense lyricism. It Was Written, Fanon's Ghost, and Dianetics are among woods' best output. Paraffin carries on this idea, favourite tracks are If He Holla, Vindaloo, and Rehearse With Ornette. Incredible records that don't quite hit the S tier because some tracks are a bit underwhelming. Hiding Places is near perfect, but the features on the album bring it down a tad bit. Spongebob, Houthi, Bedtime, and Red Dust are some of the standouts on the album. Top notch storytelling, just the right amount of abstraction, weird but nonabrasive production, always a good listen.

B: Race Music, Known Unknowns, Furtive Movements - Race Music and Furtive Movements have some of Armand Hammer's best tracks like Soft Places and Frog and Toad Are Friends. They were still finding their footing and some of E L U C I D's early vocal experiments don't land. With Known Unknowns, woods tried to put a hook in every song and it definitely helped him grow but didn't always work out. Better Blockhead production here, but still a bit underwhelming.

C: Dour Candy, Camouflage - Camouflage has some really great dark production and moments with Vordul Mega, but the tracks run together in a forgettable way. Dour Candy has great lyricism but Blockhead's production is pretty lame on it.

D: The Chalice - lacks vision and the production isn't that great. Also my least listened to woods album so maybe I should give it more time.

[Norg]

S-Tier

Around the fur- its like there first album but better deftones 2.0 in everyway

White pony- most big bands there 3rd album is like there turning point

Diamond eyes -TBO this album was a turning point cus i think steph started using 8 string guitars and also chino also played guitar in more of the songs so u had that left and right thing going in full force

A-tier

Saturday night - Ummm def a chino inspired album they were bluring the lines with heavy but more melodic artsy

koi no yokan -TBO this album diamond eyes and gore are like a trilogy they all sound similar this album just after the success of diamond eyes trys to go further down the rabbit hole and trys to create or craft the perfect songs

Deftones-Dark

Ohms- at this point its like deftones are soundscaping there songs almost like different themes of AAA movie images def more proggy meldic and the guitars sound different verryy clean

adrenaline- Nu metal

GOre- Further down the rabbit hole following Koi no yokan dang near the bottom and getting more weird more electronics like i said it was a trilogy and this is the end well Ohms was part 4 kinda ..and dont know were they go from here

im thinking there 10th album will be something really different maybe like Elevator music jazz or avent garde who knows

[Anteater]

Good breakdown on Billy Woods there Frown. Need to dig into him more than I'll use your analyses as my starter guide.


Anyway, reading TH's review earlier made me want to give some thought to Magma's great discography. My rankings:



Tier Summaries

S - The 1970 debut Kobaia has always been my overall favorite from them, partly because it covers a lot of sonic territory but it has a cool golden era jazz-fusion aesthetic that was de-emphasized on later records. 2019's Zess and 1984's Merci stand out to me for similar reasons - they really jump out in regards to flow and production in a discography full of Zeuhl jewels. To me, they are flawless standouts of their respective eras.

A - 1978's Attahk is basically S-tier in regards to creativity but it just doesn't flow quite as well for as my favorite four do - "Maahnt (The Wizard's Fight Versus The Devil)' has a killer synth opening though. Also, albums like Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh and Köhntarkösz see Magma solidifying the fundamental elements of Zeuhl and moving away from the vibe of Kobaia and the spiritual jazz leanings of 1001° Centigrades (another great one that's just about S-tier).

B. Mostly live albums I just don't jam much or albums in Magma's discography that I enjoy but don't replay as much, so it's harder to rate their material against what I really love from them. Udu Wudu is probably the one that's most likely to move up to A or even S-tier from me eventually, but I don't love it quite yet.

[Neapolitan]

Originally Posted by Anteater

Thought it might be fun to rank your favorite bands / artists discographies and make our cases for why we like what we like.

No strict format here, though I recommend TierMaker if you need a good template.

I'll start with Genesis




S Tier (Essential)

Trespass (1970) - The strongest of the Gabriel-era albums for me from a compositional and performance standpoint. Anthony Phillips guitar work is phenomenal and the material covers a lot of territory for 1970, with 'Looking For Someone' and 'Stagnation' being particularly nice.


A Trick Of The Tail (1976) - Phil Collins' debut as lead vocalist after Peter Gabriel left. It works really well as an album for similar reasons to Trespass, but it has the additional edge of having some arena-ready hooks at times like on 'Squonk' and the surprisingly poignant 'Ripples'. Basically, it has everything that was great about the Gabriel-era of Genesis but even better production and overall execution with less of Gabriel's meandering tendencies.


Duke (1980) - The best of the 80's era of Genesis, coincidentally, happens to be at the very start after yet another reinvention. Similar to the magic trick Yes would pull off a few years later with 90125, Duke is where Collins really takes off into big stadium AOR type territory. 'Turn It On Again' is a cool slice of pop (plus it's basically in 13/4 time which is ridiculous) and the New Wave-meets-prog aesthetic on 'Man Of Our Times' and the Duke's Travels suite are as good as pop-Genesis got. Very synth-heavy experience, but you can feel the energy just crackling off these songs.


A Tier (Almost Perfect)

Foxtrot (1972) - 'Watcher Of The Skies' is the one of the best opening songs by any band ever. You could get rid of every other song off this record besides this one and the 23 minute closer 'Supper's Ready' and it's still some of the best 30+ minutes of music ever made. The only reason it isn't S-tier is because the rest of the songs here aren't quite as memorable.


Genesis (1983) - The 2nd best 80's Genesis "pop" album. Side A is basically perfect with the skittish epic 'Mama' and the bouncy yet eerie 'Home By The Sea' being examples of Phil Collins doing his thing perfectly. Very close to S-tier overall, but the lulzy 'Illegal Alien' is just a joke song and 'Just A Job To Do' is pretty disposable.


The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974) - Very ambitious concept album and pretty out there for '74. What holds it back from S-tier is that it lacks digestibility as a singular experience, too much meandering around and a tendency to jump between some great songs and questionable Beatle-esque diversions with little rhyme or reason. The best songs on this thing are great though, with my favorites being 'In The Cage' and the dreamy 'Carpet Crawlers'.


B Tier (Good-To-Great)

Nursery Cryme (1971) - The bridge between the glorious Trespass and almost-as-great Foxtrot, but not as strong as either album. 'The Musical Box' is one of the best songs from the Peter Gabriel era and the overall atmosphere is fairly nice, especially when those harmonies hit on 'Harlequin'.


Selling England By The Pound (1973) - 'Firth Of Fifth' is a legitimate slice of perfection, but otherwise it's easily the most overrated album from the Peter Gabriel era. A strong prog album objectively (Gabriel-era Genesis never did a "bad" album), just not a personal favorite.


Wind & Wuthering (1977) - Notable for being the last Genesis album with Steve Hackett's presence on lead guitar, this album has a lot of writing credits from him and it shows. 'Afterglow' has a 10cc vibe about it and 'All In A Mouse's Night' has a quirky charm to it, but I don't think the writing here (in an overall sense) measures up to the S-tier or A-tier albums. Production is pretty good though.


We Can't Dance (1991) - Of the albums I have here at B-tier, I think this one is probably the most underrated. Half of it is pretty nice, half it is meh. The songwriting at times reminds me of the best parts of the '83 self-titled, with my "I'd put this on a playlist' nods going to 'Driving The Last Spike', opener 'No Son Of Mine', the nifty 'Living Forever' and the 10-minute closer 'Fading Lights. Is it super cheesy? Oh yes. Should you probably own it anyway? Hell yeah.


From Genesis To Revelation (1969) - Surprisingly strong album at times. It doesn't sound at all like what Genesis would do just a year later, but Peter Gabriel is in fine form and the groovy 'In The Beginning' followed by 'Fireside Song' is one of my favorite sequences in their whole discography.



C Tier (A Few Good Songs But Generally Inconsistent)


...And Then There Were Three (1978) - I should love this album considering when it came out, but it really only has two great songs - the opener 'Down And Out' and the balladish but lovely sounding 'Snowbound'. I guess if I was feeling generous I would say it's on par with Wind & Wuthering with more accessible songwriting, but your mileage my vary. High C-tier / almost B-tier territory overall.


Abacab (1981) - The oscillating title track, the yacht rock-flecked 'No Reply At All', the proggy 'Dodo/Lurker' and the thudding yet catchy 'Like It Or Not' are all single-worthy and should be in your collection, but otherwise this is a case of a band basically treading water.


D Tier (Shrug/Meh/Etc.)

Invisible Touch (1986) - Not awful objectively but not all that interesting either. The problem with this album is that it sounds like a Phil Collins solo album at this point rather than something a band decided to put together...and his solo material is better than this. It's also the Genesis album that got played on the radio so much that you never want to revisit it unless you just adore the mini-keyboard break in the title track (very sample-able). It's not all a waste - 'Land Of Confusion' is a good single, 'Throwing It All Away' is a fair ballad...and 'Domino' is 10 minutes of decent progginess, but I consider this album the weakest of the Collins era overall.


Calling All Stations (1997) - This album has precisely two tracks worth owning - the crunchy and very well done 'The Dividing Line' and the surprisingly catchy 'Anything Now' that was buried and never even made it on the final record. It's not a terrible album, but it doesn't really feel like a Genesis record. With a different vocalist and writing approach it could have been A-tier material though.

Blasphemy!!!!
You literary underrated and underscore some of their greatest albums. You sit upon your hoity-toity music critic throne and speak lies. Selling England by the Pound, Nursery Cryme, and Abacab deserve S list or even better like R list for Really Essential.

[Anteater]

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

Blasphemy!!!!
You literary underrated and underscore some of their greatest albums. You sit upon your hoity-toity music critic throne and speak lies. Selling England by the Pound, Nursery Cryme, and Abacab deserve S list or even better like R list for Really Essential.

There is no higher ranking than S. S is basically god-tier material for that artist.

Also, just cause I gave Abacab a C doesn't mean I dislike it. The good songs are really good. I just don't think it quite measures up on a song-by-song blow with the 1983 Genesis self-titled. It does have more replayability for me than Nursery Cryme and SEBTP also, so hats off I suppose.

[rostasi]

Agreed on the majority of your Magma picks,
but I have to say that even if you're not a big
fan of (the) live albums, you must take the time
to hear Hhaï because it is absolutely amazing in its
power and complexity with a teenage Didier Lockwood
soaring into the stratosphere so many times on top of
beautiful complexities. I wore out copies of that album
trying to play drums to it, with "Side 4" (Mëkanïk Zaïn)
being an incredible sweat-inducing ecstatic ride of 7/8.
It's really incredible. You should take the time to listen.

[adidasss]

^^ well that was pretty awesome. I'll try some of their above recommended albums.

Also, MB nerds should do more of these.