The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project (aka Preachin’ about the Preachers if today’s selection sucks)

My 2002 list from the other thread:

  1. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
  2. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
  3. Beck - Sea Change
  4. Sigur Ros - ()
  5. Pearl Jam - Riot Act
  6. Brad - Welcome to Discovery Park
  7. Johnny Cash - America IV - The Man Comes Around
  8. Tom Waits - Alice
  9. Los Lobos - Good Morning Aztlan
  10. Iron & Wine - The Creek Drank the Cradle
 
WhiteDahlias said:
I think this might be my favorite Flaming Lips album (though Soft Bulletin and At War with the Mystics are also up there).

Not sure where I would rank this in my 2002 list. It would definitely be pretty high though.
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I feel like if you combined the best songs from Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin, you'd have a perfect album but neither one is a 5/5 on its own.

Either way, I'd still give Yoshimi a 4.
 
Yoshimi is the sweet spot between the reserved Soft Bulletin and the utter batshit crazy of the rest of The Flaming Lips catalog. It had an amazing structure and some of their strongest songs. Nature versus machine being told against a backdrop of audible maturity and pure creativity. It’s all pretty much perfect.

5/5
 
Lee Newman said:
I think Soft Bulletin is overrated. Give me Yoshimi, Embryonic or the Terror any day.
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I think the run of Transmission from The Satellite Heart > Clouds Taste Metallic > The Soft Bulletin > Yoshimura Battles The Pink Robots > At War with The Mystics is phenomenal. Embryonic was where I became a bit indifferent to their musical output. I prefer a few of their earlier albums to their post-Mystics releases.

*Zaireeka is hard to compare with their other proper albums based on the context in which it is presented but I have downloaded versions were it’s properly mixed, and if it were ever released officially as a “normal” album I would include it in with their brilliant run.
 
Lee Newman said:
I’m not sure this is a 5 for me. Dirty Computer is. It’s been ages since I listened to it. Making the RIYL was fun (and I could keep going, possibly forever)
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Dirty Computer is definitely their best, but this is a 5 for me too. Electric Lady might be a 4.5 rather than a 5 for me, but it's been a minute since I've gone headlong into that one. Janelle is one of my absolute top favourites though, so I'm extremely biased.

This album I came to specifically because Saul Williams features on it. When I was on a few private torrent sites many years ago, I was downloading absolutely everything that Saul guested on and this album was one of my absolute favourite discoveries as a result. The concept, the aesthetic and the diversity of sound really rocked my socks. Finding out shortly after that they were one of Prince's favourite young artists was confirmation I was on the right track.

The first time I saw Janelle was actually a few months after I saw Prince, and while nothing could ever top the experience of having gotten to see Prince, I think Monáe's was the more impressive show - which really dropped the jaws of my friends I attended with.

I saw Monáe again just after Dirty Computer was released and was right up front against the rail with a crew of my favourite queerdos and POC poetry peeps and it was absolutely riotous! Absolutely stellar live performer!
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
I think the run of Transmission from The Satellite Heart > Clouds Taste Metallic > The Soft Bulletin > Yoshimura Battles The Pink Robots > At War with The Mystics is phenomenal. Embryonic was where I became a bit indifferent to their musical output. I prefer a few of their earlier albums to their post-Mystics releases.

*Zaireeka is hard to compare with their other proper albums based on the context in which it is presented but I have downloaded versions were it’s properly mixed, and if it were ever released officially as a “normal” album I would include it in with their brilliant run.
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I think they are possibly the most consistently interesting bands, ever. They never cease to be daring or inventive. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but when it does, it’s genius.
 
My first exposure to Janelle Monae was seeing her open for Of Montreal at The Palladium on Halloween night during this tour. I could tell she was going to be a star. Of Montreal sings on one of the Arch Android songs and she sings on their album False Priest (as does Solange back when she was still using her last name). I haven't listened to The Arch Android in full for quite awhile but I liked Dirty Computer.
 
avecigrec said:
Dirty Computer is definitely their best, but this is a 5 for me too. Electric Lady might be a 4.5 rather than a 5 for me, but it's been a minute since I've gone headlong into that one. Janelle is one of my absolute top favourites though, so I'm extremely biased.

This album I came to specifically because Saul Williams features on it. When I was on a few private torrent sites many years ago, I was downloading absolutely everything that Saul guested on and this album was one of my absolute favourite discoveries as a result. The concept, the aesthetic and the diversity of sound really rocked my socks. Finding out shortly after that they were one of Prince's favourite young artists was confirmation I was on the right track.

The first time I saw Janelle was actually a few months after I saw Prince, and while nothing could ever top the experience of having gotten to see Prince, I think Monáe's was the more impressive show - which really dropped the jaws of my friends I attended with.

I saw Monáe again just after Dirty Computer was released and was right up front against the rail with a crew of my favourite queerdos and POC poetry peeps and it was absolutely riotous! Absolutely stellar live performer!
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Prince could be hit or miss. I saw him on the Jam of the Year tour and it was almost robotic. Saw him on Welcome 2 America and it was transcendent.

I saw the tightrope video and was like what in the actual fuck is happening right now?

I saw her towards the end of the Dirty Computer tour and it was a spectacle unlike anything except maybe Janet’s Velvet Rope tour.
 
Lee Newman said:
Saw him on Welcome 2 America and it was transcendent.
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Yeah, it was the Welcome 2 Canada portion of this tour that I saw. Truly fantastic. Somewhere I still have a couple pieces of purple confetti.
One of my friends I went with saw Maceo and his band about 10 months before the Prince show and then Maceo with Prince. He was pretty ecstatic about that - and I don't blame him.
Really wish I'd had the extra duckets at the time to get an afterparty ticket too.
 
avecigrec said:
Yeah, it was the Welcome 2 Canada portion of this tour that I saw. Truly fantastic. Somewhere I still have a couple pieces of purple confetti.
One of my friends I went with saw Maceo and his band about 10 months before the Prince show and then Maceo with Prince. He was pretty ecstatic about that - and I don't blame him.
Really wish I'd had the extra duckets at the time to get an afterparty ticket too.
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I had my then 14 year old with me, after party was a no go. Couldn’t find the damn venue for the Jam show.
 
Yoshimi is great, but it's the only Flaming Lips I really ever got into (aside from the She Don't Use Jelly CD single i randomly bought in rural 90s England).

4/5

And my 2002 looks different to others, but to me just as stacked

1. Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Out of Season
2. NERD - In Search Of
3. Bright Eyes - Lifted
4. Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy
5. Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me
6. Johnny Cash - American IV
7. The Roots - Phrenology
8. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi
9. Orchestra Baobab - Specialist in All Styles
10= Damien Rice - O
10= Precious Bryant - Fool Me Good
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
*Zaireeka is hard to compare with their other proper albums based on the context in which it is presented but I have downloaded versions were it’s properly mixed, and if it were ever released officially as a “normal” album I would include it in with their brilliant run.
Click to expand...

Over Wayne Coyne’s dead body! I think the best you’ll ever get with that one is the long rumoured 5.1 DVD/Blu Ray audio version but even that trail has gone cold the last few years.
 
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