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Post by greendemon on Sept 18, 2020 13:27:48 GMT 1
So here we are at last. I promised you a controversial #1... 1. Joy.Discovery.Invention (Blackened Sky, 2002)Yes, that's right. Having slagged off Biffy's debut for being too emo and angsty, my favourite song is the one that goes ' If you want it, get it / Go and break my heart / Take me to your blackened sky'. Sorry/not sorry In some ways this is a hangover from my days of preferring Blackened Sky to their other material, though these days I'd probably only put 'Justboy' and maybe '27' in my top 20 alongside '57' and this one. 'Joy.Discovery.Invention' was Biffy's fourth single and, with its combination of time-signature jumps and dynamic shifts, is very much a classic old-skool Biffy Clyro song. I'm not going to attempt to argue that this is the 'best' song they've ever done, but it is my favourite. I'm not even entirely sure I can say why! It could be because it's the opener to an album I always used to enjoy listening to on long train journeys, which is what this song still makes me think of. It could be because its dark tone chimes with a period of depression I went through in my early 20s. Or it could simply be because it's one of the Biffy songs I've known the longest and which has seen me through aforementioned depression, bereavement, and a thousand other things both good and bad. I'm not one of the old-guard Biffy fans who think everything they made since leaving Beggars Banquet has been commercial guff. I don't miss Blackened Sky-era Biffy: it's been great following this band for over 15 years and watching them go on to bigger and better things. But I'll always have a soft spot for Blackened Sky and this one in particular. List of songs that didn't make the cut coming up...
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Post by greendemon on Sept 18, 2020 13:39:47 GMT 1
Victims of the shortlisting process: Justboy (Blackened Sky, 2002)I'm sure there'll be howls of disapproval I left this out but I just couldn't squeeze it in! Questions and Answers (The Vertigo of Bliss, 2003)For TheThorne's benefit - I did really want to fit this in but again, didn't quite manage it. Great video too. Know Your Quarry (Only Revolutions, 2009)Another weird choice but I just adore this; it's so different from everything else on the album! Black Chandelier (Opposites, 2013)I was so sure this would make it but in the end I found I preferred 'Different People'. Great single though; definitely one of their best. Friends and Enemies (Ellipsis, 2016)Definitely the best song from their weakest album. Tiny Indoor Fireworks (A Celebration of Endings, 2020)Ultimately this one was still just a bit too new to fit in but it has all the makings of a Biffy classic and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up as top 10 material in the future.
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TheThorne
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*Hillside, slip and slide, feel the pain, it's no surprise!*
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 18, 2020 14:00:34 GMT 1
Love your top 3. ‘57’ shows their US Hardcore influences more than any song and it’s epic. Already mentioned Folding Stars. As for j.d.i is brilliant, again so US influenced almost emocore. It was the first single I ever bought by them so gorgeous Those guitars !!!! Anyone so says they ripped of Idlewild hasn’t heard these songs, they are so much hardcore where Idlewild were more punk influenced
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Post by greendemon on Sept 18, 2020 15:16:35 GMT 1
Not that controversial then, I'll have to put Jaggy Snake higher next time But glad not to be the only one to appreciate J.D.I which I've always felt is underrated, though it is on the same album as so many of their fan favourites. I've never understood the Idlewild comparisons, to be honest, even though I got into both bands at around the same time (I bought 'The Remote Part' and their first two albums only after that). They are both Scottish bands with guitars and that's about where it ends.
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TheThorne
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*Hillside, slip and slide, feel the pain, it's no surprise!*
Posts: 27,530
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 18, 2020 15:27:54 GMT 1
Not that controversial then, I'll have to put Jaggy Snake higher next time But glad not to be the only one to appreciate J.D.I which I've always felt is underrated, though it is on the same album as so many of their fan favourites. I've never understood the Idlewild comparisons, to be honest, even though I got into both bands at around the same time (I bought 'The Remote Part' and their first two albums only after that). They are both Scottish bands with guitars and that's about where it ends. Think a couple of the ‘Infinity of Bliss’ singles maybe similar to Idlewild like ‘Ideal Height’ but they are the minority
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Good Old Days
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Sielos grožio niekas nepavogs, kol širdy jaunystė gros.
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Post by Good Old Days on Sept 18, 2020 17:43:17 GMT 1
C is Coldplay ?
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Post by greendemon on Sept 18, 2020 17:52:49 GMT 1
Coldplay is a good guess. You'll have to wait a while to find out though as I won't be posting C until week after next!
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Post by Whitneyfan on Sept 18, 2020 18:34:14 GMT 1
Cleopatra, comin' at ya!
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 17:41:36 GMT 1
Another week has rolled by, which means it's time to C (sorry) who's next... With seven candidates, C was the joint-most oversubscribed letter in this A-Z. All are artists whose albums I own on CD (though I don't actually have a complete set of albums for any of them, not even the one I ended up choosing). I also haven't seen any of them live. One of them I'll never have the chance to see - at least not with their singer. The shortlist also contains the artist of the first CD album I ever owned, as well as one of my favourite artists of recent years. And as with Biffy Clyro, the reason I didn't choose six of them was simply because there is one artist I love just a little bit more. So without further ado...
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 17:42:53 GMT 1
Starting at the beginning (kind of)... The first CD album I ever owned was The Cranberries' 1996 album, To The Faithful Departed, which was given to me as a Christmas present when I was 10. They were really popular at my school and I'd always loved them, especially for Dolores O'Riordan's voice - undoubtedly one of the most distinctive and beautiful in rock music. It's been almost 3 years since she died and I still can't quite believe it. At their peak I was still a little too young to have had any realistic prospect of seeing them live, but I wish I had done it when I was older and still had the chance This was, of course, the song that brought them to my attention. (I'm still cross this was duplicated out of the 1994 round of Time Machine!)
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 18:04:45 GMT 1
From an Irish band to... a completely different Irish band! I am primarily known as an indie and rock fan around these parts, but most people by now probably also know I have a massive soft spot for The Corrs. Like any average young teenager in the late 90s, I liked a lot of pop: there is a dusty corner of my childhood CD collection that still houses relics of this dark age I'm not sure who was responsible for introducing me to Talk On Corners, but it stuck and became one of my favourite albums that I still listen to on occasion now. I was also very fond of the follow-up, In Blue, though I kind of lost track of them after that. I did give serious thought to including these in the A-Z, just because they're so different to anything else I've included! I think ultimately I decided though that it would be a little too focused on those two albums without much of anything else getting a look-in. But I still love The Corrs. There's just something about their particular fusion of Celtic folk and 90s pop that just does it for me. 'Runaway' is their best song, but I've also always had a shameless love of this one...
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 18:15:36 GMT 1
In my late teens and early 20s, I got into indie music in a big way. One of the up-and-coming bands of the early 2000s indie scene was The Coral. I'm not sure how first came across them, but 'Goodbye' was the first song I heard and I really loved their particular brand of retro-influenced, jangly guitar music that was quite unlike anything else breaking out at the time. Again I lost track of them after a while, but I loved their first four albums.
My entirely predictable favourite, which was very well-received on here in Time Machine:
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Post by Whitneyfan on Sept 28, 2020 18:19:10 GMT 1
3 very different, but all very good, bands so far
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 18:24:34 GMT 1
The oldest band on my C shortlist is Haven Factor 6 winners, The Cure. Their heyday was very much before my time, and for years all I knew was 'Friday I'm In Love' and 'Boys Don't Cry', but in my late teens I got into The Cure's discography along with The Smiths, Radiohead, Joy Division, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, and all the other cliché student bands I have a lot of gaps in my Cure collection, but there is very little I have that I don't enjoy now. A top 10 for these guys would have been very easy (or very hard!) but my firm favourite has to be this one - an absolutely timeless instant mood-booster of a song:
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Sept 28, 2020 18:26:07 GMT 1
I know what I expect C to be so I wont spoil it
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Post by Whitneyfan on Sept 28, 2020 18:31:38 GMT 1
The Cure had a massive run of absolutely fantastic singles in the 80s and 90s, and I've had the pleasure of seeing them live too.
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 18:34:35 GMT 1
From the very oldest artist to the very newest!
Chvrches are, without a doubt, one of the most exciting bands to emerge within the last decade. Round about 2009-2010 I got really into electronica and synthpop in a big way, so the appearance of this Glasgow band couldn't have come at a better time. Their debut album, 2013's The Bones Of What You Believe, was probably my favourite album of that year and really set my expectations sky-high. I haven't actually loved either of their follow-up albums quite as much as that first one - their style has evolved a little and I'm not always convinced by the direction - but they are still one of my favourite bands and I'm delighted they've had the success that they have!
This was, I think, the first single I ever heard by them and might still be my favourite - I just love how dark it is!
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 18:37:26 GMT 1
While I didn't choose Coldplay, I could easily have done, so Good Old Days's guess wasn't far off. They were my one of my favourite bands when I was a teenager - I discovered them through seeing the video for 'Yellow', which I absolutely loved and for quite a long while was in my all-time top 100. I stuck with them for quite a while, only losing interest at some point after Viva La Vida. But in Haven Factor 7, Roo. included a lot of their more recent material which I had missed - some of which I thought was absolutely fantastic - and so I've gradually been getting back into them again I think I probably posted this in the Haven Factor 7 final thread, but here it is again, because I love it so much!
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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 18:48:21 GMT 1
Speaking of Haven Factor 7... Surprising precisely nobody, my pick for C has to be one of my favourite bands of all time, Crowded House. I was really pleased to be able to take them to a 4th-place finish in Haven Factor I will make this short since I've already waxed lyrical about my love for them elsewhere, but to sum up: I've known and loved their music since first hearing their fourth album, Together Alone, as a child, and I got into their back catalogue as a young adult. I probably play their music more often than I do music by any other band, which is quite impressive considering I 'only' have five albums of theirs. And while, as I said, I haven't seen any of these bands live, I hope very much to be able to change that next year, when I will - Covid-19 permitting - be seeing them in Manchester on their postponed UK tour! Fingers crossed! First post of the top 10 will be up tomorrow, though I'm not sure how many surprises there will be...!
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Sept 28, 2020 18:49:43 GMT 1
I did think The Crowded Houses were nailed on for C
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