Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 87: Duke Ellington - Far East Suite (+ Fever results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Sunday, November 6 at 8:00 AM EST - though if you are for whatever reason listening to the album around that time, just say so in the topic and I can delay a bit
7. You can sign up to be added to the user cycle (a new user will be added to the end of the current cycle as long as there are four weeks remaining) - the next person on the list will choose 3 albums which the other users will vote on for the next topic.
7a. To ensure people are being given an actual choice, the three nominated albums must be by different artists. You can otherwise stick to a similar sound or era.
7b. The tiebreaker for these polls will be whichever is listed first in the poll options - make sure to deliver the results in order of your own preference (which will hopefully have the added benefit of influencing people toward your first choice if they can't decide).
7c. I have added a tiered vote structure - the least popular album will be removed and its backup votes distributed to the other two entrants.
8. Starting with the next cycle, every four weeks will be a competitive week where those listed choose a single album to face off against others.

Duke Ellington - Far East Suite track list:
1. Tourist Point of View
2. Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)
3. Isfahan
4. Depk
5. Mount Harissa
6. Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)
7. Agra
8. Amad
9. Ad Lib on Nippon

Current Cycle:
11/06: RyoCaliente (Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not)
11/13: darkx (Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill)
11/20: neonreaper
11/27: Great_Paul
12/04: jcgamer107
12/11: ChichiriMuyo
12/18: BlueCrystalTear

Future cycle (dates subject to change if anyone new signs up before 11/27):
12/25: MetalmindStats
1/1: HBJDubs
1/8: Raetsel_Lapin
1/15: BlueCrystalTear/darkx/neonreaper
1/22: Steiner
1/29: Snake5555555555
2/5: Jesse_Custer
2/12: RyoCaliente/VeryInsane/FoolFantastic
2/19: ZaziGuado
2/26: firefdr
3/4: Johnbobb
3/11: Steiner/ChichiriMuyo/Great_Paul
3/18: VeryInsane
3/25: FoolFantastic
4/1: Seanchan
4/8: Johnbobb/ZaziGuado/jcgamer107
4/15: Giggsalot
4/22: RyoCaliente
4/29: darkx
5/6: Snake5555555555/Raetsel_Lapin/Seanchan
5/13: neonreaper
5/20: Great_Paul
5/27: jcgamer107
6/3: Giggsalot/MetalmindStats/Jesse_Custer
6/10: ChichiriMuyo
6/17: BlueCrystalTear
6/24: HBJDubs/firefdr

I'll get the Kylie Minogue results up this evening. I'll be busy until 5 central, so you can still vote in that other topic until then:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80207546

Whatever People Say I Am won?! The queen literally died, what is needed for people to vote for it?

RyoCaliente posted...

Whatever People Say I Am won?! The queen literally died, what is needed for people to vote for it?

If you really wanted that one to win, I'd recommend nominating it against more obscure favorites of yours that are less likely to get votes.

That said, the timeliness for that may actually not have helped. Depends on the audience.

also tag for later in the week

I was also somewhat confused with how the scoring works, as I thought Interpol votes would be added to both Queen and Whatever, tying them up, and then Queen winning because it was top, but so it's only the top vote of the least voted for album.

And I've also just now realized it wasn't 6-5 but 7-8 so Interpol votes didn't matter anyway. Oh well.

Oh cool, it's me! Glad we can finally do some jazz, curious to see how people find this.

Paranoid is an amazing shout by neon too, hope we can do that soon.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
It's 8 tracks 40 minutes, classic doom metal, a few absolute awesome hits and some interesting album cuts. I figure this is a good pick for the holiday week.
War Pigs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX7ZzJ6ehVM

Mostly Autumn - Glass Shadows
Mostly Autumn is a progressive rock band, with bits of folk music thrown in. They are one of my most beloved bands - I could go on. Like with some of my previous nominations, I'm just making sure I mention some of my favorites. Their best album isn't widely available. If I can find an easy way to have everyone listen to it, I will make a big case for it next year.
The Second Hand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyIPSXDJo-U

Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet
I love CTD! This album is fun and catchy and would be a good second choice for the holiday week (in the US anyway). They're a bit quirky as Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm suggests, but they put together some good songs, and at times thoughtful lyrics. Their debut album "The Ghosts That Haunt Me" is a legit good album without a bit less silly lyrics, if those are a turn off.
Swimming In Your Ocean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZAVlJaTNHc

man four weeks of Duke Ellington, Arctic Monkeys, Alanis Morisette and then Black Sabbath is an excellent month of albums

RyoCaliente posted...

I was also somewhat confused with how the scoring works, as I thought Interpol votes would be added to both Queen and Whatever, tying them up, and then Queen winning because it was top, but so it's only the top vote of the least voted for album.

And I've also just now realized it wasn't 6-5 but 7-8 so Interpol votes didn't matter anyway. Oh well.

personally disappointed with how last week went!

(originally my picks were going to include Interpol)

First listen done.

That was enjoyable! I felt like I was doing the album an injustice by multitasking, rather than just sitting back, closing my eyes, and simply listening.

Kylie Minogue - Fever results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
FoolFantastic (20)
BlueCrystalTear (24)
HBJDubs (30)
ChichiriMuyo (32)
Seanchan (36)
hotdogturtle (38)
Raetsel_Lapin (44)
Johnbobb (44)
neonreaper (46)

General Album Comments

ChichiriMuyo: If you told 14 year old me that I wouldn't just listen to an album like this but actually enjoy it, I don't think I would have believed you. My tastes changed quite a bit over the course of my high school years and by the time this album came out I was ready for some Kylie. I find this album to just be an absolute delight, despite a couple of songs not being all that great. This is absolutely an album I would listen to on repeat.

FoolFantastic: In a way, Fever as a full album felt more relevant a decade after its release. With the shift to so-called 'poptimism' in the early-2010s, Fever seems an obvious predecessor to the particular sound that spurred that change (at least among critics). This is a set of pop songs that are somehow catchy yet non-infectious - despite the title, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a perfect anti-ear worm. It commands attention as it plays, but is just mellow enough not to stick around and annoy. The full album largely sustains that perfect balance.

Johnbobb: yeah this really was not my thing

Seanchan (responding to FoolFantastic): It's funny you say that!

When I finally decided to listen to a Kylie album, it was her recent one, Disco, since it had that song Real Groove that I posted a remix of during Dua Lipa's week. I thought about nominating that, but wanted to listen to her most popular album, Fever, first, since I like to err on the side of the big hit. I saw that it had "Can't Get You Out of My Head", which is one of those quintessential "oh yeah, THAT SONG" songs. Started listening and took about 5 seconds into "Love At First Sight" before I was overwhelmed by a very specific nostalgia that might just be jamais vu.

I'm dating myself a bit here, but do any of you remember when they'd advertise CDs like "Now That's What I'd Call Music" on TV? You'd hear 5-10 seconds of basically every song on the album, which was just a cavalcade of recent pop hits of all stripes. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" certainly would have been on one of those albums but "Love At First Sight" must have been too. They're the type of songs that I would listen to a 90 second commercial just to hear 10 seconds of, then go about my day and promptly forget about until the next time the commercial aired.

Anyway, that's a long winded way of saying that I agree with the ephemeral nature of a lot of these songs and the overall album. To be fair though, I think that's true of a lot of pop songs/albums/artists. It's just the nature of the genre.

So yeah, despite this being my nomination, I can't say I love this album. There's quite a bit of good stuff here, of course! But I've never been a big fan of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (which will probably run away with the top spot because it's the big recognizable hit). It just suffers from being maybe 30-45 seconds longer than it needs to be, which is a criticism I feel like I could level at quite a few of the songs here; I'm often ready to move on before the song is finished. I also think that 3 song stretch of Fever/Give it to Me/Fragile is completely skippable, which sucks because it's right in the middle of the album.

HBJDubs: A great dancepop album. Lots of songs are catchy but not in an annoying way. It kinda tapers off at the end (which is a thing I've noticed with my rankings of pop albums, maybe pop in general just likes to frontload their albums) but even the lowest song is just "eh" rather than bad.

BlueCrystalTear: I found the songs on this album to be heavily redundant; they're all straight-up dance pop that, as Fool stated, makes you want to groove as you hear it, but you forget about each of them a few songs later. While this helps prevent songs from getting stuck in your head, it doesn't make any of them stand out above the others. This collection of songs works best as an album, and as I've stated with albums like this before, it's really hard to rank. I liked it as a singular entity more than I can say I liked any one track - it is truly greater than the sum of its parts, but does what it sets out to do.

Raetsel_Lapin: I'm not often into dance music and this album was a bit too dancey for my tastes. I wouldn't say I disliked it, but there was only one song I was super into & most tracks failed to leave much of an impression, positive or negative.

hotdogturtle: Like Madonna, Kylie developed a certain style of late 90s/early 00s "dance pop" that was distinct from her 80s origins. It just so happens that in general I tend to prefer the 80s style more. This is a perfectly serviceable album for what it is, it's just not what I'm usually looking for. Although I will say, my top 3 songs from this were all new to me so I could see myself returning to those songs even if not the full album.

Fever track ranking

12. Burning Up (Track #12)
Score: 30 (Average Rank: 9.67/12)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, BlueCrystalTear, hotdogturtle (#12)

Raetsel_Lapin: I actually like the verses and bridge on this track, but the choruses take the very concept of repetition and beat it into the ground. I complain about repetition a lot, but she says "I'm Burning Up" 51 times! Like... There are elements of a great song here, but this is a very anti-Raetsel song.

hotdogturtle: This song sounds like real life Animal Crossing music at first (>_>). But the chorus is like, wtf, it's so bad. Easily the worst part of the whole album. And a bonus kick in the head for sharing a song title with a different song that I love.

11. Your Love (Track #11)
Score: 48 (Average Rank: 7.78/12)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic, HBJDubs, BlueCrystalTear (#11)

10. Fragile (Track #6)
Score: 51 (Average Rank: 7.56/12)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic (#12)

9. Give It to Me (Track #5)
Score: 53 (Average Rank: 7.44/12)
Biggest Fan(s): BlueCrystalTear (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, Seanchan (#12)

8. Fever (Track #4)
Score: 54 (Average Rank: 7.33/12)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo (#12)

7. Dancefloor (Track #9)
Score: 60 (Average Rank: 6.44/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): ChichiriMuyo, HBJDubs (#10)

6. More More More (Track #1)
Score: 61 (Average Rank: 6.56/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#10)

hotdogturtle: This song should be shorter. I think it suffers from repetition more than anything else on this album. By the 2 minute mark it already feels like the song hasn't done anything, and then there's nearly 3 more minutes of the same.

5. In Your Eyes (Track #8)
Score: 67 (Average Rank: 6/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan, hotdogturtle (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#12)

4. Come into My World (Track #7)
Score: 73 (Average Rank: 5.56/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin, ChichiriMuyo, FoolFantastic (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb, BlueCrystalTear (#9)

hotdogturtle: This song has an absolutely crazy music video, definitely watch it if you've never seen it before.

3. Love Affair (Track #10)
Score: 83 (Average Rank: 4.78/12)
Biggest Fan(s): ChichiriMuyo, hotdogturtle (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): FoolFantastic (#10)

ChichiriMuyo: An absolute hidden gem in my eyes. Why this song was never released as a single is beyond me.

2. Love at First Sight (Track #2)
Score: 92 (Average Rank: 4.78/12)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Seanchan, HBJDubs, BlueCrystalTear (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#12)

Raetsel_Lapin: I actually kinda love this song. An easy 8/10, *maybe* close to a 9.

1. Can't Get You Out of My Head (Track #3)
Score: 93 (Average Rank: 4.11/12)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper, FoolFantastic, Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): hotdogturtle (#9)

hotdogturtle: I heard this song playing in a store one time and I correctly guessed who sang it because the part starting at 1:23 sounds so much like Come into My World.

1: Isfahan
2: Agra
3: Mount Harissa
4: Bluebird of Delhi
5: Blue Pepper
6: Amad
7: Tourist Point of View
8: Depk
9: Ad Lib on Nippon

I'm glad that we got a chance to cover something different, even though this isn't a style of music I'm particularly into.

Isfahan: I do enjoy this track. It's very soft and relaxing, which isn't a bad feeling at all.

I'm happy to have revisited this - it was sitting in my 8.3/10 zone but now appears likely to crack my 9/10 range. As far as jazz goes, I've always been drawn toward the more chaotic side, and Duke Ellington is not that. But Far East Suite really clicked this time around - not that I have the language to really express why. There's just so much motion to these pieces.

As far as ranking these pieces go, I feel like this could go in any order - I really prefer this as a full work.

My ranking:
Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)
Isfahan
Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)
Tourist Point of View
Agra
Mount Harissa
Amad
Ad Lib on Nippon
Depk

I don't really know jazz super well. I tend to digest brass and woodwinds as vocals in a foreign language.

Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)
Tourist Point of View - Perhaps guided by the title, this track makes me think about a visitor to a new place, perhaps from a bus or stopped train, gazing out at the hustle and bustle of a foreign land. If this album is about a tour, this is a terrific first track imo.
Amad
Depk
Ad Lib on Nippon - A good closing track, it takes it's time going and goes in a few different directions, and feels a bit like an overture. I think if I consumed this track outside of the album, I wouldn't like it as much.
Mount Harissa
Isfahan
Bluebird of Delhi
Agra

bump

This is such a tough one to rank, both on the track level and the album level.

I'm glad we went with one of the more foundational, easy to listen to jazz albums. I find the genre intimidating, but this was a pretty reasonable introduction. I was wondering for a bit if I was going to like the album. I like Tourist Point of View but right after it goes into slower/quieter stuff that just didn't do it for me. Once Mount Harissa hit, though, I noticed that I was subconsciously moving along with it. I almost made it my top song, but the last two minutes really dragged it down for me. And that's kind of the problem for me - this album is all over the place, there's not even internal consistency in many of the songs, let alone the album as a whole. I know some people love that about jazz, but it doesn't work for me. Overall a good experience, though.

1 Tourist Point of View
2 Amad
3 Blue Pepper
4 Mount Harissa
5 Ad Lib on Nippon
6 Depk
7 Bluebird of Delhi
8 Agra
9 Isfahan

Interesting to hear what folks think of this one. In a lot of ways it's a fairly unique record, but it marries a lot of different strains of jazz together - traditional big band, classical influence, hard bop, vaguely conceptual stuff - in a pretty fun and representative way. I also love that all of these songs are so dynamic - there's such a great sense of motion throughout here, and even the songs where I dont love the main theme have at least one section that bangs. I could imagine this being a pretty decent intro to jazz, if this was the first album someone actively listened to. I guess that's why I nominated it!

For me:

Mount Harissa (all time bop)
Blue Pepper (banger)
Tourist Point of View (awesome evocative intro)
Ad Lib on Nippon (perfect closing overture)
Isfahan (lovely ballad)
Amad
Agra
Bluebird of Delhi
Depk

When I briefly considered a jazz week, my top choice was probably going to be The Comet Is Coming's Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery - which I guess is kind of a blend of jazz and other things, but I feel has a sound that might particularly resonate on a video game message board.

FoolFantastic posted...

When I briefly considered a jazz week, my top choice was probably going to be The Comet Is Coming's Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery - which I guess is kind of a blend of jazz and other things, but I feel has a sound that might particularly resonate on a video game message board.

I absolutely fucking love this album and actually nominated it for a different album of the week thing I was doing back when it came out in 2019

1. Tourist Point of View
2. Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)
3. Ad Lib on Nippon
4. Mount Harissa
5. Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)
6. Amad
7. Depk
8. Isfahan
9. Agra

Fantastic album start to finish; not a bad track among the bunch

Will do my last listen tonight.

Watched Licorice Pizza the other day. Cameo by Tom Waits in it.

Also listening to more Sunspot. Gotta make sure theyre in my year end Spotify list!

Amad
Mount Harissa
Depk
Ad Lib on Nippon
Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)
Tourist Point of View
Isfahan
Agra
Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)

It's so hard to rank an album like this compared to most other genres because you don't really have a "main part" of each song to latch onto, like a chorus or a leitmotif. You really have to consider every song as a beginning-to-end entity. And then Ad Lib on Nippon was the hardest song to rank because it's so many different things at once.

1. Mount Harissa
2. Depk
3. Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)
4. Ad Lib on Nippon
5. Isfahan
6. Amad
7. Tourist Point of View
8. Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)
9. Agra

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

It's so hard to rank an album like this compared to most other genres because you don't really have a "main part" of each song to latch onto, like a chorus or a leitmotif. You really have to consider every song as a beginning-to-end entity. And then Ad Lib on Nippon was the hardest song to rank because it's so many different things at once.

Quoting this in agreement.

FoolFantastic posted...

As far as ranking these pieces go, I feel like this could go in any order - I really prefer this as a full work.

And this too!

Gonna skip this week though I still listened to it for ranking the albums later, but I don't want to skew the track rankings when I don't really like any of them. Something about jazz and big band stuff just grates on my ears and makes it hard for me to like. I like when bits and pieces are incorporated in other genres but full blown jazz is just rough to get into. I'll give it another try when we rank the albums to see if it clicks

Unfortunately I only get one listen. I've had a strange past week!

This album is equally strange. I don't even know what it's supposed to be. This album excels when trying to simply be jazz, which is Duke's forte. However, it fails when he tries to make it a jazz/world music crossover, largely because Duke is trying to convey Eastern sounds with Western instruments. I'm left wondering what I'm supposed to be feeling, particularly because I don't sense anything "Far East" about this (the track titles imply Iran and India, save for #9). I too don't like ranking this - this was meant to be a single entity, so ranking each movement "from start to end" is tough since it's meant to flow together, which it does. I have no idea what I'm left feeling here. Just... groove, maybe? And I couldn't even tell you which song was which, but I only listened once. So... yeah.

1. Mount Harissa
2. Amad
3. Isfahan
4. Ad Lib on Nippon
5. Depk
6. Tourist Point of View
7. Bluebird of Delhi (Mynah)
8. Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)
9. Agra

Seanchan posted...

Also listening to more Sunspot. Gotta make sure theyre in my year end Spotify list!

I'm still happy I made a Sunspot fan out of you!