Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 97: Tool's 10,000 Days (+Michael Jackson's Thriller result)

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Michael Jackson - Thriller results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
MarkS2222222222 (2)
neonreaper (4)
FoolFantastic (6)
ChichiriMuyo (8)
HBJDubs (8)
ZeroSignal (8)
darkx (12)
firefdr (12)
Snake5555555555 (12)
rwlh (14)
Seanchan (14)
hotdogturtle (16)
Johnbobb (18)
Raetsel_Lapin (18)
StifledSilence (22)
Place (30)

General Album Comments

StifledSilence: Thriller is practically a greatest hits album on its own. Its kind of ridiculous how many of his best songs are crammed on here.

ZeroSignal: Thriller might be the greatest album of all time when you consider how many hits came from it. Easily the peak of Michael Jackson's career.

HBJDubs: The bottom half is just average stuff imo, not bad but not special; however the rest are all top of the line bangers. This album could have had 15 bad songs and I would still call this a great album because of the strength of the top 4 tracks

ChichiriMuyo: Like the recent She's So Unusual this is an all time great pop album. Funny enough, they were released within a year of each other. The difference here is that I don't know if this is truly MJ at his best. Most musicians would be thrilled to have as much success as this one album throughout their entire careers, but it can be argued that maybe Bad is even better. Regardless, this is an album everybody should listen to and, well, if you haven't heard the majority of these songs what rock have you been living under?

Place: Yeah, it's probably sacrilege to rank those major hits beside The Girl is Mine. Though given the choice to listen to anything from this album, it sure as hell wouldn't be Billie Jean, which is playing right now on several-hundred radio stations somewhere in the world. I cherish this entire record, and it's earned its spot at the peak of the pop pantheon.

FoolFantastic: I wish I liked Thriller more than I do, but I find a solid third of it rather bland. Even just looking at 1982, there are about a dozen albums I prefer.

Seanchan: A pretty damn solid album, but not truly great all the way front to back. The top of the list are all time radio classics, which carry the album. Then there's the "pretty good" tier, which includes "Wanna Be..." because I think that song is a little too repetitive (though I do like the "mama se mama sa" part). The bottom 3 I'm pretty meh/whatever on, but what are you gonna "doggone" do?

Not that I've heard everything MJ's done, but for me, I think I prefer the Off the Wall (though that's leaning hard on the first half). It just feels a little more cohesive than Thriller for me.

Thriller track ranking

9. The Lady in My Life (Track #9)
Score: 34 (Average Rank: 7.88/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Place (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): StifledSilence, Raetsel_Lapin, rwlh, Johnbobb (#9)

ChichiriMuyo: This song is just okay. It is very obviously a song of its time, and came before MJ really knew exactly what his strengths were (not this).

8. The Girl is Mine (Track #3)
Score: 47 (Average Rank: 7.13/9)
Biggest Fan(s): StifledSilence (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, HBJDubs, ChichiriMuyo, Place, FoolFantastic, Seanchan, MarkS2222222222, hotdogturtle (#9)

neonreaper: The lyric "doggone" sorta ruins this for me

Raetsel_Lapin: It's a very cute and playful song. Usually it's in my top two (and I had it winning a preliminary version of this list), but I'm more drawn to some of the other songs than usual.

ChichiriMuyo: The more time that passes the more I realize that Paul is probably my least favorite Beatle. I don't like his post-Beatles output, and his presence here is no different. Rather than elevating the song with his rock god stats he instead makes it the worst track on the album.

rwlh: The Girl Is Mine is saved from last place because I enjoyed the spoken word back and forth and Pauls sudden I DONT BELIEVE IT made me laugh.

Place: Gonna echo the general sentiment here; the Michael/Paul collab tracks aren't so great. That said, this is easily the best of them and the back-and-forth at the end is at least charming. It errs more toward being playful rather than cynical, which makes it a solid fit for the album. An album that happens to be stacked with some of the most prevailing pop music ever recorded.

7. Baby Be Mine (Track #2)
Score: 48 (Average Rank: 7.06/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Place (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): ZeroSignal, Snake5555555555, darkx (#9)

ChichiriMuyo: Weak sauce. Sounds like a rejected Jackson 5 song that was "updated" for his adult solo career 10 years later.

6. Human Nature (Track #7)
Score: 88 (Average Rank: 5.06/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin, Place (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Snake5555555555, Seanchan, hotdogturtle (#7)

Raetsel_Lapin: I'm not entirely sure why, but I love this song tonight. I'm often easily manipulated by lyrics about city nights, but I've never really resonated with this song until *right now*.

ChichiriMuyo: This may seem low ranked but this and up are the songs I will always enjoy. Most musicians wish they had this kind of depth.

5. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (Track #8)
Score: 97 (Average Rank: 4.75/9)
Biggest Fan(s): StifledSilence, Johnbobb, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): firefdr (#9)

ChichiriMuyo: This song gives me mixed emotions. Trying to ignore allegations against him that were never proven... this song is a banger. However, "trying" is the key word here.

4. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Track #1)
Score: 99 (Average Rank: 4.31/9)
Biggest Fan(s): rwlh (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): StifledSilence, Raetsel_Lapin, Johnbobb, Seanchan, darkx (#6)

neonreaper: Because I had a dub with no lyrics, it killed me to not know what the repeated lyrics were at the end. "I'm gonna say what I said I'm starting now" is what I came up with.

ChichiriMuyo: Fine enough song, but I don't think I know what he's trying to say here. I mean like... "you wanna be startin' somethin', well, well you're a... you're a vegetable!" Mamase mamasa mamakossa indeed, Michael. Yeah, how did anyone ever question if he was "bad" enough when these are his fighting words?

3. Thriller (Track #4)
Score: 134 (Average Rank: 3/9)
Biggest Fan(s): hotdogturtle (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#8)

neonreaper: Ah to grow up in the 80s and this video was never played except near Halloween and as the #1 video of all time on the countdowns. If I recall, November Rain dethroned it and it was nice that a song/video that actually was in rotation was at the top.

Raetsel_Lapin: I do like it, but honestly, I think it's a bit played out and I'm a bit tired of the song now.

ChichiriMuyo: The title track, the song that we all came here for. If this song doesn't make you want to dance I can't imagine what would. The Vincent Price voiceover is awesome. The music video is still inspiring artists in a post-MTV world. Immortal.

2. Billie Jean (Track #6)
Score: 137 (Average Rank: 3/9)
Biggest Fan(s): ZeroSignal, neonreaper, FoolFantastic (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Place (#8)

neonreaper: So good, such a classic, one of the best songs of all time. And the video was so incredible too.

ChichiriMuyo: She's not my lover either. These days I feel this song is a bit over played on the radio, but when I think about how MTV almost didn't play it because MJ was black - it brings a little tear to my eye. Can you imagine how stupid they would have looked if they held their ground. But hey, no one can say Michael Jackson didn't help change the world for the better.

1. Beat It (Track #5)
Score: 148 (Average Rank: 2.81/9)
Biggest Fan(s): firefdr, Snake5555555555, HBJDubs, ChichiriMuyo, MarkS2222222222, darkx (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): StifledSilence, Place (#7)

neonreaper: The first album I ever had was a dub of Thriller. As a kid I would re-record segments of the album... Beat It was my favorite song and my version of it was eventually 25% song, 50% fake interview segments between me and Michael Jacksons, and 25% me saying annoying things to/about my brother.

ChichiriMuyo: I can never hear this song without hearing Weird Al. That's a good thing in my book. Just a really, really great track.

Don't have many thoughts on this one.

My ranking:
Vicarious
The Pot
Rosetta Stoned
Right in Two
Jambi
Intension
10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
Wings for Marie (Pt 1)
Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
Lipan Conjuring
Viginti Tres

1. Jambi
2. Vicarious
3. 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
4. Wings for Marie (Pt 1)
5. Right in Two
6. Rosetta Stoned
7. The Pot
8. Intension
9. Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
10. Lipan Conjuring
11. Viginti Tres

Well, I did 3 listens and made a ranking list. I can tell you this album will absolutely not stick with me. I think there's a lot to like about the general soundscape but this isn't anything I'll want to revisit.

What it did do is make me want to listen to Mer De Noms again, which is the first album by A Perfect Circle and features the same singer as Tool (not that I really need to tell anyone in this topic). For whatever reason, I owned that album but nothing from A Perfect Circle or Tool other than that.

Rosetta Stoned
Vicarious
10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
Jambi
Right In Two
Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
The Pot
Wings For Marie (Pt 1)
Intension
Viginti Tres
Lipan Conjuring

My favorite Tool album. I nominated this in the past and I'm glad we get to rank it! For me this has a whopping seven songs that I can place #1, and most times it really comes down to which specific moment in a song am I digging the most right now. At this time, that moment is the intro to Rosetta Stoned, such a banger

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Last thought - I probably should have smoked some pot before listening to this album. It is meant to be listened to while high, no doubt. The problem is that the album that proceeded it was also one I'd say the same thing about, except so much more work went into making those songs. I think that Seanchan said all of these songs "glom together" and yeah... if you're not a "true" fan of the band and any song of this album plays you could be forgiven for mistaking which one it is, or even which album it's from. It definitely sounds like "Tool: The Generic Album That Defines Our Sound." I literally just put on Lateralus and one song in it's absolutely the sound of Tool, yet The Grudge isn't so damn generic and bland as most of 10,000 days. And when I put on AEnima, well that album actually has a self-realized identity compared to 10,000 days. You, and by you I mean the fans of Tool, you will not take half the length of the track to figure out which song you are listening to on Aenima, no matter how high you are. That's compared to 10,000 Days where you could listen to half the album and not know which album you're hearing.

/Rant

regardless of how juvenile the like "oh you should be high to enjoy this" angle is, I just don't get how you can say Rosetta Stoned, The Pot and Wings are aren't all unique things. also;

"except so much more work went into making those songs."
is there a documentary on the making of the albums i missed?

This topic will stay up a bit longer but here are the poll results

First round:
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92: 5
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: 6
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead: 3

Second round:
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92: 5
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: 8

One last thought on 10,000 Days that I forgot to add yesterday. I got the feeling that this might be a "fans of the genre" or maybe a "fans of the band" type of album.

Vicarious
Jambi
Rosetta Stoned
10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
The Pot
Right In Two
Wings For Marie (Pt 1)
Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
Intension
Viginti Tres
Lipan Conjuring

Steiner posted...

regardless of how juvenile the like "oh you should be high to enjoy this" angle is, I just don't get how you can say Rosetta Stoned, The Pot and Wings are aren't all unique things. also;

"except so much more work went into making those songs."
is there a documentary on the making of the albums i missed?

This guy. Calls me juvenile for calling Tool out as a pothead band, then immediately names two songs that blatantly make drug references... in their titles! Boy, you sure made me look foolish. *facepalms*

Also, as someone who casually likes the band, if you played those three (or four) songs for me in, say, one month... I wouldn't be able to tell you which was which. In fact, if you played all three in a row I'm not sure I'd be able to identify when one ends and the next begins.

If they legitimately put as much work into this album as the others I named I would be dumbfounded. This album feels like they had learned over the years what elements of their past songs were popular with their fans and just stuck really close to those few elements.

1. 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)
2. Jambi
3. Vicarious
4. The Pot
5. Wings for Marie (Pt 1)
6. Right in Two
7. Rosetta Stoned - this grungy, dirty feeling 11-minute shuffle would've stood out a lot more if the album didn't already have Wings Pt. 2
8. Viginti Tres
9. Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)
10. Intension
11. Lipan Conjuring

the album is solid the entire way through but it's that first 40 minutes that really sells it

ChichiriMuyo posted...

This guy. Calls me juvenile for calling Tool out as a pothead band, then immediately names two songs that blatantly make drug references... in their titles!

woah

who are you to wave your finger

I'm not against smoking weed, obviously, if that's what you mean by waving my finger. I just find it ridiculous that he would imply that I'm juvenile for pointing out there is absolutely a drug culture around the band and they not only don't hide it but also play into it. If the band knows this and vaguely encourages it then it's not really juvenile to discuss that aspect of their music, is it?

(it's just a line from the song)

Johnbobb posted...

woah

who are you to wave your finger

he must be out of his head

Oh. lol. NOW I feel foolish.

First time listening to this and I found it surprisingly boring compared to their earlier work

Jiambi
Vicarious
10,000 days
Right in two
The pot
Intension
Rosetta stoned
Lipan conjuring
Wings for Marie
Lost keys
Viginti trees