Board 8 > Rank the Tracks 128: Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante (+ Springsteen results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

firefdr's week:
Bastille - Bad Blood
vs.
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
vs.
Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3

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, August 20 at 4:00 PM Central Time; the future week poll will close earlier, when I am putting up the next topic
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.
9. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante:
1. Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
2. Chemical Marriage
3. Carry Stress in the Jaw
4. Desert Search for Techno Allah
5. Violenza Domestica
6. After School Special
7. Phlegmatics
8. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
9. The Bends
10. Backstrokin'
11. Platypus
12. Merry Go Bye Bye
13. Noises (hidden track)

Current cycle:
8/20: MetalmindStats' bonus (Madonna - Like a Prayer)
8/27: ZaziGuado (Muse - Black Holes and Revelations)
9/3: firefdr
9/10: Johnbobb
9/17: StifledSilence/FoolFantastic
9/24: VeryInsane
10/1: FoolFantastic
10/8: Seanchan
10/15: neonreaper/rwlh/darkx
10/22: Giggsalot
10/29: RyoCaliente
11/5: darkx
11/12: Steiner/Giggsalot/jcgamer107
11/19: neonreaper
11/26: Great_Paul
12/3: jcgamer107
12/10: Snake5555555555/RyoCaliente/BlueCrystalTear
12/17: ChichiriMuyo
12/24: BlueCrystalTear
12/31: rwlh
1/7: NFUN/Fluttershy_Pony/ChichiriMuyo
1/14: NFUN
1/21: StifledSilence
1/28: MaxGalactica
2/4: VeryInsane/ZaziGuado/HBJDubs

Future Cycle:
2/11: MetalmindStats
2/18: HBJDubs
2/25: Fluttershy_Pony
3/3: competitive week
3/10: Steiner
3/17: Snake5555555555

Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand > Kaiser Chiefs - Employment > Bastille - Bad Blood

Another album in my all-time top 100 vs two I have not heard

First listen down. I... really don't "get it." It's certainly interesting, at times extremely engaging and at others utterly murderous on my ears, though I like it more as the album goes on. There's nothing to describe it. What's noticeable is how different musically this is than the last Mike Patton album we did (FNM Angel Dust).

All this said, after my first listen, I don't know if I can rank this. Not because I hate it, but because this feels like an art rock concerto, in this case meaning a single piece of various movements lasting approximately an hour. This makes it hard to discern where one track ends and the next starts. This is one of those albums where the tracks don't work by themselves as well as they do as a cohesive unit. Albums like that are the hardest to rank and I've opted out of such works before.

I will give another listen but I will only have time for two this week, given the length of this.

Tag, the description sounds like something that I will like.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

All this said, after my first listen, I don't know if I can rank this. Not because I hate it, but because this feels like an art rock concerto, in this case meaning a single piece of various movements lasting approximately an hour. This makes it hard to discern where one track ends and the next starts. This is one of those albums where the tracks don't work by themselves as well as they do as a cohesive unit. Albums like that are the hardest to rank and I've opted out of such works before.

that's super fair yeah

Franz Ferdinand > Employment > Bad Blood

I like Pompeii a lot, but the rest of Bad Blood didn't really stick with me. Franz Ferdinand is an album I've been meaning to listen to for a while, and Take me Out and This Fire are massive bangers. Don't really know Employment, but it sounded pretty good of the tracks I listened to.

i am admiring all of your stunned silence

haha for gods sake, this is the topic series that freaked out over the velvet underground, who sent for the carnival freakshow

I might play along with this for nostalgia if it were california, but this one always felt like straight up nonsense for me. have fun!

Giggsalot posted...

haha for gods sake, this is the topic series that freaked out over the velvet underground, who sent for the carnival freakshow

I might play along with this for nostalgia if it were california, but this one always felt like straight up nonsense for me. have fun!

i like california more too but this seemed more fun

Man, that was fucking annoying (endearingly)

Desert Search for Techno Allah
Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
Carry Stress in the Jaw
Merry Go Bye Bye
Violenza Domestica
Phlegmatics
Chemical Marriage
Backstrokin'
Platypus
The Bends
After School Special
Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
Noises

1. Platypus This is kinda adorable and I think that alone puts it above the rest of the album in terms of enjoyment
2. Chemical Marriage
3. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
4. Backstrokin
5. Violenza Domestica
6. Desert Search for Techno Allah Its interesting trying to create what I shall politely call Desert music with the synths. Not entirely sold on the judicious nature of their Arabic usage.
7. Carry Stress in the Jaw
8. Merry Go Bye Bye
9. The Bends
10. Phlegmatics
11. Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
12. Noises
13. After School Special Please dont make songs like this.

I heard California a little while ago, and enjoyed a lot of it (Air-Conditioned Nightmare is particularly great). My resultant optimism for this album was ill-considered. Disco Volante is an album of Noise, and, unfortunately, very little else. Props to it for trying something, but I didn't really enjoy it. I found myself zoning out during long sections of quiet, and during a re-listen that I deemed necessary to have a coherent ranking, I wanted to skip a fair few songs.

If you randomize your list and post whatever words you feel like are fun to type, thats probably the most accurate way to rank this album. I say that as a bungle fan for 30 years.

1: Merry Go Bye Bye
2: Violenza Domestica
3: Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
4: Phlegmatics
5: Backstrokin'
6: Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
7: After School Special
8: Desert Search for Techno Allah
9: Chemical Marriage
10: Platypus
11: Carry Stress in the Jaw
12: The Bends
13: Noises (hidden track)

I wanted something weird, experimental, and avantgarde for a change. So I got what I wanted out of this album.

Merry Go Bye Bye: I was starting to worry that all of my tastes had become rather normal and dull, as though I could no longer enjoy the bizarre. Then that part starting at 3:15 hits and oh yeah, that's the good stuff... and the Heavenly choir-esque part at the end of the song that breaks through the overwhelming chaos? 10/10 song.

Violenza Domestica: A villainous song with a deep voiced singer giving what's basically spoken word vocals? Yep, this is a collection of things I like, alright.

Everyone: The breakdown at the end of the song is pretty neat. Not legendary like "Merry Go Bye Bye"'s, but still neat.

Ma Meeshka: I hate the fake ending, but the rest of the song is good enough that I can forgive it.

Carry Stress in the Jaw
Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
Desert Search for Techno Allah
After School Special
Phlegmatics
The Bends
Chemical Marriage
Merry Go Bye Bye
Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
Platypus
Violenza Domestica
Noises (hidden track)

neonreaper posted...

Carry Stress in the Jaw
Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
Desert Search for Techno Allah
After School Special
Phlegmatics
The Bends
Chemical Marriage
Merry Go Bye Bye
Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
Platypus
Violenza Domestica
Noises (hidden track)

You left off Backstrokin'

Carry Stress in the Jaw
Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
Desert Search for Techno Allah
After School Special
Phlegmatics
The Bends
Backstrokin
Chemical Marriage
Merry Go Bye Bye
Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
Platypus
Violenza Domestica
Noises (hidden track)

1. Desert Search for Techno Allah
2. Chemical Marriage
3. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
4. Phlegmatics
5. Platypus
6. Carry Stress in the Jaw
7. Violenza Domestica
8. Backstrokin'
9. After School Special
10. The Bends
11. Merry Go Bye Bye
12. Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
13. Noises (hidden track)

This was a fucking weird ass album and one I did not care to listen to more than twice. If I call Lovestory "my kind of bullshit" this is the opposite end of the spectrum and decidedly NOT my kind of bullshit. Desert Search was okay but most of the rest of this was meh at best. The fucking ASMR-ness of the end of Violenza Domestica, the one that keeping swelling at the very end like it's 2001: A Space Odyssey, whatever the fuck The Bends was, actually making me rank Noises; this album was odd and all over the place, but not in ways I enjoyed. I needed a musical chaser every time I finished this.

Whoops, gotta do this tonight.

Mr. Bungle fucking rocks, dude. Am I going to put this into my general listening playlist? Of course not, but that's not how Bungle is meant to be listened to. I did listen to this album on repeat for several straight hours of data entry at work though

1. Carry Stress in the Jaw
2. After School Special
3. Merry Go Bye Bye
4. Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
5. Violenza Domestica - I'm glad I listened to this one with headphones
6. Desert Search for Techno Allah
7. Platypus
8. Phlegmatics
9. Backstrokin'
10. The Bends
11. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
12. Chemical Marriage
13. Noises (hidden track)

Hey I know this album!

You will get to hear my thoughts on it when my album ranking goes up, but I will say that my favorite song is Carry Stress in the Jaw.

1. Desert Search for Techno Allah
2. Carry Stress in the Jaw
3. Chemical Marriage
4. Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
5. Merry Go Bye Bye
6. Platypus
7. Violenza Domestica
8. After School Special
9. Phlegmatics
10. The Bends
11. Backstrokin'
12. Everyone I Went to High School with Is Dead
13. Noises

This album was definitely a mixed bag. There were some really cool parts in most of the tracks, but there were also some very questionable parts that made me go "Why?". The biggest examples of that is the "ASMR" section near the end of Violenza Domestica and the baby voice at the end of After School Special. Other than the questionable additions, I did enjoy it more than I expected. Lots of neat rhythms, genre experimentation, and instrumentation. I probably won't willingly go back to this album due to the weird bits, but it was definitely an experience of an album.

Well I had fun

I really show post these sooner when I know I'm going to have a busy weekend. Once again, you don't have to include my rankings in the final list but I'll post it anyway

Desert Search For Techno Allah
Platypus
Phlegmatics
Everyone I Went To High School With Is Dead
Backstrokin'
After School Special
Merry Go Bye Bye
The Bends
Chemical Marriage
Violenza Domestica
Ma Meesha Mow Skwoz
Carry Stress In The Jaw
Noises

I am not a Mr. Bungle fan at all, but I respect their contribution to the music world for trying a lot of different things. I'm all for experimental stuff, it just didn't work out for me this time (Desert Search is really great though).

I'm listening to the album now. I'll try to get a ranking done for tonight if the results aren't being posted for a few days. If it's too late then that's understandable, it's my own fault for putting it off for too long. I still wanted to give the album a try even if I don't do a ranking.

Desert Search for Techno Allah
Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz
Platypus
Merry Go Bye Bye
Chemical Marriage
Phlegmatics
Violenza Domestica
Carry Stress in the Jaw
Backstrokin'
Everyone I Went to High School with Is Dead
The Bends
After School Special
Noises

Carry Stress In The Jaw - this is like the two best songs on the album, put into one song. The secret song cracks me up. I'd love to see the record company listening to that - "wah wah wah wah god dammit I'm pissed off". lmao.

If you listen to this and wish these crazy virtuosos would make legit attempts at making songs, their album California is tremendous. Track 2 on that album is a bit goofy but pretty much everything else is stellar imo. I was going to do California as an option on my next turn.