Board 8 > Rank the Tracks 141: Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell (+ The Cars/Clube Da Esquina res)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Snake/RyoCaliente/BlueCrystalTear week:
Kelsea Ballerini - Subject to Change
vs.
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
vs.
Weird Al Yankovic - Off the Deep End

ChichiriMuyo week:
R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
vs.
Garbage - 2.0
vs.
Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77

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, November 19th at 4:00 PM Central Time; the future week poll will close earlier, when I am putting up the next topic. If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
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

Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell track list:
1. Peter Piper
2. It's Tricky
3. My Adidas
4. Walk This Way
5. Is It Live
6. Perfection
7. Hit It Run
8. Raising Hell
9. You Be Illin'
10. Dumb Girl
(11. Son of Byford)
12. Proud to Be Black

Current cycle:
11/19: Great_Paul (Simple Plan - Get Your Heart On!)
11/26: jcgamer107 (...no response)
12/3: Snake5555555555/RyoCaliente/BlueCrystalTear
12/10: ChichiriMuyo
12/17: BlueCrystalTear
12/24: rwlh
12/31: NFUN/Fluttershy_Pony/ChichiriMuyo
1/7: NFUN
1/14: StifledSilence
1/21: MaxGalactica
1/28: ZaziGuado/HBJDubs
2/4: Sheep007

Future Cycle:
2/11: HBJDubs
2/18: Fluttershy_Pony
2/25: Steiner
3/3: competitive week
3/10: Snake5555555555
3/17: ZaziGuado
3/24: firefdr
3/31: competitive week
4/7: Johnbobb
4/14: FoolFantastic
4/21: Seanchan
4/28: competitive week
5/5: Giggsalot
5/12: RyoCaliente
5/19: darkx
5/26: competitive week
6/2: neonreaper

ChichiriMuyo on the choices this week:
"
R.E.M. - Automatic for the People

It's not my personal first choice, but the it is the most highly regarded of their albums. It's a great album, and represents them at their peak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UE7tXDKIus

Garbage - 2.0

It was incredibly difficult for me to choose between this and their self-titled debut. Both are fantastic, and the sound each album has is so different you'd think it took many albums to evolve. I ultimately went with 2.0 not because I think it's the better of the two (again, hard as hell to choose), but because this album is the more energetic and fun of the two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je-CPZRwbh8

Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77

Of the bands I'm nominating this time around, this is the one that surprises me the most that we've never done an album by. This feels like it'd be right up his group's alley. I went with his particular album because none of their albums are particularly dense with hits, so why not begin at the the begging? Also, it has my favorite song from the band, a song that everytime I hear it I get the urge to learn how to play bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eauZzwt8Ci8

Kelsea > Weird Al > Interpol

REM > Garbage > Heads

Love Weird Al and Heads but would rather see other albums featured.

The Cars - The Cars results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
BlueCrystalTear (6)
FoolFantastic (6)
Fluttershy_Pony (8)
HBJDubs (12)
MrSmartGuy (12)
Seanchan (12)
neonreaper (14)
darkx (16)
Great_Paul (16)
Sheep007 (16)
hotdogturtle (18)
MaxGalactica (18)
Johnbobb (22)

General Album Comments

Seanchan: The first 3 songs here everyone has heard a million times before but, if you're like me, had no idea of the group responsible. Then there's 6 more songs and I honestly have no idea if they're good or not because that opening third mostly overwhelmed my ability to think about the rest.

And since I like to say stupid things in these topics... The harmonizing by The Cars reminded me of Queen. Just that part though. Obviously there's no Freddie Mercury here or any of the playfulness of stuff like Fat Bottom Girls or Bicycle Race.

neonreaper: The Cars are great, and this album is fairly easy to rank because it has 5-6 songs that were on the radio/MTV all the time. My top two tracks are pretty easy to rank, and then there's a pile of singles that are a little tricky to rank and I ended up sticking an album cut above them.

hotdogturtle: While reading the song listing for this week's album I had the same reaction as Seanchan.

Fluttershy_Pony: Good album. A lot of hit songs in a rather short package that doesn't drag.

Sheep007: Got my second listen in early this week. Moving in Stereo is head and shoulders above the rest - I'm not super fond of the album as a whole but still think a lot of the individual songs are pretty good? I also can't say I heard a ton of them on the radio, although that may be cause I'm a little younger than a lot of B8 and am European.

MaxGalactica: Solid classic 80's new wave/pop album. Just What I Needed is as good as it always has been. Bye Bye Love and All Mixed Up were pleasant surprises. The rest were good, but lacked something tangible for me to really latch on to. Still a rather enjoyable album as a whole.

hotdogturtle: Before listening to this album I couldn't name anything about The Cars. But this album had 3 songs that I recognized by title and then 2 more that I recognized by melody once they started. So that's a good signifier of its quality and popularity.

darkx: According to the liner notes for the Cars' Complete Greatest Hits, during the recording sessions for their debut album, the band joked that it would be their Greatest Hits. While they certainly went on to have some pretty big hits on subsequent albums (in fact, their highest-charted song, "Drive," isn't even from this one), I'd say this one has the highest concentration of hits out of any of their albums. It's short, it's sweet, almost every track got a lot of airplay on the radio and on MTV, and while it slows down a bit after the 1-2-3 punch that opens it, there's hardly a slow spot on the entire record.

BlueCrystalTear: I've heard most of this album before, as I own an MP3 compilation of The Cars, over half of which is taken from their two best albums (this one has 6 and Heartbeat City has 5). But this was quite the momentum setter - this debut is so strong that it was able to carry their career for a decade, and thank goodness. The Cars are good shit, and I'm glad Rick Ocasek lived long enough to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Ben Orr, sadly, didn't - one thing that made the Cars stand out were how Ocasek and Orr had voices that made for great harmonies.

As for this album, seven out of nine songs are absolute bangers, with "All Mixed Up" being a pleasant surprise (I hadn't heard that one before). There are two album tracks that are simply good, but good is good enough for those.

Seanchan: An objectively good album (other than I'm in Touch With Your World) but one that I failed to really connect with. Not exactly sure why. Maybe I found the lyrics to be a bit repetitive? Maybe I just wasn't "feeling it" for doing music analysis this week. Whatever the case, it was still nice to check off another rock classic.

HBJDubs: This is a total classic. I think every song here is great. They're all really fun to play in Rock Band too.

The Cars track ranking

9. I'm in Touch With Your World (Track #4)
Score: 22 (Average Rank: 8.31/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, FoolFantastic, Fluttershy_Pony, Great_Paul, MaxGalactica, MrSmartGuy, BlueCrystalTear, Seanchan, HBJDubs (#9)

darkx: Probably the goofiest song The Cars ever made, and that's saying something. It's probably the weakest song on the album, objectively, but something about it just makes me love it.

8. Don't Cha Stop (Track #5)
Score: 32 (Average Rank: 7.54/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): darkx, Johnbobb (#9)

7. Bye Bye Love (Track #7)
Score: 71 (Average Rank: 5.08/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): BlueCrystalTear, Seanchan, HBJDubs (#7)

6. You're All I've Got Tonight (Track #6)
Score: 71 (Average Rank: 5/9)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica (#8)

5. All Mixed Up (Track #9)
Score: 78 (Average Rank: 4.54/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Great_Paul, Sheep007 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#8)

4. Good Times Roll (Track #1)
Score: 81 (Average Rank: 4.31/9)
Biggest Fan(s): neonreaper (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica, MrSmartGuy (#7)

hotdogturtle: It's kind of funny that if you ignore this being a "famous song" and just try to analyze it musically, it's actually very... simplistic? Like in terms of lyrics and instrumentation. That's not even a bad thing and doesn't negatively impact it. Just an interesting thing that I never noticed before.

3. My Best Friend's Girl (Track #2)
Score: 92 (Average Rank: 4.15/9)
Biggest Fan(s): darkx, MrSmartGuy (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, hotdogturtle (#9)

darkx: To put it simply, this is just one of my favorite songs ever. I was a horribly depressed 13-year-old when I first heard it and its devastating lyrics juxtaposed against a peppy pop rock melody just sang to me in the right way at the right time like few other songs ever have. I've probably listened to it over a thousand times in the 21 years since and I'm sure I'll hear it at least a thousand times more before I go.

2. Moving in Stereo (Track #8)
Score: 93 (Average Rank: 4.08/9)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony, Sheep007 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Great_Paul, darkx, Seanchan (#8)

Fluttershy_Pony: Oh hey, I was obsessed with this song a few years ago. One of those tracks that I played on an infinite loop for weeks. Been long enough since I've heard it that I can enjoy it again.

darkx: I know it's one of their most beloved songs but it's always been just a little bit forgettable to me, especially among their big ones.

1. Just What I Needed (Track #3)
Score: 136 (Average Rank: 2/9)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic, Great_Paul, MaxGalactica, hotdogturtle, BlueCrystalTear, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): neonreaper, Fluttershy_Pony (#4)

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights > Weird Al Yankovic - Off the Deep End > Kelsea Ballerini - Subject to Change

R.E.M. - Automatic for the People > Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77 > Garbage - 2.0

Turn on the Bright Lights and Automatic for the People are both in my top 100, so easy votes for me. I also want to cover Talking Heads at some point, though none of their albums would beat Automatic for the People for me.

I can't wait for the time that Turn on the Bright Lights reaches my own top 3 remaining so Ryo and I can both hopelessly nominate it every single time. Just one of those albums that has no obvious hit to sell it on but pretty much every track is excellent once you actually hear the full thing.

Not a style of hip hop I particularly love, and this is the definition of a front-loaded album. An important evolution for the genre, but a genre I'm happy evolved further.

It's Tricky
Walk This Way
My Adidas
Peter Piper
You Be Illin'
Raising Hell
Hit It Run
Proud to Be Black
Perfection
Dumb Girl
Is It Live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC5zHACynR4

Turn on the Bright Lights is cool, vote for it.

FoolFantastic posted...

Turn on the Bright Lights and Automatic for the People are both in my top 100, so easy votes for me. I also want to cover Talking Heads at some point, though none of their albums would beat Automatic for the People for me.

I can't wait for the time that Turn on the Bright Lights reaches my own top 3 remaining so Ryo and I can both hopelessly nominate it every single time. Just one of those albums that has no obvious hit to sell it on but pretty much every track is excellent once you actually hear the full thing.

I've been thinking I should've linked PDA as the show-off track back in the day. Don't really want to change now because I don't want to reveal the entire album in just these previews!

Also I have somewhat the same problem with Talking Heads. I wanna nominate it, but none of their albums can even compare to Stop Making Sense. Like, Burning Down the House is neat...and then you hear the SMS version and it's AMAZING.

I can't believe we're already 15 of 25 albums through this future Rank the Albums cycle already!

First listen done.

I'd heard the 2 big hits, It's Tricky and Walk This Way, before but nothing else (that I remember).

Definitely an old sounding rap album. Very weird to have the opener be about nursery rhymes. I can hear the influence on the Beastie Boys.

In my last nom cycle, I put up an album from Cannons. Turns out, they just release a new album, Heartbeat Highway! If you liked their previous work, you'll like this too. Loving You is the song that jumped out to me for being very catchy.

Also, at some point they did a cover of Dancing in the Dark, so I figured I'd post it here since we covered that some months back. It's an iconic Springsteen song, done in the mellow, chill Cannons style, and I'm not sure it works for me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7r_xgV-z88

Underleveled posted...

Love Weird Al and Heads but would rather see other albums featured.

Why? We've had a grand total of 0 Weird Al albums in this.

Weird Al > Interpol > Kelsea

Heads > Garbage > REM

I'll give this one a listen, see if I enjoy it. Not sure if I will.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Why? We've had a grand total of 0 Weird Al albums in this.

Other albums by those artists I mean.

1: My Adidas
2: Raising Hell
3: Proud to Be Black
4: It's Tricky
5: Is It Live
6: Hit It Run
7: Walk This Way
8: You Be Illin'
9: Perfection
10: Peter Piper
11: Dumb Girl

Subject to Change > Turn on the Bright Lights > Off the Deep End

2.0 > Automatic for the People > Talking Heads: 77

I keep saying I want to cover an R.E.M. album and then voting against them... kinda unfortunate that Garbage had such a catchy sample song posted, but it is what it is.

Walk This Way - Great song made even greater, and really just such an awesome and fun video. Maybe the best video of all time. Made Run DMC, really established the album and the golden age of hip hop, and salvaged Aerosmith's career.
Raising Hell
My Adidas
It's Tricky
Peter Piper
Proud to Be Black
Hit It Run
Is It Live
You Be Illin' - When I was young I thought this song was a lot of fun
Perfection
Dumb Girl

Rap and Hip Hop have come a long way but this was such an important album for the genre. I grew up listening to a lot of 80s rap (as well as a lot of 70s and 80s rock/metal) so this was a fun nostalgic album to nominate.

Weird Al > Interpol > Kelsea
(I would have possibly voted a different Interpol album #1 srry)

REM > Talking Heads > Garbage

I don't know Kelsea but the other albums are all good stuff

This may or may not be cool to ask, so feel free to not answer, but since some people have said they didn't want to vote for TH:77 because another album was a better fit as first pick for that band (and I have noted this), I have a question:

Would your vote change if I had nominated "Green" by R.E.M. instead of "Automatic For the People"?

ChichiriMuyo posted...

Would your vote change if I had nominated "Green" by R.E.M. instead of "Automatic For the People"?

I only judged those three albums by the sample song provided, so it would depend entirely on if you linked a song from Green that I liked more than "When I Grow Up" which... I don't think would be likely to happen, so you would probably wind up getting the same 'I want to vote for R.E.M., but the opposing song is too good' response from me.

EDIT: Though since I've never mentioned the Talking Heads album at all, I'm likely not who you wanted a response from. But there's a response anyway.

I would probably put the first four Talking Heads albums over any other R.E.M. album. Which is not to say I don't like the other R.E.M. albums; I just really love the first four TH albums but AFTP is a top 10~ album ever for me.

Turn on the Bright Lights > Subject to Change > Off the Deep End

I listened to Subject to Change during rwlh's album ranking topic, and it was quite a bit better than I expected. However, I am more interested in covering the Interpol album.

Automatic for the People > Talking Heads: 77 > 2.0

I'd vote Remain in Light or Speaking in Tongues over Automatic for the People. All three albums are great though.

Weird Al > Interpol > Kelsea

Interpol > Kelsea > Weird Al

1) Walk This Way - Aerosmith being the highlight of the album when I don't even like Aerosmith was a bit of a letdown.
2) Raising Hell
3) Its Tricky
4) Peter Piper
5) Hit It Run
6) Proud To Be Black
7) You Be Illin
8) My Adidas
9) Is It Live
10) Dumb Girl
11) Perfection

I thought about trying to do this, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to muster up a free hour to listen at all before the deadline (the past 5 days were completely out of the question for me).

Probably won't have time to do a 3rd listen until Monday or Tuesday, so posting my preliminary ranking for now. I'll update should I find time before Fool posts the results.

1. Walk This Way
2. It's Tricky
3. Raising Hell
4. Peter Piper
5. You Be Illin'
6. Is It Live
7. Proud to Be Black
8. Hit It Run
9. Dumb Girl
10. My Adidas
11. Perfection

Weird Al > Interpol >Kelsea
R.E.M. > Talking Heads > Garbage

It's Tricky
Raising Hell
Walk This Way
My Adidas
Hit It Run
Peter Piper
Is It Live
Proud To Be Black
Perfection
You Be Illin'
Dumb Girl

1. Walk This Way
2. Peter Piper
3. You Be Illin'
4. Raising Hell
5. Is It Live
6. It's Tricky
7. My Adidas
8. Proud to Be Black
9. Dumb Girl
10. Hit It Run
11. Perfection

Walk This Way was really the only song that stood out to me. The rest felt very antiquated for the genre.

Considering how important this album is to the world of hip-hop, it's sad that it would never get recorded today. They were one of the biggest reasons why rap was able to get acceptance in the mainstream. They don't even have the basic amount of "edge" that is assumed as the minimal amount for the genre today. Overall it's a fine album, and there was only one song that I disliked. The two hits are the obvious stand outs, but there are a few others that made the listen worth it.

Tricky
Walk This Way
You Be Illin'
Proud to Be Black
My Adidas
Peter Piper
Son of Byford
Dumb Girl
Raising Hell
Is It Live
Hit It Run
Perfection

Still okay for me to post?

Walk This Way
It's Tricky
You Be Illin'
Raising Hell
My Adidas
Peter Piper
Hit It Run
Proud to Be Black
Is It Live
Dumb Girl
Perfection

Walk This Way - It almost feels disrespectful to put the cover song in the top spot considering how well regarded the rest of the album is. But on the other hand, it is a very good cover.

Raising Hell - Why does the main guitar riff sound like Punch-Out...?

I'll delete my prior post since I have an updated list (moved some stuff around in the bottom half).

1. Walk This Way
2. It's Tricky
3. Raising Hell
4. Peter Piper
5. You Be Illin'
6. Hit It Run
7. Proud to Be Black
8. Is It Live
9. My Adidas
10. Dumb Girl
11. Perfection

Overall, I wasn't much of a fan of this. Recognizing its historical impact, the album certainly feels "old" in terms of style and lyrical content. It feels like a very toothless album to modern ears. I'll also say I found the rap style (the harmonizing and each person shouting the next word) sometimes very cloying/annoying.