Board 8 > Rank the Tracks 161: The Seatbelts - Cowbop Bebop + ~(Themed) Nomination Period~

(+) Yeah! (+)

The theme for the next set is albums by artists outside the core Anglosphere countries.

This means no albums by artists born/raised in these countries:
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
United Kingdom
United States

The album can still be in English, since plenty of people outside the Anglosphere perform in English for a variety of reasons.

The reason for this week is simply the fact most successful music comes from these countries - 2,714 of the top 3,000 albums on Acclaimed Music are from here! Obviously, the majority of this is the USA and UK, but even Canada and Australia both have more albums than any other country. Here's a breakdown of the countries I noticed with 10 or more albums in that list:
USA: 1,750
UK: 792
Canada: 110
Australia: 56
Germany: 52
France: 44
Jamaica: 32
Ireland: 30
Brazil: 27
Sweden: 16
Spain: 15
Iceland: 13
(New Zealand only has six, but alas - we also already covered the big one)

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
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

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 Thursday, April 25th at 8:00 AM Central Time; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered.
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop track list:
1. Tank!
2. Rush
3. Spokey Dokey
4. Bad Dog No Biscuits
5. Cat Blues
6. Cosmos
7. Space Lion
8. Waltz for Zizi
9. Piano Black
10. Pot City
11. Too Good Too Bad
12. Car 24
13. The Egg and I
14. Felt Tip Pen
15. Rain
16. Digging My Potato
17. Memory

Future weeks:
4/25: Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain (+ voting on future albums)
5/2: Garbage - Version 2.0

Knower - Knower Forever results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
FoolFantastic (10)
Johnbobb (12)
MaxGalactica (14)
rwlh (16)
Seanchan (18)
Sheep007 (18)
NFUN (20)
jcgamer107 (38)
Fluttershy_Pony (42)

General Album Comments

PeaceFrog: This is a good reminder to listen to it some more! I remember really liking Do Hot Girls Like Chords? a lot when I listened upon release.

Seanchan: Initial reaction was "ugh, another of these albums". But there seemed enough variety that it shouldn't be too bad to rank.

jcgamer107: My 2023 album of the year, looking forward to ranking this one. The lyrics are sometimes whatever but the musicianship and arrangements are insane. It's like a huge, talented band formed around Clown Core.

Sheep007: First listen done, but mostly in the background. Definitely need another one before even thinking about rankings. The vocals and even sometimes the lyrics remind me of Kero Kero Bonito. I don't get the same delirious euphoria from them, but I also find the songs sufferable so it's a mixed tradeoff. Also, holy shit the arrangements are wild. They had a lotttt of fun making this.

NFUN: They clearly just made this album to have a good time. It was all recorded in Cole's house with goofy videos and excessive solos that take up half of some of the songs and a good portion of the time they're intentionally making the songs stupid as fuck. And you know what? That's perfect. Sometimes straddling the boundary between shit-ass and great makes a product that can't be matched.

Fluttershy_Pony: This album's selection is rather conveniently timed for me. NFUN assumed I'd be into at least one song on this album and had to gamble on which one, so I felt I'd need to look over the entire album and rank them anyway. I can now confirm that he was right & I would say "Do Hot Girls Like Chords?" is my favorite on the album, though "Real Nice Moment" is close and I might prefer it some days.

Johnbobb: Knower is always so much fun

Sheep007: This might be one of the hardest albums to rank so far, three and a half listens and I don't think I'm any closer to reaching a conclusion. Just gonna throw something in that vaguely reflects my feelings. There's lots of things that are very catchy here which I don't actually like as much as the songs I find less catchy, and Artadi's voice is slowly driving me to the Kero Kero Bonito delirium I hinted at prior. This feels much more ambitious musically, overall better and bit less mind-boggling though. Despite actually leaning into weirdness through the lyrics, where KKB would be singing about like, going to school and drinking plenty of water or some shit.

Seanchan: I'll put up my ranking later today, but I'm signing on to both of Sheep's blurbs about the album.

MaxGalactica: KNOWER FOREVER is a pretty significant departure from their previous electropop/glitch pop style with a major focus on more orchestral sounds paired with funk and a heavy emphasis on crazy solos. Oftentimes a departure like this for an artist leads to a weak entry in a style that's outside of their comfort zone. In KNOWER's case, they created the best album they've made to date. Every track is engaging, the solos are wild, the production is top-notch, and the sheer technical prowess on display is admirable (Louis Cole's drum-playing is out of this world). The only thing that keeps me from rating it higher is that Genevieve Artadi doesn't exactly have my favorite voice out there, but I guess it works well enough to not detract from the overall experience too much. Great album all in all.

rwlh: Fun album! Lots of variety, which made ranking individual songs easier for me than it normally is for these topics. There was one song above an 8 and one song below a 5. The variety actually makes for a cohesive album experience. This was my second time listening; this time the vocals didn't bother me like they did before and I think I appreciated more of the instrumentation.

I also want to add that, despite everyone saying the lyrics are nonsense, Ride That Dolphin has an all-time great line in "Things are more real when they're hard to believe."

Knower Forever track ranking

11. Same Smile, Different Face (Track #7)
Score: 20 (Average Rank: 9.78/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): NFUN, Johnbobb, Seanchan, rwlh (#11)

jcgamer107: very bittersweet, there's times when I can't listen to it cuz it'll make me too sad. Strong "Yesterday" Beatles vibes.

10. Knower Forever (Track #1)
Score: 25 (Average Rank: 9.22/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, MaxGalactica, FoolFantastic, jcgamer107 (#11)

9. Ride That Dolphin (Track #9)
Score: 42 (Average Rank: 7.44/11)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107 (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#10)

jcgamer107: Extra groovy. Opening is Vulfpeck af. YEAH YEAH.

8. It's All Nothing Until It's Everything (Track #5)
Score: 46 (Average Rank: 6.89/11)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107 (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#10)

Fluttershy_Pony: I kinda love the very beautiful outro in the last 30 or so seconds of the song, but I'm really not into the rest of it. Which is possibly intentional given the title (the song is nothing, until it isn't), but doesn't make me enjoy it as a whole.

jcgamer107: absolutely sick, stupid, insane rhythm, with the playing and the stuff. It's so ridiculous you almost laugh, but so locked in and technically impressive you can't help but be into it.

7. It Will Get Real (Track #10)
Score: 54 (Average Rank: 6.33/11)
Biggest Fan(s): jcgamer107 (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#11)

jcgamer107: Great energy in this one, really fun groove and outro fill from Louis. I love the keyboard solo near the end, it's so freaking fun. Then Sam Gendel comes in and almost matches it.

6. Real Nice Moment (Track #4)
Score: 58 (Average Rank: 5.89/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): NFUN, rwlh (#9)

jcgamer107: a much needed breather before 'It's All Nothing.' Relaxing groove, but also with a hint of melancholy, reflecting on the fleetingness of time.

5. Crash the Car (Track #11)
Score: 61 (Average Rank: 5.67/11)
Biggest Fan(s): NFUN (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Sheep007, MaxGalactica (#9)

jcgamer107: strong & existential finale, almost haunting - the strings are beautiful.

4. The Abyss (Track #3)
Score: 73 (Average Rank: 4.67/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb, Sheep007, FoolFantastic (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): jcgamer107 (#10)

jcgamer107: almost borders on too weird for me, but it's still fun. I want to hear more of the slow motion outro tbh.

3. Nightmare (Track #6)
Score: 76 (Average Rank: 4.33/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#9)

jcgamer107: The half time electronic break in the middle is so fucking cool, as is the extended outro with those offbeat hits and Genevieve's silky smooth tones. The first couple minutes is just 'OK' in comparison, musically, but the lyrics are great. A better kind of fear, cuz real life is not here.

2. Do Hot Girls Like Chords? (Track #8)
Score: 96 (Average Rank: 3.11/11)
Biggest Fan(s): NFUN, Fluttershy_Pony, jcgamer107 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#7)

jcgamer107: Is Knower popular? Does purgatory have snacks? I dunno, but this song kicks a lot of ass. God-tier guitar solo and drum fills, holy shit.

1. I'm the President (Track #2)
Score: 106 (Average Rank: 2.67/11)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb, Sheep007, MaxGalactica, FoolFantastic, rwlh (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): jcgamer107 (#7)

Johnbobb: that horn loop is so addictive

jcgamer107: Landslide-fucking-Genevieve. I can't believe I have to put 'President' this low, it's like a 9/10 song, and the outro always makes me smile (WHO CARES) - this was one of my favorite jams last summer. But then the rest of the album came out and blew me away.

Here are the albums we have already covered that would have qualified for the theme (unless I overlooked someone):
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amaedeus Phoenix (France)
U2 - Achtung Baby (Ireland)
Air - Moon Safari (France)
The Knife - Silent Shout (Sweden)
Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal (Iceland)
Opeth - Damnation (Sweden)
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue (Ireland)
Sigrid - Sucker Punch (Norway)
Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica (Finland)
In Flames - Colony (Sweden)
Bob Marley - Exodus (Jamaica)
Sabaton - The War to End All Wars (Sweden)
Zuntana - G-Darius (Japan)
Desired - Lovestory (Russia)
Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges - Clube da Esquina (Brazil)
Nekomata Master - Follow Slowly (Japan)
Yoko Kanno - Rangarok Online II OST (Japan)
The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop (Japan)

Is this the week I nominate Die Antword? Hmmm

I have so many ideas for nominations here. Laufey was my first thought because of how unique her recent stuff is and how much she's blown up, but she was part-raised in the US so it kinda goes against the spirit and I think there's more interesting options anyway.

BTS and Shakira both feel like they should be covered at some point, and I really enjoy a few Spanish-language artists like Mon Laferte (and Kali Uchis who I have just realised is American lol I could swear she was Colombian), as well as a ton of Japanese artists, but before picking from them I wonder if people would be interested if I nominated a Polish-language artist? I think I'm the only Pole here so I assume nobody has even heard of them, and I'm a little hesitant to throw in an artist literally nobody else will know (I was thinking of Kult, Myslovitz, or Kwiat Jabloni if any of those mean anything to y'all).

Wait NM I know what I want to go with

Babymetal - Babymetal

I'll do a writeup later

One of my favorite bands is German but Kraftwerk does not mesh well with this format. All of their albums have very few tracks - the ones I would nominate have between 6-8 songs. The one with 8 songs is my favorite, but also three of those songs are essentially one track split into three parts...

I would like to properly cover Daft Punk someday but I think I'll pass on Homework for now.

So I will go ahead and nominate:
Bjrk - Homogenic

A beautiful, otherworldly album. Bjork has four albums I would love to cover, but Homogenic has always stood out as her best to me.

All is Full of Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5hMHLwqPR4

I had Knower Forever ranked and just straight up forgot to post it. Though looking at the final rankings maybe it's good I forgot since I had I'm the President dead last (fwiw Crash The Car was my #1)

Will likely go with a metal album for nom since I have a deep well of artists to work with, but I really like the Babymetal and Bjork picks so far

I am probably going to alternate between themed and non-themed sets. For the themed weeks, they are largely going to be like this, based more around the artist or a period of time rather than the style of music. Essentially, I want the range of genres to remain wide open - I do not want us to end up with five weeks in a row of very similar music. So, there will never be an alternative rock week or whatever, but you should still be able to nominate an alt. rock album whenever (there just might be constraints on which one).

I'm hoping this is satisfying for everyone. Especially since a big concern was more niche albums having a harder time with this format, I'm hoping this narrows the playing field where they have a better chance. (At the same time, Knower and Viktor Vaughn felt like unlikely victors when a band like RHCP didn't make the cut, so I don't think this system is as hard on niche albums as people think)

Okay maybe I will nominate something this week. I think I like the themed nominations better because there's more guidance than "just think of literally anything for any reason". That's why I didn't end up picking anything last time even though I had one in my head.

I read the theme and was like Oh nice! This is the perfect opportunity to nom Homogenic! then I see its already been nommed so thats nice. Ill have to think a bit more on what to nom then.

Nominate: KMFDM - Nihil

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

Nominate:
Fishmans - Uchu Nippon Setagaya
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_GjLs9YOrcLCgTdhrb4xr6DUA5cAuSmJ

Japanese psychedelic rock band beloved by Rate Your Music. I'm not familiar with most of their work. Their highest rated album, Long Season, is one continuous song, so I'm nominating this instead. Open to changing based on feedback.

Pretty sure I at least know my top 3 for this one

FoolFantastic posted...

5/2: Garbage - Version 2.0

this is not the album with Cherry Lips. I can't believe you've done this.

Not sure I'll rank this week. 17 songs, mostly instrumental...

But it was generally enjoyable!

i will nominate Machinae Supremacy - A View From The End Of The World

machinae supremacy are a swedish metal (but not particularly heavy) band who sing mostly about video games and use a SID synthesizer, the chip from the commodore 64, to get authentic 8-bit sounds. this is my favourite album of theirs

Machinae Supremacy scored the soundtrack to Jets'n'Guns, which I love, but I'm not too familiar with their other work. I'll need to check them out sometime.

rwlh posted...

Machinae Supremacy scored the soundtrack to Jets'n'Guns, which I love, but I'm not too familiar with their other work. I'll need to check them out sometime.

i may know of a good opportunity

Nominate: Natalia Lafourcade - De todas las flores

Since we recently did a Portuguese-speaking album with Clube da esquina, I figured it'd also be cool to cover a Spanish-speaking album. It's a really cool modern take on Mexican folk music. Some really good songwriting and Lafourcade's voice is fantastic.

Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx5CZ83o1Z8

I could go Sigur Rs, but I'll go with

dEUS - The Ideal Crash

Belgian art-rock band. The Ideal Crash isn't as experimental or artsy as predecessor 'In a Bar, Under the Sea', but the creativity and art is still there, it's just interwoven into the music more subtly. The band at its peak, an album with amazing consistency and quality throughout.

Sample track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0hPLvWPvac

FoolFantastic posted...

7. It Will Get Real (Track #10)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#11)

Repent ye sinner

Also I nominate Polysics - Now is the Live!

Nominate: ABBA - Arrival

We should cover ABBA at some point, right? I've not heard a full ABBA album before but this seems to be the most popular one?

1) Tank!
2) Space Lion I very nearly like this more than Tank and thats high praise indeed.
3) Rush
4) Waltz for Zizi
5) Piano Black
6) Too Good Too Bad
7) Cat Blues
8) Cosmos
9) The Egg and I
10) Memory
11) Rain
12) Pot City
13) Felt Tip Pen
14) Digging My Potato
15) Car 24
16) Bad Dog No Biscuits
17) Spokey Dokey Im sorry, but can we please have a tiny, teensy bit less harmonica? Just a tad? A smidgen toned down, perhaps? I promise, I like it. I love your harmonica, Ms Kanno, I really do. Its just a lot, yknow?

I love Bebop, I love this soundtrack as a soundtrack, I dont care for it so much as an album. A lot of other soundtracks work better in album form, and either feel more wildly varied (like, game soundtracks tend to cover wider tones) or like they have more cohesion without getting tiring. Rains vocalist was a jumpscare and a half the first listen, and the actionier songs didnt tend to sit so highly with me past the opening two. The 1-2 punch of Spokey Dokey and Bad Dog No Biscuits was rough following that, and I dont think they led well into the rest of the album. Most of the rest flows decently, given its not really intended to be a typical album. Still obviously so much great music here! I feel like I'm being very critical but it's unfortunately hindered by not being the best way I've experienced this soundtrack. Go watch Bebop (the anime version please) if you haven't already - one of the best animated shows of all time.

Dang, no "Call Me" or "Blue"?

Those are in the third Bebop soundtrack. https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/seatbelts/cowboy-bebop-blue/

Johnbobb posted...

Babymetal - Babymetal

Babymetal basically created an entirely new genre with this album that by no means should have actually worked, combining heavy metal instrumentals with j-pop vocals. Somehow it ended up capitalizing on the best of both genres, making something that is legitimately metal as all hell while having a wildly differnet sound from anything that came before it. I considered going with one of their other albums, Metal Resistance or Metal Galaxy (all three are great) but I feel like it makes more to introduce them via their self-titled debut which pretty much immediately knocked it out of the park.

This song is what made them go viral initially and the one that introduced most people to the band to begin with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKqgE4BwAY

Nominate: Blmchen - Jasmin
Style: Ballad, Euro House, Happy Hardcore, Synth-pop (according to Discogs)

I don't think that this topic series has covered this style of pop yet (correct me if I'm wrong). Album is in German.

Note, the original release of this album had 13 songs but the version on Spotify/Youtube has 15 (after some research I discovered that this was a special edition released like a year later). Normally I wouldn't be pushing for bonus songs to be included, but one of those extra songs is one which I think people are most likely to have heard before, so it feels right that it should be ranked. So I'm nominating all 15 songs even though it adds an extra 7 minutes.

Nominate:

Nouvelle Vague - Novelle Vague

Seanchan posted...

Nominate: ABBA - Arrival

We should cover ABBA at some point, right? I've not heard a full ABBA album before but this seems to be the most popular one?

Oh yeah, I guess I should try to sell this nomination...

ABBA is a Swedish pop band that that put out a series of hit albums and songs in the 70s and 80s. Arrival is considered one of their best albums and has a few big hits you've heard before, like Dancing Queen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s, Money Money Money https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0, and Knowing Me, Knowing You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUrzicaiRLU. If you want fun, easy listening pop, this is the album for you!

Underleveled posted...

Nominate:

Nouvelle Vague - Novelle Vague

Okay, fine I'll try and sell this too. This French-based band basically does bossa nova covers of rock and pop tunes with a heavy focus on the 80s. So it's kind of in line with the stuff I typically nominate with a bit of a deviant twist. They're pretty catchy and I honestly feel like I've heard their cover of "I Melt With You" in commercials before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeX8Ah1eSt8

1. Space Lion
2. Tank!
3. Rain
4. The Egg & I
5. Spokey Dokey
6. Waltz for Zizi - A Charlie Brown's Hundred-Acre Wood
7. Car 24
8. Rush
9. Felt Tip Pen
10. Digging My Potato
11. Too Good Too Bad
12. Bad Dog No Biscuits
13. Piano Black
14. Cat Blues
15. Pot City
16. Cosmos
17. Memory

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Nominate: Blmchen - Jasmin
Style: Ballad, Euro House, Happy Hardcore, Synth-pop (according to Discogs)

I don't think that this topic series has covered this style of pop yet (correct me if I'm wrong). Album is in German.

Note, the original release of this album had 13 songs but the version on Spotify/Youtube has 15 (after some research I discovered that this was a special edition released like a year later). Normally I wouldn't be pushing for bonus songs to be included, but one of those extra songs is one which I think people are most likely to have heard before, so it feels right that it should be ranked. So I'm nominating all 15 songs even though it adds an extra 7 minutes.

Sample song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsAISp5C8CE

"Tank!" is pretty much the greatest theme song ever written (the other contender being the theme from Twin Peaks). Few shows make such perfect use of its music, but the team behind Cowboy Bebop knew exactly what they were getting with Yoko Kanno. She is not merely scoring scenes - in several of the best moments, it's more that the scenes are set to her music. As such, the songs have a leading quality where many soundtracks try to operate in the background. The wide range of genres make another strong selling point. This is one of the few OSTs that I would actually recommend as its own entity.

Tank!
Space Lion
Rush
Too Good Too Bad
Bad Dog No Biscuits
The Egg and I
Piano Black
Waltz for Zizi
Cosmos
Memory
Spokey Dokey
Cat Blues
Digging My Potato
Rain
Pot City
Felt Tip Pen
Car 24

Nominate: Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

1. Space Lion - This is one of my favorite songs of all time. The ambient intro with the gorgeous sax is incredible. Amazing melody, amazing chords, amazing soundscape, I love everything about this song.
2. Tank!
3. Piano Black
4. Rush
5. Too Good Too Bad
6. Bad Dog No Biscuits
7. The Egg and I
8. Rain
9. Waltz for Zizi
10. Car 24
11. Spokey Dokey
12. Memory
13. Cat Blues
14. Pot City
15. Cosmos
16. Felt Tip Pen
17. Digging My Potato

There are probably about 20 Kanno soundtracks that I have rated higher than this one (including Ragnarok Online II that we covered a couple of months ago), as it does have a few more filler tracks than I'd like. However the good tracks on here are really, really good and Space Lion is my overall favorite Kanno song which is saying a lot. There's a lot of variety genre-wise with the spaghetti western, big band jazz, blues, and other influences. If you enjoyed this soundtrack, definitely check out the second (Cowboy Bebop 2: No Disc) and third (Cowboy Bebop Blue) soundtracks as well as the Vitaminless EP. They're all quite varied and include more vocal songs if you felt those were missing from this soundtrack (The Real Folk Blues, Adieu, Call Me Call Me. Blue, Fantasie Sign, and Don't Bother None being highlights amongst them).

Nominate Enya - A Day Without Rain

AKA the album with Only Time on it. Her most acclaimed album is Watermark, but when I listen to it I get mostly vibes and that doesn't work very well in this format. My favorite album is Dark Sky Island, but I'm more curious to see the opinions of the rest of A Day Without Rain when put up against the most pervasive song in Enya's discography. Plus I think this album is great too.

jcgamer107 posted...

Also I nominate Polysics - Now is the Live!

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

A sampling

1) Bad Dog No Biscuits - this song goes HARD right from the start - the brass, the drums, the radio static sounds - everything is great. Really pushes the boundaries of hard jazz. Then opens into this wild ska section just over a minute in. I eat it up every time. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3) allowed you to insert your own custom soundtrack into the game - I put this song in, and for some reason it always played whenever the game started up, at the title screen. It was bad-ass and got me pumped for some hard drivin'.
2) Rush - This is quite my tempo - jazz with some real punch. The Bond motif section is neat.
3) Tank! - an all-time great TV show theme, that I can only ever hear with Bill Cosby (impersonations) thanks to YTMND - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLwjDigdM6k
4) Too Good, Too Bad - fun brass & sax. Snare makes it into like a jazz-march ?
5) Piano Black - more dope jazz. Not enough piano though, given the title.
6) Cat Blues - chill & groovy. Begging for someone to recite beatnik poetry over it.
7) Car24
8) The Egg and I - cool slide guitar, and interesting use of fife. Sounds like some PilotWings shit or somethin.
9) Felt Tip Pen - this ollll' Ruby rider.......is Ruby ridin' alonnngggg . This is what you hear when you hit the ol' dusty trail.
10) Pot City - Kinda similar to Cat Blues, not quite as good
11) Waltz for Zizi - Pleasant enough. Sounds like something I'd have on while sitting by the fireplace around Christmas time.
12) Cosmos - OK little trumpet interlude
13) Digging My Potato - slightly better harmonica than Spokey Dokey. Now I want a baked potato.
14) Rain - wtf is this. No lyrics allowed. Pretty jarring to throw this in near the end.
15) Spokey Dokey - kinda grating harmonica that goes on for too long. decent slide guitar.
16) Memory
17) Space Lion - wow this is long, it's puttin' me to sleep. I'm sure it serves its purpose within the context of the show, but I wouldn't ever listen to it on its own. Plus the vocals are just weird.

Space Lion in last is certainly one of the takes I have now seen.

1. Space Lion
2. Piano Black
3. Cat Blues
4. Rush
5. Digging My Potato
6. Too Good Too Bad
7. Rain
8. Bad Dog No Biscuits
9. Pot City
10. Tank!
11. Spokey Dokey
12. Cosmos
13. Car 24
14. Walt for Zizi
15. Felt Tip Pen
16. The Egg and I
17. Memory

specific thoughts:
space lion - 10/10 song for me, an all-timer
piano black - lovely repetitive crunch
car 24 - sitcom music, a little too cheesy for me
the egg and i, memory - the only ones i don't like

overall thoughts:
I liked this a lot more on my first listen. There are some songs I really like here, particularly Space Lion, and there's a wide enough range of styles that I could see myself gravitating toward different songs on subsequent listens. That sax is pretty great.

1: Space Lion
2: Waltz for Zizi
3: Bad Dog No Biscuits
4: Pot City
5: Tank!
6: Cosmos
7: Piano Black
8: Memory
9: Too Good Too Bad
10: Car 24
11: The Egg and I
12: Cat Blues
13: Spokey Dokey
14: Rush
15: Rain
16: Felt Tip Pen
17: Digging My Potato

Space Lion: I love this song enough that I listened to the entire album just so I could give it first place. I kinda hoped to find something on its level on this soundtrack, but alas, this song is *way* beyond anything else here. I'm not sure any other album we've covered has such a massive gap between first & second place.

Tank!: Eh. I've honestly never been a fan of this song and kinda hate the shorter intro version of the track. I blame Super Robot Wars T; whenever any of your characters attacks or gets attacked, their anime's theme will play. So if you use Spike, you're going to hear "Tank!" whenever he does anything. And since he's a pretty decent character--very evasive, decent damage, and you get extra money for each enemy he shoots down--you'll probably hear the song hundreds of times per playthrough. After three trips through that game, my distaste for the song has turned to hatred.

BUT this extended version isn't all that bad. There are enough new moments that it feels different & the instruments are much clearer and high quality than the game's rendition. I still don't like it--and the fact that it's so high up on my list should tell you how I feel about the album as a whole--but... this song is pretty okay.

1. Tank!
2. Rush
3. Bad Dog No Biscuits
4. Rain
5. Cat Blues
6. Piano Black
7. The Egg and I
8. Too Good Too Bad
9. Car 24
10. Waltz for Zizi
11. Pot City
12. Felt Tip Pen
13. Memory
14. Digging My Potato
15. Space Lion
16. Spokey Dokey
17. Cosmos

Fine, I did do a ranking, just not to my usual level of effort, though I did do my normal 3 listens. The album starts off really well, outside of Spokey Dokey. Lots of big, jazzy, upbeat numbers. Then there's the rest of it. Nothing too bad, it's just an album that peaks early.

Oh good, someone else with the correct top 3

I'll nominate Lordi - The Arockalypse

Just pure fun heavy metal out of Finland. This album has Hard Rock Hallelujah, which made history when it won Eurovision in 2006. Link to that song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H4mJXcQaRU

Space Lion
Tank!
Piano Black
Rain
Too Good Too Bad
Rush
Waltz For Zizi
Cat Blues
Car 24
Pot City
The Egg And I
Felt Tip Pen
Bad Dog No Biscuits
Cosmos
Memory
Digging My Potato
Spokey Dokey

Not my style of music typically, but Yoko Kanno just knows how to make good music out of anything. The top songs can definitely stand on their own without the context of the show.