Blue Oyster Cult Album Ranking Discussion Part 4 - Final Blue Oyster Cult Album Rankings
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Brent, Brian, and Josh are joined by fellow BOC fan and honorary Underlord Bryon Dudley to offer their final rankings of the BOC catalog. Additionally, all their scores were aggregated into a master ranking, taking into account the scores that each had given to all the albums.
00:31 Intro and rating system
2:32 Individual rankings all 15 Blue Oyster Cult albums
13:39 Discussion of the Blue Oyster Cult catalog
22:58 Aggregated Blue Oyster Cult album ranking
28:38 Underlords music projects, H. Prescott Lemon novels, and Bryon Dudley's projects
Check out parts 1, 2, and 3 for deep discussions of the albums here:
• Blue Oyster Cult Album...
• Blue Oyster Cult Album...
• Blue Oyster Cult Album...
Check out Underlords music on Spotify and all streaming services. If you want to help support independent music check us out at Bandcamp here:
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H. Prescott Lemon novels in the Underlords Universe can be found here:
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Our website and Facebook pages are here:
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Bryon Dudley is co-host of the Hair Metal Memories podcast, is a member of Strong Like Bear, Rockets of Desire, and a whole lot of other things. Check out some of that stuff here:
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/ stronglikebearia
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profile.php?...
rocketsofdesireband.bandcamp....
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My favorite band
Always taking risks
But so much great music
Thanks
They could be acknowledged for so much, and yet they're always sort of on the fringe. Never name-checked as one of the all-time greats, but they should be.
Like the discussion on all 4 videos. Thanks for your diligence. I’ve done a similar rating system to yours for BÖC, but I ranked them out of 10 instead of 5. And every song got a whole number ranking - no decimals. And I did it before Ghost Stories came out, so it’s only the first 14. Before that, probably a few months after Symbol was released, I did a slightly different rating. I ranked all 120+ songs against each other in a large list. Gave them a ranking in reverse order - 1st song got a score of 127, 2nd song scored 126, etc down to the last song that scored a 1. It was tedious to say the least. But then I average the scores for each song in its album to get a score for the album. With both systems my top five were consistent, though not in the same order - Secret Treaties, Fire of Unknown Origin, Cultosaurus Erectus, Spectres, and Tyranny and Mutation. Though in both lists, Secret Treaties was the runaway winner.
I'm glad we're not the only ones trying to apply some sort of system to achieve a level of objectivity. Obviously, at it's core this is subjective. But there is a way to try to at least maintain a level of consistency. For example, I have defined for myself what a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and a 0 are on my scale. It's basically similar to developing rubrics for evaluating student work based on standards (which is what I do in my day job.)
Several years ago we developed a system that graded each song from A+ to F, and applied the standard GPA point scale to each song. So, an A- would be 3.7, a B+ would be 3.3, etc. But we also then developed a formula to take into account the length of a song. The argument was that a long song should have greater weight against short songs. For example, Rush's "Hemispheres" should weigh more than "The Trees" given that its 18 minutes long and "The Trees" is just under 5 minutes. But that became really tedious!
Would be interesting to see how Ghost Stories ranks for you. I still give it a listen every other week or so, hoping it will grow on me.
“Zoinks, Scoob!” I watched episodes two and three but never commented on them! Now I’ve gotta go back and watch those as well, in order to comment. 🤦🏻♂️
My list is very different from everyone else on the panel. Unfortunately, l can’t post my list here since I’m preparing to do my own ranking this month. Life just keeps getting in the way. Between work and commitments to appearing on other channels, it’s a tough road to hoe… but fun. (Well, not work but you get the picture.)
By the way, l listened to some of your music. The Derek S. song was very cool and l definitely dug it. The Blaze B. tune was interesting, but warrants more spins to get under my skin. I need to hear them more times, in order to absorb them more, much like Crusher Creel. (I’m sure you’ll be able to understand that Pete Pardo-esque reference, that plays into his OTHER channel. I’m guessing we all have similar touchstones.)
Looking forward to your next foray into album rankings and catching up on some older vids here, as time allows.
Cheers from The Big Apple.
Rock Out, Prog On and Pogo!
Your clone and mine,
~ The Disintegrating and Disappearing Doppelgänger of Davey Cretin, from CRETIN CLASSICS.
Thank you for checking out some of our stuff. Our whole thing is an absurd mirror-universe sort of thing. Basically, instead of a concept album, we're a concept band. But if one doesn't get the concept, that's cool. Lots of layers to explore if one is interested. Which, tbh, most aren't haha! The cool thing about that Blaze song is that the original version was written in 1995, when Blaze was in Maiden, and we were just wee college grads/students. Little did we know we'd rearrange it and record it with him on vocals in 1995. If you had told me that back then I would have had an aneurysm which would have then prevented us from doing that song 28 years later.
Ok, hear me out. While I enjoyed all of these BOC videos and it is an interesting exercise, I think your system of ranking is deeply flawed and NOT AT ALL OBJECTIVE. The fact that (Brian's) #1 pick was Heaven Forbid sealed that opinion for me. And because you're simply analyzing these albums track by track by track you are completely missing what makes these works of art ALBUMS. The overall album experience is completely ignored. But hey, that's just one man's opinion. Also, Curse of the Hidden Mirror is criminally underrated - not just by you guys.
Hey, thanks for the comment. I appreciate your opinion and in a certain way I actually agree with you. I disagree that when you say it's "not at all" objective. I would agree that it is largely and overwhelmingly subjective, but it's an attempt to push us toward being objective. Allow me to explain. Bear with me, I've got a long response!
We recognize that any attempt to quantify that which is qualitative is flawed. But in the process of rating or ranking albums, one is engaged in a sort of quantitative exercise. On many occasions I'll notice people ranking albums and be more critical of an album they ranked higher than an album they just praised. And I'm left wondering how they could have ranked them in such a way. Our system is an attempt to mitigate - but not eliminate - subjectivity. Of course it ultimately comes down to subjective taste, but our system is a tool that allows us an opportunity to listen to these albums with ears as fresh as we can get them, and use it as a discussion point. And to offer an approach that other's aren't using, flawed though it might be. Here's how I try to keep myself as objective AS POSSIBLE.
5 - song I almost always love even if I'm not in the mood for it. Hearing it instantly changes my mood and interest in listening to the song.
4 - song often reaches a 5 but sometimes I have to be in the mood. Or, if I have to really think of whether the song is a 5 or not, it usually isn't.
3 - I like the song and generally won't skip over it (as an album-oriented listener, I tend to not skip songs anyway)
2 - song has elements or parts that I actively dislike that make me prone to skipping it
1 - I dislike almost everything about the song
0 - It's a song from hell
The process has led to us re-evaluating albums in ways that we previously hadn't, and that has made them all the better in many cases. I disagree that we are completely missing what makes the albums art - after all, an album is a sum of its parts. If I felt that every song on an album was in the 0-3 range, it wouldn't rank higher than one that had songs that ranged 3-5. I would agree that the system has flaws, but given that NO system for rating and ranking albums is flawless, I'll stand by it as a listening exercise. Where I will agree with you, is that AS ALBUMS, the ebb and flow of the sequence requires changes in mood and tempo, light and shade, etc., and I might rate a song lower as an individual song, without consideration for how it rests in the sequence of the entire album experience. That said, songs like that I tend to rate higher BECAUSE they're part of the whole album, rather than just as a song, in and of itself, if it enhances the overall album experience. And that's because when doing this, none of us are just pulling the albums out and quickly rating each song. We are actually going back and listening to them as full albums. But I think I know what you're saying, and again, agree with it to a point.
The process has given us opportunities to reevaluate albums. No system is going to be perfect. In fact, our friend Travis, who took part in our Black Sabbath discussions, generally doesn't like to use any rating system and agreed to only use it with Sabbath, for reasons only he could explain. And that's cool, I don't fault him.
As far as Curse of the Hidden Mirror, yeah, it is underrated. By us? Maybe. I like the album, just not as much as most of their other albums. I'd rather listen to Curse every day, all year long, than listen to pretty much any Motley Crue album once. But compared to other BOC albums? Nah. But that's exactly what makes our system a good talking point. Brent ended up rating Fire of Unknown Origin way lower than I expected. I think he's nuts. But it makes for good conversation.
I really appreciate your willingness to offer your own criticism, though I don't agree 100% with it. If you had to rank them, would Curse of the Hidden Mirror rank high or low in the BOC discography?
@@underlordsuniverse7823 I would rank Curse much higher, but then again that's an album I've only recently come to appreciate. One of the things that makes BOC tough to rank is that I've found them (at times) to be a challenging listen. For instance, it took me several listens to appreciate The Symbol Remains and literally YEARS to appreciate Revolution By Night. And I have to say - even though I HATED Ghost Stories at first I actually love it now.
At any rate, I appreciate your long response and I hope you took my thoughts as intended - just a friendly critique. I still think you ought to add something like an "album tilt" to the proceedings (is it consistently good, is it better than just a mishmash of songs, etc) but again I also appreciate the attempt to be as objective as humanly possible. Thanks, man.
@@Boggedy Oh, I took your comments as you intended, I'm sure. I appreciate you putting up with my lengthy response. I tend to give most albums by bands I love lots of listens, even the ones I tend not to like as much. So I'm hoping Ghost Stories grows on me.