He’s got all like 9’s and 10’s so having it in the bottom half doesn’t mean much. It has some of his best songs but it’s a bit bloated and it doesn’t evolve his sound enough from College Dropout compared to the evolution between every other record.

I just greatly prefer the crazy textures and experimentation with song form and gnarly dark energy his middle period had

Didnt matter that he wasn't rapping quite refined as he was on LR

Same.

Progression in sound doesn't make it inherently weaker than albums that progressed more in sound. Like I said before, LR has less in common with CD than people give it credit for, bur because it has soul samples, many say it's a direct continuation of CD... CD is littered front to back with soul samples, whereas LR has like... 5. But those five samples are used much differently and is overlapped with some of his most intricate and lush production to date. More than half the songs on LR sound nothing like Cd. It's hardly a continuation and is a weird false narrative that has somehow been applied to LR because he didn't do a 180 from record to record like he did later in his career.

It’s not inherently weaker necessarily, I just don’t find it as interesting to go back to in full. Relatively weaker albums overall are more distinct and that distinction on some level draws me more towards them and in the moment like them more.

You implied LR was weaker was because it didn't "progress" his sound much. My bad if I misunderstood. I just think song for song, LR is amongst his strongest, even if a bit bloated. Even thematic throwaways like "We Major" or "Celebration" are polished to the f***ing max with a bevy of strings and horns and musical nuances everywhere. I f***ing love that Kanye put a s***load of time and effort into the production of every track. Last time he did that was MBDTF and since then has put more emphasis on heavy bass with less intricacy in the music around it. Not a bad thing, but sometimes I give LR a listen for the f***ing earworm quality of it.

any album that can make Adam Levine sound good is a masterpiece

Looking at this list @RVI I think it's not necessarily lyrics I'm most attached to but the delivery of them. If any of these were in another language I would still be floored by the emotion conveyed in the vocal performance. Gene tied with Kanye surprise me even a little but something about Genes timbre and delivery immediately has me entranced in some sort of romantic rapture

Also I like wild song structures.... not Mars Volta but like within the pop constructs of experimentation. Still cant get over Dead Finks and If There Is Something shout-out to the cartoon impregnator

3bh

Unless they’re keeping French Dispatch in theaters until Christmas, I’m probably gonna miss it

Don't f***in bother

I know how you feel lol
But I’m still curious
I hope this doesn’t mean I have to wait longer for Licorice Pizza either

The more you guys s*** on this movie the more I wanna see it Wes has been pretty consistent so I'm curious

I was positive it would be another instant classic but it was the first time felt the pain of people who think he's a nerd with his head up his ass

indiewire.com/2021/11/paul-thomas-anderson-reunite-joaquin-phoenix-1234678702

Yeah I saw it already assumed all this because he's the realest alive and always says what I'm hoping he will

@Koala

That song sucks

I’m glad Paranoid is on there cause on vinyl it grooves hard

if i had a solid top songs OAT list i think lyrics wouldnt even factor in to like 95% of them ofc when its just so intertwined to delivery its kinda inseparable but still rarely gives an extra push

on another note the number of songs i'd be able to recite word for word is probably super tiny

a classic of classics

what to do guys do when you absolutely can't get to sleep, even after melatonin and nyquil

I don’t care for Ye anymore but LR is heat

Planet Caravan exists in its own dimension