Ranking Radiohead albums (so far)

If you know me, then you know that I am a Radiohead fanboy.  Well, I just read an article from Paste Magazine which ranks the 8 albums that the band has released so far from worst to best.  I actually agree with a lot of the list, but thought that it would be a good idea to get my thoughts on the matter down in writing.  So here's my ranking...

 
8. Pablo Honey

I think most people would agree with this decision - there's not much interesting about this album.

7. Hail to the Thief

I actually really liked this album when it came out, and (being the eternal presentist) would have put it above The Bends back then.  While this album probably contains about as many quality songs as some others on this list, nine years have made me realize that there are simply too many songs on this album, and a lot of them are pretty so-so.

6. The King of Limbs

Again, being the presentist that I am, I put this album at #3 of my list of top albums of 2011.  I don't necessarily think that this ranking was too high, so it must say something about my affinity for the band if this album only comes in at #6 when compared to their others.

5. Amnesiac

The toughest decision for me when putting this list together is probably deciding between this album and TKOL for #5.  I find Amnesiac to be pretty inconsistent, and there are definitely a couple of tracks that I skip over when I'm listening to it.  But the highs of "Pyramid Song" and "I Might Be Wrong" are above those of pretty much any song (save perhaps "Little By Little") on the other album, so this one barely squeezes ahead.

4. The Bends

For a while there I didn't give this album enough credit because I got caught up in all the experimental goodness that the band was trying out in the 2000s.  However, I have to admit that there are just too many really good songs on this album, even if they aren't breaking any barriers.

3. In Rainbows

Some may question whether this album can go punch-for-punch with The Bends, but I think that it does much more artistically, so it gets the nod.  It's also probably the best mix of the many sounds of Radiohead in one single album.  Bonus points for the pay-what-you-want pricing scheme they used to sell the album upon release.  

2. OK Computer

This is the album that got me into the band, and what an introduction it was.  There are loads of classic songs on this album, so it's no wonder that it routinely tops critics' lists of the best albums in recent memory.  So I don't get any heartburn when some people say that this is RH's best album.  It's just not my favorite.

1. Kid A

There was a time when people lined up at record stores on Monday night so that they could get a highly anticipated new release at midnight.  That is what I did for this album (well, maybe not lined up, but at least showed up at midnight) because I had fallen in love with OK Computer and then, to a lesser extent, The Bends.  And when I first listened to the album I thought..."W...T...F?!  Is this music?!"  The only song that I could say that I liked the first time around was "Optimistic", so I clung to that on subsequent listens.  But the more I listened to the album, the more I grew to love it...even more than the others.  There's much more that I could bore you with regarding this album, but suffice it to say that it is my favorite album *ever*.

In reality, I'm not absolutely certain about this ranking - it's kind of a "top two or three, the rest, and then Pablo Honey" thing in my mind.  But the relative ranking of "the rest" may be pretty stable going forward, especially since I've had some time since the band last put out an album.  We'll have to see where any future albums rank if they release more...

Sleigh Bells @ The Pageant (10/28/2012)

Opener

• AraabMuzik... I caught the last 20 minutes of his set (which ran at least 10 minutes over), which was way more than enough to be glad that I was not there for the first half.  Unlistenable.

Setlist

• Of the combined 22 songs on their 2 albums so far, I think they played 18 or 19.  I know that there were a couple from "Treats" that were absent, and I'm not sure about one or two from "Reign of Terror".
• However...neither album, nor any of their songs, is terribly long, so their performance was not either.  They started around 9:50 (20 minutes late, despite not having much equipment to set up) and finished about an hour later.  They skipped the break before the encore in order to finish before the curfew.

Stage 

• The setup was centered around two racks of six massive Marshall speakers.  Pretty appropriate if you know their sound.
• They also had some strobe lights, LED racks, and bulb arrays.

Observations

• They've picked up another guitarist - there were 3 people on stage.  I'm guessing (and Wikipedia seems to confirm) this is just a touring thing.
• There were a couple of songs where Alexis was alone on stage with just the backing track.  I don't think there were any like that when I saw them at Firebird a couple of years ago.
• At the end of the last song Alexis threw her shoes into the crowd.  One landed next to us, and Galen picked it up.  After a couple of attempts he found someone to give it way to.

High/low-lights

• After seeing it live, "Leader of the Pack" may be my new favorite song from "Reign of Terror"

Rating: 4.2/5

Fly kicks.

I should probably have taken this picture as soon as I received these, instead of after playing a few games in them, but...

These are my new-ish indoor soccer shoes.  And because they weren't quite flashy enough to begin with, I customized them with my name and number.

Big change afoot

As of approximately 1 hour ago, I am now dread-less (after something like 12 years with them). My neighbor, Leo, is a barber, so I just went to his shop, Top Flight Barber Shop. I tried to go with a sort of faux-hawk thing, but my hair growth wasn't full enough to do the unkempt middle thing (which is why I got rid of the locks in the first place), so I now have a semi-faux-hawk that's more like a standard cut that just extends all the way back to my neck. I feel no need to post before/after pictures - there will be plenty of pics of me with short hair in the time to come. I just have to adjust to the new look now...

Eurotrip 2012 travelogue

Considering how rarely I post on this blog these days, I'm not sure why I still have a separate "excursions" blog. But in any case, I have started my travelogue for my current trip over there (http://excursions.obezma.com) . Unfortunately, though, I may not be able to post pictures (from my proper camera) until I return.

Tina has a new sister...

...and she's had some work done.

Meet Jules (the Juke) - at least that's what I'm calling her for now.  My mom thinks it's too masculine of a name, so I might change it.  Maybe Jude?  Or June?

Anyway, here she is right after I picked her up from the dealer a month (and two days) ago...

And here she is all murdered out from this morning (I finally got the wheels last night, but haven't had a chance to clean her up yet)...

All that remain are the personalized plates, then she'll be good to go.

Is honesty alone worth $353?

I took Tina (my aging Hyundai Tiburon) in today to get some scheduled maintenance and a state inspection.  While getting this done, they informed me that I needed two new tires.  I was expecting this, so I assented.

After the maintenance was finished I was surprised to receive a bill of only $132.83.  While paying I questioned the cashier about this, remarking that this seemed really inexpensive for service that included changing two tires.  She pointed out that I had been charged for the labor for the tire change, but not for the tires themselves.  She didn't know why this was, but wasn't about to try to get it corrected.  But instead of just walking out the door at that point, I instead asked my regular service advisor, Craig, about it.  He realized the mistake, and called the service advisor who had handled my paperwork to the service desk to make the correction.  While this was going on, I mostly just stood there silently.  In the end, I was charged an extra $353 for the tires - the full difference of what I would have paid had the bill been done correctly.  The service advisor also thanked me a couple of times for pointing out the error.

So...  Should I feel better about myself because of this?  After all, I did basically volunteer to pay 350 bucks that I could have spent in other very satisfying ways.  (It may just be because I'm tired right now, but...) I'm not sure if I could come up with a Utilitarian justification of why I would have been obligated to report the mistake - I don't think the dealership would have missed that relatively insignificant amount of money very much.  Are my practical moral intuitions more Kantian (or perhaps something else non-Utilitarian) than I thought?  Maybe I'll ponder these questions sometime when my head is in a clearer state.