Kompy's 2000 ratings/7 years extravaganza!!!
Lucky lucky me, my 2000th rating coincided (almost) exactly with the 7-year anniversary of my Sputnik account! The perfect excuse for a massively self-indulgent, overly opinionated, very ON BRAND celebratory list! Grab a damn slice of cake and come shoot the shit in the comments, you beautiful animals |
| 1 |  | Aretha Franklin
I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You
PART THE FIRST: THE FLIRTY THIRTY
The 30 albums that, after all the memes and discourse, I most want to take with me into posting valhalla, AKA the 5s. Not ranked.
~~~~~~~~~~
The ultimate anytime-anywhere album. 11 cuts of flawless pop magic courtesy of one of the finest vocalists of the 20th century. |
| 2 |  | Baroness
Yellow and Green
The first of only THREE (I think) remaining 5s from my very very first ratings spree in 2015. It’s aged from more or less the bedrock of my entire taste to a thematically rich, gorgeously produced nostalgic favorite, a powerful meditation on loss and addiction that resonates more with every listen. |
| 3 |  | Bjork
Vespertine
You know it you love it VESPERTINE it sounds like a trillion bucks and has melodies you ain’t never even THOUGHT of thinking of before!!! Cathartic and intimate in equal measure, I’m always struck by just how much of herself Bjork leaves on the table here. |
| 4 |  | Cock Sparrer
Shock Troops
Frankly, the only oi! album I or anyone else will ever need, a set of unflinchingly anti-establishment screeds held together by unimpeachable pop instincts and allegiant only to the downtrodden and the ripped-off. |
| 5 |  | Default Genders
main pop girl 2019
Fond memories of discovering/chatting about/growing to love this album in the comments of Slex’s old review. Bittersweet memories of leaving my apartment wearing makeup for the first time, shaking in fear, instinctively reaching for “Sophie (Emphasis Mine)” to feel a little bit less alone. |
| 6 |  | DJ Shadow
Endtroducing.....
Still a titch self-conscious about not having any hiphop 5s, but frankly this’n will do in a pinch. My go-to for testing any new headphones or speakers— if the vinyl crackle doesn’t POP every bit as much as the piano on “Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt”, I want my money back! |
| 7 |  | Fugazi
The Argument
For a kid who thought nuance meant sacrificing power, this was revelatory. All the slashing power chords and screaming in the world has never cut half as deep as the quiet, knowing fury of "development wants, development gets, it's official: development wants this neighborhood gone, so the city just wants the same". |
| 8 |  | Grouper
A I A: Alien Observer
One of those albums that takes everything you thought you knew about writing memorable music and painstakingly reveals it to be a sliver of a fraction of what's actually possible. A textural experience like no other. |
| 9 |  | Hank Williams
40 Greatest Hits
You can keep your “cohesive album experiences”, this offers up enough classics for each listener to form their own personalized visions of the perfect Hank record that never was. So sprawling that you’ll never tire of scavenging for something you might have missed, but so concise and simple that a single-sitting marathon through all 40 is more than feasible- it’s not even the longest album I have 5ed! |
| 10 |  | Jellyfish
Spilt Milk
Some of the smartest and most insightful songwriting of the rock era disguised as a too-cute-by-half glam/psych pastiche, every bit as funny and ridiculous and touching and HUMAN as its areas of inquiry (love, fame, hope yaddayaddayadda) |
| 11 |  | Modest Mouse
The Lonesome Crowded West
The soundtrack to mine and your disenchantment with academia and/or the collapse of the post-WWII American social order writ large and/or a spiral into paranoia and solipsism, around saaaay 18-20ish? Must've learned all those big words in college… |
| 12 |  | Moon Tooth
Chromaparagon
For how much work I’ve put into being Sput’s resident Moon Tooth Enjoyer, their first was quite possibly the lowest and slowest grower on this list, starting out at a measly 3.5(!!!!). One of the most unique lyrical and melodic approaches of any album I've heard, with shred out the wazoo to boot. |
| 13 |  | Moon Tooth
Crux
For my money, this is the band’s best. Metal that unashamedly belongs to the 21st century and seeks to find an honest way through it. |
| 14 |  | Neko Case
Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Case has a way of writing verses that read like riddles, songs made of pieces begging to be puzzled together to reveal something new. I'll be listening to "Star Witness" and mulling over the fragmented clues as to the narrator's motives for a long while yet. |
| 15 |  | New Bomb Turks
!!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!
All work is honorable, yet art is just a job! Let me spend my paycheck on a beer! No heroes, no leaders, no artists, no gods! I’m a worker, you’re a worker, wouldn’t you like to be a worker too? |
| 16 |  | OK Go
Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky
The second of the OG Kompy 5s, this is probably going to be “My Album” until the day I die— just how it goes with the stuff you imprint on at 15/16, ha |
| 17 |  | Pelt
Ayahuasca
I AM AWARE that this is a two-hour-plus avant-drone-folk album named after a psychedelic drug and trust me I went in skeptical too, but alas this is unbridled artistic passion and truly mind-bending sound design from stem to stern, so vibrant and full and yet so fuckin PRIMAL |
| 18 |  | Pig Destroyer
Prowler in the Yard
If you define this album by badvibes crown prince JR Hayes’ unnervingly vulnerable poetry or by grind workhorse Scott Hull’s bottomless well of thrash-tinged riffing, more power to ya but look a little closer: it’s Brian Harvey’s Jordison-on-acid drum freakouts that truly lead the charge here. In other words: the perfect showcase of a power trio. |
| 19 |  | Pink Floyd
Animals
In an interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish earlier this year, Roger Waters says that he has only had one message since Meddle released in 1970, “Two strangers passing in the street, by chance two passing glances meet, and I am you and what I see is me”. Of all the ways he’s delivered that message, Animals is my favorite. |
| 20 |  | Stars of the Lid
The Ballasted Orchestra
The sweet sweet goldilocks zone between the shadowy tape wow that birthed SOTL and the beatific washes of dewdrop-catching-sunlight guitars that made ‘em such an influential force in ambient. The London Symphony by way of a supermassive black hole. I want “The Artificial Pine Arch Song” played at my funeral. |
| 21 |  | Steve Reich
Music for 18 Musicians
Reich’s patient way of filling in the negative spaces in a melody with other melodies is a musical approach I’ve spent more or less my whole life thinking about, refined to its very essence. In a word, masterful. |
| 22 |  | Stevie Wonder
Innervisions
A perfectly well-rounded funk experience- driving bangers, chill soulful vibes and everything in between, all delivered via astoundingly detailed and inventive production and the biggest bestest bag of songwriting tricks to come out of the 70s. |
| 23 |  | The Allman Brothers Band
Eat a Peach
Something so unique about the way the songs here just flow forth, even the stuff with a bit more of an edge has an effortlessness to it that makes it ideal for lazy afternoons or balmy evening walks |
| 24 |  | The Flaming Lips
Clouds Taste Metallic
Heavy and happy and heartbroken and heroic, gun to my head this is The One They Couldn't Top |
| 25 |  | The Flaming Lips
Zaireeka
The fact that it takes so much legwork to even listen to properly is not a flaw, but rather a stroke of paradigm-shattering BRILLIANCE which has led to some of the most exciting and dynamic communal listening experiences of my entire life. Modern art is cool ya dorks! |
| 26 |  | The Flaming Lips
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Just pure feel-good whimsy and soft pretty LAYERED production with crunchy bits strewn about. Some of the best basslines of all time. |
| 27 |  | Tim Hecker
Ravedeath, 1972
The album that first got me into ambient! beauty in stasis, stasis in destruction, things happening are just other things not happening, entropy is coming for us all so better float in space surrounded by sheets of wailing sorrowful static while u can KKKKKKKHHHHHHHHHH |
| 28 |  | Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The last of the original 5s and one I’m occasionally tempted to bump down— for whatever reason, it just doesn’t quite feel like a 5? Then a relisten makes it all shiny and new again and by the time “Reservations” ends I still haven’t found a fault. |
| 29 |  | Willi Carlisle
Peculiar, Missouri
I reviewed this one! It's my current AOTY! Musical storytelling that puts just as much care and craft into the storytelling as the music. The shape of country to come (one can hope) |
| 30 |  | Yellow Swans
Going Places
Something of a comfort-blanket album for me- when nothing’s going right and feeling things feels bad, this is a shield from the outside and a gentle, wordless reassurance that all things must pass. |
| 31 |  | AJR
The Click
PART THE SECOND: THE DIRTY THIRTY
Okay we’re doing the 1s now. Not ranked.
~~~~~~~~~~
Soulless pop-via-algorithm. I do not believe that AJR felt emotions while making this. |
| 32 |  | AJR
OK Orchestra
See above. |
| 33 |  | Attila
About That Life
Distilled essence of unbearable talentless hypebeasts the world over. |
| 34 |  | Borgore
#NewGoreOrder
If this is “satire”, then it’s satire by someone who comprehensively loathes EDM and wants you to loathe it too. 50 minutes trapped at a rave getting sweated on by someone trying to buy either molly or sexual favors. |
| 35 |  | Buckcherry
Fuck
Yeah, adding curse words to all the most played-out and brainless pop and hard rock cliches is kinda all this band has ever done, but something about the snickering shamelessness of changing Icona Pop's “I Love It” to say the F WORD(!!!!!) really makes this that much more tedious |
| 36 |  | Burzum
Filosofem
Piss-poor production? Check. Thin, repetitive "atmospheres"? Check. Obnoxious screeching vocals courtesy of a man with uhhhhh strong opinions on the Hebrew people? Check. Yep, it's a black metal classic through and through. |
| 37 |  | Daddy's Boy
All Lives Matter
Since-deleted bandcamp meme dross. Really just everything irritating about the internet in 2017. |
| 38 |  | Eminem
Encore
The album that turned Eminem into everything his detractors had ever accused him of being- a witless, unlikable shock jock too hung up on his own petty dramas to drill deep on anything else |
| 39 |  | Guns N' Roses
G N' R Lies
"One in a Million" really sums up all the insatiable, venal narcissism of 80s hard rock |
| 40 |  | Hollywood Undead
Swan Songs
“Everywhere I Go” still a 0/10, if you got into this band past 9th grade seek help. |
| 41 |  | Hollywood Undead
American Tragedy
Deeply sad how every HU album after the debut is defined by an increasingly desperate series of concessions to an imaginary rock-radio audience that can tolerate their infantile lyrics and lifeless riffing. Get at me when they sell out hard enough to hit the top 10 on an airplay chart again |
| 42 |  | Lukas Graham
Lukas Graham (Blue Album)
If you think the dreary, ponderous navel-gazing of “7 Years” is bad, let me assure you, the dick-shrivelingly twee blue-eyed soul pastiche that is “Strip No More” is so much worse that you will immediately memoryhole it so you can go back to knowing this band as those guys who had that one annoying song. |
| 43 |  | Maroon 5
Red Pill Blues
The real red pill is realizing these guys haven’t given a shit since Dubya was in office. |
| 44 |  | Maroon 5
Jordi
Even with no standards left to fall short of, Adam Levine’s ability to make the most banal and generic music just catchy enough to stick gives me the gumption needed to continue hating the shit out of him and his legendarily cucked band |
| 45 |  | Meghan Trainor
Title
Unbelievable that in such a bountiful era for white girl bops we still let smirky minstrelsy like “All About that Bass” and “Bang Dem Sticks” go quadruple-platinum. |
| 46 |  | Meghan Trainor
Thank You
Guess leaning further into the whole sassy ‘50s housewife thing would have been a pretty tough row to hoe, but this exhausting set of empowerment cliches makes for a pretty limp alternative |
| 47 |  | Nickelback
Dark Horse
This lands at the bottom not because Nickelback is one of the least creative bands of their generation, but because it fails to fulfill the pitifully meager promise that first broke them big: that at least one song per album would be catchy enough that you gave up trying to hate it |
| 48 |  | Nostalgia Critic
The Wall
There’s a special place in hell for Doug Walker for managing to make simultaneously the worst rendition of THE WALL and the worst review of THE WALL |
| 49 |  | Patricia Taxxon
Inhumane
Torturous, amateurish attempt at harsh noise, the absolute nadir of a vast discography with frankly more than its fair share of duds. |
| 50 |  | Peter Cetera
Solitude/Solitaire
Wish this guy had gone into solitude to play solitaire after 1979 instead of continuing to slather the worst voice in rock history all over the top 40 |
| 51 |  | Peter Sotos
Buyer's Market
All the shameful voyeurism and invasiveness inherent to True Crime as a genre. Love art that has fuck all to say other than that the most vile criminal behavior sure is bad, it’s really bad, horrific to even think about, boy isn’t it just the worst??? Fucking astonishing insight. |
| 52 |  | R. Kelly
R. Kelly
Hey, speaking of vile criminal behavior, it's the man who helped turn mainstream R&B permanently into the genre of overproduced, oversung pouting, completely reliant on hip-hop for anything resembling an edge! If only that was the worst we could say of him, jeez louise |
| 53 |  | Sam Hunt
Southside
My lowest-scored review to date, just a totally bored and boring mishmash of disconnected tropes and clumsily computerized countrybeats |
| 54 |  | Slytherin
Tales of Hogsmeade Village
Trve kvlt atmoblack neckbeard cringe meets soy millennial tumblr neolib cringe— killer combo |
| 55 |  | Stephen Sondheim
Into the Woods - OST Deluxe Edition
As a lover of lyrical show-don't-tell and a self-professed hard sell for showtunes, Sondheim’s whole thing is kind of anathema to me, but this miserably awful 2014 screen adaptation has to be the worst possible way to experience what the guy had to offer. |
| 56 |  | Theory of a Deadman
Scars and Souvenirs
I’M SO SICK OF THIS SHIT BAND
JUST BORING CHORDS AND COMPLAINTS
I DON’T LIKE THAT THE SINGER'S A PEDO
AND GOT PAID TO SING ABOUT IT ON TAPE |
| 57 |  | Thirty Seconds to Mars
America
Jared Leto flies up his own ass and finds a big ol' log of pretentious, insta-dated consoomer flimflam. Everything excruciating about Imagine Dragons, without that pesky sense that the singer’s probably a decent guy at the end of the day. |
| 58 |  | USA For Africa
We Are The World
Wonder how many private jet trips this one took to put together- gotta be at least 2 or 3 right? |
| 59 |  | Weezer
Make Believe
Paraphrasing a friend: “quirky toothless gen-x bullshit the band” |
| 60 |  | Wu-Tang Clan
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin
Fuck you Martin Shkreli |
| 61 |  | Modest Mouse
The Moon & Antarctica
PART THE THIRD: PEARLS BEFORE SWINE
40 good recs/things I mostly or entirely have sput to thank for getting into. VERY loosely ranked. Only a few of u get blurbs sry
~~~~~~~~~~
First list I made here snake recced me this and someone else (futures?) immediately said Isaac Brock was a pedo and I just knew I had found something special |
| 62 |  | Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago |
| 63 |  | Rolo Tomassi
Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It |
| 64 |  | The Life and Times
Tragic Boogie |
| 65 |  | Fear Before
The Always Open Mouth |
| 66 |  | Fleet Foxes
Helplessness Blues |
| 67 |  | Flying Lotus
Cosmogramma |
| 68 |  | Kuroki Nagisa
Kuroki Nagisa
Doubt I'll have my shit together enough to start regularly participating in SOTD again anytime soon but some sweet jams were had regardless |
| 69 |  | Magnetophonique
Lush Islands - Illusion of Paradise |
| 70 |  | Spanish Love Songs
Brave Faces Everyone |
| 71 |  | STRFKR
Reptilians |
| 72 |  | The Antlers
Hospice |
| 73 |  | Dawes
Misadventures of Doomscroller |
| 74 |  | Boris
Boris At Last -Feedbacker- |
| 75 |  | Old Nick
Ghost O'Clock |
| 76 |  | Tears for Fears
The Tipping Point |
| 77 |  | Brand New
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
Don't really fuck with this anymore for obvious reasons but as of a recent-ish obligatory relisten I have to say the high points here do hold up and it definitely had its time and place in my life |
| 78 |  | Adjy
The Idyll Opus (I-VI) |
| 79 |  | Alpha Male Tea Party
Droids |
| 80 |  | Anna von Hausswolff
Dead Magic |
| 81 |  | Asian Glow
Stalled Flutes, means |
| 82 |  | Betty Davis
They Say I'm Different
ARSREC |
| 83 |  | Blood Command
Return of the Arsonist |
| 84 |  | BRUIT
The Machine Is Burning... |
| 85 |  | Chat Pile
God's Country |
| 86 |  | Eklipse.0
Asleep in the arms of the sea
Can’t remember who here’s project this is but I vibe it ahrd |
| 87 |  | Harrod and Funck
Live
NEEKREC |
| 88 |  | Kannatama
Hell Debris
me n scoot are sput's hecker-biting ambientgang this is good shit |
| 89 |  | mewithoutYou
Pale Horses |
| 90 |  | Neptunian Maximalism
Eons |
| 91 |  | Protomartyr
Relatives in Descent |
| 92 |  | Sol Distorsion
Sol Distorsion
s/o dewi gotta revisit this soon |
| 93 |  | sonhos tomam conta
Hypnagogia |
| 94 |  | The Appleseed Cast
The End of the Ring Wars
From the secret santa thing ars ran last year, s/o madrigal30 |
| 95 |  | The Hotelier
Home, Like NoPlace Is There |
| 96 |  | The Olivia Tremor Control
Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1 |
| 97 |  | Typhoon (USA-OR)
Offerings |
| 98 |  | Ulcerate
Stare Into Death and Be Still |
| 99 |  | Weyes Blood
Titanic Rising |
| 100 |  | Crass
Penis Envy
ARSREC!!! |
|
