I admit that a lot of the stuff you've written in this thread has had me going "WTF", but I'm with you here. SP are one of the most overrated acts of the last 20 years. I've always known a lot of people, both "serious" and "casual" music fans, who absolutely loved them, but I just never got it. I like everything they did from Gish even through Adore just fine, but I don't love any of it. It increasingly baffling to me that there are still so may many diehard Siamese Dream devotees.

I can't pinpoint any one thing this band does that one of their contemporaries didn't do better, and with much less pomp and pretense.

Huh?

Yeah, he's not really a dick. He's just immature, like VI.

(Were you alluding to that?)

Wait, who are we talking about again?

Uh, nevermind.

Well, add me to the list, too then, because I own most of the albums too and like them, but I don't feel this great love of them or the band, either. I do like Siamese Dream quite a bit more than the others, however. It's just a solid, driving album - but I could live without it. But "overrated" is totally correct for the band in general. I'll get shit for it, because I always do, but I liked Zwan more than most SP stuff. Horrors!

066. Pixies - Trompe Le Monde (1991)




Download 'Alec Eiffel' and 'U-Mass' and save yourself the money.

Nah, it's a better album than Bossanova. There's some other good stuff on it.

067. Gin Blossoms - Up & Crumbling (1991)




A nice little EP featuring two tracks that would later appear on New Miserable Experience and three others that are just as strong. In fact, 'Keli Richards' is one of my favorite songs by the group and the part in the song where Robin Wilson sings "Well, I bought a gun, there's just one thing left to do" is perhaps my favorite moment in the Gin Blossoms catalogue.

Oh mang, she was nasty. And wholly dumb, which only added to the nasty. Her hoarse shout of "Penetrate! Penetrate that cock!" during one particular scene remains an illiterate high point in porn.

wow. what a fucking dope you are.

how's about this: better than dolittle or surfer rosa. maybe their best album.

I'll get Alongwaltz's back. I think most of that album sucks. Easily the Pixies' worst. I was a big fan of the Pixies at the time and thought it sucked so bad that I didn't really care when they broke up.

That Blake Babies album is pretty great too and I also don't care much at all for the Smashing Pumpkins.

Well, why don't you just marry him then!?


Oh wait, you're defending me. Sorry, I'm not used to that.

You're a fucking dope too, B.G.

Oh Lordy, where to start?

Let's see, there are what 15 albums from the 60's, three of which are Vince Guaraldi Peanuts deals...

We make it from 1970 to 1976 in about three records...

For a 400+ collection, there are glaring ommissions.

Normally, I coudn't care less, but if Alongwaltz is going to trot this out, and then start jumping ugly with other folks, it rubs me the wrong way.

Don't namedrop, buy a few Bowie Mainman albums, a Kinks or Pretty Things album or two, then get back to us.

Incidentally, the B-52's and Devo albums are two of the best you've posted.

why? it's an incredible album still to this day.

yeah, it didnt somhow stop being kickass in the last 13+ years.

So your problem isn't with what I own but with what I don't own. That's what I suspected.

My taste is more in line with music written and recorded in my lifetime. I have albums by Bowie and the Kinks on my shopping list, I just never got around to buying them. Either I couldn't find the editions I wanted cheap enough or I decided to pick up something new instead.

A lot of my collection consists of cd's I found cheap through the used cd store I used to work at. I just couldn't justify paying $30-40 for a deluxe edition of a Bowie disc when I could pick up four or five other cd's for that same price. It's only when I really obsessively want a particular album that I bump it up to the top of the purchasing list. Otherwise, my shopping list is about three or four pages long so I go with what I can find cheap or on sale.

068. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend (1991)




No matter how many times I listen to this album, I never remember any of the songs other than the first three. 'I've Been Waiting' and 'Girlfriend' were catalysts for my buying the album in the first place and, while I've never really loved 'Divine Intervention', I just remember it because it's the first track before those other two.

Matthew Sweet is the type of artist I really want to love. I own a couple of albums by him and have a ton of tracks downloaded but none of his albums feel particularly solid all the way through. I've heard this one is about the best, by comparison, and even this isn't that great in the middle. So it's disheartening. I'm afraid he might be one of those artists where, once they release a decent greatest hits or best of disc, you're set.

I'd love for him to prove me wrong but, so far, it's not looking good.

And I'm not saying Siamese Dream has aged poorly, just that I was never that into it to begin with. There's a great single or two on it, but I never thought the rest of it was anything to write home about. Good, sure, but not deserving of the kind of worship it keeps getting.

I'm not posting some revisionist opinion on it, just the way I've felt about it since I was a kid, long before I knew about a majority of the bands I like better from that era. Maybe I should listen to it again sometime soon, but I doubt my opinion will change after all this time.

You don't have to get the deluxe edition.

In any case, you're how old? I think entering music from before you were born through the Rolling Stones, Smiths, REM, Pixies, and Depeche Mode is just fine. Yeah, there are under-represented periods and great artists you're missing, but you (hopefully) have plenty of time.

No, I do. I'm anal like that. I figure if I like an album enough to buy it, I might as well get the best version possible. Otherwise, I'm liable to just buy the bare-bones version now and sell it later to re-buy the deluxe. So it makes more sense to get the ultimate edition the first time.



And I'm 21. I am familiar with a ton of '60s, '70s artists that I just don't own anything by yet. My shopping list is cluttered with Simon & Garfunkel, the Byrds, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc.

I'll fully admit there's a ton of classic rock artists I detest. Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, AC/DC... to name a few. And I'm not so delusional as to not expect to take flack for that. But I never claim to have the ultimate taste in music or be the hipster's hipster. I yam what I yam.

They're also not worth it. Seriously - I'm a deluxe edition junkie and I found the Bowie ones to be seriously lacking in must-have material. Just buy the albums by themselves - you'll be very happy with Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane without those throwaway bonus discs. I sold mine off I was so disappointed in them.

That makes sense on the surface and I used to think that way too, but then I a) stopped being a completist, and b) realized that with this strategy I'd never buy anything and always get annoyed when bands re-released albums years later with bonus tracks.

I know. I was genuinely pissed off when Morrissey re-released You Are The Quarry with all the b-sides. And when the Lips did the same thing with Yoshimi. I need to wean myself of the habit but it's difficult, because there are times when the deluxe edition is really essential, like with the Pavement discs.

Everyone of you is a dope. The first five or so tracks are great, the last five or so songs are great but it's let down badly by a weak middle section.

Their third best album. Or second worst, however you want to look at it.