My Top 250 Albums (171-180)

171. REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT – GREATEST HITS ’84-’87
(1999 – T10 G8 B3 UB0)  

Reggie is the odd brain-baby of Get Up Kids keyboardist James Dewees. He pretty much plays all the instruments on the albums and combines kinda nery punk rock with keyboards and moogs, but also does various alter ego’s such as Klaus from Common Denominator, a fictional Finnish metal band which appear with the odd track on each of his albums. They/he have/has 7 albums released now, all with the odd great song on but overall kinda messy, but thats probably due to its non-serious vibe. 84-87 was his 1st album and its not a load of songs from the mid-80’s as the title suggests. It was released a few months before Get Up Kids glorious “Something To Write Home About” and contains 18 tracks, of which 10 would be classed as songs. The album contains little interludes/comments between most tracks 2 of which are recordings of drunk guys talking, recorded at Get Up Kids shows. As for the music “Girl, Why’d You Run Away”, “Your Girlfriends Hate Me” and “Your Boyfriend Hates Me” are my favourites and “Megan Is My Friend To The Max” sounds like a Pinkerton-era Weezer B-side. It’s not an album your gonna listen to in full that often but the tracks are always a pleasant find when they pop up in a random playlist. There were no vids made for this album, but I will add some from later albums as further examples, most of which have very odd videos, which include dinosaurs getting wasted, condiments falling in love and Frankenstein’s monster

 

172. THE ROCKET SUMMER – CALENDAR DAYS
(2003 – T10 G7 B3 UB1)

oh yes, its The Rocket Summer again and their/his/Bryce Avery’s debut album, the uber happy guy who appears like he’s straight out of the disney club but plays all the instruments and produces his own albums. Now this comes with a warning again, listening to this on a sunny day may invoke the sudden onset of diabetes, and even on a miserable day it comes with it’s health risks. This is unashamedly poppy and the video to “Skies So Blue” could be vomit inducing… but I can’t help but like it. Blame Ben Shires for this being introduced into my life. From the Ba-ba-ba’s at the end of “Cross My Heart” to the “ba ba ba” in the awesome “TV Family” its an enjoyable romp (if you can handle its sugary-ness. “That’s So You” is painfully emo, “Movie Stars and Super Models” introduces “Ba ba ba ba”‘s as a chorus and “What We Hate We Make” comes with a childrens choir… lets hope he’s not quite the white Michael Jackson I described him as back when his 2nd album was in my chart at #202. Anyway, most will prob hate this but whatever ba ba ba ba.

 

173. MAE – THE EVERGLOW
(2005 – T13 G9 B3 UB1)

Mae stands for “Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience” (apparently, only just discovered that), its also the name of their latest album… of which I’m not a fan. This one however is their 2nd album and their only one in my chart, the debut “Destination: Beautiful” had some good tunes on it though. They are in the main a gentle indie-rock/emo band who did a big sounding album in “The Everglow”. It opens a prologue that encourages you to open the booklet that came with the compact disc to enjoy the full experience (can’t say I’ve done that though I do have the physical copy), then goes into the dramatic sounding piano based “We’re So Far Away” before the big intro to “Someone Else’s Arms” which is a banger, the singer does some odd movements in the video which are slightly perterbing. The rest of the album is solid stuff, before it hits a lull 2/3rds in, before finishing strong with the title track and “Anything” with is giant Big Ben style bell hits in the chorus. Mae have since gone off in other directions and introduced more synth and vocal effects, but still do the odd good song, though they have never been as good as they are at times on this album

 

174. LIGHT YEARS – I’ll See You When I See You
(2015 – T13 G9 B3 UB1)

Light Years are a pretty straight forward pop-punk band, they aren’t trying to change a genre or do anything new, but what they do is solid. This is their 2nd album, and they released a 3rd late last year which I haven’t had much chance to check out (probably due to this stupid list). The opener “Are You Sure?”, I love. I can’t pinpoint what exactly, but it just hums along at a nice pace, with plenty of cymbal bashing and little drum fills. Single “Living In Hell” is more of the same, (probably most of the album could be described as that, but it hit a sweet spot for me), “Cracks on the Ceiling” and “So Sorry” are slower songs but have some nice melodic hooks. “Let You Down” has a nice fast guitar riff over slower vocals in the bridge and its little things like that which make it stand out for be. Having said that by the time you over halfway it does all start to get a bit samey, but its nice work. As mentioned before there isn’t much more straight up pop punk left in my list, so this is highly rated for me in that field.

 

175. THE GET UP KIDS – ON A WIRE
(2002 – T12 G8 B4 UB0)

This is the first of 3 GUK albums to appear on the chart, and this is the follow up to the incrediawesome “Something To Write Home About”. As a result this was always destined to be a disappointment…. and it was. Given time though its a bit more appreciated and has its moments. It’s a much slower paced and quieter album than its predecesor, and has a lot of meh tracks in the middle. The end 5 tracks are all goodens though and includes the Bangers (though in this case, the word bangers probably gives the wrong impression). Title-ish track “Walking On A Wire” is a slow burner, that relies on Matt Pryors ever increasing emotive vocals, similar with closer “Hannah Holds On”. Probably my favourite track is “Campfire Kansas” which is a pretty simple acoustic song with plinky plonky piano in the background and inexplicable (but works) distorted vocals… it’s a nice tap along drive in the sun with windows down kinda song though. Here’s hoping the new album released in a couple of months is closer to classic Get Up Kids though

 

176. EMBRACE – THE GOOD WILL OUT

(1998 – T13 G10 B3 UB0)

Staying in 1998 for a 2nd day and this time it Oasis-lite, Embrace. I was never a massive fan of this album when it first appeared and the singles all seemed a bit dreery but as I’ve got older I’ve appreciated it more and more. It’s not an album I would go out of my way to listen to it but when a song appears on a playlist or something I inevitably enjoy it. Generally a slow plodding paced album it relies on big sounding songs with orchestras full of strings to fill them out. The vocals do come off a bit flat in the quieter moments but in someways that adds to the appeals. The dodgy intro to “Come Back to What You Know” being a prime example of that. Then they have the songs which sound like Norther Uproar in “One Big Family” and “Last Gas”. My favourites are generally the non-singles though in “Retread” with is massive “Will you fight?” repeated ending and “You’ve Got to Say Yes” which would have fitted in well on Oasis’ B-side album “The Masterplan”

 

177. SYMPOSIUM – ON THE OUTSIDE

(1998 – T12 G7 B4 UB1)

Yes! Symposium! Those oiks who were absolutely mental live, usually trashing all the equipment after each gig. They only managed to get to 1 ep and 1 album before splitting sadly. (2 of the group going on to form the mighty Hell Is For Heroes, who have 3 albums featuring much higher in my chart). Symposium where all about being loud and shouty but in a uncomplicated punk pop rock metal kinda way. They are one of a few bands that saved me from listening to chart music after hearing “Farewell To Twilight” on the evening session back in the day. This was included on an 8 track EP and had some glorious b-sides. when it came to the album it was a bit of a disappointment in comparison but still has its glories. “The Answer To Why I Hate You” being a shout along blinder and “The End” with it’s big thunderous riff. “Blue” and “On The Outside” demonstrated a softer side but they were always more comfortable just making loud things. Their final song released a year later “Killing Position”, hinted more bangers to come but then came the split. Their gig with ‘A’ supporting was one of the best I’ve ever been to. It was all over in 3 years, but thank you Symposium. Thank you.

 

 

178. EMERY – …IN SHALLOW SEAS WE SAIL
(2009 – T13 G12 B2 UB1)

I’d say we are now into the 8/10 rating range. This is Emery’s 2nd appearance in the list and its their 4th album. Every song has its moments, but its a very bitty album, every song seems to take off in various directions with no real cohesion. The string filled “Churches and Serial Killers” being one of the exceptions but still feeling awkward at the same time. I do tend to like all of the pieces of each song, which allows it to climb to an 8/10, but as you can see from the score only 2 songs make it to banger status. These also both were previously released on an EP a year before. They are both the 2 songs where the pieces fit together best “The Smile, The Face” and “Edge Of The World”. The only video for the album comes in the form of the palm mute driven “Butcher’s Mouth” and that vid is just a crappy live outtakes type vid, so I’ll post the UB’er “Edge Of The World”

 

179. MILLENCOLIN – KINGWOOD
(2005 – T12 G9 B3 UB0)

Those melodic punks from Sweden are back for their 2nd helping in my chart. The dessert from them is still someway off. This album followed 3 years after “Home From Home” and is pretty standard Millencolin fare, as in damn good catchy chorus’ and lots of palm muted verses. Favorites include “Farewell My Hell” which kicks the album off in upbeat style, and “Shut You Out” has a gentle constant pace to it that cruises along and a softer edge to it. “Mooseman’s Jukebox” ends the album in big bouncy style, giving a slight nod back to their more ska based origins.

 

180. THE HUNNA – 100
(2016 – T16 G12 B3 UB0)

This is an album when it first came out I loved and would have been much higher, but gradually the initial appeal has waned. They are a UK indie-rock band and “100” is their debut album, they released a 2nd late last year. One of my issues with them is the huge amount of marketing support they seem to have, especially to promote the debut album, it was a massive facebook bombardment (similar to what I’m doing now!), which seemed odd for a new band, not their fault I guess but just gives a bit of a plastic feel to them. Apparently they are now suing their record label for taking decisions they didn’t approve of so maybe isn’t all them. They also appear to dress and act like they are “2 cool 4 skool” in the vids. If I knew nothing more of them than the album, maybe they would be higher, as the songs as solid and “You & Me” is a Saves The Day-feel belter. Other songs like “Piece By Piece” and “Never Enough” are 2 songs that I could be rated higher but suffer from that feeling I mentioned earlier. The song has a few too many songs on and the singer tends to use the same vocal melody in one or 2 songs which is really noticeable. I’ve probably been harsh and maybe I’ll grow to love the album again. For now it’s hovering around the high 7/10 mark. Looking at the list I’d say we are days away from being in the 8/10 range.