m_thomp

Also, since when is 50 a happy compromise???

An extra 80 votes (Joss' original request)? Or an extra 30? I'd say that's happier...um... ish?!

Please take another look at that spreadsheet, and talk to me about what a total ballache that's going to be with more than 20 votes per person!

I'm happy to help out and lighten your load: I've got form in compiling album lists, albeit to a very basic sub-novice standard.

OK, since the voting technically doesn't begin until tomorrow, this will be up for discussion for another day. If I hear any more votes for... well, for more votes I'll bump it up to 50. If I hear anyone saying that that's too many, I'll make an executive decision by midnight tonight, for either 20 or 40. Check back in the morning (afternoon-ish for you across-the-ponders) for the final word.

Many thanks for sorting this and your efforts!

Fifty is probably a happy compromise. I understand both sides of this argument, on the one hand greater number of votes allows the voter more chance to express their tastes, and this might draw out and boost some of the interesting and different low-scoring entries a tad. On the other hand, the only thing that will change the chart outcome significantly - beyond the sacred Beatles, Dylan, Pink Floyd, Led Zep, Wilco - is to get more/new people to vote, and increasing the number needed to vote can be daunting for the voter, ultimately detracting as many as it attracts. Not to mention it being a total ballache to compile (I know having done a few myself).

Like Joss, if we stick to 20 albums then I can see my list being exactly the same. And if this mindset is consistent with other voters then the pack of the final results will remain similar and only slightly shuffled.

Happy to support whatever decision is made though.

Missing from the list is Let Me In, the Hollywood remake of 2008's Let The Right One In.

I assume this is being remade purely for dyslexia sufferers who have been unable to sleep at the prospect of reading subtitles. Otherwise it's achingly unnecessary.

But they are only "all dead" in the sense that the sideways world represented a state of being after everyone has died, whenever that was (a Purgatory-like state). And I think it worked because there wasn't that final "Aha!" moment. The Purgatory allowed these characters to come to peace with and redeem their lives. Jack with his father issues, Kate's being on the run, Sayid's issues with his past and people's perceptions, etc. When they were ready to let go of their past selves and move on with this community of people, they could pass on to the next plane of existence. Which took on a Christian motif with Jack, but could be interpreted however one would like.

 

I thought it was beautifully moving and very emotional.

Totally get all that, and trust me, I thought the finale was great in how it pitched the emotional weight and tone (it wasn't too saccharine sweet and schmaltzy) and in the characters resolving their past behaviour/indescretions, and 'clicking' through the reawakenings to achieve a better 'tomorrow', or destiny. I liked the way each character had to discover their destiny for themselves, and whilst there was coaxing (Desmond), it played better when it was more subtle: the looks of 'we'd love to tell you, but can't' from both Jin and Sun to Sawyer when he called to check up on Sun was a great in the way that, without needing to spell it out, Sun and Jin were thinking exactly what we were shouting at the screen. In fact that almost broke the cinematic fourth wall.

In fact, for me, the scene that resonated the most was Ben and Hurley coming to terms and coping post-Jack. They, through each other, found their place, belief and worth.

But that was all it needed. It didn't then need the passing over bit. And here's why.... and these are my opinions/thoughts as to why, in no particular order:

1) As soon as you understand the characters are dead, the rest of their journey is null and void.

I guess this view is based on your opinion of an afterlife - whether one exists or not. The traditional view of the afterlife is that, as you said, you move to the next plane of existence. So, if you've led a good life you'll take on some higher form/move to a better place and vice versa. Let's be honest, most of these people (Kate, Sawyer, Sayeed, etc), driven to it in some respects, have led pretty shitty lives pre-death. Extrapolating that then their afterlife is gonna be that of a mudworm (and a nasty mudworm at that) or similar. So their journey is mapped out, and I have no interest what they do to make a better afterlife for themselves, but I AM interested in them atoning and making a better life for themselves. Put simply and cynically once they're dead, then they're dead. You can't change that and the afterlife thing only works for me if you show us what this takes the form of, at least beyond a token dazzling bright light.

2) The island represented the best moments of these people's lives

As I said, pre-death these people had shitty lives. According to Christian, and I'm paraphrasing here, the island saw them have their happiest moments. My God, this compounds how shitty their pre-death lives actually were. These people were tortured, imprisoned, shot at, had their babies stolen, subjected to medical tests, on the island, and this - save for the emotional human bonds forged with newly significant others - was in some way better?

3) Important themes get relegated

I loved all the themes of duality throughout the show - destiny/freewill, faith/science, change/the norm, good/evil - and thought that for a mainstream show to handle these was a brave decision and convincingly executed. Bring in the 'All Dead' twist/outcome and all that ongoing debate gets nulified by the sheer weight of the true destiny. It's like an univited guest coming to your party, drinking all your booze, causing a fight and leaving you as host to pick up the pieces: the outcome outweighs the initial point.

4) Where does 'X' fit now?

This is less important to me, but throughout the series things were given an inordinate amount of screentime to which you'd think would have some relevance in the outcome. So where do the following fit in the grand scheme of things/what was the purpose of (given I've never rewatched an episode, this is more for personal clarification):

- Walt

- Charles Widmore (beyond fathering Daniel and Penny) and his role on the island

- Hanso corporation

- Insert your own

That's it for me. I don't want this to come across as ranty, it's not, these are just my initial thoughts after watching it. I thought the show would've carried more weight without going down the previously-dismissed limbo/Purgatory route. Just think it was less edifying with this chosen outcome, and, popping on my cynical hard-hat, the result would have been achieved much swifter, and be as equally satisfying, had I foresaken watching Lost and popped on Ghost instead. joke

Fun while it lasted though, and what will fill the void now?

I don't understand this point. How is it irrelevant? Every single piece of plot from the crash onwards had major significance to the lives of all the characters.

Personally, I looked forward to watching back from season 1 and seeing all the interactions, mythology and plotlines dovetailing to make sense when viewed as a whole. As a conclusion, it felt as though it wanted to make a statement that would be the grand 'final piece in the jigsaw'. The jigsaw, for me, was already complete, making the grand "Aaaaah!!!!" reveal redundant, largely because, if I recall correctly, the writers/producers had pretty early on dismissed the 'they're all dead' theory.

Reading through some critics reviews, someone called the summation as being marginally better than a 'it was all a dream' conclusion. I agree with that.

I'm not angry, or disappointed, I enjoyed the final episode, I just think for what the series is - entertainment - it sold itself short because it was already onto a winner but made an overeaching detour towards a symbolic 'bigger meaning'. Kinda felt like the rug was pulled, and not in a good way. Sometimes these things don't need an epic resolution to make perfect sense (eg The Sopranos).

The way Christian explained it was that in the afterlife, time has no meaning, so it doesn't matter "when" people died. So kate and sawyer, etc got off the island but they eventually died, like all people die. Ben and Hurley stayed and took care of the island for many years, but they died too eventually. But they all decided to meet up in the afterlife. Meh.

This is how I see it.

I think the BBC show "Ashes to Ashes" did a much better job ending the series (and "Life on Mars", too) with a similar finish. It was much more satisfying than the "Lost" ending. I wonder what the creators of "Lost" thought when they learned that their big Purgatory reveal was used to end another hit series two days earlier.

This is so true. Lost was beaten to the punch.

Overall I must admit to being disappointed in the ending, but not the final episode, if that make sense. It would have felt, to me, a more natural conclusion if after the "reawakenings" the characters went on to live happier lives. But the 'they were all dead' thing just feels horribly and unecessarily tacked on, to such an extent that as soon as you know this fact huge amounts of plot from the original Oceanic crash onwards is just trivial irrelevance.

I have seen Big Train but it was at the time of airing (1998/9?) and my memory isn't that great.

Willing to re-up the mix, and also I've got another mix ready to go. This one's unmixed, but this time it does have a theme: shit-hot rhythm tracks. It's a bit on the short side at the moment, so, as far as mixtapes go, it's more C60 than C90.

Final mixtape thoughts for the day: I remember ages ago, around the time that I first joined VC, there was a thread set-up, similar to this mixtape one, that revolved around people requesting a mixtape by a certain artist or genre. Volunteers would then nominate themselves to provide a primer/fan's guide compilation. This used to be excellent as it often side-stepped radio fodder, monster hits and general received wisdom in favour of a fan's eye view of what makes a band, artist or genre great. It gave me in-roads into Neil Young back catalogue, who at the time I just thought was a reedy unwashed spliff-bucket based on one half-heard listen through Harvest. It would be great if we could kick that off again.

In fact, it probably deserves a thread of its own.

There's a 'rewinding track 1' hidden track on the Super Furries' Out Spaced too. This may be breaking news for Joss Ackland.

part 3

 

track 4 was corrupt or something, so it doesn't extract. great mix, though!

 

maybe it's because of this? part 1 part 2 part 3

YouTube is a banned site here so I can't see your links. I wouldn't bet against you poking a bit of fun at the contents of track 4, though, and that (quality control? mullets?) being the 'reason' it wouldn't extract/got corrupt.

If it really is corrupt...... Oh bum, sorry for the wonky file.

My mix is ready. The original theme was to make something upbeat and uplifting, but as I had to piece it together in dribs and drabs (and it shows!) that goal flew out of the window. However, if at least one song doesn't put a smile across your face then I've failed my just-this-minute-invented mission.

Smiley Smile mix

1. Boards of Canada – From One Source All Things Depend

2. Sparks – The Number One Song In Heaven

3. Hot Chip - Take It In

4. Daryl Hall and John Oates - I Can't Go For That

5. Gary Davis & His Professor – The Professor Here

6. Albert Ayler – Heart Love

7. Sidney Owen and the North South Connection – Sputnik

8. Sonny Sharrock – Blind Willy

9. Plants and Animals - À L'Orée Des Bois

10. Langley Schools Music Project – In My Room

11. Gong - Love Is How Y Make It

12. Sagittarius - My World Fell Down

13. Caribou – The Dauphin

14. Lothar & the Hand People – Yes, I Love You

15. Franco Battiato - Areknames

16. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Little Wig

17. Eden Ahbez – La Mer

18. Raymond Scott – Sleepy Time

19. Unknown Artist – Unknown Song

20. R.D. Burman – Love/Pain Is A Many Splendoured Thing

21. Aphrodite’s Child - Break

On another note, this thread looks to have died on its arse. Which is a shame because, for me, it became a dependable source of opening my ears to music (and good music at that) I would never have otherwise stumbled upon. If it's to carry on, can we bring back the pairing up? At least that kept a dialogue between all the participants going.

In.

If anyone's interested I also have a couple of mixes that were done late last year for a friend. They're both quite varied and include some tracks from a few mixes you guys did for the last round of mixes.

NP: that Plants and Animals album.

I really like it. It feels like a natural progression from Parc Avenue, they're venturing toward new ground whilst still sounding like Plants and Animals. I hate it when bands try a new tact which almost exclusively apes another band in every respect.

The Mama Papa is a bit out of place alongside the rest of the set, but that makes the album all the better, it livens it up a bit. Kon Tiki is a great song.

One of those rare albums that's every bit as good as I imagined it would be.

Caught eps 3 and 4 last night and I'm enjoying how this finale season is coming together.

A few things I thought about, and few tiny slithers of ham-fisted theory popped into my head. These theories may well be explained in earlier episodes in earlier seasons, I've never rewatched (or rewound scenes from) a single episode, so my ability to follow the various timelines flew out of the window a long time ago only. Anyway happy for this little lot to get shot down in flames...

- Still think it's a philosophical battle between freewill and destiny with MIB and Jacob being the respective players, and all island visitors being pawns in the game.

- I think MIB is the good guy and Jacob the bad guy. The conatations of black and white (evil and good, darkness and purity) are all too obvious. Also, the guy at the temple said something to Jack about Sayid tests/antedote. He said something along the lines of that Sayid was 'infected' and that something was coming to 'cleanse' him (I think they said the nearest translation was 'cleanse') and that everything Sayid was before he came to the island would be gone (again paraphrasing). This alludes that it's: a) a bad thing, and MIB who's coming to administer the bad thing. Whilst I agree with the latter I don't think it is a bad thing. Sayid, before he came to the island, was a hard-assed interogator who didn't suffer fools, or enemies, gladly. After having his woman taken from him, he pretty much turned into an emotional ice cold cube. Now, why would wiping away that continuing destiny be a good thing?

- Following the train of thought above, I begun to think of the island as some sort of correctional facility, in that the actions taking place on the island are giving the protagonists the chance for redemption. That's not redemption because something is wrong about their lives, but something is missing from their lives. I think what we're seeing in the alt-reality is people displaying the absolute opposite personality traits of what dragged them to the island in the first place. Jack - as opposed to being a man of logic offering a leap of faith and hope to Locke to help his spine; Locke - ripping up Jack's business card, no longer needing to believe in something else other than himself; Hurley - no longer cursed with the bad luck, conversely happy go lucky and blessed with good fortune. Even Ethan and Ben 'seem' to be righted.

- Oh, and Clare was very trusting to the complete stranger/criminal of Kate in episode three. Nothing significant about that (or was there?) I just thought it was weird, and required a greater amount of disbelief to be suspended.

while i wasn't looking forward to it, i barely got through one listen...

I thought it was okay, but was kind of glad when it finished. I had mega high expectations set down by ...Dark Horse. I really love that album and was, rather unfairly, expecting more of the same, or at least in a similar vein. Sadly this one, for me, lacked the subtlety and nuance of its predecessor. It just seemed to be an exercise in taking lots of different routes to get to the same squalling guitar climax. I kept waiting for some variation, only it never arrived.

I was looking forward to the Besnard Lakes album, but then I heard it.

The one I'm most looking forward to at the moment is Caribou's Swim. I think it's out in April, but you can download a track, Odessa, from the Caribou website. If the rest of the album is as good then it's going to be special.

Just done a quick search and could not see a post but found out about this last Friday:

Michael C. Hall diagnosed with cancer

Big vibes to him. Apparently, at the Golden Globes last night he was quoted as saying he's well on the road to recovery.

You were a little young for proper perspective on the '80s, but I won't hold that against you.

 

U2 were a breath of fresh air back then. In the midst of synthpop dominance, they were a guitar band. Sure, Bono could be a bit much to take, even then, but U2 in the '80s was about the best thing going ... at least of the stuff that made it onto the airwaves and MTV.

Hey, let's not be cruel on the 80s, my dislike of U2 goes far beyond that decade.

I was just showing my wife the other day the Dexter t-shirt I was going to buy as a Christmas present (Showtime don't do internatinal shipping so in the end it was a no-go), when I stumbled across some of their new t-shirt designs.

Sorry to bring up the old thread, but I thought some of you might like to see (buy?) this bad boy.

I'm curious about how old you are. The 80s popular music landscape was absolutely dreadful. The underground scene was incredible. But otherwise it was horrible synth-pop, hair metal, and glossy "R&B" with no real soul. U2 is an incredibly arrogant group, to be sure and have other weaknesses, but to claim that the musical landscape of the past and present would not be worse off is way off base, I think.

I'm 34. And I'm obviously in the polar opposite place to yourself when it comes to appreciating U2. As far as 80s music goes, I've always seen U2 as part of the problem that perpetuated how bad popular sounds were back then.

Now I understand that U2 bring a lot of joy and happiness to a lot of people, but so too does heroin, and that deserves elimination also.

U2. The musical landscape of the past and present would not be worse off if they were removed. In fact, we'd be better off without anything that the monstrously vain, do-gooding Bono touches.

Top 50 LPs & EPs Of 2009

50) Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

46) A.C. Newman - Get Guilty

45) A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Ashes Grammar

44) Girls - Album

41) YACHT - See Mystery Lights

34) Destroyer - Bay Of Pigs

31) Field, The - Yesterday And Today

30) Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care

21) Mountain Goats, The - The Life Of The World To Come

20) Juan Maclean, The - The Future Will Come

18) Mos Def - The Ecstatic

13) Dinosaur Jr. - Farm

11) Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs

08) Dan Deacon - Bromst

07) Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind

02) Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

01) Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

 

EDIT: Sorry Beach House's Norway and Hot Chip's Take It In, but you'll have to wait until next year even though you both sound so awesome!

Completely forgot about Juan Maclean - Happy House would be one of my tracks of the year if it wasn't originally released in 08.

Oh, and in a future age, when heterosexual same-sex platonic pregnancies were the norm, Augurus and myself, based on the above, would have perfect children. I'd be daddy, of course.

 

terrible artwork... but damn this is every bit as great as i'd hoped and then some

 

edit: holy shit the 80's influence on this is insane (track 5, ONE, in particular)

I'm a huge fan of their debut, which is quite Middle Eastern, folky and a little bit proggy too. Seems like on this latest they've binned off most of that and taken to listening to a lot of Tears for Fears. Had one listen so far and I really like it. They do what good bands should do: move on.

She will, certainly, find out about Dex, but I have to knock you on accuracy, and Deb has never really been known for her great mental leaps.

I dunno, she's usually the one who cracks the cases, hence her rapid promotion through the ranks. I think you might be underestimating her, she can usually put two and two together and come up with an expletive-ridden four