Zen Arcade poll

[Goat Boy]

What a mighty, mighty record.

Pick your 8 favourites and obviously talk some more. If you want, like. No pressure or nuffink.

[clive gash]

Side 3 is da boss.

Somewhere is one for me, proper downer psych.

[Bent Fabric]

Only picking 8 was something of a project.

Generally, Grant>Bob, Impressionistic>Not Impressionistic. Things like "Tooth Fairy" and "Hare Krsna" really do occupy a wholly unique place in my own musical universe.

[pcqgod]

Standouts: "Something I learned today" "Somewhere" "Pink Turns to Blue" "Turn on the News." Most of it is good, with little filler. I even like the long instrumental that ends it.

[Matt Wilson]

A great album, poorly recorded.

But even if it was recorded well, still not as good as Double Nickels on the Dime.

[C]

A great album, poorly recorded.

Spot on but what a robust band

Not my fave but seminal nonetheless






.

[Charlie O.]

In WilsonWorld, every "great album" is "still not as good as" a great album by somebody else.

I chose "Something I Learned Today", "Never Talking", "Chartered Trips", "Indecision Time", "What's Going On", "Somewhere", "Pink Turns", and "Whatever".

[George P. Smackers]

Not much to add, it's great. Pretty hard to believe that Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and Flip Your Wig all came out in a matter of two years, 1984-5. Of the three, I guess I'd have a slight preference for the last, but it doesn't matter.

Golden age of American indie, when bands were popping up all over and the NYC-LA stranglehold was broken.

[Matt Wilson]

In CharlieWorld, it's always an artist's "second album" which he prefers.

[clive gash]

Zen Arcade - Best Husker
What Makes A Man Start Fires - Best Minutemen

[Goat Boy]

Side 2 is where it's at for me btw.

[blindlemonjefferson]

A great album, poorly recorded.

But even if it was recorded well, still not as good as Double Nickels on the Dime.

Agreed, and not in a purposeful or interesting way like some of their contemporaries, just badly engineered. It sounds so washed out, which is a shame because there's clearly power to it, it just sounds like it's always coming out of my iPhone speakers.

[blindlemonjefferson]

There's an amateur remastering that makes it sound a little better...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZVCiDcSBlciyIZ8uudeto_82nvaVOMSr

[bobzilla77]

I do think the vinyl sounds better than the CD, I'll be seeking out a quality needle drop. Much of SST sounds crap on CD. That's down to the analog transfers made in the 80s.

But I don't think even the CD sounds terrible. It's just kind of, how it is. I don't need it remixed. The same people complaining probably wanted Raw Power remixed, until they heard it.

I've come to live with it sounding the way it does and it doesn't bother me even a little bit. I bet a remix would freak me the fuck out.

[bobzilla77]

Side 2 is where it's at for me btw.

Agreed.

Bob Mould said in his book that he could never sing those songs again, that having gotten those emotions out of his body, he wouldn't want to experience them again.

I know he feels. I still find them thrilling as music, but I am rarely in the mood to go through the trauma again either. On those occasions where everything is about to blow, those songs reflect the sound inside my head.

I don't see how anyone working with less venom than this can be described as "emo."