April 2021 Challenge Thread

Day 13: Trainwreckord
play the worst album by a band/artist you love
Pavement - Terror Twilight
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Pavement never mad a bad record. IMO, they only produced great records. Their swan song isn’t bad by any stretch. It’s just slightly less great than what came before it.


You scooped me on this one! I actually LOVE this album, even as I recognize it as their weakest.
 
Day 13: Trainwreckord
play the worst album by a band/artist you love

Doves - Some Cities

This album never clicked with me as much as their other ones did, but I was happy to rediscover it when their first 3 albums were reissued. Definitely good, just the one that I resonate least with.

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Day 13 - Trainwreck

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Cage the Elephant - Tell Me I'm Pretty

There was a time I thought Cage the Elephant couldn't do any wrong, then they worked with Dan Auerbach and he brought out all of the worst things in the band. The majority of the album feels like it was a black keys demo that couldn't make it on any of their albums because they are so uninspired. There are a few songs on here that are fine but they would be the worst songs on any other cage album
 
Day 13 - Trainwreck

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Cage the Elephant - Tell Me I'm Pretty

There was a time I thought Cage the Elephant couldn't do any wrong, then they worked with Dan Auerbach and he brought out all of the worst things in the band. The majority of the album feels like it was a black keys demo that couldn't make it on any of their albums because they are so uninspired. There are a few songs on here that are fine but they would be the worst songs on any other cage album
I've been revisiting the CTE discography lately (our tastes seem to overlap a bunch 👀) and I've been a defender of this album for a bit, but in hindsight it really is their worst. I still don't think it's as bad as some people do but it does lack a lot of personality. Social Cues was better overall, but I'm hoping they bring back some of the heaviness on their next one.
 
DAY 13
TRAINWRECKORD
MGMT - MGMT
I use "worst" loosely here because I actually quite like a great deal of this album. But even still, there's no denying that it is the weakest of the four records they've put out so far. The big problem with the album is that a lot of the songs tend to not really have much structure or form. This isn't necessarily a bad thing on it's own, but there's some moments on here, especially in the second half, where it just doesn't feel like the songs go anywhere. That said, there are some pretty underrated tracks on here and it's disingenuous to call it a "bad" album - it's more of a mixed bag, an experimental album that doesn't hit the mark 100% of the time.
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Day 14: Nice Package

Your favourite packaging on a record. Box set, singular album, anything...


V/A - Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More

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I just love the gatefold image in this one. I’d show it to y’all if I could get a good photo of it...

EDIT: as good as I can get it: ay dat rhymed

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Day 14: Nice Package

Your favourite packaging on a record. Box set, singular album, anything...


OK, this is one I really dig. I was going through a used bookstore's vinyl bin and found a beat up copy of Springsteen for like four bucks so I grabbed it since my general rule on Springsteen + Used Piles is that if it's in decent condition it's worth scooping. It seems pretty basic initially, but the flap on the front (with the cool location photos on the lettering) opens to the left which functionally making it a massive post card and an inner opening for the record. Normally I can't stand the trifolds with the middle opening but given the lack of other records it's much easier to remove the record from.

The Inner sleeve, as was somewhat common for the time, was largely an advertisement for Columbia artists, but it's also pretty neat in its own right. It was the "new artist" edition that had some now quite familiar names.

Bruce Springsteen - Greetings from Asbury Park N.J.



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Day 14: Nice Package
Your favourite packaging on a record. Box set, singular album, anything...

Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

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I could have played this for yesterday’s theme, too. It’s always the Radiohead album that I forgot existed. Their packaging is always nice for their deluxe editions, but this one was kind of bizarre, focused on this whole newspaper thing and everything packed in a bag. One of these newspapers here was handed out in select cities across the world by their street team on release day and they compiled photos of fans with their newspaper and posted them on the internet. Super weird.
 
Day 14: Nice Package
your favourite record packaging

Various Artists - Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969 - Vol. II

I don’t have many records with fancy or unique packaging. But one thing I love is a good booklet that provides some history/context to the music. This comes with a very nice booklet with lots of photos and an in depth look at the festival and the performances.

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Day 14: Nice Package - your favourite record packaging

Jenny Lewis "On The Line" (2019 Warner, limited edition with fold-out cover)

Went with this one today, which opens to a 4-panel full body photo (reminiscent of the classic Isaac Hayes "Black Moses" packaging in some ways, which was a toss-up with this one for today).

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