April 5, 2025

Renting Music

I’ve been using our local library more lately, mainly because I need to pick stuff up for my wife. Since reading physical media is difficult for me because of myu vision, I have instead started scouting the music section of their online catalog. At first, I was checking out albums 1 at a time for a week, but over the past couple, I have gone with two, one from an artist I know more about and one from one I’m barely familiar with or only heard the name in passing. Below, I want to do a quick rundown and at the end I’ll order the albums.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

OK, so this one is kind of cheating. I had a copy of it before that I had ripped but lost it in several hard drive transfers, so this was me just re-ripping an album I had prior that I listened to a bunch. This album is most known for housing Under the Bridge, Give It Away and to a lesser extent, Suck My Kiss, but the real standout tracks for me are Breaking the Girl, with it’s kind of sorrowful feeling chorus, and the instrumentation of The Greeting Song, specifically the bassline, have an infectious energy. I am a big RHCP fan which makes this a little unfair to place but whatever, it’s my rankings.

Fragile by Yes

First longer term exposure to Yes, beyond hearing things like Roundabout and Owner of a Lonely Heart. This album has the aforementioned Roundabout as a really good track, but South Side of the Sky rules too. I’m not a huge Prog Rock listener, but so I don’t quite have the language to talk about this more, sorry.

Combat Rock by the Clash

This one is carried by the strength of Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah. I don’t remember much of the rest of the album, and past me didn’t think it was worth ripping so that bodes poorly.

Best of Bing Bands disc 3

OK, this is a compilation album that I only found the third disc for? It’s good background music, an d I mainly got it so I could put it on the Plex for my wife to listen to wherever in the apartment.

Superunkown by Soundgarden

Another “I lost this rip over the years” album that I’m pleased to have checked out. Black Hole Sun and Spoonman are the marquee tracks here, but the album is full of Chris Cornell’s excellent vocals, and Fell on Black Days stands out to me.

Aurora Borealis by Cloud Cult

So this is a semi-local band (OK within the same state whatever), and one that’s made a name for itself, even appearing in some TV shows appearantly, but boy is this album College Alt Rock to the core. Like, Quintessential College Alt Rock. All Together Alone was my standout track here.

Signals by Rush

Growing up, the classic rock station was the default radio station in my parents house, so I’m familiar with Rush’s greatest hits. I think I also have the Moving Pictures CD kicking around somewhere. Subdivisions is just a great track that kicks off this album, New World Man… look I have a hard time describing music I like in words other than “song good, it do the sound right”. It’s a good example of Geddy Lee’s ability to have this disinct vocal style while also having some really fascinating bass lines.

Greatest Hits by ELO

This one’s almost unfair, by design. Evil Woman, Turn To Stone, Sweet Talkin’ Woman, Strange Magic, Mr. Blue Sky and last and certainly not least, Showdown all kick ass and are easy repeat listens. Showdown is a track that I constantly forget about from them, but it rules every time I listen to it. The strings in it are used so well and they feel so aggressive on the main riff. Almost like you can hear the scraping of the strings with the notes that are being played. The vocals in the chorus just feel like they want to rip the air from your lungs to make you sing along.

Bleed Out by The Mountain Goats

This is my first exposure to The Mountain Goats, and it was quite the experience. First track, Training Montoge had me a bit iffy, for about 40 seconds, once everything starts kicking in after the vocals + accoustic guitar (or muted guitar) opening. Second hit of the chorus adds faint backing vocals and they’re SO GOOD. Wage War Get Rich Die Handsome feels like it should be in a PS1 extreme sports game. Guys on Every Corner has this really slick feel to it musically. Hostages and Need More Bandages are the other tracks that stood out to me on my early listens. In Hostages specifically, I am a huge sucker for the instrumentation dropping out mid lyric only to storm back with a vengance after the line is finished a capella.

So, that’s where I’m at so far. I’ll try to do weekly reviews of things I check out and update the rankings. So here we go!

Rankings

ELO Greatest Hits - ELO
Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Signals - Rush
Superunknown - Soundgarden
Bleed Out - The Mountain Goats
Fragile - Yes
Best of Big Bands - Various Artists
Combat Rock - The Clash
Aurora Borealis - Cloud Cult