Skyscraper - Superstate (1995)
Last Time Listened: 2004 (possibly)
What You Guess You’ll Rate It: 7
Your Actual Rating: 8
Best Track: ‘Choke’ or ‘Bed of Nails’
Any Thoughts: Treading similar alternative rock waters to contemporaries such as 3 Colours Red, UK band Skyscraper released two albums, 1995’s Superstate and, imo, inferior follow up Shooters in 1997, then they broke up. The debut became a bit of a favourite of mine after I came across a second hand CD missing its booklet sometime around 1998 and I gave it a bit of a rinsing! Whether it’s just nostalgia I don’t know but I’m still finding it very enjoyable!
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Pop Will Eat Itself - Dos dedos mis amigos
Last Time You Listened To It: Pre-last.fm, going to estimate late 90s or very early 00s
What You Guess You’ll Rate It: 6
Your Actual Rating: 7
Best Track: “Kick to Kill”, “Cape Connection”, “R.S.V.P.”
Any Thoughts: Enjoyed this quite a bit in the mid 90s, fit in nicely with the alt rock and electro-industrial stuff I was into while also having a unique sound, like a less abrasive Meat Beat Manifesto (although by 94 MBM’s sound was a lot more polished too). Good beats, production less thin than I recall, and less cheese than I expected to uncover. Generally hasn’t aged poorly and in fact there were some nice surprises such as some funky stuff in the later half of “Menofearthereaper”. “R.S.V.P.” came in with a blast, forgot all about this and it’s a tune. “Everything’s Cool” might be the low point, feels a bit awkward and clumsy. Well, funny enough the guitars here remind me of some on Skinny Puppy’s final pre-reunion 1996 album The Process (much of which I found cheesy for SP), with a subtle nod to Ministry’s “Burning Inside” (which I love). To be fair I think the guitar sound is common throughout the album and I could be singling this track out because of the aforementioned awkwardness. The mellow tracks “Home” and “Babylon” help balance things out, and the 46 minute runtime is comfortable. I had it cataloged and rated 7 on RYM based on memory and adjusted for current tastes (probably would have given it 8 at the time), and thought I’d like it a little less today but turns out 7 feels right. Glad to have revisited this.
Prompted by: Uncle Retrospective's greatest 50 albums of all time. - #273 by UncleRetrospective
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