Best Album Ever Survivor: Somewhere In Time wins

Vote for your least favourite album

  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
It's also why I never understand the whole strategic voting thing... It becomes less "vote for your least favourite so we get a list of collective like/dislike order" and more "vote anything you can to save the one you want to win!".

The Best vs Favourite criteria is why I struggle to have personal rankings, I often think "This albums is better written imo, it's far more impressive better structured flows better etc... but THIS album I just find more fun/I prefer to put on more often"
 
Forostar said:
But preference also has criteria.

So you say you use different criteria?

Interesting. But aren't there reasons why you are attached to it? Maybe these criteria are even more important? And there are reasons why you find the other extremely well-crafted (I'd say the Skunkworks songs are also extremely well-crafted because they fit to your taste; how else did you become attached?).

And if I ask you which album you like to listen to most, then do you still disagree with me that this very album can be your favourite, because you enjoy it the most, and that it is therefore the best album for you because you enjoy listening to it the most?

Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

No, I don't have any criteria whatsoever for preferring Skunkworks. I just like it more because I like it more. I don't even necessarily listen to it more often. There is no rhyme or reason.
 
Despite what this game's rules might suggest, I find it easy to personally differentiate between best and favourite.
The former adds my emotional response to an objective, if personal, list of criteria, including allowing some room for the objective criteria of others. The latter is simply my straight emotional reaction.
The best (say Hallowed) are almost always a favourite.
My favourites (say From Here to Eternity) are not necessarily the best.

But not everyone will agree, so in the case of games like this, it's best to leave it open to individual interpretations.
 
Crimson Idol said:
The Best vs Favourite criteria is why I struggle to have personal rankings, I often think "This albums is better written imo, it's far more impressive better structured flows better etc... but THIS album I just find more fun/I
prefer to put on more often"
Click to expand...
If you think something is written well then your subjective taste must have led you to this conclusion, not?
Or else: how do you recognize that something is written well? Are there other criteria for this statement?

But it sounds contradictory when your taste still prefers something else, only because it is more fun(?)
Because I think it is not just more fun: your taste has led you to that conclusion.

When I like something the most, it means something fits best to my taste, thus it was written the best for me.
 
mckindog said:
Despite what this game's rules might suggest, I find it easy to personally differentiate between best and favourite.
The former adds my emotional response to an objective, if personal, list of criteria, including allowing some room for the objective criteria of others. The latter is simply my straight
emotional reaction.
Click to expand...
That's what you think. But I bet that, subconsciously, more is going on. There are reasons (criteria; even if you cannot formulate them) behind straight emotional reactions.

edit:
When an individual finds something the best, while giving room for using other people's criteria, then it is not his subjective finding/opinion. Thus it is not his best*. Rather: what more than one person find the best. In this case, the "favourite" is more pure and imo the best to use for this game.


* unless he completely agrees and makes other people their opinions his own entirely, but in this case it has turned to "favourite".
 
As for "best" versus "favorite" generally, I think that is a fairly meaningless and fuzzy distinction. In any event, given that our musical preferences are not THAT different, if everyone in this forum votes for what they genuinely believe to be their "favorites" -- i.e., the albums they keep coming back to, as opposed to a particular flavor of the month -- I think we will tend to converge on shortlist of albums that most if not all of us can consider to be at least among the very best. And I predict that, not coincidentally, our list will end up looking a lot like the "best ever" lists you see in various publications or online polls -- albeit somewhat skewed toward albums on which Bruce Dickinson is the singer. :innocent:

The albums widely regarded as "best" tend to be my favorites, within reason. So sue me. That said, there are many albums on "American (s)hitlists" I don't care for and think are overrated. (See "Dylan, Bob" and "Springsteen, Bruce." ) I apparently love Mob Rules waaaayyyy more than anyone else does. Ditto Blind Guardian, Accept, Tom Petty, early Radiohead, The Clash, The Stones, and others. That's just me. Plus, my tastes change with my day-to-day moods. Though I love Queen, sometimes I'm more in the mood for Fleetwood Mac. Though I love Maiden, sometimes I'm more in the mood for AC/DC. There are also many albums that I enjoy for many different reasons unique to myself, like everybody else. But even though there isn't a clear set of objective criteria, I think people generally have an innate sense for what is "best." I include myself in that group.

Then there are some people who are overtly contrarian -- "I will find reasons to dislike Led Zeppelin because everyone else thinks they are so fucking great." (Talkin' to you, Foro!) That's fine -- as mckindog points out, the beauty of these polls/games is that we trend toward a consensus, so an individual's unique preferences get marginalized. You have every right to tell me why I'm wrong, just as I have every right to tell you why I think you're wrong. That's what's fun about these threads. It's like the Jordan vs. LeBron debates -- there is, in my view, an obvious correct answer (Jordan) but enough people think otherwise to make it at least discussion-worthy. Just don't get mad when I tell you I'm right and you're wrong. :D
 
Crimson Idol said:
It's also why I never understand the whole strategic voting thing... It becomes less "vote for your least favourite so we get a list of collective like/dislike order" and more "vote anything you can to save the one you want to win!".
Click to expand...
I think it makes sense. If there is a group of albums (or songs) that you don't like or don't care for as much as others, then there isn't anything wrong with voting for a bunch of them to save a favorite.
 
Forostar said:
That's what you think. But I bet that, subconsciously, more is going on. There are reasons (criteria; even if you cannot formulate them) behind straight emotional reactions.

edit:
When an individual finds something the best, while giving room for using other people's criteria, then it is not his subjective finding/opinion. Thus it is not his best*. Rather: what more than one person find the best. In this case, the "favourite" is more pure and imo the best to use for this game.


* unless he completely agrees and makes other people their opinions his own entirely, but in this case it has turned to "favourite".
Click to expand...
Interesting thought. I'd like to think I am not overly influenced by what other people think are the "best." That said, you never know what subconsciously influences you. I will concede this much: if an album is famous for being good, then certainly it is more likely that I will have heard it and thereby developed my own opinion. I also probably give such an album the benefit of the doubt when I first listen to it. But there are MANY "critic's darlings" that I despise, such that I don't think I'm in too much danger of blindly following the herd.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Interesting thought. I'd like to think I am not overly influenced by what other people think are the "best." That said, you never know what subconsciously influences you. I will concede this much: if an album is famous for being good, then certainly it is more likely that I will have heard it and thereby developed my own opinion. I also probably give such an album the benefit of the doubt when I first listen to it. But there are MANY "critic's darlings" that I despise, such that I don't think I'm in too much danger of blindly following the herd.
Click to expand...

:yes:

I feel the same way. Musical taste can be a pretty pointless thing to discuss though but I think by the fact that we're all here on this small board speaks volumes. And it is not like we're discussing Madonna vs Mozart here...we're all rock/metal fans :D
 
As for favorite vs best. There is definitely a distinction, at least for me. I can think of two examples. The Dream Theater album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. I would give every song on there five stars. So technically it should be perfect. However, I enjoy Awake more. Thus, I call Awake the best album.

Another example would be Pink Floyd's The Wall. That is one of my favorite albums of all time. But when you take it apart the result is an album filled with one/two star material. But as a whole, I really like it.

So in the end, the word best is pretty irrelevant. Besides, if it wasn't subjective then this game would be pointless. Complaining about the title makes little sense, we all knew that this would be a matter of picking favorites.
 
I suppose this is the best (heh) way for me to describe what I'm saying:

- "Best" = your head
- "Favorite" = your heart

I prefer The Thin Line Between Love and Hate to Brighter Than a Thousand Suns. The Thin Line has a je ne sais quoi about it that I adore in addition to having a magnificent vocal performance and glorious guitar work by Dave. However, Brighter has better lyrics and better-developed ideas and is far less choppy. I know intellectually that it is just a much better penned song than The Thin Line is, yet I still prefer The Thin Line. I couldn't tell you why. But I could tell you why Brighter is a better song.

In this context, I think best and favorite could conceivably overlap, but generally speaking, there's a huge difference between the two words. Tim Buckley is a better singer than Bruce Dickinson is, but I prefer Bruce's voice.
 
And I still think "Maidenfan's favorite albums" would fit this survivor better as a title. Just for what it is. Picking favorites. As Mosh just said.
 
No but call me silly and tell me I haven't been listening or paying attention for two pages but Best Album EVER is still a misleading title :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top