BRMC - Album Rank Thread

I'll rank them, though I can't remember a thing about their past two records as they were so fucking forgettable

BRMC
HOWL
TAKE THEM ON

then the two that come after, can't remember what I prefer, maybe Beat the Devil's Tattoo

Then the last two

I've not listened to them properly in years now, though have had a blast of the debut in recent times and it still sounded wonderful

I played Baby 81 way too much when it first came out and I don't think I revisited it in about 14 years. I will do my best to see where it now ranks amongst the studio albums.

Howl

BRMC
Beat the Devil's Tattoo
Baby 81
TTOOYO

Wrong Creatures
Specter at the Feast

Except for the last couple, all of them I really enjoy. Don't think they'll ever realease a big one but it's time I got to see them live again as it's been a while

I'd need to revisit the records. But, Baby 81 from memory had some really great songs, but they went for a cleaner production. Devil's TATS had a monster sound, more in line with their debut, but the tunes weren't as strong.

damn, I want to hear Bad Blood now

I enjoyed their last album tbh, reminds me of travelling for work, which I did a lot of in 2018 / 2019, and for some reason, I listened to it quite a bit.

Ranking them all, I'd go:

BRMC
HOWL
Take Them On On Your Own
Beat The Devils Tattoo
Baby 81
Wrong Creatures
Spectre At The Feast

whataband, I think we can all agree?

BRMC - probably in my top 50 favourite albums ever
Howl - masterpiece
(drop off)

Baby 81 - I don't actually know if I even like this one anymore, but that run of 3-4 songs at the beginning is massive.
Take them on on your own - In like the rose, mfer.
Beat the devils tattoo - better than I remember it being
(big drop off)

Spectre at the feast - I think this was the one with the Call cover, no? I liked that one, but it was a pretty downer of an album. (Understandably.)
Wrong creatures - I saw them live twice on this tour (once again, fuck Liam and Ashcroft for cancelling that toronto show) but I don't remember a single song off this album.


They're definitely in my pantheon of bands from that era, alongside doves and the hives. Great memories of talking to them about whether young or old dylan was better, and opening for oasis in 2002.

I still don't have my list finalized but I have gone heavy on a BRMC binge here. I am feeling 18 again. I forgot the supported Oasis at Finsbury Park 2002.



Powerful stuff here.

Super J is gonna blow his load when he logs in and sees this thread.

I went to all 3 of those gigs   They was a must-see band for me for years, though I've not seen BRMC since 2010. about time they did a nostalgia tour to get me back in. 

Those two shows I saw in 2018 were pretty fab, tbh. Unfortunately a lot of new crap, but did they throw in awake, rifles, in like the rose, US government, amongst the usual big guns.

My favourite sounding band ever

1. Ants from Up There
2. For the First Time

Never understood why they haven't made it bigger, I saw them in Birmingham in 2005 and they must have played to about 15 people. Rob and Pete came and had a few drinks with me and my mate at the bar afterwards.
I also met them and hung out on their bus in Bristol 2017, good lads


Apart from Howl I don't think they have any amazing albums, they have individual songs (that are fucking great) but not a full album


Albums for me are:

Howl
Baby 81
BRMC
Specter At The Feast
Beat The Devil's Tattoo
Take Them On, On Your Own
Wrong Creatures

01. ‘Howl’

One of my favourite records ever. I remember when I first got into the band which was before the debut had been released I’d picked up the singles on CD and as much as I loved the a-sides I could never get enough of the b-sides. Tracks like ‘Screaming Gun’ ‘Tonight’s With You’ and especially ‘Down Here’. I even remember going to see them for the first time live, they were playing The Olympia in Dublin prior to the release of ‘Take Them On…’ so it must have been late 2002 and meeting them outside after and me and my two best mates begging them to make an album in that vein, and they did, so I’m taking the credit for this album even existing.

I seen them twice on the ‘Howl’ tour and they were without doubt my two favourite BRMC shows. We caught them in Newcastle which I think was the first show of their UK tour and then caught them a week later in Edinburgh. We’d met them outside the Newcastle show and I’d told them we would be at Edinburgh a few days later and could they play ‘Down Here’ and they did which was incredible.

The record itself is just brilliant, not one weak song on it. The run of ‘Still Suspicion Holds You Tight’ through to ‘Weight Of The World’ in the middle of the record is sublime. However my favourite song on the entire record is ‘Howl’.

When they played it live they used to do an extended outro which was always incredible but I could never get a decent bootleg copy of it, then it ended up being recorded and released on the soundtrack for ‘Southland Tales.

My memory is shocking at the best of times but I think they might have released a ‘Howl Sessions’ EP as well which probably housed my favourite BRMC song of that era which was ‘Mercy’ it’s an incredible song which just reminds me of that time in my life, young and free with everything ahead of me, full of hopes and aspirations and it’s one of the few songs that can make me well up. When I was trying to get the hottest girl at the indie disco to notice me I made her a compilation CD and ‘Mercy’ was the first song I put on it, she’s now my wife so it’s always had extra meaning to me.

Favourite Song: ‘Howl’



02. ‘BRMC’

I can’t remember how I first heard them to be totally honest, I’m guessing it was on ‘120 Minutes’ on MTV2 or I’d read about them in the NME and decided to check them out, but I’d take a stab that ‘Love Burns’ was probably the first track I heard by them which I think was the second single released after ‘Whatever Happened …’

I was hooked straight away. Around that time I was moving away from listening to Oasis exclusively and broadening my musical pallet. I was getting into trip-hop, hip-hop, and downtempo dance music, I remember being particularly obsessed with ‘Animal Magic’ by Bonobo around that time and this was just the polar opposite to that.

They looked cool as fuck, they sounded amazing and they instantly became my band. I was in lower sixth and me and my two best mates were just in total awe of them.

Like ‘Howl’ there isn’t a bad song on it, plus the b-sides from that era are as I mentioned earlier in this post some of my favourite songs ever recorded. Obviously ‘(Punk Song)’ is the monster hit on that record, the song they’re best known for but for me it’s the album’s closer ‘Salvation’ that I love the most, I even ran a neo-psych club night in Belfast named after it.

I’m also the proud owner of the original Nick Jago painting that was used for the artwork of ‘Whatever Happened …’ I bought it off him on eBay when he quit the band for the second time. I was so determined to buy it but decided to set myself a limit on how much I’d bid on it. In my head it was going to go for hundreds of dollars. I think I ended up buying it for something ridiculous which was about £80, but to me it’s priceless.

Favourite Song: ‘Salvation’



03. ‘Take Them On, On Your Own’

I remember waiting for this record to come out, at this point in my life Oasis were the only band that I’d eagerly awaited a new record from. ‘Stop’ was the first single released from the record which is an absolute banger, that opening line of ‘we don’t like you, we just want to try you’ grabbed me by the bollocks when I first heard it.

After that ‘We’re All In Love’ came out and I was throbbing. Then the record came out and at the time I’d myself convinced it was the second greatest record ever released after their debut of course.

After the debut and ‘Howl’ it’s the one I listen to the most, its got some great tunes on it, especially ‘Heart+Soul’ which they used to play live just before ‘Stop’ as they share similar basslines and they used to go from one straight into the other which was always amazing live but they don’t do it anymore.
With hindsight it’s nowhere near as good as the debut but it’s still a great fucking record. Tracks like ‘In Like The Rose’ ‘Generation’ ‘Shade Of Blue’ ‘And I’m Aching’ and ‘Heart+Soul’ have stood the test of time for me.

Sadly they don’t play a lot of these songs live anymore apart from ‘US Government’ and ‘Six Barrel Shotgun’ two songs which I never really warmed to.
Favourite Song: ‘Heart+Soul’




04. ‘Baby 81’

Much like ‘Take Them On, On Your Own’ I talked myself into thinking this record was better than it actually is. It was the follow up to ‘Howl’ which was absolute perfection and I wanted more of the same and they returned to a heavier sound.

It has it’s moments ‘All You Do Is Talk’ ‘666 Conducer’ and ‘Am I Only’ being my favourites.

Truth be told I got over this record pretty quickly it’s not a bad record at all, but it’s just not ‘Howl’.

Favourite Song: ‘Am I Only’




05. ‘Beat The Devil’s Tattoo’

I’ll get this out of the way first, the lead single which gives the album it’s title is possibly their most over-rated song. I can’t fucking stand it, and yet it’s possibly their best known song after ‘Whatever Happened…’ People lose their shit over it and I just don’t get it.
F
or me songs like ‘Shadow’s Keeper’ ‘Half State’ ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Sweet Feeling’ are by far the strongest songs on that album. My obsession with them as a band was beginning to wain by now, I was still buying the records and going to their shows but I was getting into different sounds and bands and even though I still loved them I wasn’t obsessed with them anymore.

This album has quite a lot of filler on it, but what they do get right they really get right.
Favourite Song: ‘Half-State’




06. ‘Specter At The Feast’

After back to back mediocre records this was the first release that kind of passed me by. It’s got it’s moments but they’re few and far between.
Strangely though one of my coolest BRMC memories is attached to it. When they toured this record they began their world tour in Belfast so they’d booked out a local venue for a week to do their rehearsals.

Being the fanboys that me and my mates were we’d kept in contact with Rob over the years, mainly via e:mail and he’d sort us out with tickets when we told him we’d be at a certain show. This lead to basically never having to pay for their shows after we’d seen them three or four times. Got to hang out backstage and got in to sound checks etc. They even did an instore for my mate when he worked in a local record shop which was amazing.

Anyway Rob dropped us an e:mail and said they were in town for a week, did we want to come down? We went down twice that week as we didn’t want to impose ourselves and were basically treated to two private shows, they even allowed us to make requests.

Favourite Song: ‘Lose Yourself’




07. ‘Wrong Creatures’

I think I’ve listened to this record twice and it didn’t grab me either time. I’ve given it a third listen while I wrote this post and it’s done nothing for me. At a push ‘All Rise’ is decent apart from that it’s been pretty shit if I’m being totally honest.

Not even SJ including 'The Effects of 333'

That is a lovely post SJ.

I am STILL working though my order of albums. I actually left Howl last to listen to but it's not on Spotify Canada and I am ready to lose it. How can every other album by on that platform except for Howl.

FFS

www.vice.com/en/article/vbxn3a/rank-your-records-black-rebel-motorcycle-clubs-peter-hayes-rates-the-bands-seven-lps

Found this - Peter ranks the albums and give some nice tidbits on stuff.

I will have my list completed tomorrow.

THANKS

Well, I went ahead and had a listen to all the albums and I have concluded my list. I had to listen to Howl on YouTube as I couldn't find my CD copy and it's not on Spotify here (I am still raging about that).

I forgot how much Howl meant to me. Summer of 2005 was a horrible time for me. I was just getting out of a long term relationship and I was in a bit of haze/loneliness. I can remember going for a long drive and buying this at a record shop I wasn't overly familiar with. The clerk who sold it to me was blown away anybody else had known/heard of BRMC before and we had a quick chat about them. I believe he even threw in a poster or a tshirt of the band (sadly, this is long gone whatever it was). Howl was in heavy rotation in 2005 along with Ryan Adams Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights and Death Cab For Cuties album Plans (looking back I must have been so EMO).

So without further a-do here is my list.

1. Howl

2. B.R.M.C

3. Take Them On, On Your Own

-----------------------------------------------

Slowing going downhill.......

4. Baby 81

5. Beat The Devils Tattoo

6. Specter At The Feast

7. Wrong Creatures


Now looking back the back end of the albums are all in order. They have literally steady declined since making baby 81.

My fav song is 'In Like The Rose'