All Songs, Best to Worst: Nine Inch Nails

Time for another ranking of all of an artist's songs. This week I'm evaluating every song of one of my favourite bands of the past few years, Nine Inch Nails. What can you say about NIN? They're one of the greatest industrial groups ever and certainly the most commercially successful. With a career spanning approximately 28 years and eight full-length albums the group's sound has definitely evolved, covering such genres as dark synth-pop, industrial metal, art rock, electronica, and even dark ambient. It's not often that you'll hear two NIN albums that sound alike. What's really cool about Nine Inch Nails is that even though they're an industrial act their music isn't that hard to get into. While it often does include noise and distortion – as industrial groups are wont to do – NIN seldom shifts focus away from the melody and the dynamic and intense vocals of frontman Trent Reznor, making the music easier to digest. The lyrics are always captivating, focusing mostly on the exploration of the self (with occasional exceptions as with the album Year Zero). The first NIN album I listened to was 2005's With Teeth and I've been hooked ever since.

So let's rank these bad boys, shall we? The rules: what's included here is 7 studio albums as well as the one EP, Broken. I'm not including Ghosts I-IV, which is composed of 36 instrumental tracks that don't even have names. It's not a bad album, but I can't even remember half of its songs, let alone their titles! Also, no remixes, live tracks, or singles (like “Deep” or “The Perfect Drug”). Let's go.

1. “Closer”, The Downward Spiral (1994)

2. “Hurt”, TDS

3. “Mr. Self-Destruct”, TDS

4. “Down in It”, Pretty Hate Machine (1989)

5. “Happiness in Slavery”, Broken (1992)

6. “Reptile”, TDS

7. “Head Like A Hole”, PHM

8. “Wish”, Broken

9. “March of the Pigs”, TDS

10. “Sunspots”, With Teeth (2005)

11. “Even Deeper”, The Fragile (1999)

12. “Piggy”, TDS

13. “The Hand that Feeds”, WT

14. “Only”, WT

15. “Echoplex”, The Slip (2008)

16. “All Time Low”, Hesitation Marks (2013)

17. “Pinion”, Broken

18. “Last”, Broken

19. “Every Day is Exactly the Same”, WT

20. “La Mer”, TF

21. “Terrible Lie”, PHM

22. “All the Love in the World”, WT

23. “Copy of A”, HM

24. “Various Methods of Escape”, HM

25. “I'm Looking Forward to Joining You Finally”, TF

26. “Came Back Haunted”, HM

27. “Eraser”, TDS

28. “Ripe (With Decay)”, TF

29. “Where is Everybody?”, TF

30. “The Mark Has Been Made”, TF

31. “Gave Up”, Broken

32. “Right Where it Belongs”, WT

33. “Me, I'm Not”, Year Zero (2007)

34. “The Warning”, Y0

35. “Somewhat Damaged”, TF

36. “That's What I Get”, PHM

37. “Demon Seed”, TS

38. “The Downward Spiral”, TDS

39. “Letting You”, TS

40. “The Great Below”, TF

41. “Something I Can Never Have”, PHM

42. “Find My Way”, HM

43. “The Good Soldier”, Y0

44. “Help Me I Am in Hell”, Broken

45. “The Way Out is Through”, TF

46. “Discipline”, TS

47. “We're in This Together”, TF

48. “Sanctified”, PHM

49. “Beside You in Time”, WT

50. “Into the Void”, TF

51. “Satellite”, HM

52. “The New Flesh”, TF

53. “The Becoming”, TDS

54. “The Greater Good”, Y0

55. “The Day the World Went Away”, TF

56. “Starfuckers, Inc.”, TF

57. “Zero-Sum”, Y0

58. “Survivalism”, Y0

59. “With Teeth”, WT

60. “The Wretched”, TF

61. “The Frail”, TF

62. “Ruiner”, TDS

63. “No, You Don't”, TF

64. “The Fragile”, TF

65. “Everything”, HM

66. “Physical (You're So)”, Broken

67. “Capital G”, Y0

68. “Vessel”, Y0

69. “God Given”, Y0

70. “Head Down”, TS

71. “The Line Begins to Blur”, WT

72. “Just Like You Imagined”, TF

73. “Love is Not Enough”, WT

74. “Corona Radiata”, TS

75. “The Four of Us Are Dying”, TS

76. “Pilgrimage”, TF

77. “Complication”, TF

78. “+Appendage”, TF

79. “Getting Smaller”, WT

80. “Underneath It All”, TF

81. “1,000,000”, TS

82. “10 Miles High”, TF

83. “Please”, TF

84. “I Would for You”, HM

85. “Sin”, PHM

86. “The Collector”, WT

87. “In Two”, HM

88. “Ringfinger”, PHM

89. “I Do Not Want This”, TDS

90. “The Beginning of the End”, Y0

91. “Suck”, Broken

92. “Kinda I Want To”, PHM

93. “The Big Come Down”, TF

94. “A Warm Place”, TDS

95. “Lights in the Sky”, TS

96. “Disappointed”, HM

97. “You Know What You Are?”, WT

98. “Meet Your Master”, Y0

99. “Big Man With a Gun”, TDS

100. “The Only Time”, PHM

101. “Hyperpower”, Y0

102. “Running”, HM

103. “My Violent Heart”, Y0

104. “Home”, WT

105. “The Great Destroyer”, Y0

106. “In This Twilight”, Y0

107. “While I'm Still Here”, HM

108. “Black Noise”, HM

109. “The Eater of Dreams”, HM

110. “999,999”, TS

111. “Heresy”, TDS

Artwork: Timeline of British Soldiers

Time for some more artwork. As you can see, it's six British soldiers each from a different period of history. Left to right: English Civil War, Seven Years War, War of 1812, Second Boer War, Second World War, and Falklands War. All inked and coloured; I mean you can't have redcoats and not give them red coats. In total this took me 15 hours to complete. Here's the breakdown: the left half took 7 hours, 8 hours for the right half. Total penciling took 7.6 hours, inking was done in just 2.7 hours, and colouring took 4.7 hours.

Movie Review - Suicide Squad

   It looks like the folks in charge of DC's movies finally realized that it was time to try something different. Rather than another overly dark, gritty movie about a lone superhero with an hour-long origin story, we've instead got Suicide Squad, a buddy-action film about an all-star cast of villains. It seems to have gotten pretty dismal reviews so far, but is it really as bad as the critics say it is? Let's take a look.

   Suicide Squad tells the story of a bunch of supervillains who are press-ganged into running black ops missions too dangerous for regular special forces. As with a lot of other DC movies lately this one's first half hour does a lot of jumping around. Things move along very quickly. What's cool is that the film does tie itself into the greater DC Extended Universe with numerous references and nice little cameos. And while it is nice to finally see a DC movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, I found that very few of the jokes worked well. At least the action is good and it all builds up to a satisfying climax.

   Now for the character roll call. Deadshot, Katana, El Diablo, and Amanda Waller are alright. Enchantress, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang, and Rick Flagg are all... meh. The “Joker” – if you can even call him that – sucks. Everything about him from his weird voice and strange way of breathing to his downright gangsta/meth addict appearance just plain sucks. He's a pimp daddy-type character who doesn't even laugh that much. Similarly, Harley Quinn was rather disappointing. I know being annoying is kind of her thing but in this movie it seems like she's trying too hard to be funny. And let's not get started on her lacklustre (not to mention, uncomfortable looking) costume. And then there's the main villainess: it's hard to take her seriously, let alone figure out what she's doing most of the time. So yeah, most of the characters in Suicide Squad are written too thinly or are too clumsily portrayed. Pretty much the only interesting character is Will Smith's Deadshot (and possibly El Diablo).

   Finally let's talk about the soundtrack, which has been getting a lot of attention. It includes a lot of classic rock and other popular songs à la Guardians of the Galaxy, but the songs are played too loudly and they change too frequently. The music often overpowers the drama going on in the scenes, making it feel like you're watching a trailer instead of a movie. It's part of what makes up the movie's style, and yet it more-or-less stops halfway through the film.

   And that's Suicide Squad, a sporadically funny film with a bunch of bland characters but some decent action. I don't think it's quite as bad as the critics make it out to be and I would much rather rewatch this film than a lot of other action films that have come out this summer. I guess I could recommend it to Will Smith fans or die-hard Harley Quinn fans who've been waiting their whole lives just to see her on the big screen. Otherwise, Suicide Squad is not necessary viewing.

Grade: two and a half out of five.

All Songs, Best to Worst: Guns N' Roses

   Hey guys. With the recent publication of my “Ranking Every PJ Harvey Song from Best to Least-Good”, I thought I'd take the time to write a corresponding list about all 76 of Guns N' Roses songs. If you've read my GNR posts from April, you'll already know how much I enjoy them. And how could you not? They're one of the greatest hard rock bands ever. So for that reason an introduction is probably not necessary here. If you like hard rock and you want to get into Guns N' Roses... oh who am I kidding, you probably already own their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. Just listen to it again and then start working your way through the Use Your Illusion albums.

   Since GNR didn't make all that many albums, I'm relaxing my criteria for this list. I am going to include songs from “The Spaghetti Incident?” (an album of punk covers) and Lies (an EP that's half acoustic, half false-live album). However, I'm not including songs from Live Era: 87-93. And yes, Chinese Democracy does count.

1. “Welcome to the Jungle”, Appetite for Destruction (1987)

2. “Sweet Child O' Mine”, AFD

3. “Paradise City”, AFD

4. “Coma”, Use Your Illusion I (1991)

5. “November Rain”, UYI1

6. “Civil War”, Use Your Illusion II (1991)

7. “Locomotive”, UYI2

8. “It's So Easy”, AFD

9. “Double Talkin' Jive”, UYI1

10. “Reckless Life”, Lies (1988)

11. “Bad Apples”, UYI1

12. “Nice Boys”, Lies

13. “Don't Cry”, UYI1

14. “Better”, Chinese Democracy (2008)

15. “Perfect Crime”, UYI1

16. “Estranged”, UYI2

17. “Down on the Farm”, “The Spaghetti Incident?” (1993)

18. “Since I Don't Have You”, TSI

19. “Dust N' Bones”, UYI1

20. “There Was A Time”, CD

21. “Mr. Brownstone”, AFD

22. “My Michelle”, AFD

23. “14 Years”, UYI2

24. “Chinese Democracy”, CD

25. “New Rose”, TSI

26. “Move to the City”, Lies

27. “Out Ta Get Me”, AFD

28. “The Garden”, UYI1

29. “Shotgun Blues”, UYI2

30. “Dead Horse”, UYI1

31. “Patience”, Lies

32. “Street of Dreams”, CD

33. “Get in the Ring”, UYI2

34. “Used to Love Her”, Lies

35. “Night Train”, AFD

36. “Bad Obsession”, UYI1

37. “Hair of the Dog”, TSI

38. “Black Leather”, TSI

39. “You're Crazy”, Lies

40. “Shackler's Revenge”, CD

41. “You Could Be Mine”, UYI2

42. “Rocket Queen”, AFD

43. “Buick Mackane”, TSI

44. “Mama Kin”, Lies

45. “Right Next Door to Hell”, UYI1

46. “Sorry”, CD

47. “So Fine”, UYI2

48. “Anything Goes”, AFD

49. “You're Crazy”, AFD

50. “Ain't it Fun”, TSI

51. “One in a Million”, Lies

52. “This I Love”, CD

53. “Garden of Eden”, UYI1

54. “Scraped”, CD

55. “Pretty Tied Up”, UYI2

56. “Think About You”, AFD

57. “I Don't Care About You”, TSI

58. “Breakdown”, UYI2

59. “Live and Let Die”, UYI1

60. “Riad N' the Bedouins”, CD

61. “Knockin' on Heaven's Door”, UYI2

62. “I.R.S.”, CD

63. “You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory”, TSI

64. “Raw Power”, TSI

65. “Yesterdays”, UYI2

66. “Prostitute”, CD

67. “You Ain't the First”, UYI1

68. “Attitude”, TSI

69. “Don't Cry (Alternate Lyrics)”, UYI2

70. “Catcher in the Rye”, CD

71. “Human Being”, TSI

72. “Don't Damn Me”, UYI1

73. “Madagascar”, CD

74. “Look at Your Game, Girl”, TSI

75. “Back Off Bitch”, UYI1

76. “My World”, UYI2

All Songs, Best to Worst: PJ Harvey

   So back in April I wrote some articles on Guns N' Roses and it was a hoot, so I figured I'll try writing something else music-related. I heard that in June Consequence of Sound ranked every Red Hot Chili Peppers song – all 236 of them – from best to worst. It's a brilliant idea, right? Why didn't I think of that? I thought it would be cool to do the same to an artist that I really like. And that's what I'm going to do here, starting with PJ Harvey's 107 songs. The first time I listened to PJ Harvey's music was in 2012 (when I tried Rid of Me) and since then I've been working my way through her discography to the point where I now own all nine of her albums.

   “Who is PJ Harvey?” you might ask. Polly Jean Harvey is an alternative rock singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist from Dorset, England. She's probably most well-known for her 90's works, though her 21^st century material has seen plenty of success as well (she's the only artist to have won the Mercury Prize twice). I guess what drew me into her type of music was the raw emotion of her vocals, the stark lyrics, and the instrumental intensity of her 1990's material. Over the years her albums have taken on a wide variety of musical genres. Her first three albums were very alternative, with an indie rock feel and mix of blues rock as well. The fourth album, Is This Desire?, was again alternative, but was more experimental and had some electronic elements. In the first half of the 2000's, PJ Harvey released two more alt-rock albums, the first with a more pop feel (but still good) and the second which was kind of all over the place in terms of genre, but still raw and unpredictable. Harvey's sound took a sharp turn with the release of 2007's White Chalk, a piano-driven album that delves into the realm of gothic eeriness. Her latest two albums – the latter of which was released just three months ago – continued the trend of PJ singing in a higher register about social issues and history in an indie/folk rock style. In short, no two of her albums sound alike.

   If any of this sounds interesting to you, then I'd advise checking some of these songs out starting at the top. And just for the record, this list only includes songs from PJ Harvey's nine studio albums. This list won't contain “Shaker Aamer”, any collaborative songs, or any special edition-type releases. So here we go.

1. “Dress”, Dry (1992)

2. “A Place Called Home”, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000)

3. “Down by the Water”, To Bring You My Love (1995)

4. “Send His Love to Me”, TBYML

5. “Rub 'til it Bleeds”, Rid of Me (1993)

6. “The Last Living Rose”, Let England Shake (2011)

7. “The Wheel”, The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)

8. “Happy and Bleeding”, Dry

9. “Rid of Me”, ROM

10. “Let England Shake”, LES

11. “Oh My Lover”, Dry

12. “Is This Desire?”, Is This Desire? (1998)

13. “The Life & Death of Mr. Badmouth”, Uh Huh Her (2004)

14. “A Perfect Day Elise”, ITD

15. “When Under Ether”, White Chalk (2007)

16. “To Bring You My Love”, TBMYL

17. “Beautiful Feeling”, SFTCSFTS

18. “On Battleship Hill”, LES

19. “The Words that Maketh Murder”, LES

20. “Fountain”, Dry

21. “C'mon Billy”, TBYML

22. “The Devil”, WC

23. “Sheela Na Gig”, Dry

24. “All and Everyone”, LES

25. “O Stella”, Dry

26. “Big Exit”, SFTCSFTS

27. “This is Love”, SFTCSFTS

28. “The Garden”, ITD

29. “Legs”, ROM

30. “The Glorious Land”, LES

31. “Good Fortune”, SFTCSFTS

32. “My Beautiful Leah”, ITD

33. “The Community of Hope”, TH6DP

34. “Hanging in the Wire”, LES

35. “Water”, Dry

36. “The Dancer”, TBMYL

37. “The Wind”, ITD

38. “River Anacostia”, TH6DP

39. “Pocket Knife”, UHH

40. “Silence”, WC

41. “One Line”, SFTCSFTS

42. “A Line in the Sand”, TH6DP

43. “Hook”, ROM

44. “Man-Size”, ROM

45. “Dear Darkness”, WC

46. “You Come Through”, UHH

47. “Ecstasy”, ROM

48. “The Mountain”, WC

49. “The Letter”, UHH

50. “Meet Ze Monsta”, TBYML

51. “Working for the Man”, TBMYL

52. “The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore”, SFTCSFTS

53. “Grow Grow Grow”, WC

54. “The Ministry of Social Affairs”, TH6DP

55. “To Talk to You”, WC

56. “The Slow Drug”, UHH

57. “Victory”, Dry

58. “Plants and Rags”, Dry

59. “You Said Something”, SFTCSFTS

60. “The Ministry of Defence”, TH6DP

61. “Hair”, Dry

62. “Missed”, ROM

63. “Me-Jane”, ROM

64. “Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln”, TH6DP

65. “We Float”, SFTCSFTS

66. “Angelene”, ITD

67. “Dry”, ROM

68. “Cat on the Wall”, UHH

69. “This Mess We're in”, SFTCSFTS

70. “It's You”, UHH

71. “Long Snake Moan”, TBYML

72. “Who the Fuck?”, UHH

73. “Shame”, UHH

74. “No Child of Mine”, UHH

75. “The Orange Monkey”, TH6DP

76. “Catherine”, ITD

77. “In the Dark Places”, LES

78. “Before Departure”, WC

79. “Snake”, ROM

80. “The Desperate Kingdom of Love”, UHH

81. “The Sky Lit Up”, ITD

82. “Chain of Keys”, TH6DP

83. “White Chalk”, WC

84. “Kamikaze”, SFTCSFTS

85. “50 ft Queenie”, ROM

86. “The Piano”, WC

87. “Electric Light”, ITD

88. “The Darker Days of Me & Him”, UHH

89. “The River”, ITD

90. “Horses in My Dreams”, SFTCSFTS

91. “Joe”, Dry

92. “Teclo”, TBYML

93. “Written on the Forehead”, LES

94. “Medicinals”, TH6DP

95. “Yuri G”, ROM

96. “Dollar, Dollar”, TH6DP

97. “Bitter Branches”, LES

98. “Joy”, ITD

99. “Broken Harp”, WC

100. “Highway 61 Revisited”, ROM

101. “The End”, UHH

102. “England”, LES

103. “I Think I'm a Mother”, TBYML

104. “No Girl So Sweet”, ITD

105. “The Colour of the Earth”, LES

106. Untitled (seagulls), UHH

107. “Man-Size Sextet”, ROM

Movie Review - Jason Bourne

   Jason Bourne? What a lazy title for a series' fifth movie! Don't the producers know how a Bourne movie is supposed to be titled? It's supposed to be “Bourne” and then another word, not the main character's name. You guys passed up the chance to name it “Bourne Again”. The opportunity was right there, and oddly enough it would have been a fitting title since it alludes to how copy-and-paste this film's plot feels as well as to how superfluous it is to the series overall. But is it worth seeing?

   Uuuuugh!!

   And the award for Worst Cinematography Ever goes to Jason Bourne. The series' trademark rapid-cutting and the overly shaky camera is back with a vengeance and it makes most of the movie aesthetically offensive and unwatchable. It makes Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift look like freakin' Birdman. I'm serious, I sat in the front row for this thing and I felt a bit sick by the end. This incoherent style of editing totally ruins the action scenes, and when it's time for a vehicle chase scene, just forget it. You won't be able to tell who's in which car, where they're going, and where they are in relation to each other. The camerawork is so bad that it can even screw around with the audience's perception of important plot points. SPOILER ALERT, when it gets to the point where my two companions and I couldn't tell how the last bad guy died, you know you done f***ed up something bad. You know, I actually kind of feel sorry for the guy who has to edit this stuff together. He has to take what's probably some really cool and elaborate action sequences and chop them up into lightning-quick montages of incomprehensible crap. This movie had the potential to be awesome, but it was smothered by the director's overbearing style. I know I'm going on and on about the same problem, but it really is a huge obstacle to enjoying this film.

   You'd think that since this is Matt Damon's return to a beloved series that's been semi-dormant since 2007 (if you don't count the black sheep of the franchise, Legacy) that they'd maybe try something new or change up the formula a bit. But no, it's the same plot as all the others. A shady high-ranking CIA dude who's at risk of being publicly exposed tries to hide evidence of his wrongdoing by sending an assassin to go kill off his former agent, Bourne who tries forming an uneasy partnership with a female agent on the inside. It has a lot of other Bourne movie conventions as well: Bourne remembering stuff from his past, going to Germany, people constantly saying the word “asset”, and shots of computer screens (at least the camera holds still long enough to see them). It's a by-the-numbers plot. The most I can say is that the relationship between Bourne and the bad guy assassin – played by Vincent Cassel – is more interesting than the other films.

   At least the acting is pretty good. Matt Damon is good as usual. Unfortunately, his character is starting to get pretty uninteresting. Despite her supermodel looks, Alicia Vikander plays her role as a CIAgent convincingly and with an air of professionalism. It's too bad that her American accent isn't very good.

   Overall, Jason Bourne is a semi-competently made film. It isn't horrible, but it sure pissed me off. If you're an addict for hardcore Bourne-ography then this will probably satisfy you. But if you're like me and you actually like to see the movies you watch then for the love of Pete, stay away! Run for your lives! After all, what is the point of an action movie in which you cannot see the action?

Grade: two out of five.