Why is Ratatat’s Classics on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Electronic lounge journeys, dark and synth-y at times, with great energy, pulse, and beats.
What does Ratatat’s Classics mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
Here’s a little insight into my process for including albums on my best 1,000 albums ever list… spoiler: it’s not easy! And with an album like Classics, I wasn’t sure if it “belonged” at first. It’s an instrumental album for one, which makes it a little different, I suppose. I also used to think of it as mostly a mood setting album.
And, in fact, there was a time when I played this album a lot (more on this below). But as the final form of the list came into shape and I gave Classics a closer listen – and a closer series of listens, really – it absolutely demanded to be on the list. There’s a lushness, a layered grace and melancholy and vitality to its shifting rhythms, that gets better and better every time you come back for more. I’ve got a big list of albums where things went the other way, frankly. And some of those albums are by “huge” artists with a hit song or two where, for me, they just weren’t quite worthy of making this list – even one with 1,000 slots!
I completely dig the dark synth-y energy of “Nostrand,” like an instrumental Radiohead song created while they were in a lighter mood.
“Loud Pipes” is a perfect lounge song in my book, great energy, pulse, and beats, entirely pleasing without being overwhelming.
“Wildcat” is a fantastic electronic lounge journey, and I will never – much like that certain recurring sound effect if you’ve ever attended or watched an Atlanta Hawks home game – get tired of the wildcat in question letting out its wild cry.
Personal stuff that’s somehow related to Ratatat’s Classics
As mentioned, Classics got a saw a lot of play at my place in the mid- to late 2000s, and reminds me quite a bit of the era when we would host little housewarming parties at our tiny and quaint first home in Pasadena, California.
Ratatat’s Classics on Spotify
Some stats & info about Ratatat – Classics
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Electronic Music, Indie Electronic, Lounge Music, Martini Lounge, Electro Lounge
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Classics released? 2006
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #922 out of 1,000
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.