Why is Frank Black’s The Cult of Ray on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Another tremendous album from the cult of Frank Black.
Some stats & info about Frank Black – The Cult of Ray
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Alternative Rock, Punk Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 2.5 out of 5 stars
- When was The Cult of Ray released? 1996
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #718 out of 1,000
Frank Black’s The Cult of Ray on Spotify
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 review of 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.
What does Frank Black’s The Cult of Ray mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
The Cult of Ray doesn’t have quite the soaring bizarro powers and prowess of Frank Black’s first two solo efforts (the self-titled Frank Black and Teenager of the Year, both stunningly brilliant), but there’s no denying the chugging punk-y alt rock of “Jesus Was Right” and “Mosh, Don’t Pass The Guy.”
Who knows what these song titles/lyrics mean? Who knows, but that’s part of the fun!
And on that note, see: “Kicked in the Taco,” another fun one.
The title track, The Cult of Ray, might be the best overall song on the album.
Pop culture stuff that’s somehow related to Frank Black’s The Cult of Ray
Via Wikipedia, The Cult of Ray “album title is a reference to author Ray Bradbury.”
I haven’t read any of Ray Bradbury’s stuff in decades, but one of his science fiction short stories has particularly stayed with me, called Harrison Bergeron:
‘Harrison Bergeron’ is dystopian fiction, a story based on a society whose attempt to achieve perfection goes horribly wrong. The society in the story focuses on the ideal of equality where intelligence and strength have been destroyed in the process. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.