DEVO, Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA - 8/10, Distorted electronica, jaunty rhythms, surrealist lyricism, amazing guitar, quirky, unique vocals. Fits the theme.
Current 93, The Seven Seals Are Revealed At The End of Time As The Seven Bows - 5/10, Rambling, comedic, pseudo-prophetic soliloquy over white noise, cool. Interesting stuff, I'll give it that. More instrumental elements enter towards the end, which is well-performed. Thematic as hell.
Procol Harum, Something Following Me - 6/10, Classic psychedelic rock, jazzy drumming, 60's ballad rock piano, distorted, trembling guitar solo, etc. Not quite as thematic as it could be.
The Residents, N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues) - 8.5/10, "Nobody but me, HAW, HAW, HAW!" A stone cold classic and landmark album in avant-garde music. It floats abrasively yet seamlessly from one musical idea to the next, each jarringly imprinted on your mind one after another. Whichever of the the anonymous members of the band put this together, they demonstrate a wholly prodigious compositional ability. Ruthless, yet musically calculating bashing of the piano, avant-jazz, spoken word chanting of social satirism, subtly inserted reimagined snippets of hit 60's pop tunes, this has it all. Thematically proper.
Tom Waits, Everything You Can Think Of Is True - 7/10, Instrumentally, this song is like Middle Eastern music mixed with a waltz, mixed with detective show music, while on acid. Waits sounds like military-enlisted, chain-smoking Cookie Monster, which is golden in its hilarity and adds a lot to the song. Thematically apt.
The B-52s, 52 Girls - 5/10, Bouncy, good tone guitars and bass, reminiscent of surf rock if it were more chord-based and had a much slower tempo. Good singing. Not thematic.
Gangstarr, Above The Clouds - 7/10, Kickass beat, exotic instrumental samples, erudite, eloquent lyrics, awesome flow. Kinda thematic.
Melt-Banana, Shield For Your Eyes, A Beast In The Well on Your Hand - 7.5/10, The bass has one mission on this song: be funky as fuck, wild, tonally screechy guitar, shite vocals remind me of jumped-up sugar high preschool girl. Thematically apt.
Eminem, 3 A.M. - 4/10, Holy guidos Batman, I didn't realize Eminem had a second job as the kingpin of the Super Mario syndicate. I think this is an offer I can afford to refuse though. Repetitious as hell. Very thematic.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Neon Meate Dream of A Octafish - 9/10, Yet another stone cold classic/landmark piece of avant-garde and musical history. Ingenious bluesy, free jazz, classical avant-garde histrionics with a time-signature more irregular than a colostomy bag patient's bowel movements, rushes you like an attack dog hyped up on speed, while the Captain himself rants about random craziness. Does this fit the theme? Is a squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag fast and bulbous?
Steve Vai, Little Green Men - 6.5/10, I enjoy the beat, sort of Latin, Vai was clearly drawing a lot of inspiration from his mentor here, this is evident in the artificial high pitch of the vocals and the comedic spoken word narration. Subtle, but good guitar. Some of these melodies would fit right in on a Nintendo soundtrack. Thematically congruous.
Mr. Bungle, The Desert Search For Techno Allah - 8/10, Speedfreak beat and beat changes, cool electronics, very polyrhythmic in certain parts, Mike Patton's commanding low register performance adds a lot, huge number and variety of different instruments melded so perfectly into the same arrangement. Insanely thematic.
Radiohead, Idioteque - 5/10, Percussively bizarre number, passable vocals (they're nauseatingly whimpering), too samey to justify the 5 minute run time. Thematic.
Samwell, What What (In The Butt) - 3/10, Mindnumbingly repetitive, immemorial melodic sensibilities, and crappy lyrics. Even the hooks fail to be as efficaciously hooky as they could be. Fits the theme.
Sopor Aeternus, The Urine Song - 6.5/10, Unorthodox phrasing on that guitar, quasi-symphonic in a good way, synths are properly done with a near percussive quality to them, the vocals complete the mad carnivale atmosphere of it all. Good utilization of both English and German. Thematic.
Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat, Argonaut and Magneto - 6.5/10, I adore the acoustic guitar, the vocals have a rather unconventional timbre to them, light, popping drumming, the electric guitar sounds angry and lugubrious all at once. Thematically apt.