The Modern Dance

For all of my musical tastes, I should like this. Should. But I don't. Nothing about it is clicking with me. The album cover is amazing, I'll give it props for that. Unfortunately, nothing else is working for me. Not musically, lyrically, vocally... it's too bad. I sure did try. I'm sure this album sings a direct line to someone's soul, I just know that it ain't mine.

This album reminds me of being 14 and first learning guitar. You don't really known the notes so you confidently bash them out, 90% wrong with a few times that you play it right.

Pere Ubu is really for a select, discerning audience. I'm not one of them.

I assume they didn't have money to pay for a vocalist. There's a song that starts with the sound of breaking glass and I would much rather every song had that instead of vocals. Absolutely terrible. 2 stars for the band cause they actually know how to play instruments.

Not sure what to make of this... certainly different and not what you would think a "1978" would sound like. Ultimately not something I'm likely to listen to again but OK with it being on the list.

I can't really figure this album out. I don't know who it would be for. It's not really bad, some of the instrumentation is inventive. Great drums and bass throughout. Vocals are super off-putting. I'd never heard of this band before and after this album I might go find some of their other stuff if the mood strikes. It's interesting to listen to, weird for sure. I'm just not sure I get what they were trying to do or say. Hard to rate because I don't really like it but it's not bad. I'd give this like 2.5 but I can't bring myself to round up to 3 so it's a 2/5 I suppose.

Subsequent plays are better, and I want to like this album/artist, but I just can’t into it. The first 30 seconds of the first song of the album is just a screech, like it’s actively trying to get the mainstream listener to dislike it so the punk fans can claim superiority.. second Pere Ubu album, another 2/5

I especially don’t like Sentimental Journey (was enough to tip the balance to a lower ranking for the album)

01) Non-Alignment Pact - 6,5 02) The Modern Dance - 7,0 03) Laughing - 4,0 04) Street Waves - 7,0 05) Chinese Radiation - 4,5 06) Life Stinks - 5,0 07) Real World - 5,5 08) Over My Head - 6,0 09) Sentimental Journey - 1,0 10) Humor Me - 5,5 TOTAL: 5,20 (52/100) This album is full of weird and unpleasant noises including the singer's vocals. Few songs sound like actual songs, the rest is some experimental weird stuff with lame sound effects like in the 1978 SF space movie. Can "Sentimental Journey" really be allowed to call itself a song?

Some of this was VERY fun, but dissonance and noise rock has always been widely available to me and so i don't think it has the same uniqueness it probably did when people discovered it in its time.

I really did not like most of this, especially the ending of "Sentimental Journey." The vocals just made me uncomfortable. I'm all for art rock, but at least make it a little listenable!

This is what you get when a middle school concert band makes music for dogs. Dogs love it. Humans run from it.

Musically not terrible, they should have got rid of the "singer" and whoever is fucking about with the noise pedals though Won't be listening again

Didn’t really vibe

Interesting - generally a sort of tedious punk rock. Not my scene, though flashes of decent rock.

They are committed to their thing. Good on them.

Very odd, but some minor points for creativity I guess? 1.7 stars

Need to read about what I don’t get about this

Had never listened to this group. Didn’t find it terribly good , but I’m not musically intelligent. For me it’s a low rating bc I don’t have any need to listen to again.

"The Modern Dance" by Pere Ubu is an avant-garde album that pushes the boundaries of rock music. Released in 1978, it features experimental soundscapes, angular guitar riffs, and David Thomas's distinctive vocals, creating a unique and challenging listening experience. While the album is praised for its innovation and influence on the post-punk genre, its abrasive and disjointed nature can make it difficult for some listeners to connect with. Tracks like "Non-Alignment Pact" and "Street Waves" showcase the band's unconventional approach to songwriting, but they may alienate those looking for more traditional rock music. Overall, "The Modern Dance" is a polarizing album that will appeal to fans of experimental music but may not resonate with a wider audience.

Have awarded myself a solid two stars for playing this until the end.

I owned this album. The landscapers were working while it was playing, it didn't make much of a difference. It is interesting, but is it good? Do we put these albums in the context of the time they were created or do we review them from the present? The same question is asked of the Constitution. Is recorded music a museum piece or a living thing? I admire the creativity, but I don't want it on heavy rotation. I was 3 stars then the 6 self indulgent minutes of 'Sentimental Journey' killed me. 2* The list has two Pere Ubu albums, they are out of Cleveland, art school no doubt. The wife said, "This is what music sounds like in hell." I save that line for Bon Iver.

I like the music but can’t take the vocals. Like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Totally outrageous. “Modern Dance” and “Street Waves” were good though.

A curious underground and avant-garde release. I can see how it may have influenced some punk and experimental styles that came after it but as an album it was quite shoddy.

I like punk and post-punk, but this album is almost impossible to enjoy. Its extremely discordant and very poorly produced. You can see how in retrospect it was influential but I cant help but think it was partly a lesson in what NOT to do. 2/5

Até interessante pela experimentação sonora, mas mesmo curto, no final estava chato.

Old school punk. Clash, sexpistols like.

Every time this starts to get interesting, it gets obnoxious again.

Never heard of this band before so I had no expectations on what this album was like or idea on the bands sound. that was a nice experience. This was an OK album, not many stand out songs you think thats amazing I want to listen to that again Favorite song: real world Least favourite song: Over my head Album artwork: Great artwork

Avante garde. The modern art of music. Not my cup of tea.

Thought this was pretty interesting garage/post punk rock for 1978. That being said I wasnt ever really blown away by any individual track. I liked that it was darker and kind of pyschadelic inspired in places, but the lyrics were impossible to decipher the way it was sung and mixed. I'm guessing a lot of this is due to the Seinfeld effect though, as I gather this was the first time a lot of these sonic textures were used like this and it likely had a big impact on more commercially successful bands who appeared later. Even like REM, I could hear influences from. Personally I need a bit more melodic movement to emotionally connect, I couldnt really imagine myself dancing to it, but it was by no means a bad listen and I was glad for the exposure.

This entire album sounded like some weird filler interlude that I would be happy to slog through as part of a better album - maybe velvet underground or pixies. But for that to be the whole thing is just kind of unacceptable.

I always assumed that this was either a ska or reggae band. I think I would have liked it better had it been either of those.

Just not for me at all. Pretty dreary all the way through without any sort of break, and I also did not connect with the singing. Happy 500 fellas.

Screechy, chaotic and alarming

They called it avant garage, which is accurate.

2 - Man, I was kinda hopeful for this album because of the genres and my own curiosity, but this was boring. I wasn't crazy about the vocals either. I was more excited for their second album than this one, but not so much now. I guess I finally know what I think of Pere Ubu.

Weird AF. Some of it is really good. The rest is complete suck. If it wasn’t so screechy I would rate it higher.

My initial thoughts on this one a few tracks in were a bit subsided as the album moved along, but overall I thought this was too bland for the ambition it was attempting. I wanted a bit more dynamics to flesh out what I feel like the band was trying to achieve. Maybe it was intentional. The vocals were mixed wonderfully, which made the whole experience even more off putting given the less-than-stellar production everywhere else. There aren't too many memorable tracks here either, and when a good chunk of the 36-minute runtime is taken by sound effects and in-betweener songs, you need to have something with more sticking power.

Experimental rock. Some very dissonant sirens and horns throughout. Our dogs hated it.

I mean, there are moments here that I totally get what the band and singer are going for. But at the same time, the band feels like it's venturing close into Beefheart territory. It feels more like if Colin Hay was trying to sing The Shaggs. Are they brilliant? Or just brilliantly terrible? I'm veering more the second camp, although there was a track or two I liked, like "Real World." Still, not enough for me to recommend.

Not a great start to the album - that piercing squeal to kick off Non-Alignment Pact is excruciating. The rest of the song wasn't bad though - kind of a fun, rocking beat. The album is a bit strange, but on first listen I'd say I didn't get to another song where there were unbearable noises (Thomas' singing and his oboe?) until song 6 and Life Stinks. But the very next song Real World also started with some annoying music and/or noises and unlike the first song it didn't really get better. Sentimental Journey was downright awful. There were moments where I was reminded of the Talking Heads or Pixies, but not quite measuring up. I was intrigued and conflicted enough to give it a second listen, mainly to see if I could justify giving the album a 3. I couldn't quite get there.

"So this is one of those bands where the singer can't really sing. Got it." This was my first thought when the vocals first came in on the first song. But hey, it's punk. No one ever said a punk singer needed to actually be good. There is some great stuff here. But the instrumentals are often overshadowed by the brutal and sometimes grating vocals. I hear a lot of other bands here though, which speaks to its importance and influence. I hear Talking Heads. I heard Dead Kennedys. I hear Black Flag. I hear Roxy Music. I hear also hear more recent bands like The White Stripes and Black Keys. It's clearly an influential album. But that doesn't make listening to it enjoyable enough to give it more than 2 starts. I don't think I'll seek this one back out. Standout tracks: Non-Alignment Pact, Laughing, Life Stinks, Over My Head As an aside, I've assigned different meanings to each star in the rating system: 1. I HAD to hear THIS before I died? 2. I had to hear THIS before I died? 3. I had to hear this before I died? 4. I had to hear this before I died. 5. I HAD to hear this before I died.

What the actual fuck? Those are the only words I can think of to describe this. Listen, I would consider myself a fan of post-punk. I love me some Marquee Moon or Remain in Light here and there. So I was intrigued when I saw this. But like a parent who found out their kid cheated on a math test, I’m not even mad, I’m just disappointed. There are so many things to talk about. Like how, for one, this barely feels like music at some points. There is a lot of really weird synth and guitar ambiance that feels like someone has pushed you off a cliff and you are just dangling by a rope. I can respect the fact that this is actually experimental in a way, but it doesn’t always make for very interesting and compelling songs. This feels like something a music nerd would tell a girl to listen to at a bar instead of whatever “shitty mainstream normie” music she listens to. Like “you don’t get it until you’ve heard it ten times all the way through”. Whatever Brian. It lacks a lot of conventional music things that exist to make music sound good. Which is cool if you are into that. But I’m not. This barely even feels like punk music. Even though Marquee Moon came out the year before this, I don’t think post-punk became something noteworthy until the years after this. Also I have to speak about the singers. This may sound dramatic, but I immediately hated it. Aside from parts in the last song, I can’t name one second of this where I thought the singer sounded good. In an album filled with some of the strangest choices in songwriting I’ve ever heard, he still manages to sound out of place. In a year where we got albums like Music for 18 Musicians, Hemispheres, Die Mensch-Maschine, and Ambient 1: Music for Airports, this doesn’t feel like it should be as liked as it is. But I guess that’s why music is subjective. Rating: 3/10

Quite a lot of shouty punk, but also some more progressive music. Although marginally more listenable than Dub Housing, it is still a long way from my taste.

I dont get it. Starting an album off with some fuckawful noise doesnt help too. I dont really get this album honestly. Significant 36/112 Liked 17/112 Added 4/112 NNN

That is one of the most annoying ways to start an album I have ever heard. It just felt like they were trying too hard to be alternative. There were some parts that I really wish had been whole songs, but they veered back into cooky sounds. Felt like they could have integrated their sounds more into the songs.

Definitely Avant Garde, but a decent album regardless. Probably nothing I would return to but I could understand its influence. 2.5/5

I tried, but I just couldn't get into this. I like the mix of the instruments. It's that rare occasion where you can actually hear the bass guitar separate from the guitars. The issue here is it all sounds bad. The vocals are monotonously annoying. Screeching sax that sounds like a Yoko Ono sabotage. Reading other reviews, people enjoyed the experimental punk aspect of it. It just doesn't sound good. There's no world where I would want to spend time listening to this on purpose.

Pardon papa poum

a failli me creer des daddy issues

Not a fan of this really. I liked a couple of tracks but then again I don't think I'd revisit them.

meh, a little more modern sounding on some places than most rock from this era, but it absolutely drags. had to force myself to push through.

Nul à chier mais on s'y attendait vu leur autre album de la liste.

Pere Ubu vient récupérer sa première position au classement des pires pères du monde, devant l'incontournable Tim Buckley. Le génial père de robpierre ferme lui toujours la marche.

Not as psyched with this one as I was the funkier, dance-oriented 'Dub Housing.' Starts off with some interesting industrial textures and the classic Pere Ubu experimentation, but starts to lose steam by the third track and never really recovered.

Ab 2. Lied wird's besser

Beetje gekkigheid ben ik niet vies van, maar dit valt me zwaar.

Apparently I'm too dumb to appreciate this and pretty much endured it. I find it unfortunate because there is some interesting stuff going on musically that gets drowned out by the art noise BS.

What's worse - David Thomas' awful voice or his horrendous musette? Even though this debut is MUCH better than the following Dub Housing, those two “instruments” really prevent it from being an enjoyable listening experience.

Hieman kunnianhimoinen nimi albumilla, tosin muutamien biisien junnaavuus taitaa täyttää sen (voi tanssia monotonisesti). Hieman liian surinaa, taiteelliset pyrkimykset tulevat selvästi naiiviuden pinnan alta.

Niin kauan kuin punk riittää, tai punkkia riittää, levy vähintään menettelee. Annoin pari mahdollisuutta, mutta puolivälissä näyttää tapahtuvan väistämätön nukahdus.

Bleh. Why does this list include a lot of this shit

Rock experimental. Un rollo que quiere ser moderno metiendo ruidos... Un 2.

3/10. What if we took the all the abrasive sounds of Watermelon Man, but made them into something really boring?

Not a fun listen. 3/10

Drunk uncle jam sesh

Thought it was OK to start with but bored by the end.

Not what I expected given the album cover/title! Proud of myself for making it all the way through whatever this is supposed to be. There are parts of it that I liked, but mostly unlistenable. Hard to rate considering it’s not trying to be good in any conventional way. Rounding up to a 2, giving extra credit for making an album filled with breaking bottles and high pitched squealing sounds (bagpipes? recorder?!) making a list like this 50 years after it was made

Better than Dub Housing, but not by much.

Somewhat random art noise that didn’t excite me

Punky

Kinda gratey on the ears

Regardless of what my daily album is, I always listen to the whole thing. It was a tremendous struggle to make it through this one. Now excuse me while I help my wife get the knitting needles out of her ears.

meh. the majority of the songs just don't do anything for me.

Liked some of the later tracks a bit more than the first few but not for me. Might be one that would grow on me.

This was a tough listen. Really noisy and I played it way too early. It was interesting though and felt fresh and new despite its years.

I find the cover art 10% interesting and 90% off putting. Which actually makes it perfect for this album. Starts strong, but somewhere in the third song they lost me. It's interesting, but also a mess. A stressful listen, honestly. Songs like Sentimental Journey are just more work than I want to put in when trying to relax to some music. It is possible Pere Ubu belongs on this list. It is also possible The Modern Dance is mostly just noise. Maybe both can be true at the same time? 2.5 rounding down for the cover art.

Not my thing! Started off good but didn't enjoy it all

Tried it twice, didn't get it.

Random sounds with no coherence. Not enjoyable unless you actively want a headache

Not great, didn’t make it through. Not bad, either.

I couldn't finish this one, it's a sensory overload. Can hear slithers of garage rock and hearty serves experimental rock from the tracks I could tolerate. Reminds me of J Mascis. Can understand the underground appeal. 4/10

Regular punk album. I'm sure it must have historical importance, but I didn't enjoy it that much.

Estilo un tanto underground y experimental. No me ha aportado nada especialmente. Flojo en muchos sentidos.

Meh.

Was just not that into it.

Non-alignment pack is a pretty fun punk song and the rest of these are not

Much better than the other Ubu album on here (That's right there's TWO OF THEM) but only just. Some of the musical compositions are interesting, and I kind of like the humor in taking a groove and inserting some challenging sax bleats or whatever. Really it's the horrid, awful vocal wailing shit that I cannot stand.

As a punk fan I can appreciate elements, but this is just noisy.

Rock experimental. Un rollo que quiere ser moderno metiendo ruidos... Un 2.

It's highly admirable that the list is inclusive of special needs musicians.

It’s weird, too weird for me like I tend to enjoy most post punk and vocals aren’t usually an issue but I didn’t find this fun 2/5

lost interest halfway through

Punk is fine, but once you start calling it art punk maybe the original intention is being lost. Anyway I found this a difficult listen.

I really did not care for this at all.

Very offbeat and quirky.

Great sound, but not terribly moving for me.

Huh en ihan tällaisen häröilyn fani ole, vaikka onkin suht kiinnostava. Livenä saattaisin innostua.

"music".. This really comes close to defining the line between music and noise.

Perhaps the worst album I've ever listened to. Sounds like it was made by stray cats and a homeless dude

I have no idea what a Torment Nexus is, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's this album. Dog rapist vocals, wheelchair screeches, rubber duck squeeks - I'm sure that the static noises on this record come not from post-production, but from the microphones refusing to record this crap Put it on the next Voyager's Golden Record so that the aliens finally come over to kill us all

The singing sounded like animal sounds but apart from that it’s awful

Common praise for this band includes the claim that, while they are talented musicians, they pretend to be bad when they play. WTF? How is that any different than just being bad musicians? And if this is making a statement, being satirical, or meant to be art, no reasonable listener can decipher the actual message. So, they've failed as musicians and artists. The claim to fame seems to be that they were the precursor to Captain Beefheart and that ilk. Woof. I don't think Atlas could shoulder that burden.

Oh dear. Not one for me I’m afraid. couldn’t get my head around. Clearly not cool enough!

For the first 30 seconds I thought I was in for another throbbing gristle. Not that bad, but not much better. Throwing glass on the floor isn’t music.

No

I couldn‘t even describe the music style. Nor the music neither the lyrics can convince me. Sorry 😦

Not really my type of music…

Schreckliches gequietsche

this is ASS

truly terrible could not finish. Oh my god.

I’m not sure of the correct genre for this type of music, but it was a no for me.

first two songs were fine the rest was bad

Oh my god. Please. Why must god smite me with another pere ubu album.

just awful. really really awful. somehow hated it more than the first and I can't find any way to defend it. they would make the worst sounds ever (purposefully squeaking clarinets, breaking glass, etc.) in an effort to build up to something... and then just go nowhere. my ears are crying and so are my eyes. I sure hope they had fun making this album because I did NOT have fun listening to it. longest 36 minutes of my life

Jesus Christ this was terrible. Borderline unlistenable in places.

Pre Listen: I can't believe this is my 100th album. Fuck this shit man. Got the singular other Pere Ubu album on here like 10 or so albums back, and it was among the absolute worst pieces of shit I've ever head. I've been putting off listening to this. Expectations are so low they've reached hell. Notable Tracks: Nonalignment Pact - Instantly met by ear-splitting noise in my right ear. This band is so fucking stupid man, anyone who claims to actually like this needs to see a therapist. Post Listen: I'm just going to copy-paste my review of their last album on here. They're just not worth any more effort than I've already spent. Fuck this stupid band. What a miserable piece of work. The vocalist really outdid himself making the worst possible noises a human can make and passed it off as "singing". The instrumentation was ok I guess a quarter of the time, for the first 15 seconds of each song until they are entirely drowned out by the worst drunken karaoke you've ever heard. The vocalist sounded like a washed-up Temu-brand David Byrne wannabe. He completely took any merit out of any song within moments of making a sound. I couldn't understand 80% of the slop coming out of his mouth either. Just awful, truly. 99% shit, 1% post type album. 1/5

Bad vocals, bad music

Veel te chaotisch

I assume these guys are cool because they are from Ohio. But man this bit the big one.

1.2/5 - Pleasant to listen to? No. A genuinely interesting abstract album with a variety of uniquely interesting musical experimentation? Also no.

Painful. "Experimental" is not the same thing as "good."

A rock band from Cleveland in 1975. These guys either drank a whole bottle of Jack or did a hit of blotter acid before playing. Something I would have had to do to stick around and listen to them. Happy i didn't run across this group back then.

When I was a kid, I bought some CDs and my uncle Mark asked me, “What do ya got there? Are those music or are they noise?” This album, Uncle Mark, is noise.

This kind of thing makes it, but there’s no George Jones or Chick Corea on this list.

emphatic in all the wrong ways

That was trash. Anything close to redeemable was quickly erased seconds after those thoughts would occur

hm

Weird vocals

Un rock muy alternativo, por momento ruidoso sin sentido, hay canciones que logran cierta armonía, y otros parecen muy desordenados con ruidos demasiado saturados. No me gustó.

this album gave me an anxiety attack honestly

A human rights violation. Fuck you, man.

I seldom give 1 star ratings, but this was just… shit Punk can be shit and still be okay I guess, but this album didn’t even make me angry. I just wanted to turn it off and do anything else. Anything at all. And this was before I reached Sentimental Journey.

Two quick observations: 1. This was awful 2. This album is yet more compelling evidence that this list of 1001 albums is about ten times too long One star

Сара 1 Марко 1

My ears are fucking bleeding.

Ok WOW this is not my vibe. I like screaming music but like...what? DNF

Both the artist name and album name made me think this was an international dance album. I was expecting Samba. Boy, was I shocked when the music started. I can tell that this was an influential album. I'm positive that Modest Mouse took inspiration from Pere Ubu. Still, I could not get into this. the loud high-pitched sound on the first track almost made me turn it off. But that's the point, right??

Avantgarde with a screaming, squeaky voice. I can hardly bear it.

I really tried with some of this but in starting to feel like some efforts are people just farting into a tin whistle and calling it avant garde and post punk. Without sounding old, most of this is just noise conveniently given the experimental label.

ruined my day

just awful

Couldn't finish this one

not woke enough for punk

F this. Couldn't handle that much avantgarde. 1.0

My ears said no. I listened to them

Its like someone took a mediocre prog rock album and then threw a bunch of dissonant sounds and background noises on top. Not pleasant to listen to. What is even more frustrating is the odd interesting bit in there, ruined by weird sound effects. 1 star

Parts of this are fun and parts of this are insufferable, and the fact that those parts sometimes occur at the exact same time makes for a very confusing listening experience. I just wish the sound was less grating? And why is there a track where it's just someone smashing bottles? I was willing to hate this album less until that point. Rating: 1.5

Not even slighlty motivated to finish listening to this. bummer. I was excited because of the first seconds of the opening song... 1 star

Some nice tunes but the vocals and the squealing sounds are annoying. 1,5

This SUCKED. Can’t believe this is on here instead of another foo fighters, soundgarden, Lenny kravitz album, etc. The dude just squeals like a pig the whole time and this is art? What?

ça allait encore jusqu'au verre brisé, je vous hais Pere Ubu Playlist pick : Modern Dance

Starting your album off with screeching audio cutting out doesn't exactly make the best first impression.

Bro what is this crazy album. If I get to the end of this project and there’s a bunch of great albums missing I’m going to be so confused as to how ones like this made it in over them

Painful listening experience, but if you were to take out the unnecessary sound effects and the intentionally bad instrument playing and just strip it down to its bare bones, you’d still have a pretty lousy album.

Nej tyvärr

Pere Ubu’s The Modern Dance was strange, disjointed, and exhausting to sit through. The album felt like a chaotic jumble of noises, vocal strains, and sounds created by what we can only assume were musical instruments—none of which became any more enjoyable as the record went on. That NME considered this the 11th best album of 1978 says less about the album itself and more about what must have been a remarkably thin field of contenders that year.

This just isn't music made for the masses. It's made to never sell in the $1 bin at Goodwill.

Første albumet jeg faktisk fysisk har fått vondt i øret av

Yikes. If I would have stolen this from a record store back in the day I would demand my money back.

Loads of random noises. Artistic for sure

this is the kind of album that really makes me question who wrote this list

I don't hate all noisy avant garde albums, but I do kinda hate this one. I can't convince myself that this band isn't using noisy garbage to mask their mediocre songwriting. Albums like this walk a fine line and this falls on the wrong side of it for me.

Wholly unenjoyable, challenging to find anything I liked about it. Nothing-random-nonsense and drums at it's best, breaking bottles and random babbling at its worst 1.8/10

I skipped the first song because the right ear did not deserve that. Second song sucked, third song sucked. Just random noises. Gave up at that point. I just can't with the experimental bullshit albums. Fuck off. 1*

praktisch unhörbar.

War kommerziell nicht erfolgreich.... Wen wundert's?

The great streak of albums was going to come to an end at some point One of the very few good things I can say about this album is that it’s relatively short and there’s a couple of songs that aren’t absolute garbage. If the entire album sounded like Street Waves it’d probably be closer to a 3. Laughing and Life Stinks are just putrid songs, in the most annoying, bad spirited, and grotesque way possible. I really can’t stress how awful this dudes voice is to me, it’s truly uniquely bad to me. It sounds like a drunken caricature of a more talented musician. This albums paved with all sorts of irritating instruments, between whatever the hell those sax sounds are and the random distorted instruments for no reason. I’d argue Sentimental Journey isn’t even music, it’s just a 4th grader playing saxophone while some dude throws beer bottles at him I get this is sorta experimental and did indeed influence future artists, but their refusal to even try to sound good is truly infuriating. There are very few moments in this album where I’d rather listen to the song rather than complete silence, so by my rating this has to be a 1. I really think this enters my bottom echelon of truly terrible albums; I genuinely can’t think of 5 albums I’d place lower than this

This was actually horrific to listen to I had to skip nearly very song because it was hurting my ears

First song sounded like people with Tourette experimenting with drugs and alcohol. The rest was barely better.

I can find redemption in Laibach, Throbbing Gristle, Ministry and Einsturzende Neubaten, so having some understanding of avant garde music, I should have enjoyed the creative risks taken by Pere Ubu, but I don't. It comes off like even worse junk than the stuff Captain Beefheart does. Feels more gimmick than authentic artistic statement. Having said that, I can see how 12 year old edgelord in me would have embraced this when I was young, dumb, full of cum. Most bearable: "Over My Head"

Too loud

Kokeellinen sekoilu ei oikein lähe...

Another absolute garbage album that should have never been included on a list like this. 0 / 5

Demasiado experimental para mi gusto, mucho sonido raro, mucho trompetas sin sentido, pareciendo que improvisan en el momento, gritos, realmente parece una banda de locos que tienen algunos instrumentos. No es para nada mi gusto, y no entiendo porque existe en esta lista pero bueno. Quizas la batería y alguna que otra cuerda puede haberme sonado bien pero lo demás esta rarísimo.

Neither enjoyable to listen to nor interesting to hear. The punk and post-punk sensibility can be such a liberating creative force. But it is too-often a convenient facade for the lazy and uninspired. Great punk bands compensate for their technical shortcomings with authenticity. These guys just sound pretentious; like the amateurishness is cultivated.

1 i hate this

The title track reminded me a bit of the B-52’s, but that’s about it 🙁 1 star…

i didn't know music could be this bad.

Non alignment pact - 1/5 Modern dance - 1/5 Laughing - 1/5 Street waves - 1/5 Chinese radiation - 2/5 Life stinks - 1/5 Real world - 2/5 Over my head - 1/5 Sentimental journey - 1/5 Humor me - 3/5

No me gustó.

Why is it that these experimental bands feel the need to involve shittily played wind instruments? How does this even get brought up in the studio? Did these guys pick up the instrument themselves, thinking that their inept attempts at clarinet is what the world is waiting for? Or did they bring in some poor studio musician and attempt to explain in painstaking detail how they want their shitty ear-piercing filth to sound? If this went on to inspire anything, it may perhaps be this loathsome practice.

It's been a long while since we had an album come up that I dislike this much—thanks for keep the other 1 star albums company! I clearly missed the point of this album, but I hope the band had fun making it! Just because I don't care for it doesn't mean that it cannot have some profound meaning for them or their audience.

Oh, it's art! Listen to the art! Such art! It's shitty art, but it's still art! On the one hand, I'm glad that weirdos exist and they're free to make weird shit, and I'm glad there are other weirdos out there who appreciate said weird shit. Different strokes for different folks. On the other hand, this is bad. It's not the absolute worst--there are at least 10 albums on this list that are worse, most-but-not-all of this at least qualifies as music, it's creative, and I was able to get through the whole thing without turning it off. However, it utterly failed at the task of being something that I could enjoy listening to. It's a borderline 1/2, but ultimately rounding down due to excessive fart sniffing. 1.4

Holy shit! The intro to the first song is absolutely terrible and ear piercing. The rest of the album is just so so at best

Not often do I listen to a true 1/5 which makes this a truly special moment

Listen i like art music and post punk but this shit hurt to listen to. like if talking heads wished physical harm on their audience

Just checked back and when I was served up the other Pere Ubu album on the list I compared it to a flock of seagulls and came down on enjoying the squawking chip stealing, shit on your head little bastards better. For the avoidance of doubt I was referring to the seagulls. So you can make up your own assumptions of how I view this album and the cacophonous talentless twats responsible for making it. 1/5 28/3/26

Not for me 1/5

Mitä ihmettä

I swear, punk music can have decent vocals. Not here. Nope. What do we say to the god of good music? Not Today. 1 star (I mean, what is this awful sound?)

No

Honestly, this was terrible

There are many albums on this list which include incoherent noises, weird idiosyncratic vocals, or are otherwise just grating and unpleasant to listen to. At first I found some of these interesting in that it could be fun to write a scathing review, or I felt that by enduring them I might be challenging myself intellectually to understand what people of a more artistic bent see in such pieces. But the more of these that come up, the more I simply find them tiresome. There's a reason the mainstream is mainstream, and it's mostly because it's good. That statement might be anathema to an a lover of the avant-garde with niche tastes, but I find it hard to believe that that crowd isn't just kidding themselves. Why subject yourself to tuneless singing and weird recorder noises when there's so much music out that that's actually pleasant, moving, danceable, or any of the other qualities that stuff like this lacks? I've made peace with the fact my tastes are basic, this is simply not my thing at all

I didn’t connect with this one, quite the opposite.

The first song on this album was such an F U to my ears. What a prick- absolutely HATE that noise nonsense. Didn’t give the rest a listen because it’s clear this is a guy who is trying to hurt peoples’ ears, music should sound GOOD.

This was like listening to a chemical reaction

Listening to this album was one of the longest 30 minutes of my life and ruined my morning.I was not in the mood for this fucking album #ass.

Between the first 20 seconds of ear rape and one of the last songs where he just breaks glass for 30 seconds. Honestly everything between this also sucked

I can't with this one. It's like they went out of their way to find the most grating and irritating noises they could possibly find, then broke that up with the most garbled and incomprehensible vocals imaginable. Everyone involved with this abomination should be ashamed and should be legally barred from calling themselves musicians. It's actually crazy to me that someone could listen to this fetid pile of noises and think this belongs in a list of 1001 albums you should hear before you die. No one should have to listen to this, and I wouldn't be surprised if they used this album as a form of torture at guantanamo bay.

just fuck off please

Drit å høre på. Som å ha tinitus i 36 min. 1/5, skulle gjerne gitt den mindre. (Savner noe bra fra denne lista nå..)

Kva er greia med alle ulydane som meir eller mindre konsekvent kjem i høyre øyra gjennom heile dette albumet? Mogleg det hadde vore tåleleg om eg hadde høyrt heile med kun venstre, men det gidd eg ikkje å sjekke. Nokre låtar starta lovande i to sekund, og så kom det ein ein eller annan helvetes lyd.

Steaming hot garbage.

Samo zbog prve pesme automatski im smanjujem ocenu albuma. Taj početak me je toliko izbacio iz takta da sam odmah tog trena postao hejter ovog benda/čoveka. Ja ne znam šta nije uredu sa Perom i ko mu je finansijski omogućio da snimi ovaj album. Ova knjiga - 1001 album koji moraš da slušaš za svoga života - je bukvalno samo marketing za bendove poput ovog (sigurno je Pera platio da se nadje u ovoj knjizi) jer je ovo sve samo ne dobra muzika. Ko je bio u fazonu, eee aj da snimimo još albuma od Pere, ta osoba u zatvor direkt ide. Ima nekoliko delova po nekim pesmama što zvuči normalno i zanimljivo i to je možda sveukupno ceo minut dok ostalih pola sata samo nečije šizofrenično cepanje i bukvalno samo mučenje mog mozga i bubnih opni. Tekst nisam slušao jer su me ostali zvukovi previše ometali ali sumnjam da bi mi to promenilo mišljenje i ocenu. Isto kao i King Crimson, pokušavaju neki eksperimentalni zvuk da odrade ali hoće to dupe moje kad sviraš na raštimovanim instrumentima. I ONA GLUPA FRULA, BLOK FLAUTA ILI KAZOO ILI ŠTA GOD DA JE.....GETTFOUTWITHIT RRAAAAAAGHHHHH. Pero ubi me ovaj album, ocena je 2,5 ali svakako pišem 2. JAO KAD SE SETIM OVOG UBOGOG PERE SEME LI MU KRVVAVO. ZNAČI AKO JE GLUV BETOVEN USPEO DA NAPRAVI JEBEMO VANVREMNESKO UMETNČKO DELO KAKO SI TI ZDRAV I PRAV USPEO OVO SRAMOTAAA BREEE ZA TEBE I CELU TVOJU PROPDICU ŠTO TI NOSI PREZIMEE, JA DA SAM NA TVOM MESTU, PROMENIO BIH PRRZIME SVOJOJ DECI. MENJAM OCENU NA 1 ZAJEBI TI OVO

Na osnovu onih zvukova sa ovog albuma što mi je milijan pustio u parku mogu ravnodušno da ostavim ocenu 1

There’s a fine line between weird music that’s good and weird music that is godawful to my ears. I recently gave Metal Box by Public Image Ltd 5 stars on here, but if that album was just a teensy bit zanier it would’ve been a one. I regret to say this album starting with a noise that would kill my nan on the spot is a teensy bit zanier.

Didn't like it at all

pretty meh for me,

are you kidding me? are you serious? i have one life on this shit-ass earth and you give me this? a toaster falling down the stairs while a half-drunk man warbles and alarms blare? NO!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JE REFUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i normally reserve the 1 stars for criminals but this was a crime against me. ugly, assaulting, not a single redeeming sound on the entire album. go to jail. i'll kill you

this is captain beefheart without the charm. this is the clash without the insight. this is t rex without the ability to play any instruments. this is david byrne trying to sing while at the dentist’s office without them using the suction tool to get all the extra spit out of his mouth.

One of these albums where you wonder if this list is not a waste of time ! Can't wait to hear the second album !!! Voice 0/5 Music 1/5 Guitar 2/5

Groupe inconnu. Les bruitages sont désagréables, presque autant que le chant ... Dommage car le reste est plutôt original (+1), mais dès que le chant (-1) revient c'est un vrai calvaire à écouter. =>1/5

Noise.

Poeh, dit is dus weer zo'n album dat sarcastisch is. Een album dat 'als grap' slechte muziek maakt. Ja sorry, ik vind dat dus toch echt een beetje onzin. Want als een nummer als Laughing op komt, dan mag ik dat dus niet kut vinden. Want HAHA ZIE JE NOU NIET DAT HET IRONISCH IS!?!??!? HAHAHAH JE NEEMT HET ALLEMAAL VEEL TE SERIEUS!!! Hilarisch. Noem me dan maar een zeikerd die muziek te serieus neemt, maar als ik 1001+ albums ga luisteren, ja dan verwacht ik dat het daadwerkelijk albums zijn die de moeite waard zijn. Niet ironisch bedoelde hihaho muziek. Waarom staat er anders geen Schlager op deze lijst? Is iconisch, invloedrijk en de bedoeling van de muziek is een gezellige tijd. Of Happy Hardcore? Stuk invloedrijker dan dit album, dat durf ik wel te zeggen. Nope, Sentimental Journey is gewoon bagger. Ik krijg hier echt niets uit. Soms klinkt het best prima en dan begrijp ik ook wel een beetje wat ze willen doen, maar dit is grote stukken veeeeeel te experimenteel en dan gecombineerd met het 'ironische' vind ik dit gewoon ontzettend matig. Durf te zeggen dat er 1001 albums zijn die ik liever zou luisteren dan deze troep. "Its just a joke man!!!!" Fair, its just not very funny...

Ugh

1/16/26. Meh, thought it was a bit noisy and all over the place. Wasn't a fan of the vocals either; typically I like obscure and uncharacteristic singing styles, but this didn't work for me.

God awful. 1

This is just bad. It tries to be good, and it's bad. There's not much more discussion. Gives you a headache by the first song. Occasionally a good musical idea or riff, then immediately laughs at you for getting your hopes up and goes back into the unbearable. It's bad.

No me gustó

Not my type of sound.

Great. Now I have a headache. DNF Best Song: N/A Rating: 1/10 Stars: 1

Odd, clattery, and frankly a bit of a faff to sit through. More racket than revelation. Not for me, cheers.

feels like Im listening to slop. Wth is this bruh? How am I suppose to enjoy this? Waste of electricity. 1star

Yeah, I don't know. I just didn't like it.

Sadly, more noise than music here.

Awful

not for me

Ouch! This album really tests you from the beginning by putting noise and chaos into the mix. If you get through the opening though, there are some okay qualities in the main core of the music. This is tough listen though, and I doubt I will put it on voluntarily later. I read a blogpost about the selection of this album regarding «1001 albums …» that suggested cutting out this record and do «The Police - Outlandos D’ Armour» instead. I think I will enjoy that more. I don’t think they have put a large segment of breaking bottles and other weird noises in their songs… Favourite songs: None

dnf

Yikes!

I couldn’t even get past the opening feedback noise, that was uncalled for.

Fuck that noise.

This album can just fuck all the way off.

No

I hope I never have to listen to this again

A couple of OK parts but not enough to salvage the rest of the shouting and dissonance

Overall vibe: LOUD NOISES!!!! Notes: It’s loud, it’s noisy and it’s seems like… well the noise just exists without intent, without cohesiveness. The only consistency is just a smattering of noise and for what? I dunno. I hate it. The drugs must’ve been next level in the 70s. Thank god it was only 35 minutes.

Nope.

Absolutely not for me.

Yikes. Over My Head is the closest to an actual song, but yikes.

Pas du tout ma came.

Just not my thing

Überhaupt nicht mein Fall. Ich höre nur Krach und Geschrei. 1/5

I'm pretty good without this. Purposefully harsh sounds.

Pue la merde

I did not enjoy any of these songs. Not one.

WTF man

This is annoying! Second Pere Ubu album I've seen on the list and this is worse than the other. Noise for the sake of noise and the singer has an obnoxious tone that he leans into plus warbling and howling. I generally like experimentation, but this seems like an experiment in annoyance. Starting with a horrible whine-y drone? Lunatics 1 star at best, being generous.

I can, without a doubt, sing better than this guy. It feels like a scene in Don't Hug Me I'm Scared when things start to unravel

Surely you must be joking! Seriously, what is this & how did these people get a record deal? FFS

This album made me regret a few of the 1s I've doled out to other albums because this is on a whole new level.

Fug this fugly fugger. This makes me embarrassed and ashamed to be an Ohio native. Definitely not as interesting (and dare I say cutesy?) as Dub Housing, there’s literally nothing to take away from The Modern Dance, except maybe a headache. Christgau says the lows are worth the highs on this album… what highs? The high pitched ringing that’s ruined my ability to forever hear certain tones? The sounds of smashing bottles in my ear? The depraved ravings of a lunatic? What track would I even save for my 1001 playlist? I’d be embarrassed if I was in a room with another human being from any walk of life and any song from here came on. This one is more like pere no-bu. Humanity should agree to collectively forget this album ever happened. Why are we celebrating this on this list?

Too weird for me. Not quite my kinda punk rock

I will concede that, like modern dance, I don’t really understand what they are going for “artistic.” However, it still sounds awful and is painful to listen to. And by that I am not being entirely hyperbolic; Laughing was so shrill and some points it actually hurt my ears. For the majority of the album, the lyrics were largely indecipherable. That may have been because of poor recording/production, or probably just a terrible singer. Regardless it was garbage. Really, the whole thing. Garbage.

Starting off giving your audience tinnitus us certainly a choice. What in the hell; RIP people listening to this with earphones. Also WTF is up with this horrible saxophone everywhere? Lots of this legit isn't even music, just glass breaking and stuff. I hate that this album took a spot on the list away from something good. 1/10

Total waste of time.

Humor Me and give us a good slbum to listen to tomorrow! This one was painful.

Meteliä. Hyi mikä lauluääni. Kamalaa kirkumista ja ihme määkimistä. Nimen perusteella odotin tyypillistä modernissa tanssissa käytettävää musiikkia tai edes viittausta Duncaniin tai Grahamiin, mutta ei. En tykännyt ja huomasin sen jo ensimmäisen minuutin kohdalla. Tuli paha mieli:(

Niin kauhea etten kuunnellu musiikkia viikkoon tän jälkeen. No en kyl tiiä johtuko se tästä albumista, mutta en ihmettelis. Random ääniä vaan, ei kuuosta kivalta ja sanoista ei saa mitään selvää.

Stunned this made the list.

The experimental parts of this albums are just to much for me. Some of the great parts get lost in the mix of good. Some guitar solos save a few songs but over all not a great experience for me.

Genuinely upset this is on the list. I’m sure I just “don’t get it” but if I could give this any lower rating than 1 I would. One of the worst things I’ve ever listened to in my life

pretty fucking whack

Kill this man!

I respect the artist putting out something unique. But it also needs to be digestible. The Modern Dance just has too many random sounds with no rhythms. Congrats to anybody who actually managed to dance to this album.

Pere Ubu’s Dub Housing was one of the worst albums I’ve been served up on here so I did not have high hopes for this one. It starts by giving the listener tinitus for no reason whatsoever. Shite.

Wow that is some opening… The first two songs are instrumentally identical with bad vocals. Then the ear rape continues on “Laughing”. I am not laughing. No redeeming qualities on this album and very hard to finish. 1/5

Да тропаш по барабан и да пускаш произволни звучи отгоре НЕ Е екпериментална музика, защото не е музика изобщо

Wow! When I received a different album (Dub Housing) by this artist I prayed I would never have to hear another song by them ever again. I removed their name from my mind so when I recieved this album today, there was a haunting familiarity "...Pere Ubu...why does this sound familiar?" Ten seconds in... the horrors claimed me and projected graining, horrific sounds from my car speakers. I am once again praying to never hear more """"music""" from them again. But I fear my prayers may go unheard and I will be cursed to hear them once more. Terrifying.

They tried hard. Very experimental with different sound effects etc. But sorry not my thing. The high frequency sound in the beginning was very annoying and irritating. What’s that for? Well, at least it’s a short album. Singing might’ve been inspired or coached by a sheep I don’t know. But a nice brave attempt. In the history, we also need to see what has backfired and failed hard.

Some of the background music was alright, but the singing was unintelligible and there was too much weird randomness for me to enjoy it.

Probably not actually a one star but the song laughing is one of the worst songs of all time. Destroyed my ears. Why would u put that into the world.

Nah this ain't it man. Try again.

Didn't sound good, didn't have any fun with this one.

WTF?

My tastes in post punk are very simple. The more 'post' it is (=the less it sounds like punk), the more likely I am to hate it. This one sounds like punk quite a bit. Even where it doesn't sound like punk in a narrow sense, it does very much stay true of punk staples such as being very unpleasant and a vocalist who shouldn't legally be allowed anywhere near a microphone.

I reserve the 1 rating for albums that I can barely listen to. They are albums I physically cannot finish because they are that bad, sometimes even start. This was absolutely one of them. Jesus Christ Almighty

Æ fékk bara illt í eyrun af öllu þessu ískri í lögunum, mismikið en ég varð bara pirruð

Fengu bara allir að gefa út plötu ef þeir vildu?

Oh good, another crap album by Pere Ubu. My life is so enriched by these out-of-tune horns and these white boys thinking they're Jamaican.

Not at all in the mood for this experimental dumpster fire.

“Let’s make a solid album with some nice sounding guitar, some solid bass lines, and then in each song let’s just also add nails on a chalkboard, but make that part louder and consistent through the entire track.”

35min wo sich ahfühled wie 5h wandere ohni Wasser.

Didn't like this as much as other experimental stuff I've listened to

Quite experimental, random sirens horns bells breaking glass. Do not recommend

I kind of liked the title track groove, except for the weird turn in the middle. Outside of that though , killing cats and breaking glass are not what I would call instrumentation. Most of this was just grating and annoying.

After the first few tracks I can definitely see how this band might’ve had influential effects on other artists like REM, Hüsker Dü, etc. And I had some hope that this might be a cool listen. But alas, by the time track three rolled around with random cat juggling noises…I realized it was another example of an album that should not be on this list. I can appreciate weird bands doing strange stuff, but this is just dumb noise.

I really tried to give this a chance. But starting out with 30 seconds of high pitched noice is a bad start. The guitar came in and was kinda cool….but then he started singing. Yikes. Chinese radiation could’ve been a cool song. Same with life stinks. But then they just ruined it. What the hell is sentimental journey?

I kinda want to round up for some weird dude just doing weird shit. But this is simply too much background noise/random sounds for me to get behind. Will never knowingly listen to this again… 1.5/5

Hmmmmm.

I tried to make it through this entire album for the sake of completing this list. There were a lot of annoying sounds in this album that were annoying and made my skin crawl. I cannot stand random repetitive noises. The album art was sort of cool but the rest was 😐 Rating: ⭐️

Technically it's a DNF but this one set the record for how quickly I reached that point.

Impressive in that it started out with a long annoying sound and managed to keep it going through several songs. Just because something is intentionally bad doesn’t mean it isn’t bad. 1⭐️

No thanks, not my jam

This felt like I was walking up a path to pick up a blind date and, before I could get close enough to ring the bell, the door was flung open and my date threw a bucket of ice in my face. I can’t say that it’s objectively “bad” because some people might actually like that. All I can say is that it’s a bad match for ME.

That was a mess and not an enjoyable one

a bit Talking Heads but nothing special