Best Albums of Swedish Pop Rock Band The Ark

They have never made a perfect album, but this is the best (their 2nd from 2002). What can be strange for a listener is that half of the songs are about gay love (2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11). Overall, the lyrics make more sense and are way less cheesy on this album than on the others. (You have to know that I am very strict with giving 10-scale points). By the way, this album came out four days after I was born.

1. Beauty Is the Beast - 6.5/10
2. Father of a Son - 2.5/10
3. Tell Me This Night Is Over - 10/10. It seems to turn into a hymn at the end. It's also one of the few songs by them where the lyrics aren't that bad.
4. Calleth You Cometh I - 9/10. Very good for a pop song, especially the ending with the strings.
5. A Virgin Like You - 10/10. Again, the ending is the best.
6. Interlude - I don't know what to make of it. It's an unnecessary instrumental track with the same five seconds on repeat.
7. Tired of Being An Object? - 6.5/10. I used to like this song until I understood the lyrics.
8. Disease - 8/10
9. Vendelay - 10/10. It's such a simple yet great melody that it's strange it is first in a 2002 song. Very enjoyable to sing along.
10. 2000 Light Years of Darkness - 7.5/10. The repetitive Hey Jude structure spoiled this song. Note how the last minute is an introduction to the last track.
11. The Most Radical Thing to Do - 9.5/10

The debut album in 2000 came after the band had already existed for 11 years.

1. Hey Modern Days - 5/10
2. Echo Chamber - 10/10
3. Joy Surrender - 10/10. My favorite song by the band. It reminds me of Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows 7.
4. It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane - 9.5/10. It's their only song to reach a million views on YouTube.
5. Ain't Too Proud To Bow - 8.5/10
6. Bottleneck Barbiturate - 10/10. It has a similar atmosphere as "Rainbow Eyes" by Rainbow.
7. Let Your Body Decide - from 3.5/10 to 10/10. The album version is very boring, but the single is much more enjoyable (if you don't understand the dumb lyrics). I also like the music video.
8. Patchouli - 4/10
9. This Sad Bouquet - 7.5/10. It has some really good lines in the lyrics, like "it took time [...] to accept the fact that one must lose everything except what you do not choose," but also some very cheesy and generic lines like "wasn't born to hate, I was made to love." Overall, it is a bit too whiny, and there are much better sad songs out there.
10. Angelheads - 7.5/10. It sounds like a song sung at an insignificant football match between two villages.
11. Laurel Wreath - 9.5/10
12. You Who Stole My Solitude - 2/10. What kind of ending is this to an otherwise good album? It's a mellowed "Thunderstruck" riff slowed down with some extremely repetitive lyrics.

Fourth studio album from 2007. Improvement over "State of the Ark," but I wouldn't call it really good.

1. Prayer for the Weekend - 9.5/10. One of the best pop intros.
2. The Worrying Kind - 6.5/10. Sweden's entry for the 2007 Eurovision song contest.
3. Absolutely No Decorum - 6.5/10
4. Little Dysfunk You - 10/10
5. New Pollution - 3.5/10
6. Thorazine Corazon - 8.5/10. Are they singing into mugs?
7. I Pathologize - 9/10. It is so good to sing along!
8. Death to the Martyrs - 3.5/10
9. All I Want Is You - 2/10. Just what you expect from a song called "All I Want Is You."
10. Gimme Love to Give - 3.5/10. Awkward structure and cheesy lyrics.
11. Uriel - 8.5/10. A bit boring, but it is perfect to cut under a YouTube video.

"State of the Ark" and "Prayer for the Weekend" could've been jammed together in one album: "Prayer for the Weekend," "The Worrying Kind," "Absolutely No Decorum," "Little Dysfunk You," "Thorazine Corazon," "I Pathologize," and "Uriel" from this, and "One of Us Is Gonna Die Young," "Let Me Down Gently," "Deliver Us from Free Will," and "No End" from the other. Eleven great tracks instead of 6 great/5 mediocre and 4 great/5 mediocre/2 terrible.

Third album from 2004. Half of it is filler, and it is teeming with swear words. Typical example of a sandwiched album.

1. This Piece of Poetry Is Meant to Do Harm - 5.5/10. The kind of song you are ashamed to listen to.
2. R. C. W. - 0.5/10. One of the worst songs I've heard, full of swear words, no stable rhythm, senseless lyrics like "pilgrims of sleaze and of nocturnal pancake," and ends in the worst possible way: repeating a line.
3. Clamour for Glamour - 2.5/10. "Flamin' Groovies - Slow Death" riff put together with an annoying chorus.
4. One of Us Is Gonna Die Young - 9/10. Best and most famous from the album. Good to sing along.
5. Let Me Down Gently - 9/10
6. Hey Kwanongoma - 3/10
7. The Others - 3.5/10. "The Most Radical Thing to Do" is a much better song about gay love, and this has too much swearing.
8. Girl You're Gonna Get 'em (Real Soon) - 1/10. What lyrics are these? The title sentence is said (not sung) 24 times, and the rest is like an educational toddler song with nonsensical content.
9. Deliver Us from Free Will - 8/10
10. No End - 7.5/10. Very similar to "Planet Caravan" by Black Sabbath.
11. Trust Is Shareware - 7.5/10. The single version is better.

Their last album from 2010 is the worst. I couldn't listen to it, skipped all songs after 20 seconds. Even the singles from it, Superstar (the first track) and Stay With Me, are boring and poorly written. I think I can do better.