In no particular order, except for Pavement:

Pavement - Wowee Zowee
They Might Be Giants - Lincoln
Pixies - Trompe le Monde
Fugazi - Red Medicine
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album)
Radiohead - Kid A
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Ween - Chocolate and Cheese

Wow. It's been a while since we've had a new list thread. I'm going to have to think a bit about such a lofty target.

I have to say, Crash. Yours reads more like a Desert Island List to me. Does a list of ten album that extends no further back than the 80s and represents only a single, relatively narrow genre of music truly represent The Ten Greatest Albums EVAR[sic]?

I think I'm going to have to give you ten of my own to pick apart sooner rather than later.

Now Playing: Michigan State up 1-0 on UCLA after a minute...it's all gravy...Steve Alford's Iowa smashed Bobby Knight's Texas Tech tonight and that makes it all good...

1)Celldweller - Celldweller (Self Titled)

Muse - Showbiz
Spineshank - Self Destuctive Pattern
Arch Enemy - Anthems Of Rebellion
One Minute Silence - Buy Now Saved Later
One Minute Silence - Avalible In All Colours
Dover - I Was Dead For 7 Weeks In The City Of
Angels
Sum41 - Does This Look Infected
Guttermouth - Gusto
Offspring - Ixnay On The Hombre

(Wrote down in the order they were thought of as being truely awesome albums)

Yeah, I think I'll defer to my Desert Island list for now. I'm not sure if there's a difference between the greatest albums and the ones I'd want to listen to on an island, but I'll come up with something. I wouldn't share any of the picks that Crash made (although I like 4 or 5 of them) but I'm sure not many will share my picks.

Crash...your devotion to Wowee Zowee is admirable. Are they planning on giving that one the Deluxe treatment that they gave to Slanted and Crooked Rain? I don't own it (I didn't really care much for it at the time) but I ought to give it another listen at some point...

quote:

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Originally posted by Terenigma:
1)Celldweller - Celldweller (Self Titled)

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Hmm...interesting choice I suppose. i played FFR to one of their songs...

No best-ofs here, but similar to my DID list...


1. Beach Boys-Pet Sounds
2. The Replacements-Tim
3. Scud Mountain Boys-Massachusetts
4. Whiskeytown-Strangers Almanac
5. Go-Betweens-16 Lover's Lane
6. Waterboys-Fisherman's Blues
7. Lloyd Cole-s/t
8. Fountains of Wayne-Welcome Interstate Managers
9. Jellyfish-Bellybutton
10. The Beatles-Revolver


But I'd consider some of these others top contenders:

Echo and the Bunnymen: What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?
Richard Ashcroft: Alone With Everyone
Brian Wilson: SMiLE
The Jayhawks: Smile and Hollywood Town Hall
Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend
The Hormones: Where Old Ghosts Meet

quote:

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Does a list of ten album that extends no further back than the 80s and represents only a single, relatively narrow genre of music truly represent The Ten Greatest Albums EVAR[sic]?

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I wouldn't say my list is narrow. I actually thought it was quite diverse. As for time period, 80's-90's is just my thing. I'm not really into pre-80's stuff.

I love rock as much as you, but I think LT is trying to say that there's no classical, no jazz, no pre-rock pop, no blues, no gospel, no world, no pre-80s rock (!), no BEST EVAR, just Best Rock of Your Timeframe. We're not knockin' anything, just mentionin' it. LT's lists are always far more diverse than mine, but I think that's what he's talkin' about, so I hope I understand.

Mark's got it right in that a list that draws from a short history of a subset of the rock genre reads more like ten favorite albums EVAR than the ten greatest albums EVAR, thus the link to the Desert Island lists.

The premise behind the thread is really interesting, though. Does anybody recall how the term album came to be? Back in the days before LPs, collections of 78s were often packaged in gatefold sleeves. An LP was a more convenient way to distribute a collection of recordings and a CD even more so.

Since Crash started this thread, I've been thinking about albums and considering how many collections of songs really hold together as an album. By that I mean, how often does such a collection of songs hold together so well that the sum taken as a whole is greater than its individual parts.

Personally, I'd say not very often.

I think great albums are really few and far between. Sgt. Pepper's is often, and I think wrongly, cited as a great concept record, but it doesn't work nearly so well on that level as Pet Sounds. The latter, I think, is a great album and certainly one of the ten greatest

Outside of the rock genre, jazz is filled with albums that have little to define them other than the fact that they were recorded over a period of consecutive recording session. Two that don't fit that definition are John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and Miles Davis and Gil Evans' Sketches of Spain, both of which were intended to be taken as a whole rather than on a track by track basis and are, I think, two more great albums.

Pop Matters covered this topic earlier this year in the context of what the album means in an age of individual downloads. They only look back to January 1, 2000, though, and the thread at hand looks back much further than that.

The three I've named above are the only solid answers I have to offer so far, but I'm still thinking on it.

Now Playing: NPR's Morning Edition

While I agree with mark and LT that Crash's list is far more like a favorites or a Desert Island list, I can't really put any jazz, blues, gospel, or classical on my list, because they're not things I listen to frequently. If I was asked to make a list of the MOST IMPORTANT or INFLUENTIAL records, it would be very different from the ones I would want to listen to regularly.

Including classical on any list of "albums" is tough to do...most of these compositions weren't composed as albums, and the particular performance of any one piece can vary greatly in quality. Best piece of music EVAR (regardless of recording history) might be interesting...you'd have to include folk songs, patriotic anthems, classical, blues and country standards, etc.

Hmm...

Maybe I should amend it to "Ten Greatest Post-70's Rock Albums EVAR!!!"

The problem that alot of people have on these boards is that most of the people don't listen to anything that's not popular. Here is my list of my top 10 list of non "pop" albums.

10. Dream Theater-Images And Words
9. Rush-Moving Pictures
8. Anthrax-Among The Living
7. Slayer-Reign In Blood
6. Metallica-And Justice For All
5. Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime
4. Fear Factory-Demanufacture
3. Testament-The New Order
2. Machine Head-Burn My Eyes
1. Metallica-Master Of Puppets

While I am not bashing all of the people here. I just think that some of you should expand your horizons a little.

quote:

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Originally posted by Sean Richardson:
The problem that alot of people have on these boards is that most of the people don't listen to anything that's not popular. Here is my list of my top 10 list of non "pop" albums.

10. Dream Theater-Images And Words
9. Rush-Moving Pictures
8. Anthrax-Among The Living
7. Slayer-Reign In Blood
6. Metallica-And Justice For All
5. Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime
4. Fear Factory-Demanufacture
3. Testament-The New Order
2. Machine Head-Burn My Eyes
1. Metallica-Master Of Puppets

While I am not bashing all of the people here. I just think that some of you should expand your horizons a little.

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First off, I should point out that my cousin, who is quite brilliant but is saddled with cerebral palsy, is a Special Olympian, so I really don't dig your tag line. I'm not going to be the political correctness police, but people who like to make jokes about retards seem to get their kicks out of making fun of the less fortunate. To each their own, I guess, but I don't really care for it.

Secondly, given your list of favorite musicians and albums, I would assume that YOU haven't heard any of the records on my list. Why is it that the "people on these boards" are the ones who need to expand their horizons? With the exception of Fear Factory and Machinehead, I've heard all of the records on your list, and I don't really like (nor do I actively dislike) any of them. But I'm not going to slag you for having "narrow horizons."

Your double negative confuses me..."most of the people don't listen to anything that's not popular." So, I assume you are saying that we are all listening to "popular" stuff, which is certainly not the case when you look at people's top 10 lists. If the Scud Mountain Boys, Go-Betweens, and Lloyd Cole are "popular," I'm puzzled by what your standards for popularity are. Moreover, if you are claiming that Rush and Metallica aren't "popular" then I don't know what criteria you're going with.

Bottom line: you've got different taste in music than some (many?) of the people here. That's great...it allows for different conversations. But, despite your claim that you're not "bashing" anyone, you did accuse many of the people here of having narrow horizons, which seems a little disingenuous. But I'll welcome you aboard anyway, and maybe you'll get some cool conversations on the kind of rock (classic? melodic? hard?) that you dig.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philosopherEric,

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
First off, I should point out that my cousin, who is quite brilliant but is saddled with cerebral palsy, is a Special Olympian, so I really don't dig your tag line. I'm not going to be the political correctness police, but people who like to make jokes about retards seem to get their kicks out of making fun of the less fortunate. To each their own, I guess, but I don't really care for it.

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Concur.

Now Playing: "Mood Indigo" Duke Ellington Masterpieces by Ellington (Legacy) <-- I can't help it...I'm just a slave to "pop" music...

I dunno. That joke has made the rounds on the Internet since 1999 (statement made without exaggeration); it's lost even the paltry amusement value it had then.

Of Sean's 10 greatest albums that have so much more diversity than anyone else here's tastes, I have seen 5 of those bands live! On 3 tours! What diversity! I didn't know that Machine Head did anything other than open for Fear Factory, I figured that was their entire career! Dream Theater, Rush and Queensryche! Sounds a like a tour to me! Slayer and Testament-saw them on tour together! Two Metallica albums in your top 10 EVAR! What eclecticism, what amazing diversity and originality! Seems to me like Sean has seen 3 or 4 concerts in his life, picked up the albums by the bands at the shows, and then came here with his list, and to top it off cracks a "retard" joke and tells us to expand our horizons!
Hello Jay and Silent Bob, we have a fanboy in his parent's basement who needs a beating!

Sorry, I couldn't name less than twenty titles:

The lamb lies down on Broadway - Genesis
Who's next - Who
Sticky fingers - Rolling stones
Abbey road - Beatles
The Beatles(white album)- Beatles
Goodbye Jumbo - World party
Late for the sky - Jackson Browne
Car wheels on a gravel road - Lucinda Williams
Utopia parkway - Fountains of wayne
Born to run - Bruce Springsteen
Moving pictures - Rush
Achtung baby - U2
Blood on the tracks - Bob Dylan
Peter Gabriel plays live - Peter Gabriel
Ophelia - Natalie Merchant
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
OK computer - Radiohead
West side story
Smashing pumpkins - Adore
Automatic for the people - REM

This message has been edited. Last edited by: plato,

...I Love doing these Music list's, I could quite happily sit here all day, listing my choices...(sighs)

Anyways, I digress....

1. Can - "Tago Mago"
2. Nick Drake - "Pink Moon"
3. John Coltrane - "Blue Train"
4. Bill Laswell/Jah Wobble - "A Dub Transmission"
5. Fleetwood Mac - "Rumours"
6. LtJ Bukem - "Logical Progression"
7. Led Zeppelin - "Physical Grafitti"
8. Funkadelic - "Music For your Mother"
9. Wu Tang Clan - "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
10. Stereolab - "Aluminum Tunes"

Okay!!!...Thats was hard!!!

But, I feel really 'Cheap' & 'Nasty', for not including albums by:

Massive Attack, Pearl Jam, Miles Davis, Fugazi, Modest Mouse, Spiritualized, Beta Band, Joy division, Sigur Ros, Godspeed, PJ Harvey, Tool, Dirty Three, Explosions in the sky, Elliott Smith, Belle and Sebastian, Portishead, Mos Def, My Bloody Valentine, Jeff Buckley, Beck, Sonic Youth, Aphex Twin, Pixies, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Simon & Garfunkel, Beach Boys, Richie hawtin, King Tubby, Grandmaster flash, David holmes, Underworld, 4-Hero, Prodigy, Parliament, Love, Praxis, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, Bad Brains....etc,etc!!

(*Fetish Nips, off to have a 'Quick Shower'....to feel better about himself*)

fetish

xx

I agree. It really is impossible to do the 10 best albums EVAR. Because most of us just aren't exposed to music that many would argue should be in the top 10. I am sure if enough people discussed it for long enough, a decent list could survive. And that would be fun to see. But in general everyone is going to neglect something that should be there.

In an unrelated note, I find whenever Rolling Stone magazine does these best albums of all time list. They put entirely too much in from the 70's and 60's and completely neglect the last 20 years.

If you look most of their top 500 lists are 50% from that 20 year span.

but without including personal bias.... and just thinking about albums that one could argue should be in the top 10 albums Evar. I would say...

1. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's
2. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
3. Beatles - Revolver
4. The Clash - London Calling
5. Pink Floyd - Darkside of The Moon
6. Nirvana - Nevermind
7. Brian Wilson - Smile
8. Michael Jackson - Thriller
9. Outkast - Speakerbox/ The Love Below
10. Beatles - Abbey Road