best albums ever (and ever ever)
11Jul08
Another day, another batch of your votes. In the US, today’s list is particularly great, especially the Darker Than Blue compilation — long a favorite of mine — shockingly coming in so high. I had no clue that so many people love that record, but I’m ecstatic that they do! Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein is another classic, as is Fugazi’s Argument. And maybe the biggest surprise of this whole poll for me is Gillian Welch’s Time (The Revelator), which did extremely well in pretty much every territory. It’s a gorgeous record for sure. View the whole list here!
Wow I’m suprised about Can Ox’s Placement. Most people I know, even Hardcore Hip-Hop-Heads have trouble getting into Vast Aire’s Lyrics and Voice. That said I love them.
Good to See Explosions Made it to the list (they were one of my main downloads during the All-You-Can-Eat Years)
Yesterday I noticed Gillian Welch on the UK List; this suprised me and made me see that my liking of her wasn’t some psuedo-like of alt-country and that she was a different species onto herself. Good to see her in the top 30.
Yancey I’ll have to check out the Darker Compliation. Any suggestions (other than “the whole thing”
)
“I’ll have to check out the Darker Compliation. Any suggestions (other than ‘the whole thing’)”
It’s a GREAT compilation of cover songs, where the reggae artists really put their own distinctive stamp on the music. Search: The Ken Boothe songs (“Is It Because I’m Black” and “Ain’t No Sunshine”; Boothe’s voice hemorrhages emotion);, The Boris Gardiner Happening’s “Ghetto Funk” (with a slinky, monsterous keyboard line); Carl Bradney’s “Slipping Into Darkness” (great high/low harmonies on the chorus to this one); Junior Marvin’s “Give Me Your Love” (I love the vocals on this song). Destroy: Welton Irie’s “Hotter Reggae Music,” sort of. It’s catchy enough, especially if you love the original material (“Rapper’s Delight”), but it’s a bit awkward and forced, for my tastes. But I’m not a huge fan of “toasting,” so take my view of it with a grain of salt.
This continues to be a great list. I will definitely be checking out the ones I don’t have here.
I have to admit that I was skeptical about how well this project would work since there are so many great albums and lots of diverse interests, but I think the list is turning out some interesting selections. It’s good to see some jazz, hip-hop, electronic, and international stuff in there. I didn’t notice any classical music on there. Anyway, I’ll check out the ones I don’t have. Perhaps my weekend project is to (re-)listen to these top albums.
I was actually listening to “The Boxer,”when I saw that it landed at #8 on the US list…then saw it at #5 in the UK, #2 in CA, and #2 in the EU. Cool!
I wondered if that was enough to put it at #1 worldwide, but it’s only good for #2. The top slot comfortably belongs to Arcade Fire’s Funeral: #1 in CA, #2 US, #4 EU, #6 UK, the only region where The Boxer finished ahead of it.
At least until I bust out the spreadsheet — and you know I will — those are the only 2 releases to finish in everybody’s top 20. Which makes me wonder how many of these are available to everyone, since some are obviously not.
Lawdy lawdy is this going to be fun to chew on!
One nice tidbit for you, Tim: Brilliant Corners had the highest #1 vote ratio of any in the Top 100.
See, now THAT’s what I’m talking about. Stats man. Love ‘em.
Aeroplane clearly got the highest point total, but did it also get the most #1 votes?
How is it I had never heard of Neutral Milk Hotel before? That was a great download….
But there is the thing, I listened to a lot of the albums featured on the top that I had not heard of before that looked like genres I might be interested in and I was a bit surprised by how similar some of the bands on the top are.
Is it a laziness in Emusic listeners that drives a quest for the same sound over and over again? Or lack of imagination?
One of the things I like about emusic is the ability to find some many interesting independent bands that don’t sound just like everyone else. I admit, I have more than a few sound similar to this other band faves, but should a list of the best albums on Emusic really consist of so many repeat acts?
Just my reaction.