best albums ever: all of them
14Jul08
The list is complete. We have four different number ones. Four very different top tens. And a whole bunch of amazing records that I hope will clog your save for later list for months to come. So, what are your thoughts? Anything underrated or overrated? Album you are surprised to see made the list or did not make the list? And which list most represents your tastes? Let us know!
I have seriously never, ever even heard of the US #1…
The rest is mixed for me. I can’t stand Arcade Fire so their showing leaves me cold. It’s a shame In Rainbows isn’t available in Europe, else that would have been much higher, same for Vespertine in non-UK territories. Nice to see Aphex Twin score highly, though.
As I figured, lots of indie. Still, there were some real surprises, e.g., Monk’s Brilliant Corners, Coltrane’s Lush Life, and even more interesting surprises downlist (Darker Than Blue, and so forth). Good list. It’s making me reconsider albums I’ve long-dismissed, e.g., Pavement.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was my number 1 pick, so I guess I’m not special, but I have a lot of faith in this list.
It might take me 3 years, but I’m going to make it a point to have all 100 albums. Maybe I’ll finally “get” jazz.
Thanks for doing this countdown, of all the lists I’ve ever seen published this one feels like the most important one I’ve ever seen.
One album I had hoped would make the list was Nina Nastasia and Jim White, You Follow Me. It is in my top five. I LOVE that record.
Also, I think hip hop was woefully under-represented. I thought El-P might show up. I would have loved to see Princess Superstar there, also.
Other than that, I think 3 of my 5 (The Life Pursuit, Boxer, and 69 Love Songs) were represented. I was happy to see 69 Love Songs so high. I really like that album.
By the way, when do we get the top artists list?
I LOVE that Nina Nastasia, too, Richard. Love that album. “Brad Haunts A Party” is a perfect song.
Top Artists list will come, probably just on 17 Dots, in a week or two. Later this week is the Pitchfork Festival, which we will be covering, and then next week is the best albums of the year so far. Busy times!
Wow, I don’t think a single album I voted for appeared on the list. I *might* have voted for the Bad Brains, as I love that album so much, but technically I owned it on a little red cassette ages before I’d even heard of an mp3.
Man, there’s a lot of (IMHO) overrated indie on here, but I expected it. I’d love to see the list taken five years from now and see how many of these albums would be top 20 still or even on the list at all. And I’m shocked that the Johnny Cash Sun collection didn’t show up somewhere considering it’s a perennial most downloaded.
Still, I might finally download that Neutral Milk Hotel album. I’d been on the fence about it for a while.
PS: Crooked Rain over Slanted and Enchanted? Blasphemy!!!
I like the list - I guess that’s because I agree with a lot on the list and it also gives me quite a few albums that I will have to either download for the first time (Coltrane) or give another chance (Pavement). And there are some that I disagree with (Elliott Smith at #3 - wouldn’t make my list at all and Pixies’ Doolittle at #6 - I’d put Trompe le Monde and Surfer Rosa ahead of Doolittle).
I’m not surprised at Neutral Milk Hotel being #1 or Arcade Fire being #2, but Elliott Smith at #3 and John Coltrane at #4 were surprises. Even though I prefer indie, it’s nice to see Coltrane crack the top 5.
Now if my browser can handle downloading another list of 100 albums (Firefox locked up twice on me this morning as I was trying to load the list), I’ll try to check out non-US lists.
Huh. The US top 20 is mostly pretty lame–Doolittle being the key exception. Not too surprising, I guess.
Fortunately, the rest of the 100 includes a lot of real gems, and has significantly padded my save for later list.
I was happy to see three jazz albums in the top 20, and I think overall the US list was a lot more diverse than I expected.
I don’t begrudge Neutral Milk Hotel the top spot because I know it is well loved but personally I’ve never grown an attachment to it. It’s a good album, but for some reason has never really clicked with me the way it seems to with most people.
Captain Wrong: I agree with you about Slanted and Enchanted over Crooked Rain.
“Captain Wrong: I agree with you about Slanted and Enchanted over Crooked Rain.”
I got to figure out what people love so much about Pavement.
@Daniel, Esq. Honestly, sometimes I think Pavement is a “you had to be there” band. S&E came out at exactly the right time for me and just hit me like a blast of fresh air. So many years on, I confess I don’t put my aging copy of that record on the turntable much but every once in a while, it hits me in the right spot. As I think so many bands were influenced by them, I don’t know if their music would have the same impact hearing it the first time today.
Best 2-fer anywhere in the world: Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain and Bill Evans Trio: Sunday at the Village Vanguard at #22 and 23 on the US list.
I came to Pavement about ten years late and still loved Slanted. Crooked Rain seems a little more tied to its time and place to me, and I think that’s why I never liked it as much. I would recomend the original Slanted (without the Deluxe extras) as a good starting point, but give it a few listens; it didn’t catch for me right away.
Was expecting Illinois to break the top 10 (or even top 5). Same with In Rainbows.
Surprising omissions: Neko Case, Blonde Redhead
And this is where I become Mr. Contrarian and say my favorite Pavement album is Wowee Zowee.
Yancey I can’t disagree with you on Wowee because I haven’t heard it, but I’ve been meaning to try it.
It’s a lovely, lovely mess.
All right, my favorite album of all time hit’s #1. I’ve been pushing this album on people for years. No wonder I love emusic and it’s community.
Nice mix of genre is the top #20. I’m going to make it a point to pick up anything in the top 10’s I haven’t listened to.
Should have gotten my mind together and voted. Some of what I should have picked include: NEU! 1, Skinny Puppy’s ViviSECT VI, Slowdive’s Pygmalion, Stereolab’s Peng!, Napalm Death’s Skum, Mouse On Mars’ Audiotracker, Theivery Corporation’s The Mirror Conspiracy, Eric Dolphy’s Outward Bound, and Chris Joss’ You’ve Been Spiked. I’m surprised not to see a few of those represented in the list.
I think the UK list is interesting in that it eschews a lot of Pitchfork favourites of recent years - no Xiu Xiu, Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, Deerhoof, TV on the Radio.
One of the more interesting stats (to me anyway): MIA’s Kala got ten votes in Canada, where the album is not available, versus getting TWO votes in the UK, where the album is available and where she is from. My Brit friends have long told me that she is not at all popular in the UK, but I hadn’t realized the extent until now!
Very happy to see the jazz albums and other genres on the list. I thought it would be nothing but indie rock hehehe.
I still can’t wrap my head around how much people like Burial. I think it’s pretty good, but I don’t think it deserves top 100 at all. I mean, come on. Now flame me.
I just think that of all the electronic rekkids out there, a few others should be here, not this one. Maybe it made a connection with the indie kids.
Yancy: M.I.A.’s Kala is available in Canada under the artist name M.I.A. (XL). People do respond really well to her music here in Canada. I mean, everybody dances to Paper Planes, and Jimmy (perfect for Funk/Disco night). It was one of the rare times my DJ friend was asking me to use my secret Internet powers to find an album leak.
Surprisingly(to me at least) I have 24 of the top 100,and there are a few I would still like to have.Some of the bands I voted for are represented by albums other than my choices.I was so glad to see albums like Gary Numan’s “The Pleasure Principle”,Nick Lowe’s “The Jesus Of Cool’ and Sparks “No.1 In Heaven” all making the top 100.Not particularly enamoured with the top ten but its great to see a couple of jazz albums in there,and although i’m not a big jazz fan I do have the Monk album and have been thinking about downloading more.
Biggest surprise for me,and I don’t have the album nor do I intend to get it,but what happened to Taylor Swift.She’s been in the top ten downloads for nearly two years(almost Dark Side Of The Moon/Tubular Bells chart longevity) and can’t get enough votes to make the 100.Very strange.
jockinoz: I don’t know why but I hadn’t thought to count how many of the Top 100 I had until I saw your post … I was kind of shocked when I did the count and realized I had almost half (47), and nine out of the top 10 (missing the Belle and Sebastian). (And totally not trying to compete; after all we all have access to all of it)
There are still a lot of things here that I’d like to get too.
Interested to hear how many other people have (or had before they started downloading things from the list)
If you’re interested in more jazz Monk’s Music is really good too, and I really like the Miles Davis Quintet stuff (none of which made the list) because it has Miles and Coltrane playing together, and because I really like Red Garland on piano. I didn’t vote but this four track album would have been my number one:
http://www.emusic.com/album/Cookin-Rudy-Van-Gelder-Remasters-Series-Cookin-Rudy-Van-Gelder-Remasters-Series-MP3-Download/11000564.html
I think that most of the Taylor Swift downloads come from people who hop in, get their free downloads, write a few nasty reviews and then jump back out.