When picking these albums out, I decided on a definition of "best" that bows to the subjectiveness of that idea: I could add anything to the list that I either thought was one of the "the best" or simply "my favorite". A few albums that were "my favorite" but not necessarily "the best" were left off of the list, mostly because 75 is a nice number.
Also, for those who remember the previous list, I've chosen to follow some more stringent rules for this one in the name of eclecticism, namely:
1. only one album per artist
2. one "disc" per multi-"disc" album, and
3. as before, "best of" and "live" compilations are allowed in lieu of studio albums.
I am looking forward to your shocked claims of exclusion.
In "iTunes alphabetical" order by artist:
Andrew Bird, “The Mysterious Production of Eggs”
Animal Collective, “Feels”
Apostle of Hustle, “National Anthem of Nowhere”
Arcade Fire, “Funeral”
The Beastie Boys, “Paul’s Boutique”
The Beatles, “Revolver”
Beck, “Mutations”
Bjork, “Post”
Black Flag, “Damaged”
Blur, “Blur”
Bob Dylan, “Blood on the Tracks”
Broken Social Scene, “Broken Social Scene”
Cat Stevens, “Tea For The Tillerman”
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, “Clap Your Hands Say Yeah”
The Clash, “London Calling”
The Cure, “Staring At The Sea”
Daft Punk, “Homework”
David Bowie, “Ziggy Stardust”
The Decemberists, “Her Majesty The Decemberists”
Dirty Projectors, “Bitte Orca”
The Fiery Furnaces, “Gallowsbird’s Bark”
The Flaming Lips, “The Soft Bulletin”
Grizzly Bear, “Veckatimest”
Guided by Voices, “Human Amusements at Hourly Rates”
Iron & Wine, “Our Endless Numbered Days”
The Jam, “The Sound of The Jam”
Joy Division, “Closer”
LCD Soundsystem, “Sound of Silver”
Les Savy Fav, “Inches”
Lou Reed, “Transformer”
The Magnetic Fields, “69 Love Songs” (Disc 1)
Mclusky, “Mclusky Do Dallas”
Michael Jackson, “Thriller”
Modest Mouse, “The Lonesome Crowded West”
Neko Case, “Middle Cyclone”
Neutral Milk Hotel, “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”
Nirvana, “In Utero”
Of Montreal, “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?”
Operation Ivy, “Energy”
Os Mutantes, “Everything Is Possible”
Paul Simon, “Graceland”
Pavement, “Wowee Zowee”
Pink Floyd, “Dark Side of the Moon”
Pixies, “Doolittle”
Police, “Greatest Hits”
The Postal Service, “Give Up”
Public Enemy, “Fear of a Black Planet”
Pulp, “Different Class”
R.E.M., “Reckoning”
Radiohead, “In Rainbows”
Robyn Hitchcock, “Storefront Hitchcock”
Silver Jews, “American Water”
Sonic Youth, “Dirty”
Spoon, “Girls Can Tell”
Squeeze, “Singles, 45s, and Under”
Stereolab, “Emperor Tomato Ketchup”
Stevie Wonder, “Innervisions”
The Strokes, “Is This It?”
Sufjan Stevens, “Illinoise”
Talking Heads, “The Name of This Band is Talking Heads”
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, “Hearts of Oak”
Television, “Marquee Moon”
Tom Waits, “Mule Variations”
Tune-Yards, “Bird-Brains”
U2, “Achtung Baby”
Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend”
Van Morrison, “Astral Weeks”
Velvet Underground, “VU & Nico”
Violent Femmes, “Violent Femmes”
Weezer, “Pinkerton”
The White Stripes, “Elephant”
Wilco, “Summerteeth”
The Wrens, “The Meadowlands”
XTC, “Drums and Wires”
Yo La Tengo, “I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One”
As a special "bonus" for anyone caring enough to read this far, here is another list. This is a playlist I made to demonstrate how Blur owes a huge artistic debt to XTC. It's organized in pairs of songs which sound alike to me. In each case, the Blur song comes first, the better to notice the similarities when you hear the antecedent.
1. Blur, Stereotypes, from "The Great Escape"
2. XTC, Respectable Street, from "Black Sea"
3. Blur, Pressure on Julian, from "Modern Life is Rubbish"
4. XTC, Making Plans For Nigel, from "Drums and Wires"
5. Blur, Jubilee, from "Parklife"
6. XTC, Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian), from "Go 2"
7. Blur, Theme From Retro, from "Blur"
8. XTC, Life is Good in the Greenhouse, from "Go 2"
9. Blur, Tracy Jacks, from "Parklife"
10. XTC, Love At First Sight, from "Black Sea"
11. Blur, Chinese Bombs, from "Blur"
12. XTC, Cross Wires, from "White Music"
The list only has 12 items right now because I am still working on it. As I hear new connections during casual iPod listening, I will add them. Suggestions are welcome, lol.
As a special "bonus" for anyone caring enough to read this far, here is another list. This is a playlist I made to demonstrate how Blur owes a huge artistic debt to XTC. It's organized in pairs of songs which sound alike to me. In each case, the Blur song comes first, the better to notice the similarities when you hear the antecedent.
1. Blur, Stereotypes, from "The Great Escape"
2. XTC, Respectable Street, from "Black Sea"
3. Blur, Pressure on Julian, from "Modern Life is Rubbish"
4. XTC, Making Plans For Nigel, from "Drums and Wires"
5. Blur, Jubilee, from "Parklife"
6. XTC, Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian), from "Go 2"
7. Blur, Theme From Retro, from "Blur"
8. XTC, Life is Good in the Greenhouse, from "Go 2"
9. Blur, Tracy Jacks, from "Parklife"
10. XTC, Love At First Sight, from "Black Sea"
11. Blur, Chinese Bombs, from "Blur"
12. XTC, Cross Wires, from "White Music"
The list only has 12 items right now because I am still working on it. As I hear new connections during casual iPod listening, I will add them. Suggestions are welcome, lol.
So many times, I agree with you on the best album by the artist, but they still wouldn't make my top 50.
ReplyDeleteThe Blur=XTC thing is fun though.
Man, you are soooo right. Fiery furnaces totally blow away anything ever done by the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Polvo, The Replacements, Hendrix, Beirut, Smog, Jay-Z, Bonnie prince Billy, The Beach Boys, Can, Devo, Dinosaur Jr, The Jesus Lizard, Sebadoh, Slint, De La Soul, Kool Keith, Funkadelic, Etta James, Fugazi, The Smiths, Leonard Cohen, M. Ward, My Bloody Valentine, Neil Young, Outkast, Peter Gabriel, Shellac, Sonic Youth, Miles Davis, or anything that featured black people.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's true that Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Phillip Glass couldn't hold the tiny jocks of Vampire Weekend. Can you imagine how Robert Johnson, Django Reinhart, and John Fahey would've worshipped those boys if they had lived to witness their glory?
ReplyDeleteIt would have been like when Mozart met the members of Wyld Stallyns in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Their horizons would have opened up and they would have seen the light. I can just see Robert Johnson, John Fahey, and Django performing a song about their yacht. Do you think that would have made your list?
ReplyDeleteOh, silly Nate. First of all: "I decided on a definition of 'best' that bows to the subjectiveness of that idea: I could add anything to the list that I either thought was one of the 'the best' or simply 'my favorite'." That was right in the second paragraph of the post.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, it's not a "best bands" list, it's a "best ALBUMS" list.
Third, I HATE: Led Zepplin AND The Rolling Stones, so fuck them, and Sonic Youth and Stevie Wonder (anyone black) are both in that list.
Finally, if you want to share YOUR list of what you think the best is, I hear you have your own blog somewhere.....
Actually, I take some of that back. I believe I said that people should feel free to respond, so, go ahead and post your lists here, I like it. Anything I left out that's obvious for MY listening tastes, it's just that their best album didn't make this list, and yes, I fucking love that Vamp Weekend album. I don't think he sings about his yacht anywhere on it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't HATE those two bands, they just bore me. "Houses of the Holy" is okay, I guess.
"We all disagree/I think we should disagree", in the words of The Strokes, who I also like better than all of the bands you listed, even though they wouldn't exist without the Stones.
Stevie Wonder isn't black, for all he knows. You didn't call it Dan's highly biased favorite albums list, you called it best of all time. Just saying. It's your blog and I'm playing by your rules. And it was Beethoven and not Mozart in Bill and Ted's, Damnit. For the record, I'm not a big fan of the Stones or Zepplin either, but I also prefer Taco Bell to fine sushi, even though I know the sushi is better. You get my drift, Dan drift essay blog. Let's start a music blog, you and me.
ReplyDeleteI'm still working on this, but it was a crazy endeavor
ReplyDeletehttp://carpetfarm.blogspot.com/2010/08/autobiographical-albums-list.html