Week 31: 50 Albums That Changed Music

[Swish]

Hola amigos! Yes, I'm a bit late this week as I am just back from a 5 day trip to the Riviera Maya, and it was just what the doctor ordered. Plenty of sun (left PA with temps in the low teens), pleny of fun, and lots of beer and tequila. It's still good to be home, even with the snow falling and a prediction of more than 5 inches of the stuff, and what should be our first real snow of the year after a few dustings.

Anyway, this week's selection was a no-brainer for a British newspaper, although I certainly like this one too. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989)

Until the late Eighties, Manchester was thought to be a forbidding, dour place where the ghost of Ian Curtis still clanked about. The Stone Roses' concatenation of sweet West Coast psychedelia and the lairy, loved-up rave culture was as unforeseeable as it was seismic. Ecstasy pulled the sniffy rock kids away from their Smiths records and into clubland; the result was an album whose woozy words and funky drumming sounded as guileless as it did hedonistic. Without this...well, a bit of the Roses remains in the DNA of every British guitar band since.

Like I said, I really like this record but I don't see it as terribly influential or seminal, but I'm sure others will chime in with their opinions...or at least I hope so.

Swish

[BradH]

Without this...well, a bit of the Roses remains in the DNA of every British guitar band since.

I think there's a lot of truth to that but it mostly set the stage for the Britpop thing that followed. Blur's second album launched the whole Cool Brittania "My Spitfire is better than your P51 Mustang" anti-grunge back-to-the-future neo-wave British Invasion sound. And that whole thing crapped out by '97. Somehow, sadly, it all comes down to "Song No. 2" being yoo-hooed at NFL stadiums and even the kids don't know who the hell it is.

Is Liam Gallagher dead yet?

Are we gonna see Isaac Hayes on this list?

[nobody]

I think this one absolutely falls into the catagory of records that were big and influential on one side of the Atlantic, but not the other. It only made a mild splash in most of America and I dodn't really see much of it in anything since over here while the influence on Britpop has been huge. Stuff like Jane's Addiction was much more influential on the US rock scene at the time. I don't think your average joe rock fan in the US has ever warmed to the dance floor.

Personally, I like the album, but never thought it was as special as people make it out. I always preferred my extacy with an industrial beat.

[Troy]

Absolutely ineffectal in the US. It had no affect on music in America in ANY way. How can this be one of the 50 most influential albums ever when most Americans (The world's largest market) don't even know who they are?

So now we have a new adjective to use on this pathetic guardian list: provincial.

[Dusty Chalk]

I guess it was the first of the "madchester" sound, but, I don't know about it being in the DNA of every British band since...

[Stone]

Absolutely ineffectal in the US. It had no affect on music in America in ANY way. How can this be one of the 50 most influential albums ever when most Americans (The world's largest market) don't even know who they are?

So now we have a new adjective to use on this pathetic guardian list: provincial.

Talking absolutes will get you in trouble. You should know that. And how could you say so indignantly that it hasn't had an affect on music in America? You've listened to every band and/or interviewed them to know this?

It has had an influence here on indie pop bands. Certainly, it made a much bigger splash in Europe with the whole Madchester scene, and worldwide, I don't know if it deserves to be on the list or not. But America is not the only place in the world and it was a hit here with the college/dance/underground crowd.

[Swish]

I guess it was the first of the "madchester" sound, but, I don't know about it being in the DNA of every British band since...

...they say every British "guitar" band. Then again, how many aren't considered "guitar" bands?

Swish

[Dusty Chalk]

...they say every British "guitar" band. Then again, how many aren't considered "guitar" bands?

Fine whatever. I still don't know about them being in the DNA of every British guitar band since. That eliminates, what, Depeche Mode and maybe one other band.

[-Jar-]

Like I said, I really like this record but I don't see it as terribly influential or seminal, but I'm sure others will chime in with their opinions...or at least I hope so.

Swish

I don't care about influence or whatever, I love that friggin' album. The Roses had their hooks in me from the very first note and the hooks are still in me nearly 18 years later.

-jar