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  1. #1
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    Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Albums...Not as bad as you might expect, actually

    Mr. MidFi
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  2. #2
    Forum Regular nobody's Avatar
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    Yeah...not all that bad of a list. Personally I think the 70s get a bit too much focus and the 50s not enough. Still, it does a better job of crossign eras than so many lists which giove you like 50 albums from the 60s and thirty from the 70s and fill in the rest. And, while I like her and all, I think putting PJ Harvey on there for one of their token nods to the 2000 era is a joke. I mean they only picked 5 albums recorded in this decade and no way that is one of the top 5 to me. Then again, the more recent picks are always a crap shoot in these lists.

    As usual, I find the token nods to jazz silly. Either include more than 2 albums or just leave the genre alone. I mean, one of the biggest global musical developments in history gets 2 albums on the top 100? Why bother?

    Nice choice with the Phil Spector...even though it is a cheating way to get a bunch of groups on there with one pick.

    No time to complain more, so I'll just end by liking that they felt OK with including compilations for stuff like Chuck Berry and Hank Williams. These kind of artists need to be included and those collections really are the best way to listen to 'em.

  3. #3
    Crackhead Extraordinaire Dusty Chalk's Avatar
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    I do believe I distinctly requested more controversy.

    Although it might be considered controversial as listing Elvis Presley's Sunrise release as 1999 -- I guess they're going by release dates, not recording dates, which is what makes this recording "important" -- but only to pedants.
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    I took a headstart... basite's Avatar
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    hmm, alot of things you wouldn't expect to be there, really, and there where too many 70ties albums and too les 50 albums, at one thing, I have to say they're right, the nirvana album, nevermind, it was great, but on the other hand, i'm really suprised that Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong aren't in the list...

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    Personal taste differences aside I don't see how they could list so many compilation/anthology albums as they did.

    There are plenty of artists whose body of work is impressive but putting it on a "greatest hits" disc and putting in the same category of some of these conventional albums such as Rumours, Hotel California etc. is just not an apples to apples comparison. If that were the case I guess we will next see some of the Time-Life disc sets that I see getting shilled on infomercials.

  6. #6
    Suspended 3-LockBox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thekid
    Personal taste differences aside I don't see how they could list so many compilation/anthology albums as they did.

    There are plenty of artists whose body of work is impressive but putting it on a "greatest hits" disc and putting in the same category of some of these conventional albums such as Rumours, Hotel California etc. is just not an apples to apples comparison. If that were the case I guess we will next see some of the Time-Life disc sets that I see getting shilled on infomercials.
    Well, some artists just never did an album proper, as they weren't really envogue in the era in which the artists genres at the time they were active, i.e., blues and country music. If you're talkin artists, then you just gots to include someone like Hank Williams or Chuck Berry, whose genres were mainly singles driven.

    But for me, I wished whomever is going to compile a list of greatest albums wouldn't be so quick to lose sight of what they were talking about when they set out to make a list about greatest albums in the first place. For example, U2, Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra definately should have an album on such a list, not because they're U2, Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra, but because they've all definately, concsiously, made such lauded artistic statements in the form of an album. But it always turns into a Who's Who list in the end and that's just hackish, p!ss-poor journalism.

  7. #7
    very clever with maracas Davey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr MidFi
    Judge for yourself...
    OK, since you insist ... just another silly list that tries to please a wide audience, but ultimately pleases no one. No personality. No imaginative choices, but still no room for some of the real classics of the era. No "Remain In Light". No "Electric Warrior". No "Crazy Rhythms". No "Heart of the Congo". No "Astral Weeks". Nothing from Gang of Four? Huh? Or Eno, or Can, or Kraftwerk? I don't even see Joy Division. Can you believe a top 100 list with no Kinks? Yet there's room for Courtney Love's band? Hehehe, probably wouldn't even make my top 100 of the 90s. When's the last time anyone played that CD? PJ Harvey's debut was monumental in comparison, like the second coming of Patti Smith, yet no mention. And hey Swish Baby, thanks for the freebies. PJ and the band really brought the noise to Peel's studio on those early tracks, some of which were taped before they even recorded the debut album. Great stuff!

    Yeah, I agree with others who say that the premise of an all encompassing list is a joke, especially when you then make it almost all rock. Just make it a rock list. Then you don't have to worry about leaving off some of the best and most important records of the last century. And you have enough room to give it a slant, a flavor, something worthwhile. And sheesh, put a start date on it already! Like 1965. They make it look like music wasn't invented until the 60s!

    Pointless. Especially since they left off the best CD of the last 10 years ...



    OK, enough said, I do like lists once in a while, but there's been such a proliferation of them lately. Rough Guides did one a few years ago that has some great picks. Just 100 Essential Rock CDs. Everything from Robert Wyatt's beautifully time warping "Rock Bottom" to AC/DC's ball busting "Back in Black".

  8. #8
    BooBs are elitist jerks shokhead's Avatar
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    I have elvis from 2000 and nothing from 80's or 90's.
    Look & Listen

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    Forum Regular nobody's Avatar
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    Actually, I do still pull out Live Through This and have that PJ Harvey album and probably haven't put it on in years...although you said the PJ Harvey debut, which I like better and which ain't on the list.

  10. #10
    Shostakovich fan Feanor's Avatar
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    Sadly, meaningless ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr MidFi
    To a classical lover like me, that is. Right now I'm into Shostakovichh; it's his 100th anniversary, don't y'know!

    That said, I actually have 7-8 of the albums on the list, all prior to 1980. Ironically though, the jazz I own, (Davis, Coltrane), I bought on SACD on the last 2-3 years. The rest I have on vinyl from back in the day.

  11. #11
    very clever with maracas Davey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nobody
    Actually, I do still pull out Live Through This
    OK, it was actually just a rhetorical question, but the point is that the list is mostly a lot of safe choices, the big selling albums, so is without much personality. Would Hole's CD have been on the list if it hadn't sold a million copies the first year in the wake of Cobain's suicide? The thing about lists like this that can make then good, and fun, and valuable, at least to me, is the exposure to artists and albums you haven't heard before. Or haven't heard in the context of being one of the greatest albums of all time before. Seems like a wasted slot to pick Hole's album. But admittedly, I did tire of it quickly, and especially the whole Courtney Love trainwreck leaves me sour on it as well, and I'd much quicker pick something like Lisa Germano's "Geek the Girl" from the same year. Something of very high quality that many people wouldn't know since it hasn't sold millions.

  12. #12
    Rocket Surgeon Swish's Avatar
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    You're welcome, and I agree with much of what you're...

    Quote Originally Posted by Davey
    OK, since you insist ... just another silly list that tries to please a wide audience, but ultimately pleases no one. No personality. No imaginative choices, but still no room for some of the real classics of the era. No "Remain In Light". No "Electric Warrior". No "Crazy Rhythms". No "Heart of the Congo". No "Astral Weeks". Nothing from Gang of Four? Huh? Or Eno, or Can, or Kraftwerk? I don't even see Joy Division. Can you believe a top 100 list with no Kinks? Yet there's room for Courtney Love's band? Hehehe, probably wouldn't even make my top 100 of the 90s. When's the last time anyone played that CD? PJ Harvey's debut was monumental in comparison, like the second coming of Patti Smith, yet no mention. And hey Swish Baby, thanks for the freebies. PJ and the band really brought the noise to Peel's studio on those early tracks, some of which were taped before they even recorded the debut album. Great stuff!

    Yeah, I agree with others who say that the premise of an all encompassing list is a joke, especially when you then make it almost all rock. Just make it a rock list. Then you don't have to worry about leaving off some of the best and most important records of the last century. And you have enough room to give it a slant, a flavor, something worthwhile. And sheesh, put a start date on it already! Like 1965. They make it look like music wasn't invented until the 60s!

    Pointless. Especially since they left off the best CD of the last 10 years ...



    OK, enough said, I do like lists once in a while, but there's been such a proliferation of them lately. Rough Guides did one a few years ago that has some great picks. Just 100 Essential Rock CDs. Everything from Robert Wyatt's beautifully time warping "Rock Bottom" to AC/DC's ball busting "Back in Black".
    ...saying. Call it your top 100 Rock, or just say "Essential". I love poring over any list that someone calls "essential". And I usually end up buying a few that I don't have, although that's becoming a short list. Gotta hear that Wovenhand, and I happen to know it's on its way to my house.

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  13. #13
    very clever with maracas Davey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Swish
    Gotta hear that Wovenhand, and I happen to know it's on its way to my house.
    Hehehe, it's really just an illustration of how much more fun it is when these kind of lists go out of normal bounds, and pick something like Woven Hand, something that might make you go, huh, what's that? Really nice album, but you'd never see it on a mainstream magazine list. That's what was so fun when we did our essential albums lists around here. Gave people a chance to get a little weird and wonderful with their picks, along with some of the classics. Just gets boring seeing the same group of artists and albums over and over on these lists. Bad for the health of rock music too. How many kids today are gonna check out some of those great albums of the 70s that never make it to these lists, like Mink DeVille's Cabretta, or Dr. Feelgood's Malpractice, or that wonderful solo debut from Emitt Rhodes. Those first three Sparks albums never make the lists either. Shame. History can really distort the sound of the times when viewed through such a narrow perspective. Should be a lot more space devoted to the forgotten gems of yesterday. Or every list should come with a sidebar on the ones you probably missed out on. I used to like that in the Spin Magazine yearly list. They would have the main top 20, and then follow it with the best ones you didn't hear about. That was the good list. Silly magazine, but I used to pick up the end of the year issue just for that feature.

    Fortunately, a lot of bands today are finding some of these semi-obscure gems and helping to bring them back. Not nearly enough to counteract these myopic lists that try to objectify a million interesting works of art into a short list of those that matter, but at least a little. Unfortunately, many of them seem to be sharing those same few gems and not looking for their own

    They really did capture the PJH sound of the debut in those first 4 Peel tracks. Just so live sounding. That's what I always loved about that album. The drums are great too. If I hadn't already heard that album so much, it would probably be a revelation. I'd probably be calling it CD of the year. Who knows, I still might.

  14. #14
    Silence of the spam Site Moderator Geoffcin's Avatar
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    Yeah, safe picks, and a big FUBAR on the 2000's

    At least they got a good part of the 70's classics.

    Really it SHOULD be called the 100 rock albums.

    But no Pink Floyd? HA!
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