Like my hometown Hoosier hero W Axl Rose, I'm calling out the punks over at Spin magazine for this crappy list supposedly representing the 100 greatest albums of the last two decades. Get in the ring. This has to be the worst, plain stupidest such list I've seen since the time some years ago when Spin picked "It Takes Two" by Rob Base as the greatest single. When was the last time any of y'all actually listened to that bit of effluvia?…
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— go to most recent comments26 - Al Barger
Ah, found that Spin list HERE IT IS I also added the link back up into the story.
Actually, looking at that list now, it's a lot more interesting than this new album list.
27 - Rodney Welch
Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain has made its way on to so many bestof lists over the years, and when the two-disc expanded edition came out some months back, it was amazing how many reviews popped up, reiterating the general opinion that it was one of the great discs of the 1990s. I have a friend who loves it, too, and she used to e-mail me her thoughts on what made it a classic. Finally, I broke down and bought the expanded edition, and I just don't see what people love about it. I've listened to it several times since, mainly as a way of kind of forcing the issue, forcing me to hear something I've been missing. I'm halfway tempted to do the same with Slanted and Enchanted.
If a record doesn't connect with you, chances are you aren't going to be able to talk yourself into liking it. But in this case, I find myself almost fascinated by the disconnect between my ears and the rest of the world's -- or the critical aspect of it.
Hey, this has nothing to do with anything, but I'll throw it in anyway. Maybe the Duke will be interested. I've just put together my own little mix, not of the last 20 years, but of the fiercest, fastest, hard-driving songs on my computer. I call it "Relentless and Punishing," and I've tried to hold it to that. The song has to start hard and stay hard; if it slows down or becomes unduly thoughtful, it's out. I try not to have anything with a sense of humor on it unless it's black as pitch, so I had to scrap the handful of Ramones I had. It's a real headbanger's ball, and anyone similarly inclined may want to use it as a template.
This is going to be one window-rattling bitch in the car:
"Straight Edge" -- Minor Threat
"Wasted" -- Black Flag
"Suburban Home" -- Descendents
"Borstal Breakout" -- Sham 69
"Warsaw" -- Joy Division
"Oh Bondage Up Yours!" -- X-Ray Spex
"I'm Not Down" -- The Clash
"Sonic Reducer" -- The Dead Boys
"Pretty Vacant" -- Sex Pistols
"Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine" -- The White Stripes
"Looking For A Kiss" -- New York Dolls
"Meet Ze Monsta" -- PJ Harvey
"The Wait" -- The Pretenders
"Little Mascara" -- The Replacements
"Iz They Wildin Wit Us & Gettin Rowdy Wit Us" -- Busta Rhymes
"Still in Hollywood" -- Concrete Blonde
"Institutionalized" -- Suicidal Tendencies
"Trust" -- Megadeth
"No Fun" -- The Stooges
"Sister Ray" -- The Velvet Underground
28 - todd
Obviously, All The Smiths and U2 records should be at the top, expect the last 2 U2 has put out which have sold well but aren't so good.
All Radiohead should immediately be strucken off the list, they blow, or maybe I just don't get it, after numerous attempts.
Then ditch all the hip-hop/rap except Biggie and Run-Dmc. And maybe Prince.
Subtract the Pixies, too, bleh.
Liz Phair isn't unlistenable as the previous mentioned stuff, but doesn't need to be on a top 100 list.
Sonic Youth... well, they have a few good songs here and there, but in the light of so much hype, they don't live up and they have to go to.
Along that line, axe Jesus and Mary Chain.
Replace liberally with The Smiths and U2 .
And where is the Cowboy Junkies? Where is EC's King of America or Blood and Chocolate? Where is Johnny Cash's acoustical Comeback record?
Al you are wrong about Polly Jean, she rules! Very deceptively simple music, but try to play it, its only 4-5 chords but its a style all her own and hard to reproduce.
Psalm 69 by Ministry should be there too, and the first Butthole Surfers record, if it falls into the time frame.
I would say the DK's too, but by 1985 there best work was done, same with Black Flag.
At my window by Townes van Zandt
Hell With The Lid Off by MC 900 Foot Jesus
Yoshima - Flaming Lips..
29 - Thad Anderson
The "relentless and punishing" list rules . . . I want to add one "bonus track," Shellac's "My Black Ass," from their unrelenting 1994 album "At Action Park." Shellac's guitarist is Steve Albini (who produced Nirvana's "In Utero," the Pixies' "Surfer Rosa" and a bunch of other good albums), and this song is insane . . . perfect driving music.
30 - El Bicho
Gonzo,
53. The Battle of Los Angeles Rage Against the Machine 1999
I find Disintergration to be a better album than Head on the Door. 2 Pavements albums, but only 1 Jane's Addiction? C'mon.
For the country folk, I would highly recommend Loretta Lynn's "Van Lear Rose."
I'll give you Graceland should be on the list, but to say that all of Simon's work (even Songs from the Capeman?) is better than Master of Puppets loses all your street cred, but if GnR is as hard as you rock, it's no wonder that you don't get Metallica and the power of that album.
I'm off to check my CDs
31 - Thad Anderson
Also, the Strokes are decent and all, but I can't put "Is This It" on a top 100 of the last 20 years list. "Last Night" is a great song, but it pales in comparison to its obvious inspiration, Tom Petty's "American Girl."
32 - HW Saxton
Al, I was only funnin' about "The Humpty
Dance" being the greatest single of all
time ever was etc.I do like the song and
think it holds up pretty well to this
day.Which is way more than I can say for
many of it's contemporaries.
The Strokes??? Whozzat? They are barely
remenbered today. 2 years from now LOL!
Rodney, You should just just toss out
the rest of the list except for "Sister
Ray". Then the turn the volume to the
max and leave it on repeat play.
33 - Temple Stark
Or even Tom Petty's "Last Night."
34 - Thad Anderson
One more for the "relenting and punishing" list: "You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire" from the Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Deaf.
Queens of the Stone Age fans who haven't heard the Desert Sessions yet have to track that down. There are early demo versions of "Millionaire," "Avon," and many other Queens songs, recorded out in the desert as demos. Desert Sessions 9 & 10, which features PJ Harvey on vocals for several songs, is particularly good.
35 - Rodney Welch
Thanks, Thad -- I'll check it out. Personally I like that Strokes record, and listen to it a lot more than some of the others that made the cut.
36 - Shark
re: The List --
despite the fact that this is more about marketing than educating the listening public, it's main effect is to convince me that The End is Near.
Carry on, kiddies.
Shark (currently listening to Raymond Scott and thinking 'they don't make 'em like this anymore.'
37 - Shark
Saxton: "...Why don't these jokers ever try to think outside of their limited little spectrum once in a while?"
Um, because they're aiming for a demographic that is 14 years old, semi-retarded, and makes $100,000 a year.
(Music: it's not what's on TV.)
38 - Shark
Oh, and I can't help it:
Watching yall 'debate' a list like this is like listening to people argue about the top ten best fast-food hamburgers.
xxoo
S
39 - Scott
Looking over the list again, there is one glaring omission from my perspective...They Might Be Giants! "Flood" was a milestone album...again, Spin is on crack
40 - Ryan
maybe paul simon isn't on there because he sucks
41 - Al Barger
Yes Ryan, that's one theory. Or perhaps it is because the editorial staff at Spin are musical illiterates that wouldn't know a real song if it came up and bit them in the ass.
42 - Rodney Welch
I can't fathom why they left off Graceland. Inexcusable.
43 - Eric Berlin
Agree with Gonzo -- no Rage ATM is just wrong.
Top 10 - 15 doesn't look too shabby, however.
U2's Achtung Baby at #11 is odd. Good album but... #11?
44 - Al Barger
Actually, they did put a Rage Against the Machine album in, see #53. That they would canonize that nonsense is part of what I have against the list.
45 - gonzo marx
as El Bicho pointed out earlier to me..and i do stand corrcted on that one count
mea culpa
i woudl hav erather seen one fo the first 2 albums instead of this last one, but what the hell
to Big Al..all yer taste in in yer mouth fer talking smack against Rage...
{8^P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
still and all..what about the rest of the albums i spoke of earlier?
no Tool?...that's a sin that should get the editors of Spin sent to the vivisectionist
but i digress.....
Excelsior!
46 - Al Barger
re: comment #38, Shark ya danged ol' pinko, I'm sympathetic to your point about "fast-food hamburgers" when talking about a list made up largely of stuff like Green Day and hippity-hoppity nonsense. It's like eating cold bologna sandwiches on white bread when Paul Simon and Prince are serving steak and lobster.
47 - Rodney Welch
That's just Shark being Shark. The main reason people love best-of lists is that it allows them to wallow in their own superiority, which usually means coming up with a hipper-than-thou list of bands so obscure they could just as well be made up -- or, in Shark's case, performers like "Raymond Scott" -- in hopes of proving that they are in that very special 00000.000000000063 of one percent of the population with genuine taste. It's so bogus, such an easy game to play.
48 - godoggo
Are you musically literate, Al?
I've never been a huge Sonic Youth fan, myself, but it would be easy to make a list of very fine musicians who love them. Pat Metheny leaps to mind.
49 - Al Barger
My judgments are based on my own listening. I've listened repeatedly to Sonic Youth, and I don't hear it- at all. I cannot see what it is that someone else is hearing, or imagine the musical values that would cause them to judge those records as worthwhile.
I certainly would not substitute Pat Metheny's judgment for my own. Who the hell is he, anyway?
In short, I've got a reasonably broad palette, and I can appreciate even a lot of things that I just don't much personally care for (ie Pink Floyd). I'm a pretty fair connisseur of nearly anything in the broad parameters of rock era American popular music.
It is my best informed opinion that Sonic Youth blows. I don't care if the head monkey in Paris or Pat Metheny or the writers of Spin say otherwise.
50 - Eric Berlin
"Battle of Los Angeles" is a bizarre choice for a Rage album. Their debut effort clearly belongs on the list.
Al -- Your casual dismissal of Rage Against the Machine displays a lack of appreciation for the modern rock and hip hop movement.
51 - Al Barger
No Mr Berlin, my dismissal of RATM is not a general lack of appreciation for a genre, but a reflection of the fact that I've never heard a single decent song from this specific band. Not one.
Do they have a real song somewhere in their catalog?
Everything I've heard suggests that they have not only no skills but no interest in even trying to make music. They were just left-wing schtick. Thrash at the instruments real loud and angry while shouting denunciations of The Man.
If there was an actual tune under the thrashing, I might be interested in what they have to say.
52 - gonzo marx
oh, big Al..i will dig something up by them for ya..
Excelsior!
53 - Al Barger
Alright Gonzo, feel free to fling me an mp3 or two in the email of their best SONGS. Perhaps I simply haven't listened close enough or to the right ones.
54 - Rodney Welch
Daydream Nation isn't the kind of record everyone loves. I remember how Charles M. Young, a reviewer with very broad and forgiving tastes for all things punk, roundly dissed the record in Playboy.
What I've always liked about it is that it's a very moody and spontaneous record -- very much in the style of the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat -- and a very mysterious one as well. It sounds at times like it's being played on a radio three cars away. It begins very hypnotically; it makes you think of some modern day road movie set in the midwest, where you just know the journey ahead is fraught with violence. Kim Gordon sings about wanting to know "the exact dimensions of hell," and by record's end you get the feeling the band has scoped out the joint pretty good.
55 - godoggo
The point was just that you had raised the phrase "musical illiterates," which made me think of a kettle throwing stones in a black house, or something like that. I raised Metheny's name, because he is definitely musically literate, which implies to me, at the minimum, having good ears. Doesn't mean his taste is correct.
Oh well, I like your occasional writing about country; otherwise your whole aesthetic seems to revolve around an addiction to catchy hooks that I don't share.
56 - Scott
I never really liked Rage against the Machine but Tom Morello's work in that band is impossible to overlook. He did so many innovative things on guitar that even if you don't particularly care for their music, you can appreciate his originality. At least I do...
57 - Eric Berlin
Al - Just because you don't agree with RATM's political message does nothing to take away from their songs -- real songs they be all. In fact, most of their songs are standrad verse-chorus-verse. They also stay away from the studio effects many other rock/hip hop bands utilize and stay true to instruments and vocals (which is they they've produced some of the most exciting live shows in the history of rock).
Many of their best songs come off their debut album, I must admit, though all of their studio albums are at least very good.
58 - gonzo marx
heh...
just sent big Al "No Shelter" from Rage
and AEnima by Tool
let's see what he thinks
if his head doesn't explode form that, mebbe i'll send one of my favorite things from Texas...
"Cowboys from Hell" by Pantera
nuff said?
oh yeah...that's another unpardonable Sin on this list...
"Vulgar Display of Power" by Pantera not on this list?
send the spin editors to the vivisectionist
nuff said?
Excelsior!
59 - Scott
I always thought "Vivisection" would be a great name for a metal band.
60 - Admar
here's some that were left out, The Love Below by Outkast,way better than Stankonia. Pretty Hate Machine, THe blue album by Weezer and though very new American Idiot from Green Day. But, what hurts the most was that Automatic for the people ranked so low at number 85, Automatic for the people is a classic and one of the most sincere albums we have.
61 - Al Barger
I swear I'd pick a frickin' Phil Collins record before I'd be picking Green Day. I'm just sayin'...
62 - Eric Berlin
Al -- You've got a bias against alt rock in most forms, is what you're saying.
We've all got 'em. It takes me a long time to pick up on singer-songwriters stuff that other people go on and on about.
Interesting that you seem to think highly of the Pixies (and thank The Lords for that!) but not some of the bands they've influenced.
63 - Eric Berlin
Gonzo -- Nice word re: No Shelter. Great tune.
"The front lines are everywhere..."
64 - Pete Blackwell
The Strokes? The Strokes?!? The F*cking STROKES!!?!?!?
Please.
65 - Rodney Welch
Yep. Good band.
66 - Eric Olsen
not sure about the band in general, but that's a great ALBUM anyway
67 - Rodney Welch
No question.
68 - Al Barger
El Senor Gonzo, thanks for sending me the RATM. Bending over backwards, I could dig on some of the general guitar sound. However, Morello's wasted on these non-songs. If there was even a somewhat marginally decent melody, I could see the appeal of the big sound.
But there's no tune to speak of. They're not even TRYING to write tunes, not even in a rap sort way. He's just chanting his pinko dogmas.
I saw RATM live at Lollapalooza a few years back, and the guy was on stage reading us from some book, and hectoring away. THAT'S NOT MUSIC.
I don't reject them because of their politics, but because they are TUNELESS. I'm not sure if I mentioned that. If they had any decent SONGS, I'd be willing to listen. I don't believe in Jesus, but I listen to a LOT of gospel music. And I obviously don't go for the pinko nonsense, but rarely a month goes by without me digging out some Clash. THEY had the goods.
69 - gonzo marx
philistine
Excelsior!
70 - matthis
this is a BAD list.
nevermind should be number one. even if you're not a nirvana fan.. it's hard to deny that they are the #1 influence on modern rock... with the whole melodic verse/heavy chorus sound that's EVERYWHERE these days.
2nd... there's no "jagged little pill"
3rd... head on the door? i love the cure but head on the door is not a #27... especially considering that "disintegration" is not even on the list, which is a FAR superior album.
4th... and then there's achtung baby. now that is one fantastic album... but the joshua tree is better. and it doesn't even make an apperance on the list at all.
71 - matthis
and i almost forgot... where is ænima by tool?
if i remember correctly... tool was on spin magazine's list of "the only bands that matter" a couple years ago.. and they don't even put one of their albums on the list? that's hypocrisy my friends.
72 - Michael J. West
According to the magazine issue, the Strokes album was
"the soundtrack for being young and cool in downtown New York in the early 21st Century."
TRANSLATION:
"If you don't live in the Village, you're not cool enough to listen to the Strokes."
73 - Shadow
NO JOSHUA TREE?!?!?! thats easily the greatest album of the past 20 years, and its NOT EVEN ON THE LIST.
74 - Jesus Jones
Aphex Twin
The Richard D James Album
Or How About Drukqs
75 - Mihos
Good to know Spin Magazine has a white college drug fiend following. That list bit through the lip providing another handy orifice to put tackle ornaments through