I can pretty much agree with (or understand) most of your calls here.
Obviously, with music, tastes will vary.
I was just a little disheartened? saddened? that you are dismissive of some of my FAVES (and fabulous performers):
- RADIOHEAD (while I DO agree with your summation of "IN RAINBOWS", I absolutely LOVE their hauntingly good sound)
- THE SMITHS (I was a fan of theirs in the early 1980's before they "made it" in the US, and all my friends were like "Wha??? What IS this?")
- PORTISHEAD (I can not get ENOUGH of this band or their sound. I'll place all 5 cd's on the 5-disc changer and st the turntable for "indefinite repeat" and listen to them ALL DAY)
------------
The PRETENDERS are good, but it's CHRISSY HYNDE that grabs me and gives me a rough but tender kiss.
"I'll Stand by You" just crushes me.
Her voice just does it for me.
ELIOT SMITH is/was great!
I need to pull out those disks today.
I haven't listened to them in about 2 years.
Great run-down.
Nicely delineated.
~P~
PTOR
Oh. I forgot:
AMIEE MANN.
LOVE HER!
Yes, so much of it sounds the same, but I still LOVE her voice.
OK. Bye.
~P~
PTOR
Gotta agree about Bjork. I loved her once upon a time ago, but she got more impenetrable with each passing album. If I want a Bjork fix now, I'll sometimes stick with Debut or Post, but more often than not just go back to the Sugarcubes.
I keep being surprised that Surfer Rosa is ranked higher than Doolittle on these lists, too. Not that SR is bad, but Doolittle is just so much more, I dunno, Pixies-ish to me.
You need some Elliot Smith in your diet. Seriously.
Will keep your advice re: Let It Be in mind.
Lucinda Williams may be an acquired taste, but I love that album.
That article about Paul Simon ripping people off disappointed me, because I really do love Graceland.
I liked Green Day's "Dookie" album. A fun slice of pop-punk before that genre got tiresome. I thought "American Idiot" was a waste of time though. A three-chord punk band trying to do slick arena-rock ballads. I agree with the politics (more or less), but that can't save it.
I have never jumped on the Amy Winehouse bandwagon. In fact, I didn't even hear of her until she got on the news for being a drunk & disorderly sack of crap, so to me it feels like she skipped straight to the "drugged-out, washed-up loser" stage of a showbiz career without actually establishing a career first.
How does a one-hit wonder like Fiona Apple get on this list?
I agree with them on Arcade Fire. And on Radiohead's inclusion, though not necessarily "In Rainbows" (which I haven't heard all of, but what I have heard hasn't really stood out as superior to their other work). It, like several things on this list, seems to have made the list mainly because it's newer.
I think lists like this should have a cutoff date, so they can't include anything from, say, within the last year or so. They always end up weighted pretty heavily towards recent releases and end up looking kind of silly later when the gloss has come off those albums.
I'm one of the anti-Coldplay people (though not as violently as some). Neutered Radiohead crossed with U2 at their least clever. Some of the stuff if pretty catchy, but even the stuff I liked got played to death.
Britney has no place here. Aguilera's actually a fairly good singer, but her material sucks and her pop-slutty image takes precedence.
I own one out of 100: The Smiths. And I've got the Belle and Sebastian one in mp3 form.
I'm not very active in the music scene.
Very interesting list.
First of all, I gotta strongly disagree with you on Tom Waits. I think his early stuff is excellent - Heartattack and Vine and Nighthawks are probably my two favorites (although too old for this list), but actually, Mule Variations may be his best album! Even last year's 3CD set Orphans was very solid.
I second the vote for Lucinda Williams, though as much as I like Car Wheels, I think Essence is her best album. Definitely more soulful.
I can think of at least 3 better Springsteen albums than Born in the USA - The Rising, Seeger Sessions, Magic...
I also second the vote for Radiohead In Rainbows. It took me 4-5 listens to realize that it's just kinda one long, excellent song.
Totally agree with you on Bjork, Liz Phair and Neil Young. I would've included Live at Massey Hall - 1971. I know it's older than 25 years, but was only released last year.
I won't go into the opinions of the artists listed since music tastes can really vary, though after a read through the list I was shocked that I owned 23 of these.
There are SO many of my favorite musicians albums of the last 25 years not on this list that I wonder if I live in the same world with some of these critics.
(What, no Ben Folds?)
And I can't tell from your comment, but you do know that Jeff Buckley is dead, right?
When you wrote: "and he was shaping up as a talent worth watching,"
that sounded right, but when you followed up with: "if he could ever buckle down and do anything. He didn't inherit his dad's work ethic, that's for sure."
I didn't know what to think.
Didn't mean to sound so dismissive of Radiohead; I respect what they do, but I rarely am compelled to experience it. Same as with Smith; I liked a couple of tracks from X/O, and some of what my son has played for me, but I'm just never really moved to dig it out. I think I also have a copy of From a Basement to a Hill that he burned for me...
Roger: Don't let me scare you away from Let it Be; it's much, much better than Don't Tell a Soul. Just different.
Richard: Sure, I know Jeff's dead. Key word in that sentence is "was" as in he WAS shaping up as a talent worth watching. I recently read the joint bio Dream Brother, which compared and contrasted Tim and Jeff's career, and I was struck by how restless, wayward, and mercurial Buckley the Younger was. Maybe it's just the way the text made him sound, but if only he'd been less self-indulgent and more focused on making his music, we'd have at least had a lot more to remember him by...
Thanks for the comments, everybody! I'm always interested in what you guys think...
Can't believe some of the artists/albums that make a list like this. Where are Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Yo La Tengo, Daft Punk or XTC? Incidentally, I'd probably put OK Computer at #1; I like it that much. Also, Automatic For The People is top 10, and so is Brian Wilson's Smile. Anyway, thanks for posting the list, JB.
Yeah- SMiLE was a huge omission, as was XTC's Skylarking...
Oh boy! I love lists of things. (Really.)
I love less lists where the Made By Committee nature is really obvious.
You have your folks who REALLY know about their respective genres stuffing, say, Rakim and Pavement onto the lists, and the TV/Chick-lit reviewer going "Ooooh! Alanis Morrisette and Shania Twain! I popped my cherry to them in eleventh grade! They have to go on the list!"
(Mariah Carey gets a pass from me, though. At least she's a genuine, major vocal talent.)
Some WEIRD picks here, s'well. "Surfer Rosa" over "Dolittle"? IS a weird choice. "People's Instinctive Travels" over the "Low End Theory" is.. is just w-r-o-n-g. "Achtung Baby" over "Joshua Tree?" Well, *I'm* happy, but everybody else in the world agrees with you. (Hell, I'd put "Rattle and Hum" or that last album over "Joshua Tree." I'd put the "Edge Gargles and Sings the Alphabet for an Hour and a Half" over "Joshua Tree.")
"Stories from the City" ... etc. over any other PJ album ever? Nonono. The Britney Spears album from 2001 over the Britney Spears album with ".... Baby One More Time"on it? Travesty!
Not a hell of a lot I actively *loathe* I guess. And everything I do is either stuff you like or New Order. Oh, and they're kind of after my time, but I'm fairly sure I hate Interpol.
I don't expect John Zorn or Sonny Rollins or the Boredoms or Femi Kuti or any Classical-y Music (which I know nothing about) if it's the Greatest Pop Music Albums they should CALL it the greatest pop music albums, or at least The Greatest Albums But Keep In Mind We're Entertainment Weekly and Not All That Bright.
Kind of a lack of electronic/trip-hop stuff, country, and folk stuff, too.
Albums from the EW list that would ABSOLUTELY make my personal Top 100 pop albums:
8. Graceland (WHOEVER wrote it.)
12. Stankonia
16. Rain Dogs
33. CrazySexyCool
40. Ready To Die
42. Enter the Wu-Tang
44. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
48. American 4: Man Comes Around
60. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
61. Paid in Full
85. Home
Eh. I guess 10% overlap ain't TOO bad.
No Jellyfish or Ben Folds Five on this list?
Lack of Folds surprises because they're the sort of group that appeals to the people that make these kinds of lists.
Spilt Milk would have been on MY list, for what that's worth...!
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