100 Greatest Albums

[caddyman]

Started (probably) by tadeous, and filched shamelessly by me.

Channel 4, in their guise as broadcaster of lists, came up with the supposed 100 greatest albums of all time. The distribution of titles suggests the majority of compilers are in their 40s and white, which makes it just right for me to highligh those I have (in bold) and those I would like but somehow never got round to buying (in italics). I have also taken the opportunity to strike out the clearly over-rated pap:



1 RADIOHEAD - OK Computer
2 U2 - The Joshua Tree
3 NIRVANA - Nevermind
4 MICHAEL JACKSON - Thriller
5 PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon
6 OASIS - Definitely Maybe
7 THE BEATLES - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
8 MADONNA - Like a Prayer
9 GUNS N' ROSES - Appetite For Destruction
10 THE BEATLES - Revolver
11 R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
12 THE BEATLES - The White Album
13 QUEEN - A Night at the Opera
14 COLDPLAY - Parachutes
15 OASIS - (What's the Story) Morning Glory
16 ALANIS MORISSETTE - Jagged Little Pill
17 LED ZEPPELIN - Led Zeppelin IV
18 THE VERVE - Urban Hymns
19 JIMI HENDRIX - Are you Experienced
20 THE SMITHS - The Queen Is Dead
21 JOHN LENNON - Imagine
22 RADIOHEAD - The Bends
23 BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS - Exodus
24 THE STONE ROSES - The Stone Roses
25 SIMON AND GARFUNKEL - Bridge Over Troubled Water
26 BJORK - Debut
27 THE DOORS - The Doors
28 ABBA - Arrival
29 MICHAEL JACKSON - Off the Wall
30 DURAN DURAN - Rio
31 SEX PISTOLS - Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
32 DAVID BOWIE - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
33 THE BEACH BOYS - Pet Sounds
34 JOY DIVISION - Closer
35 THE ROLLING STONES - Let It Bleed
36 BLUR - Parklife
37 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Born to Run
38 BILLIE HOLIDAY - Lady Sings the Blues
39 THE WHITE STRIPES - Elephant
40 BLACK SABBATH - Paranoid
41 THE SPECIALS - Specials
42 THE ROLLING STONES - Exile on Main Street
43 FRANK SINATRA - Songs for Swingin' Lovers!
44 THE CLASH - London Calling
45 THE PRODIGY - The Fat of the Land
46 THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - The Velvet Underground and Nico
47 DIRE STRAITS - Brothers in Arms
48 PIXIES - Doolittle
49 ARETHA FRANKLIN - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
50 THE LIBERTINES - The Libertines
51 HAPPY MONDAYS - Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches
52 PATTI SMITH - Horses
53 THE WHO - Tommy
54 LOU REED - Transformer
55 BOB DYLAN - Blood on the Tracks
56 PRINCE - Sign 'o' the Times
57 DIDO - No Angel
58 AIR - Moon Safari
59 ELTON JOHN - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
60 THE JAM - All Mod Cons
61 JEFF BUCKLEY - Grace
62 FLEETWOOD MAC - Rumours
63 MOBY - Play
64 RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
65 THE POLICE - Synchronicity
66 JONI MITCHELL - Blue
67 CURTIS MAYFIELD - Superfly
68 ELVIS PRESLEY - The Sun Sessions
69 OUTKAST - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
70 PULP - Different Class
71 KRAFTWERK - Trans-Europe Express
72 MASSIVE ATTACK - Blue Lines
73 BECK - Odelay
74 STEVIE WONDER - Songs in the Key of Life
75 KATE BUSH - Hounds of Love
76 TALKING HEADS - Fear of Music
77 EMINEM - The Marshall Mathers LP
78 MARVIN GAYE - What's Going On
79 GEORGE MICHAEL - Faith
80 SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER - The Original Movie Soundtrack
81 PRIMAL SCREAM - Screamadelica
82 JOHN COLTRANE - A Love Supreme
83 LOVE - Forever Changes
84 PAUL SIMON - Graceland
85 NICK DRAKE - Five Leaves Left
86 MEAT LOAF - Bat Out of Hell
87 DUSTY SPRINGFIELD - Dusty in Memphis (I already have a collection of her best stuff)
88 DE LA SOUL - 3 Feet High and Rising
89 THE STROKES - Is this It
90 MADNESS - One Step Beyond...
91 ROBBIE WILLIAMS - I've Been Expecting You
92 NEIL YOUNG - After the Gold Rush
93 PUBLIC ENEMY - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
94 BLONDIE - Parallel Lines
95 THE EAGLES - Hotel California
96 JAMES BROWN - Sex Machine
97 THE STREETS - A Grand Don't Come for Free
98 DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
99 ROD STEWART - Every Picture Tells a Story
100 The HUMAN LEAGUE - Dare!


So, tell me why I'm wrong; and yes,I do own the Libertines album, and yes, it is crap.

Comments

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

U2? Overrated? Pistols at dawn, dear chap. (I shall beat you smartly around the head with a copy of Never Mind The Bollocks...)

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. U2 have recorded the same song 12 times for each album.

Take away their amps and feedback effects and there's nothing left!

[delvy.livejournal.com]

You've been lstening to Bill bailey too much. And the Joshua Tree and teh Rattle and Hum tour are the exceptions to that rule....

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I knew I'd wind someone up with my dislike of U2.

I'm a little surprised that my even greater dislike of the Mancunian Whinger hasn't elicited more comment.

The Mancunian Whinger?

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

You could at least use a description that narrows down the possibilities...

Re: The Mancunian Whinger?

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

I think that perhaps he is referring to Morrisey, who is both mancunian and known to have a bit of a whinge, on occasion.

Re: The Mancunian Whinger?

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

What about the Gallaghers?

Re: The Mancunian Whinger?

[lupercal.livejournal.com]

Or the Stone Roses..

Re: The Mancunian Whinger?

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

I’m not going to comment on too many opinions but I will defend debut by Bjork, it broke ground in actually having decent, thought provoking (and often a bit weird) songs over a dance tracks.
It has made it into my top 35 albums (which I’ve posted).
Would have done a hundred but forming a clear cut opinion past 35 proved a bit tricky.

Re: The Mancunian Whinger?

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

They're just egocentric loud mouths. Mr S is quite right in identifying one-note, hiper-whine, glum all-over Morrissey.

[fromaway.livejournal.com]

I like the Mancunian Whinger, especially in his '80s incarnation...

You're so right on Dido, though, and I don't really get U2.

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Pish and tosh. Quite apart from the fact that I possess a fair amount of acoustic output which proves that they can do what they do without electronic accoutrements, they've done a variety of albums with a variety of songs, styles, content, etc. If you want "all sounds the same", the Status Quo aisle is over there with rotwang :)

(Had I been choosing the album of theirs to put in the chart, Joshua Tree might well not have been it. But it certainly knocks OK Computer into a cocked hat. I bought that on the strength of quite liking Karma Police and was more than a little disappointed to find that the rest of the album was complete shite.)

They're the ones who looked at me with fear and dread
When I said 'I can't be arsed with Radiohead'

Mitch Benn, Never Went Through A Smiths Phase

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I watched a lot of that last night, and whilst there were many that I don't personally like, it seemed that most of the top few really are classics. Except I'm not convinced that Radiohead should be where it is. At all.

I shall do this meme because it's better than working, but you and I clearly have some major disagreements (like Dido).

[delvy.livejournal.com]

Dido seems to really divide our social group. I happen to think she is excellent but it seems taht opinion is not held by all of us ;-)

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Dido is a competent singer, and pleasant to listen to. But in no circumstances can No Angel be described as a classic album; it is pleasant mediocrity.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Dido is a foul aural abomination, the musical equivalent of beige wallpaper.
Nevermind the Bollocks is genius.

That is all I have to add (apart from OK Computer being overated, it's not even Radiohead's best album let alone best ever.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Not at all - theres a weird shape to her voice (that isn't caused by electronics - I've heard it live too) where she makes it sound like she's shaping her mouth to about the size of a cave - she's able to put a fantastic echo in which very few singers can manage.

The Sex Pistols are completely over-rated; if they came out today they'd rightly be identified for what they are; a manufactured boy band that doesn't even have the technical competance of Boyzone.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Manufactured doesn't equal bad. 60's Motown was some of the horribly manufactured music (often released in a boyband/girlband format)ever made and lots of it is genius.

[pauln.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of doing something similar myself and shall do later, when I've followed up my "communications actions" from this morning's (far too) early meeting.

Interesting conversations between Penny and I as the programme went on, but we both agreed that some of the more recent stuff (both Radiohead entries, Coldplay and Bjork are the most obvious) are only up there because they are recent. And while it's "my era" I wince at the heights that Rio was given by the Channel 4 website reading masses.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Rio was a classic album!

[pauln.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was. But 30/100? Higher than Ziggy Stardust, London Calling and Graceland (to pick three at random)? 60-something I'd reckon

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Fair comment.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

Dido, The Prodigy, the White Stripes, The Streets, Eminem, Outkast... all struck off the list.

Not a fan of "young person's music", old man?

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

It's not so much that I'm not a fan of a lot of it, but those I've crossed out are clearly not classic albums.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

Of those 6 that I have highlighted:
Fat of the Land is indubitably a classic. An album that changed dance music forever.
The White Stripes record definitely deserves a place on the list (although not as high as it is).
A Grand Don't Come For Free will come to be regarded as one of the early 2000s best albums.
And the Marshall Mathers LP is already a hip hop classic.
I've not heard the Outkast album, so can't comment; and whilst I like Dido, I'm not convinced that No Angel is quite a classic.

So, basically, I very much disagree with you on the majority of those.

wouldn't have it any other way...

[forbinproject.livejournal.com]

SO right about The Streets; absotively one of the best albums I've heard in years.

[lupercal.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of those statements other than the fat of the land. It's Liam past his best, going through the motions. Now if it were experience or jilted generation you may have a point. but FotL was just banal. And I'll chuck you the double outkast album at some point. Genius, sheer genius.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

Banal? Perhaps. But classic nonetheless. I _prefer_ the other two, but that's beside the point. The influence that Fat had was massive, and thus I think it is justified in occupying a slot in the top 100.

And I'll happily take you up on the Outkast (tho I do think that Hey Ya was overrated! *ducks the lynch mob*).

[lupercal.livejournal.com]

Hurm, IMO dance music had moved on by FotL and left the Prodigy faaar behind. But I can se what you are getting at. As for Hey Ya I tend to agree, it is a fun, bouncy pop single, easily the most accessible track on the Love Below Andre 3000 disc of the album, but nowhere near the best track.

[thepantsmaster.livejournal.com]

The Joshua Tree?
Overrated?

*Head explodinates in disbelief*

[bladder.livejournal.com]

Got to agree with you on radiohead. They do some good songs, but depressing and a bit dull overall, and yes Morrisey does seem to be a big whinger.Understandable when your young, but not when your a millionaire, living in a big mansion in Hollywood, and once the member of a highly regarded band. That has to make you a bit chirpier.

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

Called the over-rateds to a tea (or t or tee). 'Never Mind the Bollocks' was pretty good but it has had way too much significance attached to it by media types.

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

But that, in a way, is what still makes it an important LP. The Influence of the Sex Pistols was more than what they musically. It altered the perceptions of what pop/rock stars could be like.

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

No doubt it was important but I still think it's been given too much importance. Punk existed before it and developed after it but you wouldn't know that from the way some of these talking heads go on. Sure, it belongs in the top 100 for the reasons you said, but I still reckon it's a bit over hyped.

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

Point well made.
Then again allot of the albums in there are over hyped, very few are in my top 35 (I'm sure I could get to a hundred if a tried).

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

This is true. Not a bad idea either, I might try my own one now.

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

Well feel free to comment on my little bundle

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

Sure thing. I'll swing over now and have a read.