My Top 50 Albums

[Josh]

Bloop, just a few quick-draw responses:

-- I had always thought that New Adventures in Hi-Fi was your favorite album, but I don't see it anywhere on your list.

-- You say that your favorite album of 2003 was Michigan, and yet there's at least one 2003 release-- Ohio-- ranked before Michigan on your list.

-- A few applause-worthy inclusions that I wasn't entirely expecting: So, Rain Dogs, Disintegration.

-- Some noteable exclusions: Joe Henry; Daniel Lanois; Sam Phillips; certain albums by U2 (Pop), REM (Reveal, the aforementioned New Adventures), and Bob Dylan (Time Out of Mind).

-- Perhaps the most troubling omission of all: Elvis Costello. To not include him alongside these other great artists is criminal! After all, the man's been making music for thirty years now, and he's made several albums that I would call essential to ANY record collection as large and as varied as yours: My Aim is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Imperial Bedroom, King of America, and All This Useless Beauty.

-- Finally, let me just say how incredibley surprised I am to see Blood on the Tracks ranked ahead of OK Computer!

A very well done list, bloop. I have my minor nitpicks, of course, but it's definitely a list that I can respect.
 

[dgp11776]

1  Kid A, Radiohead
3  OK Computer, Radiohead
4  Achtung Baby, U2
10 The Joshua Tree, U2
12 Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
14 In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
18 Good Dog, Bad Dog, Over the Rhine
21 A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
27 Ohio, Over the Rhine
28 Agaetis Byrjun, Sigur Ros
39 Michigan, Sufjan Stevens
40 SMiLE, Brian Wilson
47 Funeral, The Arcade Fire
49 Endtroducing, DJ Shadow
56 Amnesiac, Radiohead
57 Hail to the Thief, Radiohead
58 The Meadowlands, The Wrens
61 Me Died Blue, Steven Delopolos
63 Who We Are Instead, Jars of Clay
67 Complete Hot 5's and 7's, Louis Armstrong
73 Like a Prayer, Madonna
76 A Grand Don't Come for Free, The Streets
79 Bitches Brew, Miles Davis
84 Much Afraid, Jars of Clay
 

I've heard 24 of those.

I like 19 of those 24.

[bloop]

-- I had always thought that New Adventures in Hi-Fi was your favorite album, but I don't see it anywhere on your list.

It's still sitting on my list of albums I haven't ranked in the list yet.  It is my favorite, so expect it higher than Automatic...

-- You say that your favorite album of 2003 was Michigan, and yet there's at least one 2003 release-- Ohio-- ranked before Michigan on your list.

Word.  I'm driven to listen to Ohio more, but I maintain that Sufjan has the stronger album.  On close inspection, I could probably find a few of these kinds of "inconsistencies", but I wasn't going for consistency with this list.

-- Some noteable exclusions: Joe Henry; Daniel Lanois; Sam Phillips; certain albums by U2 (Pop), REM (Reveal, the aforementioned New Adventures), and Bob Dylan (Time Out of Mind).

I find all the albums on this list to be somewhat stronger than Pop.  I don't have access to a single Lanois record - it's something to try out sometime as I'm only familiar with his production work.  I only own one Sam Phillips album (and it's in the aforementioned list to be added, as is Time Out of Mind, along with Blonde on Blonde and maybe a couple others.  I don't want it to get too Dylan-dominated, but that may very well end up happening as he's such a solid artist).

-- Perhaps the most troubling omission of all: Elvis Costello. To not include him alongside these other great artists is criminal! After all, the man's been making music for thirty years now, and he's made several albums that I would call essential to ANY record collection as large and as varied as yours: My Aim is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Imperial Bedroom, King of America, and All This Useless Beauty.

I own none of them.  I've listened to nothing of his before Before I Was Cruel, and I don't own that either (borrowed from the library).  See comment for Lanois (any music collection is going to have significant exclusions - I wouldn't mind expanding there, either).

Besides, my leaving out Chuck Berry is probably more egregious than that, from the standpoint of importance to modern music.

-- Finally, let me just say how incredibley surprised I am to see Blood on the Tracks ranked ahead of OK Computer!

So was I, but I had to be honest with myself.

[Josh]

By the way, if you're curious, I've heard 43 of those.

[murlough23]

bloop, just out of curiosity, what enables Jars and Delopoulos, who are great but probably not as significant or groundbreaking in the overall history of modern music, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all those heavy-hitters on your list?

[Josh]

Tinkered with my list just a bit. I had a feeling that the order would be a little screwy down toward the bottom, but, to my surprise, it was actually pretty accurate. The only change I ended up making was to move Time Out of Mind up a few notches, placing it ahead of Rain Dogs and Martinis & Bikinis.

At this point, I'd consider my list to be more or less complete. Hopefully I'll continue to feel the same way until I go to revise it at the end of this year, adding in any 2005 releases that are good enough to make the cut. (There'll be at least one, I can tell you that right now!)

[murlough23]

I modified my list slightly. I realized that I was my list of favorites from 2001 had changed around a bit, and thus, The Benjamin Gate shouldn't be ranked ahead of Tool and Kevin Max for that year. I dropped TBG from the list altogether, actually, and put Sufjan Stevens' Illinois up in the Top 20, which I had been meaning to do for a while.

[bloop]

bloop, just out of curiosity, what enables Jars and Delopoulos, who are great but probably not as significant or groundbreaking in the overall history of modern music, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all those heavy-hitters on your list?

Believe me when I say I felt no obligation to put a CCM album on my list.  If it's there, I think it holds up well critically.  Whether enough people ever hear the album for it to be influential and historically important just wasn't important to me for this list.  I think being more strict than I was in that regard would work too much to the disadvantage of some awfully good art that exists out there, CCM and mainstream.

[murlough23]

Believe me when I say I felt no obligation to put a CCM album on my list.  If it's there, I think it holds up well critically.  Whether enough people ever hear the album for it to be influential and historically important just wasn't important to me for this list.  I think being more strict than I was in that regard would work too much to the disadvantage of some awfully good art that exists out there, CCM and mainstream.

Well, I'll take that as a higher compliment than I thought you'd ever give to those lucky few artists. I mean, I knew you thought they were good... I just didn't realize you thought they were that good.

NP: "Walking Away", Lifehouse

[bloop]

Oh, I'm not done yet, even on the CCM front.  Starflyer 59 has yet to be included.  It'll be finished one of these months.

[RavishingJohnny23]

Anywho who has What's going on by The MAster Marvin Gaye is alright with me.