Here is the list of Time Magazine’s top 100 albums of all “time”. Overall most of the selections are pretty obvious. However, I sometimes wonder if the people who make these lists even know what they are trying to do.
First of all, 4 of the 9 albums from the 2000’s listed are anthologies. You can’t count anthologies in a list like this, either the artist had an album strong enough to make the list or they didn’t. Anthologies are not “albums”, they are collections.
Then you have head-scratchers like PJ Harvey and Hole (!!!). Are these affirmative action selections? Would anyone even put Hole on their top 1000? I’m pretty sure Courtney Love wouldn’t put Hole in her top 100.
Oasis? Plastic Ono Band? Kid A? Talking Heads? Kanye West? Did they just go by pure record sales here?
Notable ommisions:
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (Just an amazing, almost flawless album that gets better as the years go by)
Modest Mouse - Building Nothing out of Something (when the best band currently in existence can’t crack the top 100 but Mary J Blige can, I die a little inside)
Jane’s Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual (really any of their albums could have made the list, but I think this one is their most solid top to bottom).
Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (no need for revolver & rubber soul, just pick one of em and squeeze in MMT)
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle (far superior to Da Chronic)
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (Hard choice here. Lots of their albums are fantastic, but I’ll go with this for its influential value)
Unexpected Picks I Liked:
Master of Puppets - Metallica. They deserve credit for their amazing string of albums from Kill 'em All to Justice, just an unbelievable run. I’d say its the closest run in hard rock to Zeppelin.
Pauls Boutique - Beastie Boys. Sure its been pretty well exposed now as one of the best albums of all time, but considering the list I’m glad they pulled it together to include it.
Stone Roses. I actually wrestled with this one before giving it my stamp of approval. On the one hand, I don’t particularly like the album, on the other I can’t deny the influence it had on a number of artist that I love, so I’m glad it made it.
Anyways I’m sure I’ll have more but I’m curious what the dopers think.
Agree 100% its an unwritten rule you do not include greatest hits on best of lists. Otherwise I think its a pretty standard and unimaginative list- its like they picked all of the ones that everyone agrees are classics. The only major omission I see is Love’s Forever Changes, and I would substitute Court & Spark for Blue, but they covered all the basics.
Some of those selections are really odd. Hole? REM’s Out of Time? Out of Friggin Time? One of R.E.M.'s weakest efforts. How’s about Automatic for the People?
R.E.M.'s Document I could live with, although both Murmur and Reckoning are more classic examples, with Murmur being held up with AFTP as the band’s high point by many people.
Stone Roses is a good choice. The anthologies make no freakin’ sense. You’re going to put Hank Williams, Elvis, and Muddy Waters in the best of 2000? Huh?
I’m not sure I agree with Eminem–I don’t hate him, but I don’t think he’s among the best this decade has to offer. However, I can understand Eminem before I can understand what the hell Out of Time is doing on that list.
I’d also have My Bloody Valentine on that list for Loveless. Probably Doolittle from the Pixies as well. The further you go down the list, the more unobjectionable it is, but when 4 of your top 9 year 2000 albums are anthologies, you’re just not trying very hard.
Good call on Loveless, that should be there. Pixies probably should be on there, although I think Doolittle drags a little in the second half. Probably would go with Surfer Rosa.
Oh, I’m not sure I agree about you re: Magical Mystery Tour. I mean, you kind of have to have Revolver and Rubber Soul on a list like this, although it certainly would make it somewhat more interesting to drop it in favor of MMT. But, as much as I think the Beatles are the greatest pop band ever, they seem to be a bit overrepresented here. Surely, you can find a Kink’s album to put in lieu of the Mop Tops, no? Oh, and that reminds me, I’d also stick The Zombie’s Odyssey and Oracle on there.
And Doggystyle before The Chronic? That’s kind of odd. The Chronic is classically regarded as one of the most important albums in rap.
I can live without Modest Mouse and Yo La Tengo on the list. I find it odd that Sonic Youth was passed over in this list, too. As much as I prefer the Pixies, I think Sonic Youth should have a place here.
Garth Brooks deserves to be on there. He had a gigantic influence on country music in the 1990’s and was one of the main forces that drove it mainstream. The popularity of country music soared because of him especially among people that thought they hated country. Plus, it was a good album as well.
The R.E.M. argument doesn’t bother me that much (I would have voted for Automatic for the People, by the way). It’s the compilations. It’s as if the editors of time all sat down and collectively decided they knew nothing about modern music and put Elvis on the list. I realise deciding which albums were the most influential becomes progressively more difficult as we get closer to the present, but compilations just smack of not trying.
I can see why a band like the Flaming Lips wasn’t included, although I don’t like it. I give them some credit for including that Eminem album. I don’t necessarily agree with some of the choices from earlier decades, but at least they tried.
Where’s Beck? Sigur Rós? Bjork? Come on, now, boys.
There should be some Big Star on that list. I couldn’t pick up a music mag in the nineties without at least one band claiming them as a big influence. Ditto the Replacements.
Since they’re going for influential, I think it would make sense to put anthologies on the list, but ONLY if the anthology itself is one of the most 100 influential albums. Like let’s say that the Beatles Let It Be (which I think includes quite a bit of stuff that was included on previous releases) happened to be extremely influential, you could include it despite its being a collection. Or a band that somehow seemed to always release 1-2 incredible tracks along with a bunch of trash, and then released a compilation of those incredible tracks that finally propelled them to critical and mass stardom.
But Elvis and Hank Williams were already mega stars before these 2000-era releases, so it is well and truly a joke. Puzzling, because a lot of the choices are spot on.
It is really disappointing, since the most fascinating part of such lists would be trying to figure out who among today’s artists will stand the test of time and influence future generations. Using oldies is a major copout. At least dare to choose something like Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Flaming Lips) or XO (Elliott Smith) or even American Idiot (Green Day) or Justin Timberlake’s latest album if you like. That would at least give some nice food for thought, which is the main point of these things.