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June 21, 2005
spin mag :: top 100 albums of the last 20 years
It's list-making time again; this go-round the excuse is a half-decade which marks a fairly convenient breaking point to evaluate the progress of rock since the blooming of post-punk. Spin presents their top 100 discs of the last 20 years.
This is a particularly interesting list to me, as 1986 - one year past the start of this list - marks the teenage time when I had really started to discover music beyond the obvious.
Here's my view on these lists: those of us who have studied and followed music ad nauseam for many many years love to make fun of them. They're always reshuffled versions of the same old stuff, just controversial enough without being disrespectful to the canon, etc. But they do serve a purpose for the less jaded. I can remember a Rolling Stone greatest 100 of all time being my guide through music history before I had money to buy records. It seemed impossible to me to own all of those treasures, and discovering them one by one was a watershed moment in the development of the deeply obsessive person you're reading now.
I hope someone who's getting curious takes the time to listen to every one of these discs, because they're all worth a spin (though I can't speak for the 5 or 6 I've managed to never hear; I still have my own research to do, I suppose).
As for my own quibbles, they are both too many to count and too insignificant to recount. Let me just make two points: I think the lower 70s is the rightful place for the Stone Roses, who tend to garner top 10 status in UK lists, and Fugazi should never, ever, ever, be ranked below Hole.
I hope there is some action in the comments section for this.
Top 20
20. Wu Tang Clan - Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)
19. Hole - Live Through This
18. Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
17. Nas - Illmatic
16. Beck - Odelay
15. Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
14. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
13. Husker Du - New Day Rising
12. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
11. U2 - Achtung Baby
10. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
9. PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
8. Prince - Sign O The Times
7. De La Soul - 3 Ft. High And Rising
6. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
5. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
4. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
3. Nirvana - Nevermind
2. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation...
1. Radiohead - OK Computer
Posted by borrowed_tunes at June 21, 2005 11:43 PM
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Comments
Excellent point about these lists being good starting places for those trying to get a start on music. If some 16-year-old music geek ran out and bought all of these albums, they'd have a great musical grounding of the last 20 years.
And I do admit that, as much as I get annoyed with the ranking of art, I still have a sick fascination with these lists. Last night I watched (and really enjoyed) the top 100 movie quotes of all time. And I realized that it would have lost a little (just a little, but still enough) of the appeal if they hadn't been ranked.
But then again, I guess I am jaded, because while I look at that list and see nothing but amazing albums, every single one seems so *safe*, not only in its selection, but in its ranking. I would be more impressed with this list if they had had the balls to call it something like "Most Important Albums" and then made musical historical cases for these albums. Though if that was the point, Nation of Millions should be #1, as it was an album that influenced and changed music much more than OK Computer.
And for the record, The Stone Roses would be top 10 for me. That album never ceases to amaze me.
Posted by: Reid at June 22, 2005 10:33 AM
Interesting that Reid mentions "Most Important." Most Important Albums would be very interesting and certainly would result in many less "safe"-appearing selections. Stay tuned here in the coming 6 months or so here for a list of the "Most Important Musical Artists" focusing on rock/pop/hip-hop/rap. Individual cases won't be made, and my guess is there won't be many surprises. But the selection method will be solid yet still open to interesting and fruitful debate.
Posted by: JC at June 22, 2005 12:47 PM
totally unrelated-
i always enjoy the blog and am relatively in line with your top twenty on the sidebar. but the one glaring omission is the new l'altra album. heard it? seems like we have so many albums in common, you might enjoy it. it's easily in my top 5.
Posted by: bill at June 22, 2005 02:03 PM
Bill, considering you're probably the only person in the world who can endorse my top 20 wholesale, I will take you up on this mysterious L'Altra. Never heard 'em. Research report to come.
Posted by: borrowed tunes at June 22, 2005 06:30 PM
One more point. Since the readership seems to be overwhelmingly polite, nobody has skewered me for talking about 1985 onwards as only about post-punk - ignoring it as the time from which hip-hop gathered steam. I stand self-corrected. (Of course 1985 is artificial, but roughly speaking . . .)
Posted by: borrowed tunes at June 22, 2005 06:36 PM
It doesn't surprise me that Radiohead made #1. I'm happy about that though. Public Enemy is slightly overrated and I have no real feeling about Nirvana. I'm just "eh alright" about that. Very happy that Pavement is in the top five though I prefer "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" over "Slanted and Enchanted."
Posted by: Kate at June 22, 2005 08:01 PM
As irritated as I am by this list, I have to say that at the very least, it's entirely consistent with what I've come to expect from Spin (see previous comments on safety, etc.) Wouldn't it have been great it they hadn't put OK Computer at #1 where everyone expects it to be? (For the record, I would've given it to Stone Roses. Sorry.) Pavement, Pixies, Smiths--yeah, yeah, yeah. Love that De la Soul's at #7--that's actually pretty unexpected. Don't get PJ Harvey at #9, except from a political standpoint, of course. And I can say that cuz I'm a girl.
In fact, the whole list reeks of painstaking political correctness. Which is funny because I don't remember Spin being all that hip to hip-hop back in the day. Or even that supportive of female artists. I haven't bought the magazine in maybe 10 years, so maybe I remember it wrong.
Posted by: Amy at June 22, 2005 08:27 PM
Given the love for Stone Roses among a group that has impeccable taste - you're reading this blog, after all, and you probably expect me to love them given my Anglophilia - I will continue to consider myself clueless and deaf to what must be a great thing.
Posted by: borrowed tunes at June 22, 2005 11:00 PM
nah, stone roses have like two good songs. they got by on cool. and anyone who could possibly think public enemy is over-rated is either deaf or 16. granted, 'fear of a black planet' is far better than nation of millions, but public enemy is not to be trifled with.
there are too many silly albums on the list to really argue about, but the one omission i seriously question is my bloody valentine, 'loveless.' used to make #1 on everyone's list pre-nevermind...
Posted by: bill at June 23, 2005 10:45 AM
How US mags stand on the Stone Roses is tied to something else: how many US vs. non-US acts are represented? My quick survey of this list gives 75 US acts vs 25 non-US (mostly Brit). I think if you rate non-US music highly in general, you're likely to rank the Stone Roses pretty high. Listen to "I Am the Resurrection" and you hear the rush of 60s pop with the rush of the dance floor...but not *too* close to the dance floor a la New Order (#50 for Low Life)
Which brings me to my other point: rating albums vs singles. There is such a thing as a singles artist: I'm thinking of New Order, Missy, Eminem, and the later Cure, just taking cases from the Spin list. For the 2005 me, at least, I'm totally comfortable with seeking great songs, knowing that the album may just pad out the great tunes (see above four artists, all of who have singles I'd rate extremely high). But not everyone is. Of course opening things up to songs for 20 years gets pretty unmanageable.
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