The Smiley Smile Message Board

In determining lists of classic albums, most people use the same material: Pet Sounds, the Beatles' albums from Rubber Soul through Abbey Road, etc. Obviously, the newest music is more difficult to objectively consider because it hasn't had time to set in. But while albums through the 70s are pretty much established in their relative position in the canon, what about those that came after? Let's think about albums released from 25 to 5 years ago that you think either are worthy of inclusion in the canon or will be.

NOTE: PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE don't use this as a thread to say "all new music sucks" or similar sentiments. There are about 500 other threads on this board where people have offered that sentiment.

NOTE TWO: If your choice isn't well known, provide a little summary. It might compel people to seek out some worthy new(ish) music and support artists.

NOTE THREE: Let's remember--this is for albums you think are destined to be (or already are) CLASSIC albums. Really good. Among the top, say, 100-150 of all time, which is elite company. Don't just throw in every album you like.

NOTE FOUR: (j/k, I have no more notes!)

lindsey buckingham- out of the cradle

Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden

Fennesz: Endless Summer
(http://www.mego.at/mego035.html (http://www.mego.at/mego035.html))

I have put a little--but probably nowhere near enough--thought into this, and below are some albums released between 1982 and 2002 that I think legitimately have a place being considered in the "canon" of pop albums. In other words, I would rank them among the top 150 or so albums of all time.

They are organized into the rough blocks of albums in which I think they rightly fall--that is, top 10, 11-25, 26-100, and 101-150.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't go through and make my Top 150, so these could easily be off EVEN IN MY OPINION by a pretty large number. If you've ever sat down and tried to rank albums (as I have), you know you can easily forget and remember things, shuffling them not just a few spots, but tens of spots easily. And I'm sure I've forgotten something great.

Top 10:
In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, by Neutral Milk Hotel (1998)
I think this is one of the most powerful albums of all time, the evocative (but not literal...sound familiar, Mike Love?) lyrics and vocal intensity  astound me even now. And Robert Schneider did a great job producing, taking what was previously a fuzz-folk, ramshackle group and tastefully adding horn arrangements, organs, etc., raising the bar without abandoning the loose feel. I love this album.

11-25:
Thriller, by Michael Jackson (1982)
Okay, I know this one will draw criticism, but most of it will be due to Jackson's personal life. And let's face it, there are some pretty bizarre occurrences in the lives of the Beach Boys, you know... Thriller was a great album full of hits, and Michael Jackson's voice was unbelievably agile at the time. He and Quincy Jones did a great job.

Purple Rain, by Prince (1984)
Speaking of hits...an entire album of them. Arguably the most talented single man in popular music of his generation: voice, guitar, keyboards, drums, bass, songwriting (not to mention the things you can't get on record, like charisma). Had a lot of great albums, but this is probably the best because it's the least uneven.

The Great Eastern, by the Delgados (2000)
Probably the least known of the albums I will list, but this Scottish band was on par with the more famous Belle & Sebastian until they relatively recently broke up, in my opinion. And this was their pinnacle--excellent, epic tunes with even more epic production by Dave Fridmann.

Bone Machine, by Tom Waits (1992)
A guy who had a lot of great albums in that time frame, this one is the first to have "that" sound--this bizarre, distant, hollow, eerie devil-blues-trashcan thing.

Kontiki, by Cotton Mather (1996)
I LOVE this album from the defunct Austin, TX band. The influences of the Beatles, Squeeze and Bob Dylan are really obvious, but the songs aren't just rip-offs: they're VERY good. It is one of the only albums where I've thought "actually, that COULD'VE been on Revolver, if Revolver were to be released today." Very, very good album. Great, in fact. If this list helps anyone discover anything, I hope it is this, my sentimental favorite.

26-100:

Nebraska, by Bruce Springsteen (1982)
1999, by Prince (1982)
Electro-Shock Blues, by Eels (1998)
Paul's Boutique, by Beastie Boys (1989)
Love & Theft, by Bob Dylan (2001)
swordfishtrombones, by Tom Waits (1983)
Rain Dogs, by Tom Waits (1985)
Alice, by Tom Waits (2002)
The Soft Bulletin, by the Flaming Lips (1998)
Kid A, by Radiohead (2000)
OK Computer, by Radiohead (1998)
Graceland, by Paul Simon (1986)
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Mutations, by Beck (1998)
Appetite For Destruction, by Guns n Roses (1987)

101-150:

Sea Change, by Beck (2002)
Ecstasy, by Lou Reed (2000)
69 Love Songs, by Magnetic Fields (1999)
The Gay Parade, by Of Montreal (1999)
The Joshua Tree, by U2 (1987)
New York, by Lou Reed (1989)
Daisies of the Galaxy, by Eels (2000)

I'm thrilled to see some Tom Waits mentioned here.

I'd add Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and Eels' "Electro-Shock Blues" to that list.


EDIT: Whoops, I see these are already listed. This is a second, then! Great minds think alike :)

Never mind: you edited at the same time I responded. (was going to note ESB and YHF)

Thriller is indeed a great album, hands down, and it's aged very well considering how many pop records of the eighties just sound so dated these days.

I'll have to add Michael Jackson's BAD album to the list. I think it's just as good as Thriller, a lot of good songs. The track "Streetwalker" that's on the special edition of the BAD album is superb I think, especially the backing track and MJ's vocal on that is great. "Conspiracy Of One" by the Offspring is also a solid album, IMO.

Yeah, I was actually thinking about that. I'd probably put it either in the 26-100 or 101-150 range, as it probably falls somewhere in the low double or early triple digits.

Maybe I will get ambitious one of these days and sit down to compile a new Top 150. It's the sort of thing I do every once in a while because I am a fucking geek.

NEW ORDER          POWER CORRUPTION AND LIES
NEW ORDER          LOW LIFE
JOY DIVISION        SUBSTANCE

I really dig The White Stripes.  Can't decide between White Blood Cells or Elephant.  I think both are "great" albums in the classic sense.

If compilations are accepted (and since we're talking post-1981), I'll agree with the inclusion of Joy Division's "Substance". Otherwise, I'd have to go with JD's "Closer" (1980) as a top 200 classic album.

Given their influence and quality, I would want to include Husker Du in the top 200 as well. "Zen Arcade" (1984) (hardcore punk's own "Quadrophenia") is probably the best choice as it captures the band at its most ambitious and at the moment it began to cloak 60s pop styles around its buzzsaw guitar attack. I would also endorse nominations for "Flip Your Wig" (1985), a wonderfully-produced emotional rollercoaster that touches on ambivalence, romanticism, melancholia, nostalgia, self-doubt, political outrage and humor in a tight 38 minutes of dark, grungy guitar dirges and exuberant fuzz guitar pop.

For the same reasons (influence and quality), I suppose the Pixies' "Doolittle" (1989) should be included. But, personally, I prefer Frank Black's "Dog In The Sand" (2000), a stunningly diverse collection of great hooks and clever wordplay that comes complete with a good dose of sincerity missing from the earlier Pixies' material. In some ways it represents the most original adaptation of folk styles since Dylan's mid-60s peak.

The Church's "The Blurred Crusade" (1982) could make the top 200 - as far as 80s baroque pop went, nothing sounded as elegantly-produced or as expertly-played as this collection. Also, I'd nominated the band's 2002 release "After Everything, Now This" for its rich cinematic tone that finds the band ruminating on death in a much more ambient style than their 80s recordings.

Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy (1989)

Daniel Lanois is a controversial figure. Most people love him or hate him. I LIKE what he did to Dylan's sound. The later Bob Dylan can sometimes be like the later Brian Wilson. He can sing/sound so rough that it obliterates the material. On Oh Mercy, the atmosphere created by Lanois compliments Dylan's singing. These songs are mysterious, spooky, "nighttime" songs. And I like 'em. Oh Mercy still sounds fresh. I actually prefer it to Love And Theft.

I recently just got this album. (Some long-time posters may recall I was hunting for the non-canon Dylan albums, and those between mid-70s and L&T were absent from my collection.) I'm not sure quite how much I like it, but I do know I like it. I am not really a Lanois fan, but I liked his work here.

Odelay- Beck

I think I've already seen it show up high on a few polls.

I can see Thriller and Purple Rain, but New Order... I mean, they're okay, but ... I'm not sure how 'classic' these all are, but among my personal favourites of that particular twenty years are the following (and I make no apology because many are 'old school'):

Loudon Wainwright - Last Man on Earth
Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Wainwright
Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya
Ron Sexsmith - Other Songs
Elliot Smith XO
Paul Simon - Graceland
BW - BW
Springsteen - Tunnel of Love
Dylan - Time out of Mind
Steely Dan - Two Against Nature
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Johnny Cash - Unchained
Van Morrison - Beautiful Vision
Rickie Lee Jones - Flying Cowboys
Paddy MacAloon - I Trawl the Megahertz
John Hiatt - Crossing Muddy Waters
Los Lobos - Kiko
Lou Reed - New York
Dylan - Love and Theft
Springsteen - Nebraska
The Blue Nile - High
Boz Scaggs - Come On Home
Jimmy Webb - Ten Easy Pieces
Randy Newman - Land of Dreams
k. d. lang - Absolute Torch and Twang
Aimee Mann - Whatever
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

May I ask why you picked those three to group together? As the song goes, one of these three is not like the other... My first thought was maybe you were confusing New Order with New Edition.


Now THAT is exactly what I love to see.

By the way, last night I began compiling a list of albums for my real Top 150 pop albums of all time (through 2002, still believing that a little time is necessary for proper perspective).

I think I am almost done compiling my raw list. It has been very fun, at least for the kind of geek who gets into such things. I've been listening to a lot of great music I haven't (in some cases) listened to in years despite previously LOVING the albums. I find in many cases that I still do and know them inside and out. Others...well, they won't make the list.

I am about to begin grouping them into rough order, then trying to finalize the list. Maybe by tonight I will have it done.

Ummm..... I think someone mentioned all three earlier - or maybe all three were mentioned earlier. I'm too lazy to check  :)

There are some in that list that are my particular favourite (or close to it) by that artist:
both Wainwrights, Reed, Morrison, Smith, Sexsmith, lang, Springsteen, Petty, Fagen (although I prefer the earlier Dan albums), Cash, HIatt, Los Lobos, Zevon, Blue Nile, Talking Heads, Mann, Scaggs.

I'm going to throw in one that many may totally disagree with.  I don't care, I think it is a brilliant record.  How about the self titled Rage Against the Maching debut album?  I love it and at it's time, there was nothing else like it out there.  Sure, a whole lot of really bad music came about becuase of it, but I really think this band had something really cool and original going on.  I think that Tom Morello was the first person since Ed Van Halen to really revolutionize the way his instrument was played.  Not that there haven't been a number of great players in the time between, but Morello really changed the way the game is played. 

Just my two cents.  Flame away!!  Or you could agree with me!

Grand Prix by Teenage Fanclub  is a great classic album  ;D

Streetwalker is great I have it on a 12 inch.
 
I like History too because it's personal and angry. Hm I agree Bad and Thriller but I do like his Jacksons and early solo stuff better through 81. Prince I would say Purple Rain, I like Nylon Curtain by Billy Joel, I like the Jerry Lee Great Balls Of Fire soundtrack, I like Weird Al's first LP, I like Kenny Rogers Eyes That See In The Dark and Love Will Turn You Around, I like  McCartney's Press To Play, and Flaming Pie, I love the Wilbury's albums and George's Cloud Nine, and Live In Japan. I like Dylan's LOve And Theft and Time Out Of Mind, Under The Red Sky and Oh Mercy are good too. I like Brian's first solo album. I like the Stones Vodoo Lounge. I like James Brown's Bring It On.
That's 20 LP's

Doesn't anybody think Crowded House's 1991 "Woodface" is a sublime masterpiece?

1) Steely Dan/Donald Fagen - Nightfly, Kamakiriad, Two Against Nature
2) Ween - Chocolate & Cheese, 12 Golden Country Greats, White Pepper
3) Gillian Welch - Revival
4) Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill, Paul's Boutique
5) The Derailers - Reverb Deluxe

The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip
Stone Roses - s/t
Supergrass - In It For The Money
Radiohead - Ok Computer
Libertines - Up the Bracket

And a most honorable mention to:  Brian Wilson s/t

I wouldn't wipe my ass on the Libertines.

No........t.p. or Kleenex perhaps would be best.

Is that kind of attack on No. Fourteen's taste respectful?

I hope it's not meant to be respectful of the Libs!

Never even heard of them but.....

Well, I've never been sentenced to death, but I can see how that would tend to make someone a little edgy. 

Seriously though, just giving an opinion and got one back.  A-ok with me!

Thanks for keeping an eye out, anyway.

No offence meant.  Don't like'em, that's all.

No problem at all.  I'm fully aware of the mounds of hype they received in recent years, and that scenario can be particularly irritating when you find it not even remotely warranted.

.

Jon Brion - Meaningless
Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom
Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth
Squeeze - Frank (live in the studio, the freshest, snappiest Squeeze ever)
XTC - Apple Venus vol. 1
XTC - Skylarking
Elliott Smith - everything but the first and the last one (and hey, even parts of those)
Grays - Ro Sham Bo (most of it)
Everything But the Girl - Idlewild (kind of an English  'Pet Sounds';  has that 'weekend away to think things over' feel to it)
Crowded House - Woodface (yes, I think so too)
Lindsay Buckingham - Out of the Cradle
Michael Penn - March (kinda the Rubber Soul of the 80s)
Aimee Mann - Whatever (actually this is a better 'Jon Brion' album than Meaningless--it's nearly a duo album except he doesn't sing any leads;  also, amazingly, his first production ever)
Bishop Allen - I don't know if they have a collection out yet, but their series of month-at-a-time EPs from last year are strikingly good;  minimal production, but great, great songwriting;  get some of their stuff free from their website.  Start with "Butterfly Net" and "Corazon".

I  think what you're saying is, it isn't easy to like 'popular' music anymore, since radio/record labels are impossibly corrupt now.  There *is* good stuff out there--it's just a treasure hunt now, instead of a buffet banquet.

Cheers.

YES!!!  Someone else that thinks as much of Elvis Costello's Brutal Youth record as I do!!  This album never gets the credit it deserves and most reviews I have read aren't positive ones but it is most definately my favorite of his 90's-present albums.  I don't think it gets much better/lovely than Favourite Hour and All The Rage is one of my favorite ALL TIME Costello songs.  Not a bum track on the entire record!

I'm with you guys on "Brutal Youth" as well! Sadly, I think it's the last consistently great Costello album; while his more recent releases have some good material on them, I keep waiting for an album that measures up to this 1994 release. Apart from the great arrangements and hooks a-plenty, "Brutal Youth" has some of Costello's best lyrics ever. Here's one of my favorite couplets from "My Science Fiction Twin":

"His almost universal excellence is starting to disturb me/ When we ask 'how in the world he does all these things?', he answers 'Superbly!'."

Of course, 1982's "Imperial Bedroom" is definitely a classic that belongs in the top 200. Geoff Emerick's production on that album really draws brilliantly on his experience as the Beatles' engineer and he turns each of Costello's songs into little pop gems.

I agree with you, I really like that album. Every song is a enjoyable listen, as long as your in the right mood of course, as I usually like to listen to softer music but a great album. I would perhaps also add At The Drive-In's album Relationship of Command. That is a great album, not one single poor quality song and not really any one stand out song they are all great in my opinion and although "One Armed Scissor" is definately their most famous song it is by no means better than the rest of the songs on the album in my opinion. I also think perhaps Nirvana's Nevermind should be added to the list.

B-52's, Satellite of Your Mind, 1986
At the Drive In is cool, but so many of their songs sounded redundant after repeated listenings, imo. It's been a few years since I really grooved w/them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but looking back, it seems that a lot of their songs were in the same key. I am probably wrong though. A classic album though, for sure.

I almost agree with you.  I really liked the "All This Useless Beauty" album but it did have a little dead space on it.  Nowhere near as good as Brutal Youth.  I do however think that "The Delivery Man" is his strongest effort since then and I go back and forth on whether or not I think it is better than Brutal Youth.

On Elvis Costello, I think "The Delivery Man" is great--his best in a long, long time. I don't have "Brutal Youth," so I can't compare it to that, but I would say TDM is his best (of those I do have) since "Almost Blue" and "Trust." With one or two songs excluded, I absolutely love it, and a few of them are just jaw-droppingly gorgeous. (Nothing Clings Like Ivy, for example.)

If we were taking this list to include more recent albums, that would have been on my list.

Yeh Im not a big fan of their other stuff but that album is certainly a great album.

I really ought to have had Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen on my list!

Great albums that I can think of off the top of my head from 82-02...

sorry if I've repeated some, I didn't read everybody's reply.

I agree with Thriller, any album that sells 50 million copies is a classic album.  Sorry, just deal with it.  The man could sing (still can, actually), he could perform, and it had a great production all over it.

Another maybe controversial 1 (or 2) would be

Dr. Dre - The Chronic
and
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle

Even if you can't stand rap, these stand head and shoulders above the rest as the greatest most influential rap records ever recorded.  Dr. Dre is probably the greatest producer still working today, and Snoop Dogg's Charisma crossed over into white homes like nobody has been able to do since.  Rap today stands on the shoulders of these two albums and rap is a huge entity in the music world today.

Billy Joel's finest album is "An Innocent Man" in my opinion, it's my personal favorite album of all time... I'm not saying it's better than Pet Sounds or anything, but I do enjoy listening to it more than any other album.  If you haven't heard the whole album, check it out, it's very good and his homage to Doo Wop music. 

Nirvana - Nevermind has probably been mentioned a thousand times here, great album, a new form of rock with tons of pop sensibilities.

Oasis - What's the Story?  is a great album.  From start to finish there's no filler and it had it's little place in time as the hottest thing on the radio. 

Ron, I did a top 150 just for myself, and both the Chronic and Doggystyle made it. I think they're great. (For that matter, so did a couple of Public Enemy records, Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising.) Those are good choices, i think.

As I have always said and always will, I don't care what genre music is, I like good music. Maybe only 2% of rap or hip hop is good...well, the percentages are no better in any other genre. The best of each is great, the worst of each is sh*t and the mediocre of each is mediocre.

What, Sir-Mix-A-Lot doesn't make the list??

 ;)

The Misfits - Earth AD (1983)
Minor Threat - Complete Discography (1989)
Depeche Mode - Violator (1990)
Yo La Tengo - Fakebook (1990)
The Indigo Girls - Rites of Passage (1992)
Neil Young and the Stray Gators - Harvest Moon (1992)
Faith and the Muse - Elyria (1994)
Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights (1998)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (1999)
Hem - Rabbit Songs (2000)
Regina Spektor - 11:11 (2001)
Shakira - Laundry Service (2001)
Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002)
Lovespirals - Windblown Kiss (2002)

Barenaked Ladies-Gordon
Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE
Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Flaming Lips-Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Tom Petty-Full Moon Fever
Neutral Milk Hotel-Aeroplane Over The Sea
Beck-Odelay
Weezer-Blue Album
Pavement-Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Radiohead-The Bends
Pearl Jam-Ten
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Californication
Modest Mouse-Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Wilco-Summerteeth