Thursday, August 04, 2005

The Greatest Albums of All Time, By Which I Mean the Last 20 Years



Did you see Spin Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005"? No, why should you have, Spin is for middle-aged people and nerds and, ideally, middle-aged nerds. I didn't see it either. But I did see this blog post, which helpfully reproduces the entire list, along with a personal running commentary.

Now, I'll also run the list, but I'm not gonna comment, because I don't like revealing too much about myself to a bunch of fucking strangers (that's most of you reading this). But I will tell you that, disregarding some I've got on MP3 or tape, I own 16 of them, including numbers 1, 3, and 6 (which are all great). That's sort of on the embarrassingly low side, but then, I bought my first CD player in the late 90s, and I pretty much stopped buying CDs around the year 2000, when I developed an expensive cocaine habit. Then came the dotcom crash and I never recovered. Here's the list:

1. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997).
2. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988).
3. Nirvana - Nevermind (1991).
4. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted (1992).
5. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead (1986).
6. Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988).
7. De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising (1989).
8. Prince - Sign O' the Times (1987).
9. PJ Harvey - Rid of Me (1993).
10. N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton (1988).
11. U2 - Achtung Baby (1991).
12. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989).
13. Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising (1985).
14. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (1988).
15. Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville (1993).
16. Beck - Odelay (1996).
17. Nas - Illmatic (1994).
18. Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987).
19. Hole - Live Through This (1994).
20. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993).
21. Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet (1990).
22. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991).
23. Outkast - Stankonia (2000).
24. Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out (1997).
25. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (1994).
26. Björk - Post (1995).
27. The Cure - The Head on the Door (1985).
28. Oasis - Definitely Maybe (1994).
29. Fugazi - 13 Songs (1989).
30. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die (1994).
31. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me (1987).
32. The Replacements - Tim (1985).
33. Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990).
34. Elliot Smith - Either/Or (1997).
35. Dr. Dre - The Chronic (1992).
36. Pixies - Doolittle (1989).
37. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (1994).
38. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (1991).
39. Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams (1988).
40. Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell (1986).
41. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993).
42. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking (1988).
43. Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded (1987).
44. Green Day - Dookie (1994).
45. Kanye West - College Dropout (2004).
46. The Fall - The Nation's Saving Grace (1985).
47. Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full (1987).
48. Radiohead - Kid A (2000).
49. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998).
50. New Order - Low-Life (1985).
51. Nirvana - In Utero (1993).
52. Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill (1986).
53. Rage Against the Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles (1999).
54. The Breeders - Last Splash (1993).
55. The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole (1997).
56. PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love (1995).
57. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (2001).
58. Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986).
59. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West (1997).
60. De La Soul - De La Soul is Dead (1991).
61. Weezer - Pinkerton (1996).
62. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly (1997).
63. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994).
64. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (2000).
65. Basement Jaxx - Remedy (1999).
66. Outkast - Aquemini (1998).
67. Slayer - Reign in Blood (1986).
68. Tricky - Maxiquaye (1995).
69. DJ Shadow - Entroducing DJ Shadow (1996).
70. Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001).
71. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy (1985).
72. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (1995).
73. Pulp - Different Class (1995).
74. Portishead - Dummy (1994).
75. Le Tigre - Le Tigre (1999).
76. Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (1997).
77. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002).
78. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989).
79. Moby - Everything is Wrong (1995).
80. D'Angelo - Voodoo (2000).
81. Beck - Mellow Gold (1994).
82. Jeff Buckley - Grace (1994).
83. At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command (2000).
84. Soundgarden - Superunknown (1994).
85. R.E.M. - Automatic for the People (1992).
86. Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun (1985).
87. Blur - Parklife (1994).
88. Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996).
89. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell (2003).
90. Sonic Youth - Sister (1987).
91. XTC - Skylarking (1986).
92. Big Black - Atomizer (1986).
93. Pearl Jam - Ten (1991).
94. Slint - Spiderland (1991).
95. Elastica - Elastica (1995).
96. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (1985).
97. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998).
98. Cornershop - When I Was Born for the 7th Time (1997).
99. Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen (1993).
100. The Strokes - Is This It (2001).

How many do you own? And which ones? As ever, stupid answers will result in merciless mocking. Are you man enough to risk being publicly humiliated on Superblog!!?

12 comments:

Matthew said...

Wow, I don't own any of those albums. That's not to say I don't have some albums by some of those artists, just not those particular ones. Man, I'm trailer trash.

Moocko said...

I've got ten of them.

Koala Mentala said...

Which ones?

Matthew, you disgust me.

spidercrazy said...

I'm with you, Matthew. I don't have any of those albums either. I actually only recognized 15 of the album titles and half of the artists/groups. Which means that I still have a lot of fun to discover!

Cindy-Lou said...

I have no idea because I simply cannot pay attention long enough to read the titles.

Uncle Sammy said...

I've got four of them. Or is it two? I don't remember.

Sara said...

I have 7 of those albums, 5 I actually bought. I had more but either my sisters stole them or the tape player ruined them.
I need to buy more Liz Phair because she write songs about hot raunchy sex.

If you hang yourself then I will grow a penis.

Afe said...

Hooray, I have ten of them.

(1,3,18,41,44,48,76,82,93 and 100.)

Therefore I am only 10% middle-aged nerd.

But several of them are on my 'list of stuff to buy when I kick this coke habit'.

Koala Mentala said...

Uh-oh. There are girls who might rip your spleen out if they see your comment. Don't you know I'm the most eligible bachelor of the entire Superblog!! staff?

Your record collection seems awesome, though, and I've entered into relationships for stupider reasons. We'll probably add a link to you pretty soon.

Astrid said...

It is nearly embarassing, but I don't own ANY of them! There are several I like though ...

Koala Mentala said...

That's not good enough, Astrid. You are on my death list now.

But I wouldn't worry too much, because it's a very long list.

Anonymous said...

What's in a name? That which we handle cheap uggs www.morecheapuggs.com a rose nearby any other designation would [url=http://www.morecheapuggs.com/]cheap uggs[/url] stench as sweet.