Favourite albums of the 80s+ 90s - lists :D

[ska invita]

what's the point of making a best of list and missing some of the best albums off it?

this list was interesting - one with all the best selling albums of the 90s wouldnt be

 

[free spirit]

this list was interesting - one with all the best selling albums of the 90s wouldnt be

it's an interesting list, but describing it as the best albums of the 90s is bollocks, and attempting to make out that it's which albums sound best still from the perspective of 2012 just makes it worse.

The authors were obviously just that bit too pretentious to mention some of the more popular albums.

 

[killer b]

some albums I listened to as a student are missing, therefore its a list created by pretentious obscurantists.

 

[free spirit]

some albums I listened to as a student are missing, therefore its a list created by pretentious obscurantists.

Several of the most influential electronic artists from the decade, who produced seminal albums in that decade missing from a list of the best albums of the decade supposedly by an electronic music based magazine, it's not because the music wasn't good enough, it's because the authors decided they weren't going to put them in their list. I'd say that's down to their pretentious attitude to the list, not sure what you'd call it.

 

[ska invita]

Well I cant sleep - full moon and the neighbours cat is crying as his family (owners) are away - i fed him a mackerel which has quitened him a bit...
anyhow, chance to do my list!

These are the albums I remember listening to the most over the 90s. Mainly listened to hardcore/jungle/dnb/pirate radio right through the decade.

I havent missed out anything here to come across as clever - this is an honest and personal list off the top of my head - in no particular order other than I rate Loveless as no.1 and ambient works at 2, loveless just getting it as its more complete as an album.

Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
Selected Ambient Works Vol1 - Aphex Twin
Midnight Marauders - Tribe Called Quest
The Low End Theory - Tribe Called Quest
Stakes is High - De La Soul
Buju Banton - Til Shiloh
Manasseh meets the Equalizer - Shining
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
Manasseh ‎– Dub Plate Style 1990-1999 vol1&2
Eric B. & Rakim - Don't Sweat The Technique
KRS ONE - KRS ONE
TIME: The Inner Minds Eye - Leaders of the New School
Discples - For Those Who Understand
Alpha & Omega - Safe In The Ark
Prototype Records - Prototype Years
Step In the Arena - GangStarr
Dillinja - Cybertron
Alpha & Omega Meets Disciples - The Sacred Art Of Dub ‎
Dr Octagon - Dr Octagon
4Hero - 2 Pages
Orbital - Green Album
UFOrb
Ali Farka Touré - Niafunké
Cheikh Lo - Bambay Gueej + Ne La Thiass
Snowboy - Pit Bull Latin Jazz
Bounty Killer - My Xperience
Pixies - Bossanova/Trompe Le Monde
Twilight Circus - Dub Plate Selection
Moodymann - Forevernevermore is 2000 but im having it as the tunes mustve been made in 1999
Both the Digable Planets albums
Ronny Jordan Meets D.J. Krush - Bad Brothers
Gerald - Black Secret Technology
Goldie - Timeless
Jacob's Optical Stairway
Drexciya - The Quest
Alpha & Omega meets Iries In Roots

*Stick the first Placebo/Placebo album in as Ms Invita played that a lot, and its become a fond part of my 90s
might add more if i remember any

ETA: wow, just remembering how much i battered all the above...listened to them over and over. Its really got my memory stirred up seeing them all in a list like that.

I'd say that's down to their pretentious attitude to the list, not sure what you'd call it.

maybe, but it was a good decision as its made a list worth reading.

 

[Cheesypoof]

i was 10 in the late 80s but basic bucketlist

Batdance - Prince
Come-Prince
In Utero - Nirvana
New Power Soul - Prince
10 - Pearl Jam
Vitalogy Pearl Jam
Debut- Bjork
Post - Bjork
One foot in the grave- Beck
Portishead - Portishead
New Forms - Roni Size
I should Coco - Supergrass
Whats the story morning glory?- Oasis

im an expert on all the above artists and feel a supreme disservice to pick any one thing even from a time when they may have done prolific work.....anyway not getting fresh, it was a badly constructed thread to begin with

 

[killer b]

Several of the most influential electronic artists from the decade, who produced seminal albums in that decade missing from a list of the best albums of the decade supposedly by an electronic music based magazine, it's not because the music wasn't good enough, it's because the authors decided they weren't going to put them in their list. I'd say that's down to their pretentious attitude to the list, not sure what you'd call it.

it isnt a list of the most influential lot popular records, its a list of the best - which can only ever be a subjective view. I'm glad they've missed off the usual drab parade of crossover dance music & unit shifting indie rock that usually makes up these tedious lists. Also, have you listened to leftism recently?

 

[Kaka Tim]

most albums listened to by nearly everyone are missing, therefore its a list created by pretentious obscurantists.

corrected for you.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

It's funny how these lists still get up people's noses every time.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Incidentally, while 'nearly everyone' was apparently listening to the like of Supergrass, the actual best selling albums of the 90s (in the UK) include Simply Red, The Spice Girls, The Corrs, Robson and Jerome, and Celine Dion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_of_the_1990s_in_the_United_Kingdom.

Personally I spent most of the 90s listening to deeply uncool Heavy Metal records that wouldn't make anyone's best of list. If I had a 'soundtrack to the 90s' it would probably have Earth vs The Wildhearts at the top.

 

[killer b]

its agreed then? Any list of the best albums of the 90s that doesnt include the spice girls, the corrs and Celine Dion is compiled by pretentious obscurantists? Sounds legit to me.

 

[lizzieloo]

Smugness, can't argue with it

 

[killer b]

Run that by me again?

 

[lizzieloo]

You're unlikely to find Celine Dion or metal on a list compiled by a dance/electronic type of mag.

It does look to me like they've missed off some seminal albums from their list due to their popularity.

I agree with you about leftism BTW, loved it at the time, not now.

 

[killer b]

Im of the view that the idea of an untouchable musical canon (that just happens to line up exactly with the music we listened to as students), and anything that doesn't stick rigidly to it is somehow pretentious or smug is deeply irritating.

 

[lizzieloo]

I'm irritated that you presume I was a student

I'll live.

 

[ska invita]

Batdance was the last Prince album I got into - i loved all his 80s stuff though.

Re the albums mentioned as essential Ive honest to god never listened to a Prodigy, Daft Punk, Leftfield or Underworld album - have heard the odd song of them but it didnt make me want to hear more. Tried out Portishead, Massive Attack and Tricky but it was all too downbeat for me - I was after stuff that was more upfull. Didnt get into any of the brit pop stuff.

Personally I spent most of the 90s listening to deeply uncool Heavy Metal records that wouldn't make anyone's best of list. If I had a 'soundtrack to the 90s' it would probably have Earth vs The Wildhearts at the top.

Thats a list id like to see

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Thats a list id like to see

Heh. Well just to throw out a top five or so off the top off my head:

Earth Vs The Wildhearts
Chaos AD - Sepultura
Burn My Eyes - Machine Head
Welcome To Sky Valley -Kyuss
Pain - Dub War

ETA: Kyuss is actually on the Fact list. I'll admit to a liking for the first Korn album then. Not the rest though.

 

[killer b]

Chaos AD is a great album.

 

[ska invita]

Pain - Dub War

this is fun listening now

 

[SpookyFrank]

Spoiler: Greatest album of the 90's

 

[Kaka Tim]

Im of the view that the idea of an untouchable musical canon (that just happens to line up exactly with the music we listened to as students), and anything that doesn't stick rigidly to it is somehow pretentious or smug is deeply irritating.

Its not 'an untouchable musical cannon' - its the music that was widely popular and had the most impact had the time. So Celine Dion - no. Nirvana - yes. Something like 90% of the music on that list is very niche and obscure - so, whatever its merits - it didn't have much impact at the time. Neither has much of it gone on to be hugely influential on a wide scale since (such as the velvet underground or the stooges growing massively in status over the years).

So if the compilers of the list want to make the argument that this music deserves more attention - than fair enough. But they are not. They are saying - 'these are the greatest 100 albums of the 90s' and excluding the vast majority of what most people under the age of 35 were listening to - including most people who were making and writing about music at the time.

Look at the headliners for the music festivals of the 90s - virtually none of them are on that list. I guess thats cos all the really cool people were in a side tent - or obscure but painfully cool club - nodding along to some up its arse electronic ambient wibble whilst all the sheeple were ignorantly enjoying (insert name of virtually any successful act from the 90s here).

That does indeed smack of smug, pretentious wank.

 

[ska invita]

Its not 'an untouchable musical cannon' - its the music that was widely popular and had the most impact had the time. So Celine Dion - no. Nirvana - yes.

Thing is Tim, its totally subjective - Nirvana meant something to you and nothing to me, other than good stuff for the radio. Great band obviously (objectively speaking), im not saying they arent.

This reminds me of the bob marley not one of the best reggae vocalists arguments....

 

[Kaka Tim]

Thing is Tim, its totally subjective - Nirvana meant something to you and nothing to me, other than good stuff for the radio. Great band obviously (objectively speaking), im not saying they arent.

This reminds me of the bob marley not one of the best reggae vocalists arguments....

Well thing is - im not, and wasn't a massive fan of nirvana or nevermind. But I can see that they had a huge impact.

Actually the Bob Marley analogy is quite apt. you cant really have a list of 'greatest reggae artists' and not include bob marley - even though, arguably, other people were better. You cant - objectively - ignore his impact.
I mean - there is some good stuff on that list. Its the wilful exclusion of nearly everything that was big in 90s music - especaily the alt rock/ indie rock and dance/indie crossover area - that pisses me off. I mean 'Loaded' and 'Definitely Maybe' would be on most lists - I have little time for either album, and you would be making something of a statement by leaving them off - but everything else as well?

Oh - Chemcial Brothers and Bjork - more glaring omissions.

 

[killer b]

Its not 'an untouchable musical cannon' - its the music that was widely popular and had the most impact had the time. So Celine Dion - no. Nirvana - yes. Something like 90% of the music on that list is very niche and obscure - so, whatever its merits - it didn't have much impact at the time. Neither has much of it gone on to be hugely influential on a wide scale since (such as the velvet underground or the stooges growing massively in status over the years).

So if the compilers of the list want to make the argument that this music deserves more attention - than fair enough. But they are not. They are saying - 'these are the greatest 100 albums of the 90s' and excluding the vast majority of what most people under the age of 35 were listening to - including most people who were making and writing about music at the time.

Look at the headliners for the music festivals of the 90s - virtually none of them are on that list. I guess thats cos all the really cool people were in a side tent - or obscure but painfully cool club - nodding along to some up its arse electronic ambient wibble whilst all the sheeple were ignorantly enjoying (insert name of virtually any successful act from the 90s here).

That does indeed smack of smug, pretentious wank.

none of this has anything to do with 'best' though.

 

[killer b]

Also, I think if we're talking influence, you underestimate the influence the likes of Celine Dion has on music, culture and peoples lives.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Also, I think if we're talking influence, you underestimate the influence the likes of Celine Dion has on music, culture and peoples lives.

Indeed. You must never underestimate the power of the lowest common denominator, which when it comes to popular tastes in music is pretty fucking low.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Of course there's also music that's designed to appeal to snobbish curators of the willfully obscure. Out of the list in the OP, Slint's Spiderland is the most obvious example of this. Yes, it's different to everything that went before. Yes, it influenced lots of other people. But is it, or any of its imitators, actually any good? No, no it fucking ain't.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Shellac as well, the extent to which they can fuck off truly knows no bounds.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Its not 'an untouchable musical cannon' - its the music that was widely popular and had the most impact had the time. So Celine Dion - no. Nirvana - yes.

That sounds like the most boring list ever.