Apple Music unveiling their own "Top 100 Albums of All Time" List. (Full list now)
- Thread starter Mattmo831
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It's more obvious a list of where popular culture has shifted to in the past ten years, for better or worse. From my end it's a junk list, but that's just my personal taste. Some of the omissions are glaring from my end, but I'm getting older and know things move on.
It creates real questions about The Beatles in particular. You're telling me Revolver and Abbey Road were too 25, but Astroworld got more votes than Sgt. Pepper?
Very suspect.
I never expected these artists to be listed, but shout out to some of the best artists ever who were not represented here (unless I missed any):
Gas
Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko
Choying Drolma
Jorge Ben
Steve Reich
Converge
Yes
The Mars Volta
Fela Kuti
Mew
Milton Nascimento
Haruomi Hasono
Piero Piccioni
The Necks
Justin Timberlake
Ennio Morricone
Frances Gall
Melvins
Actress
Coldplay
Alva Noto
Drexciya
Boredoms
The Ronettes
Tool
Tatsuro Yamashita
Sufjan Stevens
Cocteau Twins
Sam Cooke
Talk Talk
Oval
Pat Metheny
Novos Baianos
Pharoah Sanders
The Knife
Animal Collective
Li Jianhong
Joanna Newsom
Arthur Russel
Tom Waits
Sigur Ros
Gas
Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko
Choying Drolma
Jorge Ben
Steve Reich
Converge
Yes
The Mars Volta
Fela Kuti
Mew
Milton Nascimento
Haruomi Hasono
Piero Piccioni
The Necks
Justin Timberlake
Ennio Morricone
Frances Gall
Melvins
Actress
Coldplay
Alva Noto
Drexciya
Boredoms
The Ronettes
Tool
Tatsuro Yamashita
Sufjan Stevens
Cocteau Twins
Sam Cooke
Talk Talk
Oval
Pat Metheny
Novos Baianos
Pharoah Sanders
The Knife
Animal Collective
Li Jianhong
Joanna Newsom
Arthur Russel
Tom Waits
Sigur Ros
OP
OP
OP
OP
Surprised they went with flowerboy over igor. Igor IMO is his best album and easily better than flower boy
Hahaha holy shit I just realised Sgt Pepper isn't there. In the top 100. When it's widely regarded as one of the most obvious goat albums. Le fucking mayo at this list.
My friend is a Swiftie of the highest magnitude and her reaction was the TV version of 1989 being on here is label politics lol
I think there is some merit to the idea a goldfish helped create this list
Sam Cooke and Tom Waits both missing is pretty wild even for a list like this
I'm actually shocked Arcade Fire isn't on there. I don't even like Arcade Fire but they're usually used as the default "there has to be an indie album on here" selection
I will say my stance on 1989 can be controversial, but I wouldn't have picked either anyway. Red TV, Speak Now TV, evermore and TTPD would have been for me.
I mean yeah that's her biggest influence. Bigger than Prince in my mind.
OP
OP
If your name isnt beyonce, radiohead, or the beatles, they stuck to 1 album per artist
Your friend speaks facts. Her re-take of 1989 was a downgrade. You can't re-do perfection.
No Pearl Jam. No Blur. No Chili Peppers. I mean there's not even any Pumpkins in there. Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie were generationally good albums. Pick one at least.
It's the weakest of all of the rereleases. It has the fewest vault tracks and it just sounds weird because some of the drum samples were either turned way down in the mix or replaced with weaker sounding ones.
Only one Taylor album is on my personal top 100 list...
Speak Now the GOAT 🙏
Like I said, living in the past.
I won't disagree it's the weakest but it's also the only version of 1989 I'll listen to now so we make do.
You better mean the TV. Also listen to ever…more.
Prince is far and away Monae's biggest influence, and Monae breaking away from Lauryn Hill's regressive sexual politics is more in spite of Hill than anything.
Hmm. I need to re-listen to Miseducation again sometime. The only song I can currently remember is Doo Woo (That Thing) so that's a little mystifying to me and I've always personally thought it to be rather overrated.
But on a couple of the other picks it highlights a bit of an issue I have with some of these evergreen 'bests' - I love Abbey Road, and over time, it's slowly become probably my favourite Beatles album. But it has two bad songs on it - Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Octopuses Garden. Similarly Thriller, a really good album with some exceptional singles on it, has the egregious This Girl Is Mine.
I dunno, to me a 'best' album of all time needs to not have one single dud on it. I need to be enthralled by it from beginning to end. It's why I would never put a Beatles album on my own personal list because as great as they are, as a matter of course, they almost always included a terrible novelty jaunt, a Yellow Submarine, or an Ob-La-Di, or a When I'm Sixty Four.
Other personal take-aways:
Parade is better than Purple Rain (I'll fight for this take)
Purple Rain probably still deserves to be there, though.
Homework is better than Discovery (again I'll fight)
Songs From The Big Chair should be in the top 100 somewhere. As should Wish You Were Here and probably Animals too. And Moon Safari.
Spirit of Eden not being there anywhere is an affront to decency and frankly, I'm tired of that album being routinely overlooked.
EDIT: Off to burn my Apple devices.
So now that we have the full list we can take look at who is not there (just to put some of the choices in perspective):
The Who, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, James Brown, The Band, The Doors, REM, Curtis Mayfield, Jimmy Cliff, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Al Green, Sam Cooke, Black Sabbath, New Order, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, The Band, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, The Ramones, Stooges, The Sex Pistols, John Lennon, Elvis Costello, Blondie, Dusty Springfield, Sly and the Family Stone, My Bloody Valentine, Fela Kuti, PJ Harvey, The Pogues, Queen, Abba, Erik B. and Rakim, Van Morrison, Liz Phair, Lucinda Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, The Allman Brothers, Pixies, Hole, Television, Fiona Apple, Parlament-Funkadelic, Blur, Pulp, Pearl Jam, DJ Shadow, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Genesis, King Crimson, Sonic Youth, Leonard Cohen, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Pavement, Wilco, Beck, Sufjan Stevens, M.I.A, Janelle Monae, Aphex Twin...
The Who, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, James Brown, The Band, The Doors, REM, Curtis Mayfield, Jimmy Cliff, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Al Green, Sam Cooke, Black Sabbath, New Order, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, The Band, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, The Ramones, Stooges, The Sex Pistols, John Lennon, Elvis Costello, Blondie, Dusty Springfield, Sly and the Family Stone, My Bloody Valentine, Fela Kuti, PJ Harvey, The Pogues, Queen, Abba, Erik B. and Rakim, Van Morrison, Liz Phair, Lucinda Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, The Allman Brothers, Pixies, Hole, Television, Fiona Apple, Parlament-Funkadelic, Blur, Pulp, Pearl Jam, DJ Shadow, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Genesis, King Crimson, Sonic Youth, Leonard Cohen, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Pavement, Wilco, Beck, Sufjan Stevens, M.I.A, Janelle Monae, Aphex Twin...
Hybrid Theory is one of the best albums of all-time. Nothing but a fact.
I sure don't!
Lol I fucking knew it
Sooooooo this was all just to promote Lauryn's supposedly long-awaited sophomore album, right?
Not that I'm complaining.
Not that I'm complaining.
Hard disagree. Prince had like a 2 dozen women proteges. Janelle Monae without Lauryn Hill is just someone like Andy Allo.
Radiohead being twice on the list is good, although, how they didn't include "In Rainbows" is mind boggling.
I know these lists are only designed at this point to garner attention and comments but this one is pretty wacky
it is phrased as "Best Album" not most important or greatest or something else so I'll take it at face value that theyre judging this purely on the contents of each album alone not really against each other and certainly not in historical context
I'm fine with Sgt Pepper not being on there, yes its important historically but outside a few songs which would themselves be on a Best Song list, its not great on its own, certainly opposite their other stuff, Abbey Road makes sense
Thriller I can see where it is, love Lauryn Hill and thats a great album, not sure I'd put it over both of those but I could hear the argument for it
Adele over Joni, I'm sorry I just cant. Also I'd put Hissing of Summer Lawns over Blue but thats just me.
Same for Prince, I'd swap Purple Rain and Sign O the Times
Not even really going to comment on Taylor. She has some nice songs and she's big right now etc I could hear the argument it belongs on the list somewhere but we all know it's not 18th.
On a personal note I'm surprised there's no Iggy Pop or Stooges album, again taking aside any importance to culture criteria, the first three Stooges albums are each perfection and you could easily put The Idiot and Lust for Life on there too. Odd omission honestly.
Beyonce, Frank Ocean and Kendrick I could hear an argument for top 20 maybe but top 10 is pushing it. I'd also put her self-titled, Channel Orange and Butterfly over those choices.
Personally I'd put Pet Sounds as an unchanging No.1. We all have our tastes but that is the greatest album that will ever be made.
Not even going through the rest, but yeh wacky list.
edit: not Monk or Mingus and only one Miles and its Kind of Blue? smh. I'd even put Let My Children Hear Music under Pet Sounds but thats more a personal choice.
it is phrased as "Best Album" not most important or greatest or something else so I'll take it at face value that theyre judging this purely on the contents of each album alone not really against each other and certainly not in historical context
I'm fine with Sgt Pepper not being on there, yes its important historically but outside a few songs which would themselves be on a Best Song list, its not great on its own, certainly opposite their other stuff, Abbey Road makes sense
Thriller I can see where it is, love Lauryn Hill and thats a great album, not sure I'd put it over both of those but I could hear the argument for it
Adele over Joni, I'm sorry I just cant. Also I'd put Hissing of Summer Lawns over Blue but thats just me.
Same for Prince, I'd swap Purple Rain and Sign O the Times
Not even really going to comment on Taylor. She has some nice songs and she's big right now etc I could hear the argument it belongs on the list somewhere but we all know it's not 18th.
On a personal note I'm surprised there's no Iggy Pop or Stooges album, again taking aside any importance to culture criteria, the first three Stooges albums are each perfection and you could easily put The Idiot and Lust for Life on there too. Odd omission honestly.
Beyonce, Frank Ocean and Kendrick I could hear an argument for top 20 maybe but top 10 is pushing it. I'd also put her self-titled, Channel Orange and Butterfly over those choices.
Personally I'd put Pet Sounds as an unchanging No.1. We all have our tastes but that is the greatest album that will ever be made.
Not even going through the rest, but yeh wacky list.
edit: not Monk or Mingus and only one Miles and its Kind of Blue? smh. I'd even put Let My Children Hear Music under Pet Sounds but thats more a personal choice.
If you made a list of the albums or artists that "have to be on there" then you would probably run out of spots before you even started picking because there are definitely over 100 artists that deserve to make a list like this.
No Weeknd either, I believe. No badbadnotgood. Snubbing Pearl Jam, Janelle Monae, Al Green, The Ramones, James Brown, Rakim, is madness as well.
Gotta have Astroworld tho. (An upside to this list is the amount of shade Astroworld and to a lesser extend Flower Boy about to catch will be funny.)
But In Rainbows is only their 5th best album
I agree with this one, Sgt Peppers is super overrated