I'm sure stuff like my Stones and Dylan albums are technically "better" than my Hawksley Workman and Lemonheads albums (for a variety of reasons which I've never properly understood. I'm not huge into the critical/review side of music.) but I just enjoy listening to Hawksley and Dando more on a regular basis. Hence they top my favorites list. But I'll be the first to admit they're not the best albums ever made.

I guess it makes sense for the board's overall Favorites list to be very similar to The Best Albums Ever. But when you have people saying that they never listen to an album at all anymore, it just seems like it shouldn't be on your Favorite Albums list.

I don't know. One of the few things that are more of a waste of time than analysing music is analysing music analysis.

I'm not saying people won't talk about that, just that they won't be able to hear it and will thus be left to judge the record on its own. You actually picked two great records to illustrate my point.

It's impossible for me to hear how "important" Bringing It All Back Home and Rubber Soul were in the mid/late '60s. I just wasn't there. I can try to imagine that, and based on all the other stuff I've heard from and everything I've read about that era, maybe I can paint sort of a blurry picture that gives me a vague idea. Ultimately, though, I'm just left with the strength of the songs and making my own judgment as to whether or not I like them. Everything else is just window dressing, as it is to anybody delving into past music from before they were old enough to be aware of it. And as it so happens, I love Bringing It All Back Home and have little use for Rubber Soul regardless of how critically important it is to popular music.

i can still rock the fuck out to "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

I almost wrote this same thing, but decided it might not be totally true. Still, despite the fact that it's been played the most, it has aged way less than "Lithium" and "Come as You Are".

It's 2 in the morning and i have Blood on the Tracks as fucking loud as it will go.

I don't care when the cops get here.

I love playing albums that aren't that loud at full fucking volume. It's m latest kick,

Nothing nasty to say today except that while all of these albums are worthy of being included in the list, I think most of them are rated a little too highly.

Dylan to me is good music I don't like really like that much. Even though 'Blood On The Tracks' is a good album I never feel any motivation to pull it out and listen to it. I guess Dylan, especially the 'older' Dylan, lacks a little charisma for me. I just don't connect to it even though everything seems to be in the right place.

More of a 'Surfer Rosa' man myself.

I've never been a huge devotee of Rubber Soul but then again I'm not always the most reliable judge in assessing a band's catalog. I'd probly rank the Beatles albums something like The Beatles>Magical Mystery Tour>Abbey Road>Revolver>Let It Be>Help>Sergent Pepper>Rubber Soul>The Rest...

Dolittle ranks as a life changer for me, and while Bossanova is probably my favorite Pixies record from cover to cover, this one will always have a special place.

Nevermind is a great record. It benefits greatly by me just recently seeing the Classic Albums on it; the breakdown of Geohl's backing vocals in particular was really interesting.

The Bends is a record I have no real problems with and I understand that its ranked this high mainly because a lot of people ranked it somewhere. I've always preferred Ok Computer though and by process of elimination, I'm gonna guess that it ranks higher. I win again.

I LOVE Blood On The Tracks when I've got the balls to put it on, but its so heavy that I don't now nearly as much as I used to. "Idiot Wind" is insane.

Nevermind - alot better than In Utero but I don't care if I ever hear any nirvana again so its not coming close to my list

Bends - for years i would have defined this as the best radiohead album and been puzzled why people liked ok computer and kid a more. Then i pulled it out for a first listen in many years and didn't like it at all. Kinda like what i went through with pre-YHF wilco albums more recently. Ok Computer is in fact the best Radiohead album, I just somehow lost interest in Radiohead between the bends coming out and Ok Computer coming out.

Tracks - great album...certainly deserves all the acclaim it gets. i prefer a few dylan albums over it though

Doolittle - probably made my last list without really thinking about it...would have deserved to be on my list 12 years ago. I still like it in theory but I don't care if I never hear it again. I also think FB's recent work is a lot better and I wouldn't even put that in my listmania so this is much too high in my opinion but its not surprisingly high so i'm not going to argue to much.

Rubber Soul - doesn't speak to me. not a big beatles fan and I like a bunch of their other stuff more. Only album on this 5 i like less is the bends.

Not a great block for being so high but there are no surprises here so its hard to get too worked up over them.

why? no different than saying "goth", or "glam", or "folk rock", or "speed metal", or "shoe-gazer"... probably a term more evocative of what sound and aesthetic is referenced than most terms. But perhaps cracking up in general is good strategy.

I can't argue with any of these albums. Until a couple of years ago I would have said that The Bends is the best Radiohead, but I've gotten over my Radiohead cynicism; it may not be my favorite band, but it is one of rock's great moments.

Blood on the Tracks is as good as songwriting can be... it wasn't on my list but could easily by top 20 for me. His poetic gifts became instrumental for word-pictures as direct as Dylan can get - confessional as they say, and the huge sadness at his core was transparent, before his "salvation" and return to "making things vague."

Bands describe themselves as goth and glam. I might be inventing history, but I don't remember any of the Seattle bands claiming to be grunge, I more recall them downplaying the term. Kurt in particular was constantly saying that they just played pop.

Bowie never ever ever would say he was playing "glam." Dead Can Dance would kill themselves before saying they were "goth."

I think I might be the anti-Zombeels, which may explain why I find the Zombies and the Eels so excruciatingly meh.


Of course, The Bends is rotten, empty gesture on top of empty gesture. The sort of bogus manufactured melancholy that taught Coldplay how to get rich. I keep a copy of this just to remind myself how correct I am.

Doolittle is way too high on this list, but whatthefuck. It's the sound of the Pixies becoming a band, filled with the same amount of empty gesture as Radiohead but at least at the service of excitement rather than resignation.

And Nevermind is also way too high, but it's undeniable what a fine collection of songs this was. It wasn't on my list even though it could have been. I don't care if it's overplayed, or what weird and trivial personal connections one has to the trend called grunge - this album came out before the wave, it WAS the wave, and it successfully tied together a few score of alt.shit vectors into a single, prickly beast that still sounds right.

Blood On The Tracks... I guess I should listen to this album in its entirety. I've become too suspicious of indie types saying it's the "best Dylan" - that usually spells C - R - A - P.

And I'd personally love it if the Beatles and the Stones rounded out the entire top 20. "Middling Beatles record" = better than your favorite band.

there is some irony in this sentence that is making my head spin

yup

Nevermind, Doolittle-Both are good enough I guess, expected to see them this high even though I'm not a big fan at all of either.

The Bends-Street Spirit is one of the prettiest songs I know. That alone works for this IMO. Probably my fourth favorite Radiohead, so I wouldn't put it this high, but I don't have anything bad to say about it.

Dylan, The Beatles-Will add these to the listen to list.