Spin’s 125 Best Albums of the Last 25 Years
Spin Magazine recently published their list of the top 125 albums of the last 25 years. No doubt you would rank things differently (as would I). But you have to admit there are some friggin’ awesome albums on that list.
Discuss.
Posted on December 2, 2010, in Music. Bookmark the permalink. 18 Comments.
Most of those albums I’ve never heard and just don’t care about. My list would be way different.
Here’s a blog post with all the albums in one big list:
http://jpbenney.blogspot.com/2010/04/spins-top-125-albums-since-1985.html
Impressed Husker Du was #15, and PJ Harvey was in the top 10. Otherwise not too much to say about it, except there’s quite a few glaring omissions.
I’d have put Joshua Tree above Actung Baby. I mean the latter is a great album but I’ve never understood those who prefer it over Joshua Tree. Of course once you put one U2 that high then Joshua Tree has to drop a lot to be fair to other bands.
I’d definitely not put the Smiths so high, but I understand why some like them so much. Prince I confess I just don’t get. And Oasis at 21? And why isn’t Soundgarden much, much higher? I also notice that more established groups don’t get a mention. (i.e. say what one will about Eric Clapton, but his unplugged album was very influential and amazingly good)
Also, did I miss Pearl Jam or were they completely shut out?
Overall though I was impressed I didn’t have more disagreements. Some genres I didn’t care for. (Not a big rap guy) And as I said the more established stuff was skipped. (Probably Paul Simon’s Graceland belongs along with Eric Clapton) But given the style of Spin I get why they skipped it. Sting probably deserves to be there too IMO.
Thanks for the link Susan.
Pearl Jam’s “Ten” came in at #70 Clark.
I’m actually surprised at how many of these albums I do own and/or have heard all the way through. Usually on a list like this, I’m not that familiar.
Know they were limited some by 25 years … but they included the two least … by faaaaaar the two least important Smiths albums (not including the infinite repackaging things) … there were some places I said, yeah, that’s about right: Portishead and the one Tricky album … don’t know any of the rap hip hop stuff … fun!
The Queen is Dead is probably my favorite Smiths album, so I can’t really complain. But any time The Smiths are brought up, I’m at risk of launching into a tangential diatribe about how Morrissey is the worst part of the Smiths, and that would’t be pretty, so I’ll leave it at that.
I own probably 15 of them. And I’m with Clark that Joshua Tree is superior to Actung Baby, and even with giving AB the top slot, they should have had JT higher than 62.
I’d probably have put Gorillaz in instead of Blur (101). Same band, basically. But the Gorillaz project was much more creative and innovative I thought. I always thought Blur was pretty overrated.
I was really pleased they included Johnny Cash (98) all things considered. In a way Cash cashed in on the grunge revolution. But if you’re going to include him I think he really deserves to be higher than 98. Honestly.
I’d totally forgotten about The Roots until I read this list. I need to find a copy somewhere. I remember really liking them back in 99 and then being tremendously disappointed by their followup.
What’s interesting is how many bands I’ve never heard of on the list. (Honestly, “TV on the Radio”? I’m also surprised at all the Björk love there. (Multiple albums on the list)
BTD Greg #6,
Ha! You gotta post on that subject. Sounds like a fun debate.
Clark,
Aren’t The Roots the house band for the Jimmy Fallon show these days?
Really? Interesting. I didn’t know they were even still around. Like I said I loved their first album but hated their second. I just figured they were one hit wonders.
Yeah, even coming in at 70, and only Ten seems like a slap in the face to Pearl Jam. I’m sorry, but Vs. is a GREAT album.
Other glaring omissions IMO: Collective Soul – Collective Soul; Tool – Aenema; Duran Duran – (The Wedding Album); Stone Temple Pilots – Core; A Perfect Circle – Mer de Noms; The Offspring – Smash; Bad Religion – Against the Grain; The Cult – Sonic Temple; Foo Fighters – The Color and the Shape
Especially when you include an album by Hole . . . I mean WTH?? Seriously you’re going to put a Hole album above any STP??
Not a bad list overall, but a long ways from what my list would look like.
I would have liked to have seen Robert Plant and Krauss’s album “Raising Sand” in there somewhere.
Lists are always problematic.
I was pleased to see “The Queen is Dead” at #3 – it’s a perfect album by an amazing band. But everyone already knows I’m a Smiths fan.
I understand why people complain about Morrissey – only because his solo work has rarely approached the quality of work by the Smiths. BUT, there is no way the Smiths would have been as original without him.
The first thing that hit me about the Smiths was the music and then the lyrics knocked me over completely, again. Morrissey and Marr are a special tandem and they’ve never been the same without each other.
Cannot understand the continued love for Liz Phair Exile in Guyville. I wonder how many of the people singing its praises have actually listened to it in the last 15 years.
Oh, man, BRuss … totally agree about Tool. The Cult album is Love, but that is outside the 25 years, I guess.
I’ve actually been listening to The Queen is Dead and Hatful of Hollow in the car the last couple days. The Queen is Dead is such a falling off, as happens to so many bands. I mean, it’s a great album, but it isn’t #3 in the last 25 years great. It falls well short of what came before … it’s become sort of cartoonish, the epitome. Not just melodramatic, which the Smiths always were … I just don’t believe it … Keats and Yeats are on your side, while Wilde is on mine … compare that to Girl Afraid, or Handsome Devil … all that stuff, I believe that stuff. Vicar in a Tutu. It’s also over produced. Girlfriend in a Coma is a joke (and that album, also on the list, isn’t really great, barely good … I found it impossible to listen to when it came out), its funny … but the Smiths when they were great were funny and also real. All through it’s the indefinable coming together. You can’t pull it apart and expect it to be the same. But those last couple albums you sense that Morissey is already on his way to his solo stuff. Inspiration turning into schtick.
Brian V, I couldn’t agree more about Liz Phair. But I never did like her much.
Talking heads didn’t get a nod either. True Stories was 86 as I recall.
The comment section is the best part.