Comments on: “Entertainment Weekly” Best-Albums List Reveals Every Problem With (And Advantage Of) General-Interest Listicles

By: Richard Cummings

Richard Cummings — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:06:54 +0000

Paul Simon’s Graceland takes the cake for me!

By: MrStarhead

MrStarhead — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:56:32 +0000

Life’s Rich Pageant is the sole REM entry. Not Automatic for the People or Murmur, Life’s Rich Pageant, an album that the band freely admits was slapped together out of old rejected songs, covers, and about an EP’s worth of original material.

By: alec_baldwin

alec_baldwin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:22:13 +0000

Hahahahaha.That shite is funny. So, where is the real list? Seriously.

By: Oldboy

Oldboy — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:03:33 +0000

This isn’t that awful of a list, guys, considering the source.

By: bcapirigi

bcapirigi — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:55:14 +0000

@Maura Johnston: That Sheryl Crow record is wonderful!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:22:36 +0000

Hole? Are you kidding me? I don't care if it's at fucking 99, it shouldn't be there at all.

As one of those people whose musical development kind of stagnated in the 90s, I'm curious about what happened to some of really influential 90s bands - Toad the Wet Sprocket, or the Gin Blossoms, or even the Goo Goo Dolls - who are arguably one of the primary influences on the late 90s "alternative" movement.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:36:15 +0000

No D’Angelo? Bob Marley’ inclusion on this list is a little dubious seeing as he died in 1981…

By: Rock You Like An Iracane

Rock You Like An Iracane — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:30:12 +0000

Ah, 2000, the year with Stankonia, The Marshall Mathers LP, and the Grammy going to Steely Dan.

By: brownham

brownham — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:01:01 +0000

moby's "play"?

jesus

By: bcapirigi

bcapirigi — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:26:33 +0000

i’m disappointed they didn’t include some of the albums they called the best of the year at the time–namely, joan osborne’s relish (really!) and everything but the girl’s walking wounded. because i subscribed to ew when i was 14 and got an awful lot of my music recommendations from them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:28:56 +0000

The Blueprint and College Dropout are great, but not Top 10 worthy. Looking at the yearly breakdown, I was half-expecting Tribe or Outkast to be the highest hip-hop albums on the list. Enter the 36 Chambers or The Chronic would’ve been better choices. But ’93-’94 is my golden era. Go fig.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:20:32 +0000

Poor 1990. That year go no love.

By: Poubelle

Poubelle — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:31:43 +0000

So I was still a kid in the 90s (and not born for most of the 80s) so I can’t speak to those decades*–but 00s definitely lacks in mainstream. Outside of FOB and Nickelback (who might have good sales but debatable quality)–what about stuff like MCR? Or maybe the first Franz album? And wtf, no Speakerboxx/Love Below? Or is that album too obvious for EW?

(And I was shocked by the lack of Nevermind, too. If they wanted to act like they were too cool for Nevermind, isn’t Bleach the way to go?

By: RaptorAvatar

RaptorAvatar — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:37:41 +0000

I think Diablo Cody could have come up with a less asinine list than this one.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:24:59 +0000

The inclusion of “Trap Muzik” warms my heart, even if most of this list is a steaming pile.

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:53:39 +0000

Any list like this without 'Superunknown' doesn't even exist to me. It's like it was never even written.

By: loudersoft

loudersoft — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:24:11 +0000

This list lacks Phil Collins.

Therefore, I support it 100%.

By: Captain Wrong

Captain Wrong — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:08:41 +0000

@Maura Johnston: See, now you're getting me into an entirely different place. The whole issue of what is mainstream because things are so fragmented. I can see what you are saying with regards to the 80s and 90s list, but I don't know, it just seems like everything is a little different now. It just feels to me like this college stuff we're talking about is a lot close to the mainstream than it was back in the 80s. Sure, I remember being stuck with chain stores as well but I also remember the little getto in the store where all the music I was interested in lived (usually under "imports", even though SST and AmRep were about as domestic as it got.) Now it seems like it's a hell of a lot easier to find anyway. I really never thought I'd see Matador and Merge in Target, but there they are (well, some releases anyway.) I get what you're saying about the "artists I like and who I talk about with my friends on the Internet, which is like the world, right?" syndrome. (Nice way of putting it, btw.) I guess I'm just not seeing the something wider as wide as it once was. Then again, I may be more trapped in the echo chamber than I realize. :)

PS- I agree with you 100% on Bad, especially in place of Sheryl Crow.

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:38:48 +0000

@Maura Johnston: Possibly illustrative anecdote: As I told Matos in e-mail, one thing that stuck out to me about Time's (admittedly kinda dopey) 50 Best Web Sites list was that the namechecked music-related sites weren't indie-related at all. (They were Concrete Loop, Nah Right, and Bossip -- classified under gossip, but all three have been solid for R&B/hip-hop news and leaked music/videos as well.) That's the first time in a long time that I've seen *any* music-related items on a mainstream media list that didn't autotmatically default to Whatever "Indie"-Leaning Pick Was Popular At The Time. Because let's face it, "indie" (or indie-yuppie, or NPR music, or whatever) is the music of the "creative professionals" who have a lot of the jobs with descriptions that include "making up lists for people to argue about on the Internet."

By: Captain Wrong

Captain Wrong — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:34:54 +0000

I’m looking forward to the “100 Albums released in the last 25 years” list. Not top or best or even a specific genre. Just a list of albums. I really think that’s what it’s going to come to eventually.