Tom Petty - Wildflowers and All the Rest. Wildflowers is such an interesting album to me. I loved it when it came out - that was right when I started college, so it reminds me of some of the exciting new experiences of leaving the roost and setting out on my own for the first time. I have a clear memory of playing it with a group of older guys as I drove them to a bar, hoping that they liked my musical choice so that I could get in with their crowd. More recently, I was with two other guys the other night and asked them what the best Tom Petty album is, and both of them said Wildflowers. Which I find fascinating. I love it, but I still think that Full Moon Fever is better, and I might like Into the Great Wide Open more as well. Hard to measure that, of course, but I think I'd stack them that way. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone's top 500 albums had it as Wildflowers, Damn the Torpedoes, then Full Moon Fever (and no Into the Great...). So my friends are in good company. Personally, I think that this album took on a mythic quality after Tom died, as many of the Nashville cool kids and indie folkies and other people started pumping it up as their key inspiration for their music. And so it went from a low key album that didn't feel like a big deal at the time (made it to #8 on the Billboard charts and went 3x platinum, while Full Moon Fever made it to #3 and went 5x platinum, so it actually was pretty large at the time) to a touchstone album for a lot of people.
This is a re-release, 20+ years later, with a crapton of extra goodies. And the re-release has already shot up to the top of the Rock Albums Charts for Billboard. The story is that the original album was supposed to be a double disc with many more songs, but the label balked at that and requested a slimmed down version (that was released as the original album). Many of the leftover songs then came out on the soundtrack for She's the One, in 1996. Petty apparently always wished that he could re-release the album as he had originally imagined it, so part of this release is granting him that wish, posthumously. The original was 15 songs, with "You Don't Know How It Feels" as the hit, and some minor hits with some of the other ones. Now they're tacked on All The Rest, another ten songs that Petty had wanted on the original release, as well as an album of Home Recordings and a Live album.
The All The Rest Disc is good stuff. I know a number of those tunes already because of course I bought the She's the One Soundtrack when it came out. But "Leave Virginia Alone" is good stuff, and it wasn't on that second album.
Hard to imagine why that didn't make the original or the soundtrack. Sounds super clean and right in line with the rest of the album. Dig that new disc of stuff. But the Home Recordings disc isn't too terribly interesting. I guess it is cool to hear weaker versions of some of the final songs to see how he wrote less good versions before he cleaned them up and made them right, but that kind isn't all that cool. It's more fun to imagine that he was so perfect that the best versions just spilled from his brain, tripped down to his fingers, and were launched into the world.
The live disc just bums me out. Never got to see TP play live, and I'm definitely worse off for it. These songs sound great live. One weird thing is that "Walls (Circus)" is on this Live disc, probably the best song on She's The One soundtrack, but it isn't on the All The Rest disc. Maybe that one wasn't written for the Wildflowers sessions and was written specifically for the soundtrack? Wikipedia doesn't say. "It's Good to Be King" goes all jammy at almost 12 minutes and I love it. The live title track is fabulous too.
A weird note on the Wikipedia pages for both Wildflowers and She's the One - neither of those two albums were included when Petty's entire back catalog was released in high-resolution audio back in 2015. I wonder why?
Anyway, that became less of a Quick Hit and more of a novel, but whatever, this album is worth your time to go enjoy again. Go to it.
together PANGEA - Bulls and Roosters. 2017 album. This one came to me because one of Drew Magary's fans suggested one of their songs and he mentioned it in an article. It's pretty fun - new wave-y guitars and fast paces with some kind of punky and cheerful vocals bouncing around on the top. Maybe like if The Hives were into Elvis Costello's backing band. I also swear I heard the Goo Goo Dolls at one point. It's very fun stuff. The opening track has a little surfiness to it and sounds bright and happy. Second track is kind of slower punk surf with some slide guitar. It's all over the place, but the common theme is that I enjoy it. Top track is "Money on It," with 2.3 million streams.
Don't know that I would have picked that as my favorite tune on here, but it's fine. But, overall, the whole album is a good time. I've gone back to it for a few days now and each time it puts me in a good mood.
Sturgill Simpson - Cuttin' Grass. I absolutely LOVE this album. These are bluegrass versions of his previously released songs, and the players that he has surrounded himself for the backing instrumentation are freaking stone-cold killers. I looked up who they are, and none of them ring a bell to me as artists in their own right, except for Mandolin player/singer Sierra Hull, who I reviewed an album from a while back (and is bad ass). But each tune bristles with bluegrass perfection - bouncy banjos, lively fiddle, weaving and nimble guitar lines, as well as great harmonies from the collected singers. And its super fun to hear familiar songs re-imagined like this. "Long White Line," or "Turtles All the Way Down," or the lovely "Breaker's Roar," it's crazy fun. And while I know a bunch of his music, I have to readily admit that a handful of these tunes ring no bells to me, which is a very fun deal - I get new-to-me tunes in a perfect bluegrass wrapping. The top track for streams on here is "I Don't Mind," with 1.6 million streams.
That one turns down the banjo's presence and leans more on the mandolin, guitar, and his lovely voice. Lyrically, it's also a beautiful track, just a pure love song sung in with conviction and longing. And I dug into it's history a little bit, because it doesn't ring any bells from the albums that I own. Ends up it came from a pre-solo band called Sunday Valley, that Simpson belonged to before he moved to Nashville. This is making me so very aggravated that the Sturgill/Tyler concert that was supposed to happen back in March got cancelled. Between the two of them, I could have floated my way through the summer on those two performances.
Fleet Foxes - Shore. I love some of the old Fleet Foxes albums. Beautiful harmonies, clever story-telling and lyrics, and just an overall amazing vibe. Those discs have soundtracked good things in my life. My first run through this album was a hollow one, I wasn't feeling it at all. But after some repeat listens, I've decided that its actually pretty good. Not great, but still pleasant. Some of the tracks leave me wanting because it sounds almost like it's just Robin Pecknold, all alone. The opening track doesn't even sound like one of their tunes - different singer entirely. But then the second track comes on - "Sunblind" - and it absolutely sounds like the normal vibe. The third song makes me think it is about to be some Billie Eilish shit for the first 8 seconds, before the normal music kicks in. As with the other albums from these guys, the music is a pleasing, gentle deal, and it's the lyrics that make it seem like something more than just a soft, warm dive into AM Gold indie. Like “I could worry through each night, Find something unique to say, I could pass as erudite, But it’s a young man’s game,” or "I'm gonna swim for a week in, Warm American Water with dear friends." I wanna do that too! The top streamer is "Can I Believe You" with 5.8 million streams.
Oh, yeah, that's the one that sounds like Eilish at the start. Dig the harmonies. I really like them in "Young Man's Game" as well. Just a nice album of warm music.
Action Bronson - Only For Dolphins. This dude is just plain weird. Like, the title of the album isn't entirely legit, because he raps in human words, but he also includes a healthy serving of the sound of dolphins chattering during and between songs. The intro includes the line "You wanna fuck Ernie, you gotta fuck Bert." Which is likely true, but very well sums up the odd and off-the-wall business that you are about to get on this disc. And you aren't going to get much in the way of expected beats here. "C12H16N2" (which I guess is the chemical signature for something? Probably weed. Nope, its something called Dimethyltryptamine) is a rap entirely done over the top of an exceedingly gentle track of people singing breathy "nuh nuh nuhs" and the lightest possible guitar strum and feathered drums. Like, this should be the background to a Frank Sinatra song, not a rap by an obese pot aficionado who cooks a mean bullet salami sandwich. The top streamer is him wandering around over the top of a cowbell-heavy track that sounds like something Magnum PI eats nachos to on Hawaii. "Latin Grammys" at 2.6 million streams.
That video is amazing. But again, not a traditional beat that most people would rap over. "Mongolia" is a gypsy dance, "Vega" is a piano trilling its ass off, "Cliff Hanger" is on some reggae action. Literally, none of these tracks has a traditional, bass-centric hip hop sound. It's all high tones and him bopping along with some free association raps on top. He's funny for sure. I want to like it more than I do.
Metallica - S&M2. You may recall that Metallica made a live album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra a decade or so ago. If you do not, then know that they have gone back to that same well, and it freaking jams. The very thought of being in that crowd during this show makes my skin crawl with anticipation about how bad ass that would be. From the live performance of "The Ecstasy of Gold" to the actual symphony portions of "No Leaf Clover" to the massive bombast (and perfect buildup) of "One," this works so amazingly well. Oh, and "Nothing Else Matters" also rules with the symphony added in. I've gotten to see Metallica a few times by now, and I know from experience that it is a hell of a show. I can only imagine how good this one was with the additional practice and care they likely had to do to get it all right.
Hell yes. Normally, if any other album I was reviewing had 22 songs, I'd probably be a big fat whiner and complaining about the largess and how they needed to rein themselves in. But not here. Just keep on going. They do some old classics, they do some newer songs. This feels pretty much just like the original S&M - I'm not going to check the track listing to see how much it overlaps, so it might not be so exciting for some. Did we need it? Probably not, but I think its great.
beabadoobee - Fake it Flowers. Very enjoyable listen. Reminds me of a lot of things, and yet feels original. "Horen Sarrison," with its poetic lyrics and swelling violins and soft singing, recalls Jewel (as do others of her vocals). Other times, when she's yelling, its more like the singer from Wolf Alice or Courtney Love. The guitar on "Worth It" makes me think of Teenage Bandwagon at first, and then later recalls old Smashing Pumpkins. It also obviously sounds like others in her wheelhouse, Snail Mail or Soccer Mommy or Waxahatchie or any of the other young female vocalists playing with the line between 90's grunge and 20's indie pop. I dig the guitar and drums kicks in "Sorry" for sure. It's very melodic, even when it gets loud, and it feels important, like my feelings will be impacted if I really tune in to the song. Some of the lyrics are a little first-draft-poetry-in-a-teen-girl's-diary type stuff. "You are the smell of pavement after the rain, you are the last empty seat on a train," or "It's hard 'cause it sucks," or "Fuck me, only when I'm keen, Not according to your beer," or "Think I'd be better off alone, Now that I've had some time to think, I've had to put up with your shit, When you're not even that cute." She has a song, not on this album, with 761.6 freaking million streams, so she's definitely on the radar of someone, but the most streamed on this one is "Care," with 3.9 million streams.
Also the album opener, so that may be why it has more streams than the rest. But I also could easily see myself bouncing along to this chorus in person as I scream that I don't want your sympathy, you don't give a shit, and you don't really CARE CARE CARE YEAH! Also, again, they have those Teenage Bandwagon style guitars. Is that a shoegaze thing? General BritPop sound? I dunno, but it definitely makes me think of Bandwagonesque. Overall, I very much enjoy the vibe of the disc. I'm not sure I register with the lyrics as much, but its a great thing to jam along to.
The Streets - None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive. I generally enjoyed an old Streets album - he's a British rapper with a heavy accent and a flair for odd metaphors. And I saw that Tame Impala was his collaborator on the first song, so I was intrigued. But this project is pretty lifeless. That Impala track has a weak little hook from Kevin Parker, but otherwise is all high hat and no cattle. IDLES is purportedly on a track as well, but you'd be hard pressed to tell. The autotune/off-beat fest of "I Wish You Loved You As Much As You Love Him" is horrible. So much of this is flat - just like he's talking over an uninteresting beat mainly made up of treble. Barely any bass. Barely any interesting or memorable hooks. Maybe the techno burble of "Take Me As I Am" is better? It's at least a little bit exciting... Somehow, and I really am curious how, a song with someone named Chris Lorenzo has 9.1 million streams. "Take Me As I Am"
I guess the techno stuff is bigger than the regular rap stuff. This sounds like something that would have been on the Trainspotting soundtrack, or in Grand Theft Auto. Frenetic drum and bass stuff. Made me do a sweet running robot dance just now. Still don't like it. This album can hit the road.
Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways. In a welcome change, I've actually enjoyed this album. Dylan's voice still sounds like a Muppet with a two pack a day habit, but the music is appealingly relaxed and of course the lyrics are descriptive and interesting. The opening track almost sounds like a Willie song - the plucked classical guitar and very basic accompaniment - but lyrically he's stuffing ideas and metaphors and characters into every nook and cranny of that low-key composition. He really does contain multitudes. The second tracks has a bluesy swagger like a classic Stones tune. The tune of "My Own Version of You" sounds very much like a deep-cut Jimmy Buffet tune on one of his jenky recent albums that I liked more than I should have - and later, "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)" actually does sound like something Buffet would have written.
The top streamer is a crazy ass tune - a 17 minute long song about the assassination of John Kennedy and what came afterwards. Fabulous story-telling. From "they blew off his head while he was still in the car" to a bunch of radio song references as he continues to sing about details of the aftermath - speeding past Dealey Plaza or heading for Parkland Hospital - and then just starts actually requesting songs to be played like he's talking to the DJ. It's an odd juxtaposition, but it also rules. Just seems like a narrator actually sad about the events and taking comfort in music. "Murder Most Foul" Just over 3 million streams.
I don't much care for "Black Rider," but otherwise the album is pretty solid from front to back. Most of it is very low key on instrumentation and backing music. Usually either bluesy strut or basic classic guitar. I can dig it.
A$AP Ferg - Floor Seats II. Now that is a transition. Dylan to Ferg. I liked the first one of these, like I liked Ferg's early stuff, but this one isn't great. Most isn't terrible, but at only 28 minutes, there isn't a lot of material here to cover up that some of this is chaff. Some of the beats seem like they are too fast for Ferg to handle, like the last two tracks - "Hectic" and "Aussie Freaks." He does a track here with Marilyn Manson, which is creatively titled "Marilyn Manson." Lame - nothing interesting about it - can't even really tell if Manson says anything in it? The best tracks are "Value," "No Ceilings" (with Lil Wayne), and the second half of "Dennis Rodman," once Tyga is done doing his exceedingly boring portion. The collab with Nicki Minaj is the hit, with 28.4 million streams (many more than the next highest one). "Move Ya Hips."
Ferg's verse is almost nonexistent - when he says the title line it sure sounds like Nicki wrote that and told him what to say - no fire there at all. And Made in TYO pretty much just said the name of the song a few times to get credit somehow. Nicki just does what she always does, a few changes to her voice to make it seem interesting, when the lyrics aren't at all. Pretty good beat, uninteresting raps. Disappointed in this one and won't save anything.
Public Enemy - What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? Well, they're still out here, trying to seem as though they have something interesting to say about the current political moment. The George Clinton opening, with no raps, but a freaking serving of funky weirdness, may be the best time to turn this one off. "GRID" is just a preachy track about how we are all addicted to the internet, but it is SOOOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOOOW. It's literally like Grampa Chuck D wrote a rap, slowed down a track so that he could keep up with it as he meandered along with his deep thoughts about how using the Internet is like being trapped in a real web, and then invited Grandpa B Real to also do the same. And it hurts me to hear them yell "WHEN THE GRID GOES DOWN" as though on "How I Could Just Kill a Man." Painful. Could have been cool - George Clinton, P.E., and Cypress Hill all together could have made something interesting and powerful, instead this just meanders along and repeats the title a million times. "State of the Union" talks smack to Trump, which I like, and the beat is pretty solid. But again, it seems slow, too methodical, too stale. I need some bombtrack-ass shit for this - give me Welcome to the Terrordome's beat or something.
I'll definitely say that hearing the Beasties jump on to a track is enjoyable, but unfortunately, they can't salvage the boring retread of the "Public Enemy No. 1" beat. The "Fight the Power" reboot is probably the best thing on here, which isn't a great compliment. Can't they come up with something new instead of just shoving a million guests into one of their classic beats?
The Nas verse is very good. The video, compiling video footage of a bunch of the recent protests, is also very good. Actually, now that I listen again, this is a good tune. I still wish they would have done something original, but these verses are inspired and valuable.
Several tracks actually talk smack to Trump and the current state of affairs, which is necessary and cool and good, but no one is going to listen to these boring ass, slow ass uninspired tracks. Their Spotify discography is actually really interesting - you can tell that no one from the younger generation has discovered them, as their top track on Spotify is something called "Harder Than You Think," from a 2007 album that doesn't ring a bell to me. Nothing from Apocalypse '91. Kids these days, man.
Protomartyr - Ultimate Success Today. Each time this disc comes on, I think it is the new IDLES. Not sure where I found this one to add to my queue, this band doesn't ring a bell to me at all, but it's pretty good. The vocals can be a little underwhelming at time, more of a spoken word thing, but the music is in my wheelhouse of brawny, crushing post-punk riffage. But then, there will be like, a clarinet that fires up to take a few of the riffs - I'm thinking of "Processed by the Boys," which otherwise sounds like it could be at home in Fugazi's catalog, except for the clarinet meandering in here and there for a quick cameo. But the instrumentation on these tunes is good stuff, different - they don't just pound the whole time, but they'll switch it up from a quiet section to pounding and back again, which is certainly more interesting than just all one or the other. Again, I wonder where I found this, because they are getting very few streams - no tune on this album has more than a million streams. Top track is "Processed by the Boys" at 924k.
Fiiiiiiiiiccccccctttttttttiiiiiiiiooooooooonnnnnnnnnn!!! F that little puppet anyway. It really does read like poetry to review the lyrics at the bottom of that screen. "Worm in Heaven" is one of the ones that does a good job of being gentle at first - "I wish you well...hope you find peace in this world..." - and then it kicks in a little at the end. This is just an interesting sound - I think I like it.
Kind of an insane undertaking, right? Cutting off the world's entire album output at the 500 best? I wonder how many albums there have been, in history. More than a million? Ten million? Some random website I just looked up (discogs.com) says 13,217,318. If we want to believe that, then this is .0003783% of all released albums that are up for this honor. A minuscule drop in the bucket of all released music. Hell, I own more than 500 CDs myself.
RS has done it once before, but this time it is all new. They solicited and received top 50 album lists from over 300 artists, producers, critics, and other industry people. I feel like making a top 50 albums list would be an absolutely devilish task. I'd need to have an algorithm or something like the FlickChart.com process by which I could pit all of the albums against each other until I reached an internal consensus. It would be very unpleasant though.
I have a few random observations to make, in no particular order.
First, I thought it interesting to compare the one from 2003 to this new one. In 2003, it went Sgt. Peppers, Pet Sounds, Revolver, Highway 61 Revisited, and Rubber Soul. Three Beatles discs in the top 5, and the other two were old white guys too. The 2020 list now has What's Going On, Pet Sounds, Joni Mitchell's Blue, Songs in the Key of Life, and Abbey Road as the top 5. Zero representation of black voices in 2003, now it's 2 of 5. Only one Beatles album in 2020, and not even one of the three that was top five in 2003. Seems weird that Sgt. Pepper's would not remain the consensus top Beatles album, and that Abbey Road (#14 in 2003, also behind the White Album) would leapfrog all three of those other discs. Sgt. Pepper's is now at #24, by the way. I wonder what creates such a change in opinion, long after those albums were released? Does the younger generation dig Abbey more than Sgt.? Is it from adding more diverse voices to the panel of contributors? Interesting.
Only semi-related to this top 500 list, I have to admit something dorky. About twenty years ago, I tried compiling my own personal top ten, and as I look back on it now, it is embarrassingly nostalgic. I can't recall what inspired me to create the list, I think I got a chain e-mail or something. Anyway, I asked my siblings to do it as well, and there were rules about it that included no soundtracks or greatest hits comps. Sadly, I no longer have their lists - they disappeared when Tripod websites went down (I had built an entire family website using Tripod - I had coded the whole thing in html like a sweet ass hacker mastermind. I can barely figure out how to find the menu on my TV now). For the most prime example of how embarrassing it is to create such a list, I had LL Cool J's Mr. Smith as my top nine album of all time! OF ALL TIME!!! And you know why? It's because two of my best buds and had spent a million hours in college, listening to that album, while playing video games or driving around the shithole town where we sent to college, and so it has all of these emotional strings tied to it that no otherwise sane human being would have. Because, come on. It wouldn't even come to mind now if I tried to create a top one hundred albums of all time for me. Also, a John Cougar album is in my top ten. I deserve all the scorn you can lob at me. Dammit, 1999 Jack.
And actually, I think that is the most difficult thing about coming up with a list like this, and why a Flickchart type database would almost be necessary. If I'm just trying to use my brain to come up with the best albums ever, I'm going to be over here thinking of memories, and some of those will tie on more strongly to good emotions. Like, my brain will think about Living Colour, because I fucking loved their first two albums, that I listened to for a million hours when reading books and playing Zelda in my bedroom as a kid. But are either of those discs actually top fifty material? They shouldn't be, but they would pop into my head for sure. Same with weirdo things like Midnight Oil, or John Cougar, or Robert Earl Keen, or any number of other bands that have mental/emotional ties in my mind. On the other hand, I might just forget entirely about something else great and leave it off my list. Makes me curious - it would be fun to talk to one of the people who helped to make this list and dig into their thought process. Looks like there is a podcast, maybe I'll try that and see what I think.
Strangest thing about this RS list, to me, is how few of the things in here are entirely new to me. Not that I've listened to every single album listed in this list, but at the same time, I'm not seeing some sort of cool new underground thing that I had never seen before. Just as one example, here are the rap artists in the list, in order:
Lauryn Hill (yes, that is the highest ranked rap album in the list), Public Enemy, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Notorious B.I.G., Wu Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Outkast, Jay-Z, Eric B. & Rakim, Outkast, Jay-Z, N.W.A., Kanye West, Missy Elliott, Drake, De La Soul, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Beastie Boys, Fugees, Eminem, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, Notorious B.I.G., Ice Cube, Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Run DMC, Raekwon, De La Soul, Boogie Down Productions, Kanye West, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Outkast, DJ Shadow (which is just beats, but I'll consider it rap?), Snoop Doggy Dogg, GZA, Eminem, Madvillain, Drake, Mobb Deep, Lil Wayne, Run DMC, J. Dilla, Ghostface Killah, The Roots, 2Pac, Kid Cudi, Juvenile, The Pharcyde.
That is 59 albums of the top 500 that are rap albums. And other than eight of those (Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak, Drake's Take Care, Missy's Supa Dupa Fly, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, Drake's If You're Reading This, Run DMC's debut, J. Dilla's Donuts, and Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon) I own every single one of those albums (some, sadly, such as Kanye's Yeezus). And even all eight of those that I don't own, I've definitely listened to them, except for the J Dilla (okay collection of beats) or the DJ Shadow disc (which I'm jamming now and it's pretty damn cool - "Mutual Slump" samples Bjork and I'm here for it). Seems weird right? That rap homogeneity would be so clear so as to not let any under-the-radar rap album into this list. I guess it also just might be the law of averages - even if DJ Drama's list had Run the Jewels on it, or El P listed Helmet on his, if no other voter included them on their list, then they couldn't have enough vote numbers to make the cut into the top 500. Just weird to me that I found only one single new album in the rap world to listen to, and it isn't even really rap, it's just beats. Or it could just be that news travels faster now, and if a great rapper gets discovered, he or she doesn't remain a regional, hidden thing, and so everyone will include them on their lists.
Beyond the weirdness of the way that points averaging works, a few other interesting observations from the list:
2Pac doesn't have an entry until #436? Feels like people still talk him up as a major rapper/influencer, and yet he's behind smaller name people like J. Dilla, Ghostface, and GZA.
Their Beastie Boys entries are Paul's Boutique (125), License to Ill (192), and Check Your Head (261). I would never put License to Ill above Check Your Head (or Ill Communication for that matter). I know it has an important place in the conversation for what it was at the time, but by now most of the songs are much less interesting that they were in 1986. That jokey, jock-y rap is much less cool compared to the later stuff - although "Paul Revere" is still iconic.
Bjork's Homogenic is her top entry, which I find strange. I'd easily place Debut (n/r) and Post (289) above that one. It has some good stuff on there, but I don't think it is as good, or as innovative, as what came before.
Similarly, Outkast has Aquemeni at #49, Stankonia at #64, and Speakerboxx/Love Below at #290. Aquemeni has some great individual tracks on it, but I never would have considered it their best album. I probably would have said Stankonia, but I might have gone with ATLiens. Interesting. I'll need to dig back into that album.
People have fights over the "Best Soundtrack of All Time" on the internet all the time, but if you trust this list's rankings, you get Saturday Night Fever as #1, The Harder They Come as #2, and nothing else. No Singles, no Pulp Fiction, no Garden State, no Big Chill, no Trainspotting, no nada. Interesting.
The world is going wild over Tom Petty's Wildflowers right now as it celebrates an anniversary and a massive box set release, but I find it interesting that they rank it so far (#214) above Full Moon Fever (#298), which I would rank higher. They also have Damn the Torpedoes (#231) ahead of Full Moon Fever.
Beck's Odelay at 424 is lame, should totally be higher. Tame Impala's Currents at 382 is lame. R.E.M. only gets two entries (Automatic and Murmur), which is terrible. Same with Chilis only getting in here twice (Blood Sugar and Californication). Weezer's Blue album seems low at #294 as well. Coldplay only having one entry (Rush of Blood...), at #324, also seems off.
I've sung/performed/freaked out to Devo's "Whip It" about 700,000 times, and yet I don't know that I've ever actually listened to one of their entire albums. #252 is Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo, and the cover looks like a poorly drawn Tom Brady in a Miami Gangster hat standing in front of a golf ball. It's loose as hell, as I'm listening to it right now. Wild stuff. The only ones on here I recognize are the Stone's cover and "Gut Feeling," which I think was used in a Wes Anderson movie. Also, that video rules.
Very little traditional/Nashville country in here - like the monster artists with all the hits. No George Strait, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Kenny Rogers, Reba, Carrie Underwood, Alabama, etc. The closest you come to that are three discs: Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, and Miranda Lambert.
You get some old outlaw stuff: One Willie album (hell yeah, Red Headed Stranger is the stuff), a Haggard compilation album, a Johnny Cash live disc.
And some new outlaw/alternative stuff: Jason Isbell's Southeastern, Kasey Musgraves' Golden Hour, and Eric Church's Chief.
Some old timey classics: a Dolly disc, a Hank Williams greatest hits compilation, a Patsy Cline collection, Loretta Lynn's Coal Miner's Daughter.
You might call some stuff as country that came from The Band, or Dylan, or John Prine, or Lucinda Williams, The Eagles, or The Byrds or something, but I'm talking mainstream country music. A Ray Charles country album is at #127 though...
Just of interest to me, I suppose...
The first album on the list I had never heard of before was #162 - Pulp's A Different Class. The blurb about the album claims that they "blew up in the Brit-Pop scene of the 1990s," but they sure didn't make any waves in my world at the time. It's a weird album - the singer whispers too much. And "Disco 2000" rips off the tune from "Gloria." The overall vibe reminds me of that recent Arctic Monkeys album where they do lounge music on the moon. I don't dig it.
A few super-recent discs on here: Lana Del Rey's Norman Fucking Rockwell at #321 and released in 2019. Harry Styles' Fine Line, also released in 2019, but at #491. And the Billie EIlish album at #397. I think those are the only 2019 albums. Also, I think people in 2030 will giggle that those three albums were considered canonical back in 2020.
Surprises in the top 50 for me. Lauryn Hill at 10 - the top rap album - I love that disc, don't get me wrong, it is excellent, but seems way too high for something that I don't see as continuing to hold the conversation. Could she even sell out a big show right now? I think everyone else this high could. Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at 17. Always interesting to me that everyone loves that disc more than the earlier albums. I think those earlier ones are SO MUCH better. I hate The Velvet Underground and Nico album (#23). I've tried so hard to get into it, but I just can't. Amy Winehouse's Back to Black is surprising at #33. I like the album for sure, but that is so high. I love that The Chronic made the top 50. Graceland and Legend would be higher for me for sure.
Fun stuff! Always good to search out new music and consider the importance and impact of certain music versus others. GO read the list and hit me up with your thoughts.
Big Sean - Detroit 2. I really like parts of this album. Some of the coolest bits are these interlude monologues from Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu, and Stevie Wonder, where they riff on some aspect/memory of Detroit. The Chappelle one is legitimately funny, a great story of Danny Brown giving him some sort of laced weed before a show and then Big Sean's dad being kind to him in the dressing room after he bombed. A few of the tracks are very good - I like "Wolves" with Post Malone, I look up and dig into "ZTFO" each time it comes back on, and "Lithuania" also catches my ear each time. The beat on "The Baddest," which bites paret of an old beat that I can't recall, is hard. Tons of collaborators on here, from old guys like Lil Wayne and Diddy to young guns like Travis Scott and Young Thug. The pieces that I don't much care for are the entire tracks that are pretty much R&B smoothies - "Time In" or "Everything That's Missing." They're just boring to me. But the real rap tunes have Sean just sounding hungry - the opener "Why Would I Stop" has a great trap beat and a nimble, non-stop flow over the top. The problem with the album is that the lyrics do nothing for me - the flow and beat sound good, but if you dig into the lyrics, you get left with an empty stomach. There's also a wild track that features Eminem and like 40 other rappers, called "Friday Night Cypher," that cruises along for 10 minutes near the end of the disc - weird thing, its like 15 short songs/raps that have been tied together into one track for some reason. The Post Malone track is the top streamer by far, at 43.1 million on Spotify.
Again, pretty solid (if unspectacular) beat and a nice flow that creates a good groove throughout. But the lyrics are a pretty generic recounting of how he has lots of people on his side that will jack you up if you cross him. I won't save this one, despite enjoying some of it. Go listen to the Chappelle bit and "ZTFO" and you'll be good.
Kurt Vile - Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep). I love this little EP. It kicks off with a perfect cover of John Price's "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" that makes me super happy each time it comes on. And "Dandelions" is just plain beautiful. The guitarwork is lovely and percussive in its little intricate patterns, with very basic drumming in the back (and what sounds like a mandolin cruising along back there too). And he does another Prine cover on here - with Prine himself accompanying him, called "How Lucky." It isn't a tune that I knew before this EP. But knowing that it is a Prine tune is so perfect - it sounds like a Prine storytelling tune, just a jaunty walk down some sidewalk making observations to the time of a lightly-tapped tambourine. And their guitars together are so good - brothers in plucking. "There was all these things that I don't think I remember... how lucky, can one man get" - a good reminder to let it go and let it be.
I'm glad for this little tribute to John Prine. Hell of a songwriter. And it sure makes me like Vile even more. Love it.
Nas - King's Disease. I've never really loved Nas. I think I came to Illmatic late - others had already decided that he was a Mount Rushmore-of-rap guy while I was paying more attention to Ice Cube, B.I.G., and the Beasties. I don't dislike him, but I just never think of him when I'm thinking of the best rappers ever, and you won't find me going back to his classics when I'm feeling like old school rap. That being said, the beat and flow combo on "NY State of Mind" is as cool as it gets. This disc is really heavy on collaborations - all but five of the tracks have someone else listed on them, from Anderson.Paak to Charlie Wilson and Big Sean to A$AP Ferg (and then people I've never heard of like Brucie B. or Lil Durk). The top track is the one with Ferg - "Spicy" - with 5.6 million streams.
Great beat. Lyrically though? Totally forgettable. "G's stay icy 'cause shit get spicy"? The verse by Fivio Foreign is even worse than the Nas bars. Lame stuff. Nothing on here is terribly memorable, no need to save it.
Westside Gunn - Pray for Paris. I have no recollection of where I found this album, but it's pretty entertaining rap. The beats are the good stuff - lots of sampled sounds and low on the high hats. The album opener is a weird auction skit where something, I can't tell what, is sold for four hundred million dollars. The internet tells me that it was the sale of a da Vinci. The killer track, and by far the most streamed, is the absolutely-so-laid-back-it's-upside-down "327." 10.2 million streams.
That beat makes me feel like I'm remembering the time that I bought a classic Ferrari from an Italian olive oil magnate's daughter and then we made love in her lemon tree grove. I'd appreciate better lyrics from Westside here, this one is mostly just brags about fashion labels, but the part about making drugs was legit. One thing I could do without, on all of these songs, is the repeated gun sounds. Enough with the "boo boo boo boo boo boooooo!" and "gdgdgdgdgdgdgdgdgdgdgd" sounds. Guy makes me think of Action Bronson as well. Just simply for the excellent beats, I'm keeping this one around.
