yeah that shit sucks
― flappy bird, Monday, 10 September 2018 04:49 (five years ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-1980s/
hats @ 85
― lowercase (eric), Monday, 10 September 2018 05:07 (five years ago) link
Zen Arcade = 68Let It Be = 35
This is totally unacceptable
― flappy bird, Monday, 10 September 2018 05:48 (five years ago) link
Big Science at 22 and the #1 are good
― flappy bird, Monday, 10 September 2018 05:49 (five years ago) link
#1 Toto IV
― billstevejim, Monday, 10 September 2018 05:53 (five years ago) link
extremely dull & canonical list that nobody needed, obv
― imago, Monday, 10 September 2018 06:08 (five years ago) link
It's the same as before but woker.
― pomenitul, Monday, 10 September 2018 06:45 (five years ago) link
Diamond Life clocking in at #10 — above both the queen is dead and closer — is a level of poptimism I did not expect. Good list though. World at Echo at #25 is awesome
― josh az (2011nostalgia), Monday, 10 September 2018 07:13 (five years ago) link
Instead of substituting genuinely unexpected, lesser sung LPs for bloated hipster heavyweights, they just tell you it's alright to like the stuff you already knew about. It's an injunction to go from the familiar to the familiar – truly inspiring.
― pomenitul, Monday, 10 September 2018 07:36 (five years ago) link
as usual the most interesting part of the list is the higher numbers and those are what make the list worthwhile
― ufo, Monday, 10 September 2018 07:56 (five years ago) link
You guys should be shot into the sun for your misuse of “woke”
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Monday, 10 September 2018 08:06 (five years ago) link
Anita Baker way, way too low
lots of stuff to explore in the 200-100s
― niels, Monday, 10 September 2018 09:28 (five years ago) link
These lists aren't made for the geeks. I learned a lot from the original list sixteen years ago, when I was a teen, and if this can help young people today then I also think it's pretty significant that they are getting a canon where Janet Jackson and Sade are in the top ten.
On the 2002 list there is one solo woman (Kate Bush at 92) and one women-only band (ESG at 84). It's not as if women are banned (Sonic Youth and Talking Heads are at 1 and 2) but the first clearly female-fronted band is Young Marble Giants at 63 (unless I'm missing something). The new list is not more 'woke', the old list was hopelessly slanted.
― Frederik B, Monday, 10 September 2018 10:14 (five years ago) link
― circa1916, Monday, 10 September 2018 10:20 (five years ago) link
I'm sure this list is much more rounded than the original one, but the choices are still dullsville
Even within single artists, they've gone for the safe choice p much every time
Anyway, who cares really - we've always known that the fucking cunts treat us like pricks
― imago, Monday, 10 September 2018 10:56 (five years ago) link
It's true, you know. There were only two good jazz albums released in the entire 1980s, and they were by Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman.
― grawlix (unperson), Monday, 10 September 2018 11:10 (five years ago) link
I like that a few artists who have been ignored by these polls in the past are getting their deserved due/placings, like Janet, Sade and Kate Bush. I do wish that there was a bit more honesty in confronting stuff that hasn't aged particularly well, or held onto its influence since the last poll. Stuff like NWA, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, Beastie Boys, BDP, Run DMC...I appreciate the influence those albums had in their day, but they haven't been honestly that important in how rap has developed since they last did this list in 2002. But I get that influence isn't everything; the main thing for me is that they also don't sound very good in 2018. They sound primitive to me in the way that listening to Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard does compared to most 'rock' music created since.
― triggercut, Monday, 10 September 2018 11:16 (five years ago) link
I appreciate the influence those albums had in their day, but they haven't been honestly that important in how rap has developed since they last did this list in 2002.
What are the '80s albums that have influenced how rap has developed since 2002?
― Number None, Monday, 10 September 2018 11:53 (five years ago) link
It's a consensus list. Consensus tends to form around an artist's most popular albums. How do people still have a problem grasping this?
― Number None, Monday, 10 September 2018 11:55 (five years ago) link
lol as usual most of the records i voted for/wrote about landed in the bottom 100
hotter than july is way too low imo
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Monday, 10 September 2018 11:56 (five years ago) link
Are you able to share your ballot, Brad?
― triggercut, Monday, 10 September 2018 11:57 (five years ago) link
xpost 1) plenty of people like myself still love those records and I actually think they should great todayhaving influence on today is a terrible metric imoalso you could argue run dmc's sucker MCs for example has a great effect on all rap that came after up, it's mechanical minimalism made rap it's own music not trying to recreate park jams with disco pro bands....whether you still think they sound good is just an opinion that may not be shared by ppl at pitchfork
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:00 (five years ago) link
They sound primitive to me in the way that listening to Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard does compared to most 'rock' music created since.
I don't disagree with anything here except the idea that primitive is bad. Run-DMC sounds great in 2018 for the same reason a lot of 50's rock does - the simplicity really travels across eras.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 10 September 2018 12:01 (five years ago) link
― triggercut, Monday, September 10, 2018 7:16 AM (forty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yes, "Evenflow" >>> "Good Golly Miss Molly"
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 10 September 2018 12:04 (five years ago) link
Tbh I'd be a lot more interested in a revised 2000s list, considering opinion she about that decade haven't quite solidified into a canon, and I would venture to say that a bit more of the people writing for the site have living memory of that decade than the 80s (I mean, I was born in 1990, so...)
― guardians of the gums: i am tooth (voodoo chili), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:06 (five years ago) link
That said, there's a whole bunch of shit I haven't heard yet, which is really what I value in these lists, and a lot of interesting things in the 101-200 region, but if you want a truly alternative list of best stuff of the 80s (even if I don't agree with it at all), y'all should check out the Fact Mag list from a while back
― guardians of the gums: i am tooth (voodoo chili), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:11 (five years ago) link
also calling PE and the Beasties (at least Paul's Boutique) "primitive" is...odd to me
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:16 (five years ago) link
Yeah, that's true. I don't think primitive necessarily means bad, but I do find that I rarely tend to reach for that kind of stuff when flicking through my library looking for something to listen to. It's more an interesting music history lesson to me than music that makes me feel something.
I get that a lot of people still genuinely love a lot of these 80s rap records, but I do feel like they're over-represented at the top of the list compared to how often I see people still talking about them lovingly in recent years. FWIW, I still really love the De La Soul and Slick Rick records and listen to them regularly.
Also, I don't agree with influence being a heavily weighted metric either, but I do think it's one they're trying to use here.
― triggercut, Monday, 10 September 2018 12:17 (five years ago) link
I know you're being facetious, but I literally agree with this.
The choppy production/sampling has aged these records badly for my ears. The closest thing to it these days is what Kanye has been doing lately, which also doesn't sound very good.
― triggercut, Monday, 10 September 2018 12:21 (five years ago) link
Also, what do you think are the reasons for the decline in Tom Waits stock? Rain Dogs down to 42, and Swordfishtrombone gone completely.
― triggercut, Monday, 10 September 2018 12:24 (five years ago) link
xpost ok then as far as I can tell you're just wishing a list was more to your personal taste like everyone does but acting it's like some structural or philosophical flaw in how it was constructed
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:27 (five years ago) link
During the ratskellar era we need only Rain Dogs and Bone Machine?
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:28 (five years ago) link
A lot of those "primitive" rap albums sound a lot better to me now than they did in 2002, or in 1995
― President Keyes, Monday, 10 September 2018 12:36 (five years ago) link
― triggercut, Monday, September 10, 2018 7:24 AM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
A different, younger cast of list contributors
― guardians of the gums: i am tooth (voodoo chili), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:42 (five years ago) link
I do wish that there was a bit more honesty in confronting stuff that hasn't aged particularly well
wanna give you a wedgie for this tangent
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:42 (five years ago) link
no 90125 or moving pictures no credibility
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 10 September 2018 12:57 (five years ago) link
Very good point
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Monday, 10 September 2018 13:18 (five years ago) link
Quick glance at the top 20, seems to be too much on there (and I presume the top 200 list as a whole) that's there because it's "important" rather than because it's the "best" or even particularly good. That is, in many cases albums much better represented through individual songs and singles lists rather than as albums. I do like seeing Sade up there and even Disintegration, both of which represent a shifting canon, but man, I still don't dig that NWA album (obvious canonical songs aside), and if anything I think its estimation has shifted too much. And sure, Thriller was an epochal event. (It was the first LP I ever bought with my own money, at Sears or Pathmark or something; I want to say it cost $5?). But the idea that it's just one slot below Purple Rain is nuts as anything more than making a weird symbolic point. Both are clearly important albums, but I can't think of the last time I listened to Thriller, let alone all the way through. Probably back when I first bought it.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 10 September 2018 13:22 (five years ago) link
Also, no 90125 or moving pictures no credibility.
You don't need to listen to Thriller because Thriller is everywhere.
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 10 September 2018 13:23 (five years ago) link
Sade in the top 10 is definitely my favourite thing about this list.
― pomenitul, Monday, 10 September 2018 13:25 (five years ago) link
Love seeing Tango in the Night
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 10 September 2018 13:27 (five years ago) link
yeah, nearly every song from Thriller still pops up on radio. It doesn't matter when you stopped playing the album.
― President Keyes, Monday, 10 September 2018 13:30 (five years ago) link
Thriller is not everywhere. The hits from Thriller (some of them) are everywhere, and I don't really want to hear the rest. Or even a couple of the hits either. Really, Michael Jackson is everywhere, more so than Prince, but that does not make Thriller a good album.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 10 September 2018 13:30 (five years ago) link
xpost What radio are you listening to? I hear Billie Jean and Wanna Be and Beat It out and about pretty regularly. Title track only around Halloween or children's school performance. PYT rarely. Girl is mine, etc. never. Human Nature not as much as I'd like; I hear the SWV version more. Couple of the other tracks never.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 10 September 2018 13:33 (five years ago) link
you're right. what makes it a good album is the music they chose to put on it.
― President Keyes, Monday, 10 September 2018 13:33 (five years ago) link
dude, I heard "Baby Be Mine" on adult R&B yesterday and at least two of the seven singles once a week. It's woven into the culture.
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 10 September 2018 13:34 (five years ago) link
Piecing together a playlist for this, still a long way to go.
https://open.spotify.com/user/olken2000/playlist/3FT4IqZf9kXh7APS5rCIZr?si=22NvmFrWSbS2wNkOV6i5QA
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Monday, 10 September 2018 13:34 (five years ago) link
i.e. the hits from Thriller are seven of the nine tracks