pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Control has a more unified sound than Thriller does, that's true

It's inconceivable that somebody might think "When I Think of You," "What Have You Done For Me Lately," and "The Pleasure Principle" are annoyances.

"Nasty" and "What Have You Done For Me Lately" were the standouts I was referring to. I felt like most of the rest were very shapeless

you must've been in a bad mood

"control sucks" is a good contextual opinion for "thriller is overrated" tbh

a personal favorite i never ever expected to place, but still, imagine: joan armatrading's walk under ladders

it's true I'm generally pretty harsh on mainstream 80s R&B, and then when new jack swing really kicked into high gear bleeeeurrrgh.

I do love all the Prince-affiliated stuff from the era - Andre Cymone, Sheila E., the Time, etc. - and a lot of the imitators, but that was more of a subcurrent as the decade wore on, and it was entirely out of steam by '88 or so

a personal favorite i never ever expected to place, but still, imagine: joan armatrading's walk under ladders

― princess of hell (BradNelson),

Have you heard Sleight of Hand? Fascinating record. She produces and plays every guitar part yet it isn't much different from a 1986-era rock crossover. Fascinating.

I'm delighted Anita Baker and Sade got in, but I guess it'll be 2034 when we see Luther Vandross, Alexander O'Neal, Stephanie Mills, Maze ft. Frank Beverly, and Rene & Angela.

Have you heard Sleight of Hand? Fascinating record. She produces and plays every guitar part yet it isn't much different from a 1986-era rock crossover. Fascinating.

― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, September 10, 2018 3:57 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i haven't! she has an intimidating catalog

please report back

I gotta have a laugh Pitchfork has dumped John Zorn, Faith No More, Dead Kennedys & Swans to the dustbin of W H O A S O E D G Y /mu/Reddit/RYM dork trash in favor of ... Nurse With Wound and Psychic TV

well, not a real laugh, but a figurative one

I shouldn't be, but I was disappointed that Pirates didn't place. I feel like that album has a sort of similar "people are slowly discovering this amazing album all the time" dynamic as Hats - but maybe that's just ILM and the fact that they seem to share a lot of fans in common around here, obviously its sound is not nearly as directly relevant to prevailing trends.

(the logical extension of this kind of magical thinking would be to expect Night Ride Home to make any revamped 90s poll)

alfred what vandross albums do you like

lol at p4k linking "escape" as their track-to-listen-to from "ride the lightning"

alfred what vandross albums do you like

― marcos, Monday, September 10, 2018

You can't go wrong between 1981 and 1986. I'm fond of Never Too Much and The Night I Fell in Love, the latter because "My Sensitivity" and "The Other Side of the World" are ungodly beautiful.

I gotta have a laugh Pitchfork has dumped John Zorn, Faith No More, Dead Kennedys & Swans to the dustbin of W H O A S O E D G Y /mu/Reddit/RYM dork trash in favor of ... Nurse With Wound and Psychic TV

― 5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten)

ah come on nww is hardly 4chan edgelord shit, not when there's dozens of fucking whitehouse tapes and all that other power electronics bullshit

as for "RYM dork trash" it's mostly, uh, Arvo Pärt

anyway a decent list. keeping in mind its inherent biases, which mean that something like matia bazar's "aristocratica" is never going to show up, the one album i'd say should be up there is "keep on doing" by the roches.

never too much is front-to-back classic

I've been getting into it recently -- so good!

re: Roches, every hint of a revival seems to stop short at "Hammond Song" but yeah, bring on the Nurds and Speak love too

somehow I expected to see Trans and Who's Zoomin' Who on the list

Is El Dorado or Freedom on the list? If not, no.

Freedom prolly should be. Galvanizing record on several fronts.

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.

This was an interesting comment to me as I struggle with this as well.
But Little Richard sounds revelatory to me these days, whereas Run-DMC sounds dated at best, and I wonder if it's because I don't hear as much of it's influence as Little Richard.

No Invisible Touch? No New Pop? No Motley Crue, Queensryche, or Poison? Come on, Pitchfork. They can’t all be indier-than-thou critic’s faves. Live a little.

Full comparison of the 1980s' Top 25 LPs through lenses of 2002 Pitchfork and 2018 Pitchfork. @pitchfork pic.twitter.com/FYkJ5BCkxE

— S. Alexander Reed (@industrial_book) September 10, 2018

alaska y dinarama's "deseo carnal" also belongs on any list of great '80s records, but again, not in english so is unlikely to show up on these sorts of lists

The new list is obv. so much better.

The one odd note in the top 25 for me is Disintegration jumping from 38 to 9 - that doesn't seem like an album that 2018 pfork would be primed to appreciate substantially more than 2002 pfork.

xpost, Never Too Much is definitely Luther's masterpiece for me too. Every song is perfect. Busy Body is probably in second place, mainly due to how awesome I'll Let It Slide is. As Alfred said, he had a great run in those five years or so.

An R&B album I would have liked to see in there (although I didn't expect it unlike some of the other omissions) is Word Up by Cameo. Like Never Too Much it's one of those albums where every song is a winner. I'm sick of that album being so underrated.

evelyn "champagne" king get loose another one that doesn't quit

just listing records i voted for at this point

xposts the Disintegration jump was surprising yeah and Word Up definitely should have made it

it's disappointing that Power Corruption & Lies is still the canon New Order album over Technique

evelyn "champagne" king get loose another one that doesn't quit

^^^^^ forever

By the time they do this again this and In A Special Way and Never Too Much and I Feel For You and Portrait (or Padlock) will all be on there I suspect.

it's disappointing that Power Corruption & Lies is still the canon New Order album over Technique

― ufo

I feel like Low-Life was the canon pick at one point? I'd put that and Technique ahead of Power, Corruption & Lies (as good as it is).

That SY's Sister didn't place boggles my mind. I would understand a group of people not liking Sonic Youth altogether, but how would they rate Daydream Nation and EVOL so highly but not Sister? How does it happen?

There's probably a good argument to be made that throwing a third placing to Sister would be redundant when there's only 200 places to go round. I can't remember any artists polling 3 places apart from Prince and Madonna.

Just looking at the 2002 list again, it looks like XTC are one of the bands who have fallen out of favour the most. Skylarking is one of the biggest drops (from 13 to 133!) and unless I missed them, English Settlement and The Dukes Of Stratosphere album have disappeared.

and I assumed XTC had gotten more not less canonical with the greater availability of their catalog since 2002.

Not surprised that English Settlement dropped off, but disappointed Black Sea didn't take its place

There's probably a good argument to be made that throwing a third placing to Sister would be redundant when there's only 200 places to go round. I can't remember any artists polling 3 places apart from Prince and Madonna.

― Tim F, Monday, September 10, 2018 10:04 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bruce also had 3 iirc. All deserved, same for Prince... and Madonna I suppose (I don't know her beyond the singles!).

I think you are right about the redundancy. But also it's a best album of the decade list with an actual numerical order, so it's a load of crock to suggest both there is 200 albums better than Sister but EVOL and Daydream Nation rank highly; Sister missing sounds so deliberate. I just think the list is maybe not the best exercise to say 'here are a whole bunch of 80s record we think are amazing we want to share them with you'.

I'd thought Sister was solidly the canonical second-best Sonic Youth album too

Like A Virgin getting in over True Blue is really odd too

Yeah, esp. since the five hit singles from True Blue >>> the four/five hit singles from Like a Virgin.

Perhaps another example of an album ("Virgin") that had a bigger cultural impact (sorry) despite being inferior?

(to its successor)

I'd thought Sister was solidly the canonical second-best Sonic Youth album too

I thought this too, but I think I thought so cause it placed so highly in the original P4K 80s list

I don't know about publications but among fans it's clearly 1b after Daydream Nation being 1a.

I dreamed of Thatcher, the milk snatcher, and woke up just now with the curdling realization that A.R. Kane was left out again. If ever there was a band whose time has come a thousand times over.

Re 2002 vs 2018 above, ZERO female artists in the top 25 from 2002. Best they could manage were Pixies and MBV with some female lead vocals. How you could compile a best of the 80s and omit Madonna's debut and Big Science is beyond comprehension.

Not disagreeing with your general point but you might want to recheck who was number one in 2002 and all.