pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

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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

milkshake duck george bernard shaw (rushomancy), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:29 (five years ago) link

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.

Tim F, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:30 (five years ago) link

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.

kitchen person, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:37 (five years ago) link

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

just listing records i voted for at this point

princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:42 (five years ago) link

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

ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:48 (five years ago) link

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.

Tim F, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:52 (five years ago) link

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).

kitchen person, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:53 (five years ago) link

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?

Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:58 (five years ago) link

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, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:04 (five years ago) link

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.

kitchen person, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:05 (five years ago) link

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

The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:06 (five years ago) link

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

guardians of the gums: i am tooth (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:21 (five years ago) link

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'.

Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:22 (five years ago) link

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

ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:26 (five years ago) link

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

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:40 (five years ago) link

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

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:41 (five years ago) link

(to its successor)

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:42 (five years ago) link

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

guardians of the gums: i am tooth (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:46 (five years ago) link

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

Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 03:41 (five years ago) link

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.

geoffreyess, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 04:09 (five years ago) link

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.

an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 04:27 (five years ago) link

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

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 04:38 (five years ago) link

xp Nurse With Wound is on both '80s lists.

billstevejim, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 04:44 (five years ago) link

duh, excuse my brain snap(s)

an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 04:47 (five years ago) link

i would vote in an ILX 80s poll if someone wanted to bother

5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 04:55 (five years ago) link

I’d be happy to organize it if there’s true interest. Top 50?

stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:06 (five years ago) link

(Maybe 35 more manageable?)

stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:29 (five years ago) link

Now this is how it started: THE ILX 1980s ALBUM POLL RESULTS!!

there was one 9 years ago but it's surprisingly boring for an ILM list and is missing all sorts of things I would have thought would be locks (Janet, Madonna, The Blue Nile, Sade)

ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:31 (five years ago) link

Haha — at a glance, the top 20 or so isn’t terribly dissimilar from the Pfork list...

stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:36 (five years ago) link

it's probably closer to the old pitchfork list than the new one, just with a little more synthpop & sophistipop etc

ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:38 (five years ago) link

Maybe we should just have a thread where everyone posts a group of personal favorites; leaning toward albums that may not be so strongly represented on these other lists? (To avoid getting bogged down in Daydream Nation slugging it out w/Nation Of Millions for the umpteenth time?)

stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:53 (five years ago) link

(“My Own Personal Eighties”)

stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:57 (five years ago) link

a 'the top 100 from the previous ilx poll are banned' might be interesting, that's been done here before with the 70s albums I think and is probably the best way to accomplish that

ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 05:57 (five years ago) link

We don't need to do the 80s.

We DO need to do the 00's, preparing for our big 10's poll at the end of 2019

imago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 06:12 (five years ago) link

although I'm not solipsistic enough to expect Cardiacs, Rudimentary Peni, Julian Cope, Foetus, The The, The Astronauts, The Chameleons or any XTC album not made by Todd Rundgren to all appear, one of them might have been nice

+ Magazine, + Simple Minds

imago, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 06:14 (five years ago) link

The more I think about what r&b is missing the more I’m like -____-

I know I’m a hip hop guy n all but I genuinely do think the 80s was r&b’s “decade“ in so so many ways where the 90s was hip-hop’s (and it’s reflected in the sound of 90s r&b)

That said run dmc still sounds amazing, esp anything produced by Larry smith....rick Rubin got the rep that should have gone to Larry... that’s why I’m glad whodini made it.... but seriously listen to “it’s like that,” that beat sounds as hard today as the day it was recorded

ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 06:28 (five years ago) link

my strongly felt tuesday morning opinion - beefheart’s ice cream for crow is a much better record than i dunno, 90% of the jerky art rock that did make the list

I'd Rather Kecak (NickB), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 06:41 (five years ago) link

Saying Run-DMC sounds dated is like complaining that the Ramones don’t sound enough like Panic! at the Disco

5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 06:43 (five years ago) link

Lol otm

ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 06:50 (five years ago) link

Disrespecting one's elders is a punishable offence.

pomenitul, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 07:03 (five years ago) link

Raising Hell sounds v fresh to my ears

could never make it through an entire Janet album so I can't say that Control sucks, but I never understood what's to like about the sound

I like "Together Again" a lot...

niels, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 07:19 (five years ago) link

Good mourning!

The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 10:37 (five years ago) link

If Cecil Taylor's gonna be one of your two token jazz titles, how do you opt for For Olim instead of nodding to the In Berlin '88 box set, a landmark in jazz history, period?

I thought that too, but realistically, how many of the voters own a copy of the widely-distributed single-disc For Olim vs. the insanely-expensive blink-and-you-missed-it mail-order-only Berlin '88?

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 12:54 (five years ago) link

Most insanely glaring omission for me is Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 12:55 (five years ago) link

realistically, how many of the voters own a copy of the widely-distributed single-disc For Olim vs. the insanely-expensive blink-and-you-missed-it mail-order-only Berlin '88?

I own something like three dozen Cecil Taylor albums - For Olim isn't one of 'em. I find it to be a genuinely baffling choice, not just as one of only two jazz titles in a list of 200 but even from among Cecil's catalog. You know what would have been a perfect choice? Garden, also a solo album and a much more highly regarded one AFAIK (and recently reissued, which gives it extra marketing juice).

grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 13:27 (five years ago) link

Does anyone know if they literally just averaged out the rankings on each ballot, or if the editors applied some “special sauce” (to elevate or downgrade certain albums of their choosing)?

stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 13:41 (five years ago) link

my strongly felt tuesday morning opinion - beefheart’s ice cream for crow is a much better record than i dunno, 90% of the jerky art rock that did make the list

― I'd Rather Kecak (NickB)

doc at the radar station even better, but like tom waits it doesn't _sound_ like what people think of when they think of '80s music. i wouldn't put either beefheart record on a "best music of the '80s" list.

milkshake duck george bernard shaw (rushomancy), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 13:46 (five years ago) link

have to agree it there are albums on this list that have very strong singles but aren't really good albums, like Let's Dance, who listens to that all the way?

niels, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 13:59 (five years ago) link

I own something like three dozen Cecil Taylor albums - For Olim isn't one of 'em. I find it to be a genuinely baffling choice, not just as one of only two jazz titles in a list of 200 but even from among Cecil's catalog. You know what would have been a perfect choice? Garden, also a solo album and a much more highly regarded one AFAIK (and recently reissued, which gives it extra marketing juice).

Ha, same; it does seem like a random pick. Garden would've made much more sense.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 14:03 (five years ago) link

Most insanely glaring omission for me is Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, September 11, 2018 5:55 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i couldn't fit this record into my own top 50 but god it's so good. never imagined it would ever make this list though

princess of hell (BradNelson), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 14:12 (five years ago) link


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