pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

xp Very different vibe, IMO

Xp sorry Keyes and Sund4r didn't realise there was an even earlier '99 list!

haha, two Walt Mink albums (including the sucky major-label one) - ok, that's bonkers

and love to everyone. i know i'm a scatterbrained fucker and "the list sucks" but the conversation is what i'm here for and it's excellent.

That '99 list is out the gate! Three (?!) Built to Spill albums in the top 20, the lowest ranked being the only one to survive the next two lists.

And Sunny Day Real Estste at 15! Teenage me is vindicated! Haven't listened to them in over a decade, they're probably competent but shite now I imagine.

Soz should say top 50

No way they still rule!

(SDRE)

Pulling Tom Waits out of the canon is criminal, but I guess he hung with plenty of neckbeard bands in the '90s so he's got Buckethead stink on him

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Ragged Glory
Living Colour, Time's Up
Rosanne Cash, Interiors
LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out
Richard Thompson, Rumor And Sigh
Neneh Cherry, Homebrew
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Spinning Around The Sun
the first two P.M. Dawn albums
Johnny Cash, American Recordings
all Moby
Latin Playboys, s/t
Los Lobos, Kiko & Colossal Head

All excellent albums, but Ragged Glory and Johnny Cash's American Recordings are the only ones I ever remember being discussed or listened to by a good number of my peers. (And with Johnny Cash, it was mostly around the time he died.) Moby stands out as someone that was polarizing, and that may be especially true now. Everything Is Wrong and Play still feel like great albums to me, and if you put together "the hits" (or what's considered his most popular work) in its own playlist, it's a pretty amazing listen.

haha, two Walt Mink albums (including the sucky major-label one) - ok, that's bonkers

Pitchfork was originally based in Minneapolis iirc so local indie bands got more coverage than elsewhere.

The now-uncool big-beat commercial albums of the late '90s (Prodigy, Chem Bros, Fatboy Slim, Moby) all hold up 1000x better than The Bodyguard soundtrack or whatever the fuck

xxp (I should add Moby as one that was widely discussed and listened to, hence the polarizing stature.)

Latin Playboys, s/t
Los Lobos, Kiko & Colossal Head

great run

Yeah, Fatboy Slim made some great singles (and videos). I don't think I'd consider his albums though.

All excellent albums, but Ragged Glory and Johnny Cash's American Recordings are the only ones I ever remember being discussed or listened to by a good number of my peers.

I mean, they're pulled from the Pazz & Jop archives. A lot of them (Rosanne Cash, Richard Thompson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Latin Playboys, Los Lobos) are records that no one but critics ever gave the tiniest fuck about.

The only rap album on that 90's list is Check Your Head? Great album but ... yeah. Pitchfork back then catered to a scene and Ryan Schreiber's tastes at the time. Now it caters to the industry at large, and it's massively reflected in these lists and their changes over the years. The list above feels very much "on brand" for them at the time (was reading their reviews as early as 98). The updated singles list feels on brand for them today. It's just an evolution of branding.

Also thanks for the link Keyes

Interesting about the Minneapolis thing, I didn't know that (though now I'm getting vague déjà vu, like we've discussed this before...)

Pulling Tom Waits out of the canon is criminal, but I guess he hung with plenty of neckbeard bands in the '90s so he's got Buckethead stink on him

― hi hole im dad (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, September 28, 2022 2:48 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i blame tom scharpling

I mean, they're pulled from the Pazz & Jop archives. A lot of them (Rosanne Cash, Richard Thompson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Latin Playboys, Los Lobos) are records that no one but critics ever gave the tiniest fuck about.

Interiors, #23 on the country chart
American recordings, also #23

Interesting about the Minneapolis thing, I didn't know that (though now I'm getting vague déjà vu, like we've discussed this before...)

― "Cool ranch dressing!" (morrisp), Wednesday, September 28, 2022 2:58 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

see also: 12 Rods

The now-uncool big-beat commercial albums of the late '90s (Prodigy, Chem Bros, Fatboy Slim, Moby) all hold up 1000x better than The Bodyguard soundtrack or whatever the fuck

also yeah either Jilted or Fat of the Land belong on this list for sure alongside Dig Your Own Hole

Los Lobos has always had a pretty loyal following at least live

I was SHOOK when You've Come a Long Way Baby didn't make p4k's revised 1998 list from a few years ago so I expected nothing less

(amazing album and FBS had two entries in the last 90s singles list if you also count them going for his Brimful of Asha over the original as per now)

Play being a major American critical favourite *before* it became a big international hit album is something I always forget

I just realized that Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque is also missing. I didn't expect The Boo Radleys, Suede, Pale Saints or Super Furry Animals to place but did expect Teenage Fanclub to place. I don't have any use for the revised lists.

If there had to be only one Prodigy album it ought to have been Experience. Acen on the singles list was the only nod to ardkore iirc?

Pale Saints only ever seem to make it to 'best shoegaze' lists. They didn't even make Ned's list of the top 20 albums on 4AD. Which is a shame, because Comforts of Madness is easily a Top 50 all-time for me.

Me too, so glad I was able to see Pale Saints live in Los Angeles. Truly a great show.

Same, but In Ribbons

"The Concept" made it onto the tracks list, at least

I guess this isn't Spin Magazine.

I know The Prodigy and Moby were huge at the time. But now they're $1 thrift store finds. I recently bought Play and Fat of the Land at a Salvation Army store, ready for some heady nostalgia. They didn't hold up for me on a relisten. Very much 'you had to be there' albums and even though I was there... they just remind me of straying into my older brother's incense-and-lava-lamp teenage bedroom.

Fortunately I got my $2 back when I sold them in a bulk lot of other unloved CDs.

Me too, so glad I was able to see Pale Saints live in Los Angeles. Truly a great show.

― Bee OK

I am ridiculously jealous! I got into them way too late to ever see them. Not sure if they ever came to New Zealand but it's irrelevant because I would have been like eight...

Is there a single jazz record on this list?

Ask the Ages

given the amount of coverage they still get, I'm surprised there are no Foo Fighters albums on the list

: you can see me from westbury white horse;
Thank you, I only skimmed

Speaking of saints ... there is no Utah Saints on either list! How is this possible. (I'd probably put them on both albums and tracks lists, but not even having "Something Good" on the tracks list is EGREGIOUS.

)

But NMH were comparatively ignored by people who were there in 1998.

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Wednesday, September 28, 2022 2:09 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok that's true but even as an online/critical phenomenon there was very much a specific time for it. it's one of the earliest albums I can remember getting meme'd a bunch. its reputation overshadowed the actual album and I can definitely see kids today hearing it and going "yeah it's okay, what's the big deal?"

The now-uncool big-beat commercial albums of the late '90s (Prodigy, Chem Bros, Fatboy Slim, Moby) all hold up 1000x better than The Bodyguard soundtrack or whatever the fuck

― hi hole im dad (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, September 28, 2022 2:51 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

come to think of it Play is actually kind of a big omission, not just because of how huge/forced down our gullets it was but also because what he did on that album still feels super relevant today for better or worse. and I do think it still holds up today

Fatboy Slim otoh, used to love him as a kid but c'mon You've Come a Long Way, Baby has held up about as well as a carton of milk

the albums list is good, sorry boomers

it’s basically identical to how an ILM list would look

That's the exact problem with it

I think both lists are good, great to see both Mariah Carey and MBV fêted

its reputation overshadowed the actual album and I can definitely see kids today hearing it and going "yeah it's okay, what's the big deal?"

― frogbs, Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Not sure about that. Aeroplane still sounds unlike anything else

violator would be way higher in an ilm list

This is interesting to me, because MM's 90s output should hit the same 'raggedy loose American indie guitar band' spot that Pavement does today. Guess they haven't had a totally unexpected B-side algorithm revival with zoomers though...

― The Ghost Club, Wednesday, September 28, 2022 2:30 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think it's two things: First, Pavement could certainly be raggedy and loose, but Malkmus also had that arch, literary quality that I think gave them a bit more cultural cachet.

Second, Pavement broke up after a killer decade-long run and spared us years of subpar, inessential albums. Imagine if Modest Mouse called it quits after "Float On," and I think there'd be more fondness for them among their original fans and more of a mystique about them for younger people.

violator would be way higher in an ilm list

― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Wednesday, September 28, 2022 6:40 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Rah! ;-)