Top 100 albums 1983-2008: Discuss
 

Here's a list from the new Entertainment Weekly of their picks for top albums from 1983 to now. Read, debate, discuss, discredit, what have you.... (I'm unsure about Prince myself but VERY pleased to see Tom Waits' "Rain Dogs" in the top 20)

I have 41 of the top 100 (and used to own another 8 or 10 of 'em), which is more than I usually manage on these kinds of lists....

The list: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,2020...207337,00.html

EW 1000: Music
The New Classics: Music
The 100 best albums from 1983 to 2008
1. Purple Rain Prince and the Revolution (1984)
2. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Lauryn Hill (1998)
3. Achtung Baby U2 (1991)
4. The College Dropout Kanye West (2004)
5. Madonna Madonna (1983)
6. American Idiot Green Day (2004)
7. The Blueprint Jay-Z (2001)
8. Graceland Paul Simon (1986)
9. Back to Black Amy Winehouse (2007)
10. In Rainbows Radiohead (2007)
11. MTV Unplugged in New York Nirvana (1994)
12. Stankonia OutKast (2000)
13. You Are Free Cat Power (2003)
14. Disintegration The Cure (1989)
15. The Marshall Mathers LP Eminem (2000)
16. Rain Dogs Tom Waits (1985)
17. Odelay Beck (1996)
18. People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm A Tribe Called Quest (1990)
19. Dangerously in Love Beyoncé (2003)
20. Tidal Fiona Apple (1996)
21. The Emancipation of Mimi Mariah Carey (2005)
22. 3 Feet High and Rising De La Soul (1989)
23. The Soft Bulletin The Flaming Lips (1999)
24. Come On Over Shania Twain (1997)
25. Turn On the Bright Lights Interpol (2002)
26. Time Out of Mind Bob Dylan (1997)
27. Funeral Arcade Fire (2004)
28. Illmatic Nas (1994)
29. Breakaway Kelly Clarkson (2004)
30. Appetite for Destruction Guns N' Roses (1987)
31. FutureSex/LoveSounds Justin Timberlake (2006)
32. Life's Rich Pageant R.E.M. (1985)
33. As I Am Alicia Keys (2007)
34. Is This It The Strokes (2001)
35. Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morissette (1995)
36. CrazySexyCool TLC (1994)
37. The Moon & Antarctica Modest Mouse (2000)
38. Raising Hell Run-DMC (1986)
39. Sheryl Crow Sheryl Crow (1996)
40. Ready to Die The Notorious B.I.G. (1994)
41. Legend Bob Marley and the Wailers (1984)
42. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) Wu-Tang Clan (1993)
43. Paul's Boutique Beastie Boys (1989)
44. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road Lucinda Williams (1998)
45. If You're Feeling Sinister Belle and Sebastian (1996)
46. Homogenic Björk (1997)
47. Exile in Guyville Liz Phair (1993)
48. American IV: The Man Comes Around Johnny Cash (2002)
49. A Rush of Blood to the Head Coldplay (2002)
50. Sounds of Silver LCD Soundsystem (2007)
51. The Score Fugees (1996)
52. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Spoon (2007)
53. King of America Elvis Costello (1986)
54. Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 Janet Jackson (1989)
55. It Takes a Nation of Millions... Public Enemy (1988)
56. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco (2002)
57. Harvest Moon Neil Young (1992)
58. Surfer Rosa The Pixies (1988)
59. Ray of Light Madonna (1998)
60. Crooked Rain Crooked Rain Pavement (1994)
61. Paid in Full Eric B. & Rakim (1987)
62. OK Computer Radiohead (1997)
63. The Joshua Tree U2 (1987)
64. Mama's Gun Erykah Badu (2000)
65. Elephant The White Stripes (2003)
66. The Chronic Dr. Dre (1992)
67. Metallica Metallica (1991)
68. Wrecking Ball Emmylou Harris (1995)
69. Give Up The Postal Service (2003)
70. My Life Mary J. Blige (1994)
71. Rock Steady No Doubt (2001)
72. 1984 Van Halen (1984)
73. The Queen is Dead Smiths (1986)
74. Play Moby (1999)
75. Born in the U.S.A. Bruce Springsteen (1984)
76. Heartbreaker Ryan Adams (2000)
77. Dummy Portishead (1994)
78. Vs. Pearl Jam (1991)
79. Let It Be The Replacements (1984)
80. Back to Basics Christina Aguilera (2006)
81. The Downward Spiral Nine Inch Nails (1994)
82. Grace Jeff Buckley (1994)
83. Learning to Crawl The Pretenders (1984)
84. Low-Life New Order (1985)
85. Home Dixie Chicks (2002)
86. Loveless My Bloody Valentine (1991)
87. All Eyez on Me 2Pac (1996)
88. So Peter Gabriel (1986)
89. Bachelor No. 2 Aimee Mann (2000)
90. Toxicity System of a Down (2001)
91. Siamese Dream Smashing Pumpkins (1993)
92. The Writing's on the Wall Destiny’s Child (1999)
93. Either/Or Elliott Smith (1997)
94. Synchronicity The Police (1983)
95. Trap Muzik T.I. (2003)
96. Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea PJ Harvey (2000)
97. Britney Britney Spears (2001)
98. Transatlanticism Death Cab for Cutie (2003)
99. Live Through This Hole (1994)
100. Faith George Michael (1987)

lol @ Kanye at #4

At least they got #1 right.

While I cherish at least half those albums, it's one of the worst "top" lists I've ever seen.

With it such a mainstream list I had no hope for Ænima, Lateralus, The Downward Spiral, or The Fragile dominate the top 10, but Appetite for Destruction should have made top 5. I may have missed them, but I don't see The Division Bell or Wildflowers on there either.

Bwahahahaha at #2.

This may be the worst of these lists I have ever seen. So Destiny's Child really has one of the best albums of the last 25 years? And it's better than Synchronicity? It's like someone with shitty taste put together a list, and then just thru in some of the albums they had heard were cool that they thought would get them some credibility for including them.

There's a lot on that list that I don't like, but I'm surprised there are actually some I do like. Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Wilco, Lucinda Williams and John Wait were good to see there.

Still a crappy list though.

I tuned out at "In Rainbows" at #10?

Really?

That list is just as bad as their Top 100 Movies list.

As a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal fan I find that list to be pretty lame as they left out some landmark albums (DIO - Holy Diver, Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind, etc), but then I'll bet that no one at EW has even listened to those albums.

So for me (and I'll bet a lot of people) that list is totally worthless. But I'd expect no less these days from an EW Top 100 list...

Oh, completely crap list. Lauren Hill at #2, and Amy Winehouse at #9, yet Jeff Buckley languishes at #82? Someone's clearly smoking something.

Best thing I can say about the list is it's diverse and doesn't stick to one area of music. As a result, no one will be completely happy with the list (not that that's ever possible with a list like this).

I've got almost half of the albums on the list myself, but many of them are only gathering dust and long forgotten relics of their era (Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Live Through This to name two) and only 5-10 of them would wind up on a top 100 list that I'd make.

LCD Soundsystem, Janet Jackson, and Kelly [expletive] Clarkson, but not one entry for Tori Amos?

I own 67 of the list and that list sucks. However that is not to say the 67 I own suck...the opposite actually. I would not have made that list.

More importantly though, one Waits album? No Massive Attack? No Clutch? No Ozzy? And no Low End Theory (a much better Tribe album)? That list is all over the place.

Indeed, the worst top list ever.

Did EW decide to inundate the web with even more crappy "Top ___" lists?

This list and the video game one are terrible.

What I noticed is quite a few of the artists listed have put out 2-3 better albums than the ones on this list.

how did they come to this conclusion?

while none of us ever agrees with them, i miss the rolling stone top 500-- that was put together by a huge panel of people. when they seem totally arbitrary and bizarre like this i usually just ignore them.

I think they at least have #1 right, but the list as a whole seems like people just threw darts on the wall

I have ten of those on CD, sold one of them (CD), and have had maybe 5-6 more on tape at some point. Pretty lame list, even by EW standards.

And who really thinks that the black album is better than Master of Puppets?

I am not a Metallica fan and I know the black album is reviled by their fanbase. But I think it's perfectly obvious that consumers in general favor Black to every other Metallica album. It's just like amongst Prince fans, Sign O' The Times is generally the one heralded as his finest work, but Purple Rain will always be the one the casual fan prefers. Black Album is to Metallica what Back In Black is to AC/DC or Dark Side Of The Moon is to Pink Floyd, the album that everyone owns a copy of whether they're a fan or not and will continue to sell thousands of copies on a weekly basis until the end of time.

where's Ten by Pearl Jam. I'd probably put that at #1.

First you list out a bunch of popular crap, then sprinkle in a few critically acclaimed albums (like Exile in Guyville) to give the appearance that your shitty magazine has some credibility.

Even by that criteria the list doesn't make any sense. Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York's on the list at #11 -- while Unplugged is a fine album, Nevermind had a much bigger musical and commercial impact.

I hate to pile on the list of "where's band/album XYZ", but ... seriously, where the hell's Daydream Nation? The U.S. government is literally preserving a copy of Daydream Nation in the Library of Congress archives, and Sonic Youth doesn't even get a single mention?

As has been said, the biggest WTF is that Unpluged made it and Nevermind didn't. If they really wanted to shake things up, I would have been happy with them picking In Utreo because that really is Nirvana's masterpiece. I can see Purple Rain at the top of this list, but Sign of the Times is the better album. In Rainbows in the top ten didn't make sence at all, it wasn't even their pick for the best album of last year, Springsteen's Magic was and should have been somewhere on that list since it's the best album of the decade so far. I would have picked Ok Computer at #10 if they had to pick a Radiohead album to list in the top 10. Two other big slaps in the face:
Master no where on the list, but the Black Album? Good album, but every damm best of list for metal ablums has Master in the top 5. And while were at it, where is Slayer's Regin in Blood, the album that everyone from Metallica on says made them want to play faster, louder, and harder. And It Takes a Nation of Millions so low on the list? Everyone pretty much agrees that this is the greatest hip hop album of all time along with Dre's The Chronic which is low also, but they list College Dropout at #4?

I own only 3 of those