Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Wire are a great band. They released three albums at their peak and broke up and have since reformed. Those first three albums are really great. The first one, Pink Flag, is a great "young" punk rock album. They were so much more than most punk bands then though. The album is fast and sometimes chaotic but so "sing-able." Chairs Missing is a great next album and a step up and in the right direction. It holds the intensity of the first album but shows how much the band matured in such a short amount of time. The album mixes the great fast pace of the songs with the new weirdness. They really added a lot to their sound between the first two albums. 154 is, in my opinion, their masterpiece. I love the slick production and the almost over-production of it. It's a very clean sounding record with a lot of haunting elements to it. They kept up with the great songs but added so much to it in the production. The album is very much something that paved the way for the new wave/'80s sounds. But they did it so much better. Wire were/are amazing.

I just realized that I didn't even describe 154 well enough. You just need to listen to the album to hear what I'm talking about.


I completely disagree. I think 154 is definitely to be considered as good, if not better than the two albums that preceded it.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

We'll definitely just have to disagree. I think it's a fairly big dropoff. I listen to it now and then to see if I might change my mind and never hear why people consider it as good as the first two.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

where the hell is Catch A Fire?

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

As I said earlier, there's not a single Bob Marley album anywhere on it, so it's a real stretch for Pitchfork to call this a "Top 100" list.

However, I'll add the fact that the list still does have 100 great albums on it just illustrates what a deep well of great music was made in the 1970s. (Heck, even a top 200 albums of the 1970s list would have some major omissions.)

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

What is it about the album that you don't like? Do you just think that it's a bad album compared to the first two or just a bad album?

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Wow.

I've only got 5 albums from that list, but I have about 250 CD's that are albums from the 70's.

I'd have to say that list was compiled by a bunch of people who don't really like Hard Rock or Heavy Metal at all, and are thus inclined to ignore most of the genre...

Of course, in my top 20 (maybe even top 10) albums from the 70's I'd include Buddy Rich's The Roar of '74, and that's a Jazz album.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Bowie pretty much towered over the 70's as far as groundbreaking artistry. And he was responsible for a huge number of genres that grew out of that decade.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Pitchfork sucks....scenester bullshit.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

I think Aerosmith's Rocks and Toys in the Attic should be included.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Yes.


"Powerage" should certainly be in there. Maybe as #1. "Highway to Hell" certainly needs to be in there. "Let There Be Rock" also. Ok maybe "4" AC/DC albums is a stretch, but certainly 3 deserve to be there.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

It's scenester bullshit because it doesn't include a bunch of shit that's dominated these lists for years and years?

Just a couple of questions:

What do you think should have been on the list? And how many of the albums listed do you own?

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Maybe a little boring? Not very catchy? I really do like Wire in their various reformations. A big chunk of their 80's work is wonderful (hate their 90's work). I think maybe if I heard 154 when it came out instead of in 1989 for the first time I might have a different feel for it.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

:up:

Nice to see my favorite Bowie (all right, I sometimes lean towards Scary Monsters) top the list.

Own 29 of the list.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Let me go on record saying that basically every album on this list is terrific and should be somewhere on a list of greatest albums of the seventies. However...

It seems like this list has gone out of its way to exclude some of the "standards" of the seventies. Even more strangely, lots of these albums also appear on more traditional lists so it's not a total white-wash of the "classics". The list seems disjointed. Many undoubtably great artists like AC/DC, Bowie and Eno have a very heavy presence on the list while there are some very bizarre total ommissions (I listed a few). The result is that a lot of the definitive seventies music from both an artistic and popular standpoint has been entirely excluded while other artists are over-represented. If the goal of this type of list is to select the albums that both best represent the diversity of music from the seventies and have the most artistic merit, the list fails.

So, you begin to look for reasons why the list is so strange. There's lots of art rock, lots of post-punk. Most of the albums could be descibed as "edgy". There's basically no straight-up pop, no funk, no metal, no reggae/ska, no country etc. Most hard rock that wasn't done by AC/DC is excluded. All of this is strange because the 70s were critical, foundational years for all of those genres. You wind up with a list comprised of music that inspired the kind of music today that white guys in ringer t-shirts and skinny jeans (me, for example) like. Combined with Pitchfork's reputation of being contrarian hipster snobs (that's the perception at least but it's certainly partially accurate), it's not too much of a stretch to call the list scenester bullshit.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

My thoughts: I agree with those who have mentioned Springsteen, Sticky Fingers, Blood on the Tracks, A Night at the Opera, and Patti Smith.

I will add my outrage that they didn't include either of the New York Dolls' albums, either of which belong on that list.

The Jam's first four albums all came out in the 70s, and none of them are on the list.

They could have included Leave Home and Road to Ruin, but at least they had some Ramones.

Blank Generation is another glaring omission.

I love the Buzzcocks, but Singles Going Steady is not an album -- it is a compilation. The Buzzcocks were a singles band, really -- I'm not sure any one of their albums belongs on a list like this, so I guess I'll forgive the inclusion of a compilation.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

I have 82, and I agree. But I guess my main complaint is that Marquee Moon isn't #1, and there's only one Big Star album on the list.

At any rate, here's my spur of the moment top 10 of the decade:

Television - Marquee Moon
Big Star - Sister Lovers
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Graham Parker and the Rumour - Shooting Out Sparks
Mott the Hoople - Mott
Kraftwerk - The Man Machine
Patti Smith - Horses
The Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

I'm not familiar with Pitchfork, but I recognized the type of list. I was actually surprised to see Rumours and Dark Side of the Moon listed. Why would they like music that sold that well? And you can't get more square than The Beatles, but they listed every Beatles album released in the 70s.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Pitchfork is useless and pathetic. Their lists are composed by dufus 25 year olds with no concept of music history.

The ranking of the Bowie records alone tells the story. Low #1 but Ziggy and Hunky Dory in the 80's? :lol: Joy Division in the top 10? rotfl

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

At least admit you're just an AC/DC fanatic because there's no way that 4 albums by this band in the 70's are worthy of that kind of status.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

I have to disagree with this one point and agree with Pitchfork putting "Unknown Pleasures" in the top 10. To me, it's clearly one of the most influential albums of the past thirty+ years. Many, many bands have made careers out of remaking it/ripping JD off. Radiohead, Coldplay, The Killers, Brit guitar pop etc, it all starts with "Unkown Pleasures". The original synth-pop that inspired today's electro-pop came directly out of the post-punk Joy Division world as well. You hear its influence everywhere.

I'd say it's the seventies version of "Velvet Underground and Nico": everyone who bought a copy started a band.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

while I agree they shouldn't be on a list 4 times over but like the 80s and 90s were any better for them? This was their best era easily.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

there could of been a whole bunch of punk albums on this list though. Ones that are severely underrated like stiff little fingers- inflammable material, stranglers- rattus norvegicus, the boys- the boys, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers- LAMF etc. etc. I guess there's only so much one could choose from.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Why is that so funny?

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

I understand. You're probably not a big Graham Lewis fan are you? His stuff did get pretty weird for this album and his stuff is pretty heavy on the album. I could see how someone could think that his stuff really weighed the album down.

I like this list and I love most of the artists on it and I own both Dark Side of the Moon and Rumours. I don't think that they're shunning things that sold well. There's a lot of sutff out there that sold well that is shit.

I don't understand how this list shows that they have no interest in music history. It is a list of opinions is it not? I just don't see how they are "useless and pathetic" for putting together a list like this.

Re: Pitchfork: Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.
 

Because apparently they suck or something. Maybe they didn't sell enough records?