Best Ever Albums

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Robert Anton Wilson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:48:37 GMT

Author: Robert Anton Wilson

Posted: 03/13/2013 21:48

swedenman wrote:

A movie buff friend of mine put it best: The world of cinema (or music) is like a feast. You may prefer some parts of the feast over others, but at the end of the day the feast is nowhere near as satisfying if you take away any individual part of it. Something to think about, for sure.

A feast with less choices becomes a meal. It satiates but it is not a feast. The difference between survival and living .... Aaaaaaargh, brains .....

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:58:28 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/13/2013 18:58

Before I became addicted to the internet, my music guide was a ragged copy of the Rolling Stone 500. I worked my way through most of that in high school and early college. During early college, I discovered Pitchfork, and worked my way through the top 50 of each of their decade lists. Along the way, I've plucked albums from other publications lists (especially Scaruffi) as well as the charts on here. I use year-end lists to see if albums show up repeatedly across publications, but beyond that I don't use lists often anymore. I don't even get many recs from the BEA site anymore, really (last good one was Ghosts of the Great Highway); I've just got a backlog of stuff to listen to from Cellar Door and Magenta. Anyways, I owe a great debt to other publications' lists and user charts.

However, now I'm pretty much on my own outside of those backlogged recs. Since at least January, I've been fleshing out the discographies of bands I love but haven't heard everything from. I rely a lot on Spotify's similar artist suggestions now for finding new musicians.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

MrFrogger — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:48:14 GMT

Author: MrFrogger

Posted: 03/13/2013 16:48

sheep21 wrote:

and a few others that aren't on the top of my head right now.

🙁

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:20:58 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/13/2013 16:20

JMan wrote:

Magazine lists mean nothing to me. They never have for albums, songs, musicians etc. Rolling Stone says Smells Like Teen Spirit is a better song than Stairway. WHAT??

I know plenty of people (including myself) who would rather strongly agree with that sentiment.

On topic: I've discovered a shit ton of music through this site. There haven't been too many albums I've come across on here that I'd never heard of, but there were a handful of albums, such as Loveless and The Stone Roses, that I probably never would have checked out had I not seen how huge they were on this site (they'd never really struck me as my style before then). Otherwise, I'm not too big on lists. I find them to be much too arbitrary generally. I mean, I talk shit on Rolling Stone's top 500 albums list a lot, but the truth is that NOBODY can make a top 500 that would make so much as half the population of music connoisseurs happy.

I'm also generally kind of opposed to "objective" lists like that. I'm okay with the lists on here because they're all about people sharing their opinions and seeing what the overall opinions among users are, but I made a thread a while back discussing how ranking music is frankly pretty reductive. I mean, at the end of the day, I'd say that taking any of the albums in our overall top 100 out of the world would have a pretty major impact on the world of music, so is it really fair to say OK Computer is more important or better than The Soft Bulletin?

A movie buff friend of mine put it best: The world of cinema (or music) is like a feast. You may prefer some parts of the feast over others, but at the end of the day the feast is nowhere near as satisfying if you take away any individual part of it. Something to think about, for sure.

Jasonconfused wrote:

I've always liked the lists on the website http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0.html

I've always liked this site, too. I especially like their prog metal list.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Jasonconfused — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:51:12 GMT

Author: Jasonconfused

Posted: 03/13/2013 15:51

oldehamme wrote:

That's awesome. I wasn't aware of this site. I'm going to have fun going through these. Thanks!

Your welcome man! Enjoy it 😄

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Robert Anton Wilson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:32:49 GMT

Author: Robert Anton Wilson

Posted: 03/13/2013 14:32

oldehamme wrote:

... the writing was very descriptive and entertaining. ... If no one I knew owned the album, I had to buy it and trust my luck. And, having made the investment, I made sure I gave the music a fair shot. I don't think I'm as patient about music today.

My experience mirrors yours a lot though i was lucky to have many friends passionate about music around me which had diverse taste so it would turn that except for a few obligatory purchases everybody's record collection was going in different directions. I specialized in the obscure, little known and solo albums that no one else wanted to buy. Man did I get a lot of crap but I did dig out a few gems.

I think reading magazines and official lists are important and that these lists are important mostly when they are very descriptive. like people said, no critic is ever going to be spot on to my taste every time but there is a responsability of mine to read what they say and figure out what will work with me. In time, you end up understanding critics and knowing when to take the bait and when to avoid. A critic whose taste differ from me can be just as helpful as one whose taste agree because the point is to find the gems but also to avoid going down the wrong path.

And like you, I am a child of the Rolling stones list. Funny how Rolling Stones is now often considered as conservative and mainstream music. Victims of their own success in picking out the winners I guess. Bands that are a shoe-in and appear as obvious choices on lists of preferred albums were brand new and unknown once upon a time too.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

drakonium — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:24:57 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 03/13/2013 14:24

Mother Nature's Son wrote:

I've made a thread about the same. Here's the answer: http://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/vi...p;start=10

Wow, thanks 😄

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

oldehamme — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:47:45 GMT

Author: oldehamme

Posted: 03/13/2013 13:47

Jasonconfused wrote:

I've always liked the lists on the website http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0.html

That's awesome. I wasn't aware of this site. I'm going to have fun going through these. Thanks!

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Mother Nature's Son — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:44:57 GMT

Author: Mother Nature's Son

Posted: 03/13/2013 13:44

drakonium wrote:

Maybe it's not the best place to ask that, and it may be off-topic, but what happened to him? He was one of the most interesting members, I loved his charts and comments, so I was kind of sad he left.

I've made a thread about the same. Here's the answer: http://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/vi...p;start=10

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

drakonium — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:50:57 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 03/13/2013 12:50

Defago wrote:

I was in the middle of yourselfisntsteam's chart when he left

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Mother Nature's Son — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:10:00 GMT

Author: Mother Nature's Son

Posted: 03/13/2013 12:10

The list that probably has influenced me the most was a random danish magazine, can't remember the name of it and I'm not even sure it was a music magazine. Anyway, it had an article about "Albums made on drugs" or something like that and the list mentioned The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it made me curious to check out "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" because of its reference to LSD. From that specific moment I was hooked. I was later inspired by Rolling Stone and now BEA is leading the way.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

ButterThumbz — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:58:12 GMT

Author: ButterThumbz

Posted: 03/13/2013 11:58

I've discovered more new music through reading lists than from any other source.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Defago — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:36:21 GMT

Author: Defago

Posted: 03/13/2013 07:36

Happymeal wrote:

Defago

Someone likes me! 😁

I was in the middle of yourselfisntsteam's chart when he left, so now I'm wandering about. Meaning to listen to everything in lethalnezzle's 2012-3 charts, Poe's Japanese chart and some Scaruffi post-rock picks.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

sheep21 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:22:38 GMT

Author: sheep21

Posted: 03/13/2013 07:22

I would say

Jasonconfused
Happymeal
Cellar Door
Silver Walrus

and a few others that aren't on the top of my head right now.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:19:52 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/13/2013 07:19

The three charts I've gotten the most from are probably Dividesbyzero's, Jackwc's, and Happymeal's.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

sheep21 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:14:32 GMT

Author: sheep21

Posted: 03/13/2013 07:14

Happymeal wrote:

Charts I've taken the most from:

JasonConfused
LethalNezzle
Defago
Borve
Sheep21

Virtual Hi-Five 😁

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

MrFrogger — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:03:43 GMT

Author: MrFrogger

Posted: 03/13/2013 04:03

Purple and Saorise's charts are amazing, and today Joyofdivision's electronica chart blew my mind, I'm gonna try and work my way through it after I finish my "need to listen" list, which currently has about 25 albums on it.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:02:04 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/13/2013 04:02

Charts I've taken the most from:

JasonConfused
LethalNezzle
Defago
Borve
Sheep21

Charts I'm currently going through:

420BongRitsu69
LethalNezzle
JasonConfused

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Applerill — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:18:21 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 03/13/2013 03:18

lethalnezzle wrote:

The best list is my chart. Thank me later.

He's absolutely right. Twenty years from now, everyone will think of music history through the Neil Weaver Objective Pavement-Pop Canon (NWOPP). In fact, the only thing they will be furious over is how the 2013 record A Vessel To My Indeptitude was missing on said canon.

Re: How much do these lists matter to you?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:47:07 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/13/2013 02:47

The best list is my chart. Thank me later.