North American Album tournament - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

bc1991

Mr. Shankly wrote:

hmm... BC, I think you're wrong about Blood on the Tracks. That is easily one of the best American albums ever (ranked #18 overall on this site) and looking at member's charts (it's on 11), it is well-appreciated on here. I happen to adore Darkness on the Edge of Town. Have you listened to it? I think it's better than Born to Run, but that's just me. Music from Big Pink doesnt' necessarily have to be on here. I've never heard the Beach Boys Today! Wow, we're already voting and arguing and we haven't even started this thing yet. :lol:

You are right about Blood on the Tracks. The reason I put this one, it's because I saw too many Dylan's albums, and I thought this was the weakiest one, but ranked at 18 is very good, and if the majority likes it, it's ok to me.

I choose Darnesss on the Edge also because it's less popular than Born to Run or Nebraska, and nothing have to do if it's a good or bad album, I just think 2 albums from the Boss are enough.

As for the other ones I think that are weakier albums, and the other albums listed from the same artits would represent them better.

I would just prefer to see albums from a lot of different artists, than few artists with a lot of albums, but that's just me, if everyone disagreed it's ok, and I won't say anything more about this subject.

albummaster
Janitor

Gender: Male
Location: Spain
Site Admin

Mr. Shankly wrote:

3) Can we get the album master to promote the tournament more, maybe featuring some kind of prominent eyecatching visual on the homepage to draw people in?

I'll see what I can do... I'm sure I can put a link up or something...

It should be an interesting tournament...

Mr. Shankly

Gender: Male
Age: 52
Location: Auburn, Washington

BC1991 wrote:

Quote:

You are right about Blood on the Tracks. The reason I put this one, it's because I saw too many Dylan's albums, and I thought this was the weakiest one, but ranked at 18 is very good, and if the majority likes it, it's ok to me.

I choose Darnesss on the Edge also because it's less popular than Born to Run or Nebraska, and nothing have to do if it's a good or bad album, I just think 2 albums from the Boss are enough.

As for the other ones I think that are weakier albums, and the other albums listed from the same artits would represent them better.

I would just prefer to see albums from a lot of different artists, than few artists with a lot of albums, but that's just me, if everyone disagreed it's ok, and I won't say anything more about this subject.

BC,

That's a good point about overrepresenting certain artists, but let's face it, the same way The Beatles dominated the British tournamament, Bob Dylan is going to dominate the American one. I mean there's no getting around it, in the pantheon of western music, those two are giants.

Obviously we need to pare down the list some, and I am concerned about the more obscure albums because how do you vote on a record only a couple of people have heard? I'll tell you right now, I've never heard those Tim Buckley albums, the Eric Dolphy one, and some of the other lesser known "high brow" arty/jazz albums. I'm sure they're great albums, but if not enough people have heard them, well, these albums will stall the tournament in a hurry. In turn, I know I suggested a couple that people probably haven't heard. The bottom line is we either figure out a way to alleviate this problem or we jettison the more obscure ones.

Thoughts?

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

You're probably right. The majority of the albums should be the less challenging radio friendly stuff that the voters (not counting myself and perhaps 1 or 2 others) have heard, since the poll is, by its very nature, a popularity contest. I was mistakenly under the impression that there was a larger group on this site that listened to music outside the mainstream.

With that in mind, I edited my post above. Though, due to my personal love of all of them, I hope as many as possible get in, I pared the bolded ones down to only those I think have a good shot at getting votes.

Mr.Music

Location: Estonia

Lets not make this contest a joke. We want to choose the best but we cant do that without albums that have changed the face of music. If u havent heared Tim Buckley or Captain Beefheart then its the right time to start. Lets be openminded!

bc1991

I agree with Mr Shankly here. If there are no voters, this tournament wont go anywhere. That's the reason I just posted 4 experimental albums there and no more.

I love jazz, but I don't think this is the right place to put a lot of jazz albums. I think just 3 or 4 will make it good.

I also disagree on extending the list, if we all want our favorite albums to be there, we will never end this thing.

The_111th_Beatle wrote:

Is it too soon for Funeral by Arcade Fire? Im not mad about it but a lot of people think a lot of it.

What does anyone else think of including compilations for some of the older artists who were around before the album was an artist's main focus as suggested by Mr. Shankly?

Funeral is ok for me.

I strongly disagree on compilations, it would be a disadvantage for the other contenders.

Mr. Shankly

Gender: Male
Age: 52
Location: Auburn, Washington

Mr.Music wrote:

Lets not make this contest a joke. We want to choose the best but we cant do that without albums that have changed the face of music. If u havent heared Tim Buckley or Captain Beefheart then its the right time to start. Lets be openminded!

Mr. Music

I think you missed the point of my post. I'm not trying to be discriminatory; I'm simply trying to be realistic. I will be happy to check out those albums assuming you're willing to send me a copy or write me a check so I can go purchase them Laughing

. Unfortunately, I don't have an Itunes account. I suppose I could check the public library too. But again, I want to raise this question: In the event of a lot of people not having heard a record, is it possible to set up like a file sharing site or set up an email system or something?

bontham

I cant wait till this one starts. In the british chart I tried to (re)listen the competitors before voting. Thereby of course risking being to late to throw in a vote. But then again, it was the perfect reason to listen to a lot of great music again (and starting to buy and lent loads of new music).
One thing if I may. Is It possible to have a slide change in the voting procedure. What I would like to recommend is this. Every match-up is open for voting for, lets say, 3 days. When these 3 days are over, the one with the highest number of votes will go on to the next round.
Why I want this? 1) so when there is little action, the competition still can move on. 2) when there is a lot of action, you know you have always the 3 day term to bring in your vote.
Anyway happy voting, happy listening everyone!

YellowBook

Location: Andalucia, Spain

bontham wrote:

One thing if I may. Is It possible to have a slide change in the voting procedure. What I would like to recommend is this. Every match-up is open for voting for, lets say, 3 days. When these 3 days are over, the one with the highest number of votes will go on to the next round.
Why I want this? 1) so when there is little action, the competition still can move on. 2) when there is a lot of action, you know you have always the 3 day term to bring in your vote.

+1

I understand that America is a bigger place than the UK with a wider choice of music to choose from, but I think 64 albums is a good number for the tournament; more than that and I think we are not choosing carefully enough the real contenders. Once we've got a list of say 100 albums we should maybe vote which ones we want to cull from the list.

The_111th_Beatle

Location: Ireland

I like bontham's idea and I'll be happy to use it if the rest of you dont mind.

How about I make one or two additions to the list and then the more obscure albums can compete in preliminery rounds (with those who have heard them voting) to wittle it down to 64?
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