Listmeister Listens - My Top 106: The Fame

[Listmeister]

108. The next 00's threshold

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The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga

BEA Ranks 27th of 2009, 296th of 2000s, 1395th of All Time

Ranked highest by Michaelo16, 11th of All Time

"This album is the perfect pop dance album. She has a great voice, the songs are weird and over the top. Lyrical is a bit different from what the norm is in pop music. And 'Dance in the Dark' is one of the best dance songs I've heard in recent years. " --Hellaboi

I've been obsessively following the Billboard Hot 100 for years, trying to listen to every song that makes that illustrious list. The year 2009 was terrible for me personally, but the pop music was pretty good (if you ignore the constant number 1-iness of the Black Eyed Peas), and when Bad Romance came out in November, it was the climax of an already great pop-music year. I have gone record as saying that Bad Romance was the best song of the last 20 years, and I still stand by that, although now it's 25 since nothing better has come out since.

But the pop singles world is almost a different universe from the album universe. The Fame Monster was a follow-up / sequel / extension to her 2008 debut, called "The Fame". When I listen to the eight songs on the album, the excitement, the joy of movement, that Bad Romance had encapsulated carries over.

I like this album, and I"m not going to apologize for it.

99. Stone Roses
100. The Life Pursuit
101. Actually
102. The Fame Monster
103. I Walk the Line
104. Pure Heroine
105. Alice's Restaurant
106. Aquarium
107 Mirage
108. Bustin' Out

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[Listmeister]

98. Dom dom dom dom. Dom-be-dooby-dom. Wah wah wah waaaah.

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American Graffiti Soundtrack by Various Artists

Ranked highest by BURNZY (40th of All Time)

"Great compilation of late 50s-early 60s classics and feel-goods." --bribri56

The music of the late 50's is largely ignored by album rankings (with the exception of the occasional jazz album). This is necessarily so, because at that time period, it was all about the singles. You list the best songs of the 1950's. What albums were they on? Who cares? Doesn't matter.

So, we are forced to rely on compilations. Unfortunately there are few compilations that can be considered remotely definitive, but the American Graffiti Soundtrack is one of them. Here's a list of songs on the album that are on my list of the Best Of All Time.

"Rock Around the Clock"
"Runaway"
"Why Do Fools Fall in Love"
"Surfin' Safari"
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"
"Little Darlin'"
"Book of Love"
"Johnny B. Goode"
"Get a Job"
"Come Go With Me"
"Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight"

That's 11 songs that are among the best of all time. On one album.


98. Stone Roses
99. The Life Pursuit
100. Actually
101. American Graffiti Soundtrack
102. The Fame Monster
103. I Walk the Line
104. Pure Heroine
105. Alice's Restaurant
106. Aquarium
107 Mirage
108. Bustin' Out

Actually moves into the top 100, we need a third 1980's threshold.

[Listmeister]

109. ABBA's last hurrah

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The Visitors by ABBA

BEA Ranks 27th of 1981; 300th of the 1980s; 1809th of All Time
Ranked highest by billybluebird (Best of All Time)

". From bounding joy to deep sadness, ABBA music has a power over its listener that the critic no longer dare dismiss and no ABBA album tugs at the emotional strings stronger than the Visitors. In truth there is an air of defiance permeating the entire album. However this is no grand scale strategy on the part of the creators but the ordinary and breakable human defiance of real people desirous of artistic freedom. From the muffled cry of "help me" on the title track, to the refusal to lie down and cry in "When all is said and done", and to the admission of a twinge of guilt in "Slipping through My Fingers", there is an emotional honesty with which we, the everyman listener can readily identify with. " --jomclane

"ABBA for grown-ups. Why did they have to stop when they just started to really grow?" --Captain Dude

The second biggest band in history* only released eight albums. This was the last. As many commenters on the album's page have said, it's a shame that the band broke up at this point, just as their sound was starting to evolve into something more interesting. But their fans were all like "they changed it now it sucks" and album sales tanked. It peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200. The members of the band were no longer enjoying each other's company, and ABBA broke up a year later while working on a ninth album that never got released.

If you listen to "ABBA Gold" (volume 1 and 2) songs from the Visitors, and the unreleased songs from the next album that were put on ABBA Gold, do not sound out of place. Except for "The Visitors (Cracking Up)", that one is just delightfully weird. The album isn't that different from previous works of ABBA. It's less different than their first album, "Ring Ring", from before they had really established their sound.

98. Stone Roses
99. The Life Pursuit
100. Actually
101. American Graffiti Soundtrack
102. The Fame Monster
103. I Walk the Line
104. The Visitors
105. Pure Heroine
106. Alice's Restaurant
107. Aquarium


*Second biggest in terms of how huge they were in their time, only to the Beatles.

[Listmeister]

97. My favorite vinyl from the 90's

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Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt

Actually, it's my only vinyl album from the 90's. They just weren't making records back then. It's really cool, the record itself is cereal-box-prize orange. I bought it for 10 bucks from, I think, Sears Online, of all places. I also own the CD and the Tape (the only album I have all three). I'll be honest, the CD sounds better, either because my record player is crap or because the album was designed for CD, not vinyl.

BEA Ranks: 17th of 1995, 198th of 1990s, 875th of All Time.
Ranked highest by DDrizzles (2nd of All Time)

"I count it as one of those "special" albums where everything about it seems to work it its favor. This is one of those rare CDs that you can listen right through without having to skip any tracks." --swhaze

"Pretty awesome pop rock album here. Some songs are really great but the greatest moment is the ballad Don't Speak." --Dr Runaway

"Tragic Kingdom is awesome. What's wrong with you?" --Listmeister

No Doubt's performance on Saturday Night Live, December 7, 1996, is one that I still remember 20 years later. Gwen Stefani sang with such heart and vulnerability that when she sang "Don't Speak", and got to the last lines, "Hush, hush, darling, hush, hush, darling, don't tell me, 'cause it hurts," well, my heart just melted. I wish I could find that performance on YouTube.

So I bought the tape. "Don't Speak" was the only ballad on the tape, and the rest of it was straight up rock and roll. Now, pop music in the mid-1990's was dominated by two things: Alternative and Rap. Actual Rock And Roll was very rare. (Years later I found out that the genre is techically "ska" or some such made-up word, but it's a lot more rock-and-rollish than Alternative.) No Doubt immediately became my favorite contemporary band, and Tragic Kingdom my favorite contemporary album.

Where to put it in my list? I think it's better than all of them so far except Stone Roses.

97. Stone Roses
98. Tragic Kingdom
99. The Life Pursuit
100. Actually
101. American Graffiti Soundtrack
102. The Fame Monster
103. I Walk the Line
104. The Visitors
105. Pure Heroine
106. Alice's Restaurant

That will bring us to where I was when I started this diary. I have listened to all of the above in the last few days, so they are still fresh on my mind. However, I will be going more slowly now.

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[Listmeister]

96. Lorax with a Guitar

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Rocky Mountain High by John Denver

BEA Ranks 145th of 1972, 1407th of the 1970s, 8,976th of All Time
Ranked highest by reneerox (21st of All Time)

"Here he was at the height of his powers. Strong production values, excellent songwriting and that beautiful voice. A great record." --Coconut

This world is beautiful, and each day I am alive convinces me more that this world is beautiful. No singer in the history of recorded music reflects that sentiment better than that bespectacled Lorax who spoke for the trees, John Denver. Especially on this album.

From the first track "Rocky Mountain High" about how transcendentally beautiful the mountains of Colorado can be. (FWIW, I have been there, and he's right), to the closing lines of Season Suite: Winter:

"And oh, I love the life within me, I feel a part of everything I see.
And oh, I love the life around me, a part of everything is here in me."

That's what the album is about. Unfortunately, it has its dull bits. He does a cover of "Mother Nature's Son;" John Denver doesn't have to rely on the Beatles when he can sing about the subject matter so much more eloquently. i never cared much for the Beatles version either.

96. Stone Roses
97. Tragic Kingdom
98. The Life Pursuit
99. Actually
100. American Graffiti Soundtrack
101. The Fame Monster
102. I Walk the Line
103. The Visitors
104. Rocky Mountain High
105. Pure Heroine

That brings American Graffiti Soundtrack back into the top 100.

[Listmeister]

95. The Bard of Canada

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Don Quixote by Gordon Lightfoot

BEA Ranks 207th of 1972, 1956th of the 1970s, 13,682nd of All Time

Ranked highest by GoJetsGo, 78th of All Time

"Another quality Lightfoot album. Too bad he was ignored outside of Canada." --junodog4

"Nice easy album to listen to. No tricks just Gordon and his great songs" --BraddlesHendo

"In fact, the very first album I bought with my own money was Gordon Lightfoot's Don Quixote. (sings) 'Through the woodland through the valley comes a horseman wild and free...' Blew my mind. But the second album was Hey Jude. That's right, kids! People used to buy music. The 70's were a crazy time...." --Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, June 12, 2013, (Steven Colbert's Tribute to Having Paul McCartney On His Show)

An amazing concert in the late 70's would have been John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot, touring the Rocky Mountains from Calgary to Phoenix. Denver, the Lorax of Colorado, and Lightfoot, the Bard of Canada. As far as I know, it was never even discussed (I could be wrong).

Lightfoot's lyrics are always epic, as in the 'long poem' sense of the word. Two examples. The title track is about a strong man, a righteous man, the man that the fictional Quixote always believed he was. "Ode to Big Blue" is the epic of a Blue Whale, who lived for a hundred years evading harpoons and other whale hunters, while all his neighbor whales were being hunted to extinction. This is all told from the whale's perspective. So that's kind of different.

95. Stone Roses
96. Tragic Kingdom
97. The Life Pursuit
98. Actually
99. Don Quixote
100. American Graffiti Soundtrack
101. The Fame Monster
102. I Walk the Line
103. The Visitors
104. Rocky Mountain High

[Listmeister]

94. I know I'm supposed to like this one

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London Calling by The Clash

BEA Ranks: Best of 1979; 4th of 1970s; 14th of All Time
Ranked highest by 55 separate users. Ranked top one out of 100 by nutso42 (also #1 of 100 from 1970s and #1 of 17 from 1979), xo66 (also #1 of 100 from 1970s), jmo32087, and eyezayzay,

"London Calling is the greatgest punk album ever. Never Mind the Bollocks may have been the first great punk album, but no punk album can touch The Clash's masterpiece. Rarely do you come across an album with no weak songs, and even rarer do you find that in a double album, but London Calling is 4 sides worth of great and catchy punk tunes. The best that punk has ever produced." --souplipton

"It never gets any better than this. London Calling was the death and rebirth of punk rock." --wuste430

For an album so highly rated, it's hard to form a subjective opinion of it. How much do I, myself like the album? It's hard to say.

It has some really good tunes. "Wrong 'Em Boyo", "Rudie Can't Fail", "I'm Not Down", the title track. I'd have to agree with the comments that say it's punk at it's finest. Objectively, it seems to be a terrific album.

Now I'm not one to force myself to like an album just because everybody else does. You will find neither Radiohead nor Bob Dylan in my top 100. But I do enjoy this album, and will enjoy it more as I get more familiar with it, so I'm going to allow myself to be advised by the BEA community. I'm going to drop it just a little bit, but probably not as much as I would if it were an obscure record by an obscure band.

94. Stone Roses
95. Tragic Kingdom
96. The Life Pursuit
97. Actually
98. London Calling
99. Don Quixote
100. American Graffiti Soundtrack
101. The Fame Monster
102. I Walk the Line
103. The Visitors

[Listmeister]

93. The sound of one heart crying

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Lonely Teardrops by Jackie Wilson

BEA Ranks: 30th of 1959, 150th from 1950s, 7,350th of all time
Ranked highest by larrauri, 24th of All Time

There is a certain musical grammar, a flow, a heart-and-lungs livingness to the music of the Fifties. Take a look at the album cover, the font in which the words "Lonely Teardrops" is written. That's the sound of the music of the fiftees, and of all the crooners, Jackie Wilson, embodies that sound. Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk" in vocal form. If I were better at writing metaphors, you'd know what I mean.

With a girls chorus backing him up, the songs on this album (expecially Lonely Teardrops and That's Why I Love You So) flow into your ears and draw spirals and loop-de-loops in the air. Again, I know what I mean.

But I have to drop the album way down. The thing is, if I want to listen to the glories of the music of the 50's, I'm better off with the American Graffiti Soundtrack, so Lonely Teardrops has to go below that.

93. Stone Roses
94. Tragic Kingdom
95. The Life Pursuit
96. Actually
97. London Calling
98. Don Quixote
99. American Graffiti Soundtrack
100. The Fame Monster
101. I Walk the Line
102. The Visitors
103. Rocky Mountain High
104. Pure Heroine
105. Alice's Restaurant
106. Lonely Teardrops
107. Aquarium
108. Mirage
109. Bustin' Out
110. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Congratulations, Lady Gaga, Fame Monster is in the top 100. We will need another 00's threshold album. Lonely Teardrops will be considered the 50's threshold album.

[Listmeister]

110. Robots. Yoshimi. An epic battle for the city.

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Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips

BEA Ranks 3rd of 2002; 10th of the 2000s; 85th of All Time
Ranked highest by: BlackAllan, Best Of All Time (out of 40); The Purple Badger, Best of All Time (out of 26)

"Yoshimi, is like other Lips albums, a beautiful fusion of noise and melody. Some of the band's best ever songs in the lovely title track, fight test, and, do you realize? " --garycottier

"Wow, what an album. I just finished my first listen, and I had no clue what I was missing until I started this album. From track one I knew this was gonna be great, but it sustained that level throughout." --souplipton

I'm quite fond of concept albums, and we'll be seeing more of them as we progress through my list of favorites. Of the sci-fi themed concept albums, I think this one comes in second only to ELO's Time.

In "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots part 1 " we are introduced to Yoshimi, and why she feels it is her job to fight the pink robots. That's pretty cool. But then -- and this is the moment that makes the album -- in "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots part 2" she actually does fight the robots. The story of this battle is told not in words, but in music, and you can almost follow the action in the way it is orchestrated. Marvelous.

I have to bring this into the top 100. That will demote Ms Gaga's Monster, which is not a sci-fi themed concept album.

93. Stone Roses
94. Tragic Kingdom
95. The Life Pursuit
96. Actually
97. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
98. London Calling
99. Don Quixote
100. American Graffiti Soundtrack
101. The Fame Monster
102. I Walk the Line