The N&G Top 500 Albums of All Time!!!

Thackeraye said:
Honest, non-trolling question: is anyone putting in an album that they got from VMP, one that they hadn't heard before? Just interested if those years of curation got anyone an album that became one of their all-time favourites.

For me, it's a no. There were albums by bands I knew, or knew of that I'm glad I have (Hot Chip, Four Tet, loads of others), but nothing new that would hit a top 50. The closest to hitting a top 100 would be Lee Scratch Perry, Forest Swords, Monster Rally, Jorge Ben, Jess Ribeiro...
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The only thing like that I would consider as close (when we were talking about doing 100) would have been A Sunny Day in Glasgow. I absolutely adore that album after grabbing it on a whim through VMP.
 
I'm well up for this. I think I have my 50 records ready (I made a list of 100 or so earlier this year after something sparked me to do that elsewhere on N&G; I forget what). My plan now is to listen to all 50 records to do the final ranking and post them in reverse order in What's Spinning sporadically. I found it difficult to deal with all the different genres - it's hard for me to place John Coltrane against Led Zeppelin against Orchestre Baobab - but I ultimately went with the records that speak to me most emotionally, which I guess like many means an overweighting to things I discovered in my teenage years. A taster of what is probably my bottom 10 below...

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RowBearToe said:
For me this is a yes. And I think it's actually going to be a pretty significant number haha Right now I have 4 in my top 50:

Betty Davis - Betty Davis
Blossom Dearie - Blossom Dearie
Darrell Banks - Here to Stay
Nina Simone - Sings the Blues

The first 3 I had never even heard of the artist, much less the album. Obviously I knew Nina but had never heard that album. Love all of these!
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I forgot about Biggie - Ready to Die. It was the reason I found VMP and was already an all time favorite of mine before they released it. So damn, I guess 5/50 will be VMP releases but only 4 were introduced to me by them.
 
Poly-Rythmo said:
I found it difficult to deal with all the different genres - it's hard for me to place John Coltrane against Led Zeppelin against Orchestre Baobab - but I ultimately went with the records that speak to me most emotionally, which I guess like many means an overweighting to things I discovered in my teenage years. A taster of what is probably my bottom 10 below...

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I’m having a similar experience, especially in regards to the albums I discovered when I was younger. I’m still trying to decide how to account for that.

A related question is: If I burned out on a specific album because I listened to it so much, does it deserve a spot on the list ahead of an album I never loved so intensely but I currently find more enjoyable to listen to?
 
bettim84 said:
I’m having a similar experience, especially in regards to the albums I discovered when I was younger. I’m still trying to decide how to account for that.

A related question is: If I burned out on a specific album because I listened to it so much, does it deserve a spot on the list ahead of an album I never loved so intensely but I currently find more enjoyable to listen to?
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These things are hard to decide. But for instance I'm taking Nirvana's Nevermind even though I prefer some live albums and probably In Utero. But the songs on that have such personal meaning (fortunately I grew up without MTV or that much radio so I wasn't over exposed). I just set the albums against each other - which would I enjoy listening to the most? I find a strong nostalgic connection trumps most things. That said, there's no real album from my teenage years that I don't still love in one way or another.
 
Poly-Rythmo said:
These things are hard to decide. But for instance I'm taking Nirvana's Nevermind even though I prefer some live albums and probably In Utero. But the songs on that have such personal meaning (fortunately I grew up without MTV or that much radio so I wasn't over exposed). I just set the albums against each other - which would I enjoy listening to the most? I find a strong nostalgic connection trumps most things. That said, there's no real album from my teenage years that I don't still love in one way or another.
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Not to turn this into the hot takes thread, but Nirvana's Nevermind wouldn't sniff my Top 100. I think In Utero and Unplugged are both better albums (neither is in my top 100 either). I've owned it for 20 years or so and remember Smells Like Teen Spirit hitting MTV, but I think it's an album that seemed more important at the time and people formed emotional connections to it.
 
wmeugene said:
Not to turn this into the hot takes thread, but Nirvana's Nevermind wouldn't sniff my Top 100. I think In Utero and Unplugged are both better albums (neither is in my top 100 either). I've owned it for 20 years or so and remember Smells Like Teen Spirit hitting MTV, but I think it's an album that seemed more important at the time and people formed emotional connections to it.
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I wouldn't disagree. But if I look at least at my top 15 or so then I've listened to all of them at least 100 times each if not 200 or 300, I would guess. Nevermind, Ten, Definitely Maybe aren't in my top 15 but would have the same kind of listening figures. It's hard to choose a jazz record I've heard a handful of times over them in the way I am looking at this. But everybody will approach it slightly differently and that's the joy of music.
 
Poly-Rythmo said:
I wouldn't disagree. But if I look at least at my top 15 or so then I've listened to all of them at least 100 times each if not 200 or 300, I would guess. Nevermind, Ten, Definitely Maybe aren't in my top 15 but would have the same kind of listening figures. It's hard to choose a jazz record I've heard a handful of times over them in the way I am looking at this. But everybody will approach it slightly differently and that's the joy of music.
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Definitely Maybe is in my top 10, that album means so much and is such a big part of why I got into music when I was younger that it’s totemic to me. I’m also going out on a limb and saying that is their one great album and that I deserves kudos, for me, beyond just nostalgia. Morning Glory is also in my top 50 but much lower down, that’s a pure nostalgia pick, outside the iconic singles and one or two others it’s nowhere near as strong.
 
Poly-Rythmo said:
I'm well up for this. I think I have my 50 records ready (I made a list of 100 or so earlier this year after something sparked me to do that elsewhere on N&G; I forget what). My plan now is to listen to all 50 records to do the final ranking and post them in reverse order in What's Spinning sporadically. I found it difficult to deal with all the different genres - it's hard for me to place John Coltrane against Led Zeppelin against Orchestre Baobab - but I ultimately went with the records that speak to me most emotionally, which I guess like many means an overweighting to things I discovered in my teenage years. A taster of what is probably my bottom 10 below...

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Ooo glad to see Cole’s Corner will be on another list!
 
Joe Mac said:
Definitely Maybe is in my top 10, that album means so much and is such a big part of why I got into music when I was younger that it’s totemic to me. I’m also going out on a limb and saying that is their one great album and that I deserves kudos, for me, beyond just nostalgia. Morning Glory is also in my top 50 but much lower down, that’s a pure nostalgia pick, outside the iconic singles and one or two others it’s nowhere near as strong.
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Let’s just say that Definitely, Maybe will be getting a lot of points from me
 
wmeugene said:
Not to turn this into the hot takes thread, but Nirvana's Nevermind wouldn't sniff my Top 100. I think In Utero and Unplugged are both better albums (neither is in my top 100 either). I've owned it for 20 years or so and remember Smells Like Teen Spirit hitting MTV, but I think it's an album that seemed more important at the time and people formed emotional connections to it.
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We kind of had this discussion 5-6 pages ago, though admittedly it wasn’t in depth. I think most people feel like In Utero has aged better, and that could be due to a number of factors (less exposure, better production, maybe better songs?).

As much as I like Garbage (Version 2.0 is almost certainly in my top 50), Butch Vig’s production on Nevermind really dates that album. But it’s also possible that in 10 years that sound will be en vogue again (just like big 80s drum sounds made a comeback last decade). Most of the non-single tracks are excellent (unnecessary shout outs to “Breed,” “Drain You,” “Lounge Act,” and “On A Plain”). Of course the same can be said about In Utero (“Serve the Servants”, “Frances...”, and “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter”).

Nirvana was my first favorite band as a tweener, so I listened to those two albums and Unplugged ad nauseum. All three are great and mean a lot to me but I can hardly listen to them anymore. I expect Unplugged to make my top 50 (it was the first CD that I bought with my allowance money). But if I’m showing Nirvana to a person who never heard them (like my 4-year-old) then I’m playing Nevermind first.

Having said all that, if I feel like listening to Nirvana now, it’s usually the superb Live at Reading set.
 
Nice. I'm gonna start on this tonight. I want to do just 1 per artist to make room for some others that would get kicked off by some of the big artists. I'm just going to make 1 exception for Abbey Road/White cause they're my 1a/1b and no way I can leave either out.
 
dropsonde said:
I knocked out a list of 100+ pretty quickly (really wish the limit was 100 instead of 50) and discovered two things: (1) A list of 50 doesn’t accurately represent the diversity of my taste; and (2) With a few exceptions most of my list is from the ‘70s and earlier.

The first one surprised me the most. My taste is all over the map and my collection generally reflects that but I guess if I had to haul a suitcase of 50 records to the nuclear fallout shelter there is a much shorter list of genres I would take.
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I'm finding this as well. My tastes diversified a lot since I started collecting vinyl again and met all you fine folks, but very little in those three years or so has had the time to really make enough impact to make an "all-time top 50" list, but a lot more would probably be included in a top 100. Maybe I'll post a top 100 list when I submit my official 50.
 
dropsonde said:
(1) A list of 50 doesn’t accurately represent the diversity of my taste
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I thought I felt the same about #1 but the more I think about it the more I realize that my musical tastes are just not as diverse as I’d like them to be. A lot of music discovery is coming late for me ( I really didn’t even give Jazz a chance until I started hanging out here). I’m finding a lot of it very enjoyable, and I have you all to thank for that, but it’s still so new to me that I can’t rank it in a top 50.
 
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