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Surprisingly, this is not a crap list when you take the thing as a whole. Individual choices raise eyebrows: "Low" #1, and is "Marquee Moon" really the THIRD BEST album of the decade?, but, you know, what are you gonna do, it's just a list.

"There's A Riot Goin On" in the top 5 is pretty awesome.

No "Tonight's the night" is totally lame. Why "On the Beach" is all of a sudden considered Neil Young's crowning achievement is sort of beyond me. Neil never does well on lists like these though.

No Sabbath? And we could go on and on I'm sure.

But man, what a fucking decade for music, you know? This list made me want to go back and re-listen to all these Miles Davis albums. Oh yeah, and "Off the Wall" too. I'm buying that today.

where was "metal box" I foget and I'm too lazy to look...that should have been up there

Metal Box 1980?... they put it on their best of '80s list at twenty-something. The 80s list is total crap however.

Metal Box '79, Second Edition '80...oh well

this one was surprisingly good compared to that lame revised 90s list where they bumped good bands to replace them with missy elliot records. besides the obvious stuff, they managed to throw a trobbing gristle album on there so that's good. i just took the liberty of ignoring #2 & #1 though.

it is a good list, I think I even own most of 'em, but I'm the only person who is dead sick of all these "best of" blah blahs? Always seems like the same stuff gets praised over and over again...

also their list of what got left out:

Among the casualties this time out were: Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Patti Smith, Sticky Fingers, Ornette Coleman, Pere Ubu, Van Morrison, Black Sabbath, "Heroes", Chic, Queen, Nina Simone, New York Dolls, The Jam, Frank Zappa, Transformer, Curtis Mayfield, The Police, The Damned, Aretha Franklin, Tonight's the Night, The Kinks, Tom Waits, Elton John, Yes, Janis Joplin, Station to Station, Willie Nelson, Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Grateful Dead, Alice Coltrane, Paris 1919, The Upsetters, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Cecil Taylor, Amon Düül II, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Augustus Pablo, Human League, Chi-Lites, Captain Beefheart, No New York, Magazine, The Slits, The B-52's, Durutti Column, Burning Spear, Tangerine Dream, Gene Clark, Françoise Hardy, Magma, Kimono My House, The Adverts, Manuel Göttsching and/or Ash Ra Tempel, Lee Hazlewood, and all of Brazil, including Caetano Veloso

looks to be a hell of lot more interesting than what made it in, which I guess is my whole point. I would rather see a weird/idiosyncratic list of someone's personal faves, of stuff that I didn't agree w/ or had even heard of a la the Nurse with Wound list, then hearing the offical indie rock canon praised again.

end rant

There's been a lot of lists lately to be sure. That Rolling Stone Top 500 albums was truly horrible, Alanis Morrisette in the top 30 or something. This list at least has some surprises and the commentaries are mostly thoughtful. I learned a few things and I'll probably go buy a couple of these now.

It's just interesting how certain records begin to gain in popularity and recognition as we move forward, while others just slide away. These lists always reflect what's going on in music today, what's fashionable... "Low" is really the ultimate example of an record gaining lots more momentum 25 years after the fact. "On the Beach" is now on everyone's list because it just got released on CD last year. Just the way it goes.

"London Calling" is always at the top of these lists. I guess that's pretty much ok by me. I haven't listened to "London Calling" in probably 6 years though, I never feel any urge to put it on.

I would rather see a weird/idiosyncratic list of someone's personal faves, of stuff that I didn't agree w/ or had even heard of a la the Nurse with Wound list, then hearing the offical indie rock canon praised again.

I think they have all the voters individual top 100 lists in there too. I looked at a few of them but my eyes got blurry. I guess they derived the full list from the voter lists.

Two things about this list bother me alot.
1. No Trad, Gras Och Stenar
2. Where was the disco? I mean, "Disco Duck" had to be on an actual album at some point in time and that song alone would merit a spot on the top 100.