MALLINation

 

Here it is, the latest installment in my countdown of the best albums made over the last 40 years. As we close in on my actual 40th birthday, so too do we close in on the end of the list. You can see 201 -300 here. Here is 301-400. And here is 401-500.

200. Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)

Due to a lawsuit and perhaps overall freaked-outedness over the overwhelming reception to Born To Run, Broooooooce took a few years to put out this follow-up. Perhaps tinged by this experience it’s like the dark underbelly of that previous record with many of the same themes but explored from a more resigned and embittered angle. While this makes it less of a fun listen, it adds to the rewards the record unlocks over time.

 

199. Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1991)

Primal Scream may or may not have signaled a big watershed in British rock with this amalgam of house, Stonesy rock, and other dance music that was in the air at the time. Shuffle beats were already all the rage among Britain’s baggy-pants set (I’m looking at you, Chameleons UK and Happy Mondays) and Stone Roses made it safe to shake ones ass back in 1989 with “Fools Gold.” Still this was a triumph from start to finish and doubly so for being completely unexpected given the ordinariness of their previous two records.

198. Faces – Ohh La La (1973)

As Rod the Bod increasingly looked to his solo stardom to provide him with opportunities to deflower virgins, his tenure with The Faces began to draw to a close. On their last album he gets in some great moments but it’s Ronnie Laine who shines all over the second half on songs like the title track. Ron Wood of course would go on to join the Stones.  A raucous, appropriately boozy valedictory for a great band.

197. The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005)
No longer the world’s most humble supergroup, Neko Case and Destroyer’s Dan Bejar were becoming better known in their own right by the time the New Porno’s third record came out, plus their second album had gained them a wider following as well. So, time to switch it up with bigger more detailed production and arrangements that are decidedly edgier from main songwriter Carl Newman. Tracks like “Falling Through Your Clothes” and “Three or Four” are much more intricate than before, but there are still power pop home runs like “Sing Me Spanish Techno.”

196. Prince and The Revolution - 1999 (1982)
Here’s where precociousness crossed over into genius with Prince showing himself to be one of the most talented and important artists of his generation. The first three tracks are a knockout punch – “1999″, into “Little Red Corvette” into “Delirious.”  Then there’s the ribald “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” which features the immortal line “…Girl, I wanna fuck the taste outta your mouth..” – a line that would make George Clinton blush. And Chortle.

195. Gram Parsons – G.P./ Grievous Angel (1973/74)
Yeah I’m cheating by listing two albums on one CD as one album but it’s been available this way since 1990 so deal with it. They are of a pice too, with most of the same musicians and Emmylou Harris’ wonderful duetting featuring on both. More to the point, they both have great original country rock gems like “The New Soft Shoe” mixed in with inspired covers. Sadly Gram OD’d between the release of the first and second record, making this the capstone of an illustrious and unlikely career – from trust fund kid to Keith Richards best friend and left coast country troubadour.

194. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Kanye knows you think he’s an asshole – matter of fact he thinks he’s one too. He also thinks he’s a genius and by the evidence here he’s at least incredibly talented, His most diverse and diverting record to date casts him as a curator – a guy who can’t shut his mouth or find the off switch for his brain. Sampling King Crimson and Smokey Robinson, West transcends hip-hop and makes a melange of elctronica, funk and head music that’s complex and fascinating.

193. DJ Shadow – Endtroducing… (1996)
Shadow’s innovation here was to take the cut and paste techniques of hip-hop and apply them to the big beat instrumentalism of elctronica, making an album that was innovative yet rooted in the crate digging culture that underpins both genres.

192. Pixies – Trompe Le Monde (1991)

Seen objectively it’s not surprising that this album heralded the end of the band – a grab bag of new songs, old re-worked leftovers (some of which dated back to their earliest songs) a Jesus and Mary Chain cover and at least one outright throwaway (“Space (I Believe In)” which seems to be about hiring a session musician to play the tabla and interpolates the theme from Perry Mason).  What makes Pixies great was that despite all this it’s still a terrific album, recapturing some of the aggression of their first records but also pointing the way to Black Francis’ lusher solo work.

 

191. TV on the Radio – Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (2004)

On their first album TVOTR codified their unusual synthesis of Peter Gabriel -like art rock, Pixies-ish indie and doo-wop influenced vocals. The vocal interplay especially sets them apart on songs like “Ambulance” which grows layers of voice to support it’s screwed up tale of twisted love.

190. Steely Dan  - Katy Lied (1975)
Becker and Fagan had hit their stride and the songs and arrangements are as smooth as the Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s playing. What makes this really kick ass though are the darkly funny lyrics about suicidal stockbrokers (“Black Friday”) and uncles you should stay away from (“Everyones Gone to the Movies”). Also, the tempos get kicked up nice and good.

189. Eurythmics - 1984 (For The Love of Big Brother) (1984)

What is this doing here? All but excised from the history of Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox’s band as if by some totalitarian government, this soundtrack was a commercial blip between big 80s albums for them. Artistically it’s their best, most underrated and least known record though. Perhaps it helps that my exposure to it initially was during a high school acid trip? Either way the compositions reach a grandeur that they never equaled and its among the very best new wave synth albums ever.

188. Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue (1980)
This is the essence of a fan’s album, one of those deep catalog items that while not first rank,  is  beloved by some Stones fans just as it’s equally reviled by many others. I obviously belong to the former set, appreciating the way it extends and comments on many of the advances of Some Girls while bearing it’s own ramshackle charm. The title track is even more disco than “Miss You” – it should come with a coke spoon. “She’s So Cold” is a musical cousin of “Shattered” with it’s stuttered rockabilly thwang but “Down in The Hole” and “Send it to Me” break some new ground. Great fun for the initiated.

187. Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)

Blondie hit the big time with album three powered by the classic “Heart of Glass” but backed up with a clutch of other great tunes. The penchant for girl group sass and art-rock chill is intact but the experiments (not least of which was disco) mostly pay off here. Equally important was the way Debbie Harry was adding more depth and nuance to her vocals while Clem Burke was doing the same behind the drumkit.

186. Blur – The Great Escape (1995)

An expansion of the sound and ideas of their previous record, this has had a rough go from the fickle British music establishment who had anointed Blur as saviors of the industry and set up the Blur vs. Oasis rivalry. It’s been an unfair slagging – it’s not the huge leap forward for the band or for British music that Parklife was but how could it have been? Concentrate on Damon Albarn’s incisive character studies, Alex James lithe and supple bass lines, Graham Coxon’s inventive guitar parts, and the crackerjack melodies and it’s clear this is pretty great in it’s own right. At this point Blur were giving Ray Davies and the Kinks a serious run as chroniclers of British life.

185. Iggy Pop – Lust For Life (1977)

Iggy continues his David Bowie-led rehabilitation as a solo star. Perhaps the funniest part of this album is the sweet yearbook photo-esque cover shot of Iggy, what a nice boy! Inside though are more songs that, while lacking the gutwrenching crunch of The Stooges, use their more varied dynamics to explore a variety of dark territories. His second solo disc in less than a year he sounds energized by the rise of US and UK punk, music explicitly inspired by his own early work. In turn his early solo stuff would help to inform post-punk and new wave and at least one cruise line ad.

184. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Tonight’s The Night (1975)

Neil Young hit a commercial trough in the mid 70s which coincided with him finding what I would consider his true voice – ragged, cracking, and fronting Crazy Horse. He produced a series of tough, sad, and raw records that weren’t released in sequence (this one was recorded in 1973) but add up to a picture of an artist struggling to tell his story and those of his friends. Specifically in this case, Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten who had OD’d and inspired the songs here just as Kurt Cobain’s overdose would inspire a similar album nearly 20 years later. The music is all over the place, seemingly recorded in one take and suffused with feeling. One of his most affecting records.

183. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Orange (1994)

I spent a good chunk of senior year in college cruising around Ithaca in my friend’s Nissan Sentra blasting this record – it was rolling perfection. Spencer had led Pussy Galore, and like that noise-rock band, JSBX could come off as a novelty concept band. Here however they dig in deep to upend the blues with disco strings, turntable effects, and hard-hitting groove songs that get down and dirty about how Spencer likes to bed a mature “full grown” woman like his wife. The whole trio is on fire here with Judah Bauer and Russel Simins (not that Russel Simmons) pushing Spencer deeper into the pocket while he pushes right back. Bracing stuff.

181. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (melt) (1980)

Gabriel continued down the art rock path post-Genesis, carving out two albums that were solid but didn’t suggest much in the way of a future direction. Here though he was suddenly mistaken for a new-waver by folks who didn’t know his history – his songs got both poppier and harder and his subject matter became less theatrical and more grounded in the real world. This is particularly true of “Biko”,  an incredibly moving account of South African political prisoner Stephen Biko which was one of the first pop songs to bring the injustice of Apartheid to a wide audience. It also incorporated many of the world rhythms that would inform Gabriel’s subsequent work. There was also the hit “Games Without Frontiers”, a clever slice of discofied cold war protest that you could dance to.

180.Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen(1978)

Could there have been a Weezer, a Green Day, a Pixies, a Descendants without this? It’s damn unlikely- this is punk revved up with pop smarts and sprung to a high tension. There is also a seam of Krautrock running through that emerges most obviously on “Moving Away From the Pulsebeat” but still informs the drive and arrangements of songs like “Fiction Romance.” Also not obvious at the time was Steve Shelley’s sexual orientation – still very much taboo except as something to flirt with a la David Bowie. This adds a particular edge to some of the more furtive lyrics and unrequited laments.

179. Stars - Set Yourself on Fire (2004)

Stars bring new wave back with this record, a stellar leap in songwriting and playing from their first few. Simultaneously looking backwards at a string of romantic failures and forwards into the dark abyss of what even then seemed a future of endless war, this is bleak stuff delivered with a tongue-in-cheek and a stack of great melodies.

178. Pretenders - Learning to Crawl (1984)

Chrissie Hynde dares to go where most rockers fear to tread, a loose concept album about motherhood. She had lost almost her entire band to drugs between their second album and this one, while also becoming a mother and the loss and discovery of both permeates these songs. Hynde at her best is a brilliant songwriter and her eye for detail and wry turn of phrase is all over this record.

177. Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material (1979)

These Irish punks may have been late to the party but they make up for it with sheer aggression and catchiness. There was also a political edge that was sharpened by their proximity to the violence that was ongoing in Northern Ireland at the time. This is what war-zone rock sounds like.

176. Stevie Wonder - Fullfillingests First Finale (1974)

Wonder’s talent was uncontainable in the 70s, easily transcending Motown’s factory line straightjacket he operated in as a teenager and developing a unique and compelling point of view. This was smack in the middle of Stevie’s hot streak, and is heavy on slower burning grooves that stick like crazy.

175. Led Zeppelin - Zoso (1971)

This is the Zeppelin record that is their most ubiquitous, if not their best. The track list is a veritable afternoon playlist on any classic rock FM station with “Stairway to Heaven” right smack in the middle.

174. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head (1992)

After the commercial failure of Paul’s Boutique no-one expected the Beasties to make another record, let alone one that brought them to a new and eager audience in the 90s. They gave these fans a new side of the band to respond to, recording live funk and hardcore jams and splicing them up into new songs as well as building whole songs from their noodling. The clever rope-a-dope rhymes remained as did a penchant for clever samples.

173. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

This is infamous for the documentary film on its genesis that inadvertently captured a band at loggerheads with a dysfunctional music industry. Buying the masters from one Warners Bros. label which deemed it uncommercial, this became one of the first file-trade shared sensations before a new deal with yet another Warners imprint allowed an official release that also became the bands biggest hit. It’s a stunning record, challenging and accessible in turn. To look at the final release date only would lead to the inevitable conclusion that the battered landscape of tottering towers, ghosts of American flags, and wars on war were a response to the attacks of September 11th and their aftermath but in fact the whole thing was written and record before then.  In it’s prescience it perhaps needed to be delayed to be heard in its true light.

172. N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton (1988)

A huge hit with zero radio play, this brought controversy to popular music that had seen it all. What was shocking in 1988? Full on violence and debasing mechanical sex. Fun yes? But the talent of Ice Cube in particular, Dr Dre, Eazy-E and Ren to put the tales of debauchery and mayhem over with a mordant humor and highly individual wordplay made it listenable. Of course for all the life of the street rhetoric that this stuff supposedly captured a huge chunk of the audience were kids white and black, far removed from the ghetto life described but looking for a thrill. It was still fresh, funny, and transgressive here but by the mid 90s this would dominate hi-hop for better or worse.

171. Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress(2003)

My favorite Belle and Sebastain album may be their least typical work but there you go. Made up of odds and ends that hadn’t found their way to other B&S records, the production is given muscle and detail by the 80s hitmeister Trevor Horn of Buggles and Yes fame. This balances the band’s more twee tendencies with touches of Thin Lizzy and classic Squeeze and helps to emphasize how much of a unit the namd ws musically with surprisingly rocking instrumentation. Stuart Murdoch is more firmly in control of the group again though and serves up some of his finest lyrics throughout, whether musing on the sexuality of Mike Piazza, winking at the sexual politics of an office romance, or working his subtle religious obsessions into every nook and cranny.

170. Husker Du - Zen Arcade (1984)

1984 was a watershed year for American indie rock with The Replacements, R.E.M., Meat Puppets  and Minutemen all turning in seminal records. The Huskers joined in with this massive double album, showing the enormous range of Bob Mould and Grant Hart’s songwriting and the sheer power of the Minneapolis power trios attack. It’s dense and the plot is impenetrable in the best concept album fashion but the record is magnificent.

169. Frank Black - Teenager of the Year (1994)

For Black’s second solo album, he dug deep to unleash a mighty 22 track opus that showed his full depth and range, from grinding Iggy and Ramones derived rockers to the overdubbed one-man pop of “Headache” to the classic Who riffing of “Freedom Rock” with stops off at reggae and the history of California as played by 80s-era The Fall.

168. Talking Heads  - Little Creatures (1985)

The irony is that Talking Heads’ most accessible pop-friendly lighthearted record was fraught with tension to make as David Byrne moved the band away from jointly developing songs by jamming into playing pre-written songs he’d brought in. It’s a damn good set of songs too, thankfully, following their fan base into the mature topics of child-rearing and interest in matters political. The hooks are plentiful and the band is powerful even if innovation has taken a backseat to pleasure.

167. Brian Eno - Here Comes the Warm Jets (1973)

Brian Eno broke away from Roxy Music (or was broken off) – his weirdness just couldn’t continue to mix with Bryan Ferry’s louchness. For his first solo disc the weird is in full flower with art rock smashing up against 50s and early 60s style arrangements and gloriously odd lyrics. This is glam rock at its most unhinged and barely gave a hint at the ambient realms Eno would explore later in the decade.

166. A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders (1993)

The alternate universe Brady Bunch facepile on the cover of Tribe’s third album give some insight into how revered they had become. Ranging from The Beastie Boys to Chuck D. to Afrika Bambataa, Dr. Dre to Whodini, it’s hard to imagine that kind of universal consensus happening now. The album itself is their biggest hit and is chock full of creative rhymes and killer beats. It may not push as hard as the first two records in new directions but as a statement of what they could do this is a killer record.

165. Silver Jews - The Natural Bridge (1996)

The Jews started out as a vehicle for Dave Berman and Pavement’s Steve Malkmus but by this point had become Berman’s thing, excising much of the skronkier noise aspects  for a deep fried country feel. Berman was also coming into his own as a songwriter with quirky slow-burners like “Pet Politics.”

164. David Bowie - ”Heroes” (1977)

The second part of Bowie’s Berlin adventure with Eno, this continues the experimental half vocals/half instrumentals formula of Low as well as much of the musical approach. The songs are a touch more anthemic though and Robert Fripp’s guitar takes on an even more prominent role, one that would continue in Bowie’s work over the next two albums.

163. Prince - Sign ‘O” The Times (1987)

Prince gives us his White Album, a magnum opus that disgorges every style the man is capable of and then some, an incredible potpourri of funk, rock, soul, folk, art-rock and new wave that puts a neat capstone on his utter domination of 80s pop (unless you count that other semi-androgynous high voiced black artist). This is also one of his bleakest albums, tempering his usual sex and saviour schtick with some harsh realities like AIDs and crack.

162. Ramones - Leave Home (1977)

Album two from The Ramones was never going to have the sonic boom impact of the first, but it is a statement that these guys have invented their formula and are going to stick with it. It helps that the formula is amazing, classic pop songcraft supercharged within an inch of it’s life. There are plenty of classics here including the likes of “Sheena is a Punk Rocker,” “Commando”, and the gorgeous “I Remember You.”

161. Leonard Cohen - I’m Your Man (1988)

Cohen was well and truly in the wilderness in 1988, with a label that wouldn’t even release his recordings in the United States. With this record he overhauled his singer-songwriter sound with sequencers and synthesizers and matched them with a dark set of brooding wonders perfectly suited to his rumbling baritone. The result created a sensation among musicians if no-one else and began his artistic rehabilitation in the US.

160. Elvis Costello and The Attractions - Blood & Chocolate(1986)

Costello’s last album with the Attractions was also one of his best – a great breakup album that coincided with his stealing Pogues bassist Cait O’Riordan to be his new bride. The music is a return to his lean early stuff with melodies that are top notch, and the crack band burns up the grooves.

159. Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls and Marches (1981)

I’ve avoided EPs here because no-one seems to know what they are – long singles? Short albums? Increasingly in the CD age they were a single album track with a bunch of other stuff appended. This however cannot be ignored, the first extended Mission of Burma record is a bruising mind expanding treat, like Brian Eno gone hardcore punk. So ferocious were they live that co-leader Roger Miller had to split the band due to tinnitus brought on by their sonic assault. This implies brutality without subtlety however and this simply is not the case. These are songs, with intricate structure and incredible dynamics. The re-issue helpfully appends two of their best songs, the A and B side of their debut single “Academy Fight Song”.

158. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (2009)

Neko Case was already well on her way past the Americana of her early recordings into a unique amalgam of  noir California pop and indie rock all anchored by that honey and fire voice. This album is suffused with a nature gone terribly wrong, animals and plantlife and weather all jockeying with people for supremacy. It’s all taken to another level with the thoughtful arrangements worthy of Lindsey Buckingham.

157. Richard & Linda Thompson  - Shoot Out The Lights(1982)

A tough record that memorializes the disintegration of the Thompson’s marriage. The songs are lean and extra-mean, Richard’s guitar is scathing and Linda’s voice is suffused with regret and anger. There is a voyeuristic thrill in just how great this record is – it’s a compelling and compulsive listen.

156. OST - The Harder They Come (1973)

This movie and its soundtrack were they pathway for many non-Jamaicans to discover reggae music. Star Jimmy Cliff has three classics here including the title track but the disc is filled out with a treasure trove of great singles from the previous few years like Desmond Dekker’s “Shanty Town” and Scotty’s “Draw Your Breaks” – an essential collection of early reggae (and a bit of ska).

155. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)

Pink Floyd had finally become superstars six years after their leader Syd Barrett had broken down and retreated from the band, a victim of mental instability. Soldiering on with David Gilmour on guitar and vocal duties and the rest of the band (but increasingly Roger Waters) filling in the songwriting gap, they had gone from experimental art/prog rockers to having a huge hit album and now were haunted by their own origin story. Here they attempt to exorcise that demon on an album that explores their own alienation and fears of madness bought on by a profile even greater than that of Barret’s in their first blush of fame. The man himself is said to have wandered into their studio at Abbey Road to see what was happening with them, a bloated, unrecognizable ghost who had moved back in with his parents. A deeply felt and wounded record that is the band’s most human.

154. R.E.M. - Automatic For The People (1992)

Before I address what’s good about this album I do have to point out the lone stinker in the bunch, “Everybody Hurts”, a Hallmark card of a song that to some is one of their most affecting songs. Not I. Give me “Star Me Kitten”, a gauzy, lust-infused song with a hard center of sadness that seems to be written as it goes along. Or the string infused “Drive” which carves a deep melancholy even as it echoes Gary Glitter. Or the stunning “Man On The Moon”, a heartfelt tribute to the late Andy Kaufman. It’s a record that is veined with sorrow, painful nostalgia, regret, all the emotions that in many ways the band avoided in their earlier work.

153. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig (2008)

Cave is re-energized here, having rocked out hard with his Grinderman side-project. This is a concept album of sorts with Lazarus rising in modern day America, and rising again with a bevy of women from track to track. The old testament here is The Stooges and Cave is preaching fire and brimstone like nobody’s business.

152. U2 - War (1984)

U2 make the transition from post-punk to stadium rockers here, or at least go in that direction. They still have a strong Clash influence but bits of Bowie are leaking in on songs like “New Year’s Day.” What also set them apart were their passionate politics, still a rarity in the early 80s. They’d have bigger albums in this vein but not better.

151. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)

Teacher and former high school jock Bob Pollard had been turning out little lo-fi gems for several years on the side, finally getting enough attention to move to a small nationally distributed indie label for this, their breakthrough. The crappy recording quality is a purposeful veil, forcing the brain to listen harder to the extraordinary songs within. The first nine tracks were like a sledgehammer to the head, sounding like an undiscovered trove of field recordings from the 30s of the great lost progenitors of indie rockdom. These Ohioans have a lot to answer for in other bands affecting a similar low-fio aesthetic to obscure rather ordinary or even lousy material but the plus side is a trove of great songs, even if Pollard would prove to be an uneven judge of his own best material.

150. Beck - Mutations (1998)

Officially this was merely a breather and not a follow-up to Odelay, and  sonically this is a very different record. Nor was it a return to Beck’s folk roots as the arrangements are baroque, bringing to mind Nick Drake or Scott Walker. Nigel Godrich is along to produce and he brings a depth and detail that’s similar to his work with Radiohead, though the album never sounds like them at all. Instead it’s Dylanesque in it’s wordplay and images of decay, and also in it’s survey of musical styles from blues to bossa-nova that sounds both timeless and utterly modern.

149. Danger Mouse/ Jay-Z – The Grey Album (2004)

Not at all legal, grey was what you got when you mixed white and black – in this case Jay-Z’s Black Album and The Beatles White Album. While the result could have been just a  gimmicky stunt, Danger Mouse is extremely thoughtful about the ways in which he cuts up and juxtaposes the Beatles music to set off some of  Jay-Z’s most personal rhymes. The result catapulted Danger Mouse into the first rank of in demand producers even as it burned up file-sharing sites and created some new legal fees for The Beatles already well-compensated legal team.

148. The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies (1971)
For all intents and purposes this is Americana before the term existed, dredging up he sound of American popular music in much the way The Band, Dylan and Little Feat were all doing. The Kinks match this with a lyrical conceit that is amusing and telling, with Ray Davies using their British place-names and ennui in place of typical American blues locales and laments. They do visit the new world on the second half, if only in their own imaginations with “Oklahoma U.S.A.” being one of their loveliest compositions.

147. Dinosaur Jr. – You’re Living All Over Me (1987)

What the hell was going on here? College rock, as it was called, was pretty firmly in the punk, roots, new wave, or synth camps when J. Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph tossed this guitar driven grenade in the mix. Pulling as much from sources like Neil Young and Black Sabbath as Black Flag and The Ramones, this was heavy and yet not metal, a true “Sludgefest” as the title of one song put it. They had invented grunge without meaning to, and it would take a few years and other bands like Mudhoney adding to the movement for Nirvana and Pearl Jam to take the fusion of punk and classic rock over the top. Call to action: the incendiary but loving cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”

146. The Roots – Things Fall Apart (1999)
The Roots succeed in their mission to transcend the flavor of the month syndrome that had taken over in hip-hop leading to a lot of flash but not a lot of substance.  The Roots definitely look back to the Native Tongue movement but they  aren’t defined by the past. For one thing their live instrumentation sets them apart from the sample-heavy sounds of the late 80s and early 90s, for another Malik B. and Black Thought have their own identities and rhyme skills without being derivative of anyone else.

145. Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (1974)

Album two was a commercial (if not artistic) setback for the Dan, but tehy came back on all fronts on this third record which found them sharpening their unique jazz-influenced sound and snarky intellegentsia lyrics.  They scored their second big hit with the insinuating bossa nova of “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” but it’s tracks like “Monkey in Your Soul” where the crack session crew really cut loose.

144. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells (2001)

It’s hard to remember now but this record operated with the Strokes debut as a one-two punch, giving listeners hope that great rock could exist beyond the morass of nu-metal that dominated the airwaves at the time. As both bands crested 1 million copies sold of their respective records it actually seemed like the next big movement had arrived, right on schedule ten years after grunge. Well they did spawn a whole host of bands especially in England but the pressure from an imploding industry to funnel it’s money into sure bets limited their impact. Even so, it’s easy to see why the impact of Jack and Meg White’s two person racket was so outsized – killer songs that looked back to the classic verities of Zeppelin and the unvarnished attack of punk rock, allied with a strong visual bent and a charismatic frontman.

143.Superchunk - Foolish (1994)
This is yet another great breakup album, informed by the broken marriage of Superchunk leader Mac McCaughan and bassist Laura Ballance. The music is tempered from the band’s early feverish pace, with several songs breaking the 4-minute mark and more varied and somber arrangements working their way into the likes of “Driveway To Driveway” and “Like a Fool.”

142. B-52′s – B-52′s (1979)

 

Any album that could get John Lennon and Yoko Ono out of retirement can’t be a bad thing. More specifically the couple heard the song “Rock Lobster” while on vacation and recognized in Cindy Wilson’s ululations that the world was finally ready for Yoko. The B-52s were the sonic equivalent of John Waters here – Polyester if not full on Pink Flamingoes in their embrace of camp. They prefigured the 90s obsession with irony and the ongoing retro explosion but did it with their own unique flair.

141. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (1971)
Marvin Gaye’s declaration of independence from Motown’s assembly line was a mind-expanding slice of layered soul that is considered by many to be the best soul album ever made. It’s certainly one of the most breathtaking, with Gaye’s songwriting and arranging on songs like the title track and “Flyin’ High (in The Friendly Sky)” hitting a Brian Wilson like level of detail attention and orchestral grandeur.

140. Bruce Springsteen – The River (1980)
The Boss shows us both the serious and the playful side on this double album, chock full of songs that split the difference between the bombastic anthems of Born To Run and the introspective ballads on Darkness on The Edge of Town. This is chock full of strong songs from the raucous “Out In The Street” to the rockin’ “Cadillac Ranch” which prefigured his Born in the U.S.A. sound  to the pensive “Wreck on the Highway.”

139. T. Rex – Electric Warrior (1971)

Glam rock kicked off in the UK as a craze with this monolithic groove monster of an album – all Chuck Berry riffs and clomping beats tied together with Marc Bolan’s strange lyrics and Flo and Eddie’s endearingly whiny backing vocals. This paved the way for punk by returning to the simpler pleasures of great songs and tight arrangements deliberately harking back to early 60s styles without aping them. The songs are great and widely varied, part of Bolan’s brief purple patch of albums and singles that ran out after 1973.

138. Eminem – The Slim Shady LP (1999)
This debut record sent shockwaves through both rock and rap, becoming a huge hit and propelling Marshall Mathers to major stardom. His sheer audacious talent prevented charges of racial claim-jumping, along with his alliance with Dr. Dre behind the production boards. It’s both funny and deadly serious and the controversy arose because Mathers wasn’t about to call out which was which. Unlike the senseless and ultimately boring beefing and cap-popping of gangsta rock these rhymes are deeply personal which made the violence disturbing in a whole different way. Audacious.

137. The Clash – Combat Rock (1982)

Derided by some as their worst record, most bands would kill for something as tuneful, smart and varied as this. Sadly just as this took them to a much bigger commercial level tension in the band between Mick Jones and Joe Strummer came to a head, with Strummer firing Jones(who went on to form B.A.D.) and returning in 1985 with a much inferior version of the band. As the last real Clash album, this carries a poignant hint of what might have been as U2, The Police, Peter Gabriel and others made much hay by going down roads the Clash had opened up. The sound by Who producer Glyn Johns is made for arenas and sure enough the band garnered hits with “Rock The Casbah” and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.” The depth is added on songs like the bongo fury of “Car Jam,” the achingly gorgeous “Straight To Hell” and cold war lament “Innoculated City.” You wish your band was this good.

136. Fatboy Slim – You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (1998)
Big beat electronica reached it’s commercial zenith with this stomping party record, the brainchild of Norman Cook who had been bassist for UK poppers The Housemartins in the 80s before starting Beats Intl in the early 90s as a song-oriented cut and paste electronic project. As Fatboy Slim he dived full-in into Chemical Brothers territory but here on album two he perfects the formula. It doesn’t hurt that he had Spike Jonez along to direct a set of clever videos but it’s the infectious  and hooky songs that make this one thrive.

135. The Cars - The Cars (1978)

The Cars were the first post-punk/new wave band to get radio play on America’s FM stations, bringing classic songwriting rigor to the new amped up sound and paving the way for new wave to hit hard a few years later. What this really was, was power pop chilled out with a Bowie affect, what Cheap Trick would have sounded like if they had dug Roxy Music instead of The Move.

134.M.I.A. - Kala (2008)

This ups the ante considerably over M.I.A’s amazing debut, fixing her in firmament that calls out everyone from Jonathan Richman in “Bamboo Banga” to Pixies in “20 Dollar” to her clever sampling of The Clash on the hit “Paper Planes.” It’s not how she references her influences however, it’s the way she transcends them to make a distinctly transcontinental dance music that takes no prisoners politically or musically.

133.Julian Cope – Peggy Suicide (1991)

Cope was an eccentric in the great British tradition, jabbering about ley lines and dressing up like a turtle for the cover of his album Fried. He does have an ear for a great song though, and had a few hits on college radio before suddenly pulling this amazing double album out of his fanny er, pack. Incorporating himself into the baggy pants ecstasy subculture he hijacked the beats of bands like Happy Mondays and twinned them with canny songwriting skill and some bite from his post-punk milieu.

132. Sonic Youth – Dirty (1992)
Sonic Youth were midwives to the grunge and indie rock explosion of the early nineties, having championed bands like Mudhoney and Seattle’s Sub Pop records and serving as ambassadors from for Nirvana to join the ranks of Geffen records. In turn, they responded to the revolution of 1991 with their most focused hard rocking set yet, produced by Nirvana’s producer Butch Vig. The results show that SY cleans up real nice, but there’s no mistaking something like “Swimsuit Issue” for a song that was going to get radio play on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” levels. “Sugar Kane” however takes a familiar set of tricks that the band had deployed before and pretties them up enough to make you believe that they really could have been part of the classic rock canon.

131. The Jam – Setting Sons (1979)
Very nearly a concept album about World War I (taking notes, PJ Harvey?) there are plenty of songs here that reflect the themes of warfare and youth squandered in the trenches. This is their most ambitious album to date not just thematically but musically as well, with full orchestration on “Smithers-Jones” and tricky time changes on “Little Boy Soldiers.” The songs that are off-topic are strong enough (like the killer “Girl on The Phone”) to not mar the sense of accomplishment with the exception of a Who-aping version of “Heat Wave.”

130. Elastica – Elastica (1995)

A surprise hit in the US and UK, Elastica filled their debut with spiky riff-bombs that were descended (to the point of a lawsuit) from punk and post-punk staples like Wire, The Damned, The Jam and others. The way it’s all served up is wholly original though, the tautness reflecting the voice of Justine Frischmann and the aloof stance of her bandmates. It’s also fiendishly consistent with not an ounce of fat across the sharp songs or lean arrangements. Ahead of their time really if you look at The Strokes and other New York sound revival bands of the 00s.

129. Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole (1997)
Though they had clear antecedents in the likes of Aphex Twin and Future Sound of London just to name two, Chemical Brothers reached out to a broader audience by nodding to traditional song structure and reaching out to hip-hop and psychedelia as explicit influences. It’s here on thier secodn album that it all comes together helping to take electronica for a brief stroll in the mainstream.

128. Nick Lowe – Jesus of Cool (1978)
Lowe was a major player in Britain’s pub-rock scene, a back-to-basics precursor to punk that counted Joe Strummer’s 101ers among their practitioners. He branched out after the breakup of his band Brinsley Schawrz in two directions, as a producer (most famously of Elvis Costello) and a solo artist. His songwriting would always be a strong suit but it’s on this solo debut that he’s at his most winningly varied, with tracks that are harder and less country tinged than subsequent outings. His quirky sense of humor abounds (this was a guy who responded to the release of David Bowie’s Low with an EP entitled Bowi) as does his love for sheer genre craft, from the gentle art-rock of “I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass” to the pure pop of “Tonight” to the chilly post-punk of “36 Inches High.”

127. R.E.M. – Document (1987)

R.E.M. decide to play at being an arena rock band and funnily enough become one, while retaining much of their quirky charm and general artsy bent. The guitars ring, the drums pound and Stipe enunciates(mostly) but as in their previous four records it’s Mike Mills’ bass leading the way and even when they toss the word “love” into “The One I Love,” it’s a cruel trick.

126. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)
This is where PE come into their own propelled by the fury and denseness of the Bomb Squads production and the relentless flow of Chuck D. and Flavor Flav.  It’s an immersive riot of sound and ideas on songs like “Bring The Noise” and PE dares the listener to simply keep up. What amazes is that so many of the building blocks were the same as for groups like Run-D.M.C. and Eric B. and Rakim, scratching, samples from soul records like James Browns, call and response rapping, but it’s supercharged into something altogether new here. Revelatory.

125. The National – High Violet (2010)
This was far from the big leap its predecessor had been, rather it’s like an expansion of that record’s highly polished multilayered sound and gauzy ennui filled vibe. It’s one of the most amazing, deeply depressing records you are likely to hear. It’s the sound of arrested adolescence hardening into disappointing adulthood, sometimes wryly as on “Afraid of Everyone” – probably the best summation of how fear rules our divided country. “I don’t have the drugs to sort it out..”

124. The Mekons – The Curse of The Mekons (1991)

Still obscure in the UK, The Mekons had scored their first ever radio play and stellar reviews after ten years of recording when they delivered this record to their American label, A & M. The record was rejected, leading to the band to leave the label and go through the crappy process of buying back their own work. It is of course one of their best, a big sweeping epic that surveys life as lefty radicals in the wake of the end of the Cold War.

123. The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me (1987)
 The catch 22 for American Indie rock bands in the 80s was that you were never going to get played on the radio or become known in the mainstream because the industry was stacked against you, so if you did find success it obviously meant you had sold out. Or so the myth went. So powerful was this point of view that it led to deep feelings of guilt in bands like The Replacements who began to see glowing reviews translated into a major label deal all the way to Kurt Cobain who felt bewildered and apologetic when Nirvana actually achieved the huge stardom he had hoped for.  This was The Replacement’s and more specifically Paul Westerberg’s initial bid to be a big band but as the cover art suggests they were acutely aware of their underdog status and the tradeoffs implied in going mainstream. They’d also shed guitarist Bob Stinson, a force of nature who was not so easily channeled beyond beer fueled punk rave-ups. While the results could have felt neutered (and did on subsequent follow-ups) here the songs are among their best and the sympathetic ear of eccentric Memphis legend Jim Dickinson as producer insures that for all the horns and strings, the real nature of the band shines through.

122. Archers of Loaf – All The Nation’s Airports (1996)

Archers takes a big leap into strange conceptual spaces, an album that sounds like what happens when your flight is elayed and you just observe the goings on in the terminal, wondering “Is that guy an assassin? I wonder how many miles that salesman has logged? Is that pilot drunk?” The songs are wiry and tightly melodic with most of side one running together as a suite.  There are moments like on “Scenic Pastures” that approach a pure pop bliss state while hewing to the skewed indie rock they do so well.

121. Portishead – Dummy (1994)
Massive Attack may have been there first but Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbon’s took trip-hop to a much wider audience, deservedly so given the inventive fusion of chanteuse torch songs with deep-crate samples and hip-hop beats and scratches. What’s still striking is how natural the fusion feels. Paved the way for  a whole host of imitators and inspired folks from Amy Winehouse to Radiohead.

120. The Smiths – Meat is Murder (1985)

While R.E.M. did their bit for American guitar based indie with a smarty-pants bent, The Smiths did their part across the part. Instead of Stipe’s mumbling however The Smith’s had Morissey’s hyper articulate snark set against the many guitar textures Johnny Marr was able to crank out like clockwork. This, their second album, is widely considered their most uneven and it is, but a great band’s so-so album is still better than a  so-so band’s great moment.

119. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – On The Beach (1974)
Apocalypse Neil Young style, featuring roaming killer hippies in the California canyons, vampires, and entertainment industry execs. In fitting with this stretch of his career the music is woozy, boozy and bluesy, full of frayed edges and lonesome laments.

118. Spoon – Gimme Fiction (2005)
This takes the new spare soundscape that Britt Daniel had steered to on the previous Spoon album and blows it up to cinematic proportions. Every guitar squiggle and bass change up feels freighted with significance, weighted with value. The arrangements highlight the effortless glide of Daniel’s melodies on songs like “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine” and the show stopping groove of “I Turn My Camera On.” Grows better and better with each passing year.

117. PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love (1995)
Until this record PJ Harvey was the name of Polly Jean Harvey’s band but here on her third outing it became just she. Of course she has a set of musicians she’s working with but the palette is broadened here, resembling most closely the work of her soon-to-be lover Nick Cave. Along with a wider set of sounds and moods come clarity and detail that her three piece just wasn’t built for, and a bit more theatricality. If some sheer rawness is sacrificed, in it’s place is Harvey’s still strong love of a chugging guitar riff and an eerie chord, and her forceful sensuality.

116. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)

An album that increasingly seems remarkable for its encyclopedic foreshadowing of the next decade of British rock music, the Roses debut comes out of the gate remarkably assured.  “I Wanna Be Adored” rolls in like a summer storm, a drop-dead killer melody that points towards the classic rock aping of Oasis but is wholly uncanny. “She Bangs The Drums” is britpop like Blur would vault to the fore five years later and “Fool’s Gold” a genre defying trip to the Hacienda club that kicked off the whole ecstasy, beats and guitars craze over the ensuing few months.

115. Urge Overkill – The Supersonic Storybook (1991)

This is the ambitious Chicagoans statement of purpose, a record chock full of pounding beats, crunchy Cheap Trick riffs and trick arrangements that always seem to have a surprise up their sleeve. “Bionic Revolution” injects a bit of surprising soul, as does an ace cover of Hot Chocolate’s “Emmaline” and the whole thing seems primed for maximum windows down car cruising.\

114.Lou Reed -Coney Island Baby (1976)

After a lot of flailing around, sometimes interestingly and sometimes excruciatingly, Reed found his legs with this refreshingly straightforward set of songs. The melodies are reminiscent of the third Velvets album and the mood is sweeter than most of his 70s work, a welcome reboot.

113. Blur – Parklife (1994)
Blur’s brilliant third album kicked off the Britpop boom of the 90s, a welcome return to the standards set by the Kinks, The Smiths, The Jam, and other gloried exponents of the empire’s take on rock and pop. Damon Albarn’s incisive writing is born aloft by Graham Coxon’s edgy guitar coloration and Alex James bass playing which seems to channel prime McCartney. The songs are veddy British but universal in their catchiness, from the neo new wave ass shaker “Girls and Boys” to the massive weather as depression metaphor “This is A Low.” Peerless.

112. Sinead O’ Connor – The Lion and The Cobra (1987)

This debut was clearly indebted to art rock like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, but O’ Connor has a hugely distinctive voice and taste that also wandered over to R & B and hip-hop, leading to an album that is utterly distinctive. Though she would become a big star only with her next release (and flame-out by the one after that) this is still the best display of her idiosyncratic talent.

111.Unrest – Imperial F.F.R.R. (1992)

This is one of those amazing records that seems fully formed in every way, from cover art to song titles to musical and lyrical content creating a distinct mood and worldview. Unrest signaled their mutation from an arty hardcore band with a few singles before unleashing their sex drenched jangle pop on the world. Songs like the luxuriant “I Do Believe Your Blushing” rub shoulders with the bracing Krautrock experiment of “Champion Nines.” Somehow it all sounds completely unique ad utterly enveloping.

110. Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on The Run (1973)
McCartney and band decamped to Nigeria to record this album, and not a lick of it is influenced by any music other than what Paul already knew. It was however influenced by their feeling of being outsiders under siege and away from home, and this manifests itself in his toughest sounding and most focused non-Beatles work. It’s also one of  his best. Deploying all of his arranging tricks, he elevates the songs to little gems.

109. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (1977)
A commercial monster of an album, this spawned several top ten singles at a time when one or two per album was the norm, setting the stage for later blockbusters like Thriller. With it’s complex backgroup of marriages broken and spouses shared it’s a quintessential 70s album in all the best ways, and the full integration of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks here makes the long-lived band even more than the sum of its parts.

108. X – More Fun in The New World (1983)

For their fourth album X continued to work with producer Ray Manzarek and also kept to a path of steadily broadening their punk-inflected sound with more rockabilly and a few ballads here and there. The biggest change are more topical lyrics tweaking the state of Reagan’s America. This is another strong set from John Doe and Exene.

107. Roxy Music – Roxy Music (1972)

A colossal mindfuck, Roxy’s first album exploded the boundaries of art-rock, glam and straight-up pop. Eno and Ferry push and pull at either side of these songs, one side trying to drag it all into a smoothed out continental chill the other blurting gobs of noise and jarring juxtapositions. “Re-Make/Re-Model” is like King Curtis’ “Texas Soul Stew”  forced through graduate school at knifepoint. So many bands and artists were obviously spurred into action by this that it seems silly to list them. Huge.

106. Hole – Live Through This (1994)
It almost seems like Courtney was mourning her husband months before he died, as this was released coincidentally on the Tuesday after his body was discovered. Or, perhaps the truth lies in the rumor that these songs were mostly written by Cobain? Either way this is Courtney Love’s one sheer masterpiece, a howl of an album that channels her rage and drama into coherent powerful rock anthems.  It’s an amazing album performed with passion and guts.

105. Talking Heads  – More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)

On their second album the Heads claim to serve up more of the same but this is a more guitar based affair drawing on their live sound. The also began to be seen as a real commercial prospect, having a hit with their version of Al Green’s “Take Me To The River” which presaged their deeper dive into funk and other non-rock idioms. The whole record shows off a tight focused band that plays the hell out of a great set of quirky songs.

104. Wire - Chairs Missing (1978)
Wire’s second album expands and deepens on the formula set out on the first record – the songs are longer and more textured and if anything the riffs are catchier. “I Am The Fly” and “Outdoor Miner” are worth the price of admission alone as they are two of the greatest post punk songs ever and are different enough from each other to deserve note. “Fly” is buzzsaw guitars married to an insinuating much copied bassline with some of the best icky lyrics in the world while “Miner” is a sweetly beautiful pop confection which seems to sneak in a keyboard riff from Del Shannon. Simply amazing.

103. Smiths – Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)

The Smiths ended gloriously with this record, their most detailed set of songs yet. The Morrissey/Marr partnership may have been fraying but the interplay is awesome even on the cheeky ‘Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” which, like many a great Motown classic, seems to comment on itself. The record is chock full of great tunes.

102. Iggy Pop – The Idiot (1977)

Iggy seemed washed up in the wake of The Stooges dissolution and the new punks who were inspired by them in 1976-77. After lying low for several years he re-emerged with longtime patron David Bowie who produced and co-wrote a set of songs for this debut solo record. The Bowie influence is obvious but Iggy does have his own thing to say and way of saying it, even if the raw power of The Stooges is here channeled into a more mature slow burning set. Bowie would later borrow “China Girl” back for his Let’s Dance album, and the difference between the claustrophobic dread here and Bowie’s glossy theatrical take speak volumes.

101. The White Stripes – Elephant (2003)

Jack and Meg were genuine stars when this came out, and driven by the indelible riff of “Seven Nation Army” this fourth album was even bigger than their previous breakout third. They are clearly stretching out, covering a Bacharach/David chestnut and having fun with the likes of “It’s True That We Love One Another”, one of Jack’s patented nursery ditties.