Albums of the 21st Century... So Far!

Joe Mac

Joe Mac

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The Guardian did a list of these that was published today. While I don’t agree with all the choices/placings (does anyone ever really?) I think it’s a thoughtful and well considered list and great conversation starter. What do you all think?

www.theguardian.com

The 100 best albums of the 21st century

We polled 45 music writers to rank the definitive LPs of the 21st century so far. Read our countdown of passionate pop, electrifying rock and anthemic rap – and see if you agree
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
They are obviously Frank Ocean stans. Blonde and Channel Orange is better than Voodoo? Where they do that at? Lol. And while I think Back to Black is a great album, and I love Amy, I don’t think it’s the best album of the 21st century. *shrug*

I like the choice of albums on the list, but I don’t agree with the placements.
 
brownsugah said:
They are obviously Frank Ocean stans. Blonde and Channel Orange is better than Voodoo? Where they do that at? Lol. And while I think Back to Black is a great album, and I love Amy, I don’t think it’s the best album of the 21st century. *shrug*

I like the choice of albums on the list, but I don’t agree with the placements.
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I get that. I don’t think it’s the album of the millennium so far either. I think it’s a special album and in the top 15 or so (which I suppose puts it in the discussion) but In Rainbows or Kid A would be the two for me.

What I will say is that their lead music writer makes a great case for it in his essay, I completely follow his logic and argument, even if I don’t agree with the conclusion.

Also it’s nice to read one of these from my perspective and it not be “Is This It?” at number 1 yet again...
 
ChristoBee said:
I think this is very much influenced by british culture, but hey it's The Guardian after.
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Completely! I think everything on there is british or American. To be fair to the guardian they are pretty much the only U.K. paper to regularly review world and folk music but this has clearly been done by their core rock/pop/rnb&hiphop reviewers.
 
I like the inclusion of John Grant - Queen of Denmark and am puzzled by the omission of Spoon. I think Girls Can Tell or Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga would have slotted nicely into the list...
 
Joe Mac said:
The Guardian did a list of these that was published today. While I don’t agree with all the choices/placings (does anyone ever really?) I think it’s a thoughtful and well considered list and great conversation starter. What do you all think?

www.theguardian.com

The 100 best albums of the 21st century

We polled 45 music writers to rank the definitive LPs of the 21st century so far. Read our countdown of passionate pop, electrifying rock and anthemic rap – and see if you agree
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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::Control F::
::Searches "Carly"::
::No Results Found::
::Closes Tab::
 
brownsugah said:
And while I think Back to Black is a great album, and I love Amy, I don’t think it’s the best album of the 21st century. *shrug*
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If Amy Winehouse was still alive there's no way that album is on the top of the list. It's fine but not an all-time great.
willcoll said:
I like the inclusion of John Grant - Queen of Denmark and am puzzled by the omission of Spoon. I think Girls Can Tell or Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga would have slotted nicely into the list...
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I'm not the first person to point this out (I think Steve Hyden probably is) but Spoon is a victim of their own consistency - every album they make (and, I'd argue, just about every track on every album) is so consistently good that it's almost hard to appreciate how great any one album/song is.
Colonel_Angus said:
::Control F::
::Searches "Carly"::
::No Results Found::
::Closes Tab::
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I did basically the same thing but with "Wilco". It's not even my favorite Wilco album, but I'm not sure how Yankee Hotel Foxtrot could get left off a list like this.

I'm fine with putting Is This It? at/near the top of the list given that it's certainly the most influential rock record of the century so far. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is also properly ranked here - I was kind of surprised that four Kanye albums made it though, you probably don't need both College Dropout and Late Registration.
 
Space Wanderer said:
If Amy Winehouse was still alive there's no way that album is on the top of the list. It's fine but not an all-time great.

I'm not the first person to point this out (I think Steve Hyden probably is) but Spoon is a victim of their own consistency - every album they make (and, I'd argue, just about every track on every album) is so consistently good that it's almost hard to appreciate how great any one album/song is.

I did basically the same thing but with "Wilco". It's not even my favorite Wilco album, but I'm not sure how Yankee Hotel Foxtrot could get left off a list like this.

I'm fine with putting Is This It? at/near the top of the list given that it's certainly the most influential rock record of the century so far. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is also properly ranked here - I was kind of surprised that four Kanye albums made it though, you probably don't need both College Dropout and Late Registration.
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Just as an aside, this is a list from an English paper. Wilco have a profile over here, but nowhere near as big as in the USA. Spoon have little or no profile. Similarly there will no doubt be UK artists on here that you might be wondering about given their much smaller US presence.

Disagree with you on Back to Black, while it would not be towards the top of my all time list its definitely hovering around the top 10 of the last 2 decades over here.
 
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What I like about this list: 2 PJ Harvey albums in the top 21; Amy being taken seriously; Sounds of Silver being in the top 10; and Relationship of Command getting its due respect (that album is just immense).

What I don't like: That the 2 PJ Harvey albums aren't higher; I'd swap Sounds of Silver and Its This It; and Rated R isn't in the top 100 at all.
 
Lots to like about the list in terms of a lot of the albums included.

Fair amount not to like as with any list. And Amy Winehouse as the best album of the millennium feels like it was chosen by a committee and there must have been a few holdouts on the other top 5-10, all of whom would have been more justifiable picks IMHO.
 
wmeugene said:
Lots to like about the list in terms of a lot of the albums included.

Fair amount not to like as with any list. And Amy Winehouse as the best album of the millennium feels like it was chosen by a committee and there must have been a few holdouts on the other top 5-10, all of whom would have been more justifiable picks IMHO.
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Well two things, with papers/magazines usually these lists are compiled by giving all of the music reviewing staff a vote and they’re compiled so, in essence they are always done by committee. And, to be fair, after reading the article by the head reviewer about Back to Black that accompanies the piece I don’t see it as a token or gesture choice, he has a genuine affection for this album that shines through.
 
I totally agree that Spoon should be on such a list. In addition, I wonder why the following artists that released one or several great albums this century are completely ignored by this list. I like the Guardian, but this looks like a sloppy compilation for the sake of having such a list published early in the year.

- Animal Collective
- Beach House
- Caribou
- Dirty Projectors
- Disclosure
- FKA Twigs
- Flying Lotus
- Four Tet
- Haim
- James Blake
- Kacey Musgraves
- Kelela
- King Krule
- Mitski
- Moses Sumney
- Nicolas Jaar
- Panda Bear
- Phoenix
- Rosalía
- Solange
- SZA
- Tame Impala
- Thundercat
- Vince Staples
- Young Thug
 
shinyteeth said:
I totally agree that Spoon should be on such a list. In addition, I wonder why the following artists that released one or several great albums this century are completely ignored by this list. I like the Guardian, but this looks like a sloppy compilation for the sake of having such a list published early in the year.

- Animal Collective
- Beach House
- Caribou
- Dirty Projectors
- Disclosure
- FKA Twigs
- Flying Lotus
- Four Tet
- Haim
- James Blake
- Kacey Musgraves
- Kelela
- King Krule
- Mitski
- Moses Sumney
- Nicolas Jaar
- Panda Bear
- Phoenix
- Rosalía
- Solange
- SZA
- Tame Impala
- Thundercat
- Vince Staples
- Young Thug
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But aren’t these things all subjective. I’d cross more than half of your list off to be honest and some of those have released albums I like.
 
So this list.

I don’t agree with it 100%. There are things missing that I’d have put on and things on that I’d have left out. I’d also have jigged certain things around.

What I do like about it though is that as someone who has lived in Britain, until 2007, and then Ireland, since, this list feels like a fair representation of this time and space in music through the sphere of rock/pop/rap/rnb. What I sometimes find is that reading lists in pitchfork and other American publications (or even sometimes for the more modern years our own year lists) is that the tilt towards American artists makes it often difficult to relate to. I don’t think that makes those list sloppy or devoid of merits. I think the same applies to this list.
 
Good discussion maker, isn’t it?

They’ve done the same with films and tv; yet to see one for books tho

I love that the guardian takes arts / entertainment seriously
 
Lots of good stuff on the list, lots of good stuff missing from the list, lots I don't agree with, some I do, but not at it's position............as @Joe Mac mentioned, these lists are so subjective. From the author and his background to the people reading the list. Fun discussion though ;)
 
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