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

break it down by country please @Jake!

:p

i never classify my music by 'genre' but i do love a country of origin...

currently just looking at top 20s from each decade to make a top 120, but the 50 as it stands look like...

The OrderNationalityYear
1​
American
1975​
2​
American
1977​
3​
American
1966​
4​
English
1966​
5​
American
1965​
6​
English
1968​
7​
American
1967​
8​
Canadian
1971​
9​
English
1973​
10​
English
1979​
11​
Canadian
1974​
12​
English
1972​
13​
English
1997​
14​
English
1998​
15​
Irish
1991​
16​
American
2015​
17​
English
1989​
18​
English
1980​
19​
American
1993​
20​
Canadian
1972​
21​
Canadian
1974​
22​
English
1973​
23​
Cosmopolitan
1977​
24​
Canadian
1969​
25​
English
1964​
26​
Canadian
1970​
27​
American
1988​
28​
English
1997​
29​
Oztrayan
2000​
30​
English
1972​
31​
English
1967​
32​
American
1967​
33​
English
1967​
34​
American
1967​
35​
American
1999​
36​
English
2000​
37​
English
1966​
38​
American
1970​
39​
English
1979​
40​
Canadian
2004​
41​
English
1975​
42​
American
2001​
43​
English
2007​
44​
English
2011​
45​
American
1991​
46​
American
1979​
47​
American
1972​
48​
American
1989​
49​
American
1982​
50​
American
1980​
 
Interesting spread, showing that I was both a teenager in the 90s and think that music peaked in the 70s.

1950s 2
1960s 8
1970s 18
1980s 2
1990s 13
2000s 4
2010s 3

Happy with the geographical spread, but pretty dismaying to see I only have three women :eek:

US 20 / UK-Ireland 15 / Africa 11 / Continental Europe 2 / Colombia 1 / Jamaica 1
 
I love the Midlake choice and never heard of Mission of Burma before but it sounds awesome!
I was in school in Denton while Midlake was coming up and finding their sound around town and saw a few pre-Trials shows live with them playing to a room of 50...I think Trials is flawless and love the revered/cult-status it's attained.

MoB have a crazy story...they literally broke up after their first album b/c they played too loud and the frontman developed tinnitus...I'd imagine their 22 years between studio releases has to be a record.
 
break it down by country please @Jake!

:p

i never classify my music by 'genre' but i do love a country of origin...

currently just looking at top 20s from each decade to make a top 120, but the 50 as it stands look like...

The OrderNationalityYear
1​
American
1975​
2​
American
1977​
3​
American
1966​
4​
English
1966​
5​
American
1965​
6​
English
1968​
7​
American
1967​
8​
Canadian
1971​
9​
English
1973​
10​
English
1979​
11​
Canadian
1974​
12​
English
1972​
13​
English
1997​
14​
English
1998​
15​
Irish
1991​
16​
American
2015​
17​
English
1989​
18​
English
1980​
19​
American
1993​
20​
Canadian
1972​
21​
Canadian
1974​
22​
English
1973​
23​
Cosmopolitan
1977​
24​
Canadian
1969​
25​
English
1964​
26​
Canadian
1970​
27​
American
1988​
28​
English
1997​
29​
Oztrayan
2000​
30​
English
1972​
31​
English
1967​
32​
American
1967​
33​
English
1967​
34​
American
1967​
35​
American
1999​
36​
English
2000​
37​
English
1966​
38​
American
1970​
39​
English
1979​
40​
Canadian
2004​
41​
English
1975​
42​
American
2001​
43​
English
2007​
44​
English
2011​
45​
American
1991​
46​
American
1979​
47​
American
1972​
48​
American
1989​
49​
American
1982​
50​
American
1980​

ohhh good idea!! I’ll definitely do this later this week
 
Interesting spread, showing that I was both a teenager in the 90s and think that music peaked in the 70s.

1950s 2
1960s 8
1970s 18
1980s 2
1990s 13
2000s 4
2010s 3

Happy with the geographical spread, but pretty dismaying to see I only have three women :eek:

US 20 / UK-Ireland 15 / Africa 11 / Continental Europe 2 / Colombia 1 / Jamaica 1

I'm with you on feeling "out of time," I definitely rank 70s/80s highly despite being a teenager in the 90s/early 00s.

As for women, it depends on how we're counting groups that feature women even if they're not the primary vocalist (e.g. Talking Heads, Belle & Sebastian, etc.). Sixteen out of my provisional top 50 albums feature women vocalists or musicians.

As for nationality, UK artists comprise exactly half of y provisional list (25), including 7-8 out of my top 10. The other half is mostly U.S. (18, though I'm counting Talking Heads and Garbage as American bands despite their singers' nationality), a few Canadians (Neil Young, Rush, Grimes, and Alvvays), and then U2 and Bjork.

Sadly despite my background Brazilian artists did not get even a sniff. I never gave Brazilian music a chance when I was growing up, and it shows (there are maaaybe 2-3 Brazilian albums that would crack my top 100).
 
Man, the mental gymnastics required to compare long-time rotation staples against albums that were foundational to my taste as a youth against more recent obsessions are difficult.

Yes, that's been the most brutal part. This is where I've landed: no matter how foundational the album was to me, I still need to be able to at least enjoy listening to it now for it to make my list. There have been some serious casualties among my past favorites as a result.
 
Yes, that's been the most brutal part. This is where I've landed: no matter how foundational the album was to me, I still need to be able to at least enjoy listening to it now for it to make my list. There have been some serious casualties among my past favorites as a result.
Yeah, definitely. I have a handful of records on my list right now in the 50s-70s range that are kind of knocking on the door of making it. I'll definitely be taking a lot of the next two months to relisten to all of these a good number of times.
 
Yes, that's been the most brutal part. This is where I've landed: no matter how foundational the album was to me, I still need to be able to at least enjoy listening to it now for it to make my list. There have been some serious casualties among my past favorites as a result.

I don't expect it to make it onto THIS list....but I can see at least one 2020 release making the list if this were compiled say 5 yrs. from now.

I'm struggling culling it down from 75ish right now and I know I'm going to have a bunch that will be unique to my list alone.
So what shakes out once all the info is complied is going to be compelling.
 
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Yes, that's been the most brutal part. This is where I've landed: no matter how foundational the album was to me, I still need to be able to at least enjoy listening to it now for it to make my list. There have been some serious casualties among my past favorites as a result.
Do you have “foundational” albums that you can’t listen to now?

Even with ever evolving and the expanding tastes, I can’t think of any artist or album that really resonated with me 20-30 years ago that I straight up can’t listen to and enjoy now...maybe nostalgia playing a bigger role than full musical appreciation on some, but I think I can still listen and enjoy everything of significance from my past
 
Do you have “foundational” albums that you can’t listen to now?

Even with ever evolving and the expanding tastes, I can’t think of any artist or album that really resonated with me 20-30 years ago that I straight up can’t listen to and enjoy now...maybe nostalgia playing a bigger role than full musical appreciation on some, but I think I can still listen and enjoy everything of significance from my past

Yeah, I have a few. I previously mentioned NIN - Pretty Hate Machine as an album that really opened up my music taste (I did not tolerate anything remotely electronic before then), but I struggle to enjoy it now because of the lyrics (lets just say they resonated with me when I was 17 and there are tough memories attached to that time of my life).

Another one is GNR - Appetite for Destruction. That was hands down my favorite album throughout high school, but is full of cringeworthy lyrics now that I’m a 36yo dad. Basically there are fewer opportunities for me to enjoy, and I listened to it so much when I was younger that it’s not something I feel like listening to even (especially) when I’m by myself.

In fact, albums that were closely associated with social experiences (e.g. Ween - White Pepper) have fallen down or off my list now that I’ve grown older and lonelier as married dads tend to.

There are also more recent albums that I burned out on. I spent most of the 2010s assuming Beach House - Teen Dream was my favorite album of the decade but that was based on the two or three years that I was obsessed with it. Now that I’m revisiting it I don’t find it all that much fun, but I realize that their overlooked Thank Your Lucky Stars is now one of my favorite records. So in a way the albums that I was obsessed with are actually losing their spots to the “growers.”
 
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