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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3071 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 10, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Addendum concerning the scope of this list:

This list is limited to rock albums. The greatest album of all time is Miles Ahead by Miles Davis, but that won't be appearing on here. Neither will any other jazz, country, bluegrass, blues, new age, world music, gospel, polka, traditional pop, or classical, to the extent that classical even has albums. That being said, the definition of rock I'm using is expansive, and covers most of what could be considered pop music that's been released since the early 1960s. To elaborate, R&B is included because the early histories of rock and R&B are so intertwined that it's impossible to separate them. This accordingly goes the same for any genre that primarily grew out of rock or R&B, so things like rap and electronica are included as well. The exceptions to this general rule are for reggae and Afrobeat. Reggae grew out of traditional Jamaican music, and while the heavy influence from rock and R&B makes me lean towards including it, what really does it is the fact that reggae outside of Jamaica was primarily directed at rock and R&B audiences and not at cult weirdos who like traditional Jamaican music. Bob Marley has become as much a part of the fabric of rock music as anyone. Afrobeat, while less well known and while having more of a jazz influence, follows a similar pattern; Western audiences primarily became acquainted with it through former Cream drummer Ginger Baker's work with Fela Kuti and Africa '70.

Additionally, this list is limited to regular studio albums and regular live albums. The Rolling Stone greatest albums lists include compilations and greatest hits albums on the basis that:

a well-made compilation can be just as coherent and significant as an LP, because compilations helped shaped music history, and because many hugely important artists recorded their best work before the album had arrived as a prominent format.

To that last point, some bands were singles bands, and that's okay. But prior to the album revolution, most artists were focusing on singles while albums were tossed-off afterthoughts replete with filler. The strength of these compilations is more a testament to the artist's strength recording singles and the compiler's ability to select and sequence tracks rather than the artist's ability to record albums. I'm not trying to represent every artist I like or think is important but to discuss the greatest albums of all time. Furthermore, if I were to admit compilations things get a bit dicey. Most major artists have had several compilations released over the years, and by this point a lot of them have had either their entire output or representative samples of it released in great big boxed sets with informative booklets and all kinds of other goodies. What's better, a good single album, or a box that has all of them? It would be a little too convenient to say the box, but at that point you're just ranking artists and not albums. Finally, this also does not include archive material, whether it consist of previously unreleased studio outtakes or live shows. While some of this is undeniably great, it's not really in the spirit of the album. This also doesn't include "live series" releases of entire shows that are commonly released from groups like Pearl Jam, Phish, and the Grateful Dead. The purpose of these releases is to include an entire concert, not to make a coherent album. While many are great and some have gotten get five stars, they aren't really in the spirit of the thing. There are also a ton of them, and including them would suggest that I've heard a representative sample. Luckily, the best material from these is included on regular live albums, by which I mean live albums that were part of a normal release schedule and include relatively recent performances. And of course, we won't mention bootlegs.

Does Iron Maiden make it in somewhere, and if not: wrong category or insufficient quality?

They do not. But the reason is more anodyne than either of your suggestions—I just haven't listened to any of their albums yet. I do like them though. Everything comes from a spreadsheet I finally compiled of listening lists that I've had in various forms since at least 2009 and Iron Maiden just never made it on there for some reason. Same with Judas Priest and Motorhead. I should probably get around to that soon, though, because it's a pretty big omission.

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