AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

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prosecutorgodot
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by prosecutorgodot »

StevieFan13 wrote:It's fun watching albums far surpass their AM ranks. Look at ABBA proudly seated in the top 500!
Boo-yah! I tend to shy away from Pitchfork's pretentiousness, but this time I think the pretentiousness is warranted. :music-listening:

The title track "Arrival" should be music's national anthem. Here are some people actually doing as such.
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Rob
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Rob »

prosecutorgodot wrote:
StevieFan13 wrote:It's fun watching albums far surpass their AM ranks. Look at ABBA proudly seated in the top 500!
Boo-yah! I tend to shy away from Pitchfork's pretentiousness, but this time I think the pretentiousness is warranted.
You liked that quote? Don't get me wrong, the quote picks here a generally great to amazing, but this description of ABBA as a great tragic music band is as forced as they come. It makes a lot of grand comparisons that actually give a completely wrong impression of what music and especially what kind of tone you are going to get.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by StevieFan13 »

Rob wrote:
prosecutorgodot wrote:
StevieFan13 wrote:It's fun watching albums far surpass their AM ranks. Look at ABBA proudly seated in the top 500!
Boo-yah! I tend to shy away from Pitchfork's pretentiousness, but this time I think the pretentiousness is warranted.
You liked that quote? Don't get me wrong, the quote picks here a generally great to amazing, but this description of ABBA as a great tragic music band is as forced as they come. It makes a lot of grand comparisons that actually give a completely wrong impression of what music and especially what kind of tone you are going to get.
I think that's just Pitchfork's stock-in-trade. Always gotta have a higher purpose. They said Lordi were Christian metal.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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prosecutorgodot
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by prosecutorgodot »

Rob wrote:
prosecutorgodot wrote: Boo-yah! I tend to shy away from Pitchfork's pretentiousness, but this time I think the pretentiousness is warranted.
You liked that quote? Don't get me wrong, the quote picks here a generally great to amazing, but this description of ABBA as a great tragic music band is as forced as they come. It makes a lot of grand comparisons that actually give a completely wrong impression of what music and especially what kind of tone you are going to get.
Yeah, in general I liked it. Because when you really dive deep into what makes ABBA the greatest pop act ever :whistle: , it's because there's an underlying sadness to their music. There's still pretention (it's Pitchfork, come on), but it mostly rings true to my ears.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Jackson »

I hate to be this guy, but...I voted for Double Nickels on the Dime at #60 but I don't see myself on top fans.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

Jackson wrote:I hate to be this guy, but...I voted for Double Nickels on the Dime at #60 but I don't see myself on top fans.
Don't worry, your vote was accounted for in the results. It was simply a presentation error.
Splish splash, I was raking in the cash
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

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#440. Slowdive | Souvlaki (1993)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 482.431
Rank in 2014: #643
AM 3000 Rank: #2065
Top Fans: DepecheMode (#3), Dudumb (#46), Jackson (#50), Gillingham (#84)
Souvlaki is one of the warmest records you could put on. It bubbles and it swirls like the mantle under the crust. Every note, dynamic, and aspect of this release is drenched in some of the most loving care that I've ever been able to discern out of a release, as if these songs were conceived rather than written, and born instead of produced. The songs of Slowdive manage to be gentle without naivety, like children whose upbringing without a formal parent actually led to beneficial core development over rebellion and misguidance. Do not be surprised if you feel you've stumbled upon the epitome of the shoegaze movement within only seconds of opener "Alison", because your first instinct is going to be corroborated as the music continues. Nearly every line resonates profoundly without the basic necessity of context, and the delivery matches the alarming delicacy that each piece's framework surprisingly supports. Like a Vauban fortress, Souvlaki has its bases covered.--Vito_James, RYM

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#439. Erykah Badu | Baduizm (1997)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 484.287
Rank in 2014: #600
AM 3000 Rank: #619
Top Fans: Toni (#40), Slucs (#41), Antonius (#75), Bootsy (#90)
It’s widely accepted that black women are strong, but seldom, if ever, do black women get to be free. In 1997 with her debut album Baduizm, Erykah Badu courageously taught sistahs how to move in a world sans the oftentimes unrealistic responsibility that comes with being black and woman. Erykah also did this with a sweet yet potent voice from yesteryear. Sounding like a direct heir to Billie Holiday, Ms. Badu, a child of blues, jazz and hip-hop married her influences with a type of sittin-on-the-front-porch-with-yo-granny kind of wisdom to create the genre defining Baduizm, and thus solidifying our everlasting adoration for this analog girl in a digital world.--Shenequa Golding, Vibe

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#438. Kanye West | 808's and Heartbreak (2008)
# of Voters: 9 | Score: 484.793
Rank in 2014: #769
AM 3000 Rank: #1175
Top Fans: PlasticRam (#1), SweepstakesRon (#16), Slick (#47), ProsecutorGodot (#72), NotBrianEno (#97)
More than anything, 808s feels like we stumbled across something we weren’t supposed to hear. Kanye is like the guy who complicates things by writing his estranged lover a guilt-inducing letter when he should have just walked away…except that guilt-inducing letter is about to be read to millions of people around the world. 808s has more than its share of awkward moments – both musically and lyrically – but the great artists are the ones who are not afraid of taking chances, and Kanye West is the greatest artist today’s pop scene has.--Alex Young, Consequence of Sound

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#437. Black Sabbath | Vol. 4 (1972)
# of Voters: 9 | Score: 488.729
Rank in 2014: #468
AM 3000 Rank: #960
Top Fans: Dudumb (#25), Babydoll (#53), Brad (#71), PlasticRam (#74), Jackson (#83),
Vol. 4 is the point in Black Sabbath's career where the band's legendary drug consumption really starts to make itself felt. And it isn't just in the lyrics, most of which are about the blurry line between reality and illusion. Vol. 4 has all the messiness of a heavy metal Exile on Main St., and if it lacks that album's overall diversity, it does find Sabbath at their most musically varied, pushing to experiment amidst the drug-addled murk. --Steve Huey, Allmusic

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#436. The Kinks | Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 488.855
Rank in 2014: #456
AM 3000 Rank: #822
Top Fans: Jackson (#16), Zombeels (#21), SJner (#34), EmilienDelRey (#93)
The music makes the words cut deeper, and the songs never stray too far from the album's subject, making Arthur one of the most effective concept albums in rock history, as well as one of the best and most influential British pop records of its era. --Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic

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#435. Janis Joplin | Pearl (1971)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 488.970
Rank in 2014: #359
AM 3000 Rank: #179
Top Fans: Babydoll (#41), Chambord (#55)
Janis Joplin's second masterpiece (after Cheap Thrills), Pearl was designed as a showcase for her powerhouse vocals, stripping down the arrangements that had often previously cluttered her music or threatened to drown her out. Thanks also to a more consistent set of songs, the results are magnificent -- given room to breathe, Joplin's trademark rasp conveys an aching, desperate passion on funked-up, bluesy rockers, ballads both dramatic and tender, and her signature song, the posthumous number one hit "Me and Bobby McGee." The unfinished "Buried Alive in the Blues" features no Joplin vocals -- she was scheduled to record them on the day after she was found dead. Its incompleteness mirrors Joplin's career: Pearl's power leaves the listener to wonder what else Joplin could have accomplished, but few artists could ask for a better final statement. --Steve Huey, Allmusic

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#434. Cream | Disraeli Gears (1967)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 493.420
Rank in 2014: #493
AM 3000 Rank: #180
Top Fans: Red Ant (#64)
Weaving aspects of Delta blues, English blues, jazz, and psychedelic rock together into a cohesive album, Cream proved that music need not be formulaic in order to resonate with power. What makes the album even more remarkable is the liner notes’ mention that it was recorded in six days. Less than a week to produce a recording of this quality? Simply amazing, and a testament to the level of musicianship possessed by the band, as well as the abilities of studio wizard Felix Pappalardi. --Adam Williams, Popmatters

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#433. Julia Holter | Have You in My Wilderness (2015)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 493.663
Rank in 2014: N/A
AM 3000 Rank: #475
Top Fans: Acroamor (#88), DaveC (#92),
This album sounds like meditative introspection, it sounds like finding a patch of grass out under the sun and laying there gazing into the blue as the sun crawls toward the horizon and that blue gets darker and darker and darker and, finally, black. It sounds like longing for a place, literally or metaphorically speaking, that you may or may not have ever even been to. It sounds like lucid dreaming. Julia Holter uses her fantastically orchestrated arrangements and strong, strong vocals to create a visionary serenade that will take you somewhere else and will make you feel something, and I guess what exactly that place is and what that feeling is will vary based on who you are. --Entenduintransit, RYM

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#432. Janis Joplin / Big Brother and the Holding Company | Cheap Thrills (1968)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 493.708
Rank in 2014: #463
AM 3000 Rank: #234
Top Fans: Babydoll (#5), Romain (#20), Profeta (#98)
Joplin, with her ear- (and vocal cord-) shredding voice, was the obvious standout. Nobody had ever heard singing as emotional, as desperate, as determined, or as loud as Joplin's, and Cheap Thrills was her greatest moment. Not that everything was done full out -- there were relatively quiet moments on the album that were as compelling as the high-wattage showcases; her rendition of George Gershwin's "Summertime" was the finest rock reinterpretation of a standard done by anybody up to that time --William Ruhlmann, Allmusic

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#431. Sonic Youth| Goo (1990)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 494.120
Rank in 2014: #485
AM 3000 Rank: #413
Top Fans: Spiritualized (#35), Spiderpig (#35), LiveinPhoenix (#35), Dudumb (#58)
The aesthetic of Goo departs so drastically from the others through only one notable regard: it's about grabbing your keys, braving the haze of water droplets deflected by your awning, and driving into the white mist without a single idea of direction or coordination. Where all three records make up that stormy vibe, this one takes action instead of idly mesmerizing itself to its whims...Albums like Goo are incredible reminders of what's attainable to anybody and everybody with a pulse: that pure, unadulterated expression of self, devoid of any detectable fears or paranoia about the world that encompasses. I could be overly sentimental in this assessment of noisy music (I know a great deal of people who would laugh off such a fond account of feedback-drenched rock music), but the music speaks for itself. --Vito_James, RYM
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Jirin »

Hmm, if Baduizm is that high, is it worth hoping the New Amerykah albums (Which I consider superior) are higher? Or have they already showed up and I missed it?
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

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#430. Boredoms| Vision Creation Newsun (1999)
# of Voters: 9 | Score: 494.533
Rank in 2014: #512
AM 3000 Rank: #2106
Top Fans: SonofSamIAm (#17), BangJan (#33), Panam (#60), BleuPanda (#91)
This album, moreso than the doomsday-predicting Kid A or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, represents the upwards progression of society on the cusp of the 21st century: looking forward towards what's next and reminds us that, no matter how shitty things seem to have been since the year 2000, the world is still moving towards a better place of peace, unity and rock and roll! It's because of this that the Boredoms are not just a monumental "Japanese band"; they are the greatest band of our generation. Hell yeah. --dfmoss RYM

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#429. Death Grips| The Money Store (2012)
# of Voters: 9 | Score: 495.937
Rank in 2014: #1457
AM 3000 Rank: #1035
Top Fans: Jeff (#30), ProsecutorGodot (#32), NotBrianEno (#43), OrdinaryPerson (#3)
The Money Store is glitchy, in your face, and not at all subtle, peppered with the sorts of characters you wish were not real, but who probably surround you. There are songs about drug abuse, murder, thievery, BDSM, suicide, underground fighting arenas and utter depravity, which are further complimented by tight ass drums and some of the best production I have ever heard on any album. Like the front cover depicts, this is a question of dominance. The answer is, of course, that Death Grips pummels the listener into submission. I, for one, don't want them to stop.--KingQueenKnave, RYM

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#428. Bob Dylan| John Wesley Harding (1967)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 496.063
Rank in 2014: #393
AM 3000 Rank: #493
Top Fans: Babydoll (#49), Gillingham (#61), SJner (#92)
Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding is an album of half-spoken secrets, hushed whispers, illegible writings, and missing pages. It is grainy black and white. It has the feel of antiquity settled on it like decades upon decades of quietly accumulating dust. It is beautifully anachronistic and elusive. It is hard, gritty, seemingly impenetrable. It is blindingly complex; addictively rewarding. All this is to say that it is classic Bob Dylan.--Nicholas Taylor, Popmatters

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#427. Joanna Newsom| Have One On Me (2010)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 496.177
Rank in 2014: #343
AM 3000 Rank: #849
Top Fans: NotBrianEno (#2), Maschine_Man (#13), JWinton (#35), DaveC (#47)
For a two hour length, Have One On Me is relentlessly focused, from its small credit listing to its meticulous composition. This is a project best left for the most active and thoughtful of listeners, as it is woven with intensive care comparable to that of the spider referred to and marveled at in the title track. It is fragile yet forceful, pleasant yet unforgiving, and beautiful yet crushing, as is so in the wonderful, cold world of nature.--HotOpinions, RYM

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#426. Little Richard| Here's Little Richard (1957)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 498.881
Rank in 2014: #383
AM 3000 Rank: #362
Top Fans: Felipinho (#5), Nico (#33), Bruno (#41)
what set Richard apart was his willingness to ramp up the tempos and turn the outrage meter up to ten; "Tutti Frutti," "Rip It Up," and "Jenny Jenny" still sound outrageous a half-century after they were waxed, and it's difficult but intriguing to imagine how people must have reacted to Little Richard at a time when African-American performers were expected to be polite, and the notion of a gay man venturing out of the closet simply didn't exist (Richard's songs were thoroughly heterosexual on the surface, but the nudge and wink of "Tutti Frutti" and "Baby" is faint but visible, and his bop threads, mile-high process, and eye makeup clearly categorized him as someone "different"). These 12 tunes may not represent the alpha and omega of Little Richard's best music, but every song is a classic and unlike many of his peers, time has refused to render this first album quaint -- Richard's grainy scream remains one of the great sounds in rock & roll history, and the thunder of his piano and the frantic wail of the band is still the glorious call of a Friday night with pay in the pocket and trouble in mind.--Mark Deming, Allmusic

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#425. Madonna| Ray of Light (1998)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 499.515
Rank in 2014: #492
AM 3000 Rank: #527
Top Fans: Moonbeam (#9), Maschine_Man (#39), Babydoll (#83), Bootsy (#99)
Embracing those underground scenes and co-opting for her own means is the one thing Madonna has always been brilliant at, and Ray of Light is no different - in the hands of William Orbit, Marius de Vries (who had previously worked with Bjork and Massive Attack), this album takes in trip-hop, ambient techno, house, even some slight shades of trance, and spins them into a web for Madonna to lay down some pop songs over. This is what pop has always done, and this is a prime, perfect example. It will infuriate purists, just as it has done since time immemorial, but for every person angered there will be another two or three who are turned onto the music this lifts from; such is the push and pull between the mainstream and the underground. --Iai, RYM

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#424. Steely Dan| Can't Buy a Thrill (1972)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 500.737
Rank in 2014: #525
AM 3000 Rank: #520
Top Fans: Henry (#18), Red Ant (#77)
So fully-formed is Can’t Buy a Thrill that you would scarcely believe that it’s their debut. Fagen’s acerbic, nasal croon is not the only vocal here – David Palmer’s dulcet tenor can be heard for the first and last time on a Steely Dan album, taking the lead on Dirty Work and the exquisite Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me). Drummer Jim Hodder and Fagen duet on Midnight Cruiser – the very definition of bittersweet – but elsewhere Fagen dominates, and so the Steely Dan model is in place: tightly constructed songs with dazzling hooks, clever, cryptic lyrics, and vocals that offer teasing critiques for those that want them. --Paul Lester, BBC

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#423. Brian Eno| Before and After Science (1977)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 500.855
Rank in 2014: #361
AM 3000 Rank: #600
Top Fans: SonofSamIAm (#94), Toni (#100)
Eno's fantasies about tiny impressions of stillness make me think of Monet; someone else would read the lyric in 'By This River' about "impressions from another time" as proof this was deliberate but I don't care. What I love about this music and Monet's art is the richness that comes from deceptive simplicity, so much beauty being extracted from the tiniest sounds or images. This close focus on such small things is what makes Eno's music so brilliant. With him, a single note or synth pad creates hues of colour that most people could not generate with whole symphonies. As Before and After Science transforms into faded impressions, it strips the superfluous elements of rock music away to create a sound that is pure, beautiful and timeless. --Buttgammon, RYM

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#422. Cocteau Twins| Treasure (1984)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 501.036
Rank in 2014: #451
AM 3000 Rank: #651
Top Fans: JohnnyBGoode (#33), BangJan (#85), LuvulongTIM (#87), Acroamor (#99),
Not a word may be understandable, but it isn't necessary, while the music, driven on by a pounding rhythm, is as perfect a justification of digital delay pedals and the like as can be found. As Treasure continues, the accomplished variety is what stands out the most, whether it be the gentle, futuristic-medieval pluckings on "Beatrix," the understated moody washes and Fraser whispers on "Otterley," the upbeat guitar lines of "Aloysius," or the slightly jazzy touches on "Pandora." The concluding number ends the record on the peak with which it began. --Ned Raggett, Allmusic

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#421. Father John Misty | I Love You, Honeybear (2015)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 503.771
Rank in 2014: N/A
AM 3000 Rank: #382
Top Fans: JWinton (#50), Andyd1010 (#60), Maschine_man (#82)
Honeybear is conflicted music that leaves me with conflicted feelings. Tillman is funny, but his humor is driven by meanness and self-loathing; he’s sweet, but he can’t manage to say anything nice without smothering it in jokes, like a dog compulsively trying to cover up its own shit. He opens the album by forecasting the apocalypse but most of the time comes off as the kind of mystic who gives up and embraces the debauchery, the patrician in some yoga sex ring, a bimbo Nero who fiddles while Los Angeles burns and occasionally gets sidetracked gloating about how hot his wife is. Yes, he gets high, but he never really leaves the dirty, dirty ground.-Mike Powell, Pitchfork
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Harold »

Jirin wrote:Hmm, if Baduizm is that high, is it worth hoping the New Amerykah albums (Which I consider superior) are higher? Or have they already showed up and I missed it?
Highly doubtful. If you do a forum search for "Amerykah" it looks like Part One only showed up on a couple of lists.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by bootsy »

Jirin wrote:Hmm, if Baduizm is that high, is it worth hoping the New Amerykah albums (Which I consider superior) are higher? Or have they already showed up and I missed it?
I hope not because New Amerykah isn't superior. It's a good album but doesn't touch Baduizm.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

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#420. Genesis | The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 504.410
Rank in 2014: #592
AM 3000 Rank: #458
Top Fans: Profeta (#54), BangJan (#57), LiveinPhoenix (#95)
All this is essential to the experience; The Lamb is the rarest of concept albums, where the story really is inseparable from the music. For once, Gabriel plays a relatively normal character the whole way through, reacting to the increasingly crazy things happening around him in a way similar to how you or I would. There is continuity from song to song - sure, songs like 'The Carpet Crawlers' or 'it' may sound great on their own (the former has a claim as the greatest pop song the band ever did), but it's a story that's meant to be followed. This causes the music to become somewhat obscured; you may not notice how many killer basslines Rutherford gets until you actually start listening for them, nor the pure technical skill of Phil Collins, whose playing was starting to hit its peak.--Nick Reed, The Quietus

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#419. The Shins | Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 508.287
Rank in 2014: #305
AM 3000 Rank: #412
Top Fans: Chambord (#51), Toni (#84)
The attention to detail on Chutes Too Narrow is truly impressive, but the way that these details combine to form music so effortless and emotionally rich is astounding. Chutes Too Narrow is host to enough perfect moments to carry ten records, each one arising spontaneously from the multifaceted frame of a masterfully constructed song. The album may alienate some listeners by eschewing the instant and consistent gratification of Oh! Inverted World for more involved, developed songs, but the clarity and intricacy of these songs renders the record a much more rewarding listen. Not simply an excellent album, Chutes Too Narrow is also a powerful testament to pop music's capacity for depth, beauty and expressiveness.--Matt LeMay, Pitchfork

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#418. The Beach Boys | Surf's Up (1971)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 509.815
Rank in 2014: #381
AM 3000 Rank: #652
Top Fans: Miguel (#1)
Surf’s Up treats us to a final glimpse of an embattled group who helped create the 1960s. With its members all going in opposite directions, it’s the sound of a band falling apart at the seams. If some tracks are forgettable, the moments where a Wilson brother’s is on lead, fleshed out by Beach Boys harmonies, are truly angelic. For one final time, Brian’s wish for the group to make innovative ‘pocket symphonies’ was fulfilled--Michael Furman, TinyMixTapes

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#417. Ramones | Rocket to Russia (1977)
# of Voters: 17 | Score: 510.511
Rank in 2014: #365
AM 3000 Rank: #367
Top Fans: Honorio (#82)
They got the punk attitude and they sounded punk, but what's most endearing about Ramones is how pop their music was at its core. On Rocket to Russia the group sounds like exactly what a Motown girl group would sound like filtered through the scuzzy minds of suburban white men that wish they could play their instruments but can't, not really. It's an endearing mix of styles, as they write these incredibly addicting pop songs that really don't have much to them other than great influences and the knowledge that few people could do what they were doing at the time.--Nodima, RYM

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#416. Daft Punk | Homework (1997)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 511.360
Rank in 2014: #302
AM 3000 Rank: #164
Top Fans: Schaefer.tk (#4), PlasticRam (#30), BleuPanda (#38), Ordinary Person (#72)
Daft Punk's full-length debut is a funk-house hailstorm, giving real form to a style of straight-ahead dance music not attempted since the early fusion days of on-the-one funk and dance-party disco. Thick, rumbling bass, vocoders, choppy breaks and beats, and a certain brash naiveté permeate the record from start to finish, giving it the edge of an almost certain classic--Sean Cooper, Allmusic

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#415. Tricky | Maxinquaye (1995)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 511.668
Rank in 2014: #268
AM 3000 Rank: #168
Top Fans: Spiritualized (#50), Jackson (#65)
With his first solo album, Tricky has already earned himself a place in the pantheon of Afro-alien shaman alongside Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Exuma and George Clinton. And like the spells of any self-respecting trickster deity, no one has yet to crack and decipher Maxinquaye's mysterious secrets, let alone Tricky himself. Which is why it still continues to unfold its erotic, frightening spell to new listeners, and remains the best album of the 90s.--Fastnbulbous, RYM

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#414. Swans | To Be Kind (2014)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 513.103
Rank in 2014: #575
AM 3000 Rank: #564
Top Fans: JasonBob4567 (#25), ProsecutorGodot (#51), Whuntva (#59), NotBrianEno (#67), Jackson (#84)
Built on callous-forming repetition, the band’s music is the aural equivalent to the hunt; circular melodies and rhythms search high and low, and when they find their target, envelop it in screeching death. To Be Kind, the latest release from the re-kindled Swans project is, like its incredible predecessor, 2012′s The Seer, a two-hour long odyssey. Unbelievably, it is heavier, harsher and even darker than its spiritual twin, but in terms of quality is very much its equal.--Acidballroom, RYM

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#413. John Coltrane | My Favorite Things (1961)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 513.817
Rank in 2014: #529
AM 3000 Rank: #718
Top Fans: JasonBob4567 (#17), Nicholas (#32), EmilienDelRey (#73)
Generally speaking, covers albums are recorded by artists who are either past their prime or in a creative lull. For the most part, they’re the work of a desperate band who just wants to “get back to the roots,” find inspiration again through the songs that inspired them in the first place, take a breather, and soldier on with their own material later, when they’re better prepared. I say “for the most part,” “generally speaking” and all that other insignificant claptrap because nothing could be further from the truth about My Favorite Things. This is Coltrane at his creative apex, reworking three jazz standards and one song he turned into a jazz standard, molding them into his style. Don’t be fooled by the lack of original material. There’s a lot of originality here.--finulanu, RYM

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#412. Built to Spill | Perfect From Now On (1997)
# of Voters: 9 | Score: 515.603
Rank in 2014: #368
AM 3000 Rank: #1123
Top Fans: Nassim (#1), Zombeels (#12), Chambord (#47), Brad (#62), Jackson (#98)
Perfect from Now On manages the amazing trick of being the band's best album to this point, Martsch and company using the opportunities for larger budgets and distribution to create an album at once inspiring and quietly emotional, not the easiest combination to pull off. With drummer Scott Plouf and bassist Brett Nelson as the other core performers, plus second guitarist Brett Netson and cellist John McMahon as key guests, the result is astounding all around. The length of the songs allows the band to create uniquely post-everything mantras, blending psych trances and drones, post-punk airiness and flow, and Martsch's affecting, tender singing and lyrics into a whole. Martsch's high tones and the guitar passion here helped fuel further comparisons to Neil Young -- to pick out one moment, consider the closing minutes of "I Would Hurt a Fly," feedback peeling out over the rhythm and strings -- but the Boise musician is his own man through and through.--Ned Raggett, Allmusic

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#411. Muse | Absolution (2003)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 517.737
Rank in 2014: #621
AM 3000 Rank: #1716
Top Fans: DaveC (#23), Andyd1010 (#37), Chambord (#72), BonnieLaurel (#88), Whuntva (#88), Spiritualized (#89)
There’s been no record released yet this century with stakes so high. Musically, it could have been a disaster. But one man’s prog is another man’s progress, and every guitar here sounds like it’s from the future, every flourish and movement scored and orchestrated with the celestial vision. By indulging every pomp rock wet dream he’s ever had, Matt’s found that there’s no such thing as too much distortion, and that, when you care this much, chartbusting tunes really do fall from the sky.
--NME
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by bootsy »

notbrianeno wrote: Image

#416. Daft Punk | Homework (1997)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 511.360
Rank in 2014: #302
AM 3000 Rank: #164
Top Fans: Schaefer.tk (#4), PlasticRam (#30), BleuPanda (#38), Ordinary Person (#72)
Daft Punk's full-length debut is a funk-house hailstorm, giving real form to a style of straight-ahead dance music not attempted since the early fusion days of on-the-one funk and dance-party disco. Thick, rumbling bass, vocoders, choppy breaks and beats, and a certain brash naiveté permeate the record from start to finish, giving it the edge of an almost certain classic--Sean Cooper, Allmusic
Sort of similar to Baduizm/New Amerykah preference with Jirin, I prefer Homework to Discovery. I know AM does but interesting that pollsters don't agree with AM on this one.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by BleuPanda »

bootsy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote: Image

#416. Daft Punk | Homework (1997)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 511.360
Rank in 2014: #302
AM 3000 Rank: #164
Top Fans: Schaefer.tk (#4), PlasticRam (#30), BleuPanda (#38), Ordinary Person (#72)
Daft Punk's full-length debut is a funk-house hailstorm, giving real form to a style of straight-ahead dance music not attempted since the early fusion days of on-the-one funk and dance-party disco. Thick, rumbling bass, vocoders, choppy breaks and beats, and a certain brash naiveté permeate the record from start to finish, giving it the edge of an almost certain classic--Sean Cooper, Allmusic
Sort of similar to Baduizm/New Amerykah preference with Jirin, I prefer Homework to Discovery. I know AM does but interesting that pollsters don't agree with AM on this one.
I think a trend I've noticed here is that electronic does better when it's more like rock or pop, than, well, electronic. So Discovery is the big Daft Punk album here for wearing its 80s pop-rock influence on its sleeve. Homework is much harder electronic, and more straightforward electronic just doesn't have as much of a fanbase here. I was hoping that would change over time, but one of the most essential electronic albums falling over 100 places suggests the opposite is happening...
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by bootsy »

BleuPanda wrote:
bootsy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote: Image

#416. Daft Punk | Homework (1997)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 511.360
Rank in 2014: #302
AM 3000 Rank: #164
Top Fans: Schaefer.tk (#4), PlasticRam (#30), BleuPanda (#38), Ordinary Person (#72)



Sort of similar to Baduizm/New Amerykah preference with Jirin, I prefer Homework to Discovery. I know AM does but interesting that pollsters don't agree with AM on this one.
I think a trend I've noticed here is that electronic does better when it's more like rock or pop, than, well, electronic. So Discovery is the big Daft Punk album here for wearing its 80s pop-rock influence on its sleeve. Homework is much harder electronic, and more straightforward electronic just doesn't have as much of a fanbase here. I was hoping that would change over time, but one of the most essential electronic albums falling over 100 places suggests the opposite is happening...
Yeah I understand. I've found that most people prefer Discovery over Homework . I guess i shouldn't make too big of a deal about this because I've only got Homework 7 spots higher in my rankings lol but I've always like Homework better.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Jirin »

bootsy wrote:
Jirin wrote:Hmm, if Baduizm is that high, is it worth hoping the New Amerykah albums (Which I consider superior) are higher? Or have they already showed up and I missed it?
I hope not because New Amerykah isn't superior. It's a good album but doesn't touch Baduizm.
I like Baduizm, but IMO, New Amerykah is a lot more consistent and has a lot more powerful of a message and theme.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

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#410. New Order | Technique (1989)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 518.623
Rank in 2014: #487
AM 3000 Rank: #353
Top Fans: Slick (#17), GucciLittlePiggy (#81), Listyguy (#89), Spiritualized (#98)
No, despite their origins as one of the glummest bands in history, New Order head out into the Ibiza sun with Technique. The sound is busy and dancefloor ready and despite retaining the harsh architectural sound dynamics of their prior releases, any sense of the maudlin has been dispensed with entirely. Shiny guitars battle for supremacy over the endlessly burbling synthesizer parts over arenas of busy electronic drum fills. While certainly their first couple albums found them as unlikely inductees into the electro-pop scene, this marks the point at which they crossed over entirely from post-punk into an unashamedly pop style, leaving us to wonder just how self-referential is that sample of a sheep at the end of the ultra dance opening single, "Fine Time" really might be.
--jshopa, RYM

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#409. Scott Walker | Scott 4 (1969)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 519.029
Rank in 2014: #470
AM 3000 Rank: #522
Top Fans: BangJan (#6), SonofSamIAm (#39), ChrisK (#52)
Four decades on, and Scott 4 is a landmark. It's inspired The Smiths, Radiohead, and Goldfrapp, and served as a veritable stylistic bible for Walker acolytes the Divine Comedy, Tindersticks, and Pulp. And, now, the things that may've alienated listeners in its day —Walker's weird interpretive delivery, the uneasy orchestrations, the strange, strained relationship between the emotionality of lyric and music— sound classical.
--Anthony Carew, ThoughtCo

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#408. Michael Jackson | Dangerous (1991)
# of Voters: 8 | Score: 519.483
Rank in 2014: #674
AM 3000 Rank: #1923
Top Fans: Renan (#5), Felipinho (#15), Profeta (#18), BonnieLaurel (#45), Bruno (#89)
Some interpreted it as a desire to catch up, but it’s more emblematic of his lust to conquer. If Off the Wall was Jackson mastering late ’70s soul and disco, Thriller was his perfection of ’80s pop. This is Jackson showing that he could blend hip-hop and R&B better than anyone had previously imagined. The new decade starts here, with artists like Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, TLC, R. Kelly, et al. taking cues from Jackson and Riley’s alchemy. To say nothing of Kanye, Drake, and countless others still atop the charts.
--Jeff Weiss, Pitchfork

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#407. Courtney Barnett | Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 520.062
Rank in 2014: N/A
AM 3000 Rank: #364
Top Fans: Maschine_Man (#32), JohnnyBGoode (#98)
Barnett’s songs make a virtue of casualness, an off-handedness that can turn razor sharp in the middle of a run-on-sentence. Somehow, the Australian singer-guitarist has made something fresh out of everyday vignettes performed on everyday instruments (guitar-bass-drums). She sounds like she’s day-dreaming out loud instead of singing, but she’s deceptively incisive as a lyricist. Her guitar-playing, while never particularly showy, can be subtle or scalding. Her minimalist style nicely counterpoints the maximalist wordplay.
--Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune

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#406. Swans | The Seer (2012)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 520.690
Rank in 2014: #347
AM 3000 Rank: #555
Top Fans: Jackson (#9), NotBrianEno (#53), Whuntva (#72), Gillingham (#82), SonofSamIAm (#83)
On Swans latest studio offering, The Seer, the music is enough to make heads roll. Every song is a testament to the groups imaginative abilities to the point where I'm left wondering if they had to travel the depths of hell and bargain with the devil in order to reach such marvelous creativity. The epic song structures, the cleansing drones, the vivid emotional integrity, everything comes together with such ease on this album. Looking back at the first few Swans albums, it's amazing to see just how far this band has come in their thirty years of existence; especially considering this album is literally a culmination of everything the band has ever done. And for the fifty plus year old Gira who shouts and wails into the microphone on frequent occasions, that isn't just an achievement, it's a legacy.
--Wardruna, RYM

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#405. Steely Dan | Pretzel Logic (1974)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 520.707
Rank in 2014: #350
AM 3000 Rank: #363
Top Fans: Henry (#14), Harold (#15), RedAnt (#54), Honorio (#94)
This album makes me think that with this and Katy Lied, the Dan existed, truly, as an American Rock Band--even if in reality that band was mostly studio musicians. The point is, they sound like a band. Cohesive, tuneful, collaborative, playful. To my ears, then and now, they sound like a northeastern (United States) version of the Eagles. Those ringing acoustic guitars, those high shimmering background vocals. But here the desperado vibe is not colored by romanticism but instead balanced with cynicism and ennui.
--gmku, RYM

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#404. Modest Mouse | The Moon & Antarctica (2000)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 522.894
Rank in 2014: #475
AM 3000 Rank: #385
Top Fans: Acroamor (#2), Nassim (#16), GucciLittlePiggy (#74), NotBrianEno (#88),
I've been holding onto The Moon & Antarctica for over half a decade at this point, maybe being the first indie rock CD I ever came to enjoy alongside the heralded Funeral. It was unlike anything I had ever encountered, and I feverishly explored the depths of this release like a curious diver with a deathwish goes down into the ocean's deepest trenches. The crispness of a record like this one is so remarkably rare, yet tell that to Modest Mouse and they'd shrug it off promptly. This was made with the utmost attention for detail, not a note or twang or beat out of place throughout the entirety of the hour it occupies. I'm amazed at how subdued Isaac manages to be for just this one record, everything that this album is sandwiched between exhibiting some of the most frantic wailings that a person has ever emitted. Even when he goes crazy, such as a case of frenzied "Dark Center of the Universe" or anticipation-building "I Came as a Rat", he remains calculated and in control of his surroundings.
--Vito_James, RYM

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#403. Nine Inch Nails | Pretty Hate Machine (1989)
# of Voters: 11 | Score: 524.070
Rank in 2014: #836
AM 3000 Rank: #524
Top Fans: Slick (#1), OrdinaryPerson (#36), M24 (#62)
Pretty Hate Machine is haunted, synthetic dance-pop through and through. The beats have muscle, but it's not metal muscle or pigfuck muscle or even post-punk muscle. "Head Like a Hole", the big hit, is probably the most rock thing on the whole album, but even that song opens with "Heart of Glass"-esque percussion ripples before the drum machine thunder and weird hooting noises come in. "Terrible Lie" is built on synth-scrapes that, in less distorted form, could've shown up on a New Order single, and "Sin" likewise has a whole lot of "Blue Monday" in its DNA. Whenever a verse ends during "Kinda I Want To", we get a quick little reptilian disco synth-fight. Glacial new-age keyboard tones abound, and big nasty guitars really don't. And Reznor knew how to mine this form for all the emotional catharsis it was worth, which was a lot.
--Tom Breihan, Pitchfork

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#402. The National | Trouble Will Find Me (2013)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 524.599
Rank in 2014: #450
AM 3000 Rank: #641
Top Fans: GucciLittlePiggy (#27), Andyd1010 (#45), JWinton (#66), JohnnyBGoode (#69)
Other instruments, including clarinets, classical strings, and synthesizers, fill in the background with a degree of subtlety so profound that it takes repeat listens to ferret out all the textures present.

The end result is a new kind of National album — still dark and neurotic, obsessed with modern-day paranoia, but also bursting with an unlikely optimism and a very 2013 zest for life.
--Megan Ritt, Consequence of Sound

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#401. Wire | Chairs Missing (1978)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 525.490
Rank in 2014: #342
AM 3000 Rank: #598
Top Fans: BangJan (#48), SJner (#49)
In general, the lyrics are darker than those on Pink Flag, even morbid at times; images of cold, drowning, pain, and suicide haunt the record, and the title itself is a reference to mental instability. The arty darkness of Chairs Missing, combined with the often icy-sounding synth/guitar arrangements, helps make the record a crucial landmark in the evolution of punk into post-punk and goth, as well as a testament to Wire's rapid development and inventiveness.
--Steve Huey, Allmusic
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

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#400. Herbie Hancock | Head Hunters (1973)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 526.231
Rank in 2014: #490
AM 3000 Rank: #426
Top Fans: VanillaFire1000 (#17), SweepstakesRon (#32), Gillingham (#41), Nick (#84)
Head Hunters was a pivotal point in Herbie Hancock's career, bringing him into the vanguard of jazz fusion. Hancock had pushed avant-garde boundaries on his own albums and with Miles Davis, but he had never devoted himself to the groove as he did on Head Hunters. Drawing heavily from Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, and James Brown, Hancock developed deeply funky, even gritty, rhythms over which he soloed on electric synthesizers, bringing the instrument to the forefront in jazz. It had all of the sensibilities of jazz, particularly in the way it wound off into long improvisations, but its rhythms were firmly planted in funk, soul, and R&B, giving it a mass appeal that made it the biggest-selling jazz album of all time (a record which was later broken). Jazz purists, of course, decried the experiments at the time, but Head Hunters still sounds fresh and vital decades after its initial release, and its genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul, and hip-hop.
--Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic

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#399. Hüsker Dü | Zen Arcade (1984)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 526.707
Rank in 2014: #263
AM 3000 Rank: #222
Top Fans: Jackson (#32), RockyRacoon (#65), BryanBehar (#89), BangJan (#97)
Zen Arcade lets two voices come together to tell a story, or maybe stories, vignettes in the course of a point in life, doing so with guitar/bass/drums, a shoutier, raspier voice in Mould, a warmer, more yearning one in Hart. There's a fourteen minute instrumental, a short piano instrumental, a song with extra percussion swirls and general noise underscoring a reference to Hare Krishna's chanting practices, a frenetic acoustic number, other points of variation. But mostly that three-piece-and-rock-out approach, Mould's guitar often a sheet of blazing noise that feels like a corrugated aluminum wall shattering in your face, other times a queasy backward masked swirl, yet always with hook after hook, Norton's bass skipping along and digging deep, just standing out enough to matter and add something more than rhythm and bottom end, Hart galloping and smashing and crashing, perhaps Keith Moon come back to life but something else too, still often chasing that land speed record from their first release. No rules reinvented but from the get go with 'Something I Learned Today', no need for that either.
--Ned Raggett, TheQuietus

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#398. Peter Gabriel | So (1986)
# of Voters: 17 | Score: 526.759
Rank in 2014: #295
AM 3000 Rank: #230
Top Fans: Listyguy (#45), Henry (#90)
Peter Gabriel's So is a pop album with heart. Taking the world music textures developed on his fourth self-titled album and applying a little clarity to proceedings - not for nothing is this the first of Gabriel's solo releases in which his image on the cover is not distorted in some fashion - he is able both to produce haunting and deep meditations and gloriously soulful pop. Sledgehammer might not be the most progressive thing he's ever done, but claim it doesn't get your foot tapping and I'll call you a bloody liar.
--Warthur, RYM

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#397. Led Zeppelin | III (1970)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 526.920
Rank in 2014: #594
AM 3000 Rank: #374
Top Fans: Jirin (#77), GabeBasso (#87)
Sometimes seen as just that record between the hard rock milestones of II and the runes album, it's much more than that. In a way, it's the culmination of the journey undertaken on the first two records, as well as the beginning of a new one that will last for the rest of the band's career. Put simply, all the branches Zep will follow from now on can be traced to the seeds laid on III, whether it's the orchestral majesty of "Kashmir" (with its template of "Friends"), the medieval tone to "No Quarter" or "The Battle Of Evermore", or the slow burners of "Stairway" or "In My Time Of Dying". Idiot American reviewers sometimes claim that with this album Zep were trying to jump on the Crosby, Stills & Nash soft rock bandwagon, yet a quick look at the English scene of 1969-70 shows that Zeppelin's influences were Pentangle, Fairport Convention (compare III with Liege And Lief) and even Nick Drake. Actually, "influences" may be the wrong word; like any great band Zeppelin simply tied into the zeitgeist of the times, and discovered that its strains ran deep in its own DNA.
--BradL, RYM

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#396. Alanis Morissette | Jagged Little Pill (1995)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 529.214
Rank in 2014: #394
AM 3000 Rank: #436
Top Fans: BonnieLaurel (#51), Profeta (#60), Red Ant (#76), Karla (#90), LuvulongTIM (#93)
It's remarkable that Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill struck a sympathetic chord with millions of listeners, because it's so doggedly, determinedly insular. This, after all, plays like an emotional purging, prompted by a bitter relationship -- and, according to all the lyrical hints, that's likely a record executive who took advantage of a young Alanis. She never disguises her outright rage and disgust, whether it's the vengeful wrath of "You Oughta Know" or asking him "you scan the credits for your name and wonder why it's not there." This is such insider information that it's hard to believe that millions of listeners not just bought it, but embraced it, turning Alanis Morisette into a mid-'90s phenomenon. --Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic

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#395. Black Sabbath | Black Sabbath (1970)
# of Voters: 11 | Score: 533.040
Rank in 2014: #556
AM 3000 Rank: #407
Top Fans: Dudumb (#8), Slick (#29), Brad (#36)
Built around Tony Iommi's thundering, industrious riffs, nothing close to Sabbath's doom-laden sound had been heard before, as the Sab's drained-out-dirge took the post-politically polarized '60s scene by surprise, blind-siding the communal-living dropouts that called Haight-Ashbury home.

With one single spin of Black Sabbath, the Birmingham beast virtually rid the world of the unwashed masses known as '60s self-righteous hippies. The weary Woodstock generation, with their pseudo-political idealism and our-music-will-change-the-world-idiocy, has never recovered from the Sabbath onslaught that transformed the hard rock and heavy metal scene as a new decade took hold.
--JonFox, RYM

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#394. The United States of America | The United States of America (1968)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 534.181
Rank in 2014: #354
AM 3000 Rank: #1065
Top Fans: BangJan (#2), SonofSamIAm (#37), Georgie (#69), Schaefer.tk (#86)
The band's deft addition of electronic noise and modulation into what would otherwise be soundtracks for the Beach Boys' California or ham 'n' eggs Anglo-rock was several years ahead of its time. Former UCLA ethnomusicology instructor Joseph Byrd concocted miracles with musique concrete-style tape collages and white noise blurts that veered in and out of the songs like uninvited but still welcome guests. He also tackled a dub-like mixology of tape delays and ring-modulated fade-outs and, best of all, distorted and punch-drunk synthesizers that sound indistinguishable from electric guitars. This was a fresh approach to rock from a unique group of musicians: UCLA students who had studied Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen but, as Byrd's liner notes claim, were "ignorant" of rock roots. And, although the band does indulge a few moments of awestruck discovery of their instruments' capabilities, the noise generally works with the music rather than simply being fodder from badge-wearing freaks tying to spook the Organization Man.--Cameron Macdonald, Pitchfork

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#393. Yes | Fragile (1972)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 534.809
Rank in 2014: #531
AM 3000 Rank: #850
Top Fans: Henry (#19), Panam (#62)
Fragile was Yes' breakthrough album, propelling them in a matter of weeks from a cult act to an international phenomenon; not coincidentally, it also marked the point where all of the elements of the music (and more) that would define their success for more than a decade fell into place fully formed. The science-fiction and fantasy elements that had driven the more successful songs on their preceding record, The Yes Album, were pushed much harder here, and not just in the music but in the packaging of the album: the Roger Dean-designed cover was itself a fascinating creation that seemed to relate to the music and drew the purchaser's attention in a manner that few records since the heyday of the psychedelic era could match. Having thrown original keyboard player Tony Kaye overboard early in the sessions -- principally over his refusal to accept the need for the Moog synthesizer in lieu of his preferred Hammond organ -- the band welcomed Rick Wakeman into its ranks. His use of the Moog, among other instruments, coupled with an overall bolder and more aggressive style of playing, opened the way for a harder, hotter sound by the group as a whole; bassist Chris Squire sounds like he's got his amp turned up to "12," and Steve Howe's electric guitars are not far behind, although the group also displayed subtlety where it was needed.--Bruce Eder, Allmusic

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#392. George Michael | Faith (1987)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 534.820
Rank in 2014: #577
AM 3000 Rank: #681
Top Fans: BonnieLaurel (#25), Renan (#36), Profeta (#74), Dexter (#96)
Faith's ingenuity lies in the way it straddles pop, adult contemporary, R&B, and dance music as though there were no distinctions between them. In addition to his basic repertoire of funky dance-pop and airy, shimmering ballads, Michael appropriates the Bo Diddley beat for the rockabilly-tinged title track, and proves himself a better-than-decent torch singer on the cocktail jazz of "Kissing a Fool." Michael arranged and produced the album himself, and the familiarity of many of these songs can obscure his skills in those departments -- close listening reveals his knack for shifting elements in and out of the mix and adding subtle embellishments when a little emphasis or variety is needed.--Bruce Eder, Allmusic

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#391. The Pogues | Rum, Sodomy & the Lash (1985)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 538.104
Rank in 2014: #338
AM 3000 Rank: #301
Top Fans: VanillaFire1000 (#13), Nassim (#82), M24 (#94)
Direct and brutal poetry, the unrefined chronicle of a disordered, virulent and absolutely true life. This is the indomitable character that makes lots of people call this Gaelic punk in spite of the lack of rock topics in the flaming riot summoned up by this band. No, there are no distortion nor electricity here. Power can be created with some other methods. With an apathetic-like attitude when you're singing with your hands in your pockets and unlimited passion, with such a passionate energy that can put to dance the most still in the audience, and with a song selection in which the conjunction between tradition and creation makes them indistinguishable. This is a whole, and a brutal one. There's no way of getting tired of this record. Not even in a thousand lives.--laranra, RYM
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by bootsy »

Jirin wrote:
bootsy wrote:
Jirin wrote:Hmm, if Baduizm is that high, is it worth hoping the New Amerykah albums (Which I consider superior) are higher? Or have they already showed up and I missed it?
I hope not because New Amerykah isn't superior. It's a good album but doesn't touch Baduizm.
I like Baduizm, but IMO, New Amerykah is a lot more consistent and has a lot more powerful of a message and theme.
I can agree a little on the second part but that doesn't make it better. That first part no way.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by veganvalentine »

Man, I love the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed, but the gist of that review was hilarious: "Well sure, you could not listen to this album, but you would be denying yourself immense pleasure heretofore unknown to humankind." :lol:
Last edited by veganvalentine on Wed Sep 20, 2017 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Listyguy »

notbrianeno wrote: #398. Peter Gabriel | So (1986)

Rank in 2014: #295
AM 3000 Rank: #230
What the hell? How did Peter Gabriel lose 100 spots during the "pop takeover" of the list??
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by StevieFan13 »

Listyguy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote: #398. Peter Gabriel | So (1986)

Rank in 2014: #295
AM 3000 Rank: #230
What the hell? How did Peter Gabriel lose 100 spots during the "pop takeover" of the list??
It's a shame, but whatever. I'll take it if it means it's in the list at all.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by bootsy »

Listyguy wrote:
notbrianeno wrote: #398. Peter Gabriel | So (1986)

Rank in 2014: #295
AM 3000 Rank: #230
What the hell? How did Peter Gabriel lose 100 spots during the "pop takeover" of the list??
Probably some 2015-17 releases and a different group of people voting pushed it down. It's still a great album and still in the top 500.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Bruno »

We have to highlight that 17 votes is a great achievement compared to some albums posted in the top 500 so far.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Bruno »

#407. Courtney Barnett | Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
Really great debut !!
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

veganvalentine wrote:Man, I love the Moody Blues' Days of Future Past, but the gist of that review was hilarious: "Well sure, you could not listen to this album, but you would be denying yourself immense pleasure heretofore unknown to humankind." :lol:
Reviews are presented without comment ;)
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

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#390. Iggy Pop | Lust For Life (1977)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 538.377
Rank in 2014: #482
AM 3000 Rank: #308
Top Fans: JWinton (#58), Michel (#72), GabeBasso (#85), Romain (#94)
David Robert Jones may get the credit for being such a "chameleon," but Jim Osterberg has gone through more than a few phases in his career, his 1977 pair of albums holding up the most consistently. Of the two, Lust for Life has always spoken to me more directly. It pulls no punches. I can think of few examples of a solo artist making such a personalized album. After hearing this, you've spent Friday night to Saturday morning with Iggy and David. That's the kind of experience I want to have when I listen to an album.--sergeantrock, RYM

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#389. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers | Damn the Torpedoes (1979)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 538.420
Rank in 2014: #688
AM 3000 Rank: #630
Top Fans: BryanBehar (#71), VeganValentine (#78)
It was the Heartbreakers' third album, Damn the Torpedoes, that got them in the front door and into our homes. If Bruce Springsteen was tracking down the specifics of place and a particular class experience, making little movies in song, Petty was making music that, on the surface, seemed far less ambitious. But he created modest scenes that listeners could identify with in deep, lasting ways. If you knew the feeling of requited love, you had your song in the swaggering and then joyous "Here Comes My Girl." If you were ever on the outside of things, it was "Even the Losers" that was yours and, more important, your momentary release. Songs such as these and smart sequencing (the album era's most under-recognized art) make Torpedoes soar: It starts with the Heartbreakers' defining track, "Refugee" — the closest thing to an anthem they'd yet recorded — and doesn't lose its stride after that.
--Warren Zanes, Rolling Stone

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#388. Simon and Garfunkel | Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 540.966
Rank in 2014: #410
AM 3000 Rank: #712
Top Fans: Acroamor (#44), PlasticRam (#56), EmilienDelRey (#77), Red Ant (#82), Miguel (#84)
Forged in a crucible of dizzying change, Simon and Garfunkel’s second album reflected the social upheaval of the mid-60s while playing as substantial a part in folk rock’s evolution as Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Where Dylan was climbing into higher musical stratospheres to free himself from folk’s gravitational pull, Simon and Garfunkel were gently pulling it away from its finger-in-the-ear past, a less unpalatable option for traditionalist gatekeepers than Dylan’s electric revolution.
--Andy Fyfe, BBC

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#387. Aphex Twin | Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 543.228
Rank in 2014: #245
AM 3000 Rank: #358
Top Fans: OrdinaryPerson (#6), Schaefer.tk (#19), Toni (#71)
Most striking is James’s pop sensibility, apparent in the concise momentum of “Pulsewidth” and the utterly infectious “Ptolemy.” Influenced by post-classical composers like Philip Glass and Kraftwerk, James created a collection of minimalist house more refined than anything that has come before or after.
--Sal Cinquemani, Slant

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#386. Ray Charles | Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 543.853
Rank in 2014: #1817
AM 3000 Rank: #360
Top Fans: Profeta (#14), Bruno (#30), Dexter (#100)
In need of even more room to explore, Charles signed with ABC Paramount and eventually took full advantage of his contract's "full artistic freedom clause" with this collection of revamped country classics. Covering a period from 1939 to the early '60s, the 12 tracks here touch on old-timey fare (Floyd Tillman's "It Makes No Difference to Me Now"), honky tonk (three Hank Williams songs), and early countrypolitan (Don Gibson's "I Can't Stop Loving You"). Along with a Top Ten go at Eddy Arnold's "You Don't Know Me," the Gibson cover helped the album remain at the top of the pop charts for nearly three months and brought Charles international fame. Above a mix of swinging big band charts by Gerald Wilson and strings and choir backdrops from Marty Paich, Charles' intones the sleepy-blue nuances of country crooners while still giving the songs a needed kick with his gospel outbursts. No pedal steel or fiddles here, just a fine store of inimitable interpretations.
--Stephen Cook, Allmusic

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#385. Lou Reed | Berlin (1973)
# of Voters: 11 | Score: 544.790
Rank in 2014: #162
AM 3000 Rank: #201
Top Fans: Romain (#4), Spiderpig (#13), BangJan (#43), Moonbeam (#46), Honorio (#48)
'Berlin', one of the saddest records has ever made, seems at first sight as a complicated, multilayered work of art. The truth is, that Berlin is a really flat album. Unsophisticated lines such as "men of poor beginnings often can't do anything at all", raw sound that come to its edge with the yelling of the children in 'The Kids', and a literal, direct storyline, express Lou Reed's in his most exposed, cleaned hour. After the masked ball of Transformer, Reed was ready to give up his masquerading and to create his own 'plastic Ono Band'.
--Brutuslevi, RYM

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#384. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 545.071
Rank in 2014: #406
AM 3000 Rank: #653
Top Fans: JWinton (#19), Jirin (#32), Maschine_Man (#45)
This is pop music of the heavens and earth: reminiscently ecclesiastical, yet secular in practice; pragmatic in the realm of faith; and as tied to the terrestrial as it is to the celestial. Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus, both individually and especially taken together, are records of salacious multitudes, authoritative, sexy, and bewitching like Cave’s voice itself. There’s a continuous ebb and flow of provocative gray areas; moments of redemption and hope are lined with doubt, even wicked pretense, while songs that rupture with God-fearing, knee-knocking intimidation are undercut by jabs of wry humor. Cave and the Bad Seeds have turned in not only one of the year’s most ambitious projects, but a shining example of how good music can sound when its rate of success surpasses the most audacious of set-ups.
--Zeth Lundy, Popmatters

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#383. Arctic Monkeys | AM (2013)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 546.353
Rank in 2014: #721
AM 3000 Rank: #765
Top Fans: Toni (#23), JWinton (#65), Maschine_Man (#68), GabeBasso (#96)
So AM goes beyond the sweaty clubs and furtive flirts into the hotel rooms, after parties, and bad decisions that can follow. The crux of the record is neatly summed up by the hook to the blistering "R U Mine?": "R U mine tomorrow, or just mine tonight?"-- an entire world of sex and love and desire distilled to quick-hit text-speak that Drake could appreciate. Turner isn't sure of the answer to that question, and the resulting limbo does his head in all over the LP. He's an avowed romantic living in an unromantic world, grasping for meaning in a city-to-city road-dog lifestyle hellbent on repelling it. In some ways, Turner's struggle and his band's recent gleaming transformation into something like rock gods is reminiscent of U2's turnaround circa Achtung Baby, when that quartet traded in deep virtuousness for sin, rhythm, and leather jackets. For Arctic Monkeys, loosening the tether to credulity can be freeing, allowing the band to live out their classic-rock dreams: T. Rex bop, Bee Gees backup vocals, Rolling Stones R&B, and Black Sabbath monster riffage are all rendered modern throughout AM with the help of longtime producer James Ford. And for Turner in particular, the switch has him connecting strings of desperate 3 a.m. thoughts: some horny, some bleary, some a bit frightening.
--Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork

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#382. Fleetwood Mac | Fleetwood Mac (1975)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 546.583
Rank in 2014: #765
AM 3000 Rank: #861
Top Fans: Henry (#79), DocBrown (#79), VeganValentine (#85), Red Ant (#90), GabeBasso (#98)
this is a complex, adventurous, cheeky pop record with a healthy dose of country-rock looseness, choogle and heavily-buffed Appalachian traditional that's so intensely catchy that everyone can sing along to every verse. it feels fulfilling that this was such a smash hit because it absolutely deserves it; perhaps the apogee of carefully-crafted popular music.
--dicateursanguinaire, RYM

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#381. LCD Soundsystem | LCD Soundsystem (2005)
# of Voters: 17 | Score: 550.546
Rank in 2014: #336
AM 3000 Rank: #359
Top Fans: Nassim (#74), Michel (#88), Jirin (#91)
That’s the appeal of this record, at least to me: there is something here. I don’t know what it is, just yet; maybe Murphy doesn’t, either. But beneath the lovely shiny disco thump of “Tribulations” there is naked emotion and heartbreak (“But you fight me off / Like a fighter does”). I hear lust and desire underneath the stop-start buzzcrunch of “Thrills”. And the basic krautrock one-two of “On Repeat” is actually the most open-faced sandwich of all, Murphy uncovering the best thing about music: “Your favorite band / Helps you sleep”. Why can’t he sleep? Why can’t I sleep? Why can’t any of us sleep, anymore? What’s wrong with us?
--Matt Sibula, Popmatters
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Nassim »

Well, between I'm Your Man and Berlin, it would seem that dying is not a good strategy if you want to climb in our polls (just saying, in case someone planned to try).
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Jirin »

Nassim wrote:Well, between I'm Your Man and Berlin, it would seem that dying is not a good strategy if you want to climb in our polls (just saying, in case someone planned to try).
Hold that thought till we see where Blackstar falls. May be it only works if you record WHILE dying.
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Rob
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Rob »

I didn't vote, but if I had Berlin would certainly have been in my top 10. Sad to see it fall so much.
Also interesting to see some older albums can still make such a big leap into the top 1000 as Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music did.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Harold »

Nassim wrote:Well, between I'm Your Man and Berlin, it would seem that dying is not a good strategy if you want to climb in our polls (just saying, in case someone planned to try).
Well, Lou shuffled off in 2013 - looks like dying helped him in the previous poll.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Listyguy »

Harold wrote:
Nassim wrote:Well, between I'm Your Man and Berlin, it would seem that dying is not a good strategy if you want to climb in our polls (just saying, in case someone planned to try).
Well, Lou shuffled off in 2013 - looks like dying helped him in the previous poll.
His band finished with the best album in 2014...so maybe it helped
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Jackson »

A lot of my favorites are dropping now. A couple of thoughts...

1. People often talk about how electronic and rap are underrated on the forum; I'd like to submit punk as another underrated genre. I was very surprised to see myself as the biggest fan for both Zen Arcade and Double Nickels on the Dime; not one of the 70+ voters had these classics in their top 30??

2. I think The Kinks' Arthur might be my pick for the most underrated album ever, because it simply does not make sense to me why it's not more widely heard and praised. Surely everyone who loves any other Kinks albums, including Village Green which will (hopefully) place much higher, would love this album. It's distinct in the Kinks catalog to me for having the best all-around production, sound, and musicianship, and the songwriting is great as always (particularly on Victoria, Shangri-La, Some Mother's Son, and Mr. Churchill Says).

3. Very surprised to see Swans' The Seer and To Be Kind almost right next to each other. If I had to guess before the poll, I would have thought TBK would place between 500-700 and The Seer would be between 200-300; once I saw TBK at 414, I got prematurely excited and thought The Seer would be much higher. I'd be interested in hearing from someone who placed TBK much higher than The Seer.

4. Interesting to me that Black Sabbath's self-titled beat all of their albums except Paranoid. I would rank it fifth or sixth out of their first six albums, but as discussed earlier in the thread, no one can agree on how to rank these albums.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Listyguy »

Jackson wrote:A lot of my favorites are dropping now. A couple of thoughts...

1. People often talk about how electronic and rap are underrated on the forum; I'd like to submit punk as another underrated genre. I was very surprised to see myself as the biggest fan for both Zen Arcade and Double Nickels on the Dime; not one of the 70+ voters had these classics in their top 30??
Similarly, New Day Rising fell 300 places! It barely made our top 1000. I thought it hadn't placed yet, but then when I saw Zen Arcade pass I had to go back and check.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by prosecutorgodot »

Jackson wrote: 3. Very surprised to see Swans' The Seer and To Be Kind almost right next to each other. If I had to guess before the poll, I would have thought TBK would place between 500-700 and The Seer would be between 200-300; once I saw TBK at 414, I got prematurely excited and thought The Seer would be much higher. I'd be interested in hearing from someone who placed TBK much higher than The Seer.
For me it is very easy to pick between the albums. 2BK is easily one of the most exciting, thrilling, and yet danceable albums I have ever heard. Anthony Fantano said it best when he said "This album displays a mastery of tension." As soon as the first song "Screen Shot" comes on with the tiny diddling guitar groove (which builds into a monstrous unstoppable force), to Michael Gira crying out "There are millions and millions of stars in your eyes" on the title track, I am held in rapt attention. The sound of the record is incredible, it's this crazy mixture of folk, rock and roll, post-rock, ambient, drone, and the whole universe. It's completely new, yet feels like it could have come from your childhood.
On the other hand, you have The Seer. In the beginning, I thought this was super boring music. The groove on the title track is terrible. It's just two notes over and over! A baby could write that! While other songs are not quite as
painful, overall the songs don't build as masterfully as they do on 2BK. My final gripe is that I dont really understand how the melodic tracks fit in with the other tracks. It ends up feeling disjointed. Over time, I came to casually enjoy it, though to me it is nowhere near 2BK's greatness. To me, it is way more questionable as to why people love The Seer more.
If I may be so bold, I'd like to guess an answer to the above question. I think a lot of music fans really love the Nineties decade of music, and the various shades of alternative rock with a certain level of moodiness. Thus the melodic tracks on The Seer really resonate with them.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

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#380. Chico Buarque | Construção (1971)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 555.776
Rank in 2014: #517
AM 3000 Rank: #2107
Top Fans: Panam (#5), ChrisK (#7), Dudumb (#72), SonofSamIAm (#72)
it's strange to me that I once found an album this vital and this satisfying to be boring, but there's also something uncanny about Chico's brilliance here. This isn't an easy album to write about. I can't isolate or reduce its scintillating musical qualities; I can't peel off individual tricks or points of interest and hold them up to the light for all to see. I like the word "streamlined" from the above paragraph. This album's appeal is so intimately bundled up with its sound, its sound as a single indivisible entity, that there isn't really anything to point to. There aren't any hooks on this album; just songs. "Minha História," which floats, is gorgeous. I want to mention the vocal melodies, the flutter of the strings, the roiling earth and cool air of the percussion, the summer sun of the backup vocals, but it doesn't work; the descriptors I just used are faulty. Every time I try to point to one element of the song, I feel like I lose it in the act of isolation. The soul of the percussion (this is getting fucking hackneyed, I know, and I'm sorry, but as I said, this is difficult) is spread about and mixed up with the vocals, the strings, and everything else, and everything else is just as diffuse. Every song on this album, more or less, is like that. Are these the most perfectly constructed pieces of music in the world?
--telephone_Junkie, RYM

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#379. Talking Heads | More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 556.014
Rank in 2014: #313
AM 3000 Rank: #390
Top Fans: Bootsy (#41), SJner (#47), Harold (#67), Miguel (#75), DaveC (#98)
Twenty-five years later, who doesn't board planes with mixed emotions, longing to simply be somewhere as the world comes apart, love stretched by anxieties real and imagined? The greatness of "More Songs About Buildings and Food" lies in the way it followed the almost invisible undercurrents of its time to their natural and unnatural conclusions. The self-help theme that runs through the record, the tips and strategies, sound no stranger today than any of a hundred modern remedies.
-- Paul A. Toth, Salon

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#378. Neil Young | On the Beach (1974)
# of Voters: 17 | Score: 557.014
Rank in 2014: #222
AM 3000 Rank: #449
Top Fans: Jirin (#22), BangJan (#63), SJner (#100)
If the album's title and gorgeous cover suggested a change from Tonight's The Night's blackness, the sessions and what they produced were as gloomy as ever. With his relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress (the mother of his first child) in tatters and his booze and drug consumption increasingly rampant, Young poured out his angst and anger over the roughest, most sparse music in his career to date (yes, even more so than TTN).
--Joseph Burnett, The Quietus

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#377. The Killers | Hot Fuss (2004)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 564.564
Rank in 2014: #753
AM 3000 Rank: #934
Top Fans: Slick (#9), Victor.Marianoo77 (#49), Renan (#58), BryanBehar (#64)
On their new album, Hot Fuss, The Killers come out sounding ready to take this subgenre to the next level, coming off as brash as Oasis did a decade ago. “Somebody Told me”, the album’s first single, is a perfect example of the band successfully meshing their pulsating, post punk sound with a huge, overblown, arena rock sound. The dance beat is still there, as are singer Brandon Flowers’ mannered vocals, but David Keuning’s overdubbed guitars roar, the rhythm section of bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci sound thunderous, there’s that great disco-esque touch of “hoo-hoo-ooh” in the bridge, and the fantastic chorus, which is catchy as all get-out, and full of cheeky humor
--Adrien Begrand, Popmatters

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#376. Dave Brubeck Quartet | Time Out (1959)
# of Voters: 17 | Score: 567.707
Rank in 2014: #330
AM 3000 Rank: #333
Top Fans: Gillingham (#65), Spiritualized (#90), Babydoll (#92)
These exotic, unexplored rhythms might give a clue about the picturesque, intriguing and captivating quality of these unique compositions. Yet, there is something more. Something that may or may not be related to this fact. I'm talking about all the melodic and background details, the piano backstitches or trumpet looms making you think in classical music, in Broadway, in George Gershwin, in folklore, and in popular music. All inserted in a film about the hustle and bustle of a city, the break time, the drinks... Pure joy which just like life itself can hurt and also promote elation. And I stand by what I have said. There are so many fools who rush in where angels fear to tread...
--laranra, RYM

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#375. ANOHNI (Antony and the Johnsons) | I Am a Bird Now (2005)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 568.542
Rank in 2014: #265
AM 3000 Rank: #256
Top Fans: JWinton (#8), Romain (#56)
But however aesthetically intriguing and complex that history may be, the ultimate draw is Antony's voice, and within the first two seconds of the album, it should be very clear to even the most unaware newbies that Antony has an amazing Nina Simone/Brian Ferry/Jimmy Scott vibrato, a multi-octave siren that would sound painfully lovely no matter what she was saying. Lucky for us, she fills that promise with worthy syllables. The greatness of this downcast crooner is the melding of that otherworldly trill with a dark, powerful aesthetic. Looking past her sad eye make-up and kewpie-doll features are these mesmerizing songs about loving dead boys, plaintive letters from hermaphroditic children, the fear of dark lonesome purgatories, breast amputation, the fluidity of gender.
--Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork

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#374. Buena Vista Social Club| Buena Vista Social Club (1997)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 571.830
Rank in 2014: #219
AM 3000 Rank: #505
Top Fans: VanillaFire1000 (#38), Nicolas (#41), Panam (#65), Antonius (#81)
This is the one and only album I know which will make me smile every single time I listen to it. Buena Vista Social Club has an incredibly good vibe to it and is also musically just as organic as it gets. I played this album a hundred times the past five or ten years and I'm still not tired of it in the slightest way. It's one of those albums I would refer to if I was trying to explain what I consider "simply good music".
--beflygelt, RYM

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#373. The Beach Boys | The Smile Sessions (2011)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 574.990
Rank in 2014: #601
AM 3000 Rank: #2956
Top Fans: SonofSamIAm (#8), Jackson (#21), Spiderpig (#64), Toni (#85)
Isolated, dislocated, scared: Smile often sounds like the work of a very lonely man. There's not much in the way of company when you're way ahead of everyone else. Whether anyone would have chosen to join Wilson out there in 1967 seems questionable: perhaps they'd have stuck with the less complicated pleasures of All You Need Is Love after all. What's beyond doubt is the quality of the music he made.
--Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

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#372. Boston | Boston (1976)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 576.278
Rank in 2014: #462
AM 3000 Rank: #584
Top Fans: Listyguy (#17), Slick (#55), Whuntva (#78), Red Ant (#91)
Boston certainly feels special. In truth it's hard to pinpoint anything they do that others don't - the synth work on "Foreplay" is decidedly Floyd-esque, for instance, while a good chunk of the riffing hark back to the early, bluesy hard rockers who stayed at arm's length from metal (Them, Allman Brother Bands, and so on) and the melodies aren't too far removed from Creedence. The distinguishing feature they have is that they do it all so well. 'Robust' is probably the right word - every single track stands up to intense scrutiny, in terms of production, songwriting, and performance.
--Iai, RYM

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#371. Creedence Clearwater Revival | Willy and the Poor Boys (1969)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 577.454
Rank in 2014: #382
AM 3000 Rank: #434
Top Fans: RockyRaccoon (#34), Andyd1010 (#63), SJner (#81)
Right when The Beatles were retreating into their past glories and trying to spark their own personal revitalization through the revival of the early days of rock 'n' roll, Creedence Clearwater Revival were also looking to the past. Willy and the Poor Boys does not necessarily celebrate the primal youth of rock, it is more enamored with its forebears - folk, the blues, washboard rhythm bands playing on street corners.
--jshopa, RYM
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Henry
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Henry »

The title of the Neil Young album is "On the Beach." You seem to have cut and pasted the prior Talking Heads title to the Neil Young slot.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

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#370. New Order | Power, Corruption, and Lies (1983)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 578.432
Rank in 2014: #414
AM 3000 Rank: #310
Top Fans: Moonbeam (#61), ChrisK (#69), Honorio (#70)
Confident and invigorating where Movement had sounded disconsolate and lost, the record simply pops with energy from the beginning "Age of Consent," an alternative pop song with only a smattering of synthesizers overlaying an assured Bernard Sumner, who took his best vocal turn yet. Unlike the hordes of synth pop acts then active, New Order experimented heavily with their synthesizers and sequencers. What's more, while most synth pop acts kept an eye on the charts when writing and recording, if New Order were looking anywhere (aside from within), it was the clubs -- "The Village" and "586" had most of the technological firepower of the mighty "Blue Monday." But whenever the electronics threatened to take over, Peter Hook's grubby basslines, Bernard Sumner's plaintive vocals, and Stephen Morris' point-perfect drum fills reintroduced the human element
--John Bush, Allmusic

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#369. J Dilla | Donuts (2006)
# of Voters: 11 | Score: 580.138
Rank in 2014: #480
AM 3000 Rank: #565
Top Fans: EmilienDelRey (#7), JasonBob4567 (#11), Nick (#67), Jeff (#76), Bootsy (#87)
One of hip hop’s finest sets of truly singular ability, Donuts is a record that will – due to its enduring influence and the fate of the master craftsman behind it – likely remain timeless. Whether it can be held aloft as a truly golden example of its kind will be determined not by the here-and-now, but by what follows next; but something that can’t be doubted is that Dilla had a unique Midas touch which has reached well beyond his own, tragically short lifetime.
--Mike Diver, BBC

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#368. R.E.M. | Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 580.458
Rank in 2014: #289
AM 3000 Rank: #543
Top Fans: Michel (#18)
Lifes is R.E.M.'s first transition album, one that builds on the innovations of their early releases while hinting at the territory they would cover on Document and Green. It's both epilogue and prologue, yet these songs retain their own specific flavor, as R.E.M. map the borders between small clubs and large venues, between underground and mainstream, between rhythm and melody, between outrage and hope. That in-between quality still sounds invigorating so many years later.
--Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork

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#367. D'Angelo | Voodoo (2000)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 580.810
Rank in 2014: #1742
AM 3000 Rank: #444
Top Fans: Slucs (#6), JasonBob456 (#16), Bootsy (#48), Schaefer.tk (#74)
Loose and funky grooves lay the groundwork D'Angelo smooth delivery while an all star cast of session men lay down one of the best jam sessions ever recorded. Voodoo, the soul singers second LP, is a deep and complex musical experience; the kind of album that greatly rewards both close and repeat listening, but works equally well as a set of smooth and groovy soul jams or superbly detailed ambient music (at very low volumes of course.) It's an incredible versatile album, regardless of style.
--woweezowee, RYM

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#366. The Cars | The Cars (1978)
# of Voters: 11 | Score: 581.450
Rank in 2014: #363
AM 3000 Rank: #659
Top Fans: Zombeels (#14), DocBrown (#21), Listyguy (#50), Slick (#79)
The band jokingly referred to the album as their "true greatest-hits album," but it's no exaggeration -- all nine tracks are new wave/rock classics, still in rotation on rock radio. Whereas most bands of the late '70s embraced either punk/new wave or hard rock, the Cars were one of the first bands to do the unthinkable -- merge the two styles together. Add to it bandleader/songwriter Ric Ocasek's supreme pop sensibilities, and you had an album that appealed to new wavers, rockers, and Top 40 fans.
--Greg Prato, Allmusic

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#365. Lana Del Rey | Ultraviolence (2014)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 582.015
Rank in 2014: #783
AM 3000 Rank: #1772
Top Fans: Gillingham (#38), Andyd1010 (#62), DepecheMode (#69), Babydoll (#75), Maschine_Man (#84)
Songs, predominantly produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, ally themselves with expected conventions: strings sweep in, drums march with funereal weight, and Lana sings like she’s calling to the stars themselves. To those in the dirt who went too soon, those whose legacy feeds so palpably into this artist’s oeuvre; and those above us, dying slow the other side of so many light years. In this respect, ‘Ultraviolence’ marks real progression: never has Del Rey sounded so compellingly crystalline on a set of recordings.
--Mike Diver, Clash

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#364. Adele | 21 (2011)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 583.664
Rank in 2014: #1393
AM 3000 Rank: #620
Top Fans: Renan (#26), Profeta (#34), Andyd1010 (#100)
In the two years between the titles of Adele’s debut and this, her second album, she’s clearly seen the world. Where ‘19’ marked the turbulent swan song to a teenage life, ‘21’ introduces the realities of adult life, where grown-up responsibilities collide with heartache and emotional scars run deep.
--Simon Harper, Clash

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#363. Sigur Ros | ( ) (2002)
# of Voters: 10 | Score: 584.021
Rank in 2014: #344
AM 3000 Rank: #506
Top Fans: DaveC (#3), Gillingham (#18), Spiritualized (#51), Chambord (#70)
Most people talk about heaviness in music when talking about genres such as rock and it's subgenre, metal. But folks, I'm here to tell you that there are few, if any, metal albums that drop the bottom out of the ground like ( ) does. There is a despiration...a feeling of desolation and grandeur in ( ) that is more felt than heard. Ears are merely the conduit for a much more visceral, tangible experience with ( ).
But contrast is essential to bring out the full impact of anything extreme. And ( ) has some of the most chillingly gorgeous sounds I've ever heard. "Untitled 2" brings in a feeling of peaceful calm with its brooding bassline and brush drumming. "Untitled 3" lightens the mood a little with its simple but incredibly delicate and beautiful piano line. And when that piano goes up an octive I feel like my soul is on the verge of exploding out of my body.
--BTC, RYM

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#362. Pere Ubu | The Modern Dance (1978)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 586.471
Rank in 2014: #356
AM 3000 Rank: #291
Top Fans: Jeff (#18), Jirin (#33), BangJan (#55), Michel (#82), Jackson (#100)
Boiling over with wretched emotions, The Modern Dance is a frustrated beast of an album, broadcasting its emotive waves. There's sweeping revolutionary fury in "Chinese Radiation" and sublime romance in "Street Waves" and "Life Stinks" is just raw anarchic antipathy. The rhythm section dominates the music, but the mood is cast by David Thomas in constantly rising apoplectic energy, reveling in its proper place amongst abrasive noise. Alive with significance.
--jshopa, RYM

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#361. David Bowie | "Heroes" (1977)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 586.899
Rank in 2014: #277
AM 3000 Rank: #240
Top Fans: Romain (#41), NotBrianEno (#63), GabeBasso (#73)
Thematically not so much abstract and paranoid as Low, but musically much more surreal and dark, "Heroes" is the result of the talented collaboration of Brian Eno and David Bowie in harmonic modulation of songs. And Robert Fripp contributes to the oneiric, futuristic sound of the album thanks to the crooked, icy melodies of his guitar. The perfect balance of the instrumental visions of Fripp & Eno – already manifested in the cosmic drones of the amazing (No Pussyfooting) – and the melodic sensitivity of Bowie reaches its peak in the fantastic title-track – one of the most loved masterpieces of the White Duke. From the deviant melodies of Sons of the Silent Age, to the darkness of Sense of Doubt, through the luminous glows of Moss Garden, "Heroes" is in its entirety a memorable album, which is also a cornerstone for the darkwave to come - and not only for it.
--Anesthetized, RYM
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Depeche Mode »

Very impressive placement for Ultraviolence, 16 votes! I'm kinda over this album but I played it all the time in 2014. Always thought it was front-loaded, but loved it anyway.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by jdd518 »

spiderpig wrote:
Rob wrote:I wonder, if the whole thing is finished, will we get a list of all the albums that dropped of the top 1000?
There's usually a spreadsheet. I sure hope there's one this time, too. I really like to play with it.
I also hope there will be a spreadsheet with all these results after the rollout. I'm really liking the presentation of information for each album, but it'd be cool to see it all in a spreadsheet and play around with the data. :)
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Father2TheMan »

spiderpig wrote: {snip}
But I don't think we should weight lists; everyone's vote should be equal (assuming everyone voting is voting only once and that we don't have any robots voting).

My sentiment exactly. If you truly want to see more participation/less lurking then a weighted list has the effect of saying "Here are the cool kids...."
"The laughs come hard in Old Lang Syne....."
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Father2TheMan »

babydoll wrote:
Bruno wrote:
luvulongTIM wrote:Thank God there was a maximum. After 1,000 you're just showing off. Even 500 seems plenty.
I agree with 500 for albums. But for songs, it would be interesting to have a maximum of 1000.
I was going to suggest this for next year. I see multiple sprawling lists and I just think maximum 1000, minimum 250 would be peachy.
I agree with this although the prospect of trimming down from my Spotify library of 10,000 to 10% of that is daunting (and then adding in my faves that aren't on there/reordering/pruning again.)
"The laughs come hard in Old Lang Syne....."
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by babydoll »

prosecutorgodot wrote:
Rob wrote:
prosecutorgodot wrote: Boo-yah! I tend to shy away from Pitchfork's pretentiousness, but this time I think the pretentiousness is warranted.
You liked that quote? Don't get me wrong, the quote picks here a generally great to amazing, but this description of ABBA as a great tragic music band is as forced as they come. It makes a lot of grand comparisons that actually give a completely wrong impression of what music and especially what kind of tone you are going to get.
Yeah, in general I liked it. Because when you really dive deep into what makes ABBA the greatest pop act ever :whistle: , it's because there's an underlying sadness to their music. There's still pretention (it's Pitchfork, come on), but it mostly rings true to my ears.
In the Joy of ABBA documentary on BBC, a commentator said, "You can't find true happiness without true sorrow." I think that's part of what makes ABBA so great. There has always been a Nordic mystique of sadness, and ABBA captured that into the music.

But when can you say when Rob doesn't even think Agnetha sings her verses in "SOS" with a hint of sorrow. No offense, Rob, but seriously, can you not hear the sadness in her voice?
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by StevieFan13 »

Father2TheMan wrote:
babydoll wrote:
Bruno wrote: I agree with 500 for albums. But for songs, it would be interesting to have a maximum of 1000.
I was going to suggest this for next year. I see multiple sprawling lists and I just think maximum 1000, minimum 250 would be peachy.
I agree with this although the prospect of trimming down from my Spotify library of 10,000 to 10% of that is daunting (and then adding in my faves that aren't on there/reordering/pruning again.)
It's definitely great for more options, and I'll bet it's easier to come up with 1,000 songs than 1,000 albums, but 250 might still be a lot for some people.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by BleuPanda »

Down to 10 albums until I catch up to the results. I doubt there's anything remaining I haven't already heard. My favorites so far have been Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana, Hadestown, Glassworks, and Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde.

Edit: forgot Ces gens-la!
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

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#360. Rod Stewart | Every Picture Tells a Story (1971)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 586.968
Rank in 2014: #297
AM 3000 Rank: #199
Top Fans: Profeta (#26), Harold (#69)
the great triumph of Every Picture Tells a Story lies in its content. Every song on the album, whether it's a cover or original, is a gem, combining to form a romantic, earthy portrait of a young man joyously celebrating his young life. Of course, "Maggie May" -- the ornate, ringing ode about a seduction from an older woman -- is the centerpiece, but each song, whether it's the devilishly witty title track or the unbearably poignant "Mandolin Wind," has the same appeal. And the covers, including definitive readings of Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow Is Such a Long Time" and Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe," as well as a rollicking "That's All Right," are equally terrific, bringing new dimension to the songs. It's a beautiful album, one that has the timeless qualities of the best folk, yet one that rocks harder than most pop music -- few rock albums are quite this powerful or this rich.
--Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic

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#359. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Skeleton Tree (2016)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 593.408
Rank in 2014: N/A
AM 3000 Rank: N/A
Top Fans: JWinton (#78), Spiderpig (#80), NotBrianEno (#82), M24 (#88), BleuPanda (#98)
Skeleton Tree is a tense and emotional ride through the mind of a deeply personal man and, like all his music, it expresses those abstract yet bare thought processes and musings that could only come from Nick Cave. His days of drugs and post-punk and repetitious, noisy mess are behind him, but what’s here now is just as representative of the confusion of his human condition. His anti-musicality and dense, unfaltering bleakness remains unchanged. What’s inside Skeleton tree is forty years of brooding. Once, a troubled Australian boy of nineteen had to be told of the death of his father, and he projected that vacuum onto the world with furiosity and noisy throes of loud guitars and raucous howls. In 2015 a father lost his child and has once more projected that vacuum, this time in a disastrous clutter of broken ambient loops and torturous thoughts.
--IakSakkakh, RYM

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#358. Neil Young | Tonight's the Night (1975)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 593.930
Rank in 2014: #213
AM 3000 Rank: #188
Top Fans: Jirin (#34), SJner (#91)
Tonight’s the Night is an album not so much about death as about mourning. And while we might like to think of mourning as a dignified pursuit grounded in ritual—a black veil, food at the door, loved ones at beck and call—the truth is that mourning can be messy and out of control and it can sometimes look like something else entirely. Sometimes mourning can even look like a macabre celebration, embracing life with one arm while the black figure of death is curled inside the other. That’s where Young and his band found themselves during this period.
--Mark Richardson, Pitchfork

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#357. Deerhunter | Halcyon Digest (2010)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 596.766
Rank in 2014: #346
AM 3000 Rank: #441
Top Fans: GucciLittlePiggy (#2), ChrisK (#25), JohnnyBGoode (#57), JWinton (#89)
On Deerhunter's first four full-lengths, that sort of queerness was mostly relegated to the realm of the subliminal: off-hand lyrical references, little sonic suggestions, hints of pent-up lust and frustration and loneliness. And then, like a bolt from the blue, Halcyon Digest: the sexual and social undercurrent that had laid in waiting for almost a decade exploded to the forefront, a burst of thematic clarity mirrored by a shift towards pristine, direct recording and composition. The album is one of the great documents of the queer experience; it's a true digest, a collection of stories and elements of the gay experience pulled from real life, literature, and the province of the mind.
Halcyon Digest gives voice to characters that never had a chance to speak for themselves, to feelings that are too often relegated to journals and goodbye notes. On the cover there's Dennis Dinion, an Atlanta-area school teacher taking part in the 1982 Miss Star Lite Pageant on 1983's doorstep; it was the club's last night open. At the center of heartbroken requiem "Helicopter", there's Dima Marakov, a Dennis Cooper protagonist who went from studying fashion design in Russia to gay pornography and forced prostitution. There's the nameless child of the autumnal, jangling "Memory Boy", dealing with swirling October lust and his father's shame. "Revival" casts homoerotic passion in the language of religion, with Cox putting on his sluttiest moan; "Don't Cry" and "Sailing" are documents of loneliness and pure isolation. The album ends with a sprawling expression of platonic love. Courage, hope, sadness, loss, the beautiful and the grotesque, the divine and the queer: it's all here, rendered in painstakingly personal detail.
--Jamieson Cox, Pitchfork

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#356. Todd Rundgren | Something / Anything? (1972)
# of Voters: 11 | Score: 599.861
Rank in 2014: #420
AM 3000 Rank: #339
Top Fans: Henry (#3), Slucs (#8), Georgie (#22), Honorio (#44), BangJan (#80)
It's an amazing journey that's remarkably unpretentious. He may have contributed self-penned liner notes, but Rundgren peppers his writing with self-aware, self-deprecating asides, and he also indulges his bizarre sense of humor with gross-outs ("Piss Aaron") and sheer quirkiness, such as an aural tour of the studio at the beginning of side two. Something/Anything? has a ton of loose ends throughout: plenty of studio tricks, slight songs (but no filler), snippets of dialogue, and purposely botched beginnings, but all these throwaways simply add context -- they're what makes the album into a kaleidoscopic odyssey through the mind of an insanely gifted pop music obsessive. Rundgren occasionally touched on the sheer brilliance of Something/Anything? in his later work, but this extraordinary double album is the one time where his classicist songcraft and messy genius converged to create an utterly unique, glorious record.
--Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic

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#355. Elvis Presley | Elvis Presley (1956)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 604.174
Rank in 2014: #374
AM 3000 Rank: #118
Top Fans: Nico (#16), Honorio (#19), Andyramone1234 (#75), Dexter (#81), Slick (#86), Bruno (#93)
One of the most important album releases in music history. The RCA label had brought his contract from the Sun label and combined newly recorded tracks with some left over songs from his Sun days. He was able to combine country and rhythm & blues in an accessable brand of rock 'n' roll. The music combined with Elvis' charisma to create not only a revolutionary sound but an Amrican icon. Elvis Presley sold in the millions and was number one for 10 weeks yet that does not begin to evaluate its impact. It was cultural as a whole generation of teenagers were exposed to a type of music different from that of their parents.
--theoldguy, RYM

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#354. TV on the Radio | Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)
# of Voters: 20 | Score: 605.475
Rank in 2014: #188
AM 3000 Rank: #325
Top Fans: Gillingham (#37), Nassim (#69), Michel (#79)
Maybe that's why this album has such an incredible pull: It doesn't make an atmosphere so much as a space to spend time in, and Adebimpe doesn't become a narrator so much as a witness. We sidle up into his head and watch through his eyes the tyrants, the druggies, the cocky lovers, the losers, and those beautiful fools who still surrender to lines like "Love is the province of the brave." And TV on the Radio are standing in the center, watching it all go by again, and again, and again.
--Chris Dahlen, Pitchfork

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#353. Primal Scream | Screamadelica (1991)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 606.031
Rank in 2014: #232
AM 3000 Rank: #85
Top Fans: BleuPanda (#17), GucciLittlePiggy (#76), Nick (#79), OrdinaryPerson (#81)
An inquisitive question with a hesitant and vague answer. An exchange comprising the expansive spirit of a huge record. These words above are the opening for "Loaded", one of the best tracks. A peak in a mountain chain which is full of them. From "Movin' on Up" to the narcotic cover of The 13th Floor Elevators, "Slip Inside This House"; from the hymn "Higher than the Sun" to the everlasting hypnosis of "Come Together"; from the already mentioned "Loaded" to the backwater of "Damaged". They are just a few suggestions for the psychic voyager. Milestones on the road to stop and gaze landscapes of special beauty. This is an album with a perfect assembly and, at the same time, it's full of contrasts, of impossible fusions that became too "usual" later. Yet, that mustn't distract us from the fact that there will be little with such a repercussion as this one had. Not many in which the integration of rock into techno or of dance music into rock has been done in such a natural and addictive way. Addictive as the substances Bobby Gillespie and his psychonauts must have taken to make this work, an irrefutable evidence of the (sometimes) productive joint between music and drugs.
--laranra, RYM

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#352. Bob Dylan | Desire (1976)
# of Voters: 17 | Score: 607.922
Rank in 2014: #275
AM 3000 Rank: #486
Top Fans: Antonius (#39), DocBrown (#41), GabeBasso (#79), Michel (#85)
The music on Desire is consistently entertaining, beautiful, melodic, and attractive. Many Bob Dylan records feature excellent lyrics but are sometimes let down by melodies that do not shine as brightly as the words; Desire not only features imaginative and evocative lyrics, but the arrangements are unique and engaging and Dylan's vocals are well-judged and effective throughout. Credit must also go to Dylan's new collaborators here, to co-writer Jacques Levy, producer Don DeVito, to musicians Howard Wyeth and Rob Stoner, to the superb harmony vocals of Emmylou Harris and the standout violin playing from Scarlet Rivera, which lends Desire much of its "travelling gypsy show" vibe. Today, Desire is rightfully regarded as one of Bob Dylan's most interesting and unique albums.
--bron31, RYM

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#351. M.I.A. | Kala (2007)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 609.611
Rank in 2014: #257
AM 3000 Rank: #237
Top Fans: Toni (#43), Maschine_Man (#69), RockyRaccoon (#72), GabeBasso (#78)
On its 10th birthday, Kala feels newly relevant amid global political currents trending toward isolationism—and due to enduring refugee crises in many of the places that M.I.A. continues to represent in her music. The total entertainment value of the album attests to the vibrancy and humanity of what M.I.A. termed, in one standout track, the “World Town” that travel bans and border walls seek to shut out. As importantly, Kala’s loud celebration of people that have been categorized as “other” spoke up for values that the West likes to think aren’t actually foreign to it. In the acknowledgements to Kala, M.I.A. wrote, “I’d especially like to thank who ever said ‘I’m a citizen of the world and my religion is to do good.’” The person she was paraphrasing was Thomas Paine
--Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic
Last edited by notbrianeno on Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by spiderpig »

Some small errors: "Every Picture Tells a Story" lacks an image. "Something/Anything" and "Elvis Presley"'s fans are the same. But I trust notbrianeno will fix that soon, as he has done previously. Keep going, I'm glued to my seat!
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Federico »

Great presentation, notbrianeno and your helpers. Thanks for this.
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by notbrianeno »

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#350. The Smiths | Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)
# of Voters: 13 | Score: 609.981
Rank in 2014: #271
AM 3000 Rank: #553
Top Fans: Maschine_Man (#8), ChrisK (#18), Moonbeam (#59), DaveC (#62), Profeta (#78)
The songs are much darker and claustrophobic. The liberation and exhilaration of "This Charming Man is gone". The Smiths captured the feeling of mostly everyone who was outside the bland, boring mainstream of the 80s.
--HUD, RYM

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#349. XTC | Skylarking (1986)
# of Voters: 16 | Score: 611.024
Rank in 2014: #280
AM 3000 Rank: #497
Top Fans: ChrisK (#22), VanillaFire1000 (#42), Whuntva (#71), BangJan (#96)
The wizards of pop that carry an undeservedly lack of massive success. The highest point in an immaculate career is this 1986 Todd Rundgren-produced effort with detailed and imaginative arrangements that enhance an impressive set of songs that combine pleasant melodies with clever and adult lyrics. Is it possible a better example than the atheist hymn “Dear God”?
--Honorio, RYM

[imgsize 500x500]https://images.juno.co.uk/full/CS1701572-02A-BIG.jpg[/imgsize]

#348. Brian Eno | Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 611.448
Rank in 2014: #402
AM 3000 Rank: #1194
Top Fans: Jackson (#10), BangJan (#12), Romain (#25), Moonbeam (#79), Babydoll (#80), PlasticRam (#91)
Continuing the twisted pop explorations of Here Come the Warm Jets, Eno's sophomore album, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), is more subdued and cerebral, and a bit darker when he does cut loose, but it's no less thrilling once the music reveals itself. It's a loose concept album -- often inscrutable, but still playful -- about espionage, the Chinese Communist revolution, and dream associations, with the more stream-of-consciousness lyrics beginning to resemble the sorts of random connections made in dream states. Eno's richly layered arrangements juxtapose very different treated sounds, yet they blend and flow together perfectly, hinting at the directions his work would soon take with the seamless sound paintings of Another Green World. Although not quite as enthusiastic as Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain is made accessible through Eno's mastery of pop song structure, a form he would soon transcend and largely discard.
--Steve Huey, Allmusic

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#347. Fela Kuti | Zombie (1977)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 611.860
Rank in 2014: #267
AM 3000 Rank: #1260
Top Fans: Nicolas (#25), SonofSamIAm (#40), Panam (#41), Babydoll (#74)
Formula is a harsh word to use in this instance, "formula" simply meaning how Kuti's tunes hinge; in this context it is the formula of vast jams that soak the senses before his fangs hiss out ironic, bitter, sarcastic rousing lyrics, the Afrobeat rhythms like giant footsteps thumping on the consciences of the oppressors he shoots between the eyes with every single note.
--KildareJohn, RYM

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#346. Stan Getz & João Gilberto | Getz/Gilberto (1964)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 613.267
Rank in 2014: #360
AM 3000 Rank: #408
Top Fans: VeganValentine (#24), RickyMathias (#26), Nicolas (#46)
With such uniformly brilliant material, it's no wonder the album was such a success but, even apart from that, the musicians all play with an effortless grace that's arguably the fullest expression of bossa nova's dreamy romanticism ever brought to American listeners. Getz himself has never been more lyrical, and Gilberto and Jobim pull off the harmonic and rhythmic sophistication of the songs with a warm, relaxed charm. This music has nearly universal appeal; it's one of those rare jazz records about which the purist elite and the buying public are in total agreement. Beyond essential.
--Steve Huey, Allmusic

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#345. Dire Straits | Brothers in Arms (1985)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 614.434
Rank in 2014: #333
AM 3000 Rank: #581
Top Fans: BonnieLaurel (#20), VeganValentine (#37), Profeta (#55), RedAnt (#59), Nico (#89), Bruno (#92), Miguel (#92)
Brothers in Arms brought the atmospheric, jazz-rock inclinations of Love Over Gold into a pop setting, resulting in a surprise international best-seller. Of course, the success of Brothers in Arms was helped considerably by the clever computer-animated video for "Money for Nothing," a sardonic attack on MTV. But what kept the record selling was Mark Knopfler's increased sense of pop songcraft -- "Money for Nothing" had an indelible guitar riff, "Walk of Life" is a catchy up-tempo boogie variation on "Sultans of Swing," and the melodies of the bluesy "So Far Away" and the down-tempo, Everly Brothers-style "Why Worry" were wistful and lovely. Dire Straits had never been so concise or pop-oriented, and it wore well on them.
--Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic

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#344. Prince | Dirty Mind (1980)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 614.736
Rank in 2014: #246
AM 3000 Rank: #470
Top Fans: Slucs (#30), Moonbeam (#60), Romain (#77)
The entire album sounds like it was recorded in a few days- a sort of musical one-night stand. This fresh approach to creating music assures its vitality, and at a few seconds over a half and hour in duration, this sonic romp is prone to repeated trysts. Those who had heard the glimpses of genius in Prince's first two albums were rewarded with a truly great album, and Dirty Mind is an uninhibited landmark of music that encapsulates the emergence of a superstar who would provide classic material for decades to come.
--Moonbeam, RYM

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#343. Dr. Dre | The Chronic (1992)
# of Voters: 14 | Score: 616.247
Rank in 2014: #528
AM 3000 Rank: #131
Top Fans: Bootsy (#52), Bruno (#57), Nico (#63), EmilienDelRey (#75)
These thick tonal details are placed under - or rather, around - a mood of such relentlessly absurd braggadocio that the whole thing is dazed with a very unique vibe of frustrated, nauseous, woozy paranoia that's being pushed to the backburner for the moment so that these reprobates can prove that they do their shit better than anyone. Recorded soon after the L.A. riots, The Chronic has less of the anger that marked, say, Ice Cube's Predator album (which came out a month earlier and also dealt explicitly with the riots), but it has more atmosphere. Basically, I'd be hard-pressed to find a rap album as atmospheric as this one, period.
--LimedisBagels, RYM

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#342. Frank Sinatra | In the Wee Small Hours (1955)
# of Voters: 15 | Score: 617.504
Rank in 2014: #405
AM 3000 Rank: #306
Top Fans: Profeta (#19), Babydoll (#47), Honorio (#50), VanillaFire1000 (#56), Nico (#88), Bruno (#91)
Sinatra had been toying with the idea of the concept album since the beginning of his career. Nevertheless, these ideas didn't crystallize until 1955 in this hideously monumental project in the 10 inches age. Furthermore, the first long play, strictly speaking, had a thread that made it unique and still bestows upon it the mark of essential work. This is about broken hearts by lack of communication. The sores of love. Sores exposed in songs recorded specially for the occasion and wrapped in a classic sleeve that gives some clues at what's this all about before listening to it.
--Laranra, RYM

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#341. Pink Floyd | Animals (1977)
# of Voters: 12 | Score: 619.217
Rank in 2014: #434
AM 3000 Rank: #1506
Top Fans: VeganValentine (#6), OrdinaryPerson (#13), Dudumb (#27), Brad (#31), GabeBasso (#82)
All jokes about the increasingly poisonous interpersonal situation in the band aside, Animals finds the group crafting a murky, mildly grimy sound miles away from the clean, sterile atmosphere of Wish You Were Here, in which they explore thematic territory that is just as angry, cynical and accusatory as the punks were dredging up. Of course, this was not purely a reaction to the antics of the Damned, the Clash or the Sex Pistols - there's anger there in Wish You Were Here - but in crafting a more intimate sound and making more direct attacks on the objects of their disapproval (devastatingly so on Pigs (Three Different Ones)), the band appear to have recognised the mood of the time, as well as the increasing gap growing between them and their audience.
--Warthur, RYM
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Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS

Post by Jirin »

I wonder why Neil Young's dark albums are falling so far,
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