✅ Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums List

Lists of all time (or back to the early rock years) that include all genres (or rock or pop music in a broad sense).
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Harold
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✅ Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums List

Post by Harold »

Entertainment Weekly's website has a preview of next week's issue, which will present "100 Greatest" lists for movies, TV, music, and novels. The site reveals the top 10 entries on each list. Here are the top 10 albums (artist names unnecessary, I trust):

1. Revolver
2. Purple Rain
3. Exile on Main Street
4. Thriller
5. London Calling
6. Blood on the Tracks
7. Lady Soul
8. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
9. Pet Sounds
10. Nevermind

So it looks like a consensus is growing that Revolver, not Sgt. Pepper, is the Beatles' (and rock's) greatest album. Predictably, there are already a number of comments on the site declaring the entire list null and void because of the #8 rank for "that talentless hack" Kanye West. While I might agree that MBDTF hasn't stood enough of a test of time yet to be on an all-time top 10 list, I wouldn't doubt that a lot of these comments (and whatever might come later - I have no intention of going back to look again) are from people who have never listened to a second of West's music and are simply reacting to his increasingly off-putting public persona. Which is, of course, pretty much entirely his own fault. Actually, putting MBDTF in the top 10 is a pretty ballsy move on EW's part, given all that.

Here are the other top 10s, in case anyone's curious:

MOVIES:
1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca
4. Bonnie and Clyde
5. Psycho
6. It's a Wonderful Life
7. Mean Streets
8. The Gold Rush
9. Nashville
10. Gone With the Wind

TV:
1. The Wire
2. The Simpsons
3. Seinfeld
4. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
5. The Sopranos
6. All in the Family
7. The Andy Griffith Show
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
9. Mad Men
10. Your Show of Shows

NOVELS:
1. Anna Karenina
2. The Great Gatsby
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Great Expectations
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude
6. My Antonia
7. Harry Potter series
8. Updike's "Rabbit" series
9. Beloved
10. Charlotte's Web
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by JR »

Thanks for the heads-up, Harold. I was wondering when EW would do a top 100 of all time- some 20 years ago, it had the 100 Greatest CDs and then it had the 100 albums of 1983-1998.

My copy usually arrives in the mail tomorrow, I'll post the list (unless someone does so before me).
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Henrik »

Thanks guys! I'm excited!
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Harold »

I have to say that the single most exciting thing about these top tens is the inclusion on the movie list of Mean Streets, which is not only my favorite Scorsese film but my favorite movie of all time, period.

Christ, I really need to get that Wire boxed set...
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Mattceinicram »

I'm stoked to see this! And that's super gutsy of EW to put MBDTF that high...and I have no problem with it 8-)
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by luvulongTIM »

Well the Simpsons had about a dozen sensational years but now it's just a watered down shell of what it once was. I can't watch it anymore. It's gotten so obnoxious. Don't know what happened to Tess McNeal's voice but she's become like the Yoko Ono of the show and the rest of the voiceover actors aren't much better. So overall you have 12 GREAT YEARS vs. 12 mediocre seasons. So in my opinion the Simpsons cancels itself out and hopefully soon it gets cancelled period.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by JR »

No list has leaked yet, but a Minnesota publication article reported two other positions: No. 27 (Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited) and No. 62 (Replacements, Let it Be).

The same article also reported that Sgt. Pepper's is not on the list.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Mattceinicram »

JR wrote:
The same article also reported that Sgt. Pepper's is not on the list.
now THAT'S ballsy
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Daniel »

JR wrote:The same article also reported that Sgt. Pepper's is not on the list.
wow. perhaps they're limiting themselves to a cap of albums per artist? While I was going through the top 10 countdown on EW's website, I was kind of expecting Sgt. Pepper to be #1 (happy to see Revolver there instead), but it seems odd that it wouldn't even be included in a top 100. Hmm... if that's the case, I'm curious to know what other albums/movies/shows/books have been snubbed.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Nassim »

Harold wrote: TV:
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
That's also something I'm glad to see. Though it could have appeared at first as a brainless show for teenagers, but it was witty, at time adventurous, dealt with lots of serious issues (the most known example is The Body, a stunning episode about the loss of a loved person through sickness, but the show also tackled homosexuality, addiction, depression, rape...) and the main characters evolved and grew up as their audience did. I watched all 7 seasons in a row last year, and while the first one aged quite a bit, the others (especially 2 to 4) brilliantly passed the test of time (even with all the pop culture references). Joss Whedon always talked to his audience at if they were clever people, knows how to balance darkness and humor and is especially talented for finding the perfect last scene in an episode, and I'm not talking cliffhangers (even if they were quite a few) but really the meaningful sentence or shot that leaves a lasting impression (and God are some of them heart breaking).
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Nassim »

luvulongTIM wrote:Well the Simpsons had about a dozen sensational years but now it's just a watered down shell of what it once was. I can't watch it anymore. It's gotten so obnoxious. Don't know what happened to Tess McNeal's voice but she's become like the Yoko Ono of the show and the rest of the voiceover actors aren't much better. So overall you have 12 GREAT YEARS vs. 12 mediocre seasons. So in my opinion the Simpsons cancels itself out and hopefully soon it gets cancelled period.
No one ever says that the Rolling Stones or the Who are less important because of some of the crappy albums they released late in their career, I don't see why it should be different for a TV Show, what matters if how good it was at their peak, especially if this peak lasted for 12 years.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by JR »

Well we know it's not one album per act, as Dylan has two entries.

Will be interesting to see if the order of 1983 to 2008 albums changes (or if 83-08 albums that weren't on that list appear on this one) as order sometimes does when publications update lists. Purple Rain was No. 1 on that last list and is No. 2 here, so consistent thus far. :mrgreen:
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

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JR, when does your mail arrive? :whistle:
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Entertainment Weekly: 100 All-Time Greatest Albums

Post by Harold »

Here's the list, straight from the pages of the magazine. I wanted to get this up right away, so it's titles only here for the most part. They do cheat a little, placing anthologies at #16, #51, and #83. It's a fairly respectable list - it isn't until you get all the way down to #94 before most of us might say, "Wait, really?" Although there are some startling omissions (including, yes, Sgt. Pepper's), most related to the desire not to have certain artists dominate the list.

1 Revolver
2 Purple Rain
3 Exile on Main Street
4 Thriller
5 London Calling
6 Blood on the Tracks
7 Lady Soul
8 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
9 Pet Sounds
10 Nevermind
11 Blue
12 The Beatles
13 What's Going On
14 At Folsom Prison
15 Born to Run
16 Sunrise [Elvis Presley anthology]
17 21
18 Graceland
19 Call Me
20 Beggars Banquet
21 Innervisions
22 Abbey Road
23 Achtung Baby
24 Discovery
25 Catch a Fire
26 Are You Experienced
27 Highway 61 Revisited
28 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
29 Rumours
30 Otis Blue
31 Ready to Die
32 Appetite for Destruction
33 Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
34 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
35 Some Girls
36 The Blueprint
37 The Dark Side of the Moon
38 The Velvet Underground & Nico
39 Who's Next
40 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
41 The Marshall Mathers LP
42 Back in Black
43 Madonna
44 Off the Wall
45 OK Computer
46 Rubber Soul
47 Disintegration
48 Stankonia
49 Sound of Silver
50 The Queen is Dead
51 The Great Twenty-Eight [Chuck Berry anthology]
52 The Low End Theory
53 The Soft Bulletin
54 Lifes Rich Pageant
55 Illmatic
56 Funeral
57 Songs in A Minor
58 The Chronic
59 Master of Puppets
60 Odelay
61 3 Feet High and Rising
62 Let It Be [Replacements]
63 Marquee Moon
64 The Downward Spiral
65 Forever Changes
66 Live Through This
67 After the Gold Rush
68 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
69 Daydream Nation
70 Raw Power
71 The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
72 Paul's Boutique
73 The Harder They Come
74 Back to Black
75 My Aim is True
76 Remain in Light
77 Loveless
78 Post
79 Led Zeppelin IV
80 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
81 Doolittle
82 Slanted and Enchanted
83 In the Jungle Groove [James Brown anthology]
84 Horses
85 Rain Dogs
86 Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
87 Coat of Many Colors
88 Power, Corruption and Lies
89 Dig Me Out
90 White Blood Cells
91 There's a Riot Goin' On
92 Either/Or
93 Straight Outta Compton
94 B'Day [Beyonce]
95 Saturday Night Fever
96 Home [Dixie Chicks]
97 Dusty in Memphis
98 Songs for the Deaf
99 Mama's Gun
100 Ramones
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Henrik »

Thanks Harold!

Top 50 AM albums not on the list:

5 The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
7 Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde
10 Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks - Here's the Sex Pistols
15 Van Morrison Astral Weeks
22 The Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland
25 The Doors The Doors
26 Prince Sign 'O' the Times
33 Massive Attack Blue Lines
34 The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed
35 Miles Davis Kind of Blue (there are no great jazz albums?)
38 U2 The Joshua Tree
39 James Brown 'Live' at the Apollo
40 The Band The Band
41 Joy Division Closer
43 The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
44 Radiohead Kid A
46 Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Harold »

Henrik wrote: 35 Miles Davis Kind of Blue (there are no great jazz albums?)
They seem to have decided not to include jazz, pre-rock pop (e.g., Sinatra), or - obviously - classical.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Henrik »

Harold wrote:
Henrik wrote: 35 Miles Davis Kind of Blue (there are no great jazz albums?)
They seem to have decided not to include jazz, pre-rock pop (e.g., Sinatra), or - obviously - classical.
They say that?
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Harold »

Henrik wrote:
Harold wrote:
Henrik wrote: 35 Miles Davis Kind of Blue (there are no great jazz albums?)
They seem to have decided not to include jazz, pre-rock pop (e.g., Sinatra), or - obviously - classical.
They say that?
No, but it's pretty obvious from what's here and what isn't. Although I suppose it would normally be "obvious" that Sgt. Pepper's would be here, too. All of these lists contain inclusions and exclusions seemingly designed to expand or explode the traditional canons - the all-time greatest novels list doesn't include Ulysses, believe it or not.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: 100 All-Time Greatest Albums

Post by Nassim »

Harold wrote: 17 21
Adele's ? That's impressively high.
Harold wrote: 49 Sound of Silver
56 Funeral
72 Paul's Boutique
92 Either/Or
98 Songs for the Deaf
Yay \o/ :happy-partydance:
Well, especially the last 2 since the others are a big more expected.

Lifes Rich Pageant over Murmur and Automatic for the People is a bit surprising too.
Seeing an Erykah Baduh album on the list is a little surprise too, especially since it's not Baduizm or New Amerykah Pt. 1

But really, what is Some Girls doing on here ?
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Harold »

I just read Jess Cagle's Editor's Note, and he does make it explicit: "Jason [Adams] and his department focused our music list on the modern album era, specifically pop, rock, and hip-hop, because that's the kind of music that fills our audience's iPods."
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: 100 All-Time Greatest Albums

Post by Harold »

Nassim wrote:
Harold wrote: 17 21
Adele's ? That's impressively high.
Probably a little too high, but as it's the most popular album of the last decade or so - and has the added benefit of actually being really good as well - its high ranking isn't too unexpected.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by JR »

Thanks for posting the list, Harold. I got my copy, so you saved me some work. :D

Looks like EW strayed somewhat from the 83-08 list for albums from that period- Nevermind wasn't on that list, and it's No. 10 here (MTV Unplugged was No. 11 on the 83-08 list). And there are other differences.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by JR »

I did some work, anyhow, and added artists, for convenience. :)

1. The Beatles, Revolver
2. Prince, Purple Rain
3. The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
4. Michael Jackson, Thriller
5. The Clash, London Calling
6. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
7. Aretha Franklin, Lady Soul
8. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
9. The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
10. Nirvana, Nevermind
11. Joni Mitchell, Blue
12. The Beatles, The White Album
13. Marvin Gaye, What's Going On
14. Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison
15. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
16. Elvis Presley, Sunrise [anthology]
17. Adele, 21
18. Paul Simon, Graceland
19. Al Green, Call Me
20. The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet
21. Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
22. The Beatles, Abbey Road
23. U2, Achtung Baby
24. Daft Punk, Discovery
25. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Catch a Fire
26. Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced
27. Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
28. Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
29. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
30. Otis Redding, Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul
31. The Notorious B.I.G., Ready to Die
32. Guns N' Roses, Appetite for Destruction
33. Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
34. David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
35. The Rolling Stones, Some Girls
36. Jay-Z, The Blueprint
37. Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon
38. The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground & Nico
39. The Who, Who's Next
40. John Lennon, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
41. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP
42. AC/DC, Back in Black
43. Madonna, Madonna
44. Michael Jackson, Off the Wall
45. Radiohead, OK Computer
46. The Beatles, Rubber Soul
47.The Cure, Disintegration
48. Outkast, Stankonia
49. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
50. The Smiths, The Queen is Dead
51. Chuck Berry, The Great Twenty-Eight [anthology]
52. A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory
53. The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin
54. R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant
55. Nas, Illmatic
56. Arcade Fire, Funeral
57. Alicia Keys, Songs in A Minor
58. Dr. Dre, The Chronic
59. Metallica, Master of Puppets
60. Beck, Odelay
61. De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising
62. The Replacements, Let It Be
63. Television, Marquee Moon
64. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
65. Love, Forever Changes
66. Hole, Live Through This
67. Neil Young, After the Gold Rush
68. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
69. Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
70. Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power
71. The Kinks, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
72. Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique
73. Various Artists,The Harder They Come
74. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
75. Elvis Costello, My Aim is True
76. Talking Heads, Remain in Light
77. My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
78. Bjork, Post
79. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
80. Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
81. Pixies, Doolittle
82. Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted
83. James Brown, In the Jungle Groove [anthology]
84. Patti Smith, Horses
85. Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
86. PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
87. Dolly Parton, Coat of Many Colors
88. New Order, Power, Corruption and Lies
89. Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out
90. The White Stripes, White Blood Cells
91. Sly and the Family Stone, There's a Riot Goin' On
92. Elliott Smith, Either/Or
93. N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton
94 Beyonce, B'Day
95. Various Artists, Saturday Night Fever
96. Dixie Chicks, Home
97. Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis
98. Queens of the Stone Age, Songs for the Deaf
99. Erykah Badu, Mama's Gun
100. Ramones, Ramones
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Mattceinicram »

21, B-Day, Songs in A minor, and Home are all kind of interesting choices for me....
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by JR »

Even though views change over time, depending on how staff changes and whatnot, there are some drastic differences with the prior list and this one. Some other acts also have a different album on this list than the prior one- aside from Nirvana, Beyonce's Dangerously in Love was No. 19 on the 83-08 list; it's not on this new list, yet B'Day appears. And there are others.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Nick »

This is actually a REALLY great list. When I read the words "Entertainment Weekly" I somewhat groaned, expecting a fair number of classic albums with a large amount of trash that only got mentioned because it sold well. But this list was actually really, really good. And yeah, MBDTF totally deserves that top 10 spot.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Mattceinicram »

Out of curiosity, does this magazine give explanations for all their choices? Or is it simply a list. I'm considering purchasing an issue out of curiosity.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by Jackson »

Considering the source I expected this list to be an absolute trainwreck, so the fact that it wasn't was a surprise. I thought MBDTF wasn't actually that big of a surprise in the top 10 (Lady Soul seems like a stranger pick to me). The fact that they actually included stuff like The Soft Bulletin, The Low End Theory, Rain Dogs, and Village Green--even though these would be standard for most music critics--is pretty cool considering I expected an EW list to be purely mainstream acts.
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Re: Entertainment Weekly: Top 10 from 100 Greatest Albums Li

Post by JR »

Matt- there's commentary accompanying each selection.
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