OK Computer named best album of last 20 years

[Steven S. Dallas]

Ten hours have past and Buster hasn't comented on your Zappa quote? I'm shocked!

That has to be the most variously attributed quote ever. I thought it was Cole Porter, unless it was Miles Davis...

Yoga, huge Chuck Klosterman fan here. Try writing him- he'll write back. And he'll be funny, too.

Tipp- that's what I'm talkin' about. Is Art what the artist intends, or what the audience reifies through consumption? I don't think that most top 40 artists are going for artiness, but their work has to at least have some significance by dint of its widespread reception- doesn't it?

[Station]

Station you might need to try some Clutch. Their new album is our today.

It is hard grooving rock - if that is your thing. Their best album was their self titled. The new one sounds great though. They have shown up on a few recent ski movie soundtracks such as Stimulus.

Oh- man. I have not listened to Clutch in quite a while. I bought & rocked out to the one with the hoove lampshade on the cover (pretty sure its the ST album) for so long. Thanks for that- I'll check the new album.

[Station]

Disc One

Iceman- what compiled album is this? That playlist makes me tingle. Joy Division, Pixies, & Bauhaus are 3 of my favorite bands.

Wasnt quite sure if this is an album, or one of your recco mixes.

[freshies]

what box set is this? "best of the 80s" or something? its a pretty solid mix there, i'll give 'em that.

[iceman]

Rhino Records - "Left of the dial"

[freshies]

Rhino Records - "Left of the dial"

do you own this? if so, how about burning me a copy

[iceman]

No I just found it like the day before yesterday but I plan on getting it - expensive though

[freshies]

No I just found it like the day before yesterday but I plan on getting it - expensive though

yeah, Rhino's re-releases are sweet. I have the first 4 Elvis Costello albums from the Rhino re-issues, and they are sweet: bonus discs on ea one w/live recordings, outtakes, etc, and cool liner notes from Elvis, etc. They do good work those Rhino peeps.

[DaveTV]

I can't believe JOYCE didn't even make the top 20!

[Tippster]

...Tipp- that's what I'm talkin' about. Is Art what the artist intends, or what the audience reifies through consumption?

I come down on the audience's side. I can take a crap on the sidewalk and call it art, and myself an artist by extension, yet IMVHO that's up to the audience (passersby) to judge whether it's "ART" or just a smelly log on the concrete.

I get into discussions all the time with people who portray themselves as artists. If you work in a specific medium why not call yourself a Potter, Painter, Sculptor, Musician, Photographer, etc.? It's hubris to assume the mantle of "artist" on your own. I work creatively (I hope) in video, so you maybe I'll call myself an artist as well.

I need new business cards....

[yogachik]

It's well worth giving Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs a read. Great summer/beach book.

[Pinner]

Subway employs "sandwich artists."

[bossass]

yeah, Rhino's re-releases are sweet. I have the first 4 Elvis Costello albums from the Rhino re-issues, and they are sweet: bonus discs on ea one w/live recordings, outtakes, etc, and cool liner notes from Elvis, etc. They do good work those Rhino peeps.

I agree, but I was sort of pissed that some songs like "greenshirt" and "running out of angels" were on the bonus disc, when they had been included with later versions of "This years' Model" for years. I had to burn a disc to retain my familiar listening experience of "this year's model".

Otherwise, love the rereleases.

Aside: Elvis talks about the "Quisling Clinic" in Green Shirt. It's a clinic on the corner of Gorham and Wisconsin Ave in downtown Madison, WI. He saw it when in town on a early tour and really liked the building. I don't know who designed it, but it's very Frank Lloyd-esque on the outside. I actually had some ingrown toenails and a physical taken care of there in High School. They turned the whole building into retro apartments a few years later. Too spendy for me in college, but I always thought it'd be funny to live in an apartment where I once did the ol' "turn and cough".

[Steven S. Dallas]

It's well worth giving Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs a read. Great summer/beach book.

It's feckin' hilarious.

Also great: Fargo Rock City. If you grew up listening to '80s hair metal, you have to read this book. In a word, it's validating.

[yogachik]

I agree, but I was sort of pissed that some songs like "greenshirt" and "running out of angels" were on the bonus disc, when they had been included with later versions of "This years' Model" for years. I had to burn a disc to retain my familiar listening experience of "this year's model".

Anyone who is that big an Elvis C fan is a-ok in my book.

I didn't know that the re-releases were any different. My first This Year's Model was on 8 Track, complete with some songs interrupted half way through and continued in the next channel. I still expect the interruption on some songs.

[Grange]

Subway employs "sandwich artists."

I guess I was an artist in highschool.

[tarkman1]

I'd say that Radiohead would never have received the 'Best' if they had put out OK Computer when they were relatively unknown. "OK Computer" is much different from its predecessor.

Most of the other higher ranking albums ranked by Spin were indie or alternative when alternative was still alternative. Hey, the magazine and critics always have to be cooler with their indie knowledge.

Still, I'd have to say that Jane's Addiction "Nothing Shocking" is better than "OK Computer" and more groundbreaking. I have no doubt about that whatsoever. "Joshua Tree" is phenomenal as is "Siamese Dream".

[basom]

Dude to say they're in your personal top 40 favorites is fine of course.

To say that all of those albums are in the top 40 best albums of all time is clearly insane.

i thought the point of talking about your impressions of what makes a good album or list of albums was that, your impressions.



i will bet you havent listened to any of those albums from begining to end. or have any real idea of why i would put each of those albums on a list. nor do you really care. and thats cool. i'm cool with that.

also, you already know that i'm clearly insane.

edit: you could have put me in my place if you said "you are clearly insane for having all that paul in your list, but no stetsansonic"

[iceman]

Fack, ownerized again.

All I was saying is...to have that many from one guy in the alltime top 40 is...

...well, shit, never mind.

Especially since I have no clue in the world who Stetsononic is, and also because I trust your taste more than just about anybody else's I know, so ...

You go, Prince Paul.

[The AD]

Rhino Records - "Left of the dial"

Iceman, if you would have read my thread last year you'd own it by now:
http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17415

But you were probably too busy in that god damn chat room or something

[Steven S. Dallas]

Especially since I have no clue in the world who Stetsononic is....

Don't listen to base, he bought into wack jumpsuits at the wrong time and is trying to drive the market back up. He's the George Soros of polyester.

[iceman]

Iceman, if you would have read my thread last year you'd own it by now:
http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17415

But you were probably too busy in that god damn chat room or something

heh, good call, I missed that thread.

but what is this chat rom of which you speak?

[basom]

Don't listen to base, he bought into wack jumpsuits at the wrong time and is trying to drive the market back up.

weather you like it or not, hellfire & damnation, jumpsuits is the way to the top. you can get in and ride my coat tails, or you can be like iceman and simply stare in awe as i just keep talking and talking and talking.... as my speech is clumsy, with a toadlike indolence, long-winded, pedantic, choppy. The words tumble from my mouth in sentence fragments, which i hold back as much as possible, as if they were earning interest. It takes forever and a day for me to push out a clump of hardened brain-snot. Then i writhe in painful ecstasy, as if i had sugar on my rotten teeth ... Even if my throat were cut and my head were chopped off, speech balloons would still dangle from my mouth like gases emitted by internal decay...

[Foggy_Goggles]

hellfire & damnation

I musta missed a memo [/goes to the back of the class, head down, fully understanding why he'll be repeating the grade.]

[freshies]

more on this from Spin:

Each album on the list finds a sweet spot between artistic brilliance, stylistic innovation, and cultural relevance. You could listen to the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead hiding under a pillow fort in your bedroom (as Morrissey would no doubt prefer), or it could blow your mind in a crowded bar. Why? Because it pushes a unique vision from the margins to the mainstream (or the margins of the mainstream), reshaping both. Until someone new (a Wu-Tang Clan or White Stripes) emerges to redraw the margins all over again. These records tell us something different with every listen; even at their tiniest, they make private epiphanies feel like public events.

This explains why we picked Radiohead's OK Computer as our No. 1 album over Nirvana's Nevermind and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Between Thom Yorke's orange-alert worldview and the band's meld of epic guitar rock and electronic glitch, it not only forcast a decade of music but uncannily predicted our global culture of communal distress. Nevermind and Nation of Millions, while changing their moments irrevocably, seem less open-ended now, a little more "resolved." In a similar sense, some recent works of seeming genius, like M.I.A's Arular or Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut, are too open-ended -- we wonder how they'll sound when Spin turns 30, just as we pray we won't be the ones who'll have to weigh their significance. One month of dodging furniture is enough, thanks.

For the next few weeks, we'll reveal the entire list, a few albums at a time, right here on spin.com. Too anxious? You can peruse the complete list of the 100 Greatest Albums 1985-2005, in Spin's July issue on newsstands, or click here to subscribe. The July issue has commentary on each entry in the countdown, plus interviews with many of the artists behind these essential records.

We also know lots of you have your own ideas about the best albums released during Spin's 20-year existence. Visit our message boards and post your own top 10; clicking here will take you right to that thread. Have thoughts about our own list? Express those here.

Chuck Klosterman's July column is a companion to the 100 Greatest Albums list (read more).

And now, the list:

100. The Strokes, Is This It (RCA, 2001)
99. Afghan Whigs, Gentlemen (Elektra, 1993)
98. Cornershop, When I Was Born for the 7th Time (Luaka Bop, 1997)
97. Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Merge, 1998)
96. The Pogues, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash (Stiff/WEA, 1985)
95. Elastica, Elastica (DGC, 1995)
94. Slint, Spiderland (Touch and Go, 1991)
93. Pearl Jam, Ten (Epic, 1991)
92. Big Black, Atomizer (Homestead, 1986)
91. XTC, Skylarking (Geffen, 1986)
90. Sonic Youth, Sister (DGC, 1987)
89. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever to Tell (Interscope, 2003)
88. Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Elektra, 1996)
87. Blur, Parklife (Food, 1994)
86. Meat Puppets, Up on the Sun (SST, 1985)
85. R.E.M, Automatic for the People (Warner Bros., 1992)
84. Soundgarden, Superunknown (A&M, 1994)
83. At the Drive-In, Relationship of Command (Grand Royal, 2000)
82. Jeff Buckley, Grace (Columbia 1994)
81. Beck, Mellow Gold (Geffen, 1994)
80. D'Angelo, Voodoo (Virgin, 2000)
79. Moby, Everything Is Wrong (Elektra, 1995)
78. The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses (Silvertone, 1989)
77. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch, 2002)
76. Belle and Sebastian, If You're Feeling Sinister (The Enclave, 1997)