The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number 23
Pixies
Doolittle

1989
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No. of Voters 30 Score 2026.83
Rank in AM 3000 54
Rank in 2011 Poll 13
Top Fans BleuPanda (2), Maschine Man (3), Michel (4), SJner (6), Jackson (9), DaveC (9), Luvulong (10)
There are some cult classics that could have been hits, and then there are albums like “Doolittle.” Released 25 years ago today, the sophomore effort from wily Boston space cadets Pixies was never going to shift major units, and the fact that it spent two weeks at No. 98 on the Billboard 200 is some kind of miracle. Sweet and melodic in spots, absolutely brutal in others, it’s the cryptic record about death and god that Black Flag and the Ventures might make should they ever find themselves on the same interstellar pleasure cruise. It’s brilliant, and it’s not for everyone. But in the pre-Nirvana alternative rock world of 1989, the album was heralded as a landmark -- a release that inspired and ultimately helped pave the way for a slew of bands that would become arena-filling, chart-topping megastars in the mid-'90s.
One guy who famously dug it was Kurt Cobain, and as Nirvana fans well know, the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic shifts found all over “Doolittle” set the template for much of “Nevermind.”
By Kenneth Partridge in Billboard, April 18, 2014
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Number 22
Prince
Purple Rain

1984
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No. of Voters 28 Score 2028.17
Rank in AM 3000 43
Rank in 2011 Poll 27
Top Fans Stone37 (1), Rocky Racoon (6), Sonofsamiam (7), Henrik (9)
For those who’d conveniently forgotten that brown-skinned men named Ike Turner, Chuck Berry and Little Richard pioneered rock, Purple Rain was a reminder… But Prince was the more wide-ranging in his style. On the successful “When Doves Cry”—a strange and stark track without a bassline—Prince talked psychological smack to a former flame who just left him “standing alone in a world that’s so cold” on Purple Rain’s first single. He was in the process of propelling himself from cult status to the reigning rock star of the moment.
Suddenly, folks who only listened to nothing but the radio were asking, “Have you ever heard of this Prince guy? He’s pretty good.” Still, unlike punk rockers who bitterly complain whenever their favorite artists become successful, Prince fans were more than happy to share their idol and his brilliant Black noise. It didn’t matter that he would no longer be our private joy, because we wanted the world to embrace his genius too.
By Michael A. Gonzalez in Ebony, June, 2014
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number 21
Sufjan Stevens
Illinois

2005
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No. of Voters 31 Score 2031.58
Rank in AM 3000 84
Rank in 2011 Poll 18
Top Fans GucciLittlePiggy (5), BleuPanda (6), Michel (6), Henrik (8), Dan (10), Nassim (10)
Perhaps most remarkable about Illinois is that Stevens's exceptional lyrics are surpassed by his diverse, ambitious compositions. While his familiar brand of neo-folk is well represented (as on the appropriately eerie "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." and "Decatur"), the bulk of the album showcases a breadth of structures and styles that, at various turns, recalls the best of Richard Buckner or Jim White. Part I of "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" (subtitled, "The World's Columbian Expedition") forces a 5/4 time signature onto the frame of an epic-length pop song, only to shift to a more straightforward 4/4 meter to foreground the thematic purpose of Part II ("Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream"). Which is to say that Stevens fully grasps the importance of structure as a means to enhance theme… in a way that elevates his work above that of both his mainstream (Howie Day, Gavin DeGraw, Jason Mraz) and independent (Iron & Wine, Devendra Banhart) contemporaries.
That he plays most of the instruments—including acoustic guitar, piano, alto sax, electric bass, drums, banjo, Wurlitzer, flute, accordion, glockenspiel, and at least 20 more—and still writes songs that often surprise for their minimalism is just stupid good.
By Jonathan Keefe in Slant, June 30, 2005
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Number 20
The Who
Who’s Next

1971
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No. of Voters 29 Score 2040.87
Rank in AM 3000 35
Rank in 2011 Poll 34
Top Fans Henry (2), DocBrown (2), RockyRacoon (4), Stephan (4), Harold (6)
The viability of Tommy as a recorded and live vehicle had given Townshend renewed confidence in his own abilities, and had motivated him to take on larger challenges. His primary focus post Tommy came in the form of the Lifehouse project, a grandiose look at the possibilities of music in a futuristic setting.

Townshend’s idealized views on rock and roll as an element of one’s being, laid the groundwork for an elaborately sophisticated creation consisting of a feature film, expansive album, and interactive live concerts. While plausible to Townshend, the intricate blueprint for musical salvation proved to be a logistical impossibility, and the project gradually unraveled into disarray. In spite of its failure to reach fruition, the Lifehouse project yielded enough quality recorded material to assemble the nine-song album Who’s Next. At the time, no one could have foreseen the magnitude of this release, particularly Townshend himself who had viewed it as a commercial compromise of his Lifehouse vision.
By Adam Williams, Pop Matters, April 17, 2003
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Listyguy »

I've always been surprised by how high Illinois ranks compared to other 00s albums like Is This It and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Hell, it even manages to beat Kid A in these polls.

Going back a few decades, I'm pleasantly surprised at the placement of Who's Next and ecstatic that my #1 album cracked the top 20.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

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Number 18
Nirvana
Nevermind

1991
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No. of Voters 30 Score 2091.02
Rank in AM 3000 3
Rank in 2011 Poll 19
Top Fans Livein Phoenix (1), Schaefer.tk (1), Chris K (6), Bruno (8)
Nirvana essentially made Nevermind twice. The session that began in April 1991 with producer Butch Vig at Sound City studios in Van Nuys, CA, was remarkably similar to a session the band had in April 1990 with Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, WI. They recorded eight songs with the producer in 1990 in Madison, and five of those ended up on Nevermind, though most were new recordings and takes. The major difference between the Madison sessions and the recordings made in Van Nuys was Dave Grohl. So while most of the album was recorded in '91, the genesis of Nevermind began a year earlier. (Bonus trivia: On several songs, Grohl played Vig's Yamaha snare - the same one used on the Smashing Pumpkin's Gish.)
By Charles Cross, Spin, September 8, 2011
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Number 17
Talking Heads
Remain in Light

1980
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No. of Voters 33 Score 2170.76
Rank in AM 3000 34
Rank in 2011 Poll 24
Top Fans Michel (3), Chevisan (7), Jeff (8), McJagger (10)
Each time Remain in Light’s 40 minutes pass you by there’s likely to be something new to hear. Fidgety opener Born Under Punches is one of a handful of cuts that seems to get itself locked into an infinite loop – a good thing. It, like the equally muscular, equally wired The Great Curve, utilises club-land repetition mapped to Afrobeat-at-double-speed architecture to create an end product that’s utterly hypnotic.
Remain in Light wasn’t the first time Talking Heads, helmed by the inimitable David Byrne, had worked with producer Brian Eno. Nor was it the first time they’d incorporated elements of "world" music: debut set Talking Heads: 77’s opener, Uh-oh, Love Comes to Town, features steelpan sounds from the Caribbean. But it was (is!) the indubitable zenith of both the band’s Eno collaborations and their explorations beyond art/post-punk and new wave templates.
By Mike Diver at BBC.co.uk, 2012
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by spiderpig »

Is it me, or number 19 is missing?
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Otisredding »

# 19?
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number 16
Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run

1975
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No. of Voters 30 Score 2177.03
Rank in AM 3000 17
Rank in 2011 Poll 14
Top Fans Nicolas (2), Stephan (3), VanillaFire1000 (3), Otisredding (3), Stone37 (5), DocBrown (5)
Springsteen was just 24, still a kid; he'd been hailed as the New Dylan and had recorded two quirky albums but he wasn't a star. He had talent and ambition in equal measure but the thing that would put him over was his vision. Springsteen believed like no one else in the power and possibility of rock, which led him to places that seem strange and maybe even awkward to those who grew up with MTV and everything punk came to symbolize. His naïve but inspiring outlook found its purist expression in Born to Run…
Born to Run is a distinctive record, even in the Springsteen canon. Its world is one of impossibly romantic hyperrealism, where the mundane easily becomes fantastic, and it all happens line by line. Picture the depressed state of the Jersey Shore in the early 70s, the dull sense of an era gone, and then check Springsteen's description in the title track: "The amusement park rises bold and stark and kids are huddled on the beach in the mist." This could have been a couple of bored teenagers sitting on a bench bullshitting, but with Springsteen's imagery, some glockenspiel, and a deep sax drone, it's transformed into filmic splendor.
By Mark Richardson in Pitchfork, November 18, 2005
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Number 15
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin IV

1971
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No. of Voters 33 Score 2200.94
Rank in AM 3000 31
Rank in 2011 Poll 30
Top Fans Listyguy (1), Whuntva (5), Chevisan (9)
…out of eight cuts, there isn't one that steps on another's toes, that tries to do too much all at once. There are Olde Englishe ballads ("The Battle of Evermore" with a lovely performance by Sandy Denny), a kind of pseudo-blues just to keep in touch ("Four Sticks"), a pair of authentic Zeppelinania ("Black Dog" and "Misty Mountain Hop"), some stuff that I might actually call shy and poetic if it didn't carry itself off so well ("Stairway to Heaven" and "Going To California") ...
... and a couple of songs that when all is said and done, will probably be right up there in the gold-starred hierarchy of put 'em on and play 'em again. The first, coyly titled "Rock And Roll," is the Zeppelin's slightly-late attempt at tribute to the mother of us all, but here it's definitely a case of better late than never. This sonuvabitch moves, with Plant musing vocally on how "It's been a long, lonely lonely time" since last he rock & rolled, the rhythm section soaring underneath. Page strides up to take a nice lead during the break, one of the all-too-few times he flashes his guitar prowess during the record, and its note-for-note simplicity says a lot for the ways in which he's come of age over the past couple of years.
The end of the album is saved for "When The Levee Breaks," strangely credited to all the members of the band plus Memphis Minnie, and it's a dazzler. Basing themselves around one honey of a chord progression, the group constructs an air of tunnel-long depth, full of stunning resolves and a majesty that sets up as a perfect climax. Led Zep have had a lot of imitators over the past few years, but it takes cuts like this to show that most of them have only picked up the style, lacking any real knowledge of the meat underneath.

By Lenny Kaye in Rolling Stone, December 23, 1971
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by spiderpig »

...and number 19 was never seen again.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Harold »

Maybe #19 is an album Doc doesn't like and he's in denial that it finished so high.
Last edited by Harold on Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Alright, have your #19...


Number 19
R.E.M.
Automatic for the People

1992
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No. of Voters 32 Score 2058.61
Rank in AM 3000 51
Rank in 2011 Poll 15
Top Fans VanillaFire1000 (2), Chris K (4), Stephan (8), BleuPanda (9), Listyguy (10)
Turning away from the sweet pop of Out of Time, R.E.M. created a haunting, melancholy masterpiece with Automatic for the People. At its core, the album is a collection of folk songs about aging, death, and loss, but the music has a grand, epic sweep provided by layers of lush strings, interweaving acoustic instruments, and shimmering keyboards. Automatic for the People captures the group at a crossroads, as they moved from cult heroes to elder statesmen, and the album is a graceful transition into their new status. It is a reflective album, with frank discussions on mortality, but it is not a despairing record -- "Nightswimming," "Everybody Hurts," and "Sweetness Follows" have a comforting melancholy, while "Find the River" provides a positive sense of closure. R.E.M. have never been as emotionally direct as they are on Automatic for the People, nor have they ever created music quite as rich and timeless, and while the record is not an easy listen, it is the most rewarding record in their oeuvre.
A review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic
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Last edited by DocBrown on Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

I was just so excited to get to Nevermind...

I'll be honest, friends I was changing the record, and you know how that is.
Otisredding wrote:
Rocky Raccoon wrote: 13) Over/under Placement of top two R.E.M. albums total: 70
WINNER: Under (46 + 19 or less)
and I thought Otisredding had already called it.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Zorg »

Great finish for Led Zep IV. Thought I wouldn't like it when I first decided to listen to it, thought I was right. Turns out I was wrong.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

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Number 14
Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon

1973
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No. of Voters 32 Score 2216.5
Rank in AM 3000 22
Rank in 2011 Poll 44
Top Fans DaveC (1), Whuntva (2), Henry (4), Bruno (5), Chambord (5), Chevisan (6),
The Dark Side of the Moon' was an expression of political, philosophical, humanitarian empathy that was desperate to get out," Pink Floyd's Roger Waters states at the start of the "Classic Albums" retrospective dedicated to the record. Revered as one of the greatest rock albums of all time, "Dark Side" -- which tackles weighty themes of greed, conflict, religion, mortality and mental illness -- was first released in the U.S. on March 17, 1973.
Despite only reaching the No. 1 spot for one solitary week, the album continues to hold the record for the most weeks charted on the Billboard 200 (over 800 weeks!) and was a constant feature on the Billboard 200 from its initial release until 1988 – returning to the chart in late 2009 after Billboard revised its chart eligibility rules regarding older releases. It is estimated to have sold over 45 million copies worldwide, while its artistic legacy is arguably even greater.
Recorded at London's Abbey Road Studios between May 1972 and January 1973, and having been developed and rehearsed during a series of live performances in the months preceding, "The Dark Side of the Moon" is the ultimate expression of Pink Floyd's sonic artistry – an Olympian psychedelic concept album that, despite being very much of its time, still retains the ability the dazzle and astound in the digital age.
By Richard Smirke in Billboard, March 16, 2013
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Number 13
The Smiths
The Queen Is Dead

1986
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No. of Voters 33 Score 2271.07
Rank in AM 3000 25
Rank in 2011 Poll 21
Top Fans DaveC (4), Maschine Man (4), BleuPanda (4), Zorg (7), Honorio (7), PlasticRam (7), Chris K (8)
But the Smiths weren't Morrissey-plus-some-musicians, despite what he'd later try to suggest. They had a magnificent rhythm section in bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce, who were unflashy, tough, and supple. And they had guitarist and writer Johnny Marr, who was responsible for at least half of the Smiths' glory. It's hard to neatly describe what was so great about Marr, because he didn't have a particular gimmick or a signature sound; there are virtually no audible guitar solos on Smiths records. Instead, he worked up a different sound and technique for nearly every song in the band's discography--the breadth of his inventiveness is a good part of what's important about him.
By Douglas Wolk in Pitchfork, November 18, 2011
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Number 12
Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited

1965
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No. of Voters 34 Score 2354.71
Rank in AM 3000 11
Rank in 2011 Poll 6
Top Fans Stephan (1), Otisredding (1), SJner (1), Chevisan (3), Bruno (7), Rocky Racoon (8)
On August 30, Dylan released what remains for me the most electrifying rock-and-roll album of all time, Highway 61 Revisited. From its opening rim shot, which snaps the album into motion, an opening that stands above nearly all others in the history of rock and roll, a crack that strikes deep into the soul, Dylan spins and whirls into a snarling, searing 51 minutes of anarchic imagery and music. This is Bob Dylan at the height of his phantasmagoric powers, the dark visionary, the painter of nightmarish inner landscapes who brings together the strands of disparate worlds, mixes them and deconstructs them, crafting a world of disillusion and alienation that offers what may have been the first inclination that the Age of Aquarius was not all peace and love.

This is an album of brutality and innocence, an album that could only have been produced by an artist at the height of his powers, with a war raging overseas in the shadow of a presidential assassination. It is that rare album on which not only are there no weak cuts, but on which each song is a masterpiece, a classic rock and roll album.
By Hank Kalet in Pop Matters, February 26, 2004
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Listyguy »

Love the finish from LZIV. Cut its rank in half from last time.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by whuntva »

Surprised to see all the heavy-hitters fall so low in 2011?

Led Zep at #30? Pink Floyd at #44?

I like these placements much better.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number 11
The Beatles
The Beatles (“The White Album”)

1968
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No. of Voters 32 Score 2357.43
Rank in AM 3000 14
Rank in 2011 Poll 10
Top Fans honorio (2), Miguel (5), Rocky Racoon (5), Nick (6), Daniel (6), Brad (7), Romain (8), Chris K (9)
I wasn't interested in following up Sgt Pepper and I don't know whether the others were or not, but I know that what I was going for was to forget about Sgt Pepper. You know that was Sgt Pepper and that's alright, fine, it's over... and just get back to basic music."
John Lennon, quoted at Beatles.com
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Harold »

I would switch out The White Album for whatever position Sgt. Pepper's winds up taking. Dammit, I thought we made progress in 2011 pushing it out of the top ten!
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Jirin »

Anyone wanna take an over/under on Funeral? I'd say 8.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by GucciLittlePiggy »

Jirin wrote:Anyone wanna take an over/under on Funeral? I'd say 8.
I'll bite. I say under. My prediction is sixth.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by chevisan »

Ok, if I'm not mistaken there's still left:
Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers, Revolver, London Calling, Funeral, Ziggy Stardust, Blonde on Blonde, Pet Sounds, VU & Nico and OK Computer.

OK Computer #1 again ? I think it will.
No. 2 ? Pet Sounds, VU & Nico, Revolver ? Another surprise ? 8-).
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

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Number Ten
Bob Dylan
Blonde on Blonde

1966
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No. of Voters 34 Score 2404.84
Rank in AM 3000 9
Rank in 2011 Poll 12
Top Fans Chevisan (1), Stephan (2), Rocky Racoon (2), Honorio (3), Dan (3), SJner (4), Jirin (8)
Another problem, and in a way a much more serious one, is the widespread desire to “find out” what Dylan’s trying to say instead of listening to what he is saying. According to Bob, “I’ve stopped composing and singing anything that has either a reason to be written or a motive to be sung… the word ‘message’ strikes me as having a hernia-like sound.” But people go right on looking for the “message” in everything Dylan writes, as though he were Aesop telling fables. Not being able to hear something, because you’re too busy listening for the message, is a particularly American malady... Telling a guy to listen to a song is like giving him a dime for the roller coaster. It’s an experience. A song is an experience. The guy who writes the song and the guy who sings it each feel something; the idea is to get you to feel the same thing, or something like it. And you can feel it without knowing what it is.
By Paul Williams, originally published in Crawdaddy!, August, 1966
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

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Number Nine
The Beatles
Abbey Road

1969
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No. of Voters 32 Score 2427.9
Rank in AM 3000 18
Rank in 2011 Poll 5
Top Fans PlasticRam (1), Henry (1), Daniel (1), Listyguy (2), Nicolas (6), Kingoftonga (8), Stone37 (10)
And now they've done it again; they have produced another album, "Abbey Road."
That's the trouble: they've done it again. Here are all their old tricks and gifts. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is John Lennon's magic funny schoolboy cruelty again, style of the Bash Street Kids. "Oh Darling" is their suave celebration track - this time, they round off the Rolling Stones' "If you need me," with bits of "You can make it if you try" and a tailing of Buddy Holly.
Alan Price made a great arrangement of "The House of the Rising Sun." The Beatles use it again in "I want you." "Golden Slumbers" sounds like the mandatory McCartney swelling sad-happy number: "Because" the mandatory Lennon happy-sad number. There is the enigma in "You never give me your money" " No-where to go" (know where to go, no-where to go...). And, OK, Ringo let's orchestrate your new variation on a theme of "Yellow Submarine": "Octopus's Garden." And let's have two surprises. Side 1 stops dead. And side 2 has that little bit added that you miss until you leave the record playing: for Princess Anne to play to her mother.
Geoffrey Cannon in The Guardian, October8, 1969
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by chevisan »

Jirin wrote:Anyone wanna take an over/under on Funeral? I'd say 8.
8 o 7 . I'll go with 7.

PD: Seeing the above results (9 and 10) i'll say i'm not surprised if it's even lower.
Last edited by chevisan on Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Rocky Raccoon »

Harold wrote:I would switch out The White Album for whatever position Sgt. Pepper's winds up taking. Dammit, I thought we made progress in 2011 pushing it out of the top ten!
Nope, we made progress pushing it back in.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by GucciLittlePiggy »

Every album of our top ten, except Funeral, is within the top 18 albums on Acclaimed Music's top 3000. That makes me wonder, will we see Arcade Fire break AM's top 20 one of these years? It's not my favorite album of the 2000s but I'd be more than fine with it remaining the critical consensus pick.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Nick »

I'm pretty sure "Funeral" won't crack the top 5. I'll say 7.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Nick »

GucciLittlePiggy wrote:Every album of our top ten, except Funeral, is within the top 18 albums on Acclaimed Music's top 3000. That makes me wonder, will we see Arcade Fire break AM's top 20 one of these years? It's not my favorite album of the 2000s but I'd be more than fine with it remaining the critical consensus pick.
I think it will happen. It might take a couple more years, but as time goes by and its classic status is more and more cemented, I have a hard time not seeing it crack the top 20.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number Eight
The Beatles
Sgt, Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

1967
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No. of Voters 35 Score 2489.33
Rank in AM 3000 5
Rank in 2011 Poll 11
Top Fans Bruno (1), Rocky Racoon (1), Henry (3), Nick (5), Whuntva (6), Stone37 (6), BonnieLaurel (6), PlasticRam (8)
After the Beatles stopped touring in 1966, they had time to explore in greater depth the possibilities of the recording studio with producer George Martin. And removed, essentially for the first time, from the nonstop hoopla of Beatlemania, they also had time to question their identity as Beatles. A chasm had begun to open between their growing musical sophistication and the public's perception of them as lovable mop tops. The magnitude of the Beatles phenomenon was starting to encroach on the band — and their experience with psychedelic drugs made that phenomenon seem increasingly surreal. Already trapped, in their early twenties, the Beatles had to find a way out. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was born.
"Pepper was probably the one Beatle album I can say was my idea," McCartney says. "It was my idea to say to the guys, 'Hey, how about disguising ourselves and getting an alter ego, because we're the Beatles and we're fed up. Every time you approach a song, John, you gotta sing it like John would. Every time I approach a ballad, it's gotta be like Paul would. Why don't we just make up some incredible alter egos and think, "Now how would he sing it? How would he approach this track?"' And it freed us. It was a very liberating thing to do."
From Rolling Stone, August 27, 1987
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Harold »

I'm still surprised that OK Computer hasn't cracked the AM top 10 yet. I know there's decades of canon to break through to get there, but still. I have faith it will happen someday. OK Computer - the Andy Dufresne of rock!
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number Seven
The Beatles
Revolver

1966
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No. of Voters 33 Score 2505.27
Rank in AM 3000 1
Rank in 2011 Poll 4
Top Fans Nick (1), Harold (2), PlasticRam (2), Whuntva (3), Daniel (3), Stone37 (3), Dan (4), BleuPanda (5), Henry (6), Bruno (6), Listyguy (9)
There is just so much going on: Indian tablas and sitars creating mystical magic for Harrison’s droning Love You Too, a sawing string quartet driving the heartbreaking vignette of loneliness in Eleanor Rigby, the ripe horns surging through the soulful Got to Get You Into My Life, recorded history’s first backwards guitar solo on the dreamy I’m Only Sleeping, dynamic twin lead on the blistering rocker And Your Bird Can Sing, the snappy R&B and political sniping of Taxman, the gorgeous harmonies of McCartney’s favourite ballad Here, There and Everywhere, tape loops, mountainous drumming and a spirit of anything-goes madness blowing out on the utterly extraordinary psychedelic epic Tomorrow Never Knows. Even Ringo, reliably the singer of the Beatles’ worst songs, is well catered for with the surrealist children’s playground classic Yellow Submarine.
By Neil McCormick, The Telegraph, September 7, 2009
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Nick »

A slight fall overall for The Beatles. But with 4 albums in the top 20, they are still the clear winners of this poll, and of the hearts of the AMF.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number Six
Arcade Fire
Funeral

2004
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No. of Voters 38 Score 2532.47
Rank in AM 3000 32
Rank in 2011 Poll 9
Top Fans Nassim (4), VanillaFire1000 (5), Dan (5), Chevisan (8)
While every third British band mines 1979-80 post-punk, Arcade Fire, from Canada, have stolen a march by investigating the US "no wave" of the same period.
Their masterstroke has been to invest this ironic, cool music with raw emotion. Marriages collapsed and friends died around them while they made Funeral, but grief has produced the giddy energy of a wake. The stunning Laika hits a higher gear every 20 seconds.
Everything is delivered in Flaming Lips cinemascope, which would mean nothing without lyrics to melt the heart. "Children don't grow up, our bodies get bigger and our minds get torn up," cries Win Butler against Wake Up's giant rock riff.
One of the year's best already, by a mile.
By Dave Simpson in The Guardian, February 25, 2005
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by chevisan »

lol. :-D :
12 Dylan, 11 The Beatles, 10 Dylan, 9 The Beatles, 8 The Beatles, 7 The Beatles


I guess we agree those two are the most acclaimed artist. lol.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

The Final Five, as promised, will kick off in one hour.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Gillingham »

chevisan wrote:Ok, if I'm not mistaken there's still left:
Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers, Revolver, London Calling, Funeral, Ziggy Stardust, Blonde on Blonde, Pet Sounds, VU & Nico and OK Computer.

OK Computer #1 again ? I think it will.
No. 2 ? Pet Sounds, VU & Nico, Revolver ? Another surprise ? 8-).
Please discuss these things in the lovely topic Doc specifically made for it.
Thanks.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Zorg »

AAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!

I'm so excited. Well done to Funeral, I'm very happy to see it amongst established favourites.

VERY HAPPY to see London Calling do so well, though I worry it will be next to go!
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Honorio »

Ziggy on the Top 5? That's great!
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number Five
David Bowie
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

1972
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No. of Voters 38 Score 2688.74
Rank in AM 3000 16
Rank in 2011 Poll 7
Top Fans Honorio (1), Romain (3), Otisredding (4), Chevisan (5), Chris K (7), Dan (7), BleuPanda (8), Maschine Man (8), Nick (9), Brad (10)
Flamboyance and outrageousness are inseparable from that campy image of his, both in the Bacall and Garbo stages and in his new butch, street-crawler appearance that has him looking like something out of the darker pages of City of Night. It's all tied up with the one aspect of David Bowie that sets him apart from both the exploiters of transvestitism and writer/performers of comparable talent — his theatricality.
The news here is that he's managed to get that sensibility down on vinyl, not with an attempt at pseudo-visualism (which, as Mr. Cooper has shown, just doesn't cut it), but through employment of broadly mannered styles and deliveries, a boggling variety of vocal nuances that provide the program with the necessary depth, a verbal acumen that is now more economic and no longer clouded by storms of psychotic, frenzied music, and, finally, a thorough command of the elements of rock & roll.
By Richard Cromelin in Rolling Stone, July 20, 1972
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number Four
The Clash
London Calling

1979
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No. of Voters 36 Score 2746.25
Rank in AM 3000 8
Rank in 2011 Poll 8
Top Fans Luvulong (1), Romain (3), Nick (3), Honorio (4), Zorg (5), Michel (5), DaveC (7), Harold (7), Rocky Racoon (7), Kingoftonga (9), BleuPanda (10)
If music-loving aliens land and you find yourself, at laser-point, searching for one single example of how rock is supposed to be rolled, then you are strongly advised to recommend London Calling. Because this epic double album, from its iconic sleeve to its wildly eclectic mash-up of styles, is surely the quintessential rock album.
So good in fact that Rolling Stone magazine voted it the best album of the 1980s, even though it actually came out in 1979. This was when The Clash came of age, progressing from the brilliant-but-limited punk rock ire of their first two albums to the stage where they could turn their hand to reggae, ska, rockabilly and pretty much anything else they fancied.
By Mark Sutherland at BBC,co.uk, 2004
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Last edited by DocBrown on Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Listyguy »

As much as it pained me to see Abbey Road and Revolver fall shy of the top 5, I was quite amused by the string of three Beatles albums in a row from 9-7.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Number Three
The Beach Boys
Pet Sounds

1966
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No. of Voters 36 Score 2750.65
Rank in AM 3000 2
Rank in 2011 Poll 3
Top Fans Bruno (2), Stone37 (2), VanillaFire1000 (4), Nick (4), Pierre (6), Miguel (6), Jeff (9), Honorio (10)
To call this album classic doesn't do it justice. A rival with only two or three albums as the greatest album of all time. It is this good.

The Beach Boys are often dismissed as surf pop, bubblegum music (think "Fun Fun Fun" or "Surfin U.S.A."), by the same people who defend the Beatles as classic rock, and lambast anyone who dare call them a boy band or pop music. An odd double standard, but a rampant one. And even by those who accept the Beach Boys to be on a similar level to the Beatles, they are even then dismissed as a lowly counterpart at best.

Instead, the Beach Boys are one of the greatest bands of all-time, certainly to have ever come out of the 60s. Their vocal harmonies are second to none, and Brian Wilson's compositions and arrangements are nothing short of masterful. Need proof? Listen to Pet Sounds. This is pop rock at its best.
From a review by Amanda Murray, Sputnik Music, August 7, 2005
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

I’ve had a lot of fun putting together this Top 500 Album poll. I was aiming for Consistently Entertaining, and achieved entertainingly inconsistent. So be it. I also hope that my selection of material reinforced that Acclaimed Music is all about respecting, analyzing and discussing critical opinion of our favourite music, and developing our own critical skills.

But we come down to our last two selections, the same last two we saw three years ago. As Romain says in his football analogy, we start with 64 teams and at the end, Germany…

But wait! What’s that I hear from the next post? Is that…

IS THAT A HORSE RACE?
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Rocky Raccoon »

London Calling comes within 4 points of third place. That's a surprise to me, but a good one.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

And they’re off…

VU is out of the gate strong taking the inside line, ahead on the rail, with Radiohead In second staying close on the outside, London Calling in third. Into the first turn it’s VU by a nose and Radiohead coming wide. The track is dry and Radiohead and VU are opening up on the field, Beach Boys third and Arcade Fire in an early fourth and the Fab Four right behind. London Calling is trailing the lead pack and into the backstretch Radiohead pulls ahead but VU is staying tight to the rail, giving Radiohead no way to the inside. Radiohead the prohibitive favourite with the punters today, and VU coming off the tote no better than three-to-one. Down the backstretch it’s Radiohead coming on strong, VU then Ziggy Stardust and London Calling, Arcade Fire and Beach Boys challenging for fourth, it’s Radiohead by three quarters, Radiohead by a length… no, VU coming on strong. They’re neck and neck into the paddock turn, Radiohead by a head, it’s Radiohead by a half into the final turn, but VU is pounding down the rail. Into the homestretch, it’s Radiohead by a half and tiring, it’s Radiohead, and Otisredding aboard VU brings out the whip, it’s Radiohead by a short head and at the finish it’s VU surging, Otisredding leaning far out over VU and...
it’s too close to call.


It’s too close to call!

Let’s wait for the photo… hang onto your stubs, folks, hang on.

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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Zorg »

Rocky Raccoon wrote:London Calling comes within 4 points of third place. That's a surprise to me, but a good one.

Oh wow! London Calling has been my number 1 album for a good couple of years now, but I had just done a new list using Moonbeam's program, and it came fifth! In my head, I make London Calling to be 3rd.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

And the winner is…
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by DocBrown »

Do you smell bananas?
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Henrik »

:angry-tappingfoot:
Everyone you meet fights a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.
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Re: The 2014 All-Time Albums Poll - The FINAL, Final Results

Post by Henrik »

:D
Everyone you meet fights a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.
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