The 50 Greatest Albums (according to profholt82)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by profholt82, Aug 29, 2014.

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  1. Lynd8

    Lynd8 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I think you did too much crack before doing this list - No Stones or Who?

    Totally kidding - Hey it's just your opinion, good for you...
    I don't have to agree.
     
  2. jpmosu

    jpmosu a.k.a. Mr. Jones

    Location:
    Ohio, USA
    Another salute to your eclectic tastes--thanks for a good read.
     
  3. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    Personally, I think it's just fine to include greatest hits. I've dislike every Byrds album I've heard, but I love their greatest hits. While it's not in my top 100, it's not far out of it. No other Byrds album would be in my top 100. I've listened to all of their album up to Sweetheart of the Rodeo multiple times and just don't like them.
     
  4. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    I've always appreciated Kraftwerk to some degree, but it's only recently that I've really come to be obsessed with this album. Agree that it is endlessly playable.
     
  5. bullygoat

    bullygoat Forum Resident

    Thanks for taking the time to do this. It was a great read and I've got a few ideas to check out. It makes a lot more sense to pick the greatest albums "according to you". After all, if I've learned anything about music it's that we all have very different taste. For example, Atom Heart Mother is in my top 3 Floyd albums. I absolutely love it. But it is not by any standard one of the greatest albums of all time. The white album and ziggy probably are. I'd love to read more posts like this.
     
  6. profholt82

    profholt82 Resident Blowhard Thread Starter

    Location:
    West Michigan
    I get what you're saying. In a few cases, some of the older artists released most, if not all, of their material on 78s and 45s so compilations are the only practical way to hear the material. And in the cases of the Supremes and Temptations, I grew up with a number of Motown compilations, so that is the way I have listened to (and grown to love) their material over the years. But including them can be construed as cheating I suppose.



    Anyway, I really appreciate all of the feedback from everyone. Thanks for taking the time to check out my list.
     
  7. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    Nothing personal, but the So and So Top 50, Top 100, Top 500 type threads have been frequent on the forum. Not sure what's new, different or special about this list.
     
  8. bullygoat

    bullygoat Forum Resident

    Only one Beatles album :)
     
    Say It Right likes this.
  9. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    I'm not all that familiar with Motown. I also have a couple of comps and some Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye albums. But wasn't mostly a singles label early on? I've seen a few posts here about people buying Motown 45s in the 60s, not so much buying albums.
     
  10. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Nice list...I do like some of the albums...
     
  11. s m @

    s m @ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    Long Post Alert:

    Yeah, I agree with the bulk of what you're saying really, I think along the same lines a lot. In that, I don't really believe that my favourite band is 'The Greatest of All Time', and I've often thought that Radiohead is reallly the best band of the last 25 years or so, but they'd rank somewhere just inside my personal top 10. So I do make that distinction to some degree.

    But, I do think it's really important on an intellectual level to be honest with yourself. And that means not thinking 'I like this best, so let's try to come up with reasons why it's objectively the best, because clearly if someone as awesome as me likes it, it must be the best'. Which is a common trap. When I was a kid I knew this old guy who liked classical. Which is great. But he really made a point of telling me that pop/rock/etc was just garbage designed to separate the simple-minded from their money, and classical was real music. He had lots of reasons, but in the end it was about his superiortity complex. I saw him lots and thus had time to consider this, and as into music as I am, that's the last think I'd ever want to do, it's just sad.

    So anyway, I really think that if you follow the 'music is objective' line far enough, you'd reach one of two conclusions: Either Yngwie Malmsteen is world champion, or Gangnam Style is clearly the greatest masterpiece of all time.

    In a weird way, keeping the subjective nature of music in mind actually helps maintain a level of objectivity. But either way, as soon as you're using words like 'good', and 'best', you're into the subjective, on a very fundamental level.

    Also, all this is what makes music as captivating as it is.... It's really hard to pin down. You could have someone expressing the most noble ideas possible through music, but if they can't play or compose it wouldn't mean anything. But you could play the must (physically) difficult piece imaginable, but it might mean nothing if it doesn't have any je ne sais quoi. That's why I liked this guy's list so much (aside from that we're around the same age), he didn't bother with any theory or history lessons that he's not an expert on, it's just 'this means something to me, here's why'. I dig that, whether I agree or not (bonus that I often did).
     
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  12. thesisinbold

    thesisinbold Forum Resident

    Location:
    Camarillo, Ca, USA
    Are you guys seriously criticizing this post? It's great. I loved reading it.
     
    wolfram, JimC and nbakid2000 like this.
  13. Great list, thanks for sharing!

    Mine would be very different of course but that;s the fun of seeing what someone else is into. Well done.
     
  14. s m @

    s m @ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    @thesisinbold: In fairness, I think most people so far have liked it, whether or not they actually agreed with the selections.
     
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  15. readingm

    readingm Senior Member

    Location:
    Redwood City, CA
    Great list, sir. Can I buy you a beer?
     
    profholt82 likes this.
  16. Andy Smith

    Andy Smith .....Like a good pinch of snuff......

    I think the man's just saying "Here I am. This is what I like". No harm in it. It's good to express personal thoughts and views (it's why we're here after all) and if someone reads something he's said that makes them investigate, well, again, where's the harm?
     
    JimC likes this.
  17. Dingo

    Dingo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    I love the fact that Prof. has given thought and consideration to this. A lovely diverse selection that he articulates well.
    More power to you Prof.
     
    JimC likes this.
  18. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    Nobody said that there's any harm in it. It's just that quite a few other members have done this same thing.
     
  19. mschrist

    mschrist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    The tricky thing about trying to think about objective aspects of music is that we can only approach music from the perspective of our subjective experience. I do think it's intellectually honest to be aware of this, and even embrace it at first. Where else should you start when thinking about singularly great work than with the stuff you like? But I also think that if you want to think about singularly great work, you have to try to isolate your subjective preferences and minimize them. It's hard to do and probably extremely hard to do well, but I don't think it isn't worth doing.

    This is why criticism needs to be a conversation (and, fortunately, it inevitably is--say something to anybody and they'll have their own point of view about it). All of us have inescapably very subjective points of view. But exposure to other people's points of view might put some of that subjectivity in check. Collectively, our point of view is probably still very subjective; think of all the funny things people used to believe in the past, and know that all still applies to us today. But maybe we can collectively get a little closer to something more essential.
     
  20. mschrist

    mschrist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    Although it goes the other way, too--listing "favorites" rather than "greatest" is a less muscular act of criticism in the first place.
     
    nbakid2000 likes this.
  21. mschrist

    mschrist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    I really liked the original poster's list. As much as I talk about objectivity, I also really enjoy explicitly subjective lists, too. Lists like these are more personal, and you can relate with the author more while reading them.

    Also, I don't think that the most important thing in criticism is to identify the actual best! (Another poster on this forum--maybe even in this thread--made the great point that "music isn't sports".) The primary benefits I get from criticism is from being exposed to new good music, and from getting other people's perspective on music. Good criticism can give you a point of entry into works of music that you didn't have before, and can completely "break open" music in ways that let you enjoy it in completely new ways. This can happen whether criticism strives to be objective or completely embraces being subjective. And it's one of the reasons I especially liked the OP's list--rather than putting up a plain list, he or she wrote down a few sentences on each album, giving some insight into why he or she liked it (and giving some ideas about how you might enjoy it, too).
     
  22. old school

    old school Senior Member

    Those are your 50 favorite cool. My 50 would only include 4 on your list.
     
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