great list and thanks to paul.

would any enterprising person out there happen to have a list of albums that made only one of the two best albums list? as in, these were on 2004 but not 2009, and vice versa?

I have an 8 hour train journey on Friday, if it's not done by then I'll do it.

I struggled with this as well. Ended up voting Treasure since it does seem like the classic Twins record, but there are days I would say Blue Bell Knoll.

Do you get amused when someone looks at a lake and says "that's water", too?

progressive rock album =/= concept album

Paul, my thanks for a great list.

yeah, idk why i thought it would be worth my while to be involved in that argument. i never want to be that guy who argues with Montana

I'd be amused if you called a puddle a lake.

Damn that is awesome.

lol @ murmur @ #3

Stats time.

Newly Eligible (2005-)

498 Deerhoof- Apple O
486 Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall 1971
480 Antony and The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
457 Stars of the Lid - Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline
440 Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
408 Burial - Untrue
388 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
369 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
365 Akron/Family - Akron/Family
362 Joanna Newsom - Ys
361 Daft Punk - Alive 2007
350 Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
339 Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
331 Sun Kil Moon - April
325 Panda Bear - Person Pitch
323 My Morning Jacket - Z
298 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
295 Akron/Family - Love Is Simple
278 The Knife - Silent Shout
277 Sujjan Stevens - Illinois
263 Radiohead - In Rainbows
246 Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
243 Weezer - Weezer (2008)
218 Jay Reatard - Blood Visions
199 The National - Boxer
170 Portishead - Third
111 The National - Alligator


Highest Old (-2004) New Entries in Top 200

196 Dr. Dre - The Chronic
191 Brian Eno - Before and After Science
188 Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
175 Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
172 Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
167 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River
166 Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
164 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory
160 Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
158 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness
154 Boredoms - Super AE
150 PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
145 Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
141 Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
139 Daft Punk - Homework
132 Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
130 Grandaddy - Sophtware Slump
120 Can - Tago Mago
118 Fennesz - Endless Summer
113 Wilco - Being There
109 Talking Heads - The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
92 Paul and Linda McCartney - Ram
59 Converge - Jane Doe
56 Arcade Fire - Funeral
52 Sam Cooke - Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963


301 albums from the 2004 poll made this one. The top 10 failing to make it were

#091 Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights.
#099 The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
#101 Patti Smith - Horses
#105 Ministry -The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
#130 Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
#134 The Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
#138 X - More Fun in the New World
#142 Ween - Chocolate and Cheese
#147 Elliot Smith - Figure 8
#155 Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town

20 Biggest falls within Top 500

Peter Gabriel - So -368
The Who - The Who Sell Out -363
Beck - Sea Change -363
Public Enemy - Fear of A Black Planet -355
Tom Waits - Closing Time -341
Son Volt - Trace -321
Prince - 1999 -302
Iron Maiden - Life After Death -286
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend -275
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells -273
Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville -252
Nick Drake - Pink Moon -249
The Strokes - Room on Fire -244
Mission of Burma - Vs. -231
Wire - Pink Flag -228
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones -226
Peter Gabriel - Security -225
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure -217
U2 - War -201
Pixies - Tromp Le Monde -198

20 Biggest rises

Pink Floyd - Meddle 399
Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway 381
Minuteman - Double Nickels on The Dime 377
The Smiths - The Smiths 354
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas 333
The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle 326
Tool - Aenimia 308
Suicide - Suicide (1977) 293
David Bowie - Station To Station 269
Kanye West - The College Dropout 252
King Crimson - In The Court of The Crimson King 251
Can - Ege Bamyasi 242
The Jesus Lizard - Goat 236
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me 220
Sonic Youth - Sister 219
The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace 217
The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray 215
Steve Earle - Jerusalem 206
Metallica - ...And Justice For All 198
Neil Young - On The Beach 195

Moved less than or equal to five places

74 The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers 5
66 The Afghan Whigs - Black Love 5
34 The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat 5
17 Pixies - Doolittle 5
231 Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker 4
247 The Who - Live At Leeds 3
305 The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms 2
177 OutKast - Stankonia 2
5 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless 2
216 T.Rex -Electric Warrior 1
35 Elvis Costello and the Attractions - This Year's Model 1
1 The Clash - London Calling 1
28 Weezer - Pinkerton 0
4 The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds 0
202 The Cars - The Cars -1
2 Radiohead - OK Computer -1
27 Van Morrison - Astral Weeks -3
148 Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People -4
72 The Cure - Disintergration -4
9 The Replacments - Let It Be -4
8 The Beatles - Revolver -5

4 or more albums

Neil Young (and with Crazy Horse) 11
R.E.M. 8
Bob Dylan 7
Pink Floyd 7
Led Zeppelin 6
The Beatles 6
Brian Eno 5
David Bowie 5
Elvis Costello 5
Radiohead 5
Talking Heads 5
The Rolling Stones 5
The Who 5
Black Sabbath 4
Iron Maiden 4
Metallica 4
Prince 4
The Flaming Lips 4
The Velvet Underground 4
Tom Waits 4

thanks Mitchell. I love that kind of stuff. Neil's really got an incredibly well loved variety of records, huh?

a little surprised the Kinks failed to place 4 records in the top 500. I need to go back and see where they all placed, but Village Green, Something Else, Muswell Hillbillies, Arthur, Face to Face and Lola, at a minimum SHOULD have cracked the 500. Then again there an incredible number of great albums historically so I shouldn't be shocked.

Also interesting that several artists had more records place than the Beatles. Hope that shuts up all the folks who complain about the Beatles dominance in these things. News flash: they deserve to dominate and their dominance is not really even all that dominating.

Thanks a lot, Aneg.

So I just listened to London Calling for the first time, lolz. Purdy good album, little ridiculous calling it best of all time though, imo.

what's ridiculous about it?

Just doesn't really compare to the Beatles and OKC, but maybe I need to listen to it more or maybe I'm too young for it, idk.

I could say the same about OKC not comparing to the Beatles, London Calling... maybe I'm too old for it though, lol.

If you're old enough to drink, then have some beers and play it really loud and dance, stomp and air guitar your way through the whole two albums worth.

PS....more than a stunner with Murmur at #3 is REM having 8 releases in the top 500, beating all comers.

^nope not old enough to drink :|

I guess I didn't care for OKC at first either, so whatevs.

You probably need to listen to it more than once before you decide whether or not it's the greatest album of all time.

Mitchell inspired me to do a little digging on a few artists and here are some thing that I found interesting.

Joni Mitchell's 4th entry was Hissing of the Summer Lawns at #528.
Imperial Bedroom missed the top 500 (came in at 654).
Tom Waits had 3 more in the top 1000, for a total of 7. Pretty impressive, especially since norton didn't vote (did maloney vote?)
Kinks 4th entry was Face to Face at #555 and they only 4 in the top 1000...
Springsteen not only had only 3 in the top 500, but had only 3 in the top 1000. No Born in the USA, no Darkness, no Tunnel of Love, no Seeger Sessions, no The River, no The Rising. norton really should have voted.

Seriously? The Seeger Sessions not in the top 1000?

That's just .

settle down beavis. was just pointing out a bunch of springsteen records that a lot of people liked. I didn't vote for it, nor was I shocked that particular one missed. Although a friend of mine listed it on facebook as one of the 5 albums that changed her life, so I guess that was on my mind when I included it. I was mostly shocked at Darkness, The River and to a lesser extent, BITUSA and Tunnel of Love.

Yes, that Darkness didn't make it is rather baffling.

Yeah it's much more about style than anything.

And we all know Radiohead at best should have 3 in the top 500.

Yeah, Pink Floyd weren't heavily over-represnted by someone over representing them.

Uh....Pink Floyd is one of the major original influences in rock, second only to the Beatles in rock band sales. They deserve to have seven albums.

IR and Amnesiac *do not* belong in a top 500 all time.

Point is you voted for who you liked, not who you were supposed to, otherwise you'd've had a buncha Beatles at the top of your list, by your own admission.

Just finnished checking the list.
This #1 made me so happy...

Wow, so London Calling topped you guys' list, too. Really baffling how that album gets so much more love than so many other things.

Sure, it's good. Great even. Their first album is better, though, as are at least 10 other albums from 1979 alone.

please list those 10 albums.

Sorry, I was wrong. It's 14.

1. Talking Heads - Fear of Music (my fav. Talking Heads record)
2. Elvis Costello - Armed Forces (my fav. Elvis Costello)
3. Gang of Four - Entertainment!
4. XTC - Drums and Wires (my fav. XTC)
5. Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box
6. Live at the Witch Trials - The Fall
7. Gary Numan/Tubeway Army - Replicas
8. Wire - 154
9. Funkadelic - Uncle Jam Wants You
10. The Slits - Cut
11. Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
12. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
13. Pere Ubu - New Picnic Time
14. The B-52's - s/t

And if I counted Singles Going Steady, it'd would beat out Wire for #8, making it 15 albums from 1979 that I consider better than London Calling, or at least that I would rather listen to.

1979 happens to be my favorite year for music. London Calling would still be beating out a ton of great stuff including Magazine - Secondhand Daylight, Devo - Duty Now for the Future, Joe Jackson - Look Sharp!, The Wall, The Undertones, The Cure - Three Imaginary Boys, Roedelius (Cluster) - Grosses Wasser, David Bowie - Lodger, Michael Jackson - Off the Wall, The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette, Highway to Hell, The Ramones - End of the Century, Graham Parker - Squeezing Out Sparks, Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle, The Fall - Dragnet and The Raincoats.

It's probably the best year ever.

New around here, but wanted to say thanks to Paul as well as those who voted. It was a great read, and good to see some differences here and there from the standard "G.O.A.T." lists. A LOT here for me to discover - cheers!

wow. that was a good year.

Gang of Four, P.I.L, JD and Talking Heads is some pretty serious competition.

Not even close.

what would be closer?

Nothing. 1979 is blown away by most other years.

yeah, like 1997

66 was a hell of a year.

Make a case, tubbs.

Insanity.

Granted, '79 is mostly dominated by a certain kind of rock, but if you like that, nothing comes close.

Yeah, hard to argue with the quality of 1979. It was my first year as music director at my college station as well. Was I in the right place at the right time.

1979 was a great year if you like that super weird urban new wave. To me, the poison of that genre leeched into a great deal of music in the decades to follow and ruined it. If music had an EPA, that genre would be declared a superfund site and put on a priority list of cleanup efforts.

I do. Thus, super exciting time for music. If the music landscape were a mountain range, that might be the insurmountable snow covered peak.

That music is a drag, nothing more.

Nah, while a good deal of it is certainly darker, nearly all of it (the worthwhile stuff anyway) is full of pop hooks and plenty of energy. Dark Side isn't exactly feel good music, but you seem to enjoy it.

Since no years other than 1979 are being nominated, I'm going to have to agree that it was the best year for music.