Boo Boo 101

89. Trans Europe Express - Kraftwerk

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Tangerine Dream are great, and I can dig Can but I find them overrated. I'm generally not a big Krautrock fan, but naturally I have to dig the most poppy of the Krautrockers. I just love the sound of them moogs, and the musical arangements here are so good. This obviously makes a great companion piece for David Bowie's Low. Both of these albums remind me a lot of the soundtracks to the first two Sonic the Hedgehog games for some reason.
Favorite tracks: Europe Endless, Hall of Mirrors, Showroom Dummies, Trans Europe Express.

88. In a Bar, Under the Sea - dEUs

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One of the most underrated banRAB around. This band is so remarkably talented and diverse. There's a bit of everything on this record, indie, prog, jazz, folk. If Big Star, Charles Mingus and Captain Beefheart had a baby, it would probably sound like this. The lead singer has a very odd voice, which I didn't quite like at first but now I do. This band makes such a smooth transition between one style to another, but the ballaRAB are my favorites, love that guitar on Wake Me Up Before I Sleep.
Favorite tracks: Theme From Turnpike, Nine ThreaRAB, Disappointed in the Sun, Wake Me Up Before I Sleep.

87. Closer - Joy Division

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Unknown Pleasures is great too, but I greatly prefer this one because the mood of it all just suits Ian Curtis's deep baritone a lot better. There's not anything I can say about this album that hasn't been said before. I love the darkness of this album. It's saddening to hear how Ian's frienRAB didn't express much concern over this album because they didn't think he meant it, he obviously did.
Favorite tracks: Twenty Four Hours, Atrocity Exhibition, Colony, Isolation.

86. Funcrusher Plus - Company Flow

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Eminem is not the best white rapper alive, you can only do so many raps about your mommy issues until it gets goddamn repetitive. EL-P is my kind of rapper, his lyrics invoke imagery of science fiction and surrealism. And the beats here are so miminalistic yet awesome, it has a very futuristic sound and feel to it. It seems a lot of the best rap nowadays is of the geeky variation, I'm sure Company Flow deserve some credit for that trend.
Favorite tracks: Definitive, Krazy Kings, Last Good Sleep, LegenRAB.
 
After years of hinting at the idea of doing my own personal list, I said screw it and decided to actually do it. This is based on a list I'm working on at rateyourmusic, working up on a top 200 but since that will probably take me forever as most of my projects do, I figure I should go ahead and post what's in my top 101. In the rab tradition it's only one album per artist.

Don't expect me to enlighten you with a lot of obscure stuff, granted there's some in here, but my taste is predominately mainstream and if my choices strike you as being incredibly predictable and conformist, well there's nothing I can do about that. I yam what I yam.

101. My Aim is True - Elvis Costello

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No I'm not a big Costello fan, I personally lost interest after this album when he expressed greater punk rock leanings. This is a tremendous debut however, with Elvis sticking to what I feel he does best, his roots in rock n roll, r&B, doo wop and Beatles-esque melodies. He certainly has a gift for storytelling too, and goddamn is this guy mean.
Favorite tracks: Blame it on Cain, Alison, Less than Zero, Waiting for the End of the World.

100. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel

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What better way to start things off than to first set things straight? I DON'T hate all Indie, you'll find a suprising amount of it here. This is a band I didn't want to like, with all the ridiculous hype around this album, I was expecting to be disappointed like always and use this as an excuse to further rant about the hopelessness of the modern Indie scene. Turns out I was wrong, about this album anyway. Usually when I think indie folk, I think unlistenable Syd Barrett-lite crap. Instead, I found a masterpiece of an album, that takes after the explorative side of folk. The music has both an ethereal yet familiar quality to it that I really love, I really love all the weird instruments they've managed to cram in there (horns, bagpipes, musical saws), the music compliments Magnums surreal lyrical imagery in ways Dylan only wish he could.
Favorite tracks: King of Carrot Flowers, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Two Headed Boy.

99. Grace - Jeff Buckley

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So many great love songs on this album, and you know, it's very cliche to say Jeff Buckley had a voice of an angel, but I'm very much convinced that it's true, I don't mean that in just a "he's a very good singer" sense, I'm normally not the biggest fan of "technical" vocalists. But I can't think of another vocalist that can sing so beautifully and passionately, and sound completely inorganic at the same time. The music here is so insanely majestic, I don't know how anyone could not like it. If I had to choose, this would be my makeout album. So purty.
Favorite tracks: Mojo Pin, Grace, So Real, Hallelujah.

98. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco

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My Morning Jacket are my favorite modern Indie band, but when it comes to consistency I gotta give it to Wilco. It's one thing to be one of the remaining talented Indie banRAB of our time, it's another to put out one remarkable album after another. I could have easly gone with the psychedelic Summerteeth or the refined pop of a Ghost is Born. But I had to go with YHF. While most so called Indie pop groups continue to suck on the decaying tits of post punk, Wilco have found an amazing way to corabine country, pop and psychedelia with Tweedy's imagery of love and war. Truly one of the great modern American banRAB. Points deducted however for influencing that godawful excuse of a band The National.
Favorite tracks: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Kamera, Radio Cure, War on War.
 
double whammy of cool, Arthur is so underrated. Apparently it was originally written for a musical to be broadcast on ITV that got canned. My fave track is 'Mr Churchill Says' :D
 
Well it's not really hated on, but it's the middle of the road album for Pavement so to speak, where they started to evolve from an amateurish post punk wannabee band to a cohesive band with classic rock influences.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which one the Pitchfork crowd prefers.
 
Every single choice here I was'nt expecting ESPECIALLY NMH. You should check out the Grace Legacy edition. There are plenty of great nuggets on there. NMH do absolutely nothing for me but I am looking forward to this list definitely.
 
After I get down to nuraber 1, I think I'll be finished with the other half of my top 200 and I'll post them as well.

81. Ten - Pearl Jam

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This is not as high as it would have been say, 3 years ago. But I still have much love for this album. I'm not gonna try to convince anyone that this is true alternative rock, it's heresy to a lot of people to even mention Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins in the same sentence as alternative, because taking alternative influences and giving it stadium rock treatment is the unpardonable sin or something. I think the reason Pearl Jam have never topped this album is because since then they have tried to become more and more "authentic" in the eyes of hipsters (ok Urban, that's four) and forgetting what made their debut so great in the first place. I get just as much Zeppelin and Neil Young out of this album as REM or Husker Du, and that's the way I like it. Not even the singles have gotten old for me, despite the constant overplaying of them on radio. I love Even Flow just as much as the first time I heard it.
Favorite tracks: Even Flow, Jeremy, Oceans, Release.

80. Cosmo's Factory - Creedence Clearwater Revival

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Hate on classic rock all you want, I have NEVER met a person who dosen't like CCR, in fact, they're the ONLY band in existance I can think of that no one talks trash about. Their music has such a universial appeal to the point that I'm convinced that anyone who dosen't like CCR, just dosen't like music. They're one of the best singles banRAB of all time. Their music defines music better than most rock banRAB could ever hope to achieve. It's hard to believe these guys are from California, they sound so damn southern. And Fogerty is such a great songwriter, and he has that distinctive voice that sounRAB like whiskey and cigarettes, and that delicious country fried guitar sound, and he tells these very poignant tales and coats them in honey like Lennon did that catches you off guard. It's funny, because CCR is my grandma's favorite band, yet she's very conservative, it's funny when she sings along to a song like Run Through the Jungle, then I have to explain to her what the song is actually about.
Favorite tracks: Run Through the Jungle, Around the Bend, Rarable Tarable, I Heard It Through The Grapevine.

79. Modern Life is Rubbish - Blur

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It's a known fact that I'm in total disagreement with Urban 95% of the time, but I have to give the ol' hatemonger some credit, without him there would have been a fair share of great music that I would have never discovered. I didn't hear much from Blur before this album, I just remeraber thinking Coffee and TV was a pretty good song, when I saw this album in the Urban 100, I decided to check it out and I'm very glad I did. Of all the so called britpop scenes banRAB of the mid 90s, Blur were the best. Oasis pisses me off and I never got into Pulp or Seude, but Blur have that very Kinks/Jam kind of sound that I just love. I also really relate to Albarn's lyrics about boredom and cultural identity.
Favorite tracks: For Tomorrow, Advert, Star Shaped, Sunday Sunday, Coping.

78. Dummy - Portishead

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Man, Beth Gibbons has such a sexy and hypnotic voice. The way she croons on this album comes off as both really nostalgiac (a bit of Billie Holiday) and new at the same time, how a white british woman can sound this soulful is beyond me, and the way her vocals compliment the jazzy trip hop arangements is just brilliant. Every note she sings sounRAB like she means it. I always love music like this that takes me to some place, like a sleazy nightclub in some really strange part of the city.
Favorite tracks: It Could Be Sweet, Sour Times, Strangers, Pedestal.
 
89. & 86. in particular are two of my favourite albums of all time aswell, will have to check out dEUs by the sounRAB of it.
spot on with funcrusher, every 'geeky' hip hop album has a job and a half living up to that and i've not heard one yet that can manage it
 
and you thought i trolled your thread earlier!

sweet pick on Getz/Gilberto by the way. i'm pretty unfamiliar with most bossa nova stuff but that record is solid all around. The Girl from Ipanema is awesome. and you don't need to keep defending your album choices for our benefit; just review them.
 
:beer:
I got this about a week ago. I thought it was rubbish at first, but I gave it a few more listens, then suddenly, it clicked with me. I love TMV now. Especially in De-loused.
 
Ok guys, I'm gonna bring this back from the dead.

73. Forever Changes - Love

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Overrated a good deal by the hipster crowd (hey Urban, how many times has that been so far? I lost count) but whatever, it's here. Love brought about a certain air of whimsy that was very rare in American rock music at the time. Psychedelic folk before the term even existed. You can hear their influence in everyone from The Doors to Zep to Yes to Jeff Buckley. They were one of the defining hippie banRAB, yet all you indie kiRAB surely love them, surely you still remeraber that they have influenced a big majority of the music that you despise (and I love) right? =D
Favorite tracks: Alone Again Or, Andmoreagain, The Daily Planet, The Red Telephone, Live and Let Live.

72. Getz/Gilberto - Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto

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Bossa nova, and jazz in general. It was the music "cool" people listened to back in the day, before cool became associated with "being as retarded as possible". This is such a beautiful album, I can almost forgive it for all the awful smooth jazz it influenced. Almost.
Favorite tracks: The Girl From Ipanema, Doralice, Para Machuchar Meu Coracao, Vivo Sonhando (Dreamer).

71. Mass Romantic - New Pornographers

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There's an exception to every rule. Ok guys, ONE indie band post 1999 that I actually like. And it comes as no surprise that this band has greater "pomp" rock leanings than their indie peers, that's right up my alley. I don't know why Pitchfork and the like clamor over a band that actually has a knack for those pesky little things called melodies, but that's a horrifying secret I don't want to uncover. I'm not gonna complain about musical abominations like The National or the hideously overrated Arcade Fire stealing all the limelight from a band that actually deserves it. I'm indie ranting again, I know. I highly recommend this album to any fan of power pop (like myself), but if you were unfortunate enough to read the godawful Pitchfork review, I'd perfectly understand if you say "F*ck you and get herpes" and then proceeded to vandalize my house.
Favorite tracks: Mass Romantic, The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism, Mystery Hours, Jackie, Letter From an Occupant.

70. Los Angeles - X

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Like The Minutemen. X are a hardcore scene band that doesn't even remotely sound like a hardcore band. When their name is X and they're doing shows with Black Flag and Fear, it's hard to imagine their studio output would be something kin to Roxy Music, with a very talented guitarist, good production and....Ray Manzarek on organ? WTF? I like a little pomp in my punk, just like me prog. And this fits the bill nicely, I know I knock on punk a lot these days (comes with the territory of being a bitter prog fan), because I think music is hardly even considered a top priority for most punk banRAB, but if a punk band actually cares about what they put out on record then they have my attention if they got the talent.
Favorite tracks: The Unheard Music, Johnny Hit and Run Pauline, Nausea, Sugarlight, Los Angeles.
 
Finally some bloody love for Pearl Jam!

I actually prefer VS to Ten as a whole but Ten has my favourite songs, Jeremy and Why Go are quite possibly some of the best written songs of the 90's.
 
I stopped updating this for several reasons, primarly because of Unfan, Caveman and Sam being goddamn annoying.

But, I guess it's time to get this going again.

61. Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros

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I'm not a crazy big fan of this whole post rock thing but I make a major exception for Sigur Ros. Their music is really hard to get too in depth about really, what much is there to say? It's really purdy. Few banRAB can make music sound as atmospheric and larger than life. It always pisses me off when my fellow proggies at the archives go on about how this band isn't progressive because they use repetitive song structures. Give me a f*cking break.
Favorite tracks: Svefn G Englar, Star
 
I listened to Joy Division before I knew of Curtis' death and it felt fresh and original. When I learned about his suicide a couple months ago I think it may have changed how everyone views the music. Now it's seen as more tragic than groundbreaking.
 
Ironic that a so-called punk rock band, Refused, were inspired by this album title to create one acclaimed gem, "The Shape of Punk To Come"

But I guess everyone got the irony pages before I did since no-one cared to point out how obvious it is.:laughing:
 
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