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| ‹ ‹ ‹ past OPINION articles |
:: OPINION :: |
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by Tim Mathiesen |
 January 2007 |
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25 Best Albums of All Time Best albums are often confused with favorite albums. Favorite albums are those
albums that you can't stop listening to because it connects with you as an individual.
Best albums, on the other hand, is a universal approach, where you look at the
over all quality, originality and creativity of the album (whether you, as an individual,
love the album, or not). |
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#25 Lower your eyebrows, take a deep breath and please forgive me for not choosing a project by Rakim or Chuck D, but I've been looking everywhere for the best hip-hop/rap album and nothing impressed me more than than the subtley complex Things Fall Apart by The Roots. I have thought long and hard about this choice and I realize that it may not have had the impact and influence of Nas' Illmatic, or the smoothe flow of Biggie on Ready to Die. It also doesn't have the infectious hooks and mainstream popularity of 2Pac's All Eyez On Me or Dre's flawless P-Funk influenced The Chronic, but I haven't come across anything so intelligent or complex in the world of hip-hop (mainstream or independent) than Things Fall Apart. Comparing the thought provoking messages and poetry on this album to GZA's Liquid Swords would be like comparing apples to oranges, but in my opinion it's on the same level. By now you may be asking why I didn't just choose The Low End Theory but I believe that on this album, The Roots took the jazz infused rap of A Tribe Called Quest to the next level. Combining complex, creative beats with the laid back jazz improvision along with intelligent lyrics, The Roots created the ultimate rap album!
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#24 WARNING: An incredible amount of patience and an open mind is required to enjoy this album. The voice is harsh, the instruments seem sloppy, the lyrics are difficult to understand, and the album as a whole is quite strange. The patient listener will find that, after repeated listens, the album becomes much more inviting and a strange beauty shines through as the listener comes to understand the complex and creative musical arrangements that complement the theme of the album about the tortured soul of a teenager trying to make sense of the changes in his life physically, mentally and socially. This is a powerful album, musically and lyrically.
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#23 There never was, nor will there ever be, another Odelay. The mind blowing mix of folk, hip-hop, rock and little of Beck's own flavor, resulted in a surprisingly perfect list of songs, creating one of the most original albums of all time.
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#22 Picking up the electric guitar for a full album, Bob Dylan changed his image. Putting aside his thought provoking acoustic folk, he wrote some rugged lyrics to go along with the blues tinged folk-rock. The beauty of Highway 61 Revisided is in the rough edge that refuses to be considered beautiful.
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#21 One of the most popular and best-selling albums of all time, Dark Side of the Moon is, at the same time, one of the most creative and original. Pink Floyd perfected their signiture sound on this album and collected a solid group of songs that lyrically deal with simple and ordinary moments in life. The incredibly beautiful and haunting music adds a strange life to the lyrics and they seem more and enlightening and profound than they would on their own.
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#20 I like the way Steve Huey reviewed this album on allmusic.com.
"Dave Brubeck's defining masterpiece, Time Out is one of the most rhythmically innovative albums in jazz history, the first to consciously explore time signatures outside of the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. Buoyed by a hit single 'Take Five,' Time Out became an unexpectedly huge success, and still ranks as one of the most popular jazz albums ever."
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#19 Velvet Underground created an original piece of work that has arguably become the most influencial album in alternative music. Produced by Andy Warhol, this album is something special when it comes to the creative artistic expression. The music and lyrics are incredibly minimal, yet powerfully beautiful and harsh at the same time. This album proved that it's the subtle creative moments in a song that matter most.
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#18 Upon the release of Low, David Bowie comfortabley took his place as a leading artist on the cutting edge. This is what happens when two great students of music team up and are able to unselfishly collaborate and complement each other. Brian Eno produced the album, and contributed much of the electronic sound. Though Kraftwerk and Brian Eno had blazed the trail for this album, Bowie created a perfect mix of electronic and rock that resulted in a masterpiece and took the world of music in a new direction. |
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#17 Unlike Sgt. Pepper's or Abbey Road where the arrangement and structure of the album was the prime importance, The White Album is simply great for the fact that it broke new ground in the world of rock and roll. From the simple folk of "Blackbird" to the hard rock of "Helter Skelter" the Beatles experimented with a variety of genres, mixing and matching, resulting in some amazing new sounds and a huge influence on the world of rock and roll.
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#16 If every artist was allowed to release only one album in their career, no one could have done better than Grace. Beautiful, original, complex, intelligent, inspiring, and from the heart, it is obvious that this was created and recorded out of a honest love for music.
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#15 A prime example of "less is more," this album was recorded in Neil Young's basement. A young guitar prodigy, Nils Lofgren, was forced to play the piano, and didn't touch a guitar during any of the recording sessions. The piano was used subtley but it added an incredible amount of beauty to each song. Everything was kept simple, not due to the recording limitations, but because it was the foundation of the album. Every sound and rhythm had a purpose and though it was kept simple it sounds complete.
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#14 In my opinion, the most beautiful sound in the world is Nick Drake on an acoustic guitar. Pink Moon was relatively unknown at the time of it's release, but may now be one of the most influencial albums in modern folk music. Each song is built on a quiet acoustic background, while the dark lyrics about human existence record the last days of Nick Drake. Depressing? Yes, but the poetic lyrics touch each listener in their own way, and not neccessarily in a negative way. The lyrics are an analysis of human life, which all of us can relate to.
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#13 When I came across Marquee Moon a few years ago I didn't have much respect for punk rock. The Sex Pistols were obnoxious, the Clash were immature, and the Ramones were boring. But Television brought an incredible artistic intelligence to punk rock. The smart arrangements of each song were incredibally original, complex and creative. I was immediately drawn to it's raw punk sound, and at the same time impressed by the quality and talent of the musicians.
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#12
Nirvana made it cool to be unknown, which sent record executives scrambling to the underground music scene to find the next big alternative band. The huge explosion of the alternative scene brought some amazing groups to the mainstream circuit, each influencing rock music in a different way: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine, and Nine Inch Nails, to name a few.
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#11 The risk that Radiohead took with the release of Kid A was a dangerous one. Some fans turned on them. The phrase "art for art's sake" was heard, and the sudden change was seen, by some, as selfish. There were enough critics and fans, though, that respected the change and gave Kid A a chance. The beautiful and incredibly complex arrangements take a few listens to sort through, while the originality of the music is hard to get used to. When it all starts to come together and make sense, it is incredibly rewarding and is some of the most beautifully fullfilling music that has ever been recorded.
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