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Spin's 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)

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Id be surprised if the average person working for Spin even cares to listen to that sort of music, and simply includes it on a list like this for lip service.

I get the feeling a lot of the list is exactly this. A best of (insert genre) over the past three decades would probably have been a better call, because at least then you would have exclusively people familiar with the genre putting votes in, rather than say, 3 people REALLY into hip hop plus 9 people who bought a kanye album once.

The picks and omissions here are really, legitimately confusing as hell if you're a fan of most of this.
 
This list doesn't even have proper goth on here. There's no Lycia or Faith and the Muse or Dead Can Dance, which technically isn't goth, but they hit some moody ass tones. There's no trip hop on here either because Mono's LIfe in Mono or Massive Attack's Mezzanine would have to be on here. I saw a Garbage album on here, but I would've loved seeing something from Curve getting mentioned and well I would think Collide is too esoteric for them. Even if it's alt rock based they should've put 23 from Blonde Redhead on here.
 

Kevtones

Member
As someone who turned 30 a few months ago this is pretty cool.


Really solid and diverse list. My only rage is:

26. The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
22. Green Day - Dookie

Baaaaarf
 
Not saying they should be swapped but Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Siamese Dream are both better albums than Nevermind. Nirvana continues to get way more recognition than is merited.
 
But it's so ambitious! The production is so expensive! He sounds so tortured!

Or something.
Haha maybe. Just to be clear I don't think it's bad, just not my thing for whatever reason (mainly guest verses). I'm just surprised it's separated itself from all his other acclaimed albums, all of which I preferred to MBDTF besides 808.
 

Revolver

Member
This list doesn't even have proper goth on here.

Omitting the Sister's Floodland is a big shame. I would have liked to have seen Enigma's MCMXC a.D. on there too but that's more of a personal favorite I guess. I really used that album to break in some new headphones over the years though.
 
This list doesn't even have proper goth on here. There's no Lycia or Faith and the Muse or Dead Can Dance, which technically isn't goth, but they hit some moody ass tones. There's no trip hop on here either because Mono's LIfe in Mono or Massive Attack's Mezzanine would have to be on here. I saw a Garbage album on here, but I would've loved seeing something from Curve getting mentioned and well I would think Collide is too esoteric for them. Even if it's alt rock based they should've put 23 from Blonde Redhead on here.

To be fair, Spin covers VERY little of that- or at least they didn't when I was reading it.
This list is very, very mainstream in terms of what it singles out as "best."
 
Omitting the Sister's Floodland is a big shame. I would have liked to have seen Enigma's MCMXC a.D. on there too but that's more of a personal favorite I guess. I really used that album to break in some new headphones over the years though.
There's not even any Clan of Xymox on here, which might be dark wave or something, but some of these omissions are pretty weird. Yeah I'm actually listening to some Sisters of Mercy from your recommendation and it's pretty good. I really do need to dive into my Sisters of Mercy play list some more.
To be fair, Spin covers VERY little of that- or at least they didn't when I was reading it.
This list is very, very mainstream in terms of what it singles out as "best."
But Mono and Massive Attack have both had mainstream hits.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Man this is the most vanilla paste, thirtysomething list ever.
 
There's not even any Clan of Xymox on here, which might be dark wave or something, but some of these omissions are pretty weird. Yeah I'm actually listening to some Sisters of Mercy from your recommendation and it's pretty good. I really do need to dive into my Sisters of Mercy play list some more.

But Mono and Massive Attack have both had mainstream hits.

Plenty of niche acts have a song or two that breaks into the mainstream for a little while.

But we're talking about a list here that completely skips over critical and commercial blockbusters like Tool's Aenima, Metallica's self titled, Michael Jackson's Bad, and Alanis' Jagged Little Pill.

the odds are not great for niche artists here, unless they happen to be an editor's pet favorite here.

Man this is the most vanilla paste, thirtysomething list ever.

you're right, getting 16 year olds to vote on the most essential albums of 1988 is a much better call. Fuck Thirtysomethings.
 
Plenty of niche acts have a song or two that breaks into the mainstream for a little while.

But we're talking about a list here that completely skips over critical and commercial blockbusters like Tool's Aenima, Metallica's self titled, Michael Jackson's Bad, and Alanis' Jagged Little Pill.

the odds are not great for niche artists here, unless they happen to be an editor's pet favorite here.
Yeah don't worry I completely see your point with this one. I'm always just on that "fuck the mainstream" slant. And there are some really big glaring omissions from this one and yeah omitting Tool of all things is gross, that's almost as bad as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ignoring Rush for all those years.
 

Sobriquet

Member
This list doesn't even have proper goth on here. There's no Lycia or Faith and the Muse or Dead Can Dance, which technically isn't goth, but they hit some moody ass tones. There's no trip hop on here either because Mono's LIfe in Mono or Massive Attack's Mezzanine would have to be on here. I saw a Garbage album on here, but I would've loved seeing something from Curve getting mentioned and well I would think Collide is too esoteric for them. Even if it's alt rock based they should've put 23 from Blonde Redhead on here.

Mezzanine is on there
 
Ctrl-f "Spacemen 3". God dammit Spin. So the best album of the '80's (The Perfect Prescription) doesn't make the top 300. Ridiculous.

I do somewhat agree with Sign O the Times placement, though I adamantly disagree with Nevermind's placement.
 
Ctrl-f "Spacemen 3". God dammit Spin. So the best album of the '80's (The Perfect Prescription) doesn't make the top 300. Ridiculous.

I do somewhat agree with Sign O the Times placement, though I adamantly disagree with Nevermind's placement.

Nevermind is the FF7 of Alt-Rock albums. There are plenty of better ones, but it was so many people's first that it's going to be in that spot for a good long while.
 
Appetite For Destruction should be in the top 5. That album is a rock and roll masterpiece. So many artists and bands were influenced by that album.
 
This is a horrible, horrible list. Almost laughably bad. No punk except Against Me! (and they pick their worst album that the band themselves admits is their worst), no metal except Slayer and Master of Puppets yet they have Sleater-Kinney on there TWICE!? At least 36 Chambers is on there!
 
This is a horrible, horrible list. Almost laughably bad. No punk except Against Me! (and they pick their worst album that the band themselves admits is their worst), no metal except Slayer and Master of Puppets yet they have Sleater-Kinney on there TWICE!? At least 36 Chambers is on there!

hey, they had to hold themselves back from putting Kanye on there more than 3 times!
 
No KLF ??????? One (or preferably both) of these should have been on the list

The_KLF_-_The_White_Room.jpg


KLFcover-chillout.jpg
 
This is a horrible, horrible list. Almost laughably bad. No punk except Against Me! (and they pick their worst album that the band themselves admits is their worst), no metal except Slayer and Master of Puppets yet they have Sleater-Kinney on there TWICE!? At least 36 Chambers is on there!

Yet Pearl Jam is on there once, no AIC??? WTF??? Although Sleater-Kinney's The Woods album is on my top ten list. Great album! Every song on that album kicks ass.
 
Not entirely true. BP definitely played a large part in revitalizing soul samples, kicking off Kanye's career, and deading the 98-00s casio synth swizzy/timbaland stuff that had dominated for years, so it made some waves.

Of course that isn't so much revolution/innovation as much as popularization. Kind of like how The Chronic made what Above the Law did hot.

You aren't seriously comparing the impact of BP to chronic. Hip hop before and after chronic dropped was a different landscape sonically

Please tell me how BP influenced the south, west and Midwest hip hop scene
 
LOL at people expecting Spin Magazine to rate their favorite metal or hip-hop higher. Spin is and always has favored alt-rock. It just dabbles in other genres to appear cooler than it really is. It hasn't even been worth reading since Bob Guccione Jr. sold the magazine in 1997.

while true, it's also severely fucking up the rankings for Alt-rock, so...
 
Top 10 is very close to my personal list and there's tons of great albums on here throughout the list.

I'm sure everyone will have a bone or two to pick (personally Animal Collective deserves no spot on any 'best-of' list ever), but this is a great survey of the past thirty years.
 

Maxim726X

Member
Ugh. Fucking Nirvana.

Also, no Black Album? Nice to see MoP getting the props it deserves, too.

Also, where's Ten? That album completely shits all over anything that Nirvana ever did.
 

Maxim726X

Member
Not hate, so much as realizing the album is consistently overrated. It's good, but "best album in the last 30 years" is very difficult to defend.

No, I hate them.

Just about every popular grunge act that came after them were better, and Pearl Jam is about 10 orders of magnitude better.
 

flyover

Member
Nevermind doesn't even belong in the Top 10. Kind of tired of the default opinion, unquestioned fawning it still receives.

Yeah, there's no denying how important it was. If the list were for most important rock album of the last 30 years, I'd get that. It completely changed the songwriting and production for so much popular rock that followed.

But (for me), it's hardly even really listenable, anymore. Honestly, I don't even like it, now. Maybe that's more about me than it...
 

Dead

well not really...yet
Yeah don't worry I completely see your point with this one. I'm always just on that "fuck the mainstream" slant. And there are some really big glaring omissions from this one and yeah omitting Tool of all things is gross, that's almost as bad as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ignoring Rush for all those years.
Tool, and any music in general with heavy Progressive influences are always looked down upon by music press. Prog has been the "uncool" genre for a very long time.

Same reason you wont see Mars Volta on a list like this (not that they necessarily should be on there)
 
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