1000 albums to hear before you die in The Guardian

stelfox

Beast of Burden
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/11/1000_albums_to_hear_before_you.html

Be interested to see how this develops, but so far I have to say that I'm pretty impressed. Plenty of standard canonical stuff, which there is nothing wrong with and is only to be expected (this is a list of 1,000 albums you "need to hear", after all) but some great choices and total curveballs, too. Wondering what everyone else is thinking. And before anyone asks, I had nothing to do with this whatsoever, so how Ce'Cile ended up being recommended I don't know, but i'm very happy to see it...
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
erykah badu (although it should have been mamas gun really), biz markie and babyface?! im impressed (was only looking at the b's section obviously).
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
With a few notable exceptions (Grandaddy and Goldfrapp especially), the G section is jammed with great stuff — even includes Ironman by Ghostface which is one of the best and most underrated hip-hop albums ever for my money.
 
These lists are getting incredibly boring. As the compilers of this list seem to be aware- the introduction pretty much renounces the title of the article which is exactly the "cake and eat it too crap" i'd expect from the guardian...and really there's plenty of dreadful stuff in there. Why would anyone want their cultural choices prescribed this way?
 

petergunn

plywood violin
this is moronic

if you do 1000, you open yourself up too much....

like, i just glanced at it and saw two of my fav "desert island dics" weren't on there....

rocks- aerosmith (i would have taken Toys in the attic, too...)

and

this Gal Costa record:

costa_gal~~_galcosta1_101b.jpg


"iron man" is their Ghostface pic, insteak of "Supreme Clientele?" RETARDED!

no Serge Gainsbourg??@?@?@?@!?!?!

my point is, if they just decided to do 100 or even 500l, whatever they did, people could go, well they only had 100, gotta pick what they can"... but, with 1000, this shit is just weak....
 

RobJC

Check your weapon
Grandaddy are in there (The Sophtware Slump), so I wonder if Mercury Rev will be as well.

Anyhoo, utterly pointless list, usless as a guide, only relevant in a UK/US sense.
 

petergunn

plywood violin
supreme clientele?! are you serious??

over "iron man" every single time.... not to digress, but out of the original wu solo joints (tical, ODB, liquid swords, cuban links, iron man),l ghost's is the weakest... it isn't til Supreme that he really finds himself...

would i put it on a list of top 1000 records? maybe... but i sure as fuck would not put Iron Man on there in some misguided attempt to score black credibiltiy points...
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"no Serge Gainsbourg??@?@?@?@!?!?!"
I've just been flicking through this while queueing in the bank and there was definitely a Serge Gainsbourg record in the list.
For what it's worth.
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
Grandaddy are in there (The Sophtware Slump), so I wonder if Mercury Rev will be as well.

Anyhoo, utterly pointless list, usless as a guide, only relevant in a UK/US sense.

in what way? the music represented or who it is aimed at? bear in mind it is a british newspaper, predominantly read by british people

These lists are getting incredibly boring. As the compilers of this list seem to be aware- the introduction pretty much renounces the title of the article which is exactly the "cake and eat it too crap" i'd expect from the guardian...and really there's plenty of dreadful stuff in there. Why would anyone want their cultural choices prescribed this way?

oh dear. come down off your high horse for a second please. a very significant number of people really do want their cultural choices to be guided in this way. It's why any of the writers on this board have jobs. There is nothing wrong with giving tips to readers at all, and that's all it is, just a guide, something that people will dip into and maybe grab a few things from.
whether you like it or not, plenty of readers buy and use newspapers 1) to access news 2) to provide commentary on and routes into wider culture. there's quite a lot going on out there and it's hard to keep up with all of it so a bit of help is often useful.
this all seems a bit kneejerky — "IT'S A LIST, IT'S IN A NEWSPAPER... IT'S EVIL!" most people just don't have time to hang around messageboards and read blogs all the time (luckily for them, because most blogs are pretty horrible, truth be told), so newspapers and the larger online magazines still have a valuable job to do and a vast audience to cater to. i'm all for criticising the mainstream media - hey, i think much more should be written about much more interesting stuff, all of it preferably by me — but let's have a little balance here, please.
personally, i was just pleasantly surprised by a lot of the stuff in this list so far. it's better than most of them. but i should have known better than to say so...

over "iron man" every single time.... not to digress, but out of the original wu solo joints (tical, ODB, liquid swords, cuban links, iron man),l ghost's is the weakest... it isn't til Supreme that he really finds himself...

would i put it on a list of top 1000 records? maybe... but i sure as fuck would not put Iron Man on there in some misguided attempt to score black credibiltiy points...

let's just say that we can agree to disagree about how good iron man is — i think it's the best solo record he's made and it's a big personal favourite. where does the idea of "black credibility points" come in, though? was that why dizzee, big youth and isaac hayes are in there — a cynical attempt to lure people of colour into the malignant ideological grasp of the guardian or a hollow attempt by white music critics to appear down? don't be silly. they're in there because they're actually rather good records.

Alexis Petridis never edited Hip-Hop Connection. He worked for Mixmag when Dorian Lynskey was editor, then edited Select. In fairness to the guy, working for Mixmag for a couple of years would probably make me pray for the death of dance music, too.
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
Quite. :confused:

anyone remember he used to edit HipHop Connection back in the day? how the mighty are fallen ;)

No he didn't.

would i put it on a list of top 1000 records? maybe... but i sure as fuck would not put Iron Man on there in some misguided attempt to score black credibiltiy points...

So if they'd chosen SC it would be cool, but choosing Iron Man is simply proof of their PC-ness...? the reflex cynicism of some people here for the mainstream media makes the I Love Music crowd look like balanced, adjusted individuals.
 

petergunn

plywood violin
So if they'd chosen SC it would be cool, but choosing Iron Man is simply proof of their PC-ness...? the reflex cynicism of some people here for the mainstream media makes the I Love Music crowd look like balanced, adjusted individuals.


you're misreading me... i am saying they basically knew the name Ghost Face Killah and picked his first record on some "yeah, i liked the first record, before they sold out" indie rock steez and fucked up, b/c it's basically universally recognized that Ghost found himself on his 2nd record... if i were to sit down and have a talk w/ whoever picked Iron Man over S.C and they laid out there reasons why in a knowledgeable fashion, i would eat my hat...

AND

90% of their other choices are simply the mainstream hit album of the artists, as opposed to the better record...'

that said, i will reserve ultimate judgement until the list is done...
 
oh dear. come down off your high horse for a second please. a very significant number of people really do want their cultural choices to be guided in this way. It's why any of the writers on this board have jobs. There is nothing wrong with giving tips to readers at all, and that's all it is, just a guide, something that people will dip into and maybe grab a few things from.
whether you like it or not

Fair enough, it is monday morning ;)

i've got no problem with this really- of course not- but the title is more than a little portentous and this unending cataloguing instinct makes me uncomfortable- it just seems very reductive and acquisitive. If people can't find the time to discover the music they enjoy in an age of unprecedented access then do they really NEED to hear it?

@crackerjack- he wrote for hhc in the early- mid 90s and i thought he edited it for a couple of months. this is all from very hazy memory though!
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
you're misreading me... i am saying they basically knew the name Ghost Face Killah and picked his first record on some "yeah, i liked the first record, before they sold out" indie rock steez and fucked up, b/c it's basically universally recognized that Ghost found himself on his 2nd record... if i were to sit down and have a talk w/ whoever picked Iron Man over S.C and they laid out there reasons why in a knowledgeable fashion, i would eat my hat...

Or it may just be that the Guardian writers - some of whom clearly know and like their hip hop, however much it hurts your preconceptions to admit it - prefer Iron Man, as do others here.
 
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