Uncut's Top 20 Albums Of The '00s
It's 2009, so in addition to the usual year-end list, as fall turns to winter we'll be drowning in end-of-the-decade lists, too. It's only October, but you can add Uncut's Top 20 Albums Of The '00s to Pitchfork's Greatest Albums Of The '00s. (Thanks for the tip, Ben.) Putting the two side by side illustrates why it can be fun getting into list mode: Beyond putting Funeral in the Top 10, these couldn't be any more different. Of course, Uncut didn't just do 20: If you track down the magazine itself, they offer up their top 150, which is also quite different than P4K's: Ys came in at 21, Kid A at 25, Illinois at 30, Merriweather Post Pavillion at 33, and Grizzly Bear trailed at 104 with Veckatimest, scorekeepers. Also, the staff of Uncut own a time machine.
20 Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
19 Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
18 Kate Bush - Aerial
17 The White Stripes - Elephant
16 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
15 Radiohead - In Rainbows
14 Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
13 Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
12 Portishead - Third
11 The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
10 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
09 Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
08 Bob Dylan - Modern Times
07 Arcade Fire - Funeral
06 Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
05 The Strokes - Is This It
04 Brian Wilson - Smile
03 Wilco - A Ghost is Born
02 Bob Dylan - 'Love and Theft'
01 The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
As you might've noticed via the cover of the current issue, they declared Jack White "Man Of The Decade," which is why the list includes five White Stripes albums as well as both Raconteurs collections. A bit of mucus White hocked on the sidewalk came it at 151.
Posted at 5:35 PM by brandon in List
And I thought Pitchfork had the most obtuse list....
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Uncut doesn't care about black people (making music).
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"19 Bruce Springsteen - The Rising"
Sakurai: ((laughs))
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The White Stripes are purdy good so... sure. It's funny how people think this type of stuff matters at all. It's all good man.
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And the Jack White hating begins in...
Jesus Christ two Dylan albums in the top ten and no room for one Radiohead in there?
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#15 homie.
Pitchfork and Uncut both have preconceived musical agendas/readerships to cater to (as does 'Gum in re-posting the findings so we can all scan for our indie faves and then shit on the selections when we come up empty-handed, whining about how unfair it is that "so-and-so" didn't get a shout out), it's gonna happen with every publication.
Don't fret your lettuce though folks, before God ends the world in 2012 I'm sure he'll bestow upon us a proper list.
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oh my b, you meant in the top tenski. still...
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BEAST POST in the last week!
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i had to sign out to up vote (member when it was easy to up vote)
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my thoughts exactly, though i'd imagine that god's taste in music isn't as white (american?) biased as the rest of us.
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Dylan, Springsteen... this tell you how old are the editors of that Magazine. BTW I'm proud that my top 20 of the decade has no coincidence with any magazine :D
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As the acting head of the church of JackWhiteology I approve of this list.
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Agree with 10&11...the rest is disposable...
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I give a big thumbs up to SMiLE's being in the top 5
Kid A's being so low reminds me of when Rolling Stone listed EVH as the, like, 70th greatest guitarist ever. No one wanted it in the top 10 because of the hype, so they vote it down the list. It kind of makes your list look silly when everyone does that.
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Or maybe they all honestly felt that it really was just hype.
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Look at people still arguing over KId A almost ten years later...cute. And you realize you are the first in history to parallel Eddie Van Halen and Radiohead
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it's fun to read lists
and to get mad at 'em
pop music can be disposable and timeless, or just disposable and rad fun.
have a good night, everybody!
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And it's also fun to read people getting mad at lists.
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What did they find in A Ghost Is Born that wasn't already there and better in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot?
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Primarily, the music.
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I definitely agree. "A Ghost is Born" is a head-scratcher. Not only were there more than two records better than it this decade, Wilco released two better records this decade all on their own.
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THANK YOU FOR A GHOST IS BORN
most underrated album ever
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White Blood Cells are #1? Good album, but the top of the decade? I think not.
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Jack standing under the words "uncut" looks like a dirty craigslist posting in m4m.
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i laughed and snotted at the same time, thank you
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urban music rulez.
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This is a weak list. Although is good they included Dylan, Brian Wilson, Primal Scream and the White Stripes, this list still FAILS due to them leaving out Kid A and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. They could've left out any other albums but the fact that they left out those two is just a very unforgivable sin.
Do the Brits really love Bruce that much? ?
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Your replies move me. Please re-post your top 20 list from the other day; I need dinner table fodder for this evening.
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"The Rising" is a fantastic album. I've always thought it was one of the best albums of the decade. I'd put it higher up on the list. It isn't indie, it isn't weird, but it's incredible songwriting.
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So far, the best list I've seen is on austintownhall.com.
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how had i not heard of that site before?
i'll agree that it's a good list. and the descriptions are good. they don't take themselves too seriously. still, i must favor pitchfork's list, if only because it gave me a pretty decent list of cds to order for the library i work at.
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Kid A not even in the top 20?
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portishead at #12 makes sense...that album is stellar
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Kid A should be in the top 10 but this list is way more respectable than pitchfork's. jack white is, in fact, the man and white blood cells would still be refreshing if it came out today.
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Pretty bad list. Why do some music journalists insist on placing older recording artsist on pedestals? I like classic Dylan and while I haven't heard Love and Theft, I do own Modern Times and it is balls; Led Zeppelin were great, Raising Sands is a pleasant easy listening sort of record, not 6th best album of the decade! Fair enough, Smile probably deserves to be on there, perhaps not so high. But the fact that Uncut believes that four of the top ten albums of the 2000s were produced by musicians at their creative peak in the 60s and 70s is just ridiculous, and really isn't fair to the better emergent artists of this decade.
However, I do love music lists.
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It's just a really bad list and Uncut comes across as totally irrelevant. Seriously, unless you are over 50 and closed minded, nobody gives a shit about a new Dylan album.
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What the fuck man! The dude has always been putting out great records.
Maybe they don't deserve to be in the top 10, maybe not even on the list, but that's just a fucked up thing to say.
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Pretty agreed. Once you start getting arrested for lurking outside someone's home, looking homeless, its time to go. But this Christmas album is gonna rock.
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Seriously, LISTEN to Love and Theft. One of my faves, the old geezer has a lot to say and gets better with age.
And I'm 38.
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Not Including Chutes too Narrow by The Shins and Meadowlands by The Wrens in the top 20 IMMEDIATELY makes this list null and void. How 'bout My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves?
No Spoon whatsoever? I can't believe how small I am to let lists like this moronic one get to me.
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I'll wait til the decade is over NEXT December to make my list....although the Flaming Lips and Primal Scream records are good calls.
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...you realize the decade is over this December.
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There's no year zero so the proper decade "count" should be 1 to 11.
Of course, anyone who actually does that is an anal-retentive douche who misses out on all the big parties because he's too focused on a completely manufactured metric of time created so that man wouldn't be driven insane by the constant reality of infinity.
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well there is year zero, 0 hours, and 1 minute. Just as a baby can be one minute old, one day old, or two weeks old. Under your theory, the baby wouldn't be considered alive until he reached the one-year mark, and then you would start counting. Back when the A.D. calendar started rolling there was the the first hour, the first day, and the first month of the 0th year, and after completing 10 years the next 10 years began at year 10. I keep hearing this theory and it's fucking stupefying.
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baaaad... i mean.. Kid A maybe is not the top 1.. or 2 or 3, but 25??? and merriwather post pavilion 33?? . nope-- and funeral better than xtrmntr?? come on!!!.... this list only wants be different... bad bad bad
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Love the respect for Bob Dylan, but really crapola is the only word i can use to describe the rest of the list...
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Thank you for including Ryan on there. Amazing album that goes unnoticed.
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does anyone own more than four of these albums???
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both white stripes. the strokes. radiohead. fleet foxes. arcade fire.
yes
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yes... I have 8 of them actually (including both Dylan albums, which are really good... maybe not both top 20, but still excellent), plus my dad has the bruce album and the robert plant/allison krauss
I'm surprised to have not seen anything by Steve Earle on a end of the decade list yet... he's continued to push the envelope this decade.
This thing being British, I wonder where Kings of Leon ended up
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Love and Theft is oddly underappreciated and it's nice to see it near the top. It's incredibly good by any standard and is the one of the last four, IMHO, that sits comfortably with his best. Well ok, maybe his second tier, which, I mean, come on...
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What's with all the indie Jack White love? He's like the oprah for white kids slumming it...
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I agree that two dylan albums is a bit much...
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STABBING BRAIN WHY IS KID A NOT ON HERE WHATHEFUCK OH WAIT ITS JUST A STUPID MAGAZINE I HAVE NEVER heard of AND I REALLY DONT CARE BACK TO REAL LIFE BANANAS AND MASTURBATING!
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Hail to the Thief > Amnesiac > Kid A > In Rainbows
Seriously, I don't get what all the fuss is about with In Rainbows.
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I'm completely with you. And on the hierarchy of albums too.
Hail to the Thief was already kind of an encapsulation of where they had been going with the last two albums while still moving forward, while In Rainbows was really more just a summary of Radiohead '00... I don't know, I just don't tend to find that kind of album as interesting...
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Like the fucking cover didn't give it away.
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Dylan's Only good album of the past thirty some years is Modern Times, and while Bruce's The Rising is pretty good, it isn't even top 100. Elephant is wayyyy better than White Blood Cells, and Kate Bush, really? REALLY??? Even the group that covered her classic "Hounds of Love" had a better album than Aerial
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Let's hope he doesn't dance again..."cut like a buffalo" was atrocious...
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lol
what a terrible list.
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Jack White is one of the few people that keep music interesting. People that really appreciate well crafted music can get behind this. The guy makes really good albums, all of them at least decent. Keep in mind he has three bands. Add me up to the Jack White love.
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I agree that this is a pretty obtuse list but I would have to say good call on putting up Gillian Welch and 'A Ghost is Born." Maybe not QUITE so high up, but I am a little disappointed that the other lists I've seen didn't even give knods.
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Interesting list. Nice to see Ryan Adams 'Heartbreaker' get a big ten birth. Love 'Third'. Boy, is it ever nice to see 'Xtrmntr' recognized for excellence. Is 'A Ghost Is Born' better than I remember it? Perhaps the lack of patience in the downloading age sour me on something wonderful. Or I've never been able to move passed 'Summerteeth' and 'Yankee'.
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yeah, Uncut magazine is the authority so... wait a second... who the fuck reads Uncut magazine??? I bet that Pink Floyd article is interesting though
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NO WAY they included amy winehouse! And I can't complain, really....the list is pretty accurate. I don't personally agree with every spot here but the list has to be diverse, right? In Rainbows is my favorite in the list, as well as Is this it. And the White Stripes deserves the number one spot, that CD is fucking great. I don't think Wilco should be here though....they should replace that spot with Merryweather Post Pavillion which I think definately deserves to be in the top 10.
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YES, Gillian Welch made an amazing album, I'm glad it got recognized.
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I do not see why people bother to defend this list. Back To Black is a fun album, but a far cry from one of the greatest albums of 2006, let alone of the decade. And two Bob Dylan and White Stripes albums apiece? Modern Times is at best a mediocre (though, like Winehouse, fun album) and even though I have not heard Love and Theft, I doubt it as good as Time Out of Mind. As for the White Stripes, they are overrated: the only album that should be in the top twenty is White Blood Cells, and there is no way that that album should be number one. And then when you add a bunch of misplaced great albums (YOSHIMI? One of the top twenty of the decade? REALLY?), and add a bunch of far greater albums they neglected (Kid A, The Blueprint, The Moon and the Antarctic, Arular, You Forgot It In People, Kill the Moonlight etc.), you have one heap of a stinky, smelly list. Ignore it.
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Uncut is a CLASSIC rock themed mag so...of course they're gonna focus on the old acts, and/or the ones that sound famliar, a la White Stripes. XTRMNTR is kinda a cool choice, though it still shouldnt be quite that high, n Brian Wilson is clearly up there just for ass-kissing purposes;)
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i love year / decade end lists! it gauges popular consensus regardless of their musical preference. so far with this and PF, Funeral and WBC seems to be perennial favorites and I would slightly agree. Although, Kia A makes a more noteworthy album of the decade than WBC.
PF hearts Animal Collective and Uncut digs anything Jack White spews out. I wish these lists wouldn't show much biased tendencies to their fetishes.
I have yet to see a list with TVOTR on the top 20. Am i the only one who thinks they're worthy? maybe Spin Magazine would agree. Hell, they earned album of the year awards for both Cookie Mountain and Science!
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Kid A is better than all those albums.
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Odd list. Bear in mind that Uncut is written by 80 year pensioners so the inclusion of the White Stripes in this list is quite an achievement.
Nice to see they included women in the list (as opposed to the Pitchfork staff that believes only men can make music).
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ridikiuloz list
ahah
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20 Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
No.
19 Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
No.
18 Kate Bush - Aerial
No.
14 Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
No.
13 Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
No.
12 Portishead - Third
No.
08 Bob Dylan - Modern Times
No.
03 Wilco - A Ghost is Born
No. YHF, Yes.
02 Bob Dylan - 'Love and Theft'
No.
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Embrassing list. So many random choices here and mediocre albums. To echo many other people... kid A at 25? Give me a break. Ghost is born over YHF? Ridiculous. Most insane of all really is third being ahead of Kid A... Third is essentially a lesser Kid 8, nearly a decade after kid A already did the same thing infinitely better. Stupid. Irrelevant and pointless list.
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I am a huge WILCO fan, but I was highly indifferent towards a Ghost Is Born, and then I saw Nels Cline live and realized that he is one of the best guitarists I have ever seen.
Now I go back to Ghost, and see it for the amazing record that it is.
And Heartbreaker definitely belongs on that list too.
On my personal top 10, there would be 2 or 3 spots for WILCO, and 2 0r 3 for Ryan Adams as well. Ans a slot for Nada Surf.
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I'm pretty sure Nels Kline is not on Ghost is Born. I don't know if that's what you meant or not.
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Nice to see some people bursting a blood vessel over another list - there'll be a ton of these by the end of the year. Some of you will give yourselves a coronary by then at this rate!
And Third is great, and comparing it to Kid A is daft. They're very different albums.
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KID A not being #1 shows nothing but ignorance
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the whole list with all 150 is typed up here,
http://swearimnotpaul.blogspot.com/2009/09/list-uncuts-top-150-albums-of-00s.html
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You're complaining now, but just wait till Rolling Stone gives Best Album of the Decade to something like American Idiot or All That You Can't Leave Behind.
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A quick prediction of the RS Top Ten in no particular order (shiver):
American Idiot, All That You Can't Leave Behind, Elephant, Marshall Mathers LP, Love and Theft, A Rush of Blood to the Head, Smile, The Rising, Tha Carter 3, and more likely than not, some album by a Disney group.
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I know, I know Mr Magazine editor...why not just put a turnip on the cover instead of AnCo...
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This list is pretty out of touch. But then again, pitchfork's is too narrowed in. I wish there was a happy medium between the ultra elite and the ultra extensive.
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Lame list. When you read a top albums of the past decade list and go "meh" at the end, that's not a good sign. And it's not necessarily our decade's fault so don't give me that.
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Where is Oracular Spectacular????
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Right here in my pants!!!
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kid a is the best.
you know this i know this.
what kind of world do we live in where a music magazine does not know this.
oh well.
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I lose faith in UNCUT now....
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Based on Jack's expression, I'm not really sure he gets this list...
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Oh Brandon, me thinks you doth protest too much. I am sensing that you might have a little "man crush" on Jack White that you are in denial about. Celebrate it, don't hide from it. Creatively, there is a strong argument to be made for Jack White as the Artist of the Decade. The list? Always subjective, not worth debating personal tastes. Admit it, you have that "free credit report.com" song stuck in your head, too.
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I love me some music lists, it always brings out the ugly side of people. Nice to see The White Stripes make it to the top of the list. By the way, how do I join the church of JackWhitetology?
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OK, let's all agree not to take this seriously and move on to the New Moon post.
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Jack White needs to stop forming bands. You can put as many different names on it as you want, but at the end of the day it all sounds the same.
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Uncut magazines's top 150 albums that OLD white people like. great. totally awesome...NOT!
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Jeez! I thought this was a typical shit list from Rolling Stone.
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Obviously they haven't heard Sonic Boom yet.
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Take out the two Dylan and Robert Plant albums in the top 10 ( which are pretty good but not top 10 worthy) put In Rainbows in the top 10 and I am honestly pretty happy with this list. At the end of this decade I am finding myself enjoying both In Rainbows and A Ghost is Born much more than the artists critically appointed masterpieces ( Kid A and Yankee Hotel). I did like Jack White a little more when he was more of a scrappy garage rock guy than his current incarnation of a modern day "guitar god" but its hard to deny how good peak era White Stripes is.
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I am so glad to see 'A Ghost Is Born' get some appreciation. It's a phenomenal record that tends to be overshadowed by its older brother. It's my favorite album of the decade, but I'm just glad to see it get recognition! (and number three ain't so bad)
I think Pitchfork had a better list (for the most part), but variety is always a good thing.
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kid a is overrated, also it seems like the hold steady made it on there.... why the fuck does anyone care about that crap band?
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I like this list better purely because "Is This It" is higher.
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Man , this list sounds many repetitive all the time , and the years 2000 has no good bands a lot , just white it's great here , the greatest bands stayed in the past - like sonic youth.
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uncut makes it quite obvious that they were trying to beat rolling stone to the punch of making a list that ignored the significance of great hip hop, metal, electronic music and other genres of music that shaped a decade full of innovative music
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what the fuck is uncut?
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Why did stereogum even post this? Could you have two more different target demographics? Of course they don't like hip hop or electronica. They like old school rock n roll. That's just what they are, no reason to get bent out of shape over it.
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Where's Bomb The Bass? Future Chaos is great.
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Why did Jack White stop writing good songs?
It was a bad career move on his part to start writing horrible songs.
He should rethink this move.
It's not working too well for him overall.
I mean, yeah, Pearl Jam fans cops say they really like him and all.
But this is not a good sign.
-Farmer Ted
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Boy, way to go out on a limb, Uncut.
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"The Rising" should be higher and I love Kate Bush...
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I just bought the actual magazine because I'm the kind of person who buys magazine in order to get angry at them, and I read the entire list, and it's not that bad. Yes, they went a little old-guy rock crazy, but it's hard to dislike The White Stripes. And they gave more love to Dizzee Rascal, early Devendra Banhart, and Murray Street than Pitchfork. They included The Strokes and LCD, and they remembered Brian Wilson and gave Portishead what they deserve. So, while I do not by any means condone reading Uncut, I vote you all give this list a break.
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Jack White rockin' the Pleather!
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He looks a lttle like Christina Ricci...
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Yeah, no.. Amy wine house beats them all. I'm sorry but her lyrics are catchy and she obviously has more talent than anyone on that list, vocal wise. (Though Kate bush is just as amazing.)
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Jack White is mildly interesting. Watch his interviews, etc. and he comes across as very insincere. Kinda like a bad actor.
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How come this lists never repeat artists? So, Radiohead/WIlco/White Stripes/et al only made ONE great album this decade??
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finally Amy Winehouse gets a mention amongst all the Decade talk!!
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In Rainbows is the worst Radiohead album of the 00s. Yoshimi utterly sucks. Fleet Foxes SUCKS. White Stripes aren't that good. I can see Elephant being in there, but White Blood Cells shouldn't even make the top 20.
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jesus christ this list is fucking terrible. and definitely from an objective point of view.
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