Uncut's 100 Greatest Debut Albums
Another list to argue about! I think they did a pretty good job. Except for the ridiculously high Arctic Monkeys.
100. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
99. Suede - Suede
98. Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters
97. Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day
96. PJ Harvey - Dry
95. The White Stripes - The White Stripes
94. Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam
93. The Birthday Party - Prayers On Fire
92. Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies
91. Throwing Muses - Throwing Muses
90. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
89. Elastica - Elastica
88. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
87. Dr Feelgood - Down By The Jetty
86. The Undertones - The Undertones
85. Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
84. Tricky - Maxinquaye
83. Little Feat - Little Feat
82. The Pop Group - Y
81. Pearl Jam - Ten
80. Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick
79. Jackson Brown - Jackson Brown
78. The Libertines - Up The Bracket
77. Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
76. Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
75. The LA's - The LA's
74. Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
73. Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted
72. The Strokes - Is This It
71. Scritti Politti - Songs To Remember
70. Judee Sill - Judee Sill
69. Echo & The Bunnymen - Crocodiles
68. Buzzcocks - Another Music In A Different Kitchen
67. Suicide - Suicide
66. Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill
65. Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
64. Neu! - Neu!
63. Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
62. The Associates - The Affectionate Punch
61. Leonard Coen - The Songs Of Leonard Coen
60. Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation
59. U2 - Boy
58. The Hardin - Tim Hardin 1
57. Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
56. Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan
55. Ian Dury - New Boots & Panties!!
54. Randy Newman - Randy Newman
53. De La Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising
52. ABC - The Lexican Of Love
51. Moby Grape - Moby Grape
50. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
49. Talking Heads - 77
48. The Pretenders - The Pretenders
47. NWA - Straight Outta Compton
46. The Slits - Cut
45. Jeff Buckley - Grace
44. Orange Juice - You Can't Hide Your Love Forever
43. Siouxsie & The Banshees - The Scream
42. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
41. Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush The Show
40. Wire - Pink Flag
39. Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ
38. Captain Beefheart - Safe As Milk
37. Magazine - Real Life
36. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am...
35. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
34. Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
33. Gang Of 4 - Entertainment!
32. MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
31. Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
30. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
29. Nick Drake - 5 Leaves Left
28. The Doors - The Doors
27. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
26. Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield
25. The Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out!
24. Big Star - #1 Record
23. The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin
22. R.E.M. - Murmur
21. The Smiths - The Smiths
20. The Specials - The Specials
19. The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks...
18. Patti Smith - Horses
17. The Beatles - Please Please Me
16. New York Dolls - New York Dolls
15. The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones
14. Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
13. The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man
12. Ramones - Ramones
11. The Who - My Generation
10. The Stooges - The Stooges
9. Roxy Music - Roxy Music
8. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
7. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
6. The Clash - The Clash
5. The Band - Music From Big Pink
4. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
3. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
2. Televsion - Marquee Moon
1. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico
Posted at 12:57 PM in Shit List
TOO FAST FOR LOVE should totally be on there!
I don't mean that with any irony.
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little overzealous with arctic monkeys at 36, in front of Buckley, Pavement, Dylan, and the Boss
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Man, the Arctic Monkeys are not that good. I don't get it. And no 'Three Imaginary Boys'? What's that about?
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This is completely random. I think they just drew them from a hat.
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yeah this arctic monkeys shit (#36) is rediculous...that record is not that good...come to think of it, it's not good at all....
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what?! no clap your hands say yeah?
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Arctic monkeys higher than Pavement and Gn'R?!
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What?! NO RADIOHEAD??? NO NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL???
plus, I agree. The Artic Monkeys aren't that good.
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It probably isnt in any particular order.
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It reads like some 50 year old wanker compiled it.
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Nice to see The Band's Big Pink getting some love. But how could they possible leave off Bleach?
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cannoone figure out "funeral"? It came out in 2004 and it wasn't the band's debut.
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Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos. Without that, the list means nothing to me.
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It would be nice to see "Bizarre Ride to the Pharcyde" get some due respect.
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Um.....Bjork?
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Like anyone can even know that.
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uhh half of these aren't even debuts, like eminem and arcade fire
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yeah if this list is gonna be "top 100 albums by bands we had hitherto never heard of" they might as well throw "Good news for people who love bad news" on there or something. (not saying that for me, by the way- I love moon and antarctica- but judging by the list... I'm not so sure they did)
but... what was eminem's debut if not slim shady? That's news to me.
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Little bit of revisionist history on there. Like the White Stripes debut would've have made it if they hadn't recorded "fell in love with a girl" and made a cool lego video. There's a lot of that kind of stuff.
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Let's see...
Portishead "Dummy"
Franz Ferdinand
The Cure "Boys Don't Cry"
DJ Shadow "Entroducing"
Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine"
Built to Spill "Ultimate Alternative Wavers"
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THE BIG COME UP!
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Artic Monkeys over Wire's Pink Flag is the real insanity here...
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PJ Harvey at #96?!?! Shocking. It slots in nicely at # 20 or so, in my book. And Tricky's Maxinquaye maybe around #25.
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mbv's isnt anything was there debut?....um....
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you guys get so worked up over these meaningless lists. re fucking lax.
here's a list for ya.
top ten douches who need to get a life:
1.you
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Ya know, detektor, Radiohead's debut was Pablo Honey and not The Bends, right?
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Pearl Jam - Ten... at #81???
right.
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Interesting how they got Leonard Cohen's name wrong.
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detektor... the reason that radiohead's debut isn't on this list is because pablo honey sucked and radiohead knows it. everyone does.
I think it's a pretty decent list, but there the hell is Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers??!?!
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"NO RADIOHEAD?? NO NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL??"
Radiohead's first album was Pablo Honey. And it was kind of boring. If they had debuted with The Bends, I'd be totally with you, but they didn't. "Creep"? "Anyone Can Play Guitar"? However, they did put a lot of great band's not-so-great debuts on here (Licensed to Ill, The Clash), so I don't even know what's going on.
And as for NMH, there aren't really a lot of people who recognize the brilliance of On Avery Island. It certainly beats the hell out of a lot of these other albums, but what are you going to do?
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I'm pretty sure -Isn't Anything- wasn't My Bloody Valentine's debut album. Their first album was -This Is Your Bloody Valentine- from 1985. Admittedly, it's out of print, impossible to find, and sort-of conveniently ignored, but it was the first LP by the group.
(Uncut may have addressed this, but I haven't read it, so I have no idea...)
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Is this a joke or something?
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let me preface this by saying that i really enjoy the arctic monkeys' debut album. i like to listen to it, it is entertaining and well made.
but will someone please answer something for me?
what makes it so damn special? i can't, for the life of me, figure out what sets it apart so much that it even MAKES a list like this.
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the arctic monkeys are good -- I don't know about all time greats, but we'll see. I mean I'm too lazy to count them all up but we've got like 25 bands from each decade and then 4 from 2000 on ...strokes, arcade fire, franz and arctic monkeys. This list is obviously nostalgia influenced as are all rock lists.
anyways, the point is: shut up, it's just a list.
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That's a good question, Tobias. I love the Arctic Monkeys, and I think their CD was great...but top 100? And especially so high on the list? I think they based this on media attention, not album quality.
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Tobias Funke, I think what makes it special is that they were one of the first bands (along with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) to become popular via internet/blog hype. It may not be incredibly special music-wise, but their debut's success signifies a really big change in the music industry.
Not sure if that makes it worthy of the list, but I would guess that is why they included it.
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C'mon, Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" left off the list please.....
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Blue Album? Weezer? Anyone?
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This is your Bloody Valentine is not out of print (still available on vinyl), and should be #1 on the list of "Top 100 worst debuts of Awesome bands."
Seriously... that album sucks. My local record store refuses to sell it because so many people come back pissed and wanting to return it.
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I'd say it's tough to call "The Chronic" Dre's *debut* really, since he'd been previously performing with NWA for a long time before that. You can probably make that argument for other entries on this list, but I can't really be bothered to suss all one hundred of 'em.
Nice to see "Marquee Moon" make the list, though.
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And maybe that's why Bjork's not on here, for that matter (Sugarcubes).
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The arcade fire should be #1, and that's the bottom line.
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Yes, Weezer is a glaring omission. It was the first album I thought of.
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Yeah, the Arctic Monkey's placement is ridiculous.
But it's nice to see the Pop Group and Orange Juice get some love. Pretty criminal that both of those albums are currently out-of-print (with the exception of a very expensive Japanese import of the Pop Group album).
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I don't understand all the love Arcade Fire gets. So overrated.
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please please me is a terrible album
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Arcade Fire are cool, and I think they're worthy on that list, although others definitely are not.
I don't get that the Arctic Monkeys are on there. By those standards I think Silent Alarm should have made it also.
And to beatup another UK choice - The Beatles Please Please me? It may have lead to some of the best music ever, but it definitely wasn't in the top 100 albums, although, I wasn't around in the 60's when it was first release but I doubt it had that much influence at the time. Or rather, I doubt that it was as important, using the metric applied to all these other albums, as these other albums.
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massive attack "blue lines" anyone??
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men men men men men. 90% men. boooooooo-ring.
it was nice to see judee sill get some attention, though, but i tend to think "horses" belongs at least in the top ten.
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mbv's isn't anything WAS their debut, everything before was an ep.
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arcade fire are just fine, thank you very much.
but no 'three imaginary boys'? no 'pretty hate machine'? no 'duran duran'? (and yes ... i'm serious. it was a pioneering new wave album of its time, compared to its contemporaries, and marked the beginning of two pretty big advancements in modern music -- one of the first 12" remixes (girls on film) and one of the first proper videos (also girls on film) that wasn't just a band shown playing its instruments.)
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what happened to poor liz phair? or boards of canada?
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Uncut is a British magazine, which should explain the inflated rankings of a few of these albums (Arctic Monkeys, Stone Roses.)
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*shrugs* I just think Jeff Buckley should have ranked higher.
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As much as I like the albums, The Modern Lovers and The Strokes' albums are too high. And where's Journey?!?
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No "Debut" of BJORK????!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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um, how about Wu-Tang's Enter the 36 Chambers? Has there been a more explosive, game-changing debut than that? Had anyone heard anything even remotely like that album when it first dropped? Even Nas' Illmatic deseves to be on thurr.
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No Ride 'Nowhere'?
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has no one noticed how high zep is, considering the first album was a compilation of blues standards?
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has no one noticed how high zep is, considering the first album was basically a compilation of blues standards?
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where the fuck is Turn On The Bright Lights?
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WHERE
THE FUCK
IS BIGGIE???????
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- "where the fuck is Turn On The Bright Lights?"
At #8.
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maybe.....
stereogum doesn't like black people.....
i mean music.....
?
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Not a bad list, but subject to the usual quibbles. A bit Brit-centric in spots (Stone Roses at #4? While JAMC's Psychocandy barely made the top half? And what is My Generation, with its weak James Brown covers, doing at #11? And how did Pavement barely manage to crack the top 75?), it still manages to leave off Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets and the Jam's In The City entirely.
Other notable omissions: Liz Phair-Exile in Guyville; the Wedding Present-George Best; the B-52's (c'mon, you know you listen to it); X-Ray Spex-Germ Free Adolescents.
And yes, the Arctic Monkeys pick is silly, and Isn't Anything isn't really MBV's debut.
But all in all, a decent list: the top 10 (save Stone Roses and Led Zep, who should have yielded to Patti Smith and the Ramones) are particularly worthy.
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Franz Ferdinand?
Fuck off...Gang of 4 is bad enough.
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WEEZER's first record is a giant omission and so is TORI's LITTLE EARTHQUAKES like people have pointed out, but you have to realize that this list, like all lists, is nothing more than amusing and I wouldn't put much stock in it or any other crazy list these days, unless it's a thoroughly researched one like what ROLLING STONE did years ago (I think).
Also, this list seems to have way too many British/European bands, which eliminates very good American debuts from bands like Radiohead and the Pumpkins, who if you read SPIN magazine back then had GISH in their top 10 albums of the year (1991) overall. (I always loved GISH but there's only like, 9-10 songs on it, and I know TRICKY, who DID make this list, loved it too, as he later sampled "SUFFER" for a song of his, though that is ironically the one song I always skipped over). PHISH also covered "Rhinoceros" live (useless trivia, I know).
And PABLO HONEY is not a BORING record - "Lurgee" is one of my all-time Radiohead favorites, and "Stop Whispering," "Anyone Can Play Guitar," "Blow Out" "Creep" are all standouts and I can only think of a few songs I would skip if I had it on CD (I bought it on tape when it came out).
Some of these other artists that made this list I've never heard of (ex. Vashti Bunyan? Judee Sill?) but I guess they MUST be good, right?
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Ok, I even own this CD, it kind of sucks in my opinion, #4 my ass.
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1. It is funny they misspelled Leonard Cohen.
2. Reason why Bjork isn't on it: Bjork's first album was an album of covers released when she was a child. It was a huge hit in Iceland.
3. Stone Roses are ridiculously high, but the whole list has an air of randomness to it. Like, does this list even matter to anything in particular?
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Have to second what someone else mentioned - MBV's debut IS Isn't Anything; all previous releases were EP's rather than LP's.
I think someone asked where Journey was? I'd imagine they're on their own list - Top 100 Disposable Bands That People Inexplicably Sing-a-Long To While Drunk.
The list is random, as all these sorts of lists tend to be as they're usually the products of a committee. Still, there are some good catches on here - Orange Juice, JAMC, Patti Smith, Ian Dury. The Top 10 is pretty good, though I've never understood anyone's attachment to Led Zep.
NOW FOR THE CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT
Roxy Music is superior to anything Eno produced solo. Much like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Eno and Ferry worked better as a team.
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ummm.... Public Enemy????
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nevermind...
I failed reading comprehension....
I'll settle for BDP - Criminal Minded then.
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The Violent Femmes, anyone? I always thought that was one of the Top Ten out-of-nowhere debuts ever.
You'd think a British magazine would've found a place for the Streets "Original Pirate Material" or Lloyd Cole's "Rattlesnakes." (I mean, Elastica? The LAs? SCRITTI POLITTI?)
Pixies are 40 slots too low. Elvis Costello is 20 places too low. Same for Wire.
I'll take Art Brut's over Arctic Monkey's any day.
Your mileage may vary.
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What about the Cars?
The Rolling Stones didn't have a debut album. They've *always* been playing.
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I dont agree with a lot of the albums on this list... but who cares, of course people are going to argue about this shit, but really it doesnt matter. I do agree that the arctic monkeys cd is way over rated, i tried to like it, but only could find about 3 songs i really enjoyed. I think that the elvis costello cd is in the right place at 31, which is a great album. I love the strokes debut, shouldn't be on the list though, and i actually think the arcade fire should be higher on the list, its an amazing and original debut. I also think interpols "turn on the bright lights" should be on the list, and also where the hell is rage against the machines debut on here, its an amazing record. i know none of this matters, just thought id tell you what i think, even if u dont care
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They don't listen to Tom Waits in the UK, or what? His debut, "Closing Time," is among his greatest work, up there with "Rain Dogs."
Teach the children about Tom Waits, Scott. He's old-school indie.
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#1. I beleive this is a UK magazine so I can see why it is skewed that way.
#2. Someone mentioned b/c of that fact that Radioheads 'Pablo Honey' is being overlooked. They are BRITISH!!! Also, that album is ok only.
#3 'Definitely Maybe' by Oasis should be closer or in top 10 with 'Rock 'N Roll Star','Live Forever','Supersonic','Columbia', 'Cigarettes & Alcohol'& 'Slideaway'.
#4 Why is it always 'Classic or Alternative bands'? Where is Ratt's 'Out Of The Cellar'?
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Oasis is the whiniest band ever, I want to smack all of them just because of the fuking douchebag singer.
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What about Boston?
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I think Living Colour's "Vivid" and Jeff Beck's "Thruth" should be included...
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where's Back Door's first album?
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Has anyone actually looked at why these albums continually score well in these Top 100's? Its because the albums are IMPORTANT, they meant something to a generation and changed the atmosphere, yes 'please please me' is dicky now but look at what it meant back then. For every album in the top 20 or 30 theres a million bands trying so hard to copy that sound.
Oh and lastly, Toris Amos is an over-rated talentless gimp that writes music to move bowels....
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The B-52's !!! ??? Hello??? Planet Claire? 52 Girls? Dance this mess around? Hero Worship? Downtown? 6060-842? Give me a break. Kicks monkey arctics to planet claire and beyond. Uncut are clue less!! Don't even mention XtC white music.......
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The Cars!!!!!!
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about half the list is accurate. television at #2 is total rediculous. was this list picked out of a grab bag?
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The Strokes should be a bit higher up on the list. I agree with the Arctic Monkeys being where they are and Franz Ferdinand. Turn on the Bright Lights should be there most definitly.
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Radiohead's debut was crap apparently. Pablo Honey- Never heard it.
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The top 10 is great, but there are some questionable entries elsewhere. Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions is better than a hell of a lot of these albums.
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sunny