Lurker > CasanovaZelos

~Silence~

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Hello again.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

What an odd number...

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Er, bump.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Don't worry, I'll be sure to have this open for a while.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

I have no idea when voting phase will be cut off. I want to get a really large amount of people to vote, so probably quite a while.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Yes. City of God also did. Mulholland Drive has been there for about three years, and Sunset Blvd. for a bit before that, so I think my top is a lot more consistent now.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

I've run plenty of movie contests in the past, but I've never actually made a top list for the board, and I figure I might as well do it now.

Rules:
1. To have your list count, you must list at least 20 films, going up to 100. These should be in order. If they are not ranked, they will receive equal points at a lower rate than the formula I will use for calculation.
2. Of course, one list per person, etc.

My list:
1. Mulholland Dr.
Sunset Blvd.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Citizen Kane
The Rules of the Game
8 1/2
Spirited Away
Seven Samurai
Pulp Fiction
10. Persona
A Clockwork Orange
The 400 Blows
Casablanca
There Will Be Blood
Breathless
The Godfather: Part II
Hugo
Taxi Driver
Apocalypse Now
20. The Passion of Joan of Arc
Schindler's List
City Lights
Rashomon
The Godfather
Waltz with Bashir
Goodfellas
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Dr. Strangelove
Blade Runner
30. The Seventh Seal
Pan's Labyrinth
The Silence of the Lambs
2001: A Space Odyssey
M
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Trainspotting
Brazil
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
North by Northwest
40. Chinatown
An Andalusian Dog
Psycho
Black Swan
The Bicycle Thief
Raging Bull
Some Like It Hot
Annie Hall
12 Angry Men
Fargo
50. City of God
Blue Velvet
Double Indemnity
No Country for Old Men
Cinema Paradiso
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Saving Private Ryan
Singin' in the Rain
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Raiders of the Lost Ark
60. The Dark Knight
Once Upon a Time in the West
Vertigo
WALL-E
The Great Dictator
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Unforgiven
La dolce vita
Brokeback Mountain
Solyaris
70. Metropolis
Grave of the Fireflies
Memento
The Third Man
The Lives of Others
American Beauty
Duck Soup
Fantasia
The Social Network
All About Eve
80. Videodrome
Paths of Glory
The Shawshank Redemption
The Pianist
Eraserhead
Star Wars
The Hurt Locker
Tokyo Story
Downfall
The Usual Suspects
90. The Exterminating Angel
Reservoir Dogs
Sunrise
The Last Picture Show
Alien
In the Mood for Love
The Shining
Oldboy
Rear Window
The Gold Rush
100. The Wages of Fear

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Yeah, I know, but Battlestar Galactica is #20, and also sounds interesting. I haven't played Twilight Struggle yet, no.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

I've really been wanting to get Twilight Struggle, but I've been deciding whether or not I want to spend around $50 on it, when I could also get the Battlestar Galactica boardgame for about the same price...

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Are any going on right now?

Basically, what I'm thinking is, two teams of ten players each go up against each other, with Survivor based eliminations. Each round, a different game would be played, with the losing team having to vote a member off, until the teams are combined.

What I would need is 20 players and 19 ideas for the competition each round. Anyone want to help set this up?

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Games could work if I keep it down to around 100, I guess. But, games is kind of generic. I don't know if people would actually vote in it.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Pokemon seems like a good example, as those who would vote would be familiar with all of them, and if they're not, that's just an example of a bad Pokemon, and not really their lack of knowledge. Maybe best iconic character would be a better name, as, if someone isn't familiar with the character, of course they're not iconic.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

I need some. I want to try the oscar voting rules in another contest, but I don't know of anything the board would be interested in. It'd need to be something people would easily be able to have knowledge of everything involved, and it would need a large pool of things.

Ideas I have:
Best Thing Ever
Best Pokemon Ever
Best Character Ever

Those are three things that everyone should be able to be familiar with everything they're voting for in some capacity. What is a contest the board hasn't had in a while that people are interested in?

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

There's an empty space inside my heart
Where the weeds take root
And now I'll set you free
I'll set you free

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

I don't know about my love
I don't know about my lovin anymore
All that I know is, I'm lovin, lovin, lovin, lovin
Might as well love you

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Already two of my top ten favorite songs are out of the contest. Stupid critics and their overlooking of Let Down and Hey, the best songs of their two massively acclaimed albums.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

What's the bizness, yeah?
Don't take my life away, don't take my life away

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

And, to give people a head start, the 2010 top 10:
1. Cee-Lo Green-**** You!:


2. Caribou-Odessa:


3. Janelle Monae feat. Big Boi-Tightrope:


4. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti-Round and Round:


5. Robyn-Dancing on My Own:


6. Big Boi feat. Cutty-Shutterbugg:


7. The National-Bloodbuzz Ohio:


8. Kanye West feat. Pusha T-Runaway:


9. Kanye West-Power:


10. Arcade Fire-Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains):


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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

The city is my church...

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

I think I'll have the first couple of these last a couple days to give time for people to know it exists.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Anyone?

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Hello, and welcome to the best acclaimed song contest, where I'm taking the top 10 songs from each year on http://acclaimedmusic.net/ and pitting them against each other in modern Oscar voting fashion. Expect both great songs and a lot of rage at some of the songs numerous critics have declared worthy of being called classics.

Voting works as so:
1. You rank the songs from top to bottom, top being your favorite, bottom being your least.
2. At the end, I count up the amount of votes for the top spot. Once a song gets 50% of the top vote, it wins.
3. If no song reaches over 50% of the vote, the weakest songs that round are eliminated. Anyone who voted for the weakest songs have their vote go to the next highest rank of their vote that is still in the contest.

This setup allows a large pool to face off together while still giving everything an equal chance of winning, as any group of songs that have the same fanbase would lose one entry but then likely have their votes transfer to the other.

As an example, say I voted like this:
The Who-My Generation
The Velvet Underground-Heroin
Nicki Minaj-Super Bass

Say that Superbass gets 16 votes, Heroin gets 16 votes, and My Generation gets my single vote. My Generation would be eliminated from the contest, and my single vote would shift to Heroin, giving Heroin the win over Super Bass.

Due to this setup, please be familiar with all songs before voting.

Today's match is 2011. The songs, in order of their rank on the site:
1. M83-Midnight City:


2. Lana Del Rey-Video Games:


3. Adele-Rolling in the Deep (2010, but mainly featured in 2011 lists):


4. Tyler, the Creator-Yonkers (foul language warning):


5. James Blake-The Wilhelm Scream


6. Bon Iver-Holocene


7. The Rapture-How Deep Is Your Love


8. Foster the People-Pumped Up Kicks


9. Radiohead-Lotus Flower


10. tUnE-yArDs-Bizness


My vote:
James Blake-The Wilhelm Scream
Tyler the Creator-Yonkers
Bon Iver-Holocene
Tune-Yards-Bizness
Adele-Rolling in the Deep
Lana Del Rey-Video Games
M83-Midnight City
Radiohead-Lotus Flower
The Rapture-How Deep Is Your Love
Foster the People-Pumped Up Kicks

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

76. Daft Punk-Discovery (2001)
Favorite Song: “One More Time”
“One More Time” is #24 on my top 100 songs list.


Daft Punk is one of those bands that I just find fun to listen to. There’s no deep meaning in any of their works. They’re just all catchy pieces of house music.

Discovery is their big hit of the 2000s, and where their most popular songs come from. Daft Punk added in a ton of influences from the late-70s and 80s, making a distinct mix of house and disco.

The album opens with “One More Time,” the ultimate party song of the 2000s. There’s just so much energy packed into this song. From the simplistically memorably lyrics, to the pounding drums, to that epic synth. I love the simply unrelenting use of auto-tune on this album. Where other bands use it to hide their lesser singing skills, Daft Punk uses it to make it better fit their music. It’s one of those things that shouldn’t work, yet it does so well.

“One More Time” is followed by “Aerodynamic,” the first instrumental piece of the album. After a series of bells ringing, it opens with a simply groovy beat, before being replaced with a ridiculous guitar solo. It reaches a high point where these two things from different worlds clash, a rhythm from a funk song mixed with a guitar that belongs in a heavy metal song. Then, this fades away to this electronic classical piece. It’s essentially Daft Punk showing off, but it somehow works.

This is followed by one of the other two big hits off this album, “Digital Love.” The lyrics are a traditional love song, and the whole thing feels like it comes out of the disco era. But then, near the end, one of the greatest guitar solos (of course, being a Daft Punk album, I’m not sure if it’s actually a guitar or a synthesizer, but it’s convincing enough) of the modern era. It seems strange that it takes a house band to make a memorable solo in the modern day. It’s like something you’d expect off of Boston’s first album.

This leads into the obnoxiously popular “Harder Better Faster Stronger.” This is the most lyrically simple song on the album, just repeating a few simple phrases throughout. This is another one of Daft Punk’s numerous uses of the voice as just another instrument, and this is their best use of it. With so much modulation going on, there are points in the song where the vocals seamlessly become another instrument before returning to its standard form. Add in another fun synthline, and you get another great hit by Daft Punk.

Discovery continues with a bunch of great, catchy songs, almost never quite reaching the level of the first four. However, there are two high points with the slower paced “Something About Us” and the simply catchy “Face to Face,” a song that probably should have been chosen as a single over “Aerodynamic.” There are also quite a few amazing instrumental tracks, the best being “Short Circuit,” though I do greatly appreciate the bass in “Voyager.”

Discovery is one of the great electronic albums. It works so well as its music is so relatable. They mix the new musical styles and capabilities with the attitude of the old. It’s surprising just how much things like hard rock and electronic can clash. This is one among many early 2000s albums that didn’t get anywhere near as much recognition as it deserved on release, though people soon caught on to just how original and magnificent this album was.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

77. Eminem-The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
Favorite Song: “Stan”


I’ve always had mixed opinions on Eminem. What he offers in high quality music he seems to ruin with an obviously high level of misogyny and homophobia. Yet, even though I find some of his music uncomfortable to listen to, I still hold respect for him as an artist.

I’ve always found Eminem’s work as a portal into the mind of an incredibly troubled man. It amazes me just how much hatred one person can hold and express in their music. The Marshall Mathers shows some restraint compared to his first album, yet it still manages to be incredibly dark. And, to be honest, I honestly think Eminem has made some of the scariest work I’ve heard. After hearing some of his songs, I’m honestly surprised he didn’t kill himself back in the late 90s or early 2000s.

After a standard rap album skit opening, the album opens with an apparent satire of his own alleged misogyny. Eminem goes on a tirade about how much he hates women before ending the song stating that he’s just screwing around. This leads into “Stan,” a song that seems to directly attack these accusations. In “Stan,” an obsessed fan goes increasingly insane as Eminem doesn’t respond to him, eventually ending up killing himself and his pregnant girlfriend over his obsession. Of course, it turns out that Eminem didn’t even get them until after it had all happened. In “Stan,” Eminem attacks how people perceive him, writing about how most of his stuff is actually him joking and people just don’t understand him. “Stan” is a powerful and disturbing song, helped out immensely by one of the most memorable samplings in rap.

“Who Knew” continues his attack against his detractors, pointing out the logical flaws in their singling out of him. “The Way I Am” has him attacking those who stress him out, while “The Real Slim Shady” attacks the people who try to act like him, the people who miss what he actually stands for and represents. One of the more underappreciated tracks on the album is “Remember Me,” which features a really stressful beat.

Unfortunately, this is another front-leaning album, this one largely caused by a change in producers halfway through. The songs become less interesting, with the highlight being “Kim,” an incredibly disturbing story about Eminem wanting to kill his ex-wife.

The Marshall Mathers LP is a great, honest look at how fame can affect someone. The amount of stress Eminem was going through at the time is evident in almost every track, and it creates an experience like no other. Where most major, depressed artists seem to concentrate their energy into sadness, Eminem uses it to lash out in anger. While there were plenty of angry white men in the music industry in the early 2000s, Eminem was the one who stood out as real, and The Marshall Mathers LP was him at his angriest.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

78. Led Zeppelin-IV (1971)
Favorite Song: “Stairway to Heaven”
“Stairway to Heaven” would rank at #36 on my top 100.


Led Zeppelin was one of the heaviest bands in early rock and roll. Being one of the earliest bands to explore the ‘darker’ side of rock and roll, Led Zeppelin managed to find the perfect balance point between epic guitar rips and managing to create lyrics that weren’t cheesy.

Their fourth untitled album is still easily one of, if not the best hard rock album of all time. Even if you dismiss them as a ripoff band, due to their habit of taking older blues songs and using parts in their songs, they still managed to choose all the right songs to ripoff in IV.

IV starts off with the rather epic “Black Dog.” I love the way the music just cuts out. It puts so much emphasis Robert Plant’s excellent voice. It’s this wavy, groovy song that’s hard to keep up with as it seems to constantly change pace. Add in an epic guitar riff and just all around awesome instrumentation and you get Led Zeppelin at their jamming best.

“Black Dog” leads into the even more epic “Rock and Roll.” The drumming is even more intense the guitar riff is even better, and it’s just all around fun. This epic hard rock is pulled back for a folkish song with “The Battle of Evermore,” one of Led Zeppelin’s strange fantasy songs. Mainly using an acoustic guitar and mandolin, it is an excellent example of Led Zeppelin’s range of talents. They can write heavy hitters, and they can write lighter stuff at the same quality.

The final song of the first half of the album is the legendary “Stairway to Heaven.” It is quite a long song. The first time I heard it, I didn’t really see what was so great about it at first. It seemed to go endlessly at a slow pace. Then, the epic rock ending kicks in, and all the buildup and tension is released. It’s a rare song that manages to succeed at making an extended buildup and not lose it. There are few greater releases in music than the ending of this song, the only one coming close subtly using an entire album to achieve the same feeling.

Unfortunately, the second half of the album doesn’t hold as many hits as the first half. They’re all still great tracks, but they don’t have as great of riffs as their other songs do. However, the album manages to pull itself together at the end with “When the Levee Breaks.” One of their more thematically ominous tracks, “When the Levee Breaks” tells a tale of a town that will become worthless when the titular levee inevitably breaks. That opening drum is one of the most recognizable in music. It’s a slow tempo song, but it still manages to be fun throughout.

Led Zeppelin IV is the best album by one of the most talented rock acts of all time. Featuring some of the heaviest riffs of all time, it is an album that everyone should listen to at least once. The only reason it isn’t higher is probably because I’m not the biggest fan of hard rock, yet it still managed to rank highly on this list, so even not liking the genre doesn’t affect my opinion much.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

My top 100 songs, sans songs from albums that are in the rest of the top 100:
1 ??? ???
2 ??? ???
3 The Smiths-This Charming Man
4 The Who-My Generation
5 ??? ???
6 The Beach Boys-Good Vibrations
7 ??? ???
8 ??? ???
9 OutKast-Hey Ya!
10 ??? ???
11 ??? ???
12 The Breeders-Cannonball
13 Joy Division-Atmosphere
14 ??? ???
15 New Order-Blue Monday
16 ??? ???
17 ??? ???
18 Stardust-Music Sounds Better With You
19 Joy Division-Love Will Tear Us Apart
20 Buffalo Springfield-For What It's Worth
21 Franz Ferdinand-Take Me Out
22 ??? ???
23 ??? ???
24 ??? ???
25 David Bowie-"Heroes"
26 Roy Orbison-Crying
27 Beck-Loser
28 The Smashing Pumpkins-1979
29 ??? ???
30 ??? ???
31 The Jam-Going Underground
32 ??? ???
33 R.E.M.-Losing My Religion
34 The Knife-Heartbeats
35 ??? ???
36 ??? ???
37 The Kinks-You Really Got Me
38 The Rolling Stones-(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
39 ??? ???
40 OutKast B.O.B.-(Bombs Over Baghdad)
41 Bruce Springsteen-Born to Run
42 The Verve-Bitter Sweet Symphony
43 M.I.A.-Paper Planes
44 Pulp-Common People
45 The Velvet Underground-Sweet Jane
46 The Rapture-House of Jealous Lovers
47 LCD Soundsystem-Losing My Edge
48 ??? ???
49 Michael Jackson-Billie Jean
50 Soft Cell-Tainted Love
51 Hercules and Love Affair-Blind
52 The Smiths-How Soon is Now?
53 ??? ???
54 ??? ???
55 Caribou-Odessa
56 Sam Cooke-A Change is Gonna Come
57 ??? ???
58 Violent Femmes-Blister in the Sun
59 MGMT-Kids
60 ??? ???
61 New Order-Temptation
62 Happy Mondays-Step On
63 Jay-Z-99 Problems
64 ??? ???
65 Billie Holiday-Strange Fruit
66 Marvin Gaye-I Heard It Through the Grapevine
67 The Walkmen-The Rat
68 ??? ???
69 ??? ???
70 ??? ???
71 ??? ???
72 ??? ???
73 ??? ???
74 ??? ???
75 Nirvana-All Apologies
76 The Four Tops-Reach Out (I'll Be There)
77 Public Enemy-Fight the Power
78 ??? ???
79 ??? ???
80 The Flaming Lips-Do You Realize??
81 Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg-Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang
82 Elvis Presley-Suspicious Minds
83 ??? ???
84 The Who-Won't Get Fooled Again
85 ??? ???
86 ??? ???
87 Massive Attack-Unfinished Sympathy
88 Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Zero
89 The Animals-House of the Rising Sun
90 Queen-Bohemian Rhapsody
91 Arcade Fire-Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
92 ??? ???
93 ??? ???
94 They Might Be Giants-Birdhouse in Your Soul
95 ??? ???
96 ??? ???
97 The Beatles-Yesterday
98 ??? ???
99 Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Maps
100 My Bloody Valentine-You Made Me Realize

Summary of list so far for page 2:
100 Blondie-Parallel Lines
99 The Beatles-Rubber Soul
98 Talking Heads-Fear of Music
97 The XX-XX
96 Bruce Springsteen-Born to Run
95 Jeff Buckley-Grace
94 M.I.A.-Kala
93 Nirvana-In Utero
92 Tom Waits-Rain Dogs
91 The Chemical Brothers-Dig Your Own Hole
90 LCD Soundsystem-LCD Soundsystem
89 The Cure-Disintegration
88 Bon Iver-Bon Iver, Bon Iver
87 John Lennon-Plastic Ono Band
86 Massive Attack-Blue Lines
85 Nirvana-MTV Unplugged in New York
84 Talking Heads-More Songs About Buildings and Food
83 U2-Achtung Baby
82 Kanye West-The College Dropout
81 The Rolling Stones-Let It Bleed
80 Stevie Wonder-Songs in the Key of Life
79 OutKast-Stankonia

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

79. OutKast-Stankonia (2000)
Favorite Song: “B.O.B.”


Oh, OutKast, how I miss thee. There was a moment there that I thought you could have ended up being one of the all-time greats, but then you went and quit as you finally found your groove. Luckily, in the short amount of time you were around, you managed to released two truly epic albums.

OutKast is perhaps the most musically creative rap group. They mix and match a multitude of genres. Every song on Stankonia seems to fall into its own style, and they all work so well. OutKast manages to always find an effective rhythm, something that you can’t help but find catchy.

The strong point of OutKast was always the play between Bib Boi and Andre 3000. Big Boi had a general fast rapper style, while Andre 3000 had this quirky aspect to him. What this album has that Speakerboxxx/The Love Below lacks is this. The two artists need each other, and when they separate, they unfortunately reveal that one of them is quite a bit more interesting than the other.

Very few albums manage to have not one but two songs that could easily be considered all time classics. Stankonia managed to pull out both “Ms. Jackson” and “B.O.B.” Back when it was popular, “Ms. Jackson” was the prominent track of this album. It was a rather slow paced, apologetic themed track. It has one of those choruses almost everyone knows: “I’m sorry Ms. Jackson, ooh, I am for real. Never meant to make your daughter cry, I apologize a trillion times.”

Yet, looking back on it, “B.O.B.” was easily the standout track of the album. There’s just something about “B.O.B.” that is unlike anything else. From its rapid fire pace, to its almost psychic lyrics, to its ridiculous combinations of styles that somehow manage to clash in the most perfect way, everything about “B.O.B.” works. It’s a song that almost needs a new genre to describe it.

Arguably the most important band of the early 2000s, OutKast reached their high point with Stankonia. It is a showcase of how rap should be done. It’s not enough to just create a beat and set witty lyrics to it, there needs to be some sort of experimentation to keep it fresh. OutKast will probably stand as one of the most talented bands of their era once it’s all said and done, and Stankonia will be the work that will represent them.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

80. Stevie Wonder-Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
Favorite Song: “Sir Duke”


For some reason, Stevie Wonder doesn’t get talked about as much as he should, at least in the department of best artist ever. Yet, he’s released numerous albums that have been spoken about as some of the best albums ever, and quite a few classic songs. Songs in the Key of Life is Stevie Wonder at his most stylistically divergent.

All the songs seem to speak about the simple issues in life. Some songs are about childhood, while another is about a newborn baby entering the world, to just various experiences from Wonder’s life.

“Contusion” is an instrumental piece with a simply funky rhythm to it, which stands out by just how intense it is. “Sir Duke” uses a heavy amount of horn instruments, and it’s an homage to Duke Ellington and a bunch of other artists that inspired Wonder. It contains one of my favorite lyrics in the form of “Just because a record has a groove don’t make it in the groove.” “I Wish,” an incredibly funky song, had its music stolen for “Wild Wild West,” of all things. “Pastime Paradise,” a slower, darker song, was later turned into “Gangsta’s Paradise.” “Isn’t She Lovely” is a slower, more thoughtful piece, as Wonder sings about his daughter.

There are so many strong tracks on this album it’s surprising. While it contains none of Stevie Wonder’s all time classic songs, it contains a lot of works of great value. There’s a reason lesser artists directly use the music off this album to make their hits. The album is Stevie Wonder in full force, jumping around between different forms of funk and soul in every track.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

81. The Rolling Stones-Let It Bleed (1969)
Favorite Song: “Gimme Shelter”


The Rolling Stones, probably the second most popular band in the history of rock after The Beatles, and for very good reason. The Rolling Stones have released dozens of great songs and quite a few epic albums.

Let It Bleed is one of those epic albums. Let It Bleed is one of the top records of the Vietnam era, featuring some of the most paranoid songs of the era. “Gimme Shelter” is one of the greatest of the protest songs, and it opens the album. It has the standard awesome guitar that you expect from a Rolling Stones’ hit, but the runaway part of this song is Merry Clayton’s vocals. There’s just so much power as she shouts out “Rape, murder, it’s just a shot away, it’s just a shot away.” And, it ends perfectly as she sings with Jagger about how easy love is to find. “Gimme Shelter” is a song that defines an era.

“Gimme Shelter” is followed by a well done cover of Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain,” which is followed by a country version of “Honky Tonk Woman” called “Country Honk.” The whole album is a collection of excellent guitar work and strong vocals, as is to be expected from The Rolling Stones.

The album has an incredibly strong closer in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” It has this amazing choir opening, which leads into a traditional Stones song. It seems to be a statement for the times. No matter how hard you try, you can’t get everything. You can’t just end the Vietnam War, you can’t always get the girl, and you might not even be able to get the brand of soda you want. However, you will be able to get what matters if you push it to happen.

Let It Bleed is The Rolling Stones at their darkest. Their guitar work is at the top of the line here, and their lyrical themes are incredibly strong. It’s just a thoroughly well-made album.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

82. Kanye West-The College Dropout (2004)
Favorite Song: “Jesus Walks”


For a brief period in 2004, I got into music, before eventually becoming bored of it until 2008. At that time, Franz Ferdinand had just released “Take Me Out,” “Float On” was getting airplay, and a new rapper named Kanye West was breaking onto the scene. There was something about Kanye that interested me more than any other rapper of that time.

It started with his first single, which I remember seeing the video of on MTV. “Through the Wire” was such a strange concept for a song to me. The last thing I would have expected for a rapper to rap about was how happy he was to be alive after a car accident. And, just the fact that he recorded the song with his mouth still wired shut after the accident always impressed me. “Through the Wire” was soon followed by “Slow Jams,” a song that for some reason was on both Twista’s album and The College Dropout. Not as meaningful as “Through the Wire,” “Slow Jams” was still a fun song to listen to.

When I finally listened to the album, I was surprised to find just how wide Kanye West’s range was. After starting off with a skit, which for some reason seems to be a concept that is regularly featured on rap albums, where a principal asks Kanye to make a song for the kids, the first song is “We Don’t Care.” It’s the first song to show off Kanye’s wit as a writer. The first track of the album is about people who drug deal and show the man that they can survive that way. It’s a depressing song about people who have to sell drugs to even get a chance at succeeding, and he drives the point home by having kids join in on the chorus. It’s a real shock that this song wasn’t released as a single, as it’s still one of the best songs Kanye ever recorded.

After another skit, this leads into the first single post-album release, “All Falls Down,” where, once again, Kanye West breaks the stereotype of rap. “All Falls Down” finds Kanye rapping about how self-conscious he is, a message that’s kind of hard to take seriously with his current persona, but still effective in showing his different approach to rapping. This is followed by “Spaceship,” another powerful song.

What follows is the big hit off the album, “Jesus Walks.” Everything off the song has this serious tone to it. The medium is the message in this song. This is where Kanye outright states that he can rap about anything he wants and people will listen. While he is expected to write about gang life, he can write lyrics about religion instead and still be more successful than most rappers. Even if you’re not religious, the fact that Kanye is stepping up to make this message is all around impressive. He took a risk, and it paid off. When you have both the production and lyrical skills of a man like Kanye West, how can you not pull it off?

This is followed by a song about being thankful for what you were given, “Never Let Me Down.” This is, much like “We Don’t Care,” a song that should have been released as a single. Jay-Z steals the show with his verses, but J. Ivy manages to even take it from him. His spoken word verse is incredibly powerful. The album continues with less serious songs, then a few more serious songs that aren’t as great as the first tracks. If it wasn’t for the sudden drop off, or if the songs were just rearranged, this album probably would have jumped quite a bit.

Even with a weak second half, the first half of The College Dropout is so powerful that it is easily one of the best albums of the 2000s, along with one of the best rap albums. While he’s simply insufferable at times, Kanye West is still a musical genius, and The College Dropout is an excellent way to start a career.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

83. U2-Achtung Baby (1991)
Favorite Song: “One”


Much like Bruce Springsteen, it took me a while to be able to appreciate U2. Unlike Springsteen, it was an actual problem with U2’s music. Being born in 1992, my first exposure to U2 was songs like “Beautiful Day” and “Vertigo,” songs that annoy me more than they entertain me. I was fortunate to discover that their work from the early 80s to the early 90s was actually rather excellent.

Achtung Baby was the band at their most experimental. While U2 are one of the few modern bands that seem to only fit in a general ‘rock’ category, Achtung Baby has a sound of its own. From the opening notes of “Zoo Station,” you can tell you’re into something unique.

One of my personal favorites off the album appears near the beginning, “Even Better Than the Real Thing.” That opening riff is U2 at the top of their game. It just has this truly unique soundscape that makes me wish U2 would have realized what actually made this such a great album, instead of ending up as they are now. There’s this strong electric influence throughout the album, present through most of the songs, but at its highest in the opening two tracks.

But, it’s in the third track, “One,” when the electronic effects are toned down and the emotion turned up, where the album reaches its peak. There is so much power in Bono’s voice as he sings about a relationship that is doomed to cause the people in it pain, yet they can’t leave it. It features some of the best lyrics in their career, featuring the high point of this line: “Have you come here for forgiveness, have you come to raise the dead, Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head?”

U2 is a band that seems tired by this point, but their best works still deserve recognition among the classics. With the help of Brian Eno, U2 managed to make some of the best albums of the late 1980s and 1990s, with Achtung Baby being one of the best.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

84. Talking Heads-More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
Favorite Song: “Take Me to the River”


More Songs About Buildings and Food is, to me, Talking Heads at their zany best. It’s one of those albums that are hard to explain the brilliance of. It doesn’t really feature many of the band’s big hits, outside of “Take Me to the River,” but every single song on the album is strong.

It’s one of the rare works that manages to have a consistent quality while managing to have a unique style for every song. Where Fear of Music featured the high points of their early career in individual songs, More Songs About Buildings and Food managed to remain stronger throughout, never hitting a rut.

Talking Heads is a band that’s style is uniquely their own, yet they manage to make songs in dozens of styles. They have a creative strength like no other, weaving their way in and out of genres. More Songs About Buildings and Food is Talking Heads at their most pure fun.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

85. Nirvana-MTV Unplugged in New York (1994)
Favorite Song: “About a Girl”


Where In Utero had a softer feel than Nevermind, MTV Unplugged in New York pulled back even more. The idea of MTV Unplugged was to have big acts come on and perform their songs acoustically. The biggest of these performances was Nirvana, not just in the fact that they were the big act of the time of the show, but in how they approached the idea of an acoustic performance.

Cutting the electric guitars seems to add deeper depths to some of their songs. “About a Girl” seems much more restrained. After years of performing, some of their songs became perfected by this performance. The ending of “All Apologies” sounds even more serious than the original, not breaking apart at the end as it does in the original recording.

What sticks out are the songs they decided to cover, in place of their bigger hits. They steal “The Man Who Sold the World” from David Bowie, and they end the performance with a great rendition of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”

It is an example of a concert done right. The band performs their songs at a higher level of quality than they were in the original recordings, and they introduce enough material in the form of covers to still be fresh.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

86. Massive Attack-Blue Lines (1991)
Favorite Song: “Unfinished Sympathy”


Trip hop is one of the numerous electronic genres to come out of and mainly stay in the 1990s, with Blue Lines being one of the big ones. It still stands as a highly unique album. There’s just something about the structure of the music. Every song is incredibly slow. There’s no apparent rush to any of the songs. They come off as more thoughtful this way, as if they’re trying to get more across than the music that lead into trip hop.

Every song has a catchy beat. It’s too slow to really dance to, yet it’s the type that really makes you want to. Every song has a thick hip hop beat combined with soulful vocals, which are provided by multiple vocalists. There are these little musical elements that add to the songs, such as background scratching and synthetic buildups in “One Love.”

“Unfinished Sympathy” is the emotional high point of the album, and it’s just generally an awesome song throughout. The strong vocals are matched by a harsh beat, which are then matched with an ominous string section in the background. To add to the emotional power of this song, there are great lines like “Like a soul without a mind, in a body without a heart, I'm missing every part.” There’s this gradual build up with the string section throughout that make “Unfinished Sympathy” so much more than a simple trip hop song.

I’ve always loved the last track of the album, “Hymn of the Big Wheel.” On a rather dark album, this song feels like the uplifting ending. It’s deeply reflective on the state of the world as a whole, and it has excellent instrumentation which adds to this hopeful atmosphere.

Blue Lines is a part of a genre that didn’t last nearly as long as it could have, but it left many great records, Blue Lines being the earliest and one of the best examples. It’s one of those rare albums where you find something new to appreciate on every listen, while still being excellent on first listen.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

87. John Lennon-Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Favorite Song: “Mother”


John Lennon’s solo work was a great departure from The Beatles. Where The Beatles were generally light-hearted, John Lennon was a lot more serious by himself. He picked up themes like religion and personal issues to replace love songs and the like.

Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon’s first solo album, reveals a much more troubled man than the attitude of The Beatles would let on. It begins with one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard, “Mother.” It is a boy crying for his parents, parents who were never there when he needed them. So much emotion is pent up in his cries. The way he screams “Mama don’t go, Daddy come home” at the end is just heartbreaking. It’s the type of scream that would make a metal artist proud, but it’s used so depressingly in this song.

The rest of the tracks continue this serious attitude, hitting a high point with “Working Class Hero,” a song about how, as a member of the working class, life is stacked against you in every way. No one wants you to be too good that you deserve to be above the working class, but no one likes someone simple enough to deserve to be in the working class. It’s also interesting to hear John Lennon drop the F-bomb so casually.

The big and controversial song from the album, “God,” appears as the penultimate track. It’s a strange song, starting off as what appears to be Lennon stating that he doesn’t believe in God, but goes on to state that he doesn’t believe in Hitler or, last but not least in a long string of things Lennon doesn’t believe in, The Beatles. It ends with him stating that he only believes in his love with Yoko Ono. It seems incredibly meaningful for him to make such a statement so blatantly after having her be viewed as a cause for the breakup of the Beatles. If love is as powerful as The Beatles’ songs would have you believe, of course he would leave them if it interfered with his love.

The album ends with a short bookend, where Lennon sings about losing his mother. It has this strange, low quality sound to it, making Lennon appear as a child, small and pathetic, everything out of his control.

Plastic Ono Band is a study in a man who is much more troubled than his previous public persona let on. While not as generally ‘fun’ as a traditional Beatles album, it contains a lot more meaning. A very powerful album by one of the greatest musicians in rock and roll.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

88. Bon Iver-Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)
Favorite Song: “Holocene”


The most recent album on the list, Bon Iver, Bon Iver is quite possibly one of the most depressing albums I’ve ever heard. Even though it’s Bon Iver’s second album, this album somehow managed to cause Bon Iver to win Best New Artist at the Grammy’s four years after his debut, adding to the massive amount of examples of the Grammy’s not actually knowing anything about music.

The album opens up with what sounds like a military march in the song “Perth,” a song apparently about the death of Heath Ledger and how it affected a man he was visiting who knew Ledger. The album has such a wide soundscape. Bon Iver jumps from location to location throughout the album, with titles like “Perth” and “Calgary,” and each song has its own musical style. To each town its own depressing style.

The height of the album is “Holocene,” a moving song about realizing that you’re not anyone special. “And at once I knew, I was not magnificent.” It’s the beautiful, hypnotic guitar work, the way the vocals add up on itself to create some of the most haunted singing that make this song so great. It’s such a down song, about that moment in one’s life where you admit to yourself you can’t make any of those great changes or do any of the big things you were planning to do your whole life. The realization that you are a small individual like everyone else, and how hard it is to truly stand out. Yet, there’s still small shreds of hope throughout the song, as he mentions that he can see far away, to some far off place.

Bon Iver is an expert of emotional music. His musical buildup is unrelenting, and his vocal style is riveting. Where is his first was a study in simplicity, Bon Iver, Bon Iver found a new, layered complexity that works even better. Bon Iver jumps from one side of folk music to the next, while incorporating elements from other genres as well. To the long line of down and depressed folk albums, Bon Iver, Bon Iver is a worthy addition.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

89. The Cure-Disintegration (1989)
Favorite Song: “Lullaby”


The Cure was an early example of gothic rock, yet it seems like the songs they’re most known for don’t in anyway fit that image. While great songs, “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Just Like Heaven” aren’t exactly dark.

Disintegration is The Cure at the height of their darkness, an album that fits the image they created for themselves. The lyrics speak of dark imagery, while the music is downbeat and depressing. “Love Song” fits what appears to be happy lyrics, but matched with Robert Smith’s pained vocals, it suggests there isn’t as much joy in the relationship as the lyrics would let on. “Pictures of You” tells the tale of a loss that the singer wish he could have prevented. “Lullaby” tells a haunting tale of a recurring nightmare about a spider.

The strength of The Cure lies in the fact that they’re not afraid to mix moods between the meaning of the song and the sound of the song. Where most ‘dark’ bands would try to force dark sounding music with the types of lyrics The Cure produces, The Cure makes poppy yet effective melodies. It’s hard to believe that a man who looks like Robert Smith can make such happy sounding music at points.

Disintegration is one of many great records by The Cure. I rank it above the others, as it seems like the culmination of their career. Where they’ve always managed to load their albums with tons of great songs, Disintegration is where they’re at their most consistent thematically.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

90. LCD Soundsystem-LCD Soundsystem (2005)
Favorite Song: “Tribulations”/”Losing My Edge”



Whether or not I include the second disc, I have about the same view as the album. What’s added with “Losing My Edge” and “Yeah” is cancelled out by the unnecessary extended length.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I am a complete and total LCD Soundsystem fanboy. Ever since I heard “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House,” I fell in love. Their dance-punk energy was unlike anything I had heard before, and they were easily one of the two most important bands for getting me actually interested in the music industry.

LCD Soundsystem was their first album after three years of making singles. The first disc consists of the album, while the second disc is all the songs they released up to that point. While there were a few big hits, like The Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers,” the modern dance-punk movement didn’t really find its flagship work until the release of this album.

The album starts with the song that shot LCD Soundsystem into the spotlight, “Daft Punk is Playing at My House,” and it represents everything I love about dance-punk. There’s no real care or concern to the subject matter, James Murphy just happens to be throwing a really awesome party and he’s incredibly excited about it. The bass line is groovy and some of the notes Murphy hits are just fantastic.

LCD Soundsystem is a huge combination of different styles while all still falling into the dance-punk genre. “Tribulations” has a more mellow, electronic layout to it, while “Movement” is more of a slow stomp. “Never As Tired When I’m Waking Up” is basically The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence,” but becomes its own thing in its rather cynical lyrics, featuring one of my favorite lines from the LCD Soundsystem catalogue, “I feel that I’m in love again, with what you do,” later adding “but not with you” in the second verse. It’s one of those bluntly honest lines about an issue that is barely brought up. There are tons of love songs, but how many are there about how hard it is to be friends with benefits?

LCD Soundsystem’s self-titled debut, while having a couple weak moments, is one of the most unique and just plain fun albums from the past decade. Throw in a second disc with one of the best-written songs in modern music, and you get an indie classic.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

91. The Chemical Brothers-Dig Your Own Hole (1997)
Favorite Song: “Setting Sun”


The Chemical Brothers were one of the biggest electronic acts of the 1990s and early 2000s. They seemed to take the middle path of the major big beat artists, more serious than Fatboy Slim but less dark than The Prodigy.

Dig Your Own Hole was The Chemical Brothers at the height of their career. It was a lengthy album, with most of the tracks fitting its own style, but still managing to clash together in a fitting way. The album never stops from being a dance album, always making sure to have a danceable beat, no matter how fast or slow it goes.

The album starts off with an energetic high point in the form of “Block Rockin’ Beats,” one of the Chemical Brothers’ biggest hits. It uses sounds that a lesser band wouldn’t be able to handle without making it obnoxious. The song is marked by high pitch whirring and a repetitive yet effective bassline. There’s an unbelievable amount of energy throughout, and it just doesn’t let go. It will have instruments dip in and out, but there’s never a release throughout the song.

The album continues the unrelenting frenetic current throughout, though it takes a dark turn in “Setting Sun.” The lyrics, sung by Noel Gallagher of Oasis, detail a night that is soon regretted. It’s in how the sample of “Tomorrow Never Knows” is used that the strength lies. The Beatles’ Revolver is an album that left an obvious mark on experimental music, especially regarding the use of electric instruments, with “Tomorrow Never Knows” being the most extreme use on the album. It seems meaningful that The Chemical Brothers would choose that specific song to sample the drumline of. Yet, even with a very obvious sampling, “Setting Sun” is uniquely its own thing, with haunting vocals and foreboding sirens.

Dig Your Own Hole is both one of the biggest and one of the best albums of the 1990s electronic music scene. Where other major acts seemed to just be showing off at points, The Chemical Brothers managed to do their music in style.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

92. Tom Waits-Rain Dogs (1985)
Favorite Song: “Time”


Tom Waits is one of those artists that I just don’t get how they’re not more popular. There are few artists that are as creative as Tom Waits. His early career fell into general categories like jazz or rock, but somewhere in the middle of the 1980s, he became something different. He started to use simply bizarre instruments, and took pride in his one of a kind voice.

Rain Dogs is one of his strongest works of the era. It features every type of song he’s known for, and he does them so well. From the bawlers like “Time,” to the more general rock songs like “Downtown Train,” to the more experimental such as “Jockey Full of Bourbon.” He even manages to work country and polka into the mix.

Once you get understand his near incomprehensible vocal style, you’ll discover a trove full of wonderful lyrics. While singing like a demon, Tom Waits weaves numerous beautiful tales. Yet, his lyrics are just as mysterious as his vocal style. It’s challenging to make sense of songs like “Jockey Full of Bourbon” and “Cemetary Polka,” making their themes of crime and deceit all the more disconcerting. Songs like “Time” just take a slice of various people’s life, and it’s all around tragic.

Tom Waits can weave his way in and out of different styles without losing consistency. It’s the type of album where, even if I don’t feel like listening the whole thing, I can always find at least one song off of that would fit in with what I would want to listen to. And, best of all, none of the songs overstay their welcome, allowing the album to have a rapid fire presentation. While lacking any mega hits, Rain Dogs is one of the most consistently strong albums throughout.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

93. Nirvana-In Utero (1993)
Favorite Song: “All Apologies”


Is an intro for Nirvana really necessary? They brought grunge into the mainstream, bringing alternative rock as a whole into the forefront of the music industry for most of the 1990s. In Utero was the follow-up album to their big hit, Nevermind.

While it followed many of the traits of the grunge movement, In Utero also felt more reserved in a lot of its tracks. Where most of the tracks on Nevermind began with a rumbling drum intro, usually accompanied by Kurt Cobain’s shouting, a lot of the tracks on In Utero were mellow and downbeat.

“Rape Me” is a good example of the changed style on the album. The opening is much quieter than anything off Nevermind. There is a lot of anger in this song, but it gives itself time to build up until the end, which turns into Kurt Cobain having a shouting match with himself. With In Utero, Nirvana learned subtlety.

“Heart-Shaped Box” is probably the biggest hit off the album. And, much like “Rape Me,” instead of being upfront and in your face about his anger, “Heart-Shaped Box” leaves the anger for a few moments, this time the chorus, rather than overdoing it throughout the song.

Yet, the song that has remained my favorite off the album is the one that lacks anger in its entirety. “All Apologies” is almost a sad song, and is the perfect way to close the album. It features some of the best lyrics the band ever wrote, and the ending chants of “All in all is all we are” is one of the best things the band has ever recorded. The way Cobain screams “married, buried” near the end is the height of his vocals.

In Utero finds an angry band in a comparatively calm mood, and it is excellent in a completely different way than their first. If Nevermind showed their skill, In Utero showed their range.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

I've listened to Burial's Untrue, so, yeah, I'm not ignorant of his existence, and I'd like to know where I said I didn't know who he was. Quality has no effect on a work's cultural importance or its state as a defining genre. When people think of the early 90s, they're going to think of grunge. When people think of the late 2000s, there are a ton of genres they can associate to it, dubstep being among many. It might be one of the biggest, but it still hasn't pulled away yet, and I could still see experimental folk music or dance-punk being the next big thing as well. And, yes, of the many genres you listed, dubstep is the only one that has so far proven capable of coming close to a big musical movement.

I still don't get how you take offense to me stating that there were multiple genres at the forefront of the music scene instead of being a single genre focused era, considering how many albums are from that era that I love, it's more of a praise than anything. I love the fact that LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Burial, TV on the Radio, etc., are all able to be big artists at the same time.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Yeah, I definitely don't consider dubstep of the late 2000s in any way comparable to grunge of the early 90s or punk of the late 70s.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

94. M.I.A.-Kala (2007)
Favorite Song: “Paper Planes”


The mid to late 2000s seems to be an era without any real defining musical movement. Looking at the major albums of the decade, they cover a wide range, from folk to rap to electronic, to whatever. Every major artist of the decade seemed to be trying to find their own path, and those that excelled mainly did so by experimenting. One of those experiments was M.I.A., a rapper from Sri Lanka.

M.I.A.’s albums seem to fit in the unique genre of world music dance rap. M.I.A. mixes every genre possible, using as many local styles as she can find. She’ll jump from tribal drum beats in one song to Indian strings and vocal styles in another. Every song is a total trip.

“Jimmy” is one of the more unique style clashes from the album. Throughout, there’s an obvious Bollywood influence, mixed in with a disco beat. It has this rare upbeat danceable feel to it that few songs manage to create.

But the real highlight of the album is “Paper Planes.” There’s so much passive aggressive anger in this song that it’s incredible. While it’s obvious that she’s being sarcastic about wanting to rob people and having ‘more records than the KGB,’ there’s so much anger in how she perceives the people who view people who look like her like that. She manages to fit one of the most socially relevant messages in modern music into one of the catchiest songs in modern music. It’s hard to not sing along with the chorus, even though you’ll quickly fail as it suddenly becomes a mess of sound effects.

Kala is just one of those albums so unique that it is impossible to forget. M.I.A. is one of the few artists who can do a ton of styles and do them all well, and Kala has so far been the top of her career.

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Monster

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

^Which one was that?

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.

Since no one seems to be adding to your amount, I'll throw in this:

James Blake-James Blake

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Black Turtle, you're my hero.