DJ Shadow's groundbreaking album Endtroducing..... has, so far at least, remained beyond the reach of the masses, which is too bad. Within the music community, Endtroducing..... is a treasured and hugely influential work, but as far as music consumers are concerned,...
When I was making my 100 favorite albums list, I really thought (What's the Story) Morning Glory? was going to make the cut. But alas, I ran out of room for it. To be honest, I hadn't been a real Oasis fan all that long when I made the list, and their debut Definitely...
For some reason, my honorable mention posts have all focused on albums made in the past 15-20 years so far. I think after finishing my favorite albums list, I wanted to pay more attention to the modern; it's just where my head's at right now. I really thought I would...
When I finally finished counting down my 100 favorite albums six months ago, I felt terrible. I mean, I loved doing the list, but I was pissed when I finally got to my #1 pick -- Make Yourself by Incubus -- because I realized that to put that album number one and...
At least four albums on my favorite albums list would rank higher if I had to do the list again now. One of them is Dr. Dre's The Chronic, which revolutionized hip-hop upon its release at the end of 1992. A court case in 1991 effectively ended the sample-heavy...
Over the years I have heavily criticized many prominent "best of" lists, since I certainly have my opinions on things, particularly when it comes to music. Rolling Stone in particular has made a fortune over the past ten years by promoting their "______ of All Time"...
What a difference a year makes. I was wholly unimpressed by Bon Iver when I first heard it a year ago. In fact, when I wrote about Bon Iver's first/breakthrough album For Emma, Forever Ago for my favorite albums list, I said this at the end: Bon Iver’s self-titled...
Wasting Light is aging quite well; it's only been out for just under a year and a half, but it already feels like a classic. Seventeen years after the passing of Kurt Cobain, former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl finally confronts his former...
Highly compressed and crushingly loud, Songs for the Deaf works as both an arty hard rock masterpiece and as a hilarious, wonderful satire on the disappearing dynamics in modern-day records. The album is presented as a radio broadcast from multiple Southern California...
OutKast has an impressive -- and often overlooked -- discography, and five years before the rap duo took their final album, 2003's 135-minute double-solo LP Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, eleven times multi-platinum, they delivered their finest record in Aquemini. It's...