Radio Daze

'XPN's Greatest-Albums Playback: The World's Strangest-Ever Mix Tape

WXPN is meandering its way through a massive undertaking, playing back songs from the 885 greatest albums of all time, as voted on by its listeners. 'XPN has always prided itself on the diversity of its playlists; indeed, during pledge drives they put the diversity in front of a microphone and have it ask listeners who their daddy is. They've really outdone themselves, though, by polling us masses on our faves. Over the last week or so, I've heard, mixed in with such typical 88.5 fare as Indigo Girls and Patty Griffin, the likes of Public Enemy, Interpol, Metallica, Frank Sinatra, Rush, and, I swear to God, Black Sabbath.

It's an interesting little diversion, designed to spark discussion, I'm sure, as these lists usually are. The obvious move here would be to post my own top-10 list, but as much as I love listening to music, my CD collection is shamefully lacking in many records universally acknowledged as must-haves. I don't own Pet Sounds, or the White Album, or London Calling, or Exile on Main Street. I don’t even own Exile in Guyville.

I will now duck while you throw your old 8-tracks at my head.

When you're done doing that, feel free to share your picks in the comments section below.

Comments

[Matt]

Good post, T. You have me thinking yet again. I'll try to post something soon about my own favorites. One quick question, though -- with the advent of iTunes and other downloadable music services, are full-length albums irrelevant?

[Tom G]

Matt, I was sort of thinking the same thing. I don't have iTunes, but I do have XM Radio, and there is a ton of good stuff to listen to on there. Since I got it a year or two ago, my CD purchases have dropped considerably.

[Iain]

The iTunes debate is an interesting one. I don't think that full-length albums are irrelevant, but I guess it depends on how you listen to music in the first place. If you're a big fan of radio (or were an avid collector of 7" singles way back when) then iTunes etc. are possibly the perfect complement to that - you can pick and choose individual tracks at will. I'm more of the opinion that songs do not stand alone - they are part of an album, and that an album is an artistic whole. I almost never use the 'random' button on my mp3 player for that very reason - I'm much more likely to queue a bunch of albums and listen to them in their entirety.

[Tom Durso]

Now that is an interesting debate. I do admit to paying less attention to full-length albums than I used to. I wonder whether artists are releasing fewer thematically "whole" records as well -- are they reacting by recording collections of singles instead of "albums"?

[J. Weitzel]

XPNs lists are always good conversation. I'm as big a Weezer fan as anyone. Is Pinkerton the 225th greatest record of all time? Don't think so. Jack Johnson made the list at 313! Come on! Too high! That's about 50 spots ahead of In Utero!

[Tom G]

Which Jack Johnson CD is it? His latest is fantastic.

[gr]

an album's worth of good songs will never be irrevelent.

[Matt]

Here's a very rudimentary list of some of my favorite albums of all time, with many apologies to plenty of good albums I left off.

Some represent great albums from start to finish, some have a ton of incredible songs on them, and others represent a time in my life that I never want to forget. It was utterly impossible to rate them, so here they are in simple alphabetical order:

The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Beatles: Rubber Soul
Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet
Bush: Sixteen Stone
Dr. Dre: The Chronic
Def Leppard: Hysteria
The Doors: The Doors
Green Day: Dookie
Billy Joel: The Stranger
Led Zeppelin: II
Live: Throwing Copper
Metallica: Black Album (Metallica)
Nirvana: Nevermind
Notorious B.I.G.: Ready To Die
Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
Soundgarden: Down on the Upside
Stone Temple Pilots: Core
Van Halen: Van Halen
Weezer: Blue, Pinkerton, or Green (Each is so good I couldn’t pick one over another.)