| Author | Message | ||
     Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 181 Registered: 05-2005 |
No surprise that Oceans Apart, Liberty Belle OR 16LL arn't there!!!! I was dispairing,yet again, that I was not even part of the collective unconscious of the country I was born in until the middle of the top 10. This would definitely not be a UK or US list, and definitely not a list for most members of this forum. Find it at http://www.abc.net.au/myfavouritealbum/ | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 61 Registered: 05-2005 |
C'est nul! You can do a better action here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/livingicons/vo te/ | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1055 Registered: 05-2005 |
If I were to take out the shite from that Top 100 list this is what I would be left with, that I would consider a good album, probably not in my top 50, some might be, but I'd have ato think real hard: Jeff Buckley — Grace Radiohead — Ok Computer The Beatles — Abbey Road Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin 4 U2 — The Joshua Tree The Beatles — The Beatles - White Album The Beatles — Revolver Radiohead — The Bends Neil Young — Harvest Fleetwood Mac — Rumours The Clash — London Calling The Pixies — Doolittle U2 — Achtung Baby David Bowie — Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars The Beatles — Rubber Soul The Stone Roses — Stone Roses Sex Pistols — Never Mind the Bollocks The Smiths — The Queen Is Dead R.E.M — Automatic For The People Joni Mitchell — Blue ABBA — Arrival Elton John — Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Miles Davis — Kind of Blue Cold Chisel — East Guns N Roses — Appetite For Destruction Foo Fighters — The Colour and The Shape Crowded House — Woodface Massive Attack — Blue Lines Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin 2 Ben Folds Five — Whatever and Ever Amen The Rolling Stones — Sticky Fingers Portishead — Dummy The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground & Nico | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 804 Registered: 03-2005 |
How dispiriting that Oz list is! So few Australian artists, though you missed Radio Birdman, Spence. (Maybe you don't rate them; I do). But no Easybeats even though they were far and away the biggest (authentic) Oz act of the 60s with Beatles-level popularity there and a stack of great records? C'mon! No "Prehistoric Sounds?" And, yeah, no Go Betweens . . . . I wonder when (if ever) the mainstream Aussies will get over their inferiority complex. They have so many major talents right under their noses and they ignore them and tout such overseas vin ordinaire as "Abbey Road." Crap. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1216 Registered: 05-2005 |
I got to No22 (Blood On The Tracks)before I saw an album that I would enjoy listening to. Sometimes these lists can be misrepresentative, who voted for this? If it was people shopping in HMV or Virgin that would probably mean not too many votes for left field music. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1007 Registered: 04-2005 |
That really is a crap list...even worse than that Time magazine list from a couple weeks back. Silverchair with more than one entry, but no Go-Betweens, Nick Cave, Triffids, etc. Way to support your artists, Australia! Then again, the one I live in doesn't have any better taste... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 975 Registered: 05-2005 |
What a rubbish list. People who own less than 1000 albums should not be allowed to vote in these things. Or in federal elections for that matter. Missy Higgins at No 30? She's the Delta Goodrem it's OK to like. Except not for me. I don't like. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 976 Registered: 05-2005 |
And Delta herself gets in at 80. Ah, lovely. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 977 Registered: 05-2005 |
Anthony Callea at 32! Isn't he someone who finished third one year in Australian Idol? Looks like a malevolent jockey? | ||
| Lawrence Mikkelsen Member Username: Simplythrilledhoney Post Number: 44 Registered: 03-2006 |
Jeeze that's a shitty list, Australia! (Not that things would be that different here in NZ.) Seriously - no Go-Betweens and yet Anthony Callea is on the list. (sigh) I think I own about 15 of those albums, but even the ones I own are certainly nowhere near my favourites. (And where are The Triffids?) | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 38 Registered: 10-2006 |
The hardcopy of that list would make great budgie cage paper, just like the one from Time Magazine. Stuff you might expect. Snore.... At least Radiohead are there. Today I was IM'ing one of my writing friends - who I found out lived in Brisbane until 2003 - and she said she had never heard of the Go-Betweens! What is wrong with this picture? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 980 Registered: 05-2005 |
I first went to Brisbane in 1999 and could find hardly anyone who'd even heard of them. | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 39 Registered: 10-2006 |
'A prophet is not without honour except in his own country', I suppose. And that's why we see so much of the lowest common denominator on 'best of..' lists of any kind, which are probably going to be more endemic at this time of year. (My parakeets are going to have lots of cage supplies of the poop-catching kind!) I at least hope there is a Go-Betweens footbridge there in Brisbane now. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 327 Registered: 01-2005 |
I wonder if living in London from 82-87 had a lot to do with the lack of name recognition in Australia? | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 150 Registered: 08-2006 |
Padraig could probably set me straight on this, but I'm not actually surprised the GBs weren't better known in Australia. It's a big country, after all, and the GBs weren't exactly stadium fillers. Australian Television fans might rightly wonder why the names Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd aren't on the lips of all New Yorkers, or why every Cincinnati resident isn't a Greg Dulli acolyte. I think it's the same everywhere. Elizabeth's quote about prophets without honor is dead on. | ||
| Lawrence Mikkelsen Member Username: Simplythrilledhoney Post Number: 47 Registered: 03-2006 |
I remember getting really heated with my wife's Perth-based inlaws for not having heard of The Triffids. It's the same here in New Zealand. Based on public votes, there's no way acts like The Chills, The Verlaines, Sneaky Feelings and The Clean would make one of these lists. (That being said, NZ is the only country in the world Joy Division ever had a #1 hit.) | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 983 Registered: 05-2005 |
I actually was surprised Rob because even people working in record shops hadn't heard of them; but then I reasoned that people in record shops in Cork would not know who Cathal Coughlan was either. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 984 Registered: 05-2005 |
Elizabeth, I quoted something similar to that when I interviewed Robert a few years ago. You can read his answer here www.myspace.com/padraigcollins Click [View All Blog Entries] then click Blog Archive [Older] and scroll to near the bottom. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1015 Registered: 04-2005 |
Lawrence, it's discouraging to hear that the masses in NZ don't seem to acknowledge their great musical artists either. I know somebody from NZ who works in the States now who looked at me blankly when I mentioned the Chills, which surprised me. Then again, she introduced me to the Mutton Birds, which was a good call. How about Split Enz and Crowded House? Do they get their due in NZ? Padraig, I think you can hit 1,000 today! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 986 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think I can Kurt... but I'm very busy at work, so maybe not. | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 40 Registered: 10-2006 |
My dear Padraig - thank you for the link to your blog! I got a kick out of what Grant McLennan said with a laugh: 'I don't think I want to be a prophet.' Such a charming fellow! And you made my day. Thanks! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 987 Registered: 05-2005 |
You're welcome Elizabeth! I forgot it was acutally Grant who gave that funny answer. For those of you too lazy to click the link above, here's the relevant part. I tell them that on a trip, or more accurately a pilgrimage, to Brisbane I found that most people had never even heard of them, that the Go- Betweens were unknown prophets in their own town. "There's not much profit to be made from your home town," McLennan laughs. "You are breathing the same air, in the same time zone. I don't know if I want to be a prophet." "We're not a household name here," adds Forster. "There would be a certain group of people who know us and who are passionate about us. We never had a Top 40 hit here. There are advantages to this. It means we can move around fairly anonymously." | ||
| Lawrence Mikkelsen Member Username: Simplythrilledhoney Post Number: 49 Registered: 03-2006 |
Kurt. Interesting. Neil Finn is essentially a saint in New Zealand. Split Enz and Neil Finn (and to a slightly lesser extent Tim Finn) are very highly regarded and almost ubiquitious. Neil is often asked for comment about music-related things in the news media and is seen as some sort of patron saint of NZ musicians. He always comes across as informed, humble and intelligent, so makes for good copy. So, yes, they get their due, probably at the extent of many equally worthy musicians. (I'd make some comment about Martin Phillipps not being able to get arrested in thia country, except that he _did_ get arrested about two years ago, for shoplifting, if that gives you some kind of idea how much money _he's_ making from music at the moment.) The Mutton Birds were briefly massive in the mid 90s - "Dominion Road" was a big hit, as was their cover of "Nature". When 'Salty' came out, "Anchor Me" and "The Heater" were also pretty big radio hits. Their popularity dimished when they decamped to England - mainly because they stopped gigging regularly here - and their last two albums didn't sell nearly as well. (Personally, I still rate 'Envy of Angels' as their best. In fact, as soon as the Associates album I'm listening to finishes I'm going to listen to it.) At their peak (circa '95/'96) a Mutton Birds live show was an absolutely transcendant experience. I remember seeing them at this free outdoor show in South Auckland primarily aimed at Maori/Pacific Island youth. They were the only pop/guitar band in the program, and me and two friends were the only three white guys in the audience. And, despite being summer it was POURING with rain and we were drenched to the bone. They came onstage and started their set with 'Too Close To The Sun", with the opening line 'It's so dry here. One spark and the whole place could go up'. It was one of those fantastic moments where the misery of standing around in a cyclone for two hours in shorts and t-shirt is just washed away with a lyric and the strum of a guitar. Anyway, what I was going to say before I got carried away was that Crowded House and The Mutton Birds draw a very different audience to the Flying Nun bands. Crowded House and The Mutton Birds were never 'cool' and attracted an essentially 'middle New Zealand' audience. They got mainstream radio play and weren't really touched by student radio. Flying Nun was the opposite - NO ONE bar the student stations would have played that material. It's weird, because The Muttons Birds and Sneaky Feelings are pretty close in terms of sound. But there was a lot of indie v. major label politics too tiresome to go into. OK, I'll shut up now. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 991 Registered: 05-2005 |
That's what I never understood either Lawrence. I always thought The Mutton Birds sounded very close to the poppier end of the Flying Nun sound (eg some Chills stuff, some Bats stuff, Bike's one awesome album), but they sold a whole lot more records than their indie compatriots. Shows what you can do with a major label push I guess (ie get on radio and video hits shows). | ||
| Lawrence Mikkelsen Member Username: Simplythrilledhoney Post Number: 50 Registered: 03-2006 |
Pádraig, I know exactly what you mean. I guess The Mutton Birds never had the studenty/black-clad image and were never perceived as being "weirdos". BTW - that Bike album is an absolute lost classic. I saw them play quite a few times around the time that album came out, and they were such a great live act. I still rate Andrew Brough as one of NZs greatest and most underappreciated songwriters. (Amazingly, other than a shoddily compiled best of, the entire Straitjacket Fits back catalogue is out of print.) | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 349 Registered: 04-2006 |
and to continue on that list thing: this list is good. machine head an close to the egdge are great! | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 350 Registered: 04-2006 |
close to the edge and not close to the egdge, for sure. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 351 Registered: 04-2006 |
to get serious: the list is shit, but i like machine head and close to the edge, really. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1020 Registered: 04-2005 |
Thanks for the explanation, Lawrence. Fascinating stuff. I totally get what you mean about the way Flying Nun bands were received in their native land. The U.S. also has a rich tradition of driving away its homegrown artists, after all. I've only heard "Envy of Angels" by the Mutton Birds, but it's a tremendous album that never fails to get better for me: great songs, strong vocals, and tough-but-sophisticated playing. I can think of a few highly rated bands on this board that never did anything as good as "Envy of Angels." Sounds like a rare case of a deserving band getting popular (for awhile at least). I need to check out the other albums you and Padraig mentioned. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 40 Registered: 07-2006 |
i was impressed that doolittle and the roses made it into the top 40. floyd and beatles overkill. neil diamond outdoing neil young is so wrong it's kinda cool. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1008 Registered: 05-2005 |
For a different perspective, have a look here http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/12/0 7/1165081025397.html?page=fullpage#conte ntSwap2 | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 820 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thanks for that Padraig. That is a fabulous list and really underscores what a decent paper the Sydney Morning Herald is. The only thing I have is the Ellen Foley which I've had forever. It's what I used to pull out to demonstrate that I don't hate all Clash records. I had a favorite mix tape I'd made in the mid-80s and would crank up "Shuttered Palace" to 11 when driving down the road. And, well, I had "Search of the Lost Chord" waaay back when. I love the reviewer's sensibility--"fabulous tosh" indeed. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1012 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've got three of the 12: Kate Bush - The Dreaming: Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen; and Single Gun Theory - Flow, River of My Soul. I love all three. I'm glad to see my fellow Limerickman Richard Harris make the list. I must check that album out. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 62 Registered: 07-2006 |
seriously....the dreaming over the hounds of love? or the sensual world even? must be something in the sydney water.... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1014 Registered: 05-2005 |
I didn't say I preferred The Dreaming - just that I've got it. Have a look around newby Joe. Somewhere on this site is a list of my top 20 albums. Hounds Of Love is in the top 5 I think. The Dreaming is not there. Nor are the other two mentioned above. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 63 Registered: 07-2006 |
sorry good sir...i was more having a curious jab at the writer of the list. gush over kate anywhere, and i assure you i'll be in toe. cheers, J =) | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1227 Registered: 05-2005 |
Sorry to be the Scrooge around here given that its nearly Christmas, but to my mind Kate Bush belongs more in that Worst Artists of All Time list we were discussing recently. Its probably just me but wailing female vocalists ala Kate B, Bjork, Tori Amos and Joanna Newsome should be banned from making music. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 64 Registered: 07-2006 |
brilliant kevin! i find it's a style i too approach with great caution. bjork still both bores and weirds me out to this day...possibly because she flies straight over the top of my pop-sensible head. as tori's gotten on she seems to have become more and more needlessly "complex" and self-involved. when she was a shameless kate bush immitator/aspirer i had a lot more time for her. she's got taste at the very least. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1228 Registered: 05-2005 |
Sorry to be the Scrooge around here given that its nearly Christmas, but to my mind Kate Bush belongs more in that Worst Artists of All Time list we were discussing recently. Its probably just me but wailing female vocalists ala Kate B, Bjork, Tori Amos and Joanna Newsome should be banned from making music. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1229 Registered: 05-2005 |
oops , feel so strongly I posted it twice | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1037 Registered: 04-2005 |
Come on, Kevin, tell us what you really think. Don't hold back on us.  Going after Tori Amos isn't too risky, but you might have the wolves after you for Bjork and Kate! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1230 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, Music and football(Celtic in particular) are the only two things in my life that I get really animated/opinionated about - and I tend to be slightly "volcanic" about it - as in sometimes I just let rip Most other things in life I am fairly easy ozie about, I am a fairly laid back person in general. Female screechy vocalist, heavy metal( Hi LK !), and MOR music can bring out the Vesuvius in me | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1038 Registered: 04-2005 |
Yeah, know what you mean. LK is kind of like that with his soap operas. "Stories" I think he likes to call them. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1016 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kevin, what if Saint Henrik turned out to be a big Tori Amos fan? Moral dilemma for you? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 821 Registered: 03-2005 |
Sometimes an entry from Kevin just makes me jump up and cheer! Unlike him, I'm really opinionated about nearly everything. I haven't listened to Kate B in years and don't know what I'd think now but I suspect that I'd think of her as, ahem, a teensy bit overly stylized. Bjork, on the other hand, is like fingers on a chalkboard to me. Her singing style ALWAYS conjures up one word which fits it to perfection: fatuous. She just sounds like a fool. I've managed never to have heard Tori Amos so no comment about her and ditto Joanna Newsome. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1231 Registered: 05-2005 |
Padraig, I could be wrong but I would imagine that Henrik's musical taste would be a bit on the bland side. There would be no moral dilemna for me, footballers have notoriously bad musical taste. In saying that he used to have dreadlocks, so he maybe liked reggae. Although, and again I could be wrong, I suspect it would be more Maxi Priest, UB40 and Bob Marley that he liked, rather than Burning Spear, Augustus Pablo and U Roy | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1028 Registered: 05-2005 |
Being Swedish I bet he loves Abba, Wannadies, Europe, Aqua, Hives, Roxette, Hellacopters, Ikea, Jose Gonzalez, Langhorns, Turbonegro, The Concretes, The Sound, Stina Nordenstam, Jens Lekman, Neneh Cherry, Sahara Hotnights, Volvo, Nicolai Dunger, Army of Lovers, International Noise Conspiracy, Whale and all those cool, church burning death metal bands with SAD. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1282 Registered: 03-2006 |
This will probably come as no surprise, but I love Bjork. I think she's brilliant and have everything she's ever done. I know this because I even shelled out for the box set that collects all of her records. You just haven't lived until you've heard "Hyperballad" in 5.1 surround stereo... I think Kate Bush is pretty wonderful, too, though her vaunted comeback record was actually kinda boring. Tori Amos, though, I completely reject, but on the grounds of quality, not because she's a screeching female. She just doesn't write very good songs. Joanna Newsome must be driving you crazy, Kev, huh? It is splashed all over the Brit music press and it seems that they've basically wetting their pants over it...It's also way high up in the Metacritic best-reviewed of the year... Henrik probably loves the meatballs, too...washed down with lingonberry juice... | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1234 Registered: 05-2005 |
Did you put The Sound in the middle of all that Swedish stuff just to see if I was paying attention Padraig? Were they big in Sweden then? Also, no Cardigans? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1029 Registered: 05-2005 |
Are The Sound not Swedish? The internet lied to me then. Last time I ever trust that as a source. I put Ikea and Volvo in to see if you were paying attention. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1240 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Sound were English Padraig, a London band if I am not mistaken. There was nothing even remotely Swedish about them, they were very big in Holland though for some obscure reason. They were very much a band out of time, by about 25 years I reckon. Bands with a fraction of their talent are massive today. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1047 Registered: 04-2005 |
Well, there's a band called the Sounds now. Are they the ones who are Swedish? | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 185 Registered: 08-2006 |
It's true, the more recent band, The Sounds - with an "s" - are Swedish. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1030 Registered: 05-2005 |
Ah. The missing S. Mystery solved. My cutting and pasting skills leave somthing to be desired maybe. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 335 Registered: 01-2005 |
The Dreaming is by far my favorite of Kate's. It might be because it's the first album of hers that I bought, in 1982 the year of it's release. Hounds of Love is great, but it doesn't have the energy of The Dreaming. I'll agree with LK about her comeback album, it"s my lease favorite of hers, althgough I should state that I don't own The Red Shoes. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1039 Registered: 05-2005 |
I love Arial Michael and LK. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 193 Registered: 08-2006 |
Really, Padraig? Arial AND LK? I liked LK's early stuff, posts 984-987 were works of genius, but his output since 1,100 or so has been spotty. (Just kidding, my Hold Steady-loving compatriot!) | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1292 Registered: 03-2006 |
I thought for a second, Padraig, you were expressing affection for your pal LK and someone named Arial Michael... But umm, I got it...that one just didn't register for me, but hey enjoy...It's got a clever cover! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1295 Registered: 03-2006 |
Rob, I think you're right. I'm steadily lapsing from the verbose into the monosyllabic...soon, I'll just be posting grunts and yelps! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1041 Registered: 05-2005 |
Rob, LK: LOL. |