Wednesday, May 24, 2006

5 Underrated Albums and One That Got Robbed

Rolling Stone calls Nirvana's Nevermind the 17th Greatest Album of All-Time on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time. I can live with that. I was in college when that album came out, and I can remember many a party (I mean, gathering) with "Come As You Are" nice and loud on the stereo. I can definitely agree with all the Dylan and Beatles and Zeppelin filling up much of the top 100.

But there are 5 underrated albums I found---or maybe they're perfectly ranked, but I loved them so much I thought they desrved at least a few bumps up the rankings. They are, in no particular order (followed by the RS ranking #):

1) Paul's Boutique, Beastie Boys, #156 (cover image, above).

2) The Blue Album, Weezer #275.

3) Nothing's Shocking, Jane's Addiction #309.

4) Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair #328.

5) 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul #346.

* And the Highway Robbery Ranking of the List (Or, The Billy Corgan Must Have Really Pissed Off Jan Wenner Somehow Award) Goes to: Siamese Dream, The Smashing Pumpkins #360.

8 comments:

Michelle M. Buchanan said...

Lee is compassionate/passionate/
intelligent/open-minded/loyal

Unknown said...

Lee, I think they got it all wrong. I mean the Beatles are cool, but not ALL of their albums were THAT great. And where the flip is Janis Joplin? How can you even have a top 100 list without Janis Joplin?! I too love Jane's Addiction's Nothing Shocking--that's an awesome album. I think Credence Clearwater Revival should have been closer to the top 25 and where was Simon and Garfunkle? Maybe I misread this list or i am imaginign things, but they got it w.r.o.n.g.

I'm afraid Idol got it wrong this year too. But that's another story.

Lee Herrick said...

michelle, now that is about the nicest thing someone's said to/about me in a while. you've made my week :) i want to believe that i can be all of those things. e-mail me sometime and tell me what's new.

and yes, jenni, i agree that not having janis joplin ("pearl") in there is Wrong with a capital W. and CCR, too! Simon and Garfunkle are in the top 100 somewhere, i think. and yes, Nothing's Shocking rocks in a big way and is one of my favorite records of all-time. As for the Beatles, I think I prefer the White Album over Sgt. Pepper's anyway.

pam said...

oh yeah, the bee gees and queen, i'm totally there! agreed on many of these others left out too, especially janis.

And I second Michelle's comment.

And good luck on your trip to China, Lee.

Lee Herrick said...

oh yeah, the bee gees, queen, journey. i especially loved queen.

thanks for the good luck wishes on our trip to china, pam. we're really looking forward to it.

Pris said...

Overall I think they did pretty well. I'd add After The Gold Rush by Neal Young from the older ones, as well as one from Electric Light Orchestra. Agree with Jenni about Janis Joplin. Her LP with Big Brother and the Holding Company was one of the greats!

Pris said...

whoops..Gold Rush is on there.

Lee Herrick said...

yeah, neil young's good. i read a review of his new record, "living with war" (or something like that) that is supposed to be a direct criticism of W, songs he recorded very quickly. maybe i'll check it out.

i only knew one ELO song, "don't bring me down." i can still sing it..."yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, woohoo..." i'm sure they have other good songs, but i liked that one.