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Via Chicago's Top 100 Albums of All Time: Summer 2008 edition


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Update: Results now posted here!

 

I think we did this a few years ago. Sam, did you do the accounting? Does anyone still have that list?

 

Anyway, since some time has passed, and there are lots of new folks on the board, I thought it would be fun to do it again. The concept is simple: everyone votes for their favorite 20 albums, and then I compile all the votes and come up with VC's Top 100. The rules are: there ain't no rules.

 

No, wait, that's not going to work. OK, the rules are:

 

1. Polls will open on June 15, and close on July 31. Results will be announced on August 8, or sooner if I've got my act together.

 

2. Feel free to post your lists in this thread, for discussion, lobbying, etc. However, anything posted in this thread, or PM'd to me, will not count as an official vote. Votes must be sent to VCtop100@gmail.com.

 

3. List your Top 20 albums of all time, numbered from 1 to 20, and please include both the album title and artist name. Also include your VC screen name and your real name (first name only is fine), just in case I need to verify anything about your vote.

 

4. I will give each #1 vote 20 points, #2 will get 19, etc. Please don't list anything as a "tie". I will come back to you and make you decide. :pirate I know it's nearly impossible to make a list like this, but give it your best shot. Flip a coin for the ties, if you have to.

 

5. Once you submit your list, that's it. No take-backs, no changes. That's why the voting period is so long. You've got plenty of time to refine your list, think out loud in this thread, etc. Make it perfect, and then send it to me.

 

OK? Who's in?

 

 

 

FAQs (and by "F", I mean they've each been asked at least once :lol):

 

Are compilations off limits? For instance, CCR's "Chronicle" has a far better shot at making my list than any of their individual records. Or is that cheating?
There are some artists whose heyday pre-date the album era (Louis Jordan immediately comes to mind)... wouldn't be fair to exclude them simply because the medium didn't exist. :)
Yeah, I'm having a hard time because an Ella Fitzgerald compilation is one of my all time favorites.

 

What about live albums, they're still legit right?

I would hope live albums are ok

As far as I'm concerned, nothing is off limits. If it was released on some form of vinyl, cassette, or CD, it's in.

 

 

 

Compilation box sets are fair game?
don't know. i thought i read that compilations were ok, so i included it. someone else can make that decision about the rights and the wrongs of it all.

You did read that, and they are OK.

 

 

oh, would the Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs count as 1 choice or 3? its supposed to be an album but it contains 3 volumes

Yep, that's going to count as one. :)

 

 

I'm up for this, but I have a rules question - what if you don't want to submit 20? I haven't really started to think through this, but I think maybe after 15 or so my last 5 would be completely arbitrary. Would a top 15 muddy up the results? Because I can do arbitrary.

The only thing a top 15 would muddy up is my spreadsheet's edit-check that says the total number of votes must be divisible by 20. :monkey

 

No, I think a top 15 would be fine. Your #1 pick would still get 20 points, #2 gets 19, and so on, you'd just be forfeiting those last few choices.

 

 

Can we submit singles (A-side and B-side) as entries? Because if that is true, a wrench is thrown into my list and I have to start including stuff like Hey Jude/Revolution and Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane and She Loves You/I'll Get You and I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There and Get Back/Don't Let Me Down andPaperback Writer/Rain and...then again, if singles were included there might be...one non-entry Beatles on my list.

No singles, please. EPs are iffier, but try to stick to LPs.

 

Depending on how crazy the tabulations for this makes me, I may do Top 100 Songs for the Winter edition. :)

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I was in until I realized how much work this entailed. Instead, I think I will kick back, relax, and complain about everybody else's choices.

 

I always find these exercises to be self-defeating. As soon as I agonize over the task of selecting my "favorite" anything, there seem to be immediately a million other things that I would rather listen to. "Favorite" is an elusive thing, especially once your collection gets pretty big.

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Sounds good.

My list is always so liquid. I mean, the top 5 contains pretty much the same albums, but the order shifts from day-to-day. And then, after 5, it's a crapshoot.

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Guest Cousin Tupelo
I'm in and very happy that we have so long to work on it!

 

It's going to take that long to come up with a list that I'll only mildly grumble at ...

 

This is an awesome project. It will be interesting to see what shakes loose.

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I was actually thinking about this the other day and noticed most of my favorite bands names began with the letter B (Beatles, Band, Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Beach Boys)

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This post will be my work-in-progress page.

I will mail off the final list, as instructed, when I am done.

Edited (6/12/08)

 

1. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

2. Beatles - Revolver

3. Kinks - Something Else

4. Brian Eno - Another Green World

5. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

6. Television - Marquee Moon

7. John Cale - Paris, 1919

8. Tom Z

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I'm dowwwwwn. The one on the Radiohead board is done every year and is HUGE and it's pretty cool to check out so I think this is a great idea. Who wants to bet with me that YHF is in the top 5? lol

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I'm dowwwwwn. The one on the Radiohead board is done every year and is HUGE and it's pretty cool to check out so I think this is a great idea.

Link? I'd like to see this.

 

I think this is a good idea and I look forward to seeing it, but i over-think these things WAAAYYY too much so it takes me forever. Hopefully I'll get it done though.

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This post will be my work-in-progress page.

I will mail off the final list, as instructed, when I am done.

 

First draft (6/11/08)

 

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Beatles - Revolver

Kinks - Something Else

Brian Eno - Another Green World

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Television - Marquee Moon

John Cale - Paris, 1919

Tom Z

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I'm in, here's a first draft...

 

1.) The Beatles: Revolver

2.) Van Morrison: Astral Weeks

3.) Nick Drake: Bryter Layter

4.) Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

5.) Neutral Milk Hotel: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

6.) The Velvet Underground: self-titled (third album)

7.) Nico: Chelsea Girl

8.) The Kinks: The Village Green Preservation Society

9.) Talking Heads: Fear of Music

10.) Eels: Electro Shock Blues

11.) Radiohead: Kid A

12.) The Beatles: Rubber Soul

13.) The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds

14.) Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde

15.) Os Mutantes: self-titled

16.) R.E.M: Murmur

17.) The Olivia Tremor Control: Dusk at the Cubist Castle

18.) The Velvet Underground and Nico: self-titled

19.) Bill Fay: self-titled

20.) Neil Young On The Beach

 

--Mike

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