THE greatest album in the pop/rock era...

[HellToupee]

The Jam were a great singles band - not really complete albums

Setting Sons
Side one
"Strange Town"
"Saturday's Kids"
"Little Boy Soldiers"
"The Eton Rifles"
"Girl On The Phone"
"Heat Wave" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
[edit]Side two
"Smithers-Jones" (Bruce Foxton)
"Private Hell"
"The Butterfly Collector"
"Burning Sky"
"Thick As Thieves"
"Wasteland"
Sounds Affects

Side One:
"Pretty Green"
"Monday"
"But I'm Different Now"
"Set the House Ablaze"
"Start!"
"That's Entertainment"
Side Two:
"Dream Time"
"Man in the Corner Shop"
"Music for the Last Couple" (Rick Buckler, Bruce Foxton, Paul Weller)
"Boy About Town"
"Scrape Away"
"Start!" was the first track on Side One of the U.S. issue. This issue also included the "Going Underground/"Dreams of Children" 7"

One weak song,weak not terrible, on each album

[HellToupee]

Huh. I like Sound Affects better.

Sound Affects is my 1B to Setting Sons 1A but didn't want to list duplicates from an artist. Sound Affects might be better 1-12 but Setting Sons has my favorite Jam song(Smithers-Jones) and I love the concept of the entire album better.

Setting Sons as a concept album about three boyhood friends who later reunite as adults to discover they have grown up and apart

[swampdragon]

I might like early Style Council even better - so what do I know

[HellToupee]

I might like early Style Council even better - so what do I know

Style Council had some good singles

My Ever Changing Moods & You're the Best Thing are in heavy rotation at the supermarket we shop in.

[Mithrandir]

I think Jimi Hendrix is the only person of color even mentioned in this thread.

If we're truly looking for the greatest pop or rock album, certainly Thriller has to be mentioned, right?

Here is Rolling Stone's top 10 of all time:

10. The White Album - The Beatles
9. Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
8. London Calling - The Clash
7. Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
6. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
5. Rubber Soul - The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
3. Revolver - The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles


LOL. So either Rolling Stone has the same old white dude demographic that we do at RJ or those really, truly are the best albums of all time. Your call!

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band at number 22 tells you all you need to know about how bizarre the RS list is.

[Lucky]

I think Jimi Hendrix is the only person of color even mentioned in this thread.

If we're truly looking for the greatest pop or rock album, certainly Thriller has to be mentioned, right?

Here is Rolling Stone's top 10 of all time:

10. The White Album - The Beatles
9. Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
8. London Calling - The Clash
7. Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
6. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
5. Rubber Soul - The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
3. Revolver - The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles


LOL. So either Rolling Stone has the same old white dude demographic that we do at RJ or those really, truly are the best albums of all time. Your call!

Well, the top ten have only one African American artist, but 11-20 have three more African American artists, including Michael Jackson with "Thriller". That's 4 our of 20, or 20%. African Americans make up less than 14% of the U.S. population.

I'm not saying I agree with the Rolling Stone list, but I don't think one can rightly argue that it excludes African American artists.

BTW, I bought "Thriller" as soon as it came out. I rode around in my new Cutlass Supreme Brougham and literally wore the cassette tape out. I got a second copy. I thought it was the greatest thing I ever heard.

Just over 28 years later, I find myself listening a lot more to the albums in the RS Top Ten. I don't think I ever even upgraded to CD for thriller, although I do have plenty of early Jackson 5.

[Erik]

Style Council had some good singles

Yeah, though too much '80s synth for my taste on a lot of them.

Their second album (called Our Favourite Shop in the UK, The Internationalists in the US) is pretty good, however. "A Man of Great Promise" and "Down in the Seine" are two of Weller's most underrated songs.

[Erik]

As for the white-centric RS list, R&B/soul was more of a singles-based genre, "classic rock" more an album-based one. And this thread -- and their list -- is about albums. In any case, no one under 50 should be taking RS seriously.

As for Thriller, I like Off the Wall (as well as a number of Stevie Wonder and P-Funk albums) better, so whatever.

[Lucky]

Albums 21 through 30 feature four more African American artists, making eight out of the top thirty. That's equal to roughly twice the percentage of African Americans in the US population.

While not many people in this thread have listed an African American artist's album as their number one, I think that most of us would include many such artists in our top twenty or thirty. Rolling Stone certainly did, and we haven't even gotten to Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles, Prince, etc.

[Lucky]

As for the white-centric RS list, R&B/soul was more of a singles-based medium, "classic rock" more an album-based one. And this thread -- and their list -- is about albums. In any case, no one under 50 should be taking RS seriously.

As for Thriller, I like Off the Wall (as well as a number of Stevie Wonder and P-Funk albums) better, so whatever.

I disagree with you here. I've known some guys in their 20's who could speak with authority about the history of pop/rock/soul/blues/jazz recordings over the last 50 years, but not very many of them.

Younger listeners are as much or more prejudiced toward recent releases as older listeners are toward older releases. Does anyone seriously believe that OK Computer is the greatest album ever? Please.

I still gig whenever I get the chance, and the young musicians I hear and play with are much more into older music, especially Hendrix and other "classic rock" acts. The musicians may not be a representative sampling of youth, but they certainly know all the music and many still prefer to play the old stuff. I think that is in part because musical virtuosity is not a principal element of today's sound. I watched the Strokes on television the other day. They sounded okay, but musically there was nothing there my 14-year old son couldn't play.

[Lucky]

21 of the top 60 albums are by artists of color!! Hooray for diversity!! Hooray for Rolling Stone!!

[Mithrandir]

The name of the magazine should have been called "Beatle".

[Lucky]

Interesting that you equate non-white with African American.

5% of this country is Asian. I guess Rolling Stone has Yoko Ono, but other than that....

16% is non-white Hispanic. Where the F is the Miami Sound Machine? Huh? HUH? Rico Suave?

1% Native American. I don't see Red Earth on there, do you?




I did appreciate the legwork you put into defending Rolling Stone's honor, though, Lucky.....err, your Honor.

My favorite Native American band is Indigenous, which plays some serious blues-rock. The guitarist could have been the love child of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The band members are all family, and all members of the Nakota Nation. You should really check them out. My fave of theirs is "Live at Pachyderm Studios".

[DMT]

My favorite Native American band is Indigenous, which plays some serious blues-rock. The guitarist could have been the love child of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The band members are all family, and all members of the Nakota Nation. You should really check them out. My fave of theirs is "Live at Pachyderm Studios".

I have really started digging Waila music, which is a hybrid of Cumbia/Polka/Rock that is hugely popular among the Tohono O'Odham nation. My favorite Waila band is Papago Warrior (P-Dub). Some other good ones include Native Creed and Cisco Band. It is very difficult to find their stuff online, here are some poor quality videos but the music rocks.



Oh, and add Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust to the discussion.

[overkill94]

Led Zeppelin stole from a bunch of African-American blues artists. Does that count?

I don't think race has any part of the discussion considering how few non-white rock artists there are. If this were a discussion on R&B or rap albums would people be up in arms that the white population was lacking?

Then again, you could interpret the thread title two different ways - either as a discussion of the best pop/rock albums of all-time or the best albums of any genre since pop/rock became a genre.