Spin Top 100 Albums Since 1985

[Keyser Soze]

100. The Strokes - Is This It
99. Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
98. Cornershop - When I Was Born For The 7th Time
97. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
96. The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash
95. Elastica - Elastica
94. Slint - Spiderland
93. Pearl Jam - Ten
92. Big Black - Atomizer
91. XTC - Skylarking
90. Sonic Youth - Sister
89. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
88. Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
87. Blur - Parklife
86. Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
85. REM - Automatic For The People
84. Soundgarden - Superunknown
83. At The Drive In - Relationship Of Command
82. Jeff Buckley - Grace
81. Beck - Mellow Gold
80. D'Angelo - Voodoo
79. Moby - Everything Is Wrong
78. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
77. Wilco - Yankee Foxtrot Hotel
76. Belle and Sabastian - If Youre Feeling Sinister
75. Le Tigre - Le Tigre
74. Portishead - Dummy
73. Pulp - Different Class
72. Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
71. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Psychocandy
70. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
69. DJ Shadow - Entroducing DJ Shadow
68. Tricky - Maxiquaye
67. Slayer - Reign In Blood
66. Outkast - Aquamini
65. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
64. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
63. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
62. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
61. Weezer - Pinkerton
60. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
59. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
58. Metallica - Master of Puppets
57. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
56. PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
55. The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
54. The Breeders - Last Splash
53. Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles
52. Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill
51. Nirvana - In Utero
50. New Order - Low-Life
49. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
48. Radiohead - Kid A
47. Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full
46. The Fall - This Nations Saving Grace
45. Kanye West - College Dropout
44. Green Day - Dookie
43. Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded
42. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
41. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
40. Run DMC - Rasing Hell
39. Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams
38. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
37. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
36. Pixies - Doolittle
35. Dr Dre - The Chronic
34. Elliot Smith - Either/Or
33. Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
32. The Replacements - Tim
31. Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
30. The Notorious BIG - Ready To Die
29. Fugazi - 13 Songs
28. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
27. The Cure - The Head On The Door
26. Bjork - Post
25. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
24. Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
23. Outkast - Stankonia
22. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
21. Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet
20. Wu Tang Clan - Enter The Wu Tang 36 Chambers
19. Hole - Live Through This
18. Guns and Roses - Appetite For Destruction
17. Nas - Illmatic
16. Beck - Odelay
15. Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
14. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
13. Husker Du - New Day Rising
12. Beastie Boys - Pauls Boutique
11. U2 - Achtung Baby
10. NWA - Straight Outta Compton
9. PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
8. Prince - Sign O The Times
7. De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising
6. Pixies - Sufer Rosa
5. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
4. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
3. Nirvana - Nevermind
2. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
1. Radiohead - OK Computer

Spin magazine lists Radiohead's OK Computer as best album in last 20 years

JAKE COYLE

NEW YORK (AP) - Spin magazine named Radiohead's OK Computer the top album of the past 20 years, praising a futuristic sound that manages to feel alive "even when its words are spoken by a robot."

The British band's album edged out Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Nirvana's Nevermind on a list in Spin's 20th anniversary issue, currently on newsstands.

"Between Thom Yorke's orange-alert worldview and the band's meld of epic guitar rock and electronic glitch, (OK Computer) not only forecast a decade of music but uncannily predicted our global culture of communal distress," reads the editorial note on what separated the 1997 disc from the other 99 ranked albums.

Sandwiched between Radiohead's straight-ahead rock disc The Bends and the more experimental, electronic Kid A, OK Computer was the album that propelled Radiohead to worldwide, stadium-sized popularity. Though it never went higher than No. 21 on the Billboard charts, it won critical raves and a Grammy for best alternative music performance.

Spin's Chuck Klosterman says the album "manages to sound how the future will feel . . . It's a mechanical album that always feels alive, even when its words are spoken by a robot."

Years earlier, Spin ranked Nirvana's Nevermind the greatest album of the nineties. But in the time since, editor-

in-chief Sia Michel and others simply found they were reaching for OK Computer more than the slightly less relevant Nevermind.

"Whereas when Nirvana came out, everybody was talking about negation and slackers and everything like that - seven years later, it was the dot-com boom and 22-year-olds were making $80,000 on websites," Michel said recently.

Also in the top 10, in order, are Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted, The Smiths' The Queen is Dead, Pixies' Surfer Rosa, De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, Prince's Sign 'o' the Times, PJ Harvey's Rid of Me and N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton.

The entire list of 100 is just as eclectic; a photograph of an atypical trio of Dr. Dre, Bono and Beck dons the issue's cover.

The amount of hip-hop on the list may surprise some (25 albums in all - 26 if you count Rage Against the Machine), given that Spin is predominantly a rock magazine. But Michel points out that Spin started several years before hip-hop mag Source was founded: "We put hip-hop on the cover before anyone else did."

"Because we started this list in 1985, we pretty much hit hip-hop in its golden age," she says. "There were so many important, groundbreaking albums coming out right about that time."

After gathering suggestions from everyone at the magazine, a tribunal of Michel and editors Jon Dolan and Charles Aaron sorted out the ultimate records of "the Spin era." Their criteria, Michel says, were the basic brilliance of the record, its innovation and its overall relevance.

"Relevance doesn't have to mean it sold 10 million copies," she says. "Someone like the Pixies never really sold records, but Nirvana has said it wouldn't exist without the Pixies."

Both the approach and content stands in stark contrast to fellow rock magazine Rolling Stone's 2003 issue on the top 500 albums of all time. Topping that collection was the more hallowed (and less surprising) like of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.

Some of the most recent entries to Spin's list are 2004's College Dropout by Kanye West, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 2003 Fever to Tell and Wilco's 2002 Yankee Foxtrot Hotel.

Of course, judgements of these kind are always subject to debate.

"The art department was just railing against us all the time and campaigning against things," says Michel. The lack of inclusion of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, she says, pushed them to the brink: "That was a band that the art department was like, 'You guys are crazy! Don't even talk to us!"'

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[Sir O]

This is as bad as the 100 Greatest Americans list...

[HedCold]

how come they are all listed band name on left album on right, except for ok computer - radiohead

crazyness i say

[Keyser Soze]

i typed out the whole list

[drusilla]

19. Hole - Live Through This

there is no way i can believe someone thinks it was that good

[Hawt Baux]

Kanye West?.....


Where's Primal Scream?

[Keyser Soze]

violet is a pretty good song

[Arpikarhu]

i agree with sign o the times, rid of me, sufer rosa, and the queen is dead. the rest of the top 10 can get fucked. radiohead's pablo honey and kid a are far superior to ok computer.

[Keyser Soze]

the bends is the best radiohead album

[diceisgod]

THAT LIST SUCKS MAN!

[Goatweed]

I agree - but all of these lists suck.

[GonzoStyle]

I prefer OK computer to the others, I have no issue with it being number 1 but like any list, some shoulda been higher, some lower and some nowhere.

[LZMF1]

67. Slayer - Reign In Blood

[Galt]

I thought that Piledriver: The album came out after 1985.

[QuickStop]

wheres disintegration?

[TheGMANN]

Where's "He's the DJ....I'm the Rapper" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince ?

[Danked]

I don't know any RH fan that likes Amnesiac as much as I do. It's probably my favorite Radiohead album. Shocking that Kid A made the list, but not The Bends.

Of the albums on the list that I do recognize, there are some seriously suprising (for various reasons) choices up there. Live Through This was pretty good at the time, if you disassociated the fact that it was that album from Kurt Cobain's messy girlfriend. I listened to it alot that year.

Fever To Tell (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) was surprising because it didn't seem to me that it had any hype or buzz surrounding it. I thought it was good, but other than here, I never really heard anything about the album. I never heard Maps on the radio or saw it on MTV other than a late latenight music video show. I wouldn't have thought there would be enough people aware of the album for it to make it to a top 100 list.

Bjork deserves that spot on the list.

[Arpikarhu]

exile in guyville is an incredible album even if you ignore the rolling stones connection.

[Keyser Soze]

yeah liz phair is a filthy little whore turned pop star....she did it in reverse.

[Sir O]

97. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

This should be top 10.

And the fact that there's only two metal albums (and not even the best albums from those bands) while there are 25 rap albums, I don't know, it just doesn't seem right...