Albums That Changed Everything versus Albums That You Can Still Listen To
Pitchfork has recently gone back and changed a handful of reviews of old albums where they deem the reviews need updating.
They updated the review of Liz Phair’s 0.0 album and said that, nah, it’s deserves a 6.0. They took on two Daft Punk albums and said that the one they gave a score in the sixes to really deserves a 10 and the one they gave a score in the eights to really deserves a score in the sixes. And they knocked 1.3 points off of Grimes for dating Elon Musk.
I admit, my first inclination was to be irritated by such a thing but then I realized… hey, there are a ton of albums that meant a lot to me back then that are unlistenable now and they’re next to albums that I merely thought were pretty good back then but, dang, they’re still pretty good! They haven’t aged a day!
And right in the middle of that, I came across this tweet from our dear friend of the site Chris:
You can tell an Xer didn't write this because it doesn't start with something like, "Nevermind is OK, but they did their best work on Bleach." https://t.co/DOa0vQYhe4
— Killer Gavagai of Caerbannog🥃 (@MixingChris) September 24, 2021
And one of the things I noticed is that this 10/10 album isn’t really one that I can really sit down and listen to anymore.
This is one of the albums that Changed Everything (Poor Warrant! Poor Firehouse!) but now? Well, Weird Al was onto something when he heard Smells Like Teen Spirit and said that he wanted to cover that one. He knew.
Heck, I can’t even really listen to the song now. I’d rather link to Weird Al’s cover:
Seriously. The original comes across like a period piece. What was the release date? September 24, 1991. And it feels like it.
An album that came out around the same time?
The Black Crowes The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (May 12, 1992… Huh… I thought that they were much closer together. I listened to it in the same dorm room that I listened to Nevermind in. Same school year, I guess) and you know what? It still holds up. I actually had to try to figure out which song off of the album I wanted to give as an example of how great the album was. I settled on two… the first single was Remedy:
Holy cow. That could have come out in the late 60’s. It could have come out in the middle of the 70’s. It came out in the 90’s. It could have come out yesterday. And most of the songs on the album are that good! The main exception being the song on the album that is so much better that it is in a class of its own. It’s absolutely the best song on the album (and might be the best song they’ve ever done)… My Morning Song.
And I realized that there are a handful of albums out there like that. Michael Jackson’s Thriller changed everything. And now the album is a period piece as well (with the notable exception of Human Nature). But the entire album Off The Wall holds up.
Okay, the video is a little bit dated but the groove has not aged a day. (Okay, maybe it sounds kinda 70s-ish but it’s not to its detriment.)
And I realize that there are a bunch of albums that, like it or not, I have gone back and changed the scores to within my own head. This album got a 9 at the time, now it’s a 3. That album got an 8 and it’s been bumped up to a 10.
What albums have *YOU* recently rescored?
Works of art that changed everything seldom seem as good 30 years later because, well, you’ve been living that change for 30 years now. I mean A New Hope is fun, but not eye-popping the way it was when I was 21, and standing in line an hour to see it.
I’m not a Xer. I wasn’t that young when Nevermind came out, and I didn’t pay much attention at the time. It didn’t change my life.
SO, when I finally started listening (because my daughter did), I came to recognize just how powerful Cobain’s singing (and playing) is. Just as Kashmir is a musical expression of anxiety, this music is depression and despair. That’s not stuff adults want to spend a lot of time around, but it doesn’t make it not brilliant.Report
Interesting. I’ve noticed that I rate Nirvana higher than I used to, too. Partly because I’m beginning to realize how many of the minor grunge songs I liked were theirs. But I also suspect that the sense of poignancy plays a role (as does my annoyance at Eddie Vedder).Report
It had been years since I had heard “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” from Unplugged, recorded a few months before his suicide. You know what he’s singing about and who he’s singing it to – and the end of the song still strikes your spine like a bolt of lightning.
I was in college for the entire short arc of grunge – Nevermind to Cobain’s death – so my emotional attachment to the music makes me biased, however, I do think most “rock” may sound dated simply because guitar driven rock is essentially dead.Report
I’m with Doctor Jay on that one.Report
pitchfork has always been ridiculous, so not surprised they’re keeping up appearances and trying to memory hole 20 year old reviews.
i did lol @ chris, but bleach is good. nevermind holds up, though.
music has the right to children by boards of canada is 23 years old and still sounds timeless as heck, despite the legions of imitators.Report
Pitchfork’s ridiculousness is a very particular kind of ridiculous.
I discovered Aesop Rock because of them. I roll my eyes at them a lot more often than I say “huh, I need that album” but I do say “I need that album” from time to time.Report
Semi-Off topic but being a big Black Crows fans I’ve always wondered how many takes it took to get the cut shot of legendarily stoic (except when fighting with his brother Chris) Rich Robinson smiling ever-so-slightly at the 2:55 point.
I’m completely with Jay here. Growing up in that time period, grunge hasn’t aged well as a whole, not as well as the “bad” music is replaced on the charts which was at least fun. There are certain works that wind up being timeless, and I think this illistrates the point well.Report
What’s weird is that, at the time, I would have said that Nevermind was timeless and the Black Crowes was good rock and roll… fun… but ephemeral.
And I would have been totally topsy-turvy on that.Report
This isn’t an easy topic for me, because I still go through music phases (something I thought would stop in my mid-20’s). But I’ve never felt called back to Talking Heads or The Police’s early stuff, which I liked at the time.Report
Oh, dude. I get called back to Talking Heads quite regularly.
Here’s Don’t Worry About The Government:
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Isn’t that Nirvana just a Foo Fighters origin story?
Sorry, I skipped the 90s… in fact, as you note above, it reminded me too much of the 70s, but *not* in the good way.Report
There was some good stuff there, in the middle. Half of the female vocalist thing holds up and Trip-Hop is FUHMAZING and even the rap stuff started exploring the whole “weird” thing.Report
Interestingly I believe it was Dave Grohl who said that he only really understood that Nirvana had ‘made it’ when the Weird Al parody came out.Report
My problem with Smells Like Teen Spirit- and, look, I’ve had plenty of guitarists explain why I’m wrong here- is I can’t listening to those opening chords without jumping in with:
Well a Louie Louie, Oh baby, we gotta go. Wah wah wah wah…Report
But, as I was saying last night via email, for some reason, there was simultaneous hype about the anniversary of Nevermind and the anniversary of Appetite for Destruction, and so I listened to both all the way through in the record store, fully expecting the hair-heads to lose, but…
The Guns’n’Roses album is pretty much solid all the way through, although I sort of joke that I liked them better when they were the New York Dolls.
The Nirvana album has 2 or 3 strong songs and mostly filler.
(And Louie Louie was a more punk song)Report
Yeah, I listened to Appetite the other day and, holy crap, you jump from awesome song to awesome song on there. Even the songs that I’m not particularly fond of (can’t abide “My Michelle”) are songs that I admit kick butt (but they’re not to my taste).
Even Welcome to the Jungle doesn’t sound like a period piece. (Granted, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” does.)Report
I’ve heard acoustic / folk / country versions of Sweet Child O’ Mine that are hauntingly beautiful.
I think Guns N Roses doesn’t sound dated to me because Axl Rose’s vocal style is so peculiar. It doesn’t sound like something you’d hear in the 80’s or 90’s, or really anywhere but maybe the veterinarian’s office. Or maybe I’m just as dated as the songs I like.Report
I still have mixed feelings about Chinese Democracy.
It felt like something that made me think that I saw what he was failing to do.
Not that I’ve listened to the album since it came out (though I have listened to the three songs that weren’t disappointments).Report
One of the singular features of Guns N’ Roses was having all the style and culture and trapings of the Hair Band era, but transcending that genre thru talent & artistic choices.Report
I’ve heard the theory that Izzy Stradlin was a more important songwriter than people realize because he wasn’t as flashy as Slash or Axl, and there’s probably something to be said for that.Report
When I heard that Izzy wrote (or co-wrote) Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, Mr. Brownstone, Sweet Child O’ Mine, and Patience.
AMONG OTHERS!!!
I thought “how in the hell did Axl let him get away?”
And then I saw Axl in the wild.
“Oh.”Report
I submit: A 10/10 Album that you’re not likely to ever listen to again when given the opportunity is not a 10/10 Album.Report
I want to say even at the time Black Crowes was regarded as something as a ‘throwback’, particularly with one of their big hits being the Too Hard to Handle cover.
Though looking it up, that was from the previous album. Though again, Too Hard to Handle was indeed their breakthru hit single.Report
I agree that they were categorized in the various music media as being a throwback… but they were this weird throwback that were still good despite it.
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Sergeant Pepper changes everything because rock had now caught up with classical music, and it was a single work, not just a collection of songs, and popular music had gotten beyond silly love songs, and lot of other things that weren’t remotely true.
But you can still listen to it.Report
The thing I can’t listen to, at least not very often, is Quadrophenia, because it’s too gut-wrenching. But that’s a sign of its greatness.Report
I suppose that that’s probably an important category. Albums that changed everything that you can still listen to.
Sgt. Pepper, Velvet Underground… Um… Pet Sounds… Um…Report
Bringing It All Back Home? Are You Experienced?Report
Hrm. I don’t go out of my way to listen to Dylan (but never really did) so I’m probably not a good judge of that one.
Are You Experienced is a great one. I went back to look at the track list thinking that I’d find half of it to be a great album and the other half to be FF material but, nope.
Good one.Report
Much like the spoon, when it comes to music it’s important to realize the truth: It is not the music that gets rescored. It is you.
_Shake Your Money Maker_ is a great example of this. I bought that album because of “She Talks to Angels” and “Hard To Handle.” Both solid pieces, surely. As I’ve aged and “rescored” over the years “Hard To Handle” has fallen. The first five tracks on that album are all better songs. “Angels” still holds up, though.
Mötley Crüe’s first (best) album, _Shout At the Devil_, is another one. I wanted that one for “Shout at the Devil” and “Looks That Kill.” Both rock-solid metal songs that still deserve to be cranked when they come on…but “Too Young To Fall In Love” is the real gem here (and their cover of “Helter Skelter” is a banger).
Most everything in my music collection has a time and place (not you, Brett Michaels. Sit down). It all just depends on the mood I’m in or the vibe I’m trying to create. I even broke out the country playlist for a bit yesterday. And I’ll often find myself “rediscovering” music in my collection.
I tend to agree with what Dave Grohl said here as well–if Weird Al is parodying you, you’ve made it.Report
Coincidentally, earlier this year I went through Black Crows first few albums and was amazed at how good they still seem. At the time, I thought of them as a sort of guilty pleasure.
I’m trying to think of other albums like that. Badmotorfinger, maybe.Report
Yeah, Soundgarden still holds up for me… at the time, I thought that the albums were Choleric in temperament and listened to them accordingly. Now I see the albums as Melancholic and they are that much better for it.Report
Jesus Christ Pose is still a hard ass song.Report
90’s albums that both “changed everything” and you can still listen to today? Garbage’s eponymous first album “Garbage.” (Garbage “Version 2.0” is still amazing too.)Report
I don’t feel like you do about Nirvana’s material at all. Classic, and still classic, forever classic. It hasn’t aged, in the same way that the Beatles haven’t aged.
I don’t listen to it very often, because I’m not inclined to revisit albums I’ve already listened to hundreds of times. I’m always looking for new music.
The music is fine. Its you who’ve changed.Report