lunabee34

synecdochic is doing a really cool post asking for nominations for the best albums of the last thirty years.

Here are the rules from her post:

* The album must have first been released anytime from 1982 to now.
* You must nominate whole albums, on the basis of them evaluated as an album: no individual songs.
* We're talking about whole albums here, so what we're looking for is albums that hold together as a coherent whole with a single artistic vision that (in your opinion) is worthy of inclusion on a best-of list.
* Albums can be of any genre, in any language, from any musical genre.
* Albums can have been released on a major label or independently.
* Albums do not need to have been a commercial success. (But they should be an artistic success.)
* We're talking about best, not favorite -- it's a slight distinction, but important. (For instance, I wouldn't call Green Day's American Idiot one of my favorite albums, but I definitely think it was one of the best albums released in the past 30 years.)

You can nominate up to 15 albums.

I was going to submit an entry to the post, but I got tripped up on the distinction between best and favorite. I really struggle with that distinction on several levels. For example, I know that The 400 Blows is considered one of the best movies EVER, with critical acclaim for the actors and for Truffaut alike, but I think Antoine Doinel is the biggest douchebag I've ever seen cavort upon the screen and can't find it in me to like him enough not to wish a sudden genre change into hack-and-slash. Not enough Jason Voorhees in a Truffaut movie for me. LOL So that's problem number one. I can appreciate something on technical merit (a difficult piece of music, an intricate painting) but not like it well enough to consider it best. I remember sitting through my friend's piano recital for undergrad and being so impressed by all the difficult music everyone was playing that I never, ever wanted to hear again. LOL

Problem number two is that I tend to conflate best and favorite. I tend to find (or maybe imagine? LOL) artistic merit in the music and other media that I consume and truly love. It's very hard for me to separate how a work makes me feel from other and more objective criteria.

But, I really wanted to answer this fascinating and awesome question here in my own journal where perhaps the line between favorite and best is non-existent at best. (I am making some effort though! Even though we listened to Aqua's Aquarium ad nauseum as freshman, I cannot in good conscience place the "Barbie Girl" album on any best of list, no matter the long nights of rocking out to said song.)

You will not find any classic rock on this list because while I am a huge classic rock fan, I don't own any albums. It's radio listening only. So while I think Led Zeppelin definitely belongs in the best of the best, I only know isolated songs and not whole albums.

So without further adieu, Lorraine's 15 picks for the best albums of the last thirty years are as follows:

Ryan Adams--Heartbreaker
Aphex Twin--~~Come to Daddy~~ The Richard D. James Album (this is what pinot Grigio does for the memory!)
Nine Inch Nails--The Fragile
Nirvana--Nevermind
Tori Amos--Little Earthquakes
Radiohead--The Bends
PJ Harvey--Is This Desire?
Alanis Morrissette--Jagged Little Pill
Portishead--Dummy
Stone Temple Pilots--Purple
Pixies--Doolittle
Liz Phair--White Chocolate Space Egg
Moby--Play
Fiona Apple--Tidal
Ween--Chocolate and Cheese