Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven





	[quote name="Fullofkittens"][quote name="Tseni"] Pitchfork sucks because they refuse to admit that David Bowie even <i>exists</i>. The number one greatest album of the 80's was a David Bowie best of compilation, and the second best album was <i>Scary Monsters</i>. Maybe Scary Monsters was number one - I'm not sure. You know what? Let's Dance should also be in the top ten, if only for Criminal World. Also, Bowie's work in Baal, which was so shoved-under-because-it-was-too-good that nobody except goose-stepping purists like myself have ever even HEARD it. Four David Bowie albums. Then we can start talking about Joy Division and The Smiths.[/quote] They probably shut out Bowie because they didn't want to suck his dick over two decades. Bowie is primarily a 70s artist. <i>End Of The Century</i> isn't on there, either, but I'm not going to get exercised about it because that's no <i>Rocket To Russia</i>. [quote] Because Pitchfork Media is full of scared attention whores, they neglected some key players: Yellow Magic Orchestra, for example - a band whose retardedly profound influence can be felt in every video game whose music you loved. Iron Maiden - a band consistently relegated to the "hard rock/metal" category of top ten lists, their inclusion in which appears to negate their inclusion on General Best Album lists. Even though half the rock world would be a different color without Maiden. They pay lip service to Beasties and to Public Enemy, but for some reason the death of disco and growth of house go sadly unchronicled, and Cabaret Voltaire rots in the muck along with the rest of the genre players in goth, industrial, club - even synthpop. [/quote] Metal isn't on the list at all, and I agree that that's weird. I'd be perfectly satisfied with <i>Master Of Puppets</i> bumping half the top ten. Also: where's <i>Hysteria</i>?! Regarding disco, house, and synthpop: those are dance genres and as such are singles-oriented. The most influential house single of the 80s (maybe of all time) was made by a band that only released that one single. You could certainly argue for the inclusion of <i>Front by Front</i>, and there are some others (e.g. <i>That Total Age</i>) that genre devotees love, but mostly there aren't any dance "albums" of note from the 80s. [quote]That top ten list would sit very safely on any Adult Contemporary station in the US today if you excised that troublesome dark jewel, Joy Division. But holy fuck, it is difficult for me to understand how Joy Division made the top ten on anything but street cred. I love them desperately, but that's not easy music to listen to - certainly it isn't the sort of midtempo pleasant pop that characterizes the rest of the top ten. (<i>YES,</i> even including the Public Enemy album, another one that got in on street cred.)[/quote] You have a very fucked up idea of what people find pleasant or unpleasant if you think Joy Division is weirder than <i>Rain Dogs</i>. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "She's Lost Control" are about as vanilla as postpunk of that era gets. It's not a stretch to imagine Joy Division as <i>popularizers</i> of the Gang Of Four sound. They don't sound particularly dark or troublesome to me anyway. Tangent: "Ether" by Gang of Four is a fucking awesome song. [/quote]