Harp Magazine creates monstrosity of a list

October 16, 2006 11:10 a.m. by Justin Sheppard

[Each Note Secure via Stereogum]
In celebration of their fifth anniversary, Harp Magazine published a list of what they think are the 50 most essential albums to be released since 2001. Not to be too much of a pretentious prick, but it's pretty horrible.
There's some very questionable exclusions (Amnesiac, Turn on the Bright Lights, Madvillainy) and even more questionable inclusions (Frances the Mute, TWO My Morning Jacket releases.)
Still, the worst crime is the number one spot which not even a hopeless Montreal hipster like myself can justify. Hope I didn't ruin the surprise. The full list is after the jump.

50) Gillian Welch - (Time) The Revelator
49) The Roots - Phrenology
48) Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
47) Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
46) Guided by Voices - Isolation Drills
45) Neko Case - Blacklisted
44) Solomon Burke - Dont Give Up On Me
43) Kathleen Edwards - Failer
42) Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum
41) Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore
40) Lucinda Williams - World without tears
39) Missy Elliot - Miss E''¦So Addictive
38) Sparklehorse - Its a wonderful life
37) The Libertines - Up the Bracket
36) The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
35) Franz Ferdinand - S/T
34) Wolf Parade - Apologies to Queen Mary
33) Bob Dylan - Love and Theft
32) The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
31) Drive By Truckers - Decoration Day
30) Ryan Adams - Gold
29) Steve Earle - The Revolution Starts Now
28) Elvis Costello - The Delivery Man
27) The Strokes - Is This It?
26) The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
25) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
24) The White Stripes - Elephant
23) Cat Power - You Are Free
22) Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
21) Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
20) My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
19) Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
18) Steve Earle - Jerusalem
17) Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
16) Wilco - A Ghost is Born
15) PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
14) Kanye West - Late Registration
13) The New Pornographers - Electric Version
12) The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
11) Sleater Kinney - The Woods

10) The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
09) MIA - Arular
08) Anthony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
07) Tom Waits - Real Gone
06) My Morning Jacket - Z
05) Tom Waits - Alice
04) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
03) Brian Wilson - Smile
02) The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
01) The Arcade Fire - Funeral

11 Responses

October 16, 2006 at 11:35 a.m.

Styles A.

That list is a little too slopply and careless for me. What about Tv on the Radio? Those guy need to be on that list.

October 16, 2006 at 12:14 p.m.

O.J.

I would like to understand the criteria they used to pick these albums for this list. I think there are numerous albums that belong on this list that impact music and life, but if they don'''t qualify for some reason then, well I don'''t know. But leaving off anything from Jay-Z or the Marshal LP, I am not sure you can say this is a complete list.

October 16, 2006 at 1:01 p.m.

John Zeiss

Some picks seem like courtesies to the artist. Uh Huh Her isn't even one of PJ Harvey's best records, and very much NOT one of the fifteen best albums of the past 5 years.

October 16, 2006 at 1:13 p.m.

Nathan

Twin Cinema is the most absurdly high of all these albums.

October 16, 2006 at 5:58 p.m.

Comus

Considering that they're only talking albums released in the past five and a half years, there are some good choices on the list (Outkast, Queens of the Stone Age, White Stripes, Strokes, Kanye), but many of them either, as John Zeiss mentions above, seem like courtesies to the artist or just plain dont belong. The Arcade Fire are still way overhyped even after two years.I would act offended at the omission of Unwound's Leaves Turn Inside You album, but if there's anything thats proven time and time again, its that i'm one of the few people on earth who realize that that's one of the greatest albums ever made. Opinions, of course. Opinions.

October 16, 2006 at 6:18 p.m.

John B

I have no qualms with my morning jacket on their twice. but maybe thats my bias speaking - for the most part though, this is a very terrible list. Looks like they just threw out 50 records and said the hell with it

October 16, 2006 at 11:33 p.m.

Dave Park

I think 'Funeral' is an amazing album, but it is a bit nutty to see it at the top of lists like this. Hey Comus, nice pick of Unwound. It seems like it was so long ago that they broke up and when you suggested 'Leaves Turn Inside You', I was ready to say that the album was more than five and a half years old only to find out it was 2001 when it was released.

October 17, 2006 at 1:53 p.m.

Randy Yang

This list is sad. Harp Magazine is one of the worst mags in existence. I had a subscription to it for a year when I saw a nifty Sun Kil Moon spot, but other than that one article, nothing was interesting. Their editors are constantly out to lunch: it's filled with typos and bad layout. Their reviewers are spineless and they never have anything creative to say. The old-school hip-hop phrase "on the jock" applies to them in a thousand ways. First, they couldn't get enough of Conor Oberst, and in one issue I counted six pictures of him in separate articles, reviews, or features. Then, it was the MMJ fixcation, in which two separate years they said their album was album of the year, which is okay, but their mag hasn't been around but for 5 years. The only thing worse than their lame mag and irrelevant, boring criticism is criticizing them like I am doing. Yawn.

October 17, 2006 at 6:19 p.m.

Etan Rosenbloom

Wanna echo Comus and Dave Park's kudos to Unwound's "Leaves Turn Inside You." One of those few instances where a band completely changes its style but ends with something just as great (if not better) than what came before it.Do we really need three White Stripes records on this list? Even if we accept that they as a band are worthy of inclusion (I don't care for them much), doesn't it seem like Harp just really likes their sound? WS albums aren't all THAT different from each other.

October 18, 2006 at 8:06 a.m.

Matthew Gasteier

that's convenient that you complain about the white stripes, but you "overlook" two tom waits records in the top ten. CONVENIENT INDEED.

October 18, 2006 at 10:49 a.m.

China

White Stripes records actually are pretty different from one another. I'm kind of bummed that they put (what I think is) the least interesting Black Keys record on the list but not the others, and more importantly, that the Shins, Strokes and Franz Ferdinand are probably the ones on the list who shaped the sound of the 2000s most strongly, yet they all made it below My Morning Jacket and Arcade Fire. Guy from Arcade Fire still sounds like Piglet.

Harp Magazine creates monstrosity of a list

11 Responses

Add a comment