Recently, as part of their 25th anniversary, Pitchfork featured a list of the top 200 albums of the past 25 years as chosen by their readers. I’m not sure why they settled on 200 rather than 250, which is much cleaner given the anniversary and would have given more space for some of the records that many think were omitted. That’s why I’m here.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a fine list, and I don’t have much to quarrel with it about really other than placement, since they appear ranked, which is always a fools errand.
That said, there were some really glaring omissions in my mind, as I’ll explain below. I’ve limited myself to 20 deserving albums that perhaps should have received more consideration. So, it we were to magically push the list to 25, that would still leave 30 more to add from those genres I don’t listen to enough to have an informed opinion about.
So here are 20 albums released between 1996 and 2021 that I think deserved more love, presented in mostly chronological order. Most, but not all, of these artists were omitted altogether.
I’ve broken the list into chunks to allow myself time to be thoughtful about my perceived omissions. This part covers the first batch (all from the 90s).
Black Love – The Afghan Whigs (1996)
I know, I know. The Afghan Whigs weren’t active for much of the period Pitchfork covered, but they did come back with some very fine albums. Many would consider this to be their masterpiece (and everyone else would say Gentleman), appeared in 1996, I’m not sure how it was left out.
This is the band at its most ferocious and at the same time introspective, which is a hard trick to pull off, but they nail it.
Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space – Spiritualized (1997)
Unlike the Afghan Whigs, Spiritualized was making music for a large chunk of the time that the list covers, all of which were pretty highly rated in many quarters, including Pitchfork.
For my money, this is the best of the lot too. It really is a seminal record for the band. I love putting this on and just sitting and listening to relax.
Tellin’ Stories – The Charlatans (1997)
Another band that is often overlooked, first by their proximity to The Stone Roses and the whole Mad-chester thing. However, as good as their early work was, their best work was ahead of them still.
This is the third album in a span of three that I think are their best hands down (along with Up to Our Hips and The Charlatans). I don’t think it’s coincidental that this is the last album to include the contributions of Rob Collins, who was killed during its recording. I can’t imaging how they kept on, but they did. And the music world is better for it.
This is Hardcore – Pulp (1998)
As I am moving through these, it occurs that some of these are the victim of a kind of recency bias—they represent musical styles that were on the way out, such as BritPop in this case.
Although reactions were decidedly mixed at the time of its release, the album offers a logical end to the music of the mid-nineties. This is Hardcore is the hangover, the cold light of day after the all night parties of their previous two albums—or the entire BritPop things as a whole.
Succeeding parts will be added as I get to them. There’s no need to rush, and I want to be thoughtful about them.
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