The Board Dot's Top 100 Albums of the 1990s - RESULTS

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Aug 27, 2019 7:54:31 GMT -6 mookie said:

Aug 27, 2019 7:53:04 GMT -6 chvrchbarrel said:

aw did i fuck it up? what's it supposed to be, #18 jumps to a tie at #16?

doesn't change anything, but i'll fix the numbers if so.

(that is a crime that Oasis is anywhere near that number)

Speaking of trying too hard....

[andrewvb]

Aug 27, 2019 7:57:30 GMT -6 krentist said:

As my parting thoughts I leave you all with this: if OK Computer isn't #1, you're all trying too hard. If it is #1 you're all very basic.

not sure the board collectively agreed on any other albums to dethrone okc.

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Aug 27, 2019 8:13:55 GMT -6 andrewvb said:

Aug 27, 2019 7:57:30 GMT -6 krentist said:

As my parting thoughts I leave you all with this: if OK Computer isn't #1, you're all trying too hard. If it is #1 you're all very basic.

not sure the board collectively agreed on any other albums to dethrone okc.

Also this. Not that it's the worst thing in the world

[Deleted]

I'm just pleased that Low End Theory should be in the top 10.

[chvrchbarrel]

Welp, here it comes folks. I will throw a quick preliminary apology in here for constantly quoting Rolling Stone - for the top 20, I really tried to focus a bit more on adding a bit of relevant content from the album's release period.

Rolling Stone is one of the most accessible catalogs in terms of reviews, and you get to go back and occasionally find some terrifically bad writing.

Once again, thank you to everyone who indulged this project for the summer. I will be posting a few more things for the project in the opening post of this thread (full list, few other fun data points, etc.).

hammer time!

[chvrchbarrel]

10. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)


Mean: 74.27

"The saga that inspires Ms. Hill even surpasses the details of black American life that fill her work...Her gaze reaches farther, to what she considers the Greatest Story Ever Told: that of a black spiritual legacy grounded in Christianity but constantly adapting to the world outside the church, the buried lifeline of the African diaspora's social movements and its arts, foremost among them the music that "Miseducation" renews."

-New York Times, 1998

9. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (1991)


Mean: 76.45

"It's one of those rare instances where a group reaches a creative peak and got to put that moment down on tape, without worrying about what anyone else was doing or listening to any voices of advice but their own."

-The Quietus, 2006

8. R.E.M. - Automatic For the People (1992)


Mean: 77.00

"Now, though, I long for serious REM action in my hotel room. Drifting off, I marvel that the fellas could have had my golf game in mind when deciding the order of the songs on their latest CD, Automatic for the People. It opens with the optimistic long-hitter's anthem, Drive, and ends with a song that describes what my Titleist attempted to do for most of the afternoon: Find the River."

-Sports Illustrated, 1993

"This is good rock n' roll, uh, music."

-Adam Scott, 2018

7. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)


Mean: 65.77

"There’s so much death in this album, but Mangum’s agnostic to that, too. You won’t find him mourning here. He’s too busy singing out his love: for his parents, his friends, for Anne Frank and other genocide victims, for God and Jesus Christ, for you."

-Pitchfork, 1998

"Rock’s been crippled by narcissistic irony, and it needs re-greening by exactly Mangum’s type: naive transcendentalists who pop out of nowheresville. But don’t alert the MacArthur awards committee yet. For those not completely sold on its folk charm, Aeroplane is thin-blooded, woolgathering stuff."

-Rolling Stone, 1998

6. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)


Mean: 73.58

"Loveless has a calm eye at its center, an intimate oasis from which guitarists Bilinda Butcher and Kevin Shields gently breathe pretty tunes into the thick, sweet waves of droning distortion. Despite the record’s intense ability to disorient — this is real do-not-adjust-your-set stuff — the effect is strangely uplifting. Loveless oozes a sonic balm that first embraces and then softly pulverizes the frantic stress of life."

-Rolling Stone, 1991

5. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993)


Mean: 90.00

"Now that the members of the transcendental grunge band are label mates with Janet Jackson, they’ll have the scrutinizing eye of alter-natopia upon them, scouring for signs of sellout."

-Rolling Stone, 1993

Feb 13, 2018 10:35:43 GMT -6 Tweet said:

Feb 13, 2018 10:21:23 GMT -6 andrewvb said:

impressive that billy managed to handle this in the worst possible way

William Patrick Corgan a dick, more at 11

4. Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album) (1994)


Mean: 76.25

"Weezer are an anomalous little outfit, and in many ways, theirs is an anomalous little success. For one thing, Weezer [Blue] is unabashedly major-label pop but has a guitar-based depth that otherwise has pretty much packed up and moved to the indie-alternative genre, where it has grown cranky and cynical.

For another...in a medium dominated by throat-grabbing, intrusive lament, these are modest songs, hooky and buoyant, that ask merely to be taken as they’re found: no cover, no minimum – experience of love, loss and alcoholism a plus."

-Rolling Stone, 1995

3. Radiohead - The Bends (1995)


Mean: 73.46

"The Bends is never “Creep”-like enough...there’s more nice guitar gush, but the rest of the album mostly reminds me of Suede trying to rock like Sparks but coming out like U2. Or, more often, that hissy little pissant in Smashing Pumpkins passive-aggressively inspiring me to clobber him with my copy of The Grand Illusion by Styx. Too much nodded-out nonsense mumble, not enough concrete emotion."

-SPIN, 1995

2. Nirvana - In Utero (1993)


Mean: 75.93

Dec 12, 2018 15:40:18 GMT -6 thebosma said:

I wasn't even In Utero when it came out

"Frankly, Nirvana as a band and Cobain as the point man have earned the right to spit in fortune’s eye. Generation X is really a generation hexed, caught in a spin cycle of updated 70s punk and heavy-metal aesthetics and cursed by the velocity with which even the most abrasive pop under-culture can be co-opted and compromised.

One minute, Nevermind is jackbooting Michael Jackson out of the No. 1 slot; the next, grunge jock Dan Cortese is screaming, “I love this place!” on behalf of Burger King."

-Rolling Stone, 1993

1. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)


Mean: 87.00

Aug 27, 2019 7:57:30 GMT -6 krentist said:

if OK Computer isn't #1, you're all trying too hard. If it is #1 you're all very basic.

"This album wasn't that great,it had a few great songs and the others were decent but a big disappointment compared to the previous album.I personally think it was a sell out album but that's just my thought.I hope with the next album they will try to get a little more innovative and a heavier guitar sound."

-[REDACTED]@aol.com, random comment on a 1997 review

"OK Computer was enigmatic, but no amount of fractured poetry could stop me from thinking it wasn’t a masterpiece. What was unknowable about it also made it great."

-Pitchfork, 2017

fin!

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What the fuck is The Bends doing at #3

[thebosma]

Aug 27, 2019 8:46:55 GMT -6 Tweet said:

What the fuck is The Bends doing at #3

I don’t know if you’ve heard but Radiohead is good

[Xamnam]

The fuck are two Weezer albums in the top 20.

[chvrchbarrel]

the bends was one of the most popularly listed albums lol

[Kamera]

Boy, do I get quoted for saying some dumb shit.

[ten15]

thanks for doing this chvrchbarrel! Good stuff, if highly predictable.

[thebosma]

After meeting krentist for the first time at Radiohead last year, I was at a street fest chatting with him and asked if he’d be there for night two. He looked at me and totally deadpan said “No, Radiohead sucks”. Really set the tone for all of our interactions since. Big fan.

[Deleted]

Aug 27, 2019 8:46:55 GMT -6 Tweet said:

What the fuck is The Bends doing at #3

It's a really good album. So yeah, that fits. 

[Xamnam]

TWO. TWO? TWO.

[chvrchbarrel]

I haven't crunched these numbers but since we're talking about Weezer, the biggest point-disparity between two entries that I can see is a staggering 90-point jump from "Pinkerton" to "When the Pawn..."

Most of the other point disparities between entries are within 10 points.

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Aug 27, 2019 8:49:45 GMT -6 scoots said:

Aug 27, 2019 8:46:55 GMT -6 Tweet said:

What the fuck is The Bends doing at #3

It's a really good album. So yeah, that fits. 

I knew people liked it but that highly regarded? What a time

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Aug 27, 2019 8:50:10 GMT -6 Xamnam said:

TWO. TWO? TWO.

I did my part man

[Pale Hose]

It was a fun project, thanks chvrchbarrel!

[Xamnam]

Two's a weird word. Twoooooooooooooooo.

[monasterymonochrome]

Records 6-10 are infinitely better than records 1-5, but otherwise this was a super fun project, and I listened to a ton of great new (to me) music thanks to it! Thanks for putting this all together, chvrch!

[Deleted]

Aug 27, 2019 8:50:10 GMT -6 Xamnam said:

TWO. TWO? TWO.

I only ranked Pinkerton but I don't see how this is surprising. They're a joke now, but those first two albums are as the kids say unfuckwitable 

[chvrchbarrel]

I am far more shocked at Blue's placement than Pinkerton's

[Deleted]

hey im just happy everyone recognizes In Utero as the superior Nirvana album

[chvrchbarrel]

Sorted by mean, and only including albums that made it to a total of 2 or more lists (so that everyone's random #2 choice doesn't top this), the top 10 looks like this:


1. U2 - Achtung Baby
2. Elastica - Elastica
3. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
4. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
5. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
6. UGK - Ridin' Dirty
7. Bjork - Homogenic
8. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
9. Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
10. Radiohead - OK Computer



Remember, this is ranked by average placement across each list where the album was included.

[mookie]

Aug 27, 2019 9:04:00 GMT -6 chvrchbarrel said:

Sorted by mean, and only including albums that made it to a total of 2 or more lists (so that everyone's random #2 choice doesn't top this), the top 10 looks like this:


1. U2 - Achtung Baby
2. Elastica - Elastica
3. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
4. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
5. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
6. UGK - Ridin' Dirty
7. Bjork - Homogenic
8. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
9. Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
10. Radiohead - OK Computer



Remember, this is ranked by average placement across each list where the album was included.

You were just using any mathematical formula possible to place U2 in the top spot

[venom]

this was fun and i didn't notice any real surprises.

[monasterymonochrome]

Aug 27, 2019 9:04:00 GMT -6 chvrchbarrel said:

Sorted by mean, and only including albums that made it to a total of 2 or more lists (so that everyone's random #2 choice doesn't top this), the top 10 looks like this:


1. U2 - Achtung Baby
2. Elastica - Elastica
3. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
4. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
5. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
6. UGK - Ridin' Dirty
7. Bjork - Homogenic
8. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
9. Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
10. Radiohead - OK Computer



Remember, this is ranked by average placement across each list where the album was included.

Wait did 69 Love Songs really not make the final list? Or am I missing something?

[llamaoftime]

We should do a top albums of 1993-2016 just to have definitive board rankings of Radiohead albums

[chvrchbarrel]

Aug 27, 2019 9:19:23 GMT -6 monasterymonochrome said:

Aug 27, 2019 9:04:00 GMT -6 chvrchbarrel said:

Sorted by mean, and only including albums that made it to a total of 2 or more lists (so that everyone's random #2 choice doesn't top this), the top 10 looks like this:


1. U2 - Achtung Baby
2. Elastica - Elastica
3. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
4. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
5. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
6. UGK - Ridin' Dirty
7. Bjork - Homogenic
8. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
9. Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
10. Radiohead - OK Computer



Remember, this is ranked by average placement across each list where the album was included.

Wait did 69 Love Songs really not make the final list? Or am I missing something?

It even-somewhat-miraculously came in at #118; only two people put it on a list.