Flaming Lips: Soft Bulletin

Interesting. What about another band that has emerged from critical acclaim to popular acclaim, Wilco? I certainly think they’re going to be an influential band for years to come, but I wonder which albums will endure? My instinct is to say Being There and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with Summerteeth as the dark horse favorite among true fans.

I would also argue that maybe Jeff Buckley’s Grace is already at that influential level because he’s been such an obvious influence on everyone from Coldplay to Keane to Muse to basically just about anybody who’s shooting to make achingly beautiful music with a grand scope.

I’m going to say For Emma Forever Ago by Bon Iver. It is still creeping up on me and I have been listening to it for a while now. It is timeless. I can’t remember the last album that has had the same effect on me.

I agree that For Emma stands a good chance of standing the test of time. I think this is because it shows a different way of doing things. This is one guy withdrawing from the world and making a personal, intimate record in isolation. He’s certainly not the first to do it, but the songs are so strong, that I could easily see it being a record to inspire future generations.

I have a bunch of local stuff that I keep going back to, but I don’t seem to have any mainstream “new music” that I listen to. I mean Husker Du’s “Zen Arcade” is one my favorite albums. Fugazi “Repeater” is another classic. I never could get my kids to listen to any of that stuff.

I think the more important question is will these albums keep selling like the previous generations albums. It seems like there a batch of older bands and musicians that have back catalogs that keep selling.

It doesn’t seem like many of these indie albums will have that sort of staying power. Plus the fact that we have reverted to the single and now it’s becoming digital.

I only can take solace in the fact that sometimes when I hear Heart’s “Barracuda” on some jukebox or on the radio, my eight year old daughter gets excited because she played it on guitar hero.

Hannah Montana be damned!

My perspective on music is totally myopic. Honestly, I’m so out of touch with popular culture that it’s impossible for me to judge how popular or influential an artist is even right now.

That being said, I just took a quick look at the Pitchfork top 50 of 2007 and I don’t see a single one lasting more than a year or two with the possible exception of Bon Iver, but then again I don’t trust my own instincts.

Other CDs that might make my personal classic list:

Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
The Decemberists - Crane Wife
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Kris Kristofferson - This Old Road

Almost no one is going to agree with me on that last one, but it’s truly a fantastic album. Are these too safe? Have I revealed my biases?

I think that Gnarls Barkley has a good chance of enduring, largely because it combines a.) being good with b.) being not like other things and c.) being immensely popular.

It’s that last part that’s got me wondering if the records that have to endure have to at least be fairly popular. After all, if they’re going to stay in the popular consciousness for decades, they have to be there in the first place, right?

That’s an argument for Arcade Fire and against Bon Iver, at least for the time being. No matter how good For Emma is, it’s hard to say right now that he’s crossed over into mainstream consciousness.

This also makes me wonder exactly how comparable the industry is today with how it was in the late ’60s/early ’70s. I mean, Hendrix, Cream, etc. were certainly popular acts, signed to major label deals, but I doubt they infiltrated the mainstream (read: +40 demo) the way that Coldplay does these days.

U2 anyone? Is Joshua Tree going to be with us for decades?

Joshua Tree is already rolled in with a bunch of other classic albums. If you look at the Classic Albums series of DVDs, Joshua Tree is right in there with Dark Side of the Moon and Metallica’s Black Album. It clearly fits the criteria of being good, not like other things and immensely popular.

How about the White Stripes. Do they meet all three criteria?

http://www.netflix.com/Search?search_submit.x=0&search_submit.y=0&v1=classic+album

I would argue that the White Stripes themselves fit the criteria, but I’m not sure they’ve released an album that measures up to their stature as a band. Rich might have a point about the resurgence of singles being damaging to the status of albums as classics.

To me, I think the litmus test is: Can you see kids twenty years from now hearing Get Behind Me Satan and either a.) forming a band or b.) taking the record as a blueprint for how to make a record?

I confess I’m not deep enough into any White Stripes stuff to make that call.

Definitely Enduring:
Broken Social Scene- You Forgot It In The People
Interpol- Turn On The Bright Lights
The Postal Service- Give Up
Neutral Milk Hotel- In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

To A Lesser Extent:
The Mountain Goats- The Sunset Tree
Sufjan Stevens- Come On Feel The Illinoise
LCD Soundsystem- Sound Of Silver

Ooh, really good call with Neutral Milk Hotel. I think the effects of that record on a generation of musicians is just now really being felt.

I also think that Sufjan record will endure, although I’m curious to see where he’s going with his state cycle. Could be there’s something even more amazing in the works, but I agree that his Illinois one is likely to remain an achievement to aspire to.

OK Computer was a great call, before I scrolled all the way down, it was the first one that popped into my head.

I swear to God that Sea Wolf’s “Leaves In The River” will be around ten, twenty years from now and I predict that even two to five years from now people will be discovering this album for the first time. I know I oversell this album sometimes, but it’s seriously amazing.

I think Stereolab’s “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” belongs here.

I think At The Drive-In’s “Relationship Of Command” is going to inspire loads of kids to start bands over the coming years.

Yo La Tengo’s “I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One” maybe deserves at least a mention.

I’d wager that Sunny Day Real Estate’s “Diary” has already made an impact and has had some staying power.

Band Of Horses- “Everything All The Time” possibly.

Someone mentioned “The Soft Bulletin” from The Flaming Lips but I’d say “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” is a good wager as well.

I get the sense that M83’s “Before The Dawn Heals Us” is going to mean something different and more profound ten years on than it does today.

Daft Punk’s “Homework” (I’m surprised nobody has cited this yet.)

If electronica sustains for the next ten or twenty years Underworld’s “Beaucoup Fish” could still be around (yeah, yeah everyone always mentions “Second Toughest In The Infants” because of ‘Pearl’s Girl’, but I defy you to listen to the first two songs on “STITI” all the way through without skipping at least part of one track–they comprise something like 29 minutes of the album for crying out loud plus the second track gets boring in the middle. I’ve had that album for about eight years and have only done it once.)

Beck’s “Odelay” I think will become an all-time classic and it could be argued that it already is.

My controversial pick: Fountains Of Wayne’s “Welcome Interstae Managers”

Grizzly Bear’s “Yellow House” Just a fantastic pick right there. Took some time to grow on me cuz I just couldn’t figure it out. Now I find myself going back to it without even thinking about it.

From the last 5 years I’d say Liars “Drums Not Dead”. Something about it just sticks with me.

… if I’m allowed to make a second comment, I’d say “Homework”? “Homework” is great but “Discovery” is THE classic album from Daft Punk, so far. no question. The mix of electronic and pure pop bliss is revolutionary. That album, like Kraftwerk’s best work has changed the face of pop music forever. And if we are making lists…

Master of Puppets by Metallica

The Head on The Door by The Cure

At Dawn by My Morning Jacket

69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields

and I’m assuming that it’s a given that “Daydream Nation” has already reached classic status..

Ok, ok. “Discovery” is excellent, too.

and to rebut you, Wells: “Z” is the classic MMJ album thus far.

What about hip-hop? Nobody’s really brought it up yet.

Wu-Tang’s “Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” should be considered all-time classic.

“Tical” from Method Man and “Fishscale” from Ghostface Killah should both age well.

in non-Wu-Tang affliates:

“The Low End Theory” and/or “Midnight Marauders” from A Tribe Called Quest–take your pick.

“Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” from Outkast is a no-brainer, I think.

Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP” will age well and be remembered as his pinnacle.

Anyone else? I’m not as well-versed in hip-hop as I should be.

Well. I personally would probably include all MMJ records on this list. But that’s just me.

I was thinking the same thing in regard to the Hip Hop issue.

As far as Tribe, I would say “People’s Instinctive Travels…” or “The Low End Theory”

As far as Outkast I would put in a nod for “Stankonia” first, but I hear you.

I would have to mention “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” and “Fear of A Black Planet” by PE and “3 Feet High and Rising” by De La Soul.

And we mustn’t forget “Paul’s Boutique” by the Beastie Boys, which really changed a lot of rules for the genre.

Totally blanked on “Paul’s Boutique”–sounds as fresh/retro today as it did in ‘89. That album is completely timeless.

There just aren’t a lot of hip-hop albums I can see aging well, even the huge ones from the past few years like “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’” from 50 Cent.

Jay-Z’s “Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life” might be in there, that album is a decade old this year and it still sounds pretty good, but I suspect “The Black Album” will age better.

“At Dawn” is definitely MMJ’s true classic record up until this point. It’s already withstood 7 years for me and is still as fresh as the first time I heard it. Z is great, but honestly would put it 3rd in their overall catalog (soon to be 4th). It’s gonna be painfully obvious with “Evil Urges” that Z was a transitional record.

as for Outkast… Pat, come on, that’s almost their weakest overall record! If you cut it down by about 10-12 songs and make it a single album, then maybe I could agree with that pick.

and as for the Magnetic Fields… i understand why 69 Love Songs gets all the buzz, but i’d argue it’s not even close to their best work (way too much filler for one). “Holiday” or “Charm of the Highway Strip”, but I guess with that one I could agree that it will be the one TMF album that people talk about years from now, regardless.

re: M83, Before The Dawn is pretty good but doesn’t touch Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts, now that album i could maybe see being held up, tough call.

I think Funeral will hold up, but I think AF will top it and they’ll have an album or two that will be held up over Funeral when all is said and done.

my picks from the last 20 years off the top of my head (i’ll add more as they come to me):

Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
The Wrens - Meadowlands
Either/Or - Elliott Smith
Ben Harper - Fight For Your Mind
Weezer - Pinkerton
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (even if i’d take Being There over it)
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret (i know most would argue for “Perfect From Now On”, but whatev)
American Analog Set - Know By Heart
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun (even if i think ( ) is far superior)

as for hip hop… i’d say at least one Eminem record (Marshal Mathers LP?), Jurassic 5’s “Quality Control”, Talib Kweli & Mos Def are Black Star, The Roots’ “Things Fall Apart”

Goodie Mob____Still Standing
Mobb Deep____The Infamous
Big L____Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous
Slick Rick___Da Art of StoryTelling

I’ve been thinking about the rap thing a lot recently, and trying to come up with what I think will be the classics of the genre in decades to come. I feel somewhat ill-equipped to determine this, though, because I feel like classics often come to be defined by what the musicians who make the next generation of classics listened to, more than the fans. Now I’m a fan of hip-hop, but I don’t make the music, and so I feel like what I like may have little to nothing to do with what influences the future of rap.

For instance, a lot of rappers I know cite Run DMC as a huge influence, but I’ve never really delved into their stuff, nor do I feel like I can tell what that influence is when I listen to them. Probably because I don’t rap. When I hear someone playing guitar, I can sort of tell how they’re approaching the instrument and then try and take something from that, but obviously the same can’t be said for my experience of hip-hop.

That said, I see a lot of potential for records like Madvillain’s Madvillainy to have a lasting impact on the form. That record has NO CHORUSES, which is pretty groundbreaking for a rap record. I’d also like to think that a lot of The Roots’ work is going to carry forward as a template for incorporating live instruments, but I don’t know if I can point to a single album of theirs that will really endure.

I want to change my answer. The Fiery Furnaces “Blueberry Boat” is my pick. I seem to come back to this record a couple of times every year since it’s release & I get stuck on it for a week or so. It’s easily the best thing they’ve done & it’s still as weird as anything I’ve ever heard.