Blender's 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever

[chamber-music]

In the December issue of Blender, the magazine's editors have compiled what they see as the "The 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever," opening with this little graph:

Mumbled lyrics, couldn’t-care-less strumming, white dudes in sweaters—what’s not to love about indie rock? Born 25-odd years ago in suburban garages and spread via college radio, it has made distortion into something hummable, boredom into something thrilling and aimlessness into a raison d'être—and these days, thanks to blogs and the fine people at Grey’s Anatomy, it’s more popular than ever.​

There are a lot of classic albums on this thing ... and a lot that aren't.

100 The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World
99 Dream Syndicate - The Days Of Wine And Roses
98 Palace Music - Viva Last Blues
97 The Mekons - Rock 'N' Roll
96 TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
95 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
94 Half Japanese - Greatest Hits
93 Big Black - Atomizer
92 Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
91 The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
90 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
89 Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll
88 Daniel Johnston - Yip/Jump Music
87 Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
86 Flipper - Album - Generic Flipper
85 The Clean - Anthology
84 Beat Happening - You Turn Me On
83 The Misfits - Walk Among Us
82 The Embarrassment - Heyday 1979-83
81 The Vaselines - The Way Of The Vaselines
80 Feist - The Reminder
79 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
78 The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators
77 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
76 Le Tigre - Le Tigre
75 Galaxie 500 - Today
74 The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
73 Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
72 The Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed
71 Stereolab - Refried Ectoplasm
70 Mudhoney - Superfruzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles
69 Nick Drake - Pink Moon
68 Descendents - Milo Goes To College
67 Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
66 Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
65 Various Artists - No New York
64 Cat Power - The Greatest
63 Nirvana - Bleach
62 The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
61 LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
60 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
59 Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
58 Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
57 Bikini Kill - ***** Whipped
56 Archers Of Loaf - Icky Mettle
55 Bad Brains - Bad Brains
54 Unrest - Imperial F.F.R.R.
53 Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
52 Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground
51 Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
50 Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous

49 Spoon - Kill The Moonlight
48 Mission Of Burma - Vs.
47 Green Day - Kerplunk
46 Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
45 Fugazi - Repeater
44 Various Artists - Wanna Buy A Bridge?
43 Black Flag - Damaged
42 Brian Eno - Another Green World
41 Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
40 New Order - Power Corruption & Lies
39 Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
38 The Strokes - Is This It
37 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
36 Elliott Smith - Either/Or
35 Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
34 Superchunk - On The Mouth
33 The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
32 Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
31 Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
30 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
29 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
28 The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
27 M.I.A. - Arular
26 Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
25 Sebadoh - III
24 The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
23 Yo La Tengo - Painful
22 Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
21 The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
20 The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
19 Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
18 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
17 The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
16 Slint - Spiderland
15 X - Wild Gift
14 De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising
13 Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
12 Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
11 Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
10 The Smiths - The Smiths
09 Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
08 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
07 The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
06 Arcade Fire - Funeral
05 Pixies - Surfer Rosa
04 R.E.M. - Murmur
03 The Replacements - Let It Be
02 Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
01 Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted​

This list sucks like you wouldn't believe This is why I don't listen to Music journalists opinons.

 

[The Dark Guybrush]

there are some good albums on there.. but WTF
no sunny day real estate??
and i like how most all of it consists of hip new flavors of the day.
can we get some journalism from journalists older than 23?

 

[chamber-music]

there are some good albums on there.. but WTF
no sunny day real estate??
and i like how most all of it consists of hip new flavors of the day.
can we get some journalism from journalists older than 23?

Exaxctly. Have they never heard of Gang of Four. Franz Ferdinand pretty much copied gang of four yet they are not on the list.

Also Arcade Fire higher than The Smiths, Cure, Velvet Underground no
F-ing way

 

[Overman27pj]

What are the classifications for an 'indie album'...something that comes out on a non major label? Ummm..there are only like 2 Major labels left, if that...

 

[Armand Z Trip]

there are some good albums on there.. but WTF
no sunny day real estate??
and i like how most all of it consists of hip new flavors of the day.
can we get some journalism from journalists older than 23?

Yeah that's why Arcade Fire beats Velvet Underground. All these best of lists are focussed on what's happening right now. It was good to see all these records instead of the usual best RAWK albums of the last five, ten, fifty years lists they are always doing in Rolling Stone. No Descendents, no Television?

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

What a nightmare world.

There are really good bands that suck as musicians.
That does not mean that if you suck as a musician, your band is good.

 

[Cmill216]

Blender's 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Ever

14 De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising

 

[chamber-music]

M.I.A isn't Indie Rock either!
basically the guys at Blender just put down a list of their favourite artists.

 

[sinewave]

there's some good albums on there, but i disagree with a lot of the choices and rankings. how could they chose "on the mouth" as superchunk's best album? that's easily "foolish". "slanted and enchanted" isn't as good as "crooked rain", though it probably did help kick off the slacker-rock era of indie rock. archers of loaf's "icky mettle" should have been much, much higher in the rankings. that's a ****ing classic album. yo la tengo's "painful" is a really good album, but come on, there's no way it's better than "i can hear the heart beating as one". isn't blender owned by maxim? no wonder they don't know their ****.

 

[Cito]

At least they named Fiest.

 

[Motown Marvel]

i hate "indie" as a music label. i mean, it doesnt even define the music, rather the label status of the band. and does that mean when they sign to a major label they're not an indie band anymore?

 

[Eggyman]

Where's Definately Maybe by Oasis? WTF?

 

[AhabTheArab]

other tv on the radio album is much better... but that list has some good stuff, more good than bad. and if it was indie, at the time, it is considered apparently.

 

[Watson]

I question that some of those bands can truly be defined as indie...

 

[Addendum]

At least Big Star made the list

 

[Brick]

This list sucks the big one. Only one Dischord Records band, it should have at least ten of them up on the list. No At The Drive-In WTF! Blender have no idea what they are talking about.

 

[jaguarr]

Why are any of you surprised? Blender sucks ginormous donkey balls.

jag

 

[sinewave]

This list sucks the big one. Only one Dischord Records band, it should have at least ten of them up on the list. No At The Drive-In WTF! Blender have no idea what they are talking about.

probably no ATDI because their most popular album was released by a major label.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Hahaha, I was just reading Blender's top 40 worst lyricists and it had some of the greatest lyricists who ever lived.

They're either Trolls or ******s.

EDIT: To be fair, they did include a lot of the worst ever. Maybe they do it by committee and there are a few idiots poisoning the whole pie.

 

[sinewave]

trolltards?

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Mmmmm

 

[sinewave]

i hate when i get trolltards in my music pie.

 

[Shoemeister]

Loveless should have been #1.

 

[sinewave]

Loveless should have been #1.

that or daydream nation.

 

[Brick]

that or daydream nation.

I'm not a big fan of daydream nation. It only had a few good songs on it