Irish Times: Top 40 Irish Albums

stolenwine

http://www.ireland.com/theticket/articles/2008/0229/1204194975369.html

I thought Stars of Heaven should have been further up the list still good that they're included. I don't really understand why A House, the Radiators, Microdisney are rated higher than the Stars of Heaven, Stiff little fingers, the undertones...

DerekD Goldfish

Well Microdisney were a pretty damn great band although I prefer their fist record Everybody is Fantastic to Clock comes down the stairs and Couglans other band Fatima Mansions album is better than everything microdisney released im disappointed it didnt make the top 40.

loyatemu

a very dull list. if the A House album really is the 3rd best ever, its a very poor reflection on Irish rock music. Snow Patrol, Bell X1, Damien Rice, The Cranberries, Something Happens - mediocrity defined, the lot of them...

djfitzerjnr

snow patrol - final straw should be in there, i think i was a better alvum than eyes open

Yap Stam

loyatemu wrote: »

a very dull list. if the A House album really is the 3rd best ever, its a very poor reflection on Irish rock music. Snow Patrol, Bell X1, Damien Rice, The Cranberries, Something Happens - mediocrity defined, the lot of them...

True, although the cranberries did have delores o'riordan- what a voice.

judas101

director should be on there

Col87

judas101 wrote: »

director should be on there

Is that a joke? they where signed up to do an album just because of their reconnect song, the album was completly rushed and what resulted was a piss poor, jumbled together pice of ****.

Bubs101

To not put Achtung Baby at number 1 and have more U2 albums there is a bit of a joke IMO and I hate U2 but credit where credit's due. 1977 should have been alot higher aswell. Also, where is Enya

cathald

No Dubliners?

Pretty good list, though

JC 2K3

Haha, brilliant. I was thinking "I bet they won't have Loveless at no.1", and I was wrong. I'm not arsed reading the rest of the list, I'm just extremely happy that the deserved best Irish album ever is no. 1 rather than a U2 album.

IanCurtis

Where's JJ72? Their first album is miles better than BellX1's offerings

Grinderman

"Mmm, we were surprised too. Not only are there 40 decent Irish albums: many are even worthy of the tag "great". Here they are, as chosen by Brian Boyd , Jim Carroll , Kevin Courtney and Tony Clayton-Lea
Where did this list come from? It was compiled by four Ticket rock writers: Brian Boyd, Jim Carroll, Tony Clayton-Lea and Kevin Courtney . Each independently submitted a list of their top 40 albums. These were then collated, with scores given to each person's nominations. A writer's number one was awarded 40 points, a number two was awarded 39 points and so on. We ended up with a list of 93 albums. The first 40 albums are presented here."

Who the hell are these judges.
I honestly think the list is pretty crap, well maybe i wouldn't say so if there was a list of 100. For such a tiny country we have some brilliant music and to squash irish talent into 40 albums isnt going to please anyone.
I think its pretty sad that Microdisney are rated and not the Fatima Mansions or Cathal Coughlan.
I WAS a major U2 fan and am annoyed to see The Joshua Tree at 14, way behind Actung Baby. I also like My Bloody Valentine (bit over rated at no 1 i think), i certainly wouldnt add Isn't Anything in the list.
I also think they threw in the odd "New Generation" to please everyone (NOT ME), Rolerskate Skinny, Snow Patrol, Bell X1 (would you really put these up against Thin Lizzy)

I am going to throw a spanner in the works here, but what the hell.
Do live albums count in best albums, in my opinion NO, you may aswell add Compilation Greatest Hits aswell

JC 2K3

Of course live albums count. A song played live is totally different to the recorded version, and if a band make a live recording and the songs sound unique and better than their studio counterparts, then of course that album should be considered as valid an album in its own right. It's completely different to compilations, which is releasing the same versions of the songs again in a different package.

DerekD Goldfish

Grinderman wrote: »

"Mmm, we were surprised too. Not only are there 40 decent Irish albums: many are even worthy of the tag "great". Here they are, as chosen by Brian Boyd , Jim Carroll , Kevin Courtney and Tony Clayton-Lea
Where did this list come from? It was compiled by four Ticket rock writers: Brian Boyd, Jim Carroll, Tony Clayton-Lea and Kevin Courtney . Each independently submitted a list of their top 40 albums. These were then collated, with scores given to each person's nominations. A writer's number one was awarded 40 points, a number two was awarded 39 points and so on. We ended up with a list of 93 albums. The first 40 albums are presented here."

Who the hell are these judges.
I honestly think the list is pretty crap, well maybe i wouldn't say so if there was a list of 100. For such a tiny country we have some brilliant music and to squash irish talent into 40 albums isnt going to please anyone.
I think its pretty sad that Microdisney are rated and not the Fatima Mansions or Cathal Coughlan.
I WAS a major U2 fan and am annoyed to see The Joshua Tree at 14, way behind Actung Baby. I also like My Bloody Valentine (bit over rated at no 1 i think), i certainly wouldnt add Isn't Anything in the list.
I also think they threw in the odd "New Generation" to please everyone (NOT ME), Rolerskate Skinny, Snow Patrol, Bell X1 (would you really put these up against Thin Lizzy)

I am going to throw a spanner in the works here, but what the hell.
Do live albums count in best albums, in my opinion NO, you may aswell add Compilation Greatest Hits aswell

B1
The Write for the ticket
it was a ticket article should they get in outside more well known jounalists for one issue?
B2
It was probably down to space issues as much as anything also altough there are some great albums omitted there is some awfully mediocre stuff included
If they expanded it to 100 it would be even worse
B3
I completely agree as much as I love Microdisney Fatima Mansions are often criminaly overlooked hopefully the recent re-issue of Viva Dead Ponies (which was moz's favourite album of the year when released) will attract some new fans.
B3
Im not a U2 fan but I do accept Actung Baby is a great album I think the Josua Tree suffers from the same problem as many U2 albums where all the prospective singles are on early and the album fades away into blandness
B4
Rollerskate Skinny IMO while not having the same impact on music here and abroad as Thin Lizzy did release the 2nd best album of their genre of all time
no other dream pop band bar MBV released a better album
I dont think the same can be said for Thin Lizzy and hard rock.

Punchbowl

All these lists are going to be divisive, but it does cover most of the angles as far as I'm concerned. In context, Loveless is a great album, being ahead of it's time, but it's far from the greatest Irish album ever. Acthung Baby, again, not as good IMO as Zooropa, but had a huge impact at the time. This was a time when Bands were a lot bigger than they are now. There was no internet hype and excitment generally greeted each release. The arrival of Acthung Baby was a major deal. Plus it is really a good album.

Now, A House. I am the Greatest is consitently in the top ten of these lists, so it's pretty obvious where critical opinion lies. Again, as an album of it's time, it's up there. I don't think it's A Houses best album ('I Want too Much' is) but it is truly a great album. I would imagine some people listening to it now for the first time would disagree, but in 1991 when it came out, it perfectly captured the moment.

Heartworm is a bona-fide classic. Sounds as fresh now as it did then and I would have that as number 1. And the Prayerboats 'Polichienelle' should be knocking about there too..

Xavi6

IanCurtis wrote: »

Where's JJ72? Their first album is miles better than BellX1's offerings

Amen to that. Absolutely cracking album.

rowlandbrowner

yet another greatest x of all time list that begs the question "what criteria does item x have to meet to be included" and "what makes these so called experts, experts". They should have just broadcast this on channel 4 and had Dominic Diamond borrow scripted memories of the first time he heard bell x1.

Beanstalk

JC 2K3 wrote: »

Haha, brilliant. I was thinking "I bet they won't have Loveless at no.1", and I was wrong. I'm not arsed reading the rest of the list, I'm just extremely happy that the deserved best Irish album ever is no. 1 rather than a U2 album.

+1 x 10
Awesome album, Kevin Shields refused to let it be released until it was finished and perfected, I think he ended up barring most of the engineers that tried to work on it from the studio. It's really sad to see a lot of the promising new bands these days getting really hyped up, put under pressure, and then releasing pretty mediocre albums, resulting in them never been heard of again....

Good enough list though, wouldn't have been my personal top 40 but i like the way it accommodates for loadsa different genres of music.

Bren_M.Records

I think for me personally the really scary thing about that list was how few of them Iv actually listened too!
Heres the albums Iv listened to out of that particular top 40

THE POGUES: IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD
THE POGUES: RUM, SODOMY & THE LASH
THE BLADES: LAST MAN IN EUROPE
THE BLADES: RAYTOWN REVISITED
MY BLOODY VALENTINE: ISN'T ANYTHING
MY BLOODY VALENTINE: LOVELESS
STIFF LITTLE FINGERS: INFLAMMABLE MATERIAL
DAVID HOLMES: LETS GET KILLED

machiavellianme

Not the worst list in the world. No surprises to see Van Morrison and U2 so highly considered even though its probably undeserved.
Would have swapped Achtung Baby and Heartworm's positions at the very least. How Whipping boy didnt get more success with that album is beyond me. Even the Smashing Pumpkins ripped it off by blatantly pinching riffs.

Had hoped Kerbdog's "On the turn" might feature. It was a good enough grunge album to rival any of the Seattle boys at the time, proabably more akin to Nevermind than any other album. Certainly a lot better than you'd expect from 3 chaps from Killkenny.

Punchbowl

machiavellianme wrote: »

Would have swapped Achtung Baby and Heartworm's positions at the very least. How Whipping boy didnt get more success with that album is beyond me. Even the Smashing Pumpkins ripped it off by blatantly pinching riffs.

QUOTE]

Totally agree, so it was an influence after all.. still makes me shiver to hear 'tripped' or 'twinkle' come up on my pod..

pleba

I agree with a lot of that list (though at leat 1 more U2 album could have made it!).

But I feel there should have been a '4 of us' album on there as well. Maybe Classified Personal?

ChuckProphet

Punchbowl wrote: »

Heartworm is a bona-fide classic. Sounds as fresh now as it did then and I would have that as number 1.

agree. i'd have astral weeks at 2 and moondance in the top 10 also.
promenade would be in my top 10 too

Punchbowl

pleba wrote: »

=

But I feel there should have been a '4 of us' album on there as well. Maybe Classified Personal?

Agreed. A great renaissance record, a real surprise

Karlusss

In Towers And Clouds anyone?

A weird list for me, not having been aware of most of the 80s and 90s Irish bands included.

BarryCreed

can u still buy heartworm?

machiavellianme

BarryCreed wrote: »

can u still buy heartworm?

Play.com claim to have it. Failing that, Ebay if you're lucky.

http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/2243986/Heartworm/Product.html?cur=258

Punchbowl

Heartworm is available in HMV and Tower (was last time I checked).. As is 'I am the Greatest'...

guinnessdrinker

The Stunning's Paradise In The Picturehouse should really have gotten into the top 40 somewhere.