The 50 Most NYC Albums Ever (according to The Village Voice)

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/50-most-new-york-albums-cover.jpg
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2014/02/50-most-nyc-albums.php

I was thinking about adding this to an existing thread but none of them seemed to do. I was also thinking about making this a poll, but then people would be confused about whether they were voting on the best album here or the most quintessentially "New York" album of the bunch.

The article is annoying in the same way slideshows online are annoying. So here's the list without the clicks:

50 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell (2003)
49 Jay Z - The Blueprint (2001)
48 Jim Carroll - Catholic Boy (1980)
47 Lana Del Rey - Born to Die (2012)
46 Ciccone Youth - The Whitey Album (1988)
45 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003)
44 West Side Story - Original Cast Recording (1957)
43 Jennifer Lopez - On the 6 (1999)
42 Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
41 Mountain - Climbing (1970)
40 Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
39 Ka - Grief Pedigree (2012)
38 Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation (1977)
37 Billy Joel - 52nd Street (1978)
36 Saturday Night Fever - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1977)
35 Lady Gaga - The Fame (2008)
34 George Gershwin with the Paul Whiteman Concert Orchestra - Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
33 They Might Be Giants - Lincoln (1988)
32 John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy (1980)
31 Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet (2001)
30 Various Artists - No New York (1978)
29 LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (2007)
28 Art Blakey - A Night at Birdland, Vol. 1 (1954)
27 Sonny Rollins - The Bridge (1962)
26 Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)
25 New York Dolls - New York Dolls (1977)
24 Joe Bataan - Subway Joe (1968)
23 Afrika Bambaataa - Death Mix (1983)
22 Cro-Mags - Age of Quarrel (1986)
21 Wu-Tang Clan - Return to the 36 Chambers (1993)
20 Joe Cuba Sextet - Wanted Dead or Alive (1966)
19 Lou Reed and John Cale - Songs for Drella (1990)
18 Sonic Youth - Goo (1990)
17 Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places (1981)
16 Madonna - Like a Virgin (1984)
15 The Strokes - Is This It? (2001)
14 Rolling Stones - Some Girls (1978)
13 The Ramones - The Ramones (1976)
12 Tito Puente - El Rey Bravo (1963)
11 Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)
10 Television - Marquee Moon (1977)
 9 Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die (1994)
 8 James Brown - Live at the Apollo (1963)
 7 Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
 6 Harlem River Drive - Harlem River Drive (1971)
 5 Patti Smith - Horses (1975)
 4 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet (1990)
 3 Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)
 2 Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces of a Man (1971)
 1 Nas - Illmatic (1994)

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Some thoughts that came up from the impromptu New York Thinktank on my Facebook feed:

#41 is Mountain. I didn't even know that Leslie West was a New Yorker, which shows my ignorance but also makes me wonder how "New York" "Climbing" really is.

"New York" should have been the Lou Reed entry here for sure.

Lana del Rey. Really? Where is Biohazard? Nas at #1 but no Run DMC or Anthrax? (Not that I like them) - but where is Kiss in all of this.

John Coltrane? Living Colour? Willie Colon & Hector Lavoe? The Heartbreakers?!

KRAUT, Swans, New York Thrash, Dictators...

I would have included the second Springhouse album, but I'm biased obviously. Also, the NY Thrash compilation is a glaring omission.

I could do an entire list like this just of downtown types from the '80s and '90s that would be better than about a third of this list. Brenda Kahn, John S. Hall/King Missile, the late lamented Maggie Estep, Beg for Eden, Swans, Band of Susans, Live Skull, Roger Manning, Charles Gayle.

I am also surprised that disco is relegated to the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack. Disco was a pretty big deal and seemed synonymous with New York, so much of both that having it represented by just one album - admittedly a good choice, but still - seems incomplete.

Voted for Big Science

Or maybe Branca's Ascension? So many great options here

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man people really delight in pretending Ka is a major artist huh

33 They Might Be Giants - Lincoln (1988)

I never really thought of this as being a very NYC album? I know they started out in this East Village performance art scene, but the world their records were set in/their imagery always seemed to be small town suburban America? (I have never been to the US so I'm quite possibly wrong about all of this)

weird madonna pick. her debut seems way more new york to me than virgin, especially in the way it sounds.

weird billy joel pick too. i assume they picked it 'cause of the title alone. i'd say an innocent man is probably his new yorkest moment.

west side story cast album about 538 spots too low.

The criteria for this seems to be:

"I am a Voice writer who lives in NYC and this is in my cd collection, which I guess makes it a New York album."

Weren't the Young Rascals considered definitively New York for a time?

17 Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places (1981)

I love this record so much, I wish it had got to number one in the UK so there could be a big Then Play Long essay about it.

No Talking Heads?

???

???????????

I don't give a shit what some carpetbagger zombie pretending to be the village voice thinks

fugs?
fred neil?
new york eye & ear control?

Suzanne Vega, even.

money jungle?
the no neck blues band?
loren connors?

You can't really knock a list like this for not getting EVERYTHING, but there are a few bizarre picks on this list. Mountain - Climbing!??? Freewheelin Bob Dylan? is there a reason for that one other than the cover picture?

ny dolls was 1973. someone buy those guys an editor.

They Might Be Giants - Lincoln (1988)

Yeah, what? This is an album named after the city the band is from, Lincoln, MA. They lived in NYC at the time (Brooklyn I think?) but in every way that matters they were a suburban Boston band and for that matter still are.

had the same thought on reed's new york. i mean, c'mon.

absolutely wrong jay z album to pick, lack of big l at a minimum or anything legit "classic" era from hip-hop is bs (the named Afrika Bambaataa really is a weird token pick here).

similarly random jazz picks.

also needs more (any?) straight up avant-garde.

actually best paul simon pick woulda been capeman.

speaking of which, there should be some legit 4real do-wop, and a better selection of musicals)

much love to kid creole

also abs some spoonful

also abs some spoonful

32 John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy (1980)

Can't think of anything New York about this one except that they happened to live there

"Some Time in New York City" instead of "Double Fantasy"? Also, "NYC Ghost & Flowers" instead of "Goo", right?
Finally, no Billie Holiday, no credibility.

i have nothing but seething contempt for everything about this + also would like to add that nyc is a city for disgusting savages.

thank you for reading my worthwhile contribution to this thread.

if there's ever an NYC ILXOR band, it clearly needs to be called Disgusting Savages

Downtown Lullaby (Zorn/Horvitz/Sharp/Previte) got screwed.

"484 Broome" - 5:42
"500 West 52nd" - 6:15
"Eighth Between B & C" - 6:11
"77 White" - 3:57
"228 West Broadway" - 9:07
"Bleecker & Bowery" - 7:16
"1 Morton St (Downtown Lullaby)" - 9:00

really liking people arguing about the choices in an article who's first sentence is "The Yeah Yeah Yeahs might not be the hipster band du jour anymore"

*closes window*

i didn't read the article, just responding to the list because yeah ny albums that's a fun ilx thing to argue over.

and i was just responding because there was billy joel arguing to be done.

and speaking of their billy joel blurb, this was my favorite sentence in the whole piece (granted, i think i only read two sentences): "the jazz nods weren't the only reason this album was called 52nd Street -- that's also where Joel recorded it and where his record label's offices were at the time."

so, basically, if your record company had offices in new york, then your album is a new york album. okay. got it.

I thought of something that isn't on the list

but there are 50 things on the list i don't believe you

Imagine if someone made a "50 most London albums ever" and all of them were written by people from Essex or Lincolnshire or wherever.

But, that said, I do think that all of the best records about New York are by people who are not from New York.

I mean, there are British people on this list. What are they thinking. What do British people know about NYC.

Some Girls was recorded in Paris and spiritually I reckon is a lot more Toronto than New York, or did the guy just hear Jagger stuttering about "Central Park" in "Miss You" and think: ooh, it's a NY record?

I could burp: "what, no Chic?" but with this sort of middle-aged white male enterprise it would probably be a waste of time doing so.

"New York" should have been the Lou Reed entry here for sure.

I was going to say "Street Hassle" but what I really mean to say is "Take No Prisoners"

The argument that Lana Del Rey's album is quintessential NYC rather than LA is so perverse and wrong that it's almost admirable.

Then again, I think Now Here Is Nowhere is one of the most NYC records (and post-9/11 NYC records) of all time and it was made by a bunch of Texans?

Unsane s/t. Or at least something from that early 90s noise rock thing

"137 Albums that The Village Voice Is Dumb for Not Including On Its '50 Most NYC Albums Ever' List"

lol

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http://media.villagevoice.com/9469155.10.jpg

good design

Other than the couple of jazz records, is there really no Hispanic or Latino music that is seen as quintessentially New York? When you consider the demographics of the city that's a big blank spot in this list.

Other than the couple of jazz records, is there really no Hispanic or Latino music that is seen as quintessentially New York? When you consider the demographics of the city that's a big blank spot in this list.

i do not see Cop Shoot Cop here

or the Heartbreakers, it's troo

I proposed and shepherded something like this, called "the Greatest Hits of New York City" for timeout ny in 1999: it encompassed singles as well as albums, in that singles represented the spirit of NYC before 1965 better than albums obviously. TONY doesn't like putting archival shit on the innuhnet: lessee if I can find it. or…does anyone here remember having read it?