The 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever — #80 to #71
Posted Thursday 11/15/2007 1:00 AM in
Guide
by
Jon Dolan, Josh Eells, Will Hermes, Jonah Weiner and Douglas Wolk
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80. Feist, The Reminder, Cherry Tree/Interscope, 2007Chicken soup for the indie-rock soul: sweet but not precious, warm and inviting like a flannel duvet.
Download: “1234”
79. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, ClapYourHandsSayYeah.com, 2005
Alec Ounsworth’s voice is pinched and ugly, but he wrings pretty melodies from it, moaning about child stars and glam androgynes over ramshackle dance-rock.
Download: “Over and Over Again”
78. The 13th Floor Elevators, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, International Artists, 1966
They frightened flower children with their garage-rock freakouts, then met a sad end when singer Roky Erickson was committed.
Download: “You’re Gonna Miss Me”
77. Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, Domino, 2006
This debut dazzles with lyrics about dead-end geezers and Saturday-night punch-ups so excellent that cynics suspected 21-year-old Alex Turner of thievery.
Download: “The View From the Afternoon”
76. Le Tigre, Le Tigre, Mr. Lady, 1999
Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna bought a drum machine and gave her asshole-smiting feminist punk a disco makeover.
Download: “My My Metrocard”
75. Galaxie 500, Today, Aurora, 1988Lullabies for people who get too much sleep anyway
Formed at Harvard (they borrowed their first drum kit from dorm-mate Conan O’Brien), the original “slow core” band transported the urban roar of the Velvet Underground to quiet leafy New England. Future Luna frontman Dean Wareham’s singing found the sweet spot between a whine, a yawn and a meow, while the lolling riffs blanketed him in pillowy beauty.
Download: “Tugboat,” “Instrumental”
74. The Fall, 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong, Beggars Banquet, 2004
Acid-tongued poet’s greatest riffs
Where to begin with the hyperprolific Fall, mush-mouthed Mancunian poet Mark E. Smith’s repetition-crazed band? Try this impeccable retrospective of their first quarter-century (featuring an excellently cheeky Elvis gag of a title), surveying the chaotic grind of their early years—material that would later inspire Pavement — their late-’80s flirtation with dance-pop and their more recent stabs at electronically augmented punk rock.
Download: “Totally Wired,” “Free Range”
73. Meat Puppets, Up On the Sun, SST, 1985
Bummed bros let the sun shine in
The Kirkwoods followed the haunted country of Meat Puppets II with the sunny, oddly contented jams of this jangling paradise — they even whistled their way through the bucolic “Maiden’s Milk.” Musing on subjects like God, rivers and swimming grounds, and even throwing in a goofy dick joke, this is freewheeling summer fun, tailor-made for beach parties in quarry pools.
Download: “Up on the Sun,” “Maiden’s Milk”
72. The Mountain Goats, We Shall All Be Healed, 4AD, 2004
Lyrics about drugs, jail, hospitals and redemption, but not in that order
High-strung literary genius John Darnielle enlisted a driving, agile folk-rock band to help shape his brilliantly detailed depictions of American castoffs who refuse to cave in when the cosmos craps in their Wheaties. (Note: the Wheaties are often amphetamines.)
Download: “Letter From Belgium,” “Palmcorder Yajna”
71. Stereolab, Refried Ectoplasm, Drag City, 1995
Hallucinatory drones, utopian politics
Their second singles compilation hits a lot of their career high points — a harmonic convergence of galloping grooves, singer Laetitia Sadier’s airy Francophone utopianism and guitarist Tim Gane’s command of retro-futuristic easy-listening tones.
Download: “French Disko,” “John Cage Bubblegum”
The Greatest Indie-Rock Album Ever
