Top Music Albums...

While refusing to do any serious scholarship this morning, I found an advertisement for Time's Top 100 Albums of All-Time. Personally, I always hate these lists because, typically, the criteria used to judge these lists falls to "impact of the album" to "personal choice of person X who needed to write this article as if were going to impact the life of anyone-- and I get the irony-- (For the Time list, I do not even know what the criteria is; they neglect to tell anyone and I am using this only as a conversation starting, which means my apathy took over and I refuse to look for the criteria. And I also get how my ethos is as low as it has ever been with these comments. The joy of the holiday season is overwhelming me.)

Also noteworthy about Time's list is that in the oughts, there is an Elvis album. This seems odd, especially if we judge the album by the impact.

In 2005, Spin released Spin's Top 100 from 1985 - 200.. Spin's criteria: "Because it pushes a unique vision from the margins to the mainstream (or the margins of the mainstream), reshaping both. Until someone new (a Wu-Tang Clan or White Stripes) emerges to redraw the margins all over again. These records tell us something different with every listen; even at their tiniest, they make private epiphanies feel like public events." Their top ten:

10. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
9. PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
8. Prince - Sign O The Times
7. De La Soul - 3 Ft. High And Rising
6. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
5. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
4. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
3. Nirvana - Nevermind
2. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation...
1. Radiohead - OK Computer

Reactions to the list? What is included that should not be? What is missing that should be? Why should we care about these lists?

My complaints on Spin's:
U2 - Achtung Baby- The Jushua Tree does not make this list but the decline of U2 is on the list.
Where is Ani DiFranco?
Should this be judged by songs? (Lisa Loeb's "Stay" is missing and this song bridged the gap between indie rock and mainstream alternative almost in the same way that The Singles Soundtrack did.