Okay. Rolling Stone's 50 Coolest Albums Ever and 50 Uncoolest Albums Ever might as well have been combined into one list, since the editors tell you the uncool albums really are cool and you should buy them. I went through the lists and it turns out I own six of the cool albums: The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat, Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, Pavement's Wowee Zowee, Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding, the Strokes' Is This It, and Joan Jett's Bad Reputation. I also own three of the "uncool" albums, including Weezer, Bob Seger's Night Moves, and The Knack's Get the Knack.
Whose idea was it to compile these lists? There doesn't seem to be any actual reasoning behind the selections, except Rolling Stone's editors' masturbatory application of their often-extraneous wealth of pop culture knowledge and useless facts.
Not to mention there is a blatant disregard on both lists for all things Duran Duran, Abba, Human League, Elastica, the Cardigans, and the Go-Go's. And who the hell deemed George Michael and Supertramp uncool?
Keep feeling fascination, passion burning love so strong. Keep feeling fascination, looking, learning, moving on! - The Human League
Although this writer seems to be mistaken in his assumption that the 1980s revival is an ultra-recent phenomenon, it is still nice to see the decade recognized in the New York Times.
Duran Duran, Pop Trash
Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle
Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual
Alphaville, Forever Young
The Vaselines, The Way of the Vaselines
Juliana Hatfield, Only Everything
P.J. Harvey, Is This Desire?
The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks
Frente, Marvin the Album
Destiny's Child, The Writing's on the Wall
The Cars, The Cars
The B-52s, Cosmic Thing
Duran Duran, Arena
The Doors, The Soft Parade Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
L7, Hungry for Stink
The Dandy Warhols, The Dandy Warhols
The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
Ace of Base, The Sign
The Waitresses, The Best of the Waitresses
Belle & Sebastian, Lazy Line Painter Jane
The Fad, The Fad The New Wave: Pop Music of the Early '80s
Goodbye Girl Friday, Mr. & Mrs.
Naked Highway, Hyperbollocks
Duran Duran, Pop Trash Classic Alternatives: '80s 12" Extended Rare Mixes
Phil Collins, Hits
Genesis, Turn It On Again: The Hits
Ladytron, Light & Magic
Ladytron, 604
The Go-Betweens, Before Hollywood
Beck, Midnight Vultures
Duran Duran, Seven & the Ragged Tiger
Abba, Arrival
The Cardigans, Long Gone Before Daylight
The Psychedelic Furs, All of This & Nothing
Air, Moon Safari
The Knack, Round Trip
Blondie, Parallel Lines
The Psychedelic Furs, Forever Now
The Donnas, Spend the Night
Nancy Sinatra, California Girl
Tatu, 200 KMH in the Wrong Lane
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Organisation
John-Manuel Andriote, Hot Stuff: A Brief History of Disco
Bret Easton Ellis, The Rules of Attraction
Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
Jean Kilbourne, Deadly Persuasion
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
