us|against|them – an indie music weblog yo “I really don’t understand why anyone paid this list any attention because it is SO obviously focused almost exclusively on British music”. Sigh. As the list’s author, I have no idea either – it was purely intended as a personal likes/dislikes list on a music website edited in Britain by a British person. I think collaborative lists like Signal Drench’s are pointless bean-counting exercises, because your own tastes get lost in the mix and albums that everyone involved thinks “Yeah, OK, I guess that should be on there” end up in the top 10. Signal Drench’s list was a well-written slog through some predictable material – all the way through I just wanted the individual voices to jump out, not hide behind a false group objectivity.
Anyway, being the anal music boy I am, I did a count and 49 of the 100 albums are British (maybe 50 if Phil Niblock’s British, but I don’t know) – which is anglocentric but hardly “focused almost exclusively on British music”. Yeah, it’s quibbling, but really, that’s just being thick. Look, I know that you’re an indie music weblog yo and have a pretty narrow focus, but if you don’t know about the music that’s being mentioned, don’t talk about it.
If you do know about it, feel free to slag it: it’s my taste and making other people agree was never the point. I’m not even too annoyed at your dismissal of British music since the mid-70s: the stuff that you’d most likely get to hear is indeed 95% risible, and if you don’t give much of a fuck for anything non-rock, you wouldn’t like a lot of the great music the UK’s produced anyhow. If you mean mid rather than late, you’re missing out, though. Start with Wire’s Pink Flag and follow a line.
Actual music content: I picked 1965 over the other Afghan Whigs’ albums because I think Greg Dulli sings a lot better on it, because the first side has an incredible drive, killer hooks, and manages to be funny too, and the whole thing has a black-hearted slickness which matches his talents better than the smoulder-y, angst-y stuff he did before. I’m the only person I know who thinks that, mind you. Gentlemen is alright, it’s very ‘raw’ and early and everything but I can’t remember any of the songs.
(Sad nationality breakdown of the list: UK 49, US 25, Japan 9, Germany 6, Australia 2, New Zealand 2, Finland, France, and Holland 1 each, Unknown 1)