This week Time presented its All-TIME 100 Albums, openly inviting snarky comments from readers about how they didn’t include Pink Floyd. The list includes some lesbian faves such as PJ Harvey‘s excellent Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, on which you can find my favorite sexy-aggressive-slightly-sadomasochistic lovefest, “This Is Love.” (Let me just quote you some lyrics: “I can’t believe that the axis turns on suffering/When you taste so good”)
Also on Time‘s list: Lucinda Williams‘ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, which includes a ton of great tunes including the fantastically named “2 Kool 2 Be 4-Forgotten” and the lovely, bluesy “Still I Long For Your Kiss,” all sung in Williams’ sexy Southern drawl. (Who doesn’t love that?) Madonna made it onto Time‘s list too, with Like a Prayer. That was a good album, but honestly the song “Express Yourself” still makes me want to run screaming out of the room.
I also approve of Time‘s inclusion of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (I love me some Stevie Nicks), Joni Mitchell‘s Blue (though if they left that off there probably would have been a riot), Dolly Parton‘s Coat of Many Colors, and Aretha Franklin‘s I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (unfortunately she’s not talking about her lesbian lover, but you could interpret it that way).
Lest you believe that the list is comprised entirely of fabulous women, let me quickly quash that idea. Yes, the list is predominantly full of men, and Time could certainly have gone out of its way to find more female musicians (I have to say this — it’s my duty as an AfterEllen writer). There are tons of women who could have been considered for this list, from Ella Fitzgerald to Sinead O’Connor to Liz Phair to Tracy Chapman to Melissa Etheridge.
But there really are a bunch of great albums on the list. My non-female faves? U2‘s Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, Dr. Dre‘s The Chronic (seriously, I love Dre), The Eagles‘ Hotel California, and the Beatles‘ White Album (“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” is just, well, I freaking love it — am I revealing too much about myself?).
Just in case you’d rather consider craptastic albums instead of great ones, you can head on over to Blender‘s Most Disastrous Albums of All Time, which include MC Hammer’s sophomoric The Funky Headhunter, Peter Frampton’s horrifically named I’m in You, and Mariah Carey‘s shining lowpoint, Glitter.
What are your favorite (or least favorite) albums of all time? Do you think the “album” is even a relevant format in today’s iTunes universe? What happened to the sweet Mariah Carey of Vision of Love? So many questions, so little time …
