Velvet Underground tops 'coolest records' list

March 21, 2002 5:59 AM

Velvet Underground tops 'coolest records' list Who decides what cool is? Personally, I'd have any of Pink Floyd's or Led Zeppelin's albums as coolest...
posted by Rastafari (84 comments total)

Anyone who considers Rolling Stone Magazine an arbiter of cool deserves whatever they get.
posted by bob bisquick at 6:06 AM on March 21, 2002

but seriously?
White Light/White Heat was a cool album
posted by KnitWit at 6:20 AM on March 21, 2002

I decide what's cool, which means Raw Power by The Stooges is still number one.

I'm so sorry for all you lesser, suckier bands. Better luck after I die.
posted by dong_resin at 6:20 AM on March 21, 2002

The Velvets' first album is cool, but not THAT cool. "Sister Ray" is torture. And the "coolness" of the album has been so overexposed over the past 32 years, that it can hardly qualify as really cool any more. What is cool, is to say that your favorite songs on the album are "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "Sunday Morning," and to mention what a brilliant Brill Building songwriter Lou Reed might have been if he hadn't got sidetracked into the demimonde. Here's what really astounds me: The second choice on the list. "Aftermath" by the the Rolling Stones. A cool, and very, very good album which, along with "Out of Our Heads," "Between the Buttons," and the America-only release "Flowers" demonstrate the Rolling Stones in the first, and most appealing flowering of their genius. An excellent choice by the (admittedly supremely uncool) Rolling Stone magazine.
posted by Faze at 6:20 AM on March 21, 2002

i've been listening to loaded a lot lately. it's cool! also lou reed is cool :)
posted by kliuless at 6:20 AM on March 21, 2002

I'm still waiting for Rolling Stone's "50 Arbitrary Records Lumped Together To Make It Look Like We Know About Music So We Can Go Back To Talking About N'Sync Ad Nauseum" List. Lists like this are the equivalent of MTV always playing infinitely cooler music in the background of their promos, but never showing the videos in a million years.
posted by emptybowl at 6:22 AM on March 21, 2002

God, I hate that MTV thing, emptybowl. I'm old enough to know better and it still bothers me.
They were playing Photek behind one of their hostette people the other day. They they played the Pink video. Again. Arrr!
posted by dong_resin at 6:27 AM on March 21, 2002

As of late, anything by the Dirty Three is on top of my cool list.
posted by canoeguide at 6:28 AM on March 21, 2002

Rastafari, Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" is one horrible album. Maybe "any" Floyd album is too broad. Same goes with Zeppeilin's "Coda" and "In Through the Out Door," but Zeppelin II has to be one of the coolest albums out there. Does anyone have a link to the whole list?
emptybowl-very nice observation, how true
posted by Werd7 at 6:32 AM on March 21, 2002

faze
You're right, Aftermath is amazing -- even better than Between the Buttons. Everybody mentions Exile when it comes to the best Rolling Stones album, but Aftermath is many people's favorite
And Lou Reed, well he's so cool he even survived those appalling American Express Eighties ads.
posted by matteo at 6:35 AM on March 21, 2002

Saying something is cool makes it uncool. And makes you uncool. Cool?
posted by pracowity at 6:44 AM on March 21, 2002

dong_resin: The worst part about MTV is that if that band ever hits it big, they can claim "See, we've always been into that band! We've been using their music in our promos!" Maybe I could forgive it if they'd bring back "120 Minutes". (The early-to-mid-90's Dave Kendall version of "120 Minutes", not the late-90's version hosted by Matt Pinfield that became just as mainstream as the rest of MTV's video shows.)
posted by emptybowl at 6:49 AM on March 21, 2002

How would MTV claim anything? I'm confused.
posted by jpoulos at 6:50 AM on March 21, 2002

Actually, Velvet Undersround is very cool, but Rolling Stone telling their 12-18 year old readers who lsten to Creed that Velvet Underground is cool is definitely not cool.
posted by bob bisquick at 6:51 AM on March 21, 2002

"120 Minutes" still exists. You just need to be an unemployed amnesiac to catch it-- it's on MTV2 at midnight (I think) on Sundays. It's getting to the point where I miss M2. MTV2 is still 1000x better than MTV (and they play music!), but there's way more crap and almost none of the weird stuff that M2 was willing to air.

Can we get this list? Creed seems suspiciously absent from the CNN story. They're probably player-hating Scott Stapp, right guys?
posted by yerfatma at 6:54 AM on March 21, 2002

Faze:

"Sister Ray" was on the second Velvet Underground album.

Forgive me if I offend, but Pink Floyd struck me as the acceptable "art" among the great white stream of album rock -- "art" for radio-narrowed teenagers. To anyone at all familiar with Thelonious Monk or Charles Ives or, yes, the Velvet Underground or the Stooges, Pink Floyd seems sort of ... quaint. (When not pompous.)
posted by argybarg at 6:55 AM on March 21, 2002

Werd7,
'there's too many home fires burning and not enough trees
so fuck all that.'

for my money, it doesn't get any better when the pompous background singers chime in..
posted by fatbaq at 7:03 AM on March 21, 2002

Whatta bunch of squares.

How could anything other than Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool be the coolest?
posted by groundhog at 7:05 AM on March 21, 2002

you can't have a list of the coolest things. that's nonsense. the concept of cool is even more subjective than the concept of quality. but if they're gonna try, and they haven't included the shaggs, then i give up, for there is NO hope for mankind.
posted by nylon at 7:12 AM on March 21, 2002

Argybargy: Sorry about the "Sister Ray" gaffe. I must have been on drugs in 1969. Come to think of it, I WAS on drugs in 1969. You're also right about Ives, etc., versus, Pink Floyd, The Stooges, and friends. There's "avant garde rock," and then there's the real avant garde. What takes the Velvet Underground out of the phonus balonus category, IMHO, is Lou Reed's genuine songcrafting abilities. The man could not only come out with "Metal Machine Music," he could write could a nice tune, too.
posted by Faze at 7:14 AM on March 21, 2002

I always thought "the final cut" was one of the most under appreciated albums by floyd.

oh well. to each his own.
posted by Qambient at 7:27 AM on March 21, 2002

ok, screw rolling stone, here's my definitive top 10 coolest albums ever.

1. the shaggs - philosophy of the world
2. merzbow - noise embryo
3. national union of plague victims - mutual cyclops
4. cement automatic - come submit to the unreasonable demands of cement automatic
5. the sons of noam chomsky - sponge pig
6. bunny slippers - let's try homeparty fashionably and have a joyful chat with nice fellow
7. glenville trauma unit - i feel distinctly unwell, doctor harrison
8. miguel stratosphere and the irritating skin complaints - steventon acid casualties: a tribute to billy-jo 'boiler' le conte
9. lyte funky ones versus blood tractor: themes from pain management and belgian studies
10. archbishop grayson and the screaming popemobiles - the use of RF rather than constant voltages reduces the breakdown voltage needed to establish the plasma because electrons can be reflected back and forth at the sheath by the changing voltages

and then there was that band that were so cool that they didn't even record anything. or play live. or have a name. or any members.
posted by nylon at 7:42 AM on March 21, 2002

dude, octopi?
posted by chokersandwich at 7:59 AM on March 21, 2002

I AM old. im still raving over them Dorsey Bros.
posted by clavdivs at 8:01 AM on March 21, 2002

nylon....I may be able to get my laughter under control, given another 45 min or so....
posted by alumshubby at 8:04 AM on March 21, 2002

MTV always playing infinitely cooler music in the background of their promos, but never showing the videos in a million years.

MTV plays videos? All I ever see there are dumb-ass shows.
posted by HTuttle at 8:10 AM on March 21, 2002

Faze:

I'm entirely in agreement with you about Lou Reed. All those songs that "real" VU fans dismiss as Lou's "dumb pop songs" (mostly the ones on Loaded) are ones I find more worth saving than the "serious" or "avant garde" songs (although I do love "European Son"). In other words, this many years later, "Who Loves the Sun" sound vastly better and more "important" than "Venus In Furs," which is on the hokey side.

A friend of mine sees the VU-era Lou as having a devil and an angel on his shoulder: the devil being the European John Cale, the angel being someone like Carole King or Dion. Personally I think Lou's devil is himself and so is his angel.
posted by argybarg at 8:10 AM on March 21, 2002

nylon:

Outstanding.
posted by argybarg at 8:11 AM on March 21, 2002

The Shaggs are SO overrated. If you listen to "Philosopy of the World," for more than a few songs, you see that the main impact of the album comes from the fact that the lead guitar doubles the vocal line, note for note. This does three things at once: It gives you a strong, uncluttered statement of the melody on the first listening; it boosts the weak vocals; and it imbues the songs with a kind of competent dippiness that you can't quite put your finger on, and kind of makes them semi-appealing, if you're drunk. If you think about it, the fact that the vocals are doubled by the guitar is the only thing that gives the songs any backbone or listenability at all. Without it, you woudn't have the patience to sit through even one cut.
posted by Faze at 8:13 AM on March 21, 2002

I'm with groundhog, 'cept it would have to be Kind of Blue. Otherwise, Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours; Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate; Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited; The Stooge's Raw Power; Joy Division's Closer or, yeah, anything by the Velvet Underground. (I'm reading Jim Rogatis's biography of Lester Bangs and am now rooting about in my library looking for the infamous Lou Reed interviews...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:30 AM on March 21, 2002

faze: Without it, you woudn't have the patience to sit through even one cut.

to be honest, i don't have the patience to sit through one cut as it is, regardless of what the hell the guitar is doing. i personally think the shaggs are appalling. i just think it's funny to straight-facedly attempt to rate them as highly as the velvets. yes, i'm laughing at the afflicted.
posted by nylon at 8:37 AM on March 21, 2002

nylon: 9. lyte funky ones versus blood tractor: themes from pain management and belgian studies

that is great...

very nice..

puga
posted by PugAchev at 8:56 AM on March 21, 2002

To anyone at all familiar with Thelonious Monk or Charles Ives or, yes, the Velvet Underground or the Stooges, Pink Floyd seems sort of ... quaint. (When not pompous.)

Only after they lost Barrett. Piper at the Gates of Dawn is genuinely weird: American blues filtered through an English brain on drugs.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:05 AM on March 21, 2002

Coolness is one of the vilest inventions of the modern era. Display your album collection to a monosyllabic sixteen year old, and whichever one they sneer at least is the coolest.
posted by Summer at 9:10 AM on March 21, 2002

Werd7, I am sorry. The Final Cut is great, emotional album. It is one of my favorites.
posted by thekorruptor at 9:28 AM on March 21, 2002

I don't understand why critics go gaga over Revolver...The White Album is clearly superior!
posted by mcsweetie at 9:33 AM on March 21, 2002

How annoying is that sodding Terra advert on the page ....
posted by MintSauce at 9:39 AM on March 21, 2002

I don't understand why critics go gaga over Revolver...The White Album is clearly superior!

Foolishness. Revolver is an album by a band, the White Album is a collection of (very) decent solo recordings.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:55 AM on March 21, 2002

Pink Floyd rules.

They never made a bad album.Final Cut isn't the best starting point for the Floyd newbie, though.Send them to Dark Side, Wish or Animals.Most people that hate Floyd are just sick of hearing the same 3 songs on the radio all of the time.

Display your album collection to a monosyllabic sixteen year old, and whichever one they sneer at least is the coolest.

I would pick the one they sneer at the most.

Let's talk live albums.Rolling Stone says the James Brown Apollo album is the coolest live album ever.

I say...

Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At The Star Club - 40 minutes of Jerry Lee giving it hell to a bunch of loud, drunk Germans with the Nashville Teens (his backing band) desperately trying to keep up with him.You can practically smell the beer being spilled.

Allman Brothers Band: Live At The Fillmore East - Duane Allman, 'nuff said.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 10:06 AM on March 21, 2002

thekorruptor, gotta back you up on that one. I really like Final Cut. And In Through the Out Door, for that matter. Division Bell, on the other hand, is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
posted by goto11 at 10:08 AM on March 21, 2002

tusk is cool.
posted by alfredogarcia at 10:09 AM on March 21, 2002

They never made a bad album.

Momentary Lapse of Reason? and a great deal of The Wall was stinkers.
posted by mcsweetie at 10:13 AM on March 21, 2002

The early-to-mid-90's Dave Kendall version of "120 Minutes"
oh, man... thanks for the memories.
posted by Dean King at 10:15 AM on March 21, 2002

posted by swift at 10:16 AM on March 21, 2002

Revolver is the only Beatles album I care to own, mostly for Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said; they broke a lot of new musical ground with those two songs.

...and my kids *love* the Shaggs, especially "My Pal Foot Foot". I have to leave the room tho'.
posted by MrBaliHai at 10:16 AM on March 21, 2002

props to alfredogarcia. Tusk is very cool. As far as Lou Reed is concerned, "New York" is cool. I also happen to think that Massive Attack's "Mezzanine" is tres cool.

Oh, and the Replacements' Let It Bleed.
posted by jpoulos at 10:42 AM on March 21, 2002

I am surprised no one's mentioned Bob Marley. He has put out one of the best (coolest?) live albums ever: Babylon By Bus. Also, Kaya, Concrete Jungle, Rastaman Vibration are great albums...The Who's Live at Leeds is a good honorable mention... And whoever said The Wall sucks don't know jack this means you mcsweetie...and Jpolous, wasn't Let It Bleed by the Stones? Ty, agree on your analysis of White album vs. Revolver. And nylon, would I not be cool if i don't know most of the bands on your list?
posted by Rastafari at 11:06 AM on March 21, 2002

Let's talk live albums.

The Yardbirds - Five Live Yardbirds
posted by Eamon at 11:25 AM on March 21, 2002

I think the first two Tindersticks albums are very good. Cool? I don't know daddyo. Ask me when I'm gone!
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:45 AM on March 21, 2002

I think the only 120 minutes show I remember as worth actually watching was the one that was taken over by Johnny Rotten in Tiajuana. You could tell that the host and the camera crew was just dragged along as Rotten took off at a gallop through tacky stall vendors asking for a black velvet Johnny Rotten.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:46 AM on March 21, 2002

But I like Roger Waters, so what do I know?
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:47 AM on March 21, 2002

Pink Floyd are rock for people who don't have any musical sense, in a similar way that Monty Python is comedy for people without a sense of humour.
posted by kerplunk at 12:07 PM on March 21, 2002

*Jumps on grenade*

Save yoursleves people! Save yourselves!
posted by Kafkaesque at 12:16 PM on March 21, 2002

wasn't Let It Bleed by the Stones?

D'oh! I meant, of course, Let It Be.
posted by jpoulos at 12:17 PM on March 21, 2002

Momentary Lapse of Reason? and a great deal of The Wall was stinkers.

Well, I don't count Dave Floyd as Pink Floyd.Floyd without Roger Waters is like The Beatles without Lennon.Reason is an OK album, BTW.

The Wall is a "stinker"? heh whatever....

----

Hmm, slamming Floyd and Monty Python.

I'm not taking that bait.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 12:18 PM on March 21, 2002

he was a good man, that kafkaesque...
posted by Dean King at 12:18 PM on March 21, 2002

Why do I love these threads so much?

My less than 2 cents semi-tongue-in-cheek worth:

Rastafari - You're mixing up cool and popular, which are mutually exclusive. Marley? Popular (and I love him) but reggae is SO uncool. (remember that great scene in Ghost World?)

Pink Floyd's The Wall suffers from the twin sins of the late 70's early 80's, it's pretentious and dull. Even worse: it's (shudder) popular. Either the really early stuff, or the Final Cut, which I consider Roger's first solo album, are the only Floyd albums with even a remote chance of attaining cool.

Zeppelin? Awesome, perhaps even "kick-ass"....not even near cool.

What is cool? Simple: anything noted in this thread that you haven't heard of...
posted by jalexei at 12:20 PM on March 21, 2002

Why is thread still going on? I answered the question with the third post. You asked, I told. Now, everybody git.
posted by dong_resin at 12:28 PM on March 21, 2002

"Five Live Yardbirds"... Yeah! But "Revolver?" "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "She Said" are two of the three worst Beatle songs of all time (White Album excepted). And here is the list of the ten WORST pre-White Album Beatle songs of all time (Anthology cuts also not included):
1. Mr. Moonlight
2. Tomorrow Never Knows
3. She Said
4. Within You and Without You
5. She's Leaving Home
6. Fixing a Hole
7. Drive My Car
8. Fool on the Hill
9. Blue Jay Way
10. I Am the Walrus
posted by Faze at 12:35 PM on March 21, 2002

I haven't seen the Pixies mentioned in this thread.
Don't think it gets too much better than the Pixies. I can't even pick an album, just the Pixies as a whole. Same goes for most of PiL's catalog. The Generic album? Could you stand it to get better than that?
No, you couldn't. You'd die.
posted by dong_resin at 12:40 PM on March 21, 2002

Now, everybody git.

But first tell us: Pixies or Iggy? You can't put both at the top of your list. What eees eet, man?!

And I'm still waiting for you to appear in the Sans Halen thread. Dammit, I mentioned the assless pants. I have invoked you.

WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT????
posted by MrBaliHai at 1:00 PM on March 21, 2002

dong_resin:

Do you vote for Bowie's mix of Raw Power or Ig's later remix?
posted by argybarg at 1:17 PM on March 21, 2002

Hey, don't hassle me with your logic, man.

And I'm avoidn' the sans halen thread like the plague. I only look stupid. Outside of pointless goat-getting remarks like "hey, maybe they can cut their down tour expenses by using the same colostomy bag", I don't have much to offer over there.
posted by dong_resin at 1:18 PM on March 21, 2002

You know, I've never heard the remix, argy? I've gotten so used to the old one, I'd probably not be able to judge it fairly.
posted by dong_resin at 1:20 PM on March 21, 2002

dong:

You're just like a good friend of mine. He won't listen to the remix. He just says: "Shake Appeal. You can't mess with that. You have to leave it as it is."

It really is an improvement, though. You can actually hear the drums as if they were in the same room as the rest of the band, and the guitars get much more messed up with each other. It has that nasty, walled-up sound Iggy always wanted.
posted by argybarg at 1:59 PM on March 21, 2002

I concur. Raw Power remix is a tasty treat for your ears!
posted by mcsweetie at 2:13 PM on March 21, 2002

Sucks to "The Final Cut." In my opinion, Pink Floyd crapped out after DSoM. Yet managed to release two okay albums after that.

Zappa's "We're Only in it for the Money" would rank pretty high on my cool albums list. Miles' "In a Silent Way" comes next.

The White Stripes' "De Stijl" would make it, but The Strokes have to be the least cool thing since genocide.
Speaking of which, Cannibal Corpse is possibly the coolest band ever, maybe a tie with Morbid Angel.

Ha!
posted by rocketman at 2:41 PM on March 21, 2002

As of late, I've found both Rasputina, Miranda Sex Garden (especially their last album), and everything by Stereolab to be quite cool. And of course, everything by Einsturzende Neubauten

But, Bowie's alway's been the epitome of cool.

There. Enough namedropping for you?

Oh, and Rocketman: Cannibal Corpse? Morbid Angel I'll grant you, but CC is just.. crap.
posted by Theiform at 2:55 PM on March 21, 2002

Momentary Lapse of Reason?

I'll speak up in defense of A Momentary Lapse of Reason. While it's certainly not on a par with Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here, I like it quite a bit. Actually, the second half of the album is only so-so, but it's the first half--up through "On the Turning Away" that I really like.

I would pick the one they sneer at the most.

Good idea, except I might be hard-pressed to determine which of my several opera recordings they're sneering at more than the others.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:21 PM on March 21, 2002

I always liked Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets" the best.
(*runs*)
posted by Lynsey at 4:16 PM on March 21, 2002

According to this article, I am extremely cool.

Oh and if you want painful, try the Joy Division cover of Sister Ray

Ah, I love Lou Reed. I love John Cale. I love Sterling and the Yule brothers. I hate Nico. I'm glad she snuffed it. I hate Andy Warhol too! Hmmm......

By the way, "Fear" by John Cale is an incredibly fantastic perfect album. I can't even begin to describe how underated that one album is. Seriously, if you see a copy, buy it, it is amazing.

Man, I owned like all of these albums by the time I was 15! I'm so damned proud of myself. And then I saw the CNN logo and now if you'll excuse me I have to find out if my ATM limit is lower than the cost of the gun I need to buy.

Truly a sad sad day. I suppose there is some consolation in knowing that Roxy Music and Gary Numan aren't cool (just stupid and Gay).
posted by Settle at 4:55 PM on March 21, 2002

if you want to be cool :) then synch it up to the wiz!
posted by kliuless at 7:14 PM on March 21, 2002

Let's see, 10 cool, in no particular order (too cool to rank) . . .

Orchestra Luna (only one eponymous album - quirky can be cool, if it dies young)

Leonard Cohen (Death of a Ladies' Man - for putting you in a cool dark place)

Tom Waits (Nighthawks at the Diner - so horny, even the crack of dawn looks good - once saw Tom Waits and Leon Redbone at the Beacon Theatre, NYC -- weirdly cool)

John Hartford (Steam Powered Aereoplane - Hey Babe, you wanna boogie? cool grass from the late lamented cool man of mountain music, proved a banjo could be cool)

Walter/Wendy Carlos (Sonic Seasonings - cooly original electronicambience from 30 years ago)

Blood Sweat and Tears (Child is Father to the Man - cool brassy brainchild of Al Kooper)

Steve Reich (Drumming - too cool for words)

Talking Heads (75 - psycool killer)

Something Wild (Soundtrack - pretty girl, young man, old man, man with a gun, to people in love, the rules do not apply; and the movie featured a cool Ray Liotta in his first featured role)

. . .and to these 51-year-old ears,

Radiohead (Amnesiac)

. . . is pretty cool for music this millenium.
posted by fpatrick at 8:26 PM on March 21, 2002

OMG, Wendy Carlos! I adore her, and thought I was the only one.

I hate The Velvets. Too lazy. I like tight arrangements. John Cale is a fab musician however.
posted by evanizer at 8:48 PM on March 21, 2002

More of my two cents, as if anyone cared: Pink Floyd was terrible before DSOTM and after Wish You Were Here. Bowie was the coolest ever, period, until after Diamond Dogs. Then he sucked. The Beatles were great for most of Sgt. Pepper, but became miraculous for the white album and Abbey Road. Then they slid downhill fast.

And don't even mention Bob Dylan. He's the worst ever. Worser than Lou Reed 'cause Dylan was 'serious'.
posted by evanizer at 8:56 PM on March 21, 2002

Fpatrick - Great list! Death Of A Ladies' Man, eh? I like it too. Phil Spector sitting there, the rifle in his lap. "True Love Leaves No Traces", the title track and "I Left A Woman Waiting". But it also has the worst track I've ever heard, Dylan himself helping it reach the depths: "Don't Go Home With Your Hard-on".

Evan: your taste in music is precisely the opposite of mine and sanity in general! :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:08 PM on March 21, 2002

I know Miguel. In college I played Bowie's Hunky Dory so much that someone smashed the cd into bits and left it on my table. Worse yet, I used to torture my studio mate at Yale by playing King Crimson's Starless and Bible Black over and over again. The only retaliation she could manage was playing Belle and Sebastian, which was a pretty effective torture. But I'm insane, so...
posted by evanizer at 9:22 PM on March 21, 2002

here's a tough one (maybe!)...

Red or Discipline? I say Red!
posted by mcsweetie at 9:48 PM on March 21, 2002

Oh, Red definately.
posted by evanizer at 10:35 PM on March 21, 2002

The list.
posted by oh posey at 10:56 PM on March 21, 2002

God, that's a stupid list.
posted by dong_resin at 1:22 AM on March 22, 2002

That list must have been put together by some painfully self-conscious people. I'm sure it's very stressful for them.

In a synth shop on the Charing Cross Road yesterday a shop assistant in his late teens/early twenties, DJ-type, was demonstrating a sound module firstly by knocking up some quasi-nosebleed/Gabba/whatever-they're-calling-it-these-days and then playing a line from Close to the Edge.

I think cool people kind of miss the point in life.

Oh, and I have a deep deep affection for Discipline, I think it's a special case and will not hear a word against it. The best Crimson would probably be a compilation of vicious iinstrumentals. But where does Thrak stand (I like it a lot more than when it came out) or indeed The ConstruKCtion of Light (my own personal jury is still out, but some great, loud, live tunes on there)?
posted by Grangousier at 1:49 AM on March 22, 2002

I'll admit I'm glad to see they gave Pavement's (much-maligned) Wowee Zowee a spot at #12. It is indeed a great album. When I first heard it (my first Pavement album) I was under the illusion that it was a collection of outtakes, B-sides, etc. -- and, on those terms, I thought it was wonderful. Then I discovered it was a "real" album and was still wonderful.
posted by argybarg at 8:50 AM on March 22, 2002

My 2 cents...a few that I've enjoyed over the years, and that have a certain mellowness that seems an essential part of "cool". Not "WOW! THAT'S TOTALLY COOL!!!". More of a "...ooo....yeah...coooool."

(Sorry for the lack of links, but I'm at work and don't have a lot of time.)

Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
Speak no Evil - Wayne Shorter
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (despite the ferocity of his playing, it somehow reaches a meditative state - amazing)

As much as I like King Crimson (evanizer: saw them a couple of times during the Lark's Tongue - Red - Starless period - loved it) I just don't consider them cool, by my own weird and antiquated standard, anyway.
posted by groundhog at 10:08 AM on March 22, 2002