The 200 Best Albums of the 60s - p4k

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A Beatles album should have been #1, not necessarily Peppers, but they were the best band of the decade.

I would have been cool with any of Revolver, Peppers, White Album, or Abbey Road as top dog. I've never heard a couple of those really highly ranked ones (Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone). Should probably check those out. Pet Sounds is an absolute stunner but it's not better than ANYTHING the Beatles recorded.
 
As with most lists like this, the albums are great but the order is absolutely terrible. Does anyone actually think a Supremes album is better than Astral Weeks? Do people even listen to full Supremes albums? I've heard that album and it's a solid 7, which is good for the era, but it's ranked above dozens of masterpieces for no good reason.

Don't even get me started on the fucking Shaggs even making this list, let alone ranking above the huge number of great jazz records making up the bottom of the list. It's a nice meme, and the album is cute, but let's be real here.

The only thing these lists are good for is discovering new music and I will certainly do that. I'm glad for that much.
 
GirlsAloudFan said:
A Beatles album should have been #1, not necessarily Peppers, but they were the best band of the decade.

I would have been cool with any of Revolver, Peppers, White Album, or Abbey Road as top dog. I've never heard a couple of those really highly ranked ones (Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone). Should probably check those out. Pet Sounds is an absolute stunner but it's not better than ANYTHING the Beatles recorded.
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I'll agree with your opening statement. And I don't think Pet Sounds is quite as good as The Beatles' few best. But it's certainly better than the early albums.

cobl04 said:
You can't argue with VU&N being number one I don't think.
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Yes we can.

I respect that album a lot more than I listen to it. I prefer the self-titled as well as Loaded, personally.
 
lazarus said:
I'll agree with your opening statement. And I don't think Pet Sounds is quite as good as The Beatles' few best. But it's certainly better than the early albums.



Yes we can.

I respect that album a lot more than I listen to it. I prefer the self-titled as well as Loaded, personally.
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Yeah, I totally phrased that in a confusing way. I didn't mean that every single Beatles album is better than Pet Sounds. I'd say four or five of them probably are, though.

My post should have said "Pet Sounds is an absolute stunner but it's not better than EVERY Beatles album."
 
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It's about on par with Rubber Soul in my mind and behind Revolver, Peppers, White Album, and Abbey Road.
 
River Deep - Mountain High is the highest ranked album on here that I hadn't already heard, so I guess I'll check that out ASAP. It's got one classic track at least.

And yes, hugely arguable that VU&N is the best album to come out of the 60s. It's a great example of the rock counterculture and the kind of album that P4k should be celebrating, but there are a number of better albums on this list. I don't sit around and listen to Run Run Run or European Son, but much of that album is fantastic.
 
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Regardless of the order, there is nothing like this to get you delving into a whole stack of 60s albums you haven't listened to in yonks.
 
I mean VU&N is not all that enjoyable of an album. I haven't listened to it in years, the last two songs are absolutely shithouse and there's a ton of 60s albums better than it, BUT, pound-for-pound, its influence puts it at the top. Beatles influence overall obviously greater but not on one album. Soul and jazz are both fragmented across a huge range of artists. Pet Sounds deserving of its spot but it's so squeaky clean. I think VU&N is the correct choice.
 
Nice to see a bunch of Tropicália stuff make the list. Good job.

Good collection of jazz albums, which seems like a deliberate effort to correct the oversight of their other decade lists. The highest ranking jazz album from on the 1970s list was Bitches Brew at #18, which is crazy. But the order is debatable. There's no way I'd rank Out to Lunch! as the third best jazz record of the 1960s. It's not an outrageous choice, and kind of analogous to picking VU&N over Beatles, but Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Maiden Voyage, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Sketches of Spain, and even Getz/Gilberto (probably for sentimental reasons) rank higher for me.

Sgt Peppers and Abbey Road are simply way too low.
 
gump said:
There's no way I'd rank Out to Lunch! as the third best jazz record of the 1960s. It's not an outrageous choice, and kind of analogous to picking VU&N over Beatles, but Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Maiden Voyage, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Sketches of Spain, and even Getz/Gilberto (probably for sentimental reasons) rank higher for me.
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Seems like there are always a few entries on a list like this that will espouse a relatively obscure artist like Dolphy just for the hell of it. If they wanted a slightly out-there choice for a high-ranking jazz album, I would have gone with something by Andrew Hill.
 
I humbly suggest that you guys are underrating Rubber Soul. It belongs in the same sentence with Abbey Road, White Album, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and MMT. A more sophisticated direction for the band was hinted at on Help(You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, I've Just Seen A Face, It's Only Love, Yesterday), but on Rubber Soul, that sophistication gets fleshed out and goes full bore, resulting in a collection of sublime pop song after sublime pop song. It was a huge leap forward for their songwriting(which was already great). It doesn't have the sonic or conceptual inventiveness or ambition of later albums, but it's a damn near perfect pop album, imo.
 
I always think of Rubber Soul as their transition album, but I agree that in terms of quality, it is much closer to the ones that followed it than those that preceded it.
 
I fucking adore Rubber Soul. I said I had it about on par with Pet Sounds, which should speak to how great I think it is. The Beatles are the best band of all-time.
 
namkcuR said:
I humbly suggest that you guys are underrating Rubber Soul. It belongs in the same sentence with Abbey Road, White Album, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and MMT. A more sophisticated direction for the band was hinted at on Help(You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, I've Just Seen A Face, It's Only Love, Yesterday), but on Rubber Soul, that sophistication gets fleshed out and goes full bore, resulting in a collection of sublime pop song after sublime pop song. It was a huge leap forward for their songwriting(which was already great). It doesn't have the sonic or conceptual inventiveness or ambition of later albums, but it's a damn near perfect pop album, imo.
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It is close to a perfect pop album. But aside from Norwegian Wood, not much more than that. And that's why I don't rank it quite as high as those others, which more boldly display the full genius of everyone involved.
 
run for your life is cringe-inducing but other than that rubber soul is basically perfect.

any list that names the white album as the best beatles album is one that should never be taken seriously, though.
 
The Who Sell Out over Tommy is one thing they got right.

I can't believe Music from Big Pink and and SF Sorrow didn't make the list. That's some bullshit.
 
LemonMelon said:
The Who Sell Out over Tommy is one thing they got right.

I can't believe Music from Big Pink and and SF Sorrow didn't make the list. That's some bullshit.
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wait what the hell?

i wipe my ass with any list of best 60s albums that doesn't include music from big pink. not even putting it in the top 200 is completely crazy. fuck this list so hard.
 
DaveC said:
wait what the hell?

i wipe my ass with any list of best 60s albums that doesn't include music from big pink. not even putting it in the top 200 is completely crazy. fuck this list so hard.
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Reading the excerpts makes it worse.

Best believe that two decades before Nicki Minaj was born, the Shangri-Las were the baddest bitches in Queens.
 
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