After I get down to number 1, I think I'll be finished with the other half of my top 200 and I'll post them as well.
81. Ten - Pearl Jam
This is not as high as it would have been say, 3 years ago. But I still have much love for this album. I'm not gonna try to convince anyone that this is true alternative rock, it's heresy to a lot of people to even mention Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins in the same sentence as alternative, because taking alternative influences and giving it stadium rock treatment is the unpardonable sin or something. I think the reason Pearl Jam have never topped this album is because since then they have tried to become more and more "authentic" in the eyes of hipsters (ok Urban, that's four) and forgetting what made their debut so great in the first place. I get just as much Zeppelin and Neil Young out of this album as REM or Husker Du, and that's the way I like it. Not even the singles have gotten old for me, despite the constant overplaying of them on radio. I love Even Flow just as much as the first time I heard it.
Favorite tracks: Even Flow, Jeremy, Oceans, Release.
80. Cosmo's Factory - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Hate on classic rock all you want, I have NEVER met a person who dosen't like CCR, in fact, they're the ONLY band in existance I can think of that no one talks trash about. Their music has such a universial appeal to the point that I'm convinced that anyone who dosen't like CCR, just dosen't like music. They're one of the best singles bands of all time. Their music defines music better than most rock bands could ever hope to achieve. It's hard to believe these guys are from California, they sound so damn southern. And Fogerty is such a great songwriter, and he has that distinctive voice that sounds like whiskey and cigarettes, and that delicious country fried guitar sound, and he tells these very poignant tales and coats them in honey like Lennon did that catches you off guard. It's funny, because CCR is my grandma's favorite band, yet she's very conservative, it's funny when she sings along to a song like Run Through the Jungle, then I have to explain to her what the song is actually about.
Favorite tracks: Run Through the Jungle, Around the Bend, Ramble Tamble, I Heard It Through The Grapevine.
79. Modern Life is Rubbish - Blur
It's a known fact that I'm in total disagreement with Urban 95% of the time, but I have to give the ol' hatemonger some credit, without him there would have been a fair share of great music that I would have never discovered. I didn't hear much from Blur before this album, I just remember thinking Coffee and TV was a pretty good song, when I saw this album in the Urban 100, I decided to check it out and I'm very glad I did. Of all the so called britpop scenes bands of the mid 90s, Blur were the best. Oasis pisses me off and I never got into Pulp or Seude, but Blur have that very Kinks/Jam kind of sound that I just love. I also really relate to Albarn's lyrics about boredom and cultural identity.
Favorite tracks: For Tomorrow, Advert, Star Shaped, Sunday Sunday, Coping.
78. Dummy - Portishead
Man, Beth Gibbons has such a sexy and hypnotic voice. The way she croons on this album comes off as both really nostalgiac (a bit of Billie Holiday) and new at the same time, how a white british woman can sound this soulful is beyond me, and the way her vocals compliment the jazzy trip hop arangements is just brilliant. Every note she sings sounds like she means it. I always love music like this that takes me to some place, like a sleazy nightclub in some really strange part of the city.
Favorite tracks: It Could Be Sweet, Sour Times, Strangers, Pedestal.