30. Jesus And Mary Chain, Automatic. Yes, Dave, they’re on the list again with this drum-machine-and-guitar fuelled epic of sneer. Yes, the Pixies covered “Head On,” but the Reids did it first and better.
29. My Bloody Valentine, Loveless. Washes of chiming guitar, vocals that owe more to Cocteau Twins than rock and roll, and the sound of a million breakups and new romances in the space of just over 45 minutes.
28. The Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs Volumes 1-3. Cheating, a little. I don’t care. It’s a genius concept with a genius set of songs attached to it. Laura once mentioned that Stephin Merritt and Cole Porter have a great knack for heartbreaking songs that sound quite happy until you give them a serious listen, and that’s probably why I love his work so much. He gleefully jumps genres and styles like a jukebox in the best bar you’ve never found.
27. New Order, Power, Corruption and Lies. “Blue Monday” makes me dance, “Your Silent Face” makes me cry. That’s all you can want from a record, right? I’ve actually been through two copies of this on CD, which is kinda scary.
26. Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express.. It’s Kraftwerk. I don’t need to even mention that they went and goddamn invented the musical genre I love the most and continue to loom over any motherfuckers that try to step up to the plate.
25. BT, Ima. Before he sold out like Cabbage Patch Kids during the 1983 holiday season, Brian Transeau made inspirational, cinematic dance records. Ima mixes huge progressive beats and orchestral sounds to create music that inspires as well as moves the booty.
24. Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On? Barry Gordy didn’t want to release this socially-concious, lush soul record. Barry Gordy was kinda stupid. This is a record that’s more relevant than ever in a country that’s sliding backwards rapidly when it comes to people’s rights. Essential.
23. Pulp, Different Class. Jarvis Cocker and his associates borrowed your youth - yes, yours - and wrote “Disco 2000″ around it. Clever, funny, touching, and consistently engaging - one of the best slabs of British Pop ever.
22. The KLF, The White Room. Nothing was safe when Cauty and Drummond were running wild. The Kopyright Liberation Foundation were techno-art jokers that managed to convince Tammy Wynette to sing on one song and showed up to perform a death metal version of their hit single “3AM Eternal” at the Brit Awards with a band called Extreme Noise Terror. After all this fuss, they broke up and deleted their entire back catalogue. You can’t beat that for sheer bravado.
21. LSG, Volume 2. Oliver Lieb makes smart dance records. His LSG project is the most melodic and intelligent of his many, many guises and this record ebbs and flows perfectly. This is, in my mind, the definition of what the much-maligned genre of trance should be with subtle builds for the listener that reward them in ways that no other producer can manage.
