According to an annual tradition (this being the second edition), yours truly and fellow music professor R.K. Hofmeijer locked themselves up for a few weeks during the first rainy autumn weeks to contemplate about the 50 essential albums you must hear before you buy a house. Of course because the end of the year is characterized by listening to, making, criticizing and listing lists, but especially because more and more rumours are spread about people being disappointed by the purchase of their house. That strange smell that wasn’t there when you bought it, the noisy kid next door who just won’t grow up, naked computer guy without curtains from the other side, the estranged person you once bought the whole thing with: aspects they didn’t think through while listening to the 50 best albums of all-time first.
Because last year’s edition apparently failed according to the facts mentioned above, we called upon senior student musicology Donald Oude-Kamphuis to add an extra list this year. Let’s kick off today with our #50-46 (RKH’s & GvZ’s last year’s ranking between brackets):
DOK:
46. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland (1968)
47. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)
48. Kyuss – Blues for the Red Sun (1992)
49. DJ Shadow – Endtroducing… (1996)
50. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
GvZ:
(*) 46. Jefferson Airplane – After Bathing at Baxter’s (1967)
(*) 47. Simon & Garfunkel – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1966)
(44) 48. John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band (1970)
(*) 49. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)
(23) 50. Cat Stevens – Mona Bone Jakon (1970)
RKH:
(*) 46. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
(*) 47. Radiohead – King of Limbs (2011)
(46) 48. dEUS – The Ideal Crash (1999)
(*) 49. Teenage Fanclub – Bandwagonesque (1991)
(*) 50. Lambchop – How I Quit Smoking (1996)
So the nineties are ruling the lower regions of the list (6/14) and a lot of new albums are introduced compared to last year. Arcade Fire’s Funeral even debuts twice, conquering the title ‘classic’ after ten years. However, all three lists are topped by albums from the Golden Age, an omen of what will follow later on?