Why don't you post your own list? Would it be significantly different? Most of the records on that list are pretty damn good. Hard to knock..

Party Ben, I hope you save this little article you wrote, so you can come back in about 25 years when you reach some sense of maturity, and realize that you were as dumb as we all think you are. Do you own one of The Onions "you're favorite band sucks" t-shirts or does it's meaning just fly over your head too?

Why stop there, Christian? I'm imagining a scenario where Party Ben is on his deathbed, looking back on his miserable existence, all the while sobbing to himself, "If only I hadn't mildly mocked the artistic genius of Randy Newman on the internet decades ago...things could be so much different now!"

What was Randy Newman's song even about? And since when do we think King Leopold is "so great"? Is he trying to be funny saying they left the Congo with malaria? Or is he just stupid? I think I will help out with cuddly animal hunting, Party Ben.

And I don't think there's anything immature in ranting about music and how trite music magazines are. Rolling Stone is notorious for realizing that a band exists, like, 3 years after everyone else did and then acting like they are so prescient by charting where a genre is going. And I don't even want to talk about Spin, its only use is as an improvised umbrella.

P.S. I'm sick of the emo punks dirtying up my indie-record-store-of-choice, buying up all the Che t-shirts and incense at my indie-clothes-and-stuff-store-of-choice, and then taking all the creamer and the best sofa, yeah you know the one, at my coffee-shop-with-a-name-like-adjective+Grind-of choice.

i could not get through the randy newman bit. hasn't 90% of everything he's done had the exact same tenor and melody. ho-di-ho w/ a generous (as in excessive and entirely unsubtle) pinch of irony.

i mostly agree with mr. party's comments, but i would've really appreciated an 'alternative' list. so, get back to us w/ that ben. the lists are for the most part mind numbingly lame commercial dreck. "american gangster?' give me a break, hasn't that f***ing ship sailed already. i thought that bloated money factory retired.

ms. winehouse on the other hand makes me move w/ all of her badness. (i just wish she'd put some weight on.) and that bright eyes video is hilarious (and the song delightfully righteous.)

there are certainly some entries i'd agree w/, but for the most part . . . ugh.

You don't get Randy Newman's song? You probably missed the point of "Sail Away", "Red Necks", "Short People" and "Big Hat, No Cattle".

And I enjoyed the edgy video of Bright Eyes, not to mention the intelligent lyrics. They might wish to reconsider their road manager...

Hello!

1) Re: my own list, yes I finally got to that, I just wasn't quite ready. Spin's list isn't that bad, just a little dull -- Spoon, Amy Winehouse, White Stripes, Arcade Fire; these are all good albums but a) the Winehouse was out in 2006, and b) they just seem to be lazy-critic fall-back albums, everybody says the Arcade Fire album is great so it must go in the Top Ten.

2) In 25 years, I'd be happy to look back at my own past stupidity -- heck, I do that every 25 minutes -- but we'll all be dead of global warming and mutant viruses and meteors and black hole radiation beams by then.

3) All hail the Maddenator.

4) I'm not so perturbed at Rolling Stone for not noticing good music until it's too late, it's mostly their continued insistence on the Old White Dude Canon that kind of makes me roll my eyes. But there are a lot of old white dudes who work there, so it makes sense. And Spin makes a good effort, but because of editorial instability they're just all over the place.

5) Yes, Amy Winehouse's record is, despite everything, really good, although I have to count the album as 2006. I'm letting Rehab slide as a single. And "American Gangster" as you see, is in my top 10 of the year, so we'll have to agree to disagree there.

6) Having had some DJ gigs where the crowd felt nearly as skeptical as the one in the Bright Eyes video, I almost couldn't watch the thing. Thankfully I've found House of Pain's "Jump Around" will warm even the coldest hearts.