Journalism's Little Secret

So do you want to know why there are so many year-end best-of lists in so many journalists columns? I'll give you a quick hint...

They're a good lazy column. I mean, sure, there's the agony of picking what belongs and what doesn't belong on said list, I'll give you that. But sometimes, just being able to inventory certain albums or events or movies or bands or whatever into one top-ten list is an easier task than stringing a bunch of nouns, verbs, and adjectives into something semi-coherent. That's just my theory; when I did my 30-posts-in-30-days experiment, a list was quick-and-dirty easy source of content.

With that, here's a list of my all-time favorite albums, for those who didn't already know most of this info:

• Big Star, #1 Record / Radio City
• The Loud Family, Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things
• Game Theory, Lolita Nation
• Verbow, White Out
• Primal Scream, Vanishing Point
• Steely Dan, Katy Lied
• Peter Gabriel, So
• Elvis Costello, This Years Model
• The Differents, This Years Model (or Fate's Going On, whatever you want to call it)
• Joe Jackson, Laughter and Lust
• Joe Walsh, ...But Seriously, Folks
• Webb Wilder, Doo Dad
• Cheap Trick, Cheap Trick (1977)
• Various Masters of Soul, The Complete Stax Volt Singles, 1959-1968
• The Who, Tommy
• Todd Rundgren, Hermit Of Mink Hollow
• Yes, Fragile
• Yes, 90125
• Material Issue, Freak City Soundtrack
• Jellyfish, Spilt Milk
• The Safes, Boogie Woogie Rumble
• Sugar, Copper Blue
• Husker Du, New Day Rising
• Husker Du, Flip Your Wig
• Bob Mould, Body Of Song
• Replacements, Let It Be

Some of these choices should be fairly obvious, based on the reviews for some of these that I've written. Here's hoping that you dig them; I certainly do.

More of substance to come, I promise.