50 most influential album's of all time

remember albums? those round, black things with grooves? well the observer / guardian, a uk newspaper has taken on the daunting task of documenting the 50 most influential albums of all time - it's quite an interesting list to a music geek like yours truly.

i was pleased that my favorite album of all time is on the list (no. 22 - kate bush's hounds of love: "... Listen again to the delirious cacophany of 'Running Up That Hill', and it sounds like God struck that deal...") and that some of my other fav's were there as well (no's. 12, 7, 24, 47 and of course 28).

what strikes me as interesting is their justifications and their "without this..." feature. i gotta admit, they've actually caused me to go back and revisit some things. case in point no. 2's sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band by the beatles. my personal view initially is that revolver is a much better album. but then they said this:

There are those who rate Revolver (1966) or 'the White Album' (1968) higher. But Sgt Pepper's made the watertight case for pop music as an art form in itself; until then, it was thought the silly, transient stuff of teenagers. At a time when all pop music was stringently manufactured, these Paul McCartney-driven melodies and George Martin-produced whorls of sound proved that untried ground was not only the most fertile stuff, but also the most viable commercially. It defined the Sixties and - for good and ill - gave white rock all its airs and graces.

Without this ... pop would be a very different beast.

my god they got this right. of course revolver may be the better album technically speaking, but if we are talking influence - pepper's is the way to go. i love when a publication forces me to re-evaluate things.

i absolutly must pop this in and listen to it again.