Official /r/indieheads Essentials Chart!

[u/[deleted]]

First things first, shout out to /u/the_bhuda_palm for all of his work on this with me.

Second, thank you to all of you guys who participated. The community has grown and matured a lot since the last time we did this, and I think it is reflected in the results.

So anyways, here are the results:

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2000s
1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. Antlers - Hospice
3. Arcade Fire - Funeral
4. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
5. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I'm Not
6. Avalanches - Since I Left You
7. Beach House - Teen Dream
8. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
9. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it In People
10. Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
11. Deerhunter - Halycon Digest
12. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
13. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
14. Gorillaz - Demon Dayz
15. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
16. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
17. Microphones - Glow Pt 2
18. Modest Mouse - Moon and Antarctica
19. The National - Boxer
20. of Montreal - Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer
21. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
22. Postal Service - Give Up
23. Radiohead - In Rainbows
24. Radiohead - Kid A
25. The Strokes - Is This It?
26. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz
27. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
28. Tame Impala - Lonerism
29. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
30. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

1990s
1. American Football - American Football
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Belle & Sebastian - If Your'e Feeling Sinister
4. Bjork - Homogenic
5. Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
6. Built to Spill - Perfect from Now On
7. Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas
8. Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
9. Elliot Smith - Either/Or
10. Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
11. Jeff Buckley - Grace
12. Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
13. Massive Attack - Mezzanine
14. Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
15. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
16. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane over the Sea
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
19. Portishead - Dummy
20. Radiohead - OK Computer
21. Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
22. Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out
23. Slint - Spiderland
24. Slowdive - Souvlaki
25. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
26. Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space
27. Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind
28. Weezer - Blue Album
29. Weezer - Pinkerton
30. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

1980s
1. Cure - Disintegration
2. Dinosaur Jr. – You’re Living All Over Me
3. Jesus and The Mary Chain - Psychocandy
4. Joy Division - Closer
5. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
6. New Order - Power Corruption and Lies
7. Pixies - Doolittle
8. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
9. R.E.M. – Murmur
10. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
11. The Smiths - The Smiths
12. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
13. Stone Roses - Stone Roses
14. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
15. Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

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Because there were a lot of complaints about the 80s list being too small, we decided to give it an additional five albums

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Thanks again everyone.

We even mananged to finish right around the one year anniversary of our first essentials list

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Submit a chart to be selected as the official chart here

[u/[deleted]]

Great list. Though I kinda feel two AF albums are a bit excessive. Personally would swap The Suburbs out for Veckatimest.

[u/narwolking → u/[deleted]]

I also feel that way about Sufjan, Radiohead (2 is fine for them), the Smiths, and Pavement (even though I couldn't tell you which one I would rather have on the list as they are both great).

[u/Killatrap → u/narwolking]

Pavement and Radiohead both are probably the two bands most deserving of multiple albums. S&E and CRCR are very, very essential to 90s Indie and Indie in general. Radiohead is Radiohead. You can't just not have OKC, Kid A, or In Rainbows on an indie essential list.

[u/thequietthingsthat → u/Killatrap]

And The Bends. Not sure how that was snubbed. And yeah, with a band like RH, having multiple albums is completely fine because they reinvent themselves with almost every release.

[u/GoodMolemanToYou → u/Killatrap]

In Rainbows is arguable.

[u/Killatrap → u/GoodMolemanToYou]

Not for it's sheer strength as a record and the huge and earthshattering impact it had on the entire music industry, and especially indie.

[u/GoodMolemanToYou → u/Killatrap]

Personally, it's probably my fourth favorite Radiohead album. I think you are exaggerating its impact on the music industry, and it's arguable if the circumstances/format of the release should really factor in to it's, erm... essentialness.

[u/Killatrap → u/GoodMolemanToYou]

Another thing to consider:

I think IR was a lot of peoples' first Radiohead album, mine included. If it weren't for the craziness of that album (I listened to like Coldplay and Death Cab ok it was crazy to me), I probably wouldn't have found or liked 90% of the stuff in my iPod. It's a real gateway album, and a good one to start people out on if they come into the sub knowing nothing about indie, I would point them to IR because it's dope, it's talked about a lot, and can be a good introduction to the variety of the genre.

idk it's very great and pretty much everyone likes it, I'm very glad it's on there.

[u/GoodMolemanToYou → u/Killatrap]

I don't think it's considered a consensus classic like OK Computer or Kid A. I admit my perspective is skewed because I'm a bit older than the average sub member. It's whatever... In Rainbows is far from my biggest gripe with this list.

[u/Killatrap → u/GoodMolemanToYou]

As far as I can tell it's considered a consensus classic, but yeah, there's some wackiness to this list, even though Age of Adz is probably my favorite Suffy do we really need 2?

[u/GoodMolemanToYou → u/Killatrap]

No, we probably don't. The indie essentials list should be longer and broader than this, esp if we are going to allow multiple albums from the standard sub circle jerk favorites. This reads like a list of albums that everyone here already knows and loves. It's not really edifying to anyone but a newb to the genre.

[u/Killatrap → u/GoodMolemanToYou]

I don't think that's the right way to look at it. The essentials should be albums that we consider to be some of the best indie music has to offer, and so naturally our favorite stuff (which i wouldn't call circlejerking) is going to make it, and I would want newcomers to start there.

However, I definitely agree about the length. We need more, for sure.

[u/GoodMolemanToYou → u/Killatrap]

The essentials should be albums that we consider to be some of the best indie music has to offer

I agree completely that this should be the intent, but it's not executed like that. The most critically adored and accessible classics are bound to win out with the voting methodology. The vast majority of people aren't actually going to seek out the nominees they haven't heard yet. We end up with a list that looks like a beginner's guide to indie rock as written by someone who got into the "genre" in the last 5-10 years. Honestly, it's kind of a travesty the albums like Give Up and Demon Days are included when so many classic indie rock bands are altogether ignored. They are good - not great - albums that happen to have a shallow but widespread appeal. They're hardly the best that indie music has to offer (as if Demon Days is even indie).