Why do we rank a band's albums from best to worst?
 

This can really be applied to any band, but Sonic Youth is as likely a culprit as any. Does it bug anyone else that people seem to want to rank albums on a number system, declaring one is superior/inferior over the rest? While watching "Antenna" from Jools Holland on Youtube, I noticed a comment that said "How is the new one? Is it the best of the 2000's?"

I think a question like that is pretty silly. If you were to rank a band's albums based from best to worst, it is only doing a disservice to the band, especially a band with a larger discography. You should judge an album based of its own accord and of its own merits. Say on some person's "list", Confusion is Sex were to rank, say, a #10. This isn't very fair to the album, because even if said person were to not prefer it to later Sonic Youth, this shouldn't discredit it as a lesser work. I think more people should see albums from an album-to-album basis. Comparing them to the rest is really only a detriment to the enjoyment of the music, I think.

Because some people enjoy doing it, it helps put the output in their own
perspective and can stir up debate and dialogue.

It's all part of the infinite delusional spiral matrix, man

That too.

Not only that too, only that

Because it's fun, that's why!

Yep the infinite delusional spiral matrix is pure fun

I've never liked rankings, and I've never been very fond of ranking things myself.

Whenever I do, I always tend to go for a "In no particular order" kind of thing. I can still come up with a top-five, top-ten and so on, but I don't feel like sitting there and debating why Album A should be number one an Album C should be number two.

Yeah. I love ranking things.

I think most people rank thinks even when they don't vocalize it (I reach for Washing Machine more often than NYC Ghosts - therefore, I Washing Machine is better etc etc) - but the Internet just provides one of those places we can all get into passionate debates ABOUT our internalized rankings...

Oh - and it's kinda fun LOL

I've already ranked this thread as my 74th favourite of the year.

The only thing that would mean, is that in one person's opinion, CIS ranks lower (based on one or more criteria) than 9 other SY albums. For all we know, it may be the person's 10th favorite record by any artist ever, which would be pretty remarkable.

Furthermore, if you don't believe in ranking, that means if you could only hear one SY album again, for the rest of your life, you would choose one album randomly. Is that what you would do?

I give this thread a 4.6 (outta ten)

...but there never will be a situation in which I will have only one album from one particular band, so why would I want to think about such things? Sure, I know I'd pick A Thousand Leaves, but still. It's kind of strange, to me.

[quote=summer Sure, I know I'd pick A Thousand Leaves, but still. [/quote]

That means A Thousand Leaves, in your opinion, ranks ahead of SY's other albums on at least one criterion. You may not think it's inherently "better," but in some way or another, you prefer it. Your ranking criteria may different than someone else's.

I think your point is not that ranking is invalid, but that you don't understand why people would want to think about it. That's fine, but many of us just enjoy it.

extra time? golden goal? penalty shoot-out?

that's how I'd rank SY's albums 1 to 16, now that we can list "the eternal" in


1 - A Thousand Leaves
2 - Dirty
3 - Washing Machine
4 - Whitey album
5 - Daydream nation
6 - Confusion is sex
7 - Sonic Nurse ( with bonus kim chords )
8 - Expérimental, jet set, trash and no star
9 - Evol
10 - the Eternal
11 - Bad Moon rising
12 - Goo
13 - NYC ghost and flowers
14 - Rather Ripped (with bonus eyeliner - helen lundenberg )
15 - Sister
16 - Murray street ( with bonus kali yug express )

There's a guy in the US who teaches film along those very lines. It's causing a bit of a stir, not because people think its a bad idea but because nobody can agree on what he chooses as 'bad' movies.