I am of the opinion that this album is placed well above where it should be. I've just conducted a poll on another messageboard of all the Beatles albums, and 317 people have voted so far.
Abbey Road is leading with 18.61%
Revolver 17.67%
Rubber Soul 13.56%
"White Album" 12.62%
Sgt Pepper 7.26%
Yet in the Critic list Pepper is 5th overall and the 2nd best Beatles album after Revolver.
I have noticed that Pepper doesnt get rated quite so high in more modern lists, do you think old lists perhaps have too much weight?
I don't think there's a need to change the weights between older and newer lists.
1. Newer lists already get higher weights.
2. More lists are compiled these days than say 20 years ago (at least more lists are available with internet).
Also, are you sure that a judgement after 40 years is so much more accurate than after 20 years?
Tungsten, please let us know where your poll is conducted. Maybe someone here wants to vote.
My list:
1. The Beatles
2. Sgt. Pepper
3. Abbey Road
4. A Hard Day's Night
5. Rubber Soul
6. Revolver
7. Please Please Me
8. Magical Mystery Tour
9. Help!
10. Yellow Submarine
I think it's natural for older albums to fall down on more recent lists. For one, there are more albums to compete with since new albums come out each week. For another, younger people who weren't around when SGT. PEPPER came out don't care as much if it was unique/influential at the time. There is unique/influential music now for them to focus on.
In my opinion one of the things that really makes Acclaimed Music such a great site is the fact that old lists do play such an important part. Tastes have changed, and will change again. Altogether, however, the list brings together the tastes from different ages and times, getting a truly timeless list, not just a list shaped by typical 2005 tastes.
Btw. it puzzles me that so many Beatles-fans favour The White Album. The album doesn't sound much like a typical Beatles-album, and my impression is that it tends to be the favourite Beatles album by people who don't really like The Beatles. (They tend to be particularly fond of the least Beatles-sounding songs of all, such as "Helter Skelter", "Revolution #9" and those heavily R&B influenced Lennon tracks)
But it seems it has its share of supporters among the fans as well.
I suppose in a way the White Album is the most interesting because it has the most diverse range of songs on it. But there's good stuff and bad stuff, it's not very consistant.
When I read the first post, I wondered if it might be the Steve Hoffman poll you were mentioning...
Howdy, Tungsten. Glad to see you here!
I think the tricky thing about Sgt. Peppers is that while it may not always be everybody's number one pick, it is usually in the top three. I wonder how much different that poll might look if it compiled everybody's top five into one list rather than their fave.
My number one is Abbey Road, but Peppers gets my silver...
