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When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: freeradical
Date: July 30, 2018 10:09PM
I'm talking about stuff that will seriously stand the test of time.

Like "Sgt. Peppers", Abbey Road", "Exile on Main Street", "Thriller", "Rumors", etc.

I can't think of anything since the early to mid 90's.

Perhaps "Superunknown"? Was that the last monster album?

I just don't know what has happened to pop and rock. I do hear new songs that aren't too bad, but where's the killer album?


old fogey smiley
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Sarcany
Date: July 30, 2018 10:21PM
The millennials think it's "Lemonade."


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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Forrest
Date: July 30, 2018 10:35PM
Tom Petty has been making chart topping hits for the past few decades according to Billboard

"Petty scored a record 28 top 10 hits on the Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart, more than any other act in the chart’s 36-year history. (He logged his top 10s between 1981 and 1999.) The act with the second-most top 10s, Van Halen, has 26. Additionally, Petty notched five top 10 hits as a member of the super group Traveling Wilburys."

link
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: freeradical
Date: July 30, 2018 10:44PM
Tom Petty certainly has had a ton of great hits, but I think that "Damn the Torpedoes" - 1979 - was his killer album.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Spiff
Date: July 30, 2018 10:51PM
Hmm. You are right. I thought teenage dream would fit the bill, but upon investigation, only 6 of 12 songs made the charts. Similar situation with 1989. Hrmm. Everyone is going for a one hit wonder. Not like Genesis Invisible Touch, where virtually every song was released to radio (eventually). One of my favorite albums, btw.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: sekker
Date: July 30, 2018 11:10PM
Thriller would be my benchmark.

Probably a Taylor Swift album.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: freeradical
Date: July 30, 2018 11:19PM
Quote
Spiff
Hmm. You are right. I thought teenage dream would fit the bill, but upon investigation, only 6 of 12 songs made the charts. Similar situation with 1989. Hrmm. Everyone is going for a one hit wonder. Not like Genesis Invisible Touch, where virtually every song was released to radio (eventually). One of my favorite albums, btw.

Just because some album has a bunch of radio hits, that does not make it a masterpiece.

IMHO

Edit: I've never even heard of the album "Teenage Dream" until I just googled it. Maybe that means I'm just an old dude, but maybe that means that the album was nothing special.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2018 11:21PM by freeradical.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Mike Johnson
Date: July 31, 2018 12:14AM
Not sure what counts as pop. But Lemonade, To Pimp a Butterfly, and Blackstar are all recent masterpieces.

I guarantee that in 1978 there were old people complaining there hadn't been any really great music in the last twenty years



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2018 12:17AM by Mike Johnson.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: mrbigstuff
Date: July 31, 2018 12:40AM
I'd vote for The Shins, Wincing the Night Away orjOh, Inverted World, both pop masterpieces
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: N-OS X-tasy!
Date: July 31, 2018 01:39AM
Something by Radiohead, perhaps?


It is what it is.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: freeradical
Date: July 31, 2018 01:55AM
Quote
N-OS X-tasy!
Something by Radiohead, perhaps?

OK Computer wasn't bad, but it wasn't a masterpiece.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: AllGold
Date: July 31, 2018 04:04AM
I don't know if there's as much attention to albums as a whole these days. Like Spiff said, maybe the emphasis is more on singles.

But separate from that, we won't know for years whether something current is going to be a masterpiece in 20 or 30 years.

It's easy to say right now that the current work of Pink, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, SZA, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, etc. won't stand the test of time, but we won't know for sure until later.

But yeah, I can't think of anything that's a masterpiece in the last decade or two.


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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Buzz
Date: July 31, 2018 04:25AM
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: fmgtech
Date: July 31, 2018 05:18AM
Quote
Mike Johnson


I guarantee that in 1978 there were old people complaining there hadn't been any really great music in the last twenty years

And in the 60's my parents could not understand why us kids liked the Beatles.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Sam3
Date: July 31, 2018 06:29AM
I'd go with Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. It did score 6 top 10 hits, 5 number 1 singles, only the second artist to have done that. I would also include Adele's 21, that had a few songs that were popular, and are still heard fairly often on radio.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Spiff
Date: July 31, 2018 07:24AM
Y’all bring up an excellent question throughout this thread. What is the definition of a masterpiece when we are referring to a pop album? Maybe if we can define that, it might make it easier to discuss the albums.

I must admit, I am a child of the 80s, and still love the music. Most of the stuff these days just does not have the thought and even, if I may, orchestration that songs did back then. Lots of repetition in the songs these days I often wonder if artists like Taylor Swift songs the chorus, then loops it through the rest of the song, as it is repeated so often and in the same manner. They probably don’t, but still...
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Yoyodyne ArtWorks
Date: July 31, 2018 07:56AM
In terms of a pop album where every song just hits you in the heart, I would say Tom Petty's Wildflowers works for me.


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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: A-Polly
Date: July 31, 2018 08:15AM
agree smiley
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: N-OS X-tasy!
Date: July 31, 2018 08:42AM
Actually, quite a few reviewers referred to Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as a masterpiece.


It is what it is.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: michaelb
Date: July 31, 2018 08:53AM
Quote
N-OS X-tasy!
Something by Radiohead, perhaps?

the better answer may be "everything by Radiohead" since Radiohead is most likely best answer to this question post 1995. Other than hip hop, which is too vast to really even think about in this context.

Quote
Actually, quite a few reviewers referred to Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as a masterpiece.

My son, who is totally into music and loves to discuss these questions would list this as the best album of all time, so that says a lot.

Other possible bands in the alternative/new music vein that have put out multiple "albums" that are very good and very complete include:

The New Pornographers and
Arcade Fire

[but I am not sure about the "masterpiece" aspect of anything they or anyone has done over the past 20 years too]
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: ztirffritz
Date: July 31, 2018 10:30AM
Thriller


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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: hal
Date: July 31, 2018 01:22PM
That's a hilarious question to ask of a bunch of old folks!
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Lew Zealand
Date: July 31, 2018 01:35PM
Quote
hal
That's a hilarious question to ask of a bunch of old folks!

True, true.

Green Day's American Idiot is the most recent album I'm familiar with which IMO qualifies as a Masterpiece but I'm not enough of a Kanye fan to analyze My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I need to give it a few listens.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: ztirffritz
Date: July 31, 2018 01:47PM
If you're including GreenDay in the Pop category, I'd say Pearl Jam's Ten would be my pick. That album was my background through my senior year of HS and 5 years of college.


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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Robert M
Date: July 31, 2018 01:50PM
Free,

For me, I have to agree. I'm a metal head and, one you factor in originality, songwriting, performance, historical value and how much one's ears enjoy it, I'd say _very few albums live up to the standard set by the masterpieces from the late 70s through the early to mid-90s. I can't think of a single album off the top of my head. No doubt I could find a handful if I really search but it wouldn't be easy.

Robert
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: hal
Date: July 31, 2018 06:43PM
imho, I'd have to say Paul Simon's Graceland, but that's because I'm old.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: pinkoos
Date: July 31, 2018 08:55PM
I would think Nirvana's Nevermind needs to be on that list


My daily record blog: [www.auditorymusings.com]


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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Bo
Date: July 31, 2018 09:19PM
U2's Joshua Tree and Nirvana's Nevermind are definitely in there somewhere but those are 31 and 27 years old respectively. IMHO they have both held up extremely well and will for my lifetime (at least for me)

Others that could be in the conversation that are more recent:

Adele 21
Amy Winehouse Back to Black
Radiohead Kid A (can't stand them but they are revered)
Eminem Marshall Mathers LP
Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (one of my absolute favorite albums ever)
Beyonce Lemonade
Arcade Fire Funeral
Kanye My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: freeradical
Date: July 31, 2018 09:27PM
It's hard to believe that Cobain would be eligible for AARP membership today if he were still alive.
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Re: When was the last "Masterpiece" pop album released?
Posted by: Lew Zealand
Date: August 01, 2018 12:32PM
True about pop vs other sub-genres in more recent music. Maybe the nature of pop is that it can't produce a masterpiece? Mutually exclusive? Was Sgt. Pepper's or Pet Sounds really pop?
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