You see, I was looking through this book called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and I love lists and such, so I thought it was a great concept. And then I saw something so horrible that it made me question the merit of the entire book.
How would this have happened you ask? Well, I flipped to page 864 and found out that one of the albums I must hear before I die turned out to be Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water by Limp Bizkit.
Allow me this Sheila Broflovski moment: wha Wha-WHAT?
Now, truth be told, yes, nu-metal is not my thing, and personally I think Fred Durst is about as appealing as an entertainer as a bowl full of septic tank runoff is as a meal. No, this wasn't about the fact that I don't like the band. It is the fact that they picked a horrible album by them, one that was largely panned. I mean, if they had taken one of their earlier albums, then I wouldn't have blinked an eye at it.
Now, I know the argument can be made that lists like these are a subjective kind of thing, and in all honesty, I agree with that. However, on some level, there is some concensus on what is and is not a good album, and I would have thought that a panel would have sifted through this process. I mean, there are always albums on these lists that I disagree with, and others that I think belong there, but never before have I been so stunned by an inclusion where money or services didn't change hands.
Maybe there is some critical gap between North America and Britain that caused this to happen. I mean, there has to be some explanation aside from the fact that Interscope records was underwriting the book, which is a tactic they've used in the past.
The proof is in the pudding really.
I mean, does this picture lie? Or does it represent too small a sample? How about this rating amalgamation then?
So I'll put it this way. I would rather die than listen to that album in this lifetime.
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I am a little bummed because last week I noticed that most of the posts from my first 6 months of blogging are now without comments (they've seemed to have disappeared sometime over the last month). I've written Google about it, but I haven't heard anything. I hope they come back soon.
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