MOJO Top 70 SOUL albums

[DocMcCoy]

haze25 said:I didn't know the strut had so much hate for that Syreeta album, i like her first 2 records alot.




















peace,xavier




That second Syreeta album was a much bigger hit in the UK than in the US. There are a few good tunes on there, but it's not a patch on her first.





This list is pretty weak, though. MOJO dropped the ball with this.

 

[DocMcCoy]

crazypoprock said:also..don't forget that Mojo is a "rockist" publication...why even discuss their lists? I'm frankly amazed they have 24 karat black in there!




That's a little unfair. It doesn't focus exclusively on rock, and the writers it commissions to write on soul, jazz, hip-hop and reggae usually do so authoritatively. Unfortunately, in this instance, you get all the worst characteristics of by-committee, list-based journalism - daft notions like "one album per artist" and the inclusion of performers who, regardless of how talented they are, have never made anything you'd describe as a great soul album - and the whole enterprise ends up looking like a space-filler.

 

[pickwick33]

DocMcCoy said:crazypoprock said:also..don't forget that Mojo is a "rockist" publication...why even discuss their lists? I'm frankly amazed they have 24 karat black in there!




That's a little unfair. It doesn't focus exclusively on rock, and the writers it commissions to write on soul, jazz, hip-hop and reggae usually do so authoritatively. Unfortunately, in this instance, you get all the worst characteristics of by-committee, list-based journalism - daft notions like "one album per artist" and the inclusion of performers who, regardless of how talented they are, have never made anything you'd describe as a great soul album - and the whole enterprise ends up looking like a space-filler.




If you HAD to do more than "one album per artist," you'd have to expand it to more than 75 records - 100, maybe.





The list would look pretty boring if it were top-heavy with the same artists showing up more than once.

 

[DocMcCoy]

pickwick33 saidocMcCoy said:crazypoprock said:also..don't forget that Mojo is a "rockist" publication...why even discuss their lists? I'm frankly amazed they have 24 karat black in there!




That's a little unfair. It doesn't focus exclusively on rock, and the writers it commissions to write on soul, jazz, hip-hop and reggae usually do so authoritatively. Unfortunately, in this instance, you get all the worst characteristics of by-committee, list-based journalism - daft notions like "one album per artist" and the inclusion of performers who, regardless of how talented they are, have never made anything you'd describe as a great soul album - and the whole enterprise ends up looking like a space-filler.




If you HAD to do more than "one album per artist," you'd have to expand it to more than 75 records - 100, maybe.





The list would look pretty boring if it were top-heavy with the same artists showing up more than once.




Perhaps, but picture MOJO doing a '100 Greatest Rock Albums' list with similar criteria - one Dylan album, one Beatles album, one Stones album, etc. Personally I think they bottled it, out a fear of getting it badly wrong, and instead went for a lot of easy middle-of-the-road consensus choices that most people would find it hard to argue against.

 

[bull_ox]

Mojo isn't remotely rockist in the way that a lot of mainstream American publications are. As far as old music is concerned (50s-70s that is) they generally know their shit.

 

[pickwick33]

DocMcCoy saidickwick33 saidocMcCoy said:crazypoprock said:also..don't forget that Mojo is a "rockist" publication...why even discuss their lists? I'm frankly amazed they have 24 karat black in there!




That's a little unfair. It doesn't focus exclusively on rock, and the writers it commissions to write on soul, jazz, hip-hop and reggae usually do so authoritatively. Unfortunately, in this instance, you get all the worst characteristics of by-committee, list-based journalism - daft notions like "one album per artist" and the inclusion of performers who, regardless of how talented they are, have never made anything you'd describe as a great soul album - and the whole enterprise ends up looking like a space-filler.




If you HAD to do more than "one album per artist," you'd have to expand it to more than 75 records - 100, maybe.





The list would look pretty boring if it were top-heavy with the same artists showing up more than once.




Perhaps, but picture MOJO doing a '100 Greatest Rock Albums' list with similar criteria - one Dylan album, one Beatles album, one Stones album, etc.




See, if Mojo did a "Hundred Greatest Rock Albums" list, they would include more than one album apiece by Dylan, the Beatles and the Stones because they would have enough space to do so.





If they shortened it to 75 titles or less, that list would look pretty monotonous seeing the same artists showing up all the damn time. THAT'S when it would make solid sense to include one album per artist, rather than having the same few acts hogging the chart. Don't want it to become the 75 Greatest Marvin Gaye Albums.

 

[Lewis]

in my opinion

is egregiously missing


probably one of my all time favorite soul albums

 

[Strider79it]

I don't understand how they choose Isaac Hayes Movement over Hot Butterd Soul or Black Moses !

 

[funky16corners]

Strider79it said:I don't understand how they choose Isaac Hayes Movement over Hot Butterd Soul or Black Moses !




This list looks like it was assembled by someone who learned about soul music solely by reading Mojo.

 

[holmes]

Strider79it said:I don't understand how they choose Isaac Hayes Movement over Hot Butterd Soul or Black Moses !

Because Hot Buttered Soul is 1969 & doesn't qualify for Top 70 of the 1970s. Movement & Black Moses are fairly interchangeable to me, both are strong.