jeremy paul gordon

Hi, I live in Chicago and write for a bunch of places like the WSJ, MTV and BlackBook. E-mail me at jeremypaulgordon[at]gmail[dot]com. Also find me right here. Or ask me a question!

December 20, 2011 at 3:37pm
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What’s an Important Album? It’s an album that is perceived to be a momentous work of ambition, invention, and high artistic credibility before it is released, and then proves to actually be so, planting itself in a highly visible place in the culture and acting as a signifier for the year in retrospect. It’s the one album you can’t avoid hearing about at the end of the year to an almost annoying degree; “Important” in this context can be taken to mean “legitimately great” or “incredibly gas-baggy.” But either way, an Important Album stands apart from the pack as a year-defining work.


My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Merriweather Post Pavilion were Important Albums. I liked a lot of albums this year—I made a Top 50 list with a dozen or so favorites to spare—but I can’t think of one that was an Important Album.

— What the hell is this garbage?

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