Besides politics, pineapple pizzas and Elon Musk’s Twitter feed, few things stoke as much virulent social division as a Best Albums list. Pub tables are rent asunder over the precise relative merits of Hunky Dory and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. WhatsApp groups shatter over whether Nevermind trumps The Queen Is Dead. Entire families are separated forever into warring factions of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks versus Beyonce’s Lemonade.
Because, no matter what your musical taste, you’re not wrong. It’s just that sometimes a critical hysteria hits, mass sonic delusion descends and records are hoisted into positions of historic and cultural importance that you don’t think they quite deserve. And saying so risks social exclusion, online cancelling and a sudden walk-out by that hot Hinge date who loves The King of Limbs.
