From March 24th to 29th, there was the Shack. On the Shack, there was a Topster. The Shack is now gone, but the Topster lives on in my heart. Today, I will attempt to assess the quality of this Shack Topster, despite having only heard like half of them.
Top Row
“A Love Supreme” is a classic, and I can definitely see someone having it as their favorite album of all time. After that, though, is where the Topster starts getting a little silly. I’ve heard “Crumbling” by Mid-Air Thief before and think it’s really good, but maybe not top row good compared to some other albums on this chart. I haven’t heard any other albums in this row, so unfortunately, my opinions on them aren’t very well formed.
Notable Anime and Manga Series “Azumanga Daioh”
I agree with this assessment.
Second Row
There is quite possibly no better sequence of albums on this chart than Johnny Cash – “At Folsom Prison” directly next to xaev – “Berdlycore Chapter 3.” Truly, when music was invented, it was intended so that a classic country album by a legendary artist would be ranked at the same level as extremely silly EDM.
As for the rankings, “OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES” by SOPHIE is a very respectable pick to have as high up as it is. That said, I’m surprised that “Ooh Rap I Ya” by George Clanton is above it. I’ve also heard that the Beach Boys and Sufjan Stevens albums there are very good, so I will trust the opinion of the masses and say that they should stay up there.
Third Row
To be honest, I feel like this is one of the best rows yet in terms of agreeing with my takes. There’s a lot of albums here that I love and deserve a spot on the Topster (“Girl With Basket of Fruit,” “Visions of Bodies Being Burned,” that 2814 album, yes I will vindicate high school me and say “Twin Fantasy”), but I don’t think are so good they’re the single greatest albums of all time and should go in the top row.
Weezer is also there.
Fourth Row
This is another row with few albums that I’ve actually listened to. That said, as someone who has listened to and loves “Deathconsciousness,” I am extremely curious as to the position of “Everything Based” by Lil B (Thank You Based God).
Not pictured here was the heart stickers between Freddie Gibbs and JPEGMAFIA. Tragically, they blew off the night after being put on. The weather this week hates love.
My hot take here is that “WLFGRL” is the worst Machine Girl album and should be replaced with “The Ugly Art,” but whatever, it’s iconic and this was meant to get people to check out our shack.
Fifth Row
Another row of not knowing much about what’s actually put on the Topster. “Replica” is a very good Oneohtrix Point Never album, and I’d honestly have it higher up. Even then, I might have it replaced with “R Plus Seven,” though that says more about how consistent his discography is than anything about me not liking “Replica.”
There’s a lot of classics here, but to be honest, they’re all ones I haven’t heard. Given that a lot of you readers have heard them, I’m leaving the rest of this section as a fill in the blank for you to get mad.
Sixth Row
This row is fine in its subtlety. “IGOR” is probably the most recognizable album here to the majority of the NC State populace, but there’s also the classic album “Bitches Brew,” along with iconic plunderphonics albums “Endtroducing” by DJ Shadow and “Donuts” by J Dilla. On top of that, there’s a lot of the Gen Z icons, like 100 gecs and Deftones (even though that album came out in 2000). It’s the NYT Connections of Topster rows.
As for my actual takes, I don’t really have many. “Your Arms Are My Cocoon”’s inclusion on here is awesome, but that’s kind of my only take since I either haven’t listened to or haven’t revisited in a while for most of this row.
Seventh Row
More classics, and I feel like a lot of them could be moved up. Jane Remover’s “Frailty” is incredible, “Loveless” is iconic, and I actually haven’t heard “To Pimp a Butterfly” yet but I trust when people say it’s the greatest album of all time.
This one’s actually a little too dense on the classics to really review properly. This says nothing about the very definitely not randomized-until-we-realized-we-needed-certain-albums-on-there process of making this fine Topster. Absolutely nothing.
Final Row
Who cares about the rest of this article. Who cares about the rest of this radio station, actually. We finally have the best, most discourse-ending take in music history: “Rainbow Bridge 3” is better than “Madvillainy.”
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’d say that this is a statistically about average Topster. There are some hits, but there are some huge misses. Like it was randomized or something.
I hope you enjoyed this review, and maybe know slightly more about what some of those album covers are. Tragically, the shack is now gone, but will hopefully return next year to help raise money for Habitat for Humanity. If so, please come and enjoy the possibility of an even better Topster, and share your takes with the poor people running it. Please.
