This is where the subjective nature of music really shows. Who are these people who decide which album is a career best by a band? What is their criteria? Is it a committee, a bunch of blokes who sit down and thrash it around until they decide on a consensus?
I take virtually no notice of anything critics say about music and albums; they’re being payed to have a point of view, and they directly affect album sales, as they’re effectively paid by the very industry they critique.
The less said about Vision Thing the better…
See, I absolutely love that album, I saw the Sisters on that tour, and they rocked!
Paul Simon’s best album is often said to be Graceland, and, while it was fairly groundbreaking, and politically significant, what with the whole recording in Sun City with Black African musicians, it doesn’t come close to Hearts And Bones, an album ignored by the media at the time, yet it has quite possibly his best ever songwriting on it, and is a flawless recording.
Peter Gabriel’s fourth album was given dreadful reviews, because it used rhythms and samples from all over the world, was described as ‘pandering to the white man’s guilt’ by NME, but it’s by far my favourite album of all of his, while So is usually regarded as his best.
I know what I like, and it very, very rarely has a ‘critic’s choice’ label stuck on it. 😀