Spin: The 125 Best Albums From The Past 25 Years

Spin recently released their 125 best albums of the past 25 years list—one that found U2's Achtung Baby at the top spot. Ranking albums can be a pretty silly exercise (see the juxtaposition of Queen Latifah and M.I.A. at 102 & 103), but it's also a good chance to catch up with any records you may have missed or overlooked over the years. The best part of the list however is all the links to older issues of Spin, which you can peruse through freely and in their entirety. Perhaps you'd like to read a Q&A with Black Francis from 1988, a feature on the Replacements from 1989, or just glance through the hilarious tobacco and tape (see above) ad campaigns from the 80s.

Pixies to Doolittle, again

I'm not a fan of reunion tours or nostalgia acts, but when it's the Pixies those preconceived notions can be thrown out the window. Similar to The Boss's scheduled performances of complete albums, the Pixies will play all of their classic 1989 album Doolittle—one of the greatest alternative rock albums of all-time—on their upcoming tour. Whether it's Kim Deal's thumping bass melody on "Here Comes Your Man," the power chord frenzy of "Debaser" or the shiver-inducing combination of Joey Santiago's riffs and Francis Black's ranting in "Hey," the ravenous and wild Doolittle hasn't lost a step. If you missed it the first time around, it's time to play catch up.

Tour dates:
11.04 Los Angeles, CA: The Palladium
11.08 Oakland, CA: Fox Theater
11.09 Oakland, CA: Fox Theater
11.12 Seattle, WA: Paramount Theatre
11.13 Seattle, WA: Paramount Theatre
11.14 Eugene, OR: Hult Center
11.16 Denver, CO: The Fillmore
11.20 Chicago, IL: Aragon Ballroom
11.21 Chicago, IL: Aragon Ballroom
11.23 New York, NY: Hammerstein Ballroom
11.24 New York, NY: Hammerstein Ballroom
11.25 New York, NY: Hammerstein Ballroom
11.27 Boston, MA: Wang Center
11.30 Washington, D.C.: Constitution Hall

Pixies - "Hey" (from Doolittle)