So why is The Raincoats on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
The Raincoats is an album that helped to inspire me to embark on this wild, crazy journey to compile the best 1,000 albums ever.
As you can see below in the stats section, Rolling Stone placed it as #398 on its greatest 500 albums list. As I discuss in more detail here, my interest and then obsession with that RS list kicked off what is now a three-plus year project to detail my “best” 1,000 albums (and lots of other stuff along with it!).
The Raincoats had been one of those bands that I had sort of heard of, probably in the context of a bevy of eclectic, somewhat obscure bands that Kurt Cobain had helped to popularize (at least among music superfans and/or Cobain acolytes). Other bands in this terrain include the Wipers, Melvins, Meat Puppets, and The Vaselines.
When I discovered The Raincoats for myself, I was blown away by how unique the sound of this female “experimental post-punk band” (as Wikipedia frames it) out of the UK is, and yet how fresh and relevant it remains some four-plus decades after its release in 1979.
John Dougan from All Music calls the album “a soaring, daring, avant-garde-influenced folk-punk record,” but cautions to not… “let the words ‘avant-garde’ scare you off; the Raincoats are not harsh or unapproachable.”
That’s a great description, and perfectly captures the sound and spirit of songs like “Fairytale in the Supermarket,” which deserves merit on the strength of its song title alone. It’s also as good a song as any to tell you whether or not you’re the kind of person who will dig what The Raincoats put on offer.
My favorite song on the album is the spectacular cover of The Kinks’ “Lola.” It does an incredible job of taking the catchy British Invasion vibe of the original and turning it into something wholly unique, strange, and wonderful.
During the research phase for this here best 1,000 albums ever project, I jotted down the following about “Adventures Close to Home”: it “walks that super fine line of weird and good but leans into the good (somehow). It’s quite a feat.”
The spirit of “In Love” reminds me of other punk bands that I admire much, particularly the female-fronted Fastbacks.
Some stats & info about The Raincoats
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Punk Rock, Post Punk, Rock Music, British Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #398
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was The Raincoats released? 1979
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #330 out of 1,000
The Raincoats on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Raincoats that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
But don’t worry, honey don’t worry. This is just a fairytale happening in the supermarket.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.