10 of my favorites; some all-time, some of the moment:
Quadrophenia – The Who
Welcome Interstate Managers – Fountains of Wayne
Meddle – Pink Floyd
The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter – Josh Ritter
Get Away from Me – Nellie McKay
Recall The Beginning…A Journey From Eden – Steve Miller
Damn the Torpedoes – Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
My Aim Is True – Elvis Costello
Mutiny – Greg Kihn
Band on the Run – Paul McCartney & Wings
In no particular order:
The Beatles, Abbey Road
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Electric Light Orchestra, A New World Record
Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
Michael Jackson, Thriller
The Alan Parsons Project, Eye in the Sky
Paul Simon, Graceland
Asia, Asia
Soundtrack by James Horner, Glory
Soundtrack by Dario Marianelli, Pride & Prejudice
There are lots of songs I like individually, but these are, overall, my favorite albums. Even on these, though, I don’t like every single song.
I did it for you. ELO fans - represent!
Believe it or not, I didn’t warm to that album until I was much older. I really didn’t like it when it came out. Heretic, I know.
Actually I can’t say I’m really a fan of the Negro Problem (though I admit I haven’t heard much) - it just totally out-obscures everything else mentioned so far in the thread, and the latent hipster asshole in me thinks that’s awesome.
Part of me wants to add Alligator by the National in there somewhere, and maybe Purple Rain too. But I mean, where?
When I first read this, I thought it said “ELO fans - repent!”
Gotta admit, ELO always struck me as a band that had great singles, but that I probably couldn’t handle for too long in one go.
In the order that my semi-drunken mind just thought of them:
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The Postal Service - Give Up
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Okkervil River - Don’t Fall in Love with Everyone You See
Bright Eyes - Fevers & Mirrors
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Burial - Untrue
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
I could go on for hours!
Also invoking the “one album per artist” rule (sorry, Nevermind):
Nirvana - In Utero
Beatles - Abbey Road
AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
Super Furry Animals - Radiator
The Clash - London Calling
Depeche Mode - Speak and Spell
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Radiohead - The Bends
Vitalic - OK Cowboy
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
Two people have listed Star! That’s amazing. Belly make me proud to be from Boston. I have to contest Carmady’s Big Star selection though - Radio City almost made my list, but I never got Third.
Moving Pictures - Rush
Strange Beautiful Music - Joe Satriani
In Color - Cheap Trick
Drama - Yes
Black Pearl - Pat Travers Band
Machine Head - Deep Purple
EE Ticket - Marc Bonilla
Cutting Bridges - Giacomo Castellano’
Physical Graffitti - Led Zep
Seconds Out - Genesis
No particular order.
Scruffy the Cat - Tiny Days
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration
Traffic - Welcome to the Canteen
The Grateful Dead - Mars Hotel
The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Ednaswap - Wonderland Park
REM - Murmur
The Clash - Sandanista
Side note about Scruffy - a few years ago I emailed Charlie Chesterman, the band’s frontman, to ask him why their music wasn’t on itunes. He said mostly due to band disagreements; well he made their catalog available to me and I was able to download both of their albums. While making this list, I googled Scruffy, and saw that Charlie is now battling the big C - bummer.
If I had an 11th, it might be Mars Needs Guitars by Hoodoo Gurus or maybe 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul.
My top four have remained on my list for several years, but the rest of the list is pretty mercurial. This is actually something I was agonizing over recently, since for the first time in years, I was considering bumping Revolver off my perennial top spot - after much consideration, I did.
[ol]
[li]Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (this album is just too personally meaningful to me not to put it at #1, though I totally get why folks may wonder why it’s on here at all)[/li][li]The Beatles - Revolver (sorry, Fab Four - you had a good run)[/li][li]The Ramones - Leave Home[/li][li]Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (for me, the quintessential jazz album)[/li][li]Green Day - Nimrod (hands down their masterpiece - a full album of perfect songs, with not a single filler, unlike their later concept albums, much as I love them. Not a wasted note to be found, perfect track sequencing, and an oom-pah song about a cross-dressing child; what more can you ask for?)[/li][li]Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (this album wrote the template for the put-up-or-shut-up school of socially conscious punk - London Calling was pussified, aimless navel-gazing by comparison)[/li][li]Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking (an amazing instrumental soul album from the always stellar Dap-Tone label. Recorded only a couple years ago, but will still sound timeless in 50 years)[/li][li]Fela Kuti - Zombie[/li][li]Guitar Wolf - UFO Romantics (Japanese biker-grease ball-garage-punk - I don’t care that i don’t understand what I’m singing along to, this shit rocks! Lock n’ loll!!!)[/li][li]Bantam Rooster - Fuck All Y’all (aside from the fact that BR kicked all kinds of ass, this one I like because it has the best album cover. Of all time. Period.)[/li][/ol]
On review, I’m really surprised that some of my favorite artists didn’t make the cut: Heartless Bastards, Reigning Sound, White Stripes, and Billy Childish. Oh well, I’m sure the list will change next month.
Abbey Road–The Beatles
A Ghost is Born–Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot–Wilco
Black Sheep Boy–Okkervil River
Graceland–Paul Simon
The Beatles (White Album)–The Beatles
Hold Time–M. Ward
The Band (Brown Album)-The Band
Rubber Factory–The Black Keys
69 Love Songs–The Magnetic Fields
punch line, you might also want to look back at some of the times this exercise has been done before, like this.
When I look through these, though I enjoy seeing records that I too cherish, I can’t help thinking of what’s being left almost untouched. There’s almost no reggae* in these lists, for example; I see Bob just turned up, and the thread linked above includes a mention of Heart of the Congos, a touchstone record for people who are really into roots. I see a James Brown there, an EW&F here, but funk is mostly signified only by echoes in hip-hop and Prince. There’s not much folk and country music of any sort here, except at the intersections with rock.
Yeah, I suppose I’ll have to put together a list of my own, and hang out some flags for all this stuff.
Yeah, this was on my list when I got it down to 12 albums. Not really sure why I dropped it but I’m glad someone else put it out there.
DUDE, you are freaking me out! I saw the Gurus back in '86(?) at the Continental Club in Austin when they were touring the US for the first time supporting Stoneage Romeos. I don’t know the last time I even found someone who knew who they are.
THIS is why I like these threads of this sort.
Studio albums only:
Hell yes to Kate Bush! Hounds of Love was a contender as well. The Dreaming is one I’ve seen a number of times on this thread, and I have to say I’m surprised. Not that I don’t like it, but it does strike me as an interesting choice. Interesting choice of Michael Jackson albums too, come to think of it.
HIStory came at just the right time for me (I got it when I was 13, though this was in 2003, years after it was actually released) and I just got obsessed with it, I loved how angry it was and how different it sounded to the most famous Michael Jackson singles. I know it’s not a critical favourite but blah, who cares. Dangerous, Bad and Thriller would be in my 11-20, in that order.
As for Kate, she’s the most consistent artist I know, almost all of her albums are near-perfect. Hounds and The Dreaming are the two that are 10/10, in my opinion, with Aerial and The Sensual World being just slightly less amazing.
