What, no April Wine? 
(Or at least Rush. Or Neil Young. Or Alanis Morissette. Heck, Glenn Gould doing the Well-Tempered Clavier…)
ETA: Or you could take half a Buffalo Springfield album side, and half a The Band album side. (Actually, if you chose carefully, that would be an awesome album. Let Leonard Cohen have the B-side of the single.)
I’ll try–
These are ones I would go back to over and over.
It’s been so long since I listened to an album though…
U2-Joshua Tree
Kansas-Leftoverture
Chicago Transit Authority
Yes-Fragile
U2-All That You Can’t Leave Behind
Eric Clapton-Journeyman
Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
Norah Jones-Come Away With Me
Bruce Springsteen-Born to Run
Eh…only 9, but I’m afraid I’m more of a “Greatest Hits” kind of guy…
Off the top of my head and in no particular order:
Neil Young- On the Beach
Beatles- White Album
Johnny Cash- At Folsom Prison
Grateful Dead- What a long strange trip its been
Modest Mouse- This is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about
Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Bruce Springsteen- Nebraska
Patty Griffin- 1000 Kisses
The Band- The Band
The Beach Boys- Pet Sounds
“See the Sky About to Rain” is one of my fav song.
The Beatles- The White Album
Lauren Hill- The Miseducation of Lauren Hill
Michael Jackson- Thriller
Prince- Purple Rain
Madonna- Bedtime Stories
Nirvana- In Utero
Outkast- Aquemini
A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
Whitney Houston- Whitney Houston
The Red Hot Chili Peppers- Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic
I wish I could slip Jamboree by Beat Happening into my list as well. “The This Many Boyfriends Club” has to be one of my top 10 songs of all time.
Hey, you asked for albums. You want a list of top tracks, or top artists, that’s an entirely different proposition.
Er, well yes, but I was saying that that album may also belong on my list…
- Dire straits Dire straits
9.Dead Kennedys Plastic surgery Disasters
8.Katchafire- Revival (NZ Reggae) - Black sabbath- Paranoid
- P-Money- Big things (NZ Hip-hop)
- War - Why can’t we be friends
4.Pink Floyd- Dark side of the moon - Incubus- Make yourself
- Parliment- Mothership connection
- The Hives - Veni vidi vicious
Making this list has made me realize how many great artists I know from singles only!
Rough time picking. If I spent more time on it, I’d probably come up with something different. Anyway:
*Are You Experienced *– The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Live, 1975-1985
1958 Miles – Miles Davis
*Mingus Ah Um *– Charles Mingus
*Sticky Fingers *– The Rolling Stones
*Beggars Banquet *– The Rolling Stones
*Little Earthquakes *– Tori Amos
*The Complete Recordings *– Robert Johnson
*The Chess Box *– Muddy Waters
*Rum Sodomy & the Lash *– The Pogues
I’m leaving out Pink Floyd (because they’re my favorite band and would have filled the list), The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and “classic” rock, and film scores and focusing on the '80s “alternative” I grew up with and that comprises most of what I’m still listening to.
*(Yeah I know - ending sentence with preposition yadda yadda - so sue me!) * 
(in no particular order)
Starfish - The Church
Faith - The Cure
Love Hysteria - Peter Murphy
Oil And Gold - Shriekback
Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Treasure - Cocteau Twins
Porcupine - Echo And The Bunnymen
Strawberries - The Damned
Superunknown - Soundgarden
Are you my ex-wife?
Not unless you’re gay (but I’m not so you would miss out anyway). I’d love to meet your ex-wife though!
No order. Just ten albums I wouldn’t want to be without and would be pissed if I lost. Some of them I don’t care about
every track (Grant Green’s “Idle Moments” is pretty much just for the title track and Joe Henderson’s solo, for exampl\e).
- Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters “Thrust”
- Grant Green “Idle Moments”
- George Jones “Wine Colored Roses”
- Ray Charles “The Genius of Ray Charles”
- Aretha Franklin “Lady Soul” (at least two other people had this one too! good choice!)
- The Rolling Stones “Exile on Main Street”
- Dr. John “Gumbo”
- Jimmy Smith “At Small’s Paradise”
- ZZ Top “ZZ Top’s First Album”
- Miles Davis “Four and More”
In no particular order:
- The Wall- Pink Floyd
- Rain Dogs- Tom Waits
- In the Court of the Crimson King- King Crimson
- Games, Dames, and Guitar Thangs- Eddie Hazel
- Brain Salad Surgery- Emerson Lake and Palmer
- Hardcore Jones- Funkadelic
- American IV- Johnny Cash
- Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow- Rainbow
- Don’t Talk to Strangers- Dio
- Wish You Were Here- Pink Floyd
In no particular order:
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Radiohead - OK Computer
Portishead - Dummy
Beck - Odelay
The Beatles - The Blue Album (Kind of a cheat, I know)
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Grant Lee Buffalo - Mighty Joe Moon
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Solid Air - John Martyn
Pink Moon - Nick Drake
Lost Horizons - LemonJelly
Secret Treaties - Blue Oyster Cult
Song to a Seagull - Joni Mitchell
Bryter Later - Nick Drake
Contra - Vampire Weekend
Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading
Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins
Boys and Girls in America - The Hold Steady
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
The Police - Synchronicity
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Prince & the Revolution - Around the World in a Day
Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night
Roxy Music - Avalon
Men at Work - Business as Usual
Elton John - Too Low for Zero
Peter Gabriel - So
These would be my “desert island discs”–I think there are many better albums that I like, but I never tire of these.
Albums that appeal to me in one or more idiosyncratic ways. Spin any one of these, and I won’t skip a song… No order, just as they come to mind:
- Nirvana - Nevermind
- Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
- Foo Fighters - Eponymous (but, all of them really)
- NIN - Year Zero
- Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
- Metallica - Black Album
- Incubus - Morning View
- Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea (all of them really)
- Funeral for a Friend - Memory and Humanity
- Third Eye Blind - Blue