My top 100 albums of all time

Cafe Society
1

So I geeked completely out and made a list of my favourite albums of all time. And I had fun! Yes, go ahead and laugh.

I was surprised at how long it took; I’ve been messing around with it on and off for about a month now, and I still feel like something is missing. At first I tried to limit myself to one record per band, but I realized that wouldn’t be an honest list, so there’s a couple of bands that are featured with more than three or four records. There’s also one or two compilations, but they are so essential I count them as proper albums.

I turned 21 yesterday (I’m still hung over) and I thought it might be interesting to post it on SDMB and dig it out a year from now, and see how my tastes might have progressed in that period of time. There’s just so much music I have yet to hear. That being said, I think my top ten is pretty solid, for example I can’t imagine anything touching Loveless.

I’m kind of embarrassed about this list, but for now, courage…
**
MY TOP 100 OF ALL TIME:

  1. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
  2. Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
  3. The Pixies - Doolittle
  4. Wire - Pink Flag
  5. The Stooges - Funhouse
  6. Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
  7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (US version)
  8. The Replacements - Tim
  9. Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
  10. The Clash - London Calling
  11. Fugazi - Red Medicine
  12. Talking Heads - Remain In Light
  13. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
  14. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
  15. The Beatles - Revolver
  16. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - I See A Darkness
  17. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
  18. Dinosaur Jr. - You’re Living All Over Me
  19. Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
  20. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
  21. Prince - Purple Rain
  22. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
  23. Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
  24. R. E. M. - Murmur
  25. Hüsker Dü - Warehouse: Songs & Stories
  26. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
  27. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
  28. The Replacements - Let It Be
  29. Fugazi - Repeater
  30. Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
  31. Radiohead - Kid A
  32. Wire - Chairs Missing
  33. The Jesus Lizard - Goat
  34. DJ Shadow - Entroducing
  35. Television - Marquee Moon
  36. The Stooges - Raw Power
  37. The Who - Who’s Next
  38. Gang of Four - Entertainment
  39. Minor Threat - Full Discography
  40. Nas - Illmatic
  41. Mission of Burma - Vs.
  42. Slint - Spiderland
  43. Joy Division - Closer
  44. Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City
  45. The Misfits - Static Age
  46. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
  47. Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls & Marches
  48. Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
  49. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
  50. Radiohead - OK Computer
  51. Palace - Viva Lost Blues
  52. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
  53. Bad Brains - Bad Brains
  54. The Ramones - Rocket to Russia
  55. At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command
  56. Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique
  57. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
  58. Big Black - Songs About Fucking
  59. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter (The 36 Chambers)
  60. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
  61. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
  62. Ride - Nowhere
  63. Joy Division - Substance
  64. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
  65. The Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground
  66. The Pixies - Bossanova
  67. Wire - Chairs Missing
  68. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
  69. Meat Puppets - II
  70. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
  71. Drive Like Jehu - Drive Like Jehu
  72. The Clash - The Clash
  73. The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society
  74. Hüsker Dü - Flip Your Wig
  75. The Stooges - The Stooges
  76. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
  77. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
  78. Guided By Voices - Under The Bushes, Under The Stars
  79. Shudder To Think - Pony Express Record
  80. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
  81. Neil Young - On The Beach
  82. The Constantines - Shine A Light
  83. Mekons - Fear And Whiskey
  84. The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
  85. Fugazi - The Argument
  86. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
  87. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
  88. The Modern Lovers - Modern Lovers
  89. Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas
  90. Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
  91. And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
  92. The Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
  93. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
  94. XTC - Skylarking
  95. Bjørk - Post
  96. The Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
  97. The Descendents - Milo Goes To College
  98. Sugar - Copper Blue
  99. Company Flow - Fantastic Damage
  100. Robert Pollard - Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

**
Please feel free too add your own list of favorite albums, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a hundred though. Also, as always, music recommendations are greatly appreciated.

2

jesus, thats a sweet list!

There are a l lot I haven’t heard yet, so now I want to check those out
congrats for even making one in the first place

3

My list might contain about half of those. But it looks pretty solid.

4

What? No Damned!!!??? Not even Machine Gun Etiquette?

Just (mostly) joshing. I can’t believe that you even managed to put it in order. Out of curiousity… do you think your list might have been any different if you weren’t hungover?

When I get some time, I’ll see if if can come up with something. There will be similarities.

5

I own 46 of the albums you have listed. You have good taste.
My thoughts:
The following albums would have to be in my top 100:

Black Heart Procession Amore del Tropico
Cat Power Moon Pix
Dismemberment Plan Change and Emergency and I
Dr Octogon Dr Octogynocologist
Failure Magnified
Massive Attack Mezzanine
Modest Mouse Lonesome Crowded West
Pinback Self Titled and Blue Screen Life
PJ Harvey To Bring you my Love
Queens of the Stone Age Rated R
Tortoise TNT
Shellac At Action Park
The Sea and Cake The Biz
Thingy To the Innocent
Three Mile Pilot Na Vucca Do Lupu, Chief Assassin to the Sinister, and *Another Desert, Another Sea *
Tom Waits – I know you put Rain Dogs in …that would be in my top five, and Bone Machine and SwordFishTrombones both would be top 40
Jesus Lizard – I can’t pick between Goat and Liar, both would be in my top 25.

So if I am adding 22 albums, I have to cut 22 albums. Snip snip:

Guided by Voices/Bob Pollard (4 albums)
Modern Lovers
CCR
Prince
Misfits
Talk Talk
Palace/Oldham/Billy 9 (2 albums)
Joy Division’s Substance and Unknown Pleasures. I’m ok with leaving Closer on the list.
both Pavement albums (always thought they were all hype)
Wilco’s YHF
Meat Puppets
Neil Young
Sugar – The only thing they ever put out that I liked was Beaster, but that isn’t top 100 for me.
Company Flow
The Descendents
REM–I could probably be persuaded to allow Life’s Rich Pageant slip into the 90s on my list, but as for now they are cut.
Of course, my completed list would have additonal changes, but those are the screamingly obvious ones.

In any event, good list. After a lot of thought I could come up with 100 albums. Getting them into a rated order would be a monumental chore.

6

That list is awesome. I have/want to get most of them, and the ones I haven’t heard of I’m going to check out.

7

No. I don’t own ‘Machine Gun Etiquette,’ but their debut is somewhere in the lower 120. I also own this ‘Best of The Damned’ double LP thingy released in 1987 called 'The Light At The End Of The Tunnel, which is non chronological and therefore pretty shitty.

Your post made me notice that for some reason ‘Inflammable Material’ by Stiff Little Fingers is MIA. It is supposed to be somewhere around 50-55, but it has disappeared. I think I must’ve screwed something up when I rearranged some stuff in the Word file. I swear I originally included it; I even made a point of placing it about 20 spots higher than The Clash’s debut.

I don’t think my hangover would’ve mattered that much, since I wrote most of the list over a period of several weeks, but I did exchange ‘Underwater Moonlight’ (Soft Boys) for ‘Milo Goes To College,’ at the last minute, mostly out of nostalgia, and this horrible vision of my fourteen year old self strangling me for not including it. Man, ‘Milo Goes To College’ is a great little record, but I shouldn’t have done that.

8

That is a lovely list. Shame on you for moving “Underwater Moonlight” for any reason though. That would certainly place in my top five. I also prefer “Hootenanny” and “Sorry Ma . . .” for the Replacements choices.

I wish I had made the list ten years ago (alas when I was twenty-one) and had it to look back on today. I would still have the Robyn Hitchcock and Clash, but it would be a broader lot today than it was then. As I got older I was less concerned with including albums that were cool. Paul Simon’s first album would no longer be pushed down the list by more modern choices.

9

Wow. Out of all one hundred records in your list, I own one. (Doolittle, as it happens).

And, the only other one I would pay for is Lust For Life. Still, I applaud the effort to put together a list that bloody long. You’re a one-man VH1!

10

I thought Inflammable Material was conspicuously absent from such a comprehensive list of 70’s/80’s punk. Good call placing it above The Clash’s debut. Also nice call on placing London Calling more than 60 spots above the debut. I was staggered at how much Strummer and the boys had progressed in that short a time.

11

This is supposed to be ‘Funcrusher Plus,’ not ‘Fantastic Damage,’ which is an El-P solo album and not nearly as good. There’s not a lot of hip-hop on my list, I deliberately left out old favorites such as ‘The Chronic,’ ‘Criminal Minded,’ ‘Only Built 4 Linx ,’ ‘Liquid Swords’ etc., just because it’s been years since I listened to them.

You have good taste as well, mouthbreather. Some comments:

Black Heart Procession - Amore del Tropico – my ex-girlfriend’s favorite album. It’s pretty good. Very moody. Like my ex-girlfriend.
Shellac - At Action Park – I totally forgot this album, would’ve most likely placed it somewhere in the 80-90 range.
Dismemberment Plan - Change and Emergency and I – I completely forgot ‘Emergency and I’ also, still I’m not sure if it would’ve made the top 100.
Three Mile Pilot - Na Vucca Do Lupu, Chief Assassin to the Sinister, and Another Desert, Another Sea – this must be good, which one would you recommend?
Cat Power- Moon Pix – I had this at 129.
Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West – I haven’t listened to Modest Mouse in ages, so I didn’t include ‘Moon & Antarctica,’ which I’m starting to think wasn’t really all that great. Still I look forward to their new album, which I’m told is suposed to be pretty good.

12

To start with, for a connection for you, Pall Jenkins who sings for Black Heart Procession is the vocalist for Three Mile Pilot. Tobias Nathaniel who plays keys for BHP joined up on AD,AS (I think) to play keys with 3MP.

Now then, all three albums are very different. Depending on what you’re in the mood for, Either start with CAttS or AD,AS.

CAttS is darker, louder and more chaotic. This was their first album with a guitar player (NVDL is a drummer, a bass, and a vocalist) and the guitar takes a backseat to the bass. Of course, when I type that out, I think of bands like Ned’s Atomic Dustbuster – that’s not at all the vibe here. The bass player in this band is fantastic…he plays melodic and full and hard and really plays the bass as if it were designed to be the lead insturment. Tracks to check out – “Aqua-magnetic”, “97-MT”, and “X-Miner” (of course, I just listened to Aqua-magnetic sample on Amazon and they only captured the intro to the song so that may not be the best place to hear it).

AD,AS is much happier, poppier (relatively, of course) record than their first two. They go for more of a “full band” sound (they added piano/keys on this album and the guitar is featured much more prominantly). If interested in looking for tracks – try “Glitter Wave”, “The Year of no Light”, or “Kill the Racehorse”.

Leave NVDL for last, if you like the other two. It’s their first release and definately the hardest to digest if you don’t know their work.
Now, having tried to gush about this band, I must throw in a disclaimer that a lot of my friends who have tastes that overlap with mine cannot get into 3MP at all. However, I’ve been listening for almost 10 years now and they are the bees knees in my eyes.

They haven’t done much lately – The two primary members (Pall and Zach) have gone on to other things with Black Heart Procession and Pinback, respectively. While they aren’t officially broken up, I haven’t heard anything about them doing anything new.

13

Happy birthday! It’s a fine list. I’m almost certain, because I only own about 10 of those albums, but they would all be on my top 100.

And because I have OCD and insomnia, here’s my version. Because I also have a short attention span, I’m limiting it to about 30. I’m actually kind of curious to see the response; until recently I’ve felt like I was pretty hip, but more and more I find myself hearing mention of bands I’ve never heard of before. And even worse, hearing new music and thinking: “Music? That’s just noise!”

  1. The Beatles: Revolver
  2. Emergency Broadcast Network: Telecommunication Breakdown
  3. Pixies: Surfer Rosa
  4. Led Zeppelin: IV
  5. Pizzicato Five: Happy End of the World
  6. The Pogues: If I Should Fall From Grace With God
  7. Beastie Boys: Check Your Head
  8. Chemical Brothers: Dig Your Own Hole
  9. Pixies: Doolittle
  10. The Art of Noise: In No Sense? Nonsense!
  11. Soul Coughing: El Oso
  12. Alison Krauss & Union Station: Live
  13. Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy
  14. The Clash: Combat Rock
  15. The Beatles: Abbey Road
  16. Fishbone: Truth and Soul
  17. Norah Jones: Come Away With Me
  18. Bjork: Post
  19. Indigo Girls: Indigo Girls
  20. REM: Lifes Rich Pageant
  21. Morcheeba: Parts of the Process (though I’m not sure if this is a compilation and therefore disqualified)
  22. Beck: Odelay
  23. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced?
  24. Van Morrison: Astral Weeks
  25. The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
  26. Poi Dog Pondering: Volo Volo
  27. Soul Coughing: Irresistable Bliss
  28. The The: Dusk
  29. Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona
  30. Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts: Cowboy Bebop
  31. Paul Simon: Graceland
  32. Dave Matthews Band: Under the Table and Dreaming
14

Dude, naming yourself after one of the best bands of the 1980s first caught my attention when you joined the boards and over time you’ve shown yourself to have excellent musical taste. I have ~35 of the albums on your list and have heard and liked most of the rest. Not enough Tom Waits, though. And I’d substitute Wilco’s Summerteeth for YHF. And I’ll echo a few other posters in that I think Life’s Rich Pagaent was REM’s best. Anyway, I’ll stop here as I’m in danger of starting my own list which I don’t have time for at the moment.

Dude, you must really like Iggy. May I suggest another Ramones album (their first 3 are bona fide classics, IMHO). Or The New York Dolls’ self-titled debut? Or The Cramps’ Bad Music for Bad People?

SolGrundy, you’ve got some good stuff on your list, as well. It’s always good to see The Pogues get some recognition. I like Fishbone, but I would probably have chosen The Reality of my Surroundings over T&S. And Yoko Kanno is a goddess. I just listened to the first 3 Cowboy Bebop Soundtracks back to back yesterday afternoon and loved every wacky minute of it.

However, I have a bone to pick with Norah Jones. I think she’s one of the most over-rated artists of the decade and her immense popularity sort of baffles me. Granted, she’s a pretty face with a nice voice who plays competent piano and has decent taste in cover tunes but that’s as far as it goes. The undifferentiated production values, and lack of emotional highs or lows in her playing and singing make her debut album fade into a sort of bland audio wallpaper. I just don’t think she has much range. Perhaps her new release will show some artistic growth.

Oh, well. You also like Bjork and Alison Krauss, so I can forgive the occasional lapse in judgement :wink: .

15

Thanks for taking the time mouthbreather, I will definatly check out Three Mile Pilot. According to their web site, my local used record store has ‘‘Chief Assassin to the Sinister’’ in stock, so I’ll pick it up on Monday. That page hasn’t been updated in six months though.

Thanks for pointing that out Hodge, the second Iggy Pop album (86) is supposed to be ‘The Idiot.’ I think I need to revise my list; there are just too many mistakes, besides I think two Iggy Pop albums is a bit overkill, I might trade ‘The Idiot’ for ‘At Action Park.’ New York Dolls didn’t make it. Neither did The Cramps.

Here’s how I rank the Ramones albums:
Rocket to Russia> S/T > Leave Home> Road to Ruin> End of the Century>>>> the rest.

‘Inflammable Material’ is such a great record, ‘‘Barbed Wire Love’’ is one of those songs that I think could’ve been a huge hit in a perfect world, it’s pure pop, and I like “Alternative Ulster” better than anything The Clash did (with the exception of ‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’) up until ‘London Calling,’ which is just untouchable.

Nice list SolGrundy, it reminds me of two excellent records that I should’ve included: ‘Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash’ and ‘Astral Weeks.’

Would it be in poor taste if I indulged in some Sunday morning revisionism?

16

I’m 50 and have all these from your list:

Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
The Clash - London Calling
The Beatles - Revolver
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (plus others)
Prince - Purple Rain
R. E. M. - Murmur
Radiohead - Kid A
Television - Marquee Moon (had it but gave it away)
The Who - Who’s Next (plus others)
Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City
Radiohead - OK Computer
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (plus others including with Billy Bragg)
The Beatles - Rubber Soul (plus others)
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (plus others)
The Clash - The Clash
The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo’s Factory
Nick Drake - Pink Moon (plus all the others)
Elvis Costello - Armed Forces (plus hoardes of others)
Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde (plus more)
Bjørk - Post

and a few of these folks’ “best of” albums.

I’ll have to think about what I would add.

17

Cool. Give it a couple listens and let me know what you think.

18

I have these ones:

  1. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
  2. The Pixies - Doolittle
  3. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (US version)
  4. The Clash - London Calling
  5. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
  6. The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
  7. Television - Marquee Moon
  8. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
  9. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
  10. Radiohead - OK Computer
  11. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
  12. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
  13. The Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground
  14. The Pixies - Bossanova
  15. The Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
    I would have Velvet Underground, Rubber Soul and Pet Sounds much higher

The Interpol album would not feature in my top 100 as I find it depressing and dull and do not enjoy listening to it.
Crooked Rain I do not really enjoy either, and OK Computer I never listen to.
I would say your list is missing the following that would appear in my list:

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Pearl Jam - Yield
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Air - Moon Safari
Weezer - Blue album

19

Decent list. The only one I really felt didn’t belong was Relationship of Command.

Relationship of Command!

20

Hey Düde

Great list. Most of them are in my cd-rack too ! the ones that are missing are next on the trial list. great selection ! :cool: