Derek and The Dominos: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
- Ozzy - Diary of a Madman
- Metallica - Ride the Lightning
- Dream Theater - Octavarium
- Fates Warning - A Pale Shade of Gray
- Lyle Lovette - Pontiac
- New Model Army - Thunder and Consolation
- kd lang - Ingénue
- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
- Steve Morse - Southern Steel
- Frank Zappa - Joe’s Garage Acts II & III
Some stuff I would list was already taken (Kind of Blue, Moving Pictures, DSOTM, Aja) and if I had to make this list again tomorrow it would change. Diary, A Pale Shade of Gray and Southern Steel would likely always be on the list.
Slee
Good call. My favorite of theirs.
- Cowboy Junkies-Trinity Sessions
- Ministry-The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste
- Willie Nelson-Greatest Hits and Some That Will Be
- Miles Davis-Bitches Brew (surprised not to see this one yet)
- Fugazi-13 Songs
- Sleaford Mods-English Tapas
- alt-J-An Awesome Wave
8.The National-Trouble Will Find Me - Soundtrack to The Harder They Come
- War on Drugs-Lost in the Dream
Just for fun, an all-live top ten:
The Who, Live at Leeds
Joe Cocker, Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Allman Brothers Band, At Fillmore East
Grateful Dead, Europe '72
The Band, Rock of Ages
Peter Frampton, Frampton Comes Alive (admittedly there was a quite a lot of studio manipulation)
Cheap Trick, At Budokan
Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense
Hugh Masakela, Hope
King Crimson, Electrik
May I throw in Dire Straits “Alchemy”?
Most of the old stuff was already taken. If my favorite album by a band was already chosen, I didn’t pick them. In no particular order:
The Bends, Radiohead
Dig Me Out, Sleater-Kinney
Chutes Too Narrow, The Shins
Whatever, Aimee Mann
Remain in Light, Talking Heads
Manners, Passion Pit
Electric Version, The New Pornographers
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar
Hamilton, Original Broadway Cast
Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem
Laura Nyro; Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
John Fahey; The Legend of Blind Joe Death
Jefferson Airplane; After Bathing at Baxter’s
The Band; Music from Big Pink
The Grateful Dead; Dick’s Picks No. 15 (Live show, Englishtown, NJ, Sept 1977)
Big Star; #1 Record
Brian Eno; Before and After Science
Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie; Live at Town Hall, NY, 1945
Miles Davis Nonet; The Birth of the Cool
Stan Getz & J.J. Johnson; Live at Town Hall, Chicago, 1957
I made up a list, then found about half the albums were already listed by other posters so I had to rewrite it.
[ol]
[li]Eels - electroshock blues[/li][li]Smashing pumpkins - Siamese Dream[/li][li]Atmosphere - when life gives you lemons you paint that shit gold[/li][li]Harry Chapin - Story of a life[/li][li]Ice Cube - Bootlegs and B sides[/li][li]Sixx AM - the Heroin diaries[/li][li]Garbage - version 2.0[/li][li]Lil Dicky - professional rapper[/li][li]Meat Loaf - bat out of hell II[/li][li]The Offspring - rise and fall, rage and grace[/li][/ol]
Doing my best to avoid albums already mentioned by others:
Jelly Roll Morton, The Complete Library of Congress Recordings
Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour
Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
Electric Light Orchestra, A New World Record
Alan Parsons Project, Eye in the Sky
Asia, Alpha
Styx, Pieces of Eight
Genesis, Genesis
James Horner, *Glory *(movie soundtrack)
John Williams, *Lincoln *(movie soundtrack)
But there were a lot mentioned earlier that I love.
I hope I’m not threadshitting, but seriously, after reading everyone else’s lists, I was hard pressed to pick 10 whole albums I considered “Essential.”
Maybe Bad Company’s 10 for 6.
Something from The Eagles, probably a Greatest Hits compilation, maybe Hotel California; though I’m more partial to Desperado myself, I wouldn’t classify it as Essential.
Pink Floyd’s been mentioned, and my two candidates for Essential (Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall) have already been nabbed; Animals is also quite good, but again, not sure if it’s rising to the level of Essential.
…yup, I’m tapped.
Tom Waits - Heart of Saturday Night
Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
U2 - War
Close to the edge – Yes
Here I Am – Dionne Warwick
Trouble Man Sound track – Marvin gaye
The Left banke
Village Green Preservation Society – Kinks
Swordfishtrombones – Tom Waits
Countdown to Ecstasy – Steely Dan
Hejira – Joni Mitchell
Music from Big Pink – The Band
Songs of Leonard Cohen
Bringing it all back home – Bob Dylan
What? No love for Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs?
Van Morrison: Moondance
Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul (if compilations are permissible)
The Who: Tommy
Filling in around the corners, and trying not to pick more albums by artists already mentioned…
Sublime - Sublime
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
Cranberries -* Everybody Else is Doing it so Why Can’t We?*
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Bob Marley - Legend
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Green Day - American Idiot (Somebody else mentioned Dookie, but this is an essential album)
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
Named in Post 41.
- “Random Access Memories,” Daft Punk
- “Odelay!”, Beck
- “Vs.,” Pearl Jam
- “Whitney Houston,” by, well, you can guess
- “Like A Virgin,” Madonna
- “Sports,” Huey Lewis and the News
- “Red,” Taylor Swift
- “Christopher Cross,” by, again, you can guess
I have just one to add to the growing list,
Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus.
IMHO, this is the tightest live rock album ever made. Yes, there are solos and variations on the recorded versions of these songs, but they work. Perfectly. Creativity plus restraint.
Love Little Feat. I was about to add them.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
These lists are pretty impressive, they’re mostly things I would have picked. 
But no comedy or spoken word … I can fix that.
In no particular order …
Lenny Bruce --* America / The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce*
Bill Hicks – Rant in E Minor
National Lampoon –Radio Dinner
Bill Cosby – To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With
Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner – The 2000 Year Old Man
Firesign Theater – Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
Bob Newhart – The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart
Anything by George Carlin
Everything by Richard Pryor
Mike Nichols and Elaine May An Evening With Nichols and May
And for extra credit …
Lord Buckley – The Best Of Lord Buckley
And when the kids are out of the room: (NOT SAFE FOR WORK AND POSSIBLY NOT FOR YOUR HOME)Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts – Nuts To You
Any party album by Red Foxx