# Top ten favorite albums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716 "2007-03-05T19:34:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Autumn\_Almanac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/1 "2007-03-05T19:34:19Z")
Mods: This is a poll, but it’s about music… please move to MPSIMS if that’s more appropriate. Share your ten favorite albums! Not necessarily the albums you consider the most important or influential-- if you’re about to be shipwrecked on a deserted island and can only grab ten discs, what would they be? No ordering necessary. Here are mine: The Beatles: s/t (The White Album) Big Star: Radio City Bush: Razorblade Suitcase Everclear: Sparkle and Fade Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes Under the Stars The Jam: The Gift The Kinks: The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society Radiohead: OK Computer Sleater-Kinney: The Woods XTC: English Settlement ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/2 "2007-03-05T19:39:58Z")
I could probably do my 100 Favorite Albums a lot easier. Here are my top 10 for the moment: 1. Gang Of Four - Entertainment! 2. The Clash - The Clash 3. Husker Du - Zen Arcade 4. The Beatles - Revolver 5. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy 6. Prince - Sign O’ The Times 7. XTC - Skylarking 8. The Replacements - Tim 9. R.E.M. - Murmur 10. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/3 "2007-03-05T19:40:54Z")
Hmm, subject to change on random whim, but: Joy Division - Closer Velvet Underground - Live 1969 Pixies - Doolittle Massive Attack - Protection The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow Cocteau Twins - Treasure Boards of Canada - Music has the Right to Children Husker Du - Candy Apple Gray My Bloody Valentine - Loveless REM - Reckoning ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/4 "2007-03-05T19:59:36Z")
Ask me tomorrow and they’ll be different, but here goes: The Tubes The Beatles- Abbey Road Ten Years After - A Space In Time Dave Edmunds - Rockpile Kate Bush - The Whole Story The Guess Who - So Long Bannatyne Max Webster - High Class In Borrowed Shoes Golden Earring - Moontan Frank Zappa - Tinseltown Rebellion Steely Dan - Aja ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/5 "2007-03-05T20:12:32Z")
It’s damn near impossible to name only ten, and if you asked me tomorrow I’d probably name another ten albums. But I tried to cover a lot of bases and chose a variety: Poe - Haunted Sublime - 40 Oz. to Freedom Aimee Mann - Lost In Space Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac Stevie Wonder - Innervisions Dr. Dre - The Chronic The Cure - Disintegration Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom Prison Radiohead - OK Computer Green Day - American Idiot ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/6 "2007-03-05T20:20:39Z")
1. The Magnetic Fields - _69 Love Songs_ - I can honestly say with full conviction that Stephin Merritt is the greatest living songwriter and that these are his best songs. This album brings together everything that I love about music - weird arrangements and instruments, incredible lyrics and strange subject matter, atypical voices, and ENORMOUS pop hooks - in one place. And those things very rarely exist in the same place together, much less with such perfect panache. I cannot put my love of this record into words; it is everything to me. It’s why I try to make music. It’s how I met my wife. It is the blueprint for a better musical future to come for humanity. 2. The Microphones - _The Glow pt. 2_ and _Mount Eerie_ - I insist that these two records are a double album released a year apart moreso than two seperate albums, and that’s why I group them together. I don’t know what it is about Phil Elvrum’s music that touches me the way that it does, but man, does it. Right when I thought I was at that age of jadedness and level of stubbornness that precludes that sort of adolescent fanaticism about an artist, I went completely monkey-crazy over Elvrum in the way that I haven’t felt about a band since I was about fourteen. I indiscriminately love everything that the guy does, but these two records mean more to me than anything else from him. The songwriting is just so gorgeous, but the sprawling and bizarre arrangements really create an entirely foreign, untouched aural world for me; it’s something close to Lord Dunsany’s vistas, something absolutely magical and unreal. When Phil talks to death, it’s me at 23 having an anxiety attack and fighting for my breath and facing down the Lovecraftian horror that is human mortality. When everything comes in over the fingerpicked guitar on “I want wind to blow,” it feels like the sun rising in time-lapsed film. 3. Husker Du - _New Day Rising_ - I think that the secret to understanding and loving Husker Du is to understand that they were very much an “Americana” band - closer in tone and aesthetic to early R.E.M. than the hardcore bands that they were (still rightfully) lumped in with. I just love everything about their records in a way that’s hard for me to explain, but the aforementioned comes the closest to nailing what it is that makes them so special to me. “New Day Rising” is the record where it just all comes together for them - the incredibly emotional songwriting that comes up against their biggest choruses and hooks, all wrapped in their most aggressive productin, all thundering drums and buzzsaw guitars. 4. Harry Nilsson - _Nilsson Schmilsson_ - I love Nilsson a lot, so it’s hard to narrow it down to a particular record, but Schmilsson was my intro to the guy and remains the best encapsulation of why I love him and what he’s all about. There’s the pomp and pageantry of music hall Nilsson next to the Fifth Beatle pop magestry, next to the melodrama and kookiness that are always present with the guy. Just everything that makes me love him is here in spades, and it’s the one that I always find myself coming back to after I listen to “1941” to death (because that’s the best song he ever wrote, period). 5. T-Rex - \*The Slider \*- There is no question that this is their greatest record, and it’s the one that I’m just addicted to and connect to time and time again. Marc is out of control as the wide-eyed Spaceball Ricochet-playing star bearded space elf, and the SONGS - the HOOKS! He only ever wrote two songs over and over (the ballad and the rocker), and they’re both here in their absolutely greatest incarnations. Something not oft-mentioned is how this album seems to be a gigantic love letter to “rock and roll,” with its shuffling rhythms, Chuck Berry riffs, and whiny Frankie Valli backing vocals on literally every song - even the stoopid songs like “Rock On” are so freaking melancholy and gorgeous that I feel like I’m hearing a gigantic, teary farewell to the sock hops and drive ins; American Graffiti as rock record. And oh my gosh, “Rabbit Fighter!” 6. Scott Walker - _Scott 4_ - Man, it’s just the one that I love the most. It’s Scott at his most operatic and theatrical, but before he really spilled over into the intentional inaccessibility of Tilt and The Drift, both of which I love but purely in an intellectual sense. Scott 4 is the one that I just always come back to - it’s the perfection of Scott’s taking the singer-songwriter persona to its most Brechtian, if not Wagnerian, extreme. But who gives a shit about any of that when we’re talking about an album with “The world’s strongest man” and “Duchess” on it, two of the greatest ballads ever written!? 7. Prince - _Sign o’ the Times_ - I’m a big Prince fan, and this is the one. It’s also a great example of an album that simultaneously manages to be the big obvious critical choice while truly being the artist’s best work. But more than anything, and moreso than any other prince record, it’s just end-to-end killer songwriting. There’s not a dud on here, and its contains most of my favorite Prince songs. Forget singles - “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” “Adore,” “Slow Love,” “It,” “Starfish and Coffee” - almost every song on here was ignored by radio, but it’s his best work - his most mature, artful, and still viciously hooky songwriting. 8. The Beach Boys - _Sunflower_ - Kind of a weird choice, but it’s the one that I just love to pieces. The songwriting is so streamlined that each track almost sounds like four or five promising ideas that ended up grafted together; even bridges have better hooks and melodies than previous BB choruses. But my gosh, the choruses on this record are just so huge - by the time you hit the end of “The whole world,” you’ve heard more and better hooks than anything you’ve heard in your life up to that point. More than ever, the Beach Boys sound like a capital-b Band than “The Brian Wilson Show,” so Dennis and Carl actually get a chance to slip some killer moments in there. “Forever” might just be the saddest song ever created when taken in context of its creator’s personal life, but man, how completely and absurdly gorgeous is “Deirdre?!” Truly my favorite Beach Boys record, a sort of melancholy sendoff to the innocence and ambition of the younger band, the sixties, the whole thing. 9. Talking Heads - _Fear of Music_ - It’s like this; these are David Byrne’s best songs, but then sonically it’s also the band’s most interesting moment. There is nothing to lose! “Air” is one of my favorites, but everytihng else on here is just completely solid and killer. The songwriting is amazing, and then you have these polyrhythmic, funky, afrocentric, tweaky, hacker, post-punky songs bringing it all together. This is the album that people are talking about when they heap praise on _Remain in Light_, but that’s ok, because the real fans know what’s up, just like us Smiths fans that know _Strangeways_ is the joint and us Pixies fans that understand that \*Bossanova \*is by far their finest moment. Join our team. 10. Beat Happening - _Black Candy_ - Always my favorite record by one of my eternal favorite bands, Calvin Johnson just did it right with this record from start to finish. Before this Neo-Preciousness, before irony, before the Neu Sincerity took over, Beat Happening just understood something about retreating to childlike wussiness and wallowing in twee. Moreso, they understood that to do so was merely pointless posturing to get laid (hear me, Butterglory!) if you weren’t writing the best pop songs you’d always wanted to hear. There’s a little bit of 1950’s b-movies, a little garage, summer camp, bonfires, and a little surf hiding in there, but mostly there’s just that perfect Calvin Johnson world of out-of-tune vocals, jangling guitars, and tapping snare drums. I think that “cast a shadow” might be the greatest pop song that will ever be written. If I could pick a record to live in when I die, I’d go to Black Candy heaven where it’s halloween on The Wonder Years all the time, and my wife would be waiting for me as a preteen girl I’d be afraid to talk to. ---
**Author:** ![2pelo\_honey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/ecb155/32.png) [@2pelo\_honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2pelo_honey)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/7 "2007-03-05T20:22:51Z")
Hmmm…what they said…tough to keep at 10, and also ‘this is for right now’. The Beatles - Abbey Road Traveling Wilbury’s - Vol 1 Boz Scaggs - My Time Bob Dylan - Desire Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus Marshall Tucker - Anthology \* Van Morrison - Magic Time Rolling Stones - 40 Licks NGDB - Will the Circle be Unbroken Vol 2 Finally, some kind of Soul mix w/ The Temps, Will Downing, Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes, Stevie, O’Jays, etc. \*I don’t own it, but it’s such a good compilation of their songs, it’s all I could think of for just one choice. ---
**Author:** ![stucco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@stucco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stucco)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/8 "2007-03-05T20:23:54Z")
Whew, i could have kept going on these. The Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Calexico - Feast of Wire Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun The Silver Jews - Bright Flight Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise Beirut - Gulag Orkester The Books - The Lemon of Pink Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance The Notwist - Neon Golden ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/9 "2007-03-05T20:41:51Z")
[ol] [li]Black Sabbath- Paranoid[/li][li]Emerson, Lake and Palmer- Brain Salad Surgery[/li][li]Genesis- A Trick of the Tail[/li][li]Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin I[/li][li]Metallica- Master of Puppets[/li][li]Motley Crue- Shout at the Devil[/li][li]Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon[/li][li]Rush- Moving Pictures[/li][li]Staind- Break the Cycle[/li][li]Yes- Close to the Edge[/li][/ol] This was a hard list to make. I wanted to have one album from my favorite artists, but there are so many good ones I could still choose. If I had other Metallica albums, for example, that would shut out the other good bands that I like. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/10 "2007-03-05T20:43:44Z")
To look at this semi-objectively, the albums in my iPod with the most plays are more or less Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1975 Beatles, Rubber Soul Big Star, #1 Record The Gourds, Heavy Ornamentals New Pornographers, Twin Cinema The Decemberists, Picaresque Leo Kottke, 6- and 12-String Guitar Randy Newman, Good Old Boys The Kinks, The Kink Kronikles Hank Williams, Original Singles Collection The Pogues, Rom Sodomy & The Lash Skews a little heavily toward the recent and the big sets, but that’s as good as any other list I’d come up with. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/11 "2007-03-05T20:45:17Z")
Let’s see…my basic Desert Island Discs list at this moment consists of: Live In New York - Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live at Carnegie Hall - Renaissance Live at the Fillmore East - Allman Brothers (I’m seeing a pattern here.) Beggar’s Banquet - Rolling Stones Waiting For Columbus - Little Feat Time Out - Dave Brubeck Quartet Rumours - Fleetwood Mac Shoot Out The Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson Astral Weeks - Van Morrison Hearts of Stone - Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes And about a thousand tied at #11! ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/12 "2007-03-05T20:45:39Z")
The Fool Circle - Nazareth Broadsword and the Beast - Jethro Tull Songs From the Wood - Jethro Tull Live Bullet - Bob Seger 2XS - Nazareth Toys in the Attic - Aerosmith Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - Dead Kennedy’s Appetite for Destruction - Guns ‘n’ Roses Blizzard of Ozz - Ozzy Not necessarily in that order ---
**Author:** ![Thirty-Nine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f0a364/32.png) [@Thirty-Nine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thirty-Nine)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/13 "2007-03-05T20:56:13Z")
The Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake Kraftwerk – Computerwelt (oh the irony) The Soft Machine – Volume Two The Beatles – Magical Mystery Weather Report – Black Market Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River Frank Zappa – Hot Rats Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon Ween – The Mollusk Dire Straits – Love Over Gold ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/14 "2007-03-05T21:11:41Z")
Joni Mitchell- Court & Spark Love- Forever Changes Marvin Gaye- Here My Dear Sundays- Reading, Writing & Arithmetic Steely Dan- The Royal Scam Sly Stone- There’s a Riot Goin On King Crimson- Red Phil Spector’s Christmas Album Carole King- Tapestry Van Morrison- Moondance ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/15 "2007-03-05T21:16:47Z")
To run down my favorite type of music, I’ll go with: German Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Czech Jesus Chirst Superstar (the live 2CD set) Tokoyo Evita Czech Evita Austria CATS German Song & Dance German Starlight Express (2CD live set) Swedish Phantom of the Opera Korean Phantom of the Opera German Sunset Boulevard ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/16 "2007-03-05T21:23:06Z")
Off the top of my head, in no particular order, and subject to change: Flash and the Pan – Lights in the Night Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother Lambert Hendricks and Ross – Everybody’s Bopping Lyle Lovett and His Large Band – Live in Texas The Who – Live at Leeds Beatles – The White Album Allman Brothers Band Live at Filmore East Bonzo Dog Band – Tadpoles Joan Brill – Encores Soft Machine – Third ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/17 "2007-03-05T21:25:23Z")
In no particular order, and there’s probably a good chance that the next time I make a list like this it’ll be different, but: Abbey Road - The Beatles Machine Head - Deep Purple Running on Empty - Jackson Browne A New World Record - Electric Light Orchestra The Doors - The Doors Who’s Next - The Who Quadrophenia - The Who The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie Overnight Sensation - Frank Zappa Eye in the Sky - Alan Parson’s Project. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/18 "2007-03-05T21:26:45Z")
mmm…I reckon I’ll sneak in some compilations… **Pixies** - Death To The Pixies **Dead Can Dance** - Aion **Cocteau Twins** - Victorialand **Shelleyan Orphan** - Century Flower **The Cure** - Standing On A Beach **Joy Division** - Substance **Bauhaus** - Mask **My Bloody Valentine** - Isn’t Anything **Billy Bragg** - Victim of Geography **Tori Amos** - Little Earthquakes ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/19 "2007-03-05T21:33:17Z")
What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections - Ceelo Green Africa - Toto Aja - Steely Dan Body and Soul - Joe Jackson Barbra - Barbra Streisand Ella and Basie! - Ella Fitzgerald - Count Basie Afternoon of an Elf - Errol Garner Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life - Jay Z The Miseducation of Lauren Hill - Lauren Hill ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716/20 "2007-03-06T00:08:49Z")
In no particular order and subject to change 10 minutes from now: The Cure - Disintegration Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun Miles Davis - Kind of Blue John Coltraine - Blue Train Within Temptation - The Silent Force Nightwish - Once Delerium - Karma The Who - Who’s Next Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Mozart - Requiem Oi… That was tough. I’ve got at least 5 more that I would like on my “short list”. Of course, if I were to do my “Top 15,” I would still have another 5 I would like on my “short list” 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-ten-favorite-albums/394716.md?page=2)