- Wooden Smoke - Mike Keneally
- The Universe Will Provide - Mike Keneally and the Metropol Orkest
- Lark’s Tongue in Aspic - King Crimson
- Elements - Roger Glover
- Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield
- Roxy & Elsewhere - Frank Zappa / Mothers
- Tarkus - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
- Time Out - Dave Brubeck Quartet
- Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
- Foxtrot - Genesis
-
Mary Margaret O’Hara Miss America
Drawing mostly from old soul music—and old-soul music—Mary Margaret O’Hara invented an entirely new genre on Miss America. The inflections you note in her sublime, otherworldly vocals run variously from a young Ella Fitzgerald to Joni Mitchell to Yoko Ono. And her songwriting produces gems that have the feel of 70-year-old standards, alongside soulwrenching cries that might be collaborations between Kurt Weill and Gertrude Stein. Frequently noted as one of the most important overlooked masterpieces of all time. -
Jeff Buckley Grace
In 1994, Jeff Buckley crashed through the muddy wall of grunge noise with the voice of a god. He gave male vocalists permission to sing again, and gave bands like Radiohead and the Flaming Lips permission to become the bands they would one day become. (And paved the way, inevitably, for Jeff Buckley tribute bands like Coldplay.) I saw him live six times, we bonded over Mary Margaret and Diamanda, he drew a heart on my copy of Grace, and I cried and cried and cried when he died. -
Jane Siberry When I Was a Boy
The increasingly bizarre (she’d like to be called simply “Issa” and has renounced ownership of all things besides her guitar) but undeniably genius Jane Siberry changed the way I think of pop music with this song cycle about life and death and life; an abstract opera about the circular journey of a human soul. (And Too easily dismissed as a “pretty” singer, or—urgk—a folksinger (is an 11-minute epic song about the simple image of a white tent floating downstream on a raft a folk song?), she started out as a young Joni Mitchell acolyte, but quickly developed an entirely unique approach to the Pop idiom as Art. Simply the most artistically complex and complete artist ever to work in Pop, and When I Was a Boy is her masterpiece. -
Kate Bush The Dreaming
The percussive rage—sexual, personal, artistic, political—that this album pounds out took a firm hold on my 18-year-old soul and has never loosened its grip. There’s just not much I can say about this album; my thoughts about it keep getting derailed by the throbbing pulse it evokes in my mind. Probably the center of my musical universe: everything else exists in reference to The Dreaming. -
Eddi Reader Mirmama
Another singer too easily dismissed as “pretty,” though admittedly with some justification: almost everything else she’s ever done has been little more than blandly pretty. But this album, with almost as many different producers as tracks, is an astoundingly varied collection of textures and depths, and Eddi’s amazing ability to paint abstract emotions with the tones of her voice is the powerful thread that holds this album together as a whole work of art. -
Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel
Though I like almost all of Walker’s albums—with the possible exception of the mostly bland Scott 3—this is the one I keep returning to. The melodramatic passion—no, hysteria—with which he performs these campily translated masterpieces of operatic pop just can’t fail to win you over, if you have a heart at all. This album just makes me giddy: Scott’s artistic and emotional commitment to the material, the soaring pathos of Brel’s magnificent melodies, combined with the slightly hamhanded translations of the Brill Building’s Mort (“Teenager in Love,” “Save the Last Dance for Me”) Shuman (how can you deny the loopy brilliance of “If I could be, for just one little hour,/ Cute, cute—in a stupid-ass way!”?) make an absolutely unique musical experience that will pull me out of any funk. (And yes I know it’s a compilation, which is bad, but the combination of Scott Walker and Jacques Brel creates a unique situation in which it is necessary to overlook such considerations. And yes, *SW4 *is brilliant. But while it’s certainly true that, as a singer, Jacques Brel was no Scott Walker, surely it’s equally true that as a songwriter, Scott Walker was no Jacques Brel.) -
Diamanda Galás The Sporting Life
Most people *hate *this album. But it appeals to nearly the same part of my psyche as the above album: utter commitment to the material, to the brink—heck, *beyond *the brink—of hysteria. That same part of my psyche that is fascinated by saints and martyrs, by Flannery O’Connor’s religious hysterics, by Joan of Arc. Now, before I wrote that last line, I never thought I’d compare Diamanda Galás’s unhinged, knife-wielding drag-queen persona, draped across the hood of John Paul Jones’ convertible on the album cover, to Joan of Arc, but now that I have, I like it. Sanity is for cowards, either one might say. The Sporting Life is a delirious celebration of psychosis, floating down the tarry river of John Paul Jones’ darkly bubbling basslines, and held aloft by Galás’s operatic ululations. It will hurt your brain; it may even make your eyes burn a little bit. But you’ll know you’re alive.
(I’m sorry; I don’t have time to write anything about the remaining albums; I’ll try to get something pounded out later.)
8. Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
9. PJ Harvey Dry
10. Ella Fitzgerald Ella in Rome: The Birthday Concert
10.1 Nobukazu Takemura Child’s View (I couldn’t rank it above any of the other 10, but I couldn’t omit it from my list.)
Not named, but albums that cycle in and out of this list over time (in alpha):
Beastie Boys Ill Communication
Marc Bolan Acoustic Warrior
David Bowie Scary Monsters
Danielle Dax Dark Adapted Eye
The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Marvin Gaye Here My Dear
Lauryn Hill The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Ingrid Karklins Anima Mundi
Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs
NIN Broken
Stina Nordenstam Memories of a Color
Portishead Portishead
Prince Sign o’ the Times
Queen Sheer Heart Attack
Ruby Saltpeter
Tricky Maxinquaye
XTC English Settlement
Odd things I’m thrilled to see mentioned in this thread:
Big Star
Shelleyan Orphan
Poe
The Microphones
The Beatles: Rubber Soul
Carole King: Tapestry
Michael Jackson: Thriller
Prince: Purple Rain
Bonnie Raitt: Nick of Time
Boston: Boston
Delbert McClinton: Never Been Rocked Enough
Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life
Gerry Rafferty: City to City
Donald Fagen: The Nightfly
Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
Aja – Steely Dan
Time Out – Dave Brubeck
Dizzy Gillespie on the French Riviera
The Music From Peter Gunn – Henry Mancini
Focus – Stan Getz
The Allman Brothers Band Live at the Fillmore East
The Nightfly – Donald Fagen
Travels – The Pat Metheny Group
Canyon – Paul Winter
I’d much rather name my top 50 than my top 10. I know I’m leaving out some favorites this way. I’d just hate to have to toss all but 10!
alphabetical order:
Bjork - Debut
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Jazzanova - In Between
Pat Metheny Group - First Circle
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Ursula Rucker - Silver or Lead
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Steely Dan - Aja
Sting - Dream of the Blue Turtles
Zero7 - Simple Things
How many people are doing the same thing I am…looking at other’s lists and saying to myself “I could hang with that person,” or “Dude, who listens to that crap?” 
That’s pretty much why I started the thread. 
VCO3 and lissener, thanks for the great writeups, very entertaining. In particular, I was moved to pick up my somewhat neglected copy of Sunflower and give it another listen. Good stuff.
The second one, mostly. Because, you know, I have good taste in music, not like you people
I’ve been thinking “On another day that’s in my top ten!” and “Whoah, someone’s much older/younger than me!”.
I can go with your comment maybe 50%. I did scan the lists others had up before I posted. I already had a few in mind that I was going to list no matter what, but was prompted to recall a few (maybe 3 or 4) by what others had said. At first I was tempted not to post at all because so many lists include stuff I have never heard nor would be remotely interested in listening to.
But, hey, that’s why we have salt and pepper and Tabasco, right? 
No particular order
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death
Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet - The Juliet Letters
Tom Waits - Blues Valentine
Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas
Nomeansno - The Worldhood Of The World As Such
Black Sabbath - Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath
Rollins Band - End Of Silence
Bad Religion - Against The Grain
Sugar - Copper Blue
How about a third option “Ive never heard half of these albums”. I was going to come up with my ten but not anymore you’d probably just laugh at me!
Hey man, my list included a Bush album. There is no shame here.
There are plenty in this list that I think are great. However, there are some that make me think “That’s in your top ten? That (totally decent yet) totally unremarkable album? Really?”
Bush… they sing Swallowed right? See I love that song, am definately not posting a list!
In all seriousness though, I dont have a list of my top ten albums, I have albums I go back and listen to from time to time, but mostly its just modern stuff. To give you some indiciation of what I mean - my current favourite album is Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy.
Cheating, because I feel like it. In no particular order:
Top Ten Rock Albums:[ul][li]Abbey Road by The Beatles[/li][li]Songs The Lord Taught Us by The Cramps[/li][li]Rocket To Russia by The Ramones[/li][li]Killing Joke (1980) by Killing Joke[/li][li]Violent Femmes by The Violent Femmes[/li][li]Psychocandy by Jesus and Mary Chain[/li][li]Rain Dogs by Tom Waits[/li][li]OK Computer by Radiohead[/li][li]Blacklisted by Neko Case[/li][li]The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips[/ul]Top Ten Jazz Albums:[ul]At Newport (1956) by Duke Ellington[/li][li]At Newport (1957) by Dizzy Gillespie[/li][li]Night Train by Oscar Peterson[/li][li]Sex Mob Does Bond by Sex Mob[/li][li]A Love Supreme by John Coltrane[/li][li]Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus[/li][li]Naked City by John Zorn[/li][li]Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis[/li][li]Song For My Father by Horace Silver Quintet[/li][li]Jazz at Massey Hall by The Quintet[/li][/ul]
Some of my favorites and this will change before I go to bed tonight…
Dead Can Dance Toward the Within
Depeche Mode Black Celebration
Anything Box Worth
VNV Nation Empires
Mesh Who Watches Over Me?
Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism
Delerium Karma
Nine Inch Nails Broken
Depeche Mode Violator
The Postal Service Give Up
I’m going to have to agree that these aren’t easy to pick and could easily change but for me, now:
Throwing Copper - Live
Under the Table and Dreaming - Dave Matthews Band
Keeping it Together - Guster
The Wait - Zox
The Stranger - Billy Joel
Bang Bang - Dispatch
Sheer Heart Attack - Queen
The Wanderer - O.A.R.
Be Here Now - Oasis
Automatic for the People - R.E.M.
In no particular order, here are my all-time favorites to date:
Carole King – Tapestry
KISS – Alive II
Bill Wilson – Traction In The Rain
Webb Wilder – Doo Dad
Merle Haggard – * Rainbow Stew - Live At Anaheim Stadium*
Michael McDermott – Gethsemane
Lisa Germano – Happiness (the Capitol release, not the 4AD one)
Metallica – Master of Puppets
Jimmy Buffet – Feeding Frenzy
Sonia Dada – A Day At The Beach
List likely to change next week, but…
Coil – Music to Play in the Dark vol. 2
Current 93 – Thunder Perfect Mind
John Foxx – Metamatic
Lucisferrato – Ingermanland
Lunar Abyss Quartet – Cosmologamma
Nurse With Wound – Who Can I Turn to Stereo?
Psychic TV – Force the Hand of Chance
Renaldo & the Loaf – Songs for Swinging Larvae
The Residents – Demons Dance Alone
Reutoff – Three Withered Souls