Yup, yup, yup + yup.
I’ll also add Tool - Ænima, Interpol - Antics, and Popa Chubby - One Hundred Broken Guitars to my list of personal favorites.
Some I’ve not seen mentioned yet:
Underwater Moonlight - The Soft Boys
Remember - Doll by Doll (now coming out on CD after 25+ years hooray!)
Barrett - Syd Barrett
International Velvet - Catatonia
And the usual suspects:
Rubber Soul - that band from Liverpool
Pretzel Logic - Steely Dan
Sheik Yerbouti - Frank Zappa
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
Physical Graffiti - Zeppelin
Who’s Next - The Who.
- Radoihead - OK Computer
- Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
- Radiohead - Kid A
- Pulp - Different Class
- Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
- Tripping Daisy - I am an Elastic Firecracker
- Sigur Ros - ( )
- The Shins - Chutes too Narrow
- Syd Barett - (culmination of solo work)
- Air - Moon Safari
I did the “100 albums” thread first, but I changed it around a bit for this (to only have one album per artist).
- Universal Hall Pass - Mercury
- Venus Hum - Big Beautiful Sky
- The Decemberists - Picaresque
- Splashdown - Blueshift
- Piñataland - Songs for the Forgotten Future, vol. 1
- Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
- Barenaked Ladies - Gordon
- Bruno Pelletier - D’autres rives
- Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman’s Woman
- Laura Veirs - Year of Meteors
(yes, I know #6 doesn’t come out legally until later this month; I promise I really will buy it when it does. And #4 was never actually released, I don’t think.)
Poses - Rufus Wainwright
from the choirgirl hotel - Tori Amos
Soviet Kitsch - Regina Spektor
Tidal - Fiona Apple
For Adeline - Adrianne
Cobblestone Runway - Ron Sexsmith
3121 - Prince
More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley
Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
God Shuffled His Feet - Crash Test Dummies
Probably not entirely accurate, but I feel like that’s what I’d take if I had to leave today.
Mine also change regularly, but these are a safe bet to make it and echo what a lot of folks have already shared:
- Beatles - Revolver
- Rolling Stones - Exile (my favorite Stones song is Can’t you Hear me Knockin’ of Sticky Fingers, but Exile is the better album…)
- Prince - Sign O’ the Times
- David Bowie - Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
- Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti - for Kashmir alone, but solid throughout
- The Ramones - Ramones
- Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
- Jeff Beck - Truth - some of the best lead guitar work anywhere
- AC/DC - Highway to Hell
- Big Star - Radio City (for Mod Lang, Back of Car, She’s a Mover and September Gurls - man, what a great run of songs…)
There are so many categories I don’t access with this - jazz, older blues, classical, harder rock stuff, let alone metal. Aerosmith Rocks is fighting for a place on this list, next to Social Distortion, Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, and so many others…
Standard jive about how it’s tough to really put all your musical likes and loves into a list only 10 slots long.
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The Format - Dog Problems
The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Bright Eyes - Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things
Tilly & the Wall - Wild Like Children
The Fugees - The Score
The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Subject to change in, oh, three minutes 
Rush - 2112
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Collective Soul - Collective Soul
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Ugly Kid Joe - America’s Least Wanted
Allman Brothers - Where It All Begins
Hootie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Sister Hazel - Somewhere More Familiar
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Hard to narrow down without using mostly all Queen albums,but I will only include
Queen II
Queen -News of the World
Queen -A Day at the Races
Others include
Wall of Voodoo -Seven Days in Sammystown
Marillion -Fugazi
Marty Robbins -Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Pink Floyd -The Final Cut (hard to chose a top Floyd album,but this is my current favorite)
O Brother Where Art Thou-Soundtrack
Blue Oyster Cult -Fire of Unknown Origin
John Denver -Greatest Hits
My list is a bit canonical in parts, but a lot of these records are a part of the critical canon for a reason. And I’ve just narrowed this to rock records, otherwise, I’d have records like Kind of Blue, Three Feet High and Rising, Criminal Minded, etc. probably somewhere in there.
- Pet Sounds - Beach Boys
- Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
- Revolver - The Beatles
- Chairs Missing - Wire
- London Calling - The Clash
- Oddessey and Oracle - The Zombies
- OK Computer - Radiohead
- The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
- Entertainment! - Gang of Four
- Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin
Huh. I never noticed that. I’m always defending modern music and how there’s still plenty of great stuff out there, and yet there’s only two albums (Loveless and OK Computer–I’m sure many would argue Kid A the better record, but I just don’t really like Kid A) listed made in the last two decades on my list.
Speaking of Stephin Merritt, have you seen this recent interview with him](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Ob9TJueBQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.soundopinions.com%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Fshowtopic%3D9946%26hl%3D). Just cracks me up. What an awkward interview. 
But, yeah, I could definitely get behind 69 Love Songs.
Almost the same fir my list (post #36). The thing is, I hesitate to call anything a real favourite until it’s had a chance to properly ferment. If I can still return to an album several years after I first heard it and still get my groove on, then I’ll think about adding it to the list of personal classics. Looking back, I see that Neko Case’s Blacklisted and Sex Mob are the only ones recorded after 2000.
That said, my recent listening time has been almost entirely devoted modern indie pop/rock like Destroyer, Olivia Tremor Control, Apples In Stereo, Broken Social Scene, The Shins, Spoon, OOIOO, and The Constantines. Right now, any of those could have easily made my list, but they’re just too new to me and I want to see if they grow with me or whether I’ll eventually leave them behind.
-Hodge (feeling guilty for leaving out Wilco’s Summerteeth)
In no particular order and subject to change before I brush my teeth/finish this post/exhale…
Radiohead - OK Computer
Elliott Smith - XO
Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
The Guitar Trio - Friday Night in San Francisco
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
Led Zeppelin I
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Paul Simon - Graceland
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Oh yeah, that’s already legendary among his hardcore fans. The thing about Stephin, if you’ve met him, is that’s how he really is all of the time. I think a lot of people think he’s putting them on.
I could believe it. His voice certainly goes with that persona, at any rate.
Oh boy, I love making these lists.
At the moment (subject to change within a few months):
Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum - highlights from their 2003 tour, great remixes of most of their best songs
Prince - 1999 - My favorite Prince album. “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” in particular has never received the attention or respect it deserves.
Tangerine Dream - Dream Sequence - Their greatest hits.
Pink Floyd - The Wall - I hesitated to put this on here because I think it has many flawed tracks, but I’ve been listening to it and enjoying it too much lately not to.
Stereolab - Oscillons from the Anti-Sun - Every song on this greatest-hits collection is great.
Lindstrom - It’s a Feedelity Affair - I am honestly, sincerely amazed this electronic artist doesn’t receive more recognition. His allmusic artist page length to quality of music ratio has to be the lowest of all time.
The Who - Tommy - Sort of like the wall, there’re a lot of low-quality tracks, but ones like “Overture” and “We’re not Gonna Take It” make up for them.
The Beatles - Rubber Soul - This album will be on every top-ten albums list I ever make in my life. That’s all I have to say.
Brian Eno - Another Green World - Great album from beginning to end. “Everything Merges with the Night” is the highlight.
The Cars - Candy-O - I had trouble thinking of a tenth one, but this albums deserves to be here.
Somewhat in order:
Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black My favorite album of all time, and the best album of one of my favorite bands… No-brainer.
Opeth - Still Life The best album by my other favorite band… another no-brainer.
Anathema - Judgment Absolutely the most brilliant single work I’ve ever heard.
Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness Absolutely brilliant, still gives me chills. Probably the greatest prog rock/metal album I’ve ever heard.
Antestor - Martyrium Greatest [Christian] black metal album ever!?
Iced Earth - Alive In Athens [3 disc set] Am I cheating by taking a 3-cd set? I can’t say I love any one of their albums enough to bring it, but if I can get all of their best stuff in one set? Absolutely.
Ayreon - Human Equation More cheating, it’s a two disc set, but it’s great and encapsulates an entire sub-genre.
Empyrium - Weiland The best in acoustic folk music; indispensible.
Novembers Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure Perhaps the greatest pure Doom album I’ve ever heard.
Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors Absolutely the second most brilliant single work I’ve ever heard.
Ones that I wish I could take, but just don’t have the room for
Extol - Synergy Nothing particularly special about this one per say, I just love every track on it.
Spock’s Beard - Octane A moving prog-rock album… damn, I wish I had room for this one too.
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans I’m very disappointed I didn’t have room for this, but I decided against it because even though “Turn Loose the Swans” is probably the greatest single Doom song ever written, I don’t like the entire album enough on it’s own to outway “The Pale Haunt Departure”.
Shape of Despair - Angels of Distress Much the same with TLtS. Some amazing tracks, but there are some weak points, that make it not as good as TPHD. Further, it is only listenable in certain moods.
Nightwish - Once I absolutely love this album, but I just can’t justify putting it above anything I included.
Rhapsody - Power of the Dragonflame As much as I love this album and as much as I love power metal, it just gets a little repitious over time, so it just doesn’t have the replay value to the point where I could make it one of only ten albums.
…okay, I’ll stop listing
My favorite albums are all 60s and 70s folk/folk rock:
Unhalfbricking - Fairport Convention
Liege and Lief - Fairport Convention
Hark! The Village Wait - Steeleye Span
Below the Salt - Steeleye Span
Now We Are Six - Steeleye Span
No Roses - Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band
Battle of the Field - The Albion Country Band
Fotheringay - Fotheringay
Planxty - Planxty
Best of the Bothy Band - Bothy Band
Getting into the more popular stuff:
Revolver - The Beatles
Rubber Soul - The Beatles
Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones
Kinks Kronikles - The Kinks
Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy - The Who
Led Zeppelin (IV) - Led Zeppelin
Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull
Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen
Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens
And then there’s Richard Thompson, who’s a class all by himself. Of his albums, I don’t think I could survive without “Henry the Human Fly” and “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight.”
- Radiohead - OK Computer
- Arcade Fire - Funeral
- The Clash - London Calling
- The Wrens - The Meadowlands
- R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
- Phil Spector - A Christmas Gift For You
- Prince - Purple Rain
- Girl Talk - Night Ripper
- The Beatles - Revolver
- The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The problem is that this list leaves out a lot of singles I would hate to live without hearing, like Good Vibrations, Born To Run, Be My Baby, and many, many others. If I were off to a desert island, I’d actually be more likely to burn 5 compilation CDs of my favorite songs and pick 5 albums from the list above.
kelly5078…you I could hang with! 