There’s probably a few. I really can’t get that into Bob Dylan or Husker Du, but I recognize both have contributed greatly to music. The latter, especially, is an artist I should love, given my tastes, but for some reason has never clicked with me.
I have to add Rites of Passage by Indigo Girls as a best of its genre.
And Bat Out of Hell.
Most of my absolute favorites (Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, The Pogues, The Who) have been mentioned, so I’ll fill in with others:
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah-Um
Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes
Concrete Blonde – Bloodletting
The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
Miles Davis – 1958 Miles
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (surprisingly panned by many; I disagree)
Bill Evans – Conversations with Myself
Muddy Waters – Hard Again
Nirvana – In Utero
“Great” album that I don’t particularly like? This is going to get me shelled, but I was working at Borders when the long-awaited *Brian Wilson’s Smile *came out.
I think I’ll just stop there.
I think I tried to return Husker Du’s New Day Rising, thinking there had to be something wrong with the CD for it to sound like that. Different strokes, I guess.
I think “Warehouse” might be considered the gateway album. 
To be a ‘Greatest of All Time,’ I would have to stipulate that every song on the album be something that I wouldn’t want to skip over on the player, and that the album as a whole represents the pinnacle of the genre (best production and songwriting quality), and/or that it transcends the conventions of the time it was produced. The Zombies Odessey and Oracle mentioned above is a stellar example, as is Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless.
Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
The Cure - Disintegration
Elbow - Leaders of the Free World
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
New Order - Low-Life
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
They Might Be Giants - Flood
XTC - Oranges and Lemons
I see it’s already been mentioned twice already in this thread, but I want to 3rd** Bat Out of Hell.** A truly phenomenal album from start to finish, that really isn’t dated and continues to sell well year after year. Timeless masterpiece IMHO, but I can also see why people might HATE it. It’s kind of a parody, it’s kind of a knock-off, and it didn’t redefine music as we know it… but, anyhow… I love it!
To be fair, the first few times I heard Loveless, I just thought I had a bad rip. (This was back in the early days of Napster when I was a little more cavalier about just downloading pirated music.) The first two times I downloaded the album, I thought I got one of these screwed-up, fake “anti-piracy” versions, because it sounded like something dubbed from a cassette tape that was speeding up and slowing down and thus ebbing in and out of tune. It wasn’t until my third download that I realized it was only the guitars easing in and out of tune, and the vocals and everything else were on pitch, and that this is exactly what the album was supposed to sound like. My ears are quite accustomed to that Kevin Shields whammy bar detuning thing now, but I literally thought something was wrong with my copy the first few times I listened to it. Now, it’s my favorite album.
Many of my picks have already been posted, but I didn’t see this:
Sonic Youth Daydream Nation.
- The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
- The Clash - London Calling
- Radiohead- OK Computer
- Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
- Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Honorable Mention: Beastie Boys - License to Ill
Lot of good ones already mentioned
Illmatic- Nas
The Low End Theory- A Tribe Called Quest
white album- Beatles
“Thurston! Watt! Thurston! I think it’s 10:30.”
Totally agree.
I can totally get behind this. Miles Davis sextet fully representing.
Glad to see some of my faves already llsted: Tapestry, Carole King; Graceland, Paul Simon (best concert I have ever seen); Jesus Christ Superstar. I gotta throw in two more:
Me And Bobbi McGee, Kris Kristofferson
Living In Clip, ani difranco
And there’s nothing wrong with “Hotel California”, it’s just overplayed. I’m willing give the Eagles a pass on that one since they gave us “Witchy Woman” and “Seven Bridges Road”.
A lot of great albums are being named here. I could throw out my own top ten and come up with another ten I’d be very happy with:
Yep what he said, you sir are a genius. Well only because I agree with your choices.
The 6 albums you have mentioned are the ones i have had on high rotation for many years, owning them on LP, CD and cassette tape and now MP3.
The only other album that is worth a mention would be “Bat out of Hell”. A great pop/rock fusion rock opera album.
But for best album I would stick with Dark Side of the Moon, personally this was when I understood rock’s full potential. It was released I think in 1973 and I would have heard it in 74 when I was 8. I remember hearing it on CD for the first time, on quadraphonic for the first time, live for the first time, on $50,0000 speakers for the first time, on B&O headphones for the first time. It really is one of those albums that continues to impress me and show me new things.
I would also like to add * Duke Ellington live at Newport *.
This may not count because it’s not by one artist but Quincy Jones’s Back on the Block.
There’s really not an album here I wouldn’t love to listen to tomorrow on my way to work.
Did anyone mention “Out of Time” by REM? Well, I just did.
Also “Vitalogy” by Pearl Jam, “She’s So Unusual” by Cyndi Lauper, and “Speakerboxx/The Love Below” by OutKast. “Road Apples” by the Tragically Hip is a delight. And “Toys in the Attic” by Aerosmith.
Bat out of Hell is what I came to mention. I overplayed it when I first got into it, but for all it’s dorkiness, I think it’s great.
I’m not a huge metal guy anymore, but Scorpions Animal Magnetism and Black Sabbath’s Heaven & Hell are killers, although each one has one side of complete awesomeness and the other what struck me as filler.
I’m curious: why no love for Led Zeppelin IV? You’ve probably heard of a few songs on it.
This is a great thread; I’m already surfing around (YouTube & Grooveshark) to listen to the albums I’m not so familiar with.