I have only one **Eminem ** CD: The Marshall Mathers LP
I enjoy it, but I have no interest in any of his others, new or older.
Clutches Decade tightly and quietly backs out of thread
How about The Waterboys and Fisherman’s Blues?
Not only do you only need one Violent Femmes record (the first, eponymous LP), people who have more than this one (or worse yet, have others and not this one) should be put up against the wall and shot with something very hip.
I agree on the AC/DC. I mean, you literally only need one of their records. I’m partial to Dirty Deeds as well, just because I’m a Bon Scott guy, but I won’t kill anyone who owns Back in Black. Highway to Hell is also more than acceptable, but the point is that you only need one of the three.
Any one of the first four Ramones albums should be enough for the average music consumer. I have all four, but I freely admit it’s overkill.
**Rolling Stones ** - Sticky Fingers
Wow! Greeeattt answer.
And I was going to suggest the only Deep purple album you need is Machine head.
Then stop making yourself such an easy target!
says the guy who owns no albums by either Springsteen or Neil Young
Let’s see…I only have The Joshua Tree by U2. I used to have, I think, everything previous to it and possibly the one right after, then really disliked the next couple of albums (Zooropa or something? with the lemon on it). I sold almost all of my CDs several years ago and, in the course of rebuilding a library, only bought TJT again. I have no strong objection to buying others but feel no real compulsion either.
Nick Drake: Pink Moon. His earlier albums are really uneven and don’t approach the power of Pink Moon, IMHO.
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow. Head and shoulders above all of their other work, again IMHO.
Uh, who? Never mind. I’m a dinosaur.
Nick Drake released his debut in 1969 and died in 1974, so you can’t blame your age for that one. 
My first thought was
Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville
but that’s not really in the spirit of the OP, I guess. In my opinion it’s really her only worthwhile record. But you seem to be talking about people who’ve made plently of worthwhile records, but for personal reasons one of them is enough of a dose.
Well, OK, how about Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On. I have other songs of his I’ve collected as singles or random downloads and I really like a lot of them (there’s a lot to be said for the vocal-only version of “Sexual Healing”), but I’ve never been moved to buy another Marvin Gaye record or CD, and like you and Bruce I own this one on LP and CD, and I’m sure I have a cassette of it somewhere, and sometime in 2027 I’ll be purchasing the mind-downloaded mp17 or whatever. I’m curious about Here, My Dear, though.
Other classic rockers: The Allman Brothers Eat a Peach. I don’t like live albums, generally, and I’m suspicious of there being a high level of wank on many of the Allmans’ records, so I’m pretty happy with just this one from them, skipping the endless live Donovan cover, which the CD version makes almost as easy as the LP version.
Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow. Their other records don’t seem to offer much. This is pretty good, though.
Heresy to many, but: The Grateful Dead, Workingman’s Dead. Actually, I have American Beauty somewhere on LP but have listened to it once in the 25 years I’ve owned it; for the most part the number of times I hear “Sugar Magnolia” completely at random are quite enough for me, and I find the rest of AB quite boring, like I find the rest of their catalog quite boring. I like this record, though.
From my college days, I’d say the mid-80s double LPs Double Nickels on the Dime by the Minutemen and Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü have rendered all their other records superfluous for me.
REM have issued a stack of albums over the years, but the only one I can listen to is “Fables Of The Reconstruction.” Nothing before it, nor after it, appealed to me at all. That one album is magic, though.
I only own a Springsteen album by accident. A copy of the limited deluxe bonus edition of “The Seeger Sessions” came in to the radio station, and it was given to me.
I don’t care what China Crisis did before they met Walter Becker, nor after. But the album they did with him producing, “Flaunt The Imperfection,” is as close to a Steely Dan album as we could come during the years that SD was not performing. “Black Man Ray” sounds like it was done at “Aja” sessions. Walter put his stamp all over that record. The rest of their stuff does nothing for me.
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is the only studio album of his I felt the need to reobtain on CD when I made the move from LPs/cassettes. The rest of his career is satisfactorily covered by the greatest hits package.
I’ve managed to assemble a substantial Paul Simon collection, but if you’re not an insane fan, you still need to own Graceland.
I’ll add
Sublime’s self titled album, and
The Specials self titled album as well.
Moving Pictures by Rush
On Your Feet or On Your Knees by Blue Oyster Cult
Apostrophe by Zappa
Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails
Security by Peter Gabriel
I’d also disagree respectfully and offer
Trick of the Tail by Genesis, and
Dead Set by the Grateful Dead.
Good one! Thank Og for VW sending me to that one!
The Eagles: Hell Freezes Over. It’s got all their best songs, is very acoustic, and is the only live album from any band I’ve ever enjoyed. Simply amazing.
Jeff Buckley - “Grace”
Buying into the Bruce Springsteen debate, if someone held a gun to your head and said “pick one Bruce Springsteen album”, after thinking long and hard about whether or not I should just stake the easy and less painful option of telling him to shoot, I’d chose “Nebraska”. Really, that’s all Springsteen has to say and it’s his least bombastic way of saying it. And it doesn’t feature that useless drummer of his.
Also, really, if you have the first Ben Folds Five album, do you need any others?
somehow i would have guessed you only had one Love album.
First thought on seeing this was disbelief that anyone could suggest it.
I then go back and look at the half-dozen great songs that don’t appear on that album (You Could Be Mine, Civil War and 14 Years are personal favourites) and conclude you’re probably right!
As my contribution, much as I like The White Stripes, and do own all the albums, I don’t think they were ever better than De Stijl.