Top 20 albums for you?

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

This thread reminded me of a list I made nearly 20 (!) years ago. It was an exhaustively annotated (I was able to putter away at things like this at work at the time) list of the "200 albums that have mattered to me the most" and the full document runs over fifty pages long, as it was backhandedly a sort of attempt at an autobiography in writing little stories of the times each of the albums evoked.

This is the top 20 from the list (very much in order from 1 to 20). It's definitely not the list I'd make now, but it does make me wonder how many of the changes would actually be albums from the last 20 years... the stuff that is burrowed deepest in my psyche is definitely the stuff I passionately listened to in high school and undergrad. These are definitely all albums I still adore, at any rate, even if there's a bunch I haven't listened to in yonks:


Public Enemy / It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back
Richard & Linda Thompson / I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Public Enemy / Fear of a Black Planet
De La Soul / 3 Feet High and Rising
Public Image Limited / Second Edition
A Tribe Called Quest / People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
Neil Young & Crazy Horse / Rust Never Sleeps
The Velvet Underground / The Velvet Underground
The Replacements / Tim
Ice Cube / AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
The Beatles / The Beatles
The Breeders / Last Splash
Boogie Down Productions / By All Means Necessary
Sugar / Copper Blue
Bob Dylan / Highway 61 Revisited
Epic Soundtracks / Sleeping Star
Tom Verlaine / Cover
Lucinda Williams / Sweet Old World
Big Star / Third/Sister Lovers
Wilco / Summerteeth

[goroth]

Against the Grain is super good. 21st Century might be one of my favourite poppy songs ever.
Frengers is a good call too. Old Mew was like what would happen if a bunch of meshuggah fans tried to write dream pop.

[chuckjaywalk]

My biggest regret is that I couldn't settle in on a Magazine album to add.

[goroth]

Sorry for the running commentary, but those two Public Enemy albums are fucking good as well.

[MaxMaps]

Sorry for the running commentary, but those two Public Enemy albums are fucking good as well.

Fear of a Black Planet SLAPS - so, so SO good.

I also keep seeing Far Beyond Driven mentioned - it proves my theory that it was Pantera's Magnium Opus. Just thinking about it makes me want to break shit.

[LaoWiz]

Here's mine in no particular order. Mostly late 80's early 90's. It's a mixture of stuff I have listened to the most, vinyl I wouldn't dare to sale, and things that just stuck with me over the years that I can still listen to / made a big impression, etc. I listened to Fear of Black Planet a lot but not listing as repeated plays were Brothers Gonna Work it Out, Terrordome and Fight the Power. But this is my essentials list!

Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to hold us back
Dinosaur Jr - Green Mind
Naked City - Torture Garden
Fugazi - 1st EP
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Neurosis - Word As Law
Wire - Pink Flag
Wire - Chairs Missing
Dag Nasty - Dag With Sean
Bad Brains - Self titled (1st album / Roir cassette)
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Shudder to Think - Get Your Goat
Dinosaur Jr - Bug
Jesus Lizard - Goat
Husker Du - Metal Circus
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Minor Threat - 1st 2 7”s
Captain Beefheart - Doc at the Radar Station tied with Trout Mask Replica

[coupleonapkins]

Alice Coltrane - World Galaxy
Wire - 154
Ennio Morricone - Exorcist 2: The Heretic
Grenadine - Goya
The 6ths - Wasps' Nests
Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle
U.S. Girls - Half Free
They Might Be Giants - Flood
Sonic Youth - Dirty
Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life



Whoops, that's only ten

Bill Fay - Bill Fay
Papas Fritas - Papas Fritas
Luna - Romantica
The The - Soul Mining
Bedhead - Transaction De Novo
Scott Walker - 4
Unrest - Imperial FFRR
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
Judee Sill - Judee Sill
The Chills - Kaleidoscope World

[Paul_C]

As always with these things I'm going to remember lots of albums once I've committed to this list, but this is fairly representative of what I've listened to a lot over the years.

Elvis Costello - This Year's Model / Get Happy
The Jam - Setting Sons / All Mod Cons
Counting Crows - August & Everything After / Recovering The Satellites
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
PIL - Metal Box
Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material / Nobody's Heroes
Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army / Replicas
Marillion - Childhood's End
Radiohead - The Bends / Ok Computer
XTC - Drums & Wires / Black Sea
Blondie - Plastic Letters
Suede - Suede / Coming Up
Pretenders - Pretenders
Killing Joke - Killing Joke
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
Split Enz - Second Thoughts
The Clash - London Calling
The Decemberists - The Hazards Of Love
The Smiths - Meat Is Murder / The Queen Is Dead
REM - Green / Out Of Time / Up

[Blackened Soul]

Hmm.. Tuff.. Well just off the top of my Head at random.. ask me in a day any you might get a totally different list..

Ministry - In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up
TAD - God's Balls
Ravi Shankar - Live At Monterey International Pop Festival
Charles Mingus - The Clown
Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
Stefano Scodanibbio - Voyage That Never Ends
Type O Negative - World Coming Down
Boris - Amplifier Worship
Alien Sex Fiend - Acid Bath
Melvins - Bullhead
Sepultura - Chaos AD
Albert King - New Orleans Heat
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Crowbar - Equilibium
Eagle Twin - The Unkindliness Of Crow
ZZtop - Rythmeen
Throbbing Gristle - The Second Annual Report
Scorn - Evanescence
Motorhead - Bastards
Bob Marley - Exodus

[the_bright_undead]

This is impossible, but here’s an attempt with mine being in no particular order. The lack of anything from Aphex, Celtic Frost’s Morbid Tales, or anything from Bowie is proof that it’ll never be perfect.

1. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
2. Jimi Hendrix - Bold as Love
3. Boris - Flood
4. Earth - Bees Made Honey
5. MBV - loveless
6. Sun Ra - Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy
7. Death - Symbolic
8. GZA - Liquid Swords
9. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
10. High on Fire - Art of Self Defense
11. Dylan- Blood on the Tracks
12. Nas - Illmatic
13. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
14. Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend
15. Joni Mitchell - ladies of the canyon
16. Radiohead - Kid A
17. Sly and the Family Stone - Stand
18. Bad Brains - Bad Brains
19. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
20. Grateful Dead - live/dead

[dandy13]

As others have said, 20 is not enough...but here are 20

1. Psychocandy - JAMC
2. The Downward Spiral - NIN
3. Disintegration - The Cure
4. Wild Flowers - Tom Petty
5. Exile - Rolling Stones
6. Fantastic Planet - Failure
7. Kid A mnesia - Radiohead
8. Double Negative - Low
9. Lift - Love and Rockets
10. Modern Guilt - Beck
11. Halcyon Digest - Deerhunter
12. All Things Must Pass - George Harrison
13. No Wow - The Kills
14. Whip It On -The Raveonettes
15. Without You, I'm Nothing - Placebo
16. Purple Rain - Prince
17. Dummy - Portishead
18. Howl - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
19. Revolver - Beatles
20. White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground

[backwardsvoyager]

Bark Psychosis - Codename: Dustsucker
Bastro - Sing the Troubled Beast
Cardiacs - Sing to God
The Caretaker - A Stairway to the Stars
Coaltar of the Deepers - Yukari Telepath
Dirty Three - Ocean Songs
Haisuinonasa - Animal Body
Hymie's Basement - s/t
Ichiko Aoba - Mahoroboshiya
June of 44 - Engine Takes to the Water
Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye
Maudlin of the Well - Part the Second
Number Girl - Sappukei
Pretend - Bones in the Soil, Rust in the Oil
The Residents - Intermission
Robbie Basho - Visions of the Country
Rodan - Rusty
Slint - Spiderland
Tera Melos - s/t
Venetian Snares - Songs About My Cats

[vidret]

This is impossible, but here’s an attempt with mine being in no particular order. The lack of anything from Aphex, Celtic Frost’s Morbid Tales, or anything from Bowie is proof that it’ll never be perfect.

1. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
2. Jimi Hendrix - Bold as Love
3. Boris - Flood
4. Earth - Bees Made Honey
5. MBV - loveless
6. Sun Ra - Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy
7. Death - Symbolic
8. GZA - Liquid Swords
9. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
10. High on Fire - Art of Self Defense
11. Dylan- Blood on the Tracks
12. Nas - Illmatic
13. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
14. Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend
15. Joni Mitchell - ladies of the canyon
16. Radiohead - Kid A
17. Sly and the Family Stone - Stand
18. Bad Brains - Bad Brains
19. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
20. Grateful Dead - live/dead

damn, yeah. i'll duck with this list.

so many lists where I'm totally out of my waters, looks like i'm gonna have to expand my horizons slightly

[Dowi]

Damn! some of these lists are really spot on! fwiw i particularly enjoyed the ones from goroth, vidret, Laowiz, and Blackened Soul.
I've done this thing multiple times through the years and I have learned that about 15 albums are consistently included, while the others vary in correlation to my musical interests in a specific 3-to-5-years-wide timeframe. Most of these albums have an affective value, not in any particular order:

01.Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
02.Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dreams
03.Alice in Chains - Dirt
04.Mastodon - Crack the Skye / Leviathan, it's a hard choice
05.Zu - Carboniferous
06.Zeus! - Opera
07.Radiohead - In Rainbows
08.The Cure - 17 Seconds, or Faith, or Pornography, or Disintegration, or The Head on the Door, or...
09.David Bowie - Low
10.CSNY - Deja Vu
11.Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
12.King Crimson - Red
13.Tool - Lateralus
14.Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
15.Nine Inch Nails - Downward spiral
16.The Physics House Band - Death Sequence
17.Don Caballero - Don Caballero 2. Might switch this one for Amusing The Amazing by Slo Burn
18.Alice Coltrane - Ptah El Daoud
19.Rem - Automatic for the People
20.Pink Floyd – Dark Side, or A Saucerful of Secrets.

aaand.. bonus 5
21.Melvins - Stoner Witch
22.Bob Mould - Silver Age
23.Sun Ra - Jazz in Silhouette
24.Tears for Fears -The Hurting
25.Jesu - Jesu

It is really narrowed down to the limit and there’s no doubt I am forgetting something.

Mudhoney and TAD not included: they’re among my favorites ever but i can't say that i have a particular album that goes in the top list, it is more about many different songs included in various albums. Same goes with High on Fire, but I could probably go with Death is This Communion.

I could have included Old Star by Darkthrone, as i shamelessly discovered this about a year ago and made me fall back in love with the entire discography of the band, we’ll see..

@goroth: totally get what you are saying about Stare Into Death. Feels like every time I listen to it I discover something new, it has been one of the 3 albums I listened to the most in 2021, but maybe I’m still in the honeymoon phase? might appear into this list in a year or so if it keeps up.

Keep the lists coming, i'd love to check out more new (to me) stuff!

[lordgalvar]

No Order at all. Mostly Albums I can listen to the entire thing without skipping a track. Only 19. Very rare that I like an entire album though.

Gauze - 面を洗って出直して来い
Crass - Christ The Album
Kraftwerk - The Man Machine
DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are DEVO!
Cabaret Voltaire - The Voice of America
Dead Kennedys - Probably Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust, Inc (Fresh Fruit could be here on any given day)
Melt Banana - Scratch or Stitch
The Coup - Genocide and Juice
Morton Subotnick - The Wild Bull
Neu! - Neu! 2
G.I.S.M. - M.A.N.
Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Always Say Please and Thank You (or s/t or Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots s/t...depends...but I am kind of getting annoyed with them these days for some reason...historical pick?)
Mr. Bungle - California
Outkast - Stankonia
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
Beck - Midnight Vultures
The Specials - Specials
The Vibrators - Pure Mania
Rudimentary Peni - Death Church

NSFW: show

Bubble Picks?

Busta Rhymes - The Coming
DEVO - Oh No! It's DEVO! (even though I listen to this more than anything these days)
DEVO - Duty Now for the Future (would be in top 20...but not as solid overall and the production sucks)
Melt Banana - Cell Scape
Crass - The Feeding of the 5000
Subhumans (U.K.) - World's Apart
Germs - GI
Cabaret Voltaire - Micro-Phonies
G.I.S.M. - Detestation
The Stalin - Stop Jap
The Weirdos - Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Geza X & The Mommymen - You Goddam Kids!
Fleshies - Kill the Dreamers Dream
Final Exit - Seasons Are Going And Going.... And Lives Goes On
Hieroglyphics - 3rd Eye Vision
Empire of the Sun - Ice on the Dune (my wife listens to it in the car...and I like it!)
Gauze - 貧乏ゆすりのリズムに乗って
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
The Clash - s/t USA
Motorhead - Motorhead
The entire Kraftwerk Catalog (except maybe Tone Float. Not so much into Tone Float. It isn't bad though.)
Chrome - Alien Soundtracks

Compilations. Probably shouldn't count. I probably listen to more compilations that anything outside of DEVO and Kraftwerk though.

Squarepusher - Burningn'n Tree
A.O.A. (Scotland) - Axis of Ascendancy 1982-1990
Siege - Whatever this album is called whenever it is printed (discography)
Madness - s/t US
Zouo - Agony 憎悪 Remains
Subhumans (U.K.) - EP-LP
Rudimentary Peni - EPs of RP
Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
All the Cabaret Voltaire ones
All the ones that Chankgeez sends me or ones I come across (like regions or eras)
Killed by Death stuff
Too many punk collections to list...kind of an EP world in general
Buck Owens/Bakersfield sound comps
The Specials
Assuck - Anticapital/blindspot/etc

I like a lot of singles and EPs though.

20-ish years ago, it might have been:

Subhumans - Worlds Apart
Crass - Christ The Album
Conflict - Conflict
Screeching Weasel - My Brain Hurts
Vibrators - Pure Mania
Lords Of Acid - Voodoo U
Underworld - Second Toughest of the Infants
Cabaret Voltaire - The International Language
Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist
Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust, Inc.
Tilt - 'Til It Kills
Mr. Bungle - California
The Specials - s/t
The Clash - London Calling
Primus - Pork Soda
Estradasphere - Buck Fever
The Who - Sell Out
Crimson Jihad - s/t
Devo - Pioneers the got scalped (the only album I could find in Bakersfield was New Traditionalists...I loved DEVO but only had this comp at that point)
Operation Ivy - Energy

First Albums I ever owned: Fat Boys - Wipeout, Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A., Weird Al - s/t (my aunt gave it to me), and Johnny Rivers' Greatest Hits.