When I was five my mom bought me a 45 of Pleasant Valley Sunday that I played on my little multi-disk player with my Peter Pan 45's. In the fifth grade my buddy Owen turned me on to Kiss and Queen. Some guy at a record store recommended to my Mom Sweet's Desolation Boulevard and K.C. and the Sunshine Band. My high school buddy's dad owned an AOR station so we had access to a ton of music (though half the albums were worthless because Dad would put finger nail polish on the album cuts to control the dj's). That's also where I developed my nervous twitch when I hear the Beatles too often. We discovered the Rolling Stone Record Guide, The Trouser Press Record Guide, and Robert Christgau (the 1001 albums/songs books have been added to the reference of late). For my freshman year in college Grandmom gave me $1000 for spending money for the year that I blew in about three weeks at the local record store(ooh, that reminds me, I've GOT to listen to Damn the Torpedoes soon!). Over the past thirty years I've put together a collection of music reflecting the eclectic and clasic, usually without ever having heard the music I'd purchased. But the collection is diverse, consisting of about 2500 pieces of vinyl and 1500 cd's. I've discovered the Public library system that has given me access to inumerable albums. And you'll notice that the list doesn't have a bunch of surprises, accepting maybe the order. Because great is still great. The top 20 have been pretty consistant over the years. The next 80 are an incomplete and ever changing array. As far as the more recent albums not making the charts, I direct you to the decade (and soon yearly) charts. Albums that supplant truly classic works have a truly high standard to achieve. It's taken decades for some albums to click. Believe me, the Fratellis Costello Music and The Cults are on the cusp. But are they better than Armed Forces, Led Zeppelin III or The Who Sell Out, or Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story, all of which did not make the list? Your call on your charts. Take a look at the rest of mine to see where your album sits. I think it's about time for a do-over. 3/23/13: I figure I've obtained a good 450 albums since I wrote this thing. So now I've got to weigh my love for some of the new material vs what I know is awesome. Anybody think that's not a pleasant conundrum?