Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
slatsheit 
I've tried to put this chart together the way that I believe everyone should: 1) ***no*** limitations on the number of albums by a single artist, because that would automatically make the chart a bald-faced lie (at least in my case), and 2) to rank every album meticulously in terms of desert island standards, rather than some sort of objective evaluation - with every single rank number, "hm, if I can only take this many albums with me to the desert island, would I rather have this album, or some other album I haven't included yet?" The desire to be absolutely honest with myself and others has led (and will continue to lead, until I die) to numerous revisions.
In terms of how I personally rate albums, I personally consider there to be four levels of "5 stars." The first three, I give 100 ratings to on this site; the others (more numerous) get 95s. 4.5s get 90s, 4s get 80 or 85, 3.5s get 70 or 75, 3s get 60 or 65, and so on. My ratings tend to trend higher on average than most here because if I listen to an album, something grabbed me that made me want to listen to it.
But I digress. #1-15 I would consider 5+++, #16-34 is 5++, 35-75 is 5+, and everything below (and everything contained on my "101-200" and "201-241" custom charts) is a straight 5.
I'm a self-proclaimed Gen X curmudgeon. I hate hip-hop and everything significantly influenced by it on principle - too meta and too non-musical, and I can't stand the non-stop foul language and degradation. That said, it's absolutely not a racial thing - I love and esteem plenty of r 'n' b, soul, and jazz. The first two of those three genres tend to be underrepresented here compared to my actual tastes because those genres are more singles-oriented. Jazz will probably grow in representation in time - up to this point, I generally haven't evaluated the jazz I like vs. the pop/rock because they're so apples and oranges. I do have to cop to having heard far fewer jazz albums than pop/rock albums (hundreds vs. thousands). I like classical more than jazz, and love certain pieces more than some of the pop/rock albums included here. However, classical is virtually impossible to rate in terms of albums, because classical albums are about performances, whereas I approach classical by finding a performance I like and listening to that, whereas my sense of classical favorites is a matter of pieces, not performances. If pop/rock vs. jazz, is apples and oranges, pop/rock vs. classical is apples and sweet potatoes. In terms of the album-oriented stuff I do like, I strongly believe that there was a precipitous drop-off in music in general after about 1988. Shoegaze and Radiohead's OK Computer are the only developments since which are both 1) original and 2) worthwhile. Everything else that is good is synthetic of prior styles. That's not necessarily a bad thing - there are many very good albums in such veins.
- Chart updated: 04/12/2025 01:45
- (Created: 11/08/2024 01:17).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 3 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 5 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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"Oh, Joy Division. They couldn't play their instruments. And that guy couldn't sing. Not to mention New Order's better anyway." Yeah, in a parallel universe in which everyone has a tin ear. Sure, Albrecht and Hook were limited musicians (note: I hesitate to call Stephen Morris, the human drum machine, limited), but their ambitions combined with Martin Hannett's visionary production and Ian Curtiss's power as the greatest self-expressionist that the pop/rock genre has ever produced resulted in a brief but simply monumental catalog of towering greatness. This album resonantly tells Ian's truth - one which is universal from an erroneous but majority-held perspective. He simply faced the darkness whose existence the majority who are in his boat blithely deny, and told the truth about it with an artistic prowess which was and remains unmatched. If someone doesn't like this album, that generally means I don't need to hear a syllable more about the rest of their bubonically fecal musical opinions, but some have successfully fooled me until I found that out. Note: in an effort to be more honest with myself and the world about my personal preferences, I recently moved this up from #11 to #2.
[First added to this chart: 11/08/2024]
Year of Release:
1980
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Rank Score:
15,520
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126
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The soundtrack from my last two years of high school. Oh how I love this. And there are 9 better albums out there? What a wonderful world. Rolling Stone magazine was dead in the water by the late ‘70s, but they got one thing right – giving this debut album a 4-star review at a time when they were extremely stingy at giving 4 or more stars to anything. R.E.M. was a synthesis of personalities and musical styles – somewhat rootsy and Southern, but also post-punk and left-of-center, especially Michael Stipe. Peter Buck, a huge scholar and fan of the entire history of rock, was a limited but savvy musician, focusing strongly on the sounds of Rickenbacker 6- and 12-string guitars with minimal distortion to produce ringing and endlessly catchy arpeggiated lines modeled heavily on Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberly Rew’s work with the latter-day Soft Boys. Mike Mills was the musician, with far more musical training than the others, contributing melodically-inventive bass lines, piano parts, and earnest tenor backup vocals. Bill Berry was an underrated songwriter and an understated but inventive drummer who also contributed low-toned backing vocals when a third voice was needed, while also serving as their quality control guy. Stipe, of course, sang (at that time) his arty, near spontaneous and piecemeal lyrics in a shy, euphonious baritone mumble that often served as a melodic fourth instrument. I didn’t realize prior to reading Peter James Carlin’s biography how important he was to their pop and melodic sense, as he wrote nearly all of the vocal melodies. He was the artist, absolutely the one most steeped in punk, post-punk, and the outsider perspective. None would have been a star on his own, but they added up to much greater than the sum of their parts. By the time they went into the studio to record Murmur, they had a wealth of gems written. They leaned into their rootsiness far more than they had on the more post-punky Chronic Town ep, but Mitch Easter and Don Dixon went the Martin Hannett route, including extensive studio trickery and non-musical elements to add a futuristic tone to the record that kept it forward-looking. This is a significant departure from their (absolutely fantastic) live sound, slowing things down, adding several additional instruments they didn’t use live like pianos to spruce things up. This is absolutely a studio album, a rock-album-as-a-work-of-art production, and it absolutely kills on that level. The cornucopia of brilliant songs on here – the ethereal psych-folk grandeur of “Talk about the Passion (my fave on the album),” the re-recorded “Radio Free Europe” and “Sitting Still,” Bill Berry’s moving “Perfect Circle,” “Shaking Through,” “Catapult,” “Laughing” – absolutely luminous. “Pilgrimage” has those mysterious Mills vibes and his and Berry’s great backing vocals on the chorus, with the mock stiff upper lip secondary chorus. “9-9” and the urgent “Moral Kiosk” showed more of the post-punk influence and were also a huge part of the record’s excellence. This version of “Radio Free Europe,” while to my ears clearly superior to the Hib Tone version, does lose some of the live energy that they had as a band in those early years, and the last two tracks were good-not-great (which is why, after intense deliberation, I couldn’t move this up higher despite loving it to pieces), but this album “had a weird soul to it” as Peter Buck put it, and created the modern layout (after the Velvet Underground’s third album’s original blueprint) for the college rock of the ‘80s. It’s not quite the platonic ideal of R.E.M. – that would be Chronic Town – but it’s awfully close, and certainly by far the best long-play they ever recorded. Has a sense of intimacy, mystery, and mystique that was key to the legend and eternal appeal of what was, in the beginning (until Document), the best American band of the ‘80s and one of the greatest of all time. Their initial four-LP run is the fourth-best of all time – after The Stones, Stevie Wonder, and Gabriel-Hackett-era Genesis.
[First added to this chart: 11/08/2024]
Year of Release:
1983
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Rank Score:
10,314
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A tour-de-force which is finally starting to get its due. You’ve probably noticed (or soon will) that my favorite adjective when it comes to music is “cinematic.” I love music that takes you on a journey, evokes a landscape, or makes you visualize a story (in the instrumental aspect more than in the lyrics). That probably applies to no album as wonderfully as it does to this. Kate’s most ambitious music, and she had found the sweet spot of her vocal tone and phrasing by this point, while still maintaining her charming eccentricity. I usually abominate the Fairlight synthesizer, but she makes wonderful use of it here, in combination with various folk-associated acoustic instruments from around the world, along with some fine electric players as well. Four of the five songs on side one are simply magnificent – the charging, surging “Hounds of Love,” the resurgent 21st century hit “Running Up That Hill,” the dramatically powerful “The Big Sky,” and best of all the gloriously elegiac “Cloudbusting” – so lovely, the best thing she ever did. Yeah, an album on which “The Big Sky” isn’t the best track is gonna be a five-star album, at least. The soft, ballad-tempo “Mother Stands for Comfort,” is kind of startling in the midst of all of that magnificence, but it’s so beautifully-played (Eberhard Weber on double bass, take a bow, sir). Side two presents the mini-rock opera, The Ninth Wave, capturing the mental, emotional, and spiritual journey of someone drowning in icy waters. The height of her ambitions at this point, and so well-executed. The drowsy “And Dream of Sheep,” the ominous cellos of “Under Ice,” the threatening dramatic torments (and great usage of musique concrete-type elements) of “Waking the Witch” begin the journey, which reaches an interlude with the quiet out-of-body experience of “Watching You Without Me.” Then we have the brilliant Celtic extravaganza of “The Jig of Life,” another magnificent achievement, followed by the Gregorian choral brilliance of “Hello Earth” and the beautiful valedictory conclusion of “The Morning Fog,” with John Williams’s guitar work and Paddy Bush’s fujara and fiddle ornamenting Kate’s gorgeously grateful singing. I have loved this since high school (i.e. since about 1988). The crowning glory of Kate Bush’s oeuvre, and one of the very best albums of the ‘80s. A few notches down on this list, you will find Echo & the Bunnymen’s Porcupine. To illustrate why I think so highly of that album, I find it very artistically reminiscent of this one. Bumping Hounds of Love up this list five spaces after writing this.
[First added to this chart: 11/08/2024]
Year of Release:
1985
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Rank Score:
18,536
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Let’s be frank – my list is somewhat prosaic and predictable in that there’s a fair amount of overlap (though significant differences in order) with the site’s Top 100. However, a few of my favorites, which I believe to be very much on the level of those albums that coincide on the two lists, are rated and ranked very low on BEA. This towering masterpiece of an album, the second-best post-punk album of all time (behind Closer, which obviously strongly influenced it) is drastically underrated here, and by the majority of critics and fans. A phenomenal achievement of songwriting, arrangement, and production. Many shades of instrumental color and musical journeys, with delightful hooks as well. Six guys (the band plus Shankar and Kingbird) who aren't necessarily great musicians produce a formidable work of art. I love listening to the earlier versions because they show how much refinement was needed to bring the final product to its glimmering form. Part of the greatness is that it's a concept album of solitude and alienation - including being with others without really being with them. Gives a sense throughout of being more a work of art than a pop album, resonates from beginning to end, and has an angularity to it that really sets it apart. Gorgeous guitar sounds, and a cinematic sense of space. A love the operatic wail that Ian uses here as well (good luck ever hearing him sing like that again - dang cigarettes). Favorite tracks: Nearly all of them. Best of all is the urgent, keening, crashing "The Back of Love." Also the avant-pop verses and chorus and anthemic bridges of "The Cutter," the two-part title track, with its Eastern European-esque initial section and its dramatically pounding second half, the racingly anthemic "Heads Will Roll" with its gorgeous 12-string guitar tones, the wintry "Higher Hell," with its blizzarding arpeggiated 12-string, the galloping cinematic maelstrom of "Gods Will Be Gods," and the melancholy resignation of the closing "In Bluer Skies," with the gorgeous counter-melodies of Ian's lament, Will Sergeant's great whammy-bar riff, and Les Pattinson's great assertive bassline. Lest I forget, the unsung hero of this album is drummer Pete de Frietas, whose relentless tribal hammering is like a puissant mix of Stephen Morris with Mo Tucker. Porcupine crushes Heaven Up Here and Ocean Rain put together (and I love those albums) like a grape. Gargantuanly underrated within EATB’s catalog, certainly one of the most underrated albums of the '80s, and of all time.
[First added to this chart: 11/08/2024]
Year of Release:
1983
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Rank Score:
963
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Song for song, absolutely sublime. If they had come up with six or seven more songs in this idiom at the same level of quality, this would go from being the greatest E.P. of all time to being one of the top 10 albums of all time. The best that R.E.M. has ever been, but... it's just five songs. The first track to grab me here was the one everyone to my bewilderment thinks is the weakest – “Stumble.” After the whole ep sank in, and since, my favorite has been “Gardening at Night,” with its whispered croon vocals from Stipe and electric sitar from Pete Buck. But the other three tracks – “Wolves, Lower,” “1,000,000,” and “Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)” are also fantastic. A special shout-out to “1,000,000” and “Stumble” revealing what a cool and inventive drummer Bill Berry was, since his understatement often leads to (me, at least) overlooking him in the context of the band’s music. Mitch Easter evidently used the record as an opportunity to engage on some studio experiments which enhanced the aura of mystery to the work and fit exceptionally well with the mystique of the band at that time. These songs blend extreme catchiness and neo-psychedelic mysteriousness in a way that resonates profoundly with this guy. In the end, what makes it so special and important is that it is the studio recording which best captures the brilliant urgency of the band's live sound from '81-'84 (much better than the self-consciously unhinged and overly-clattery Hib-Tone "Radio Free Europe"). It is the platonic ideal of R.E.M.
[First added to this chart: 11/16/2024]
Year of Release:
1982
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Rank Score:
652
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Guitar hook heaven, and the basis of a lot more of it to come (especially Pete Buck's work on the first five R.E.M. records). This is actually one of the albums here which is not masterpiece quality all the way through – “I Got the Hots for You,” “Insanely Jealous,” “Old Pervert,” and “You’ll Have to Go Sideways” are good stuff, but certainly not to the level of the other tracks. But those other tracks! The devastating power pop glory of “I Wanna Destroy You,” the epic rave-up title track, the pell-mell romp (with sitar!) of “Positive Vibrations,” the crazy pop perfection of “Kingdom of Love,” the moody gleaming hooks of “Tonight,” and most of all the interlocking arpeggiated guitar hook-fest of “Queen of Eyes” with its never-let-you-go vocal hook on “with her carapace shell and her black-laced thighs” – guitar pop brilliance of the highest order, buoyed by a punk-inspired accelerated tempo that makes them tons more fun to listen to than Badfinger, The Raspberries, or even Big Star. Really poorly produced and recorded (tiny budget), but you can hear it well enough to know that it’s brilliant. If your taste is there.
[First added to this chart: 11/16/2024]
Year of Release:
1980
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Rank Score:
1,520
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Grossly underrated even within their catalog! To me, it's nuts to assert this isn't the best and most perfect album they ever made, although of course Let It Be and Tim are fantastic in their own right. "The Ledge" is my least favorite track on the album, and it's still great.
Lots of wonderful tracks here. Best of all is the burst of catchy rock ‘n’ roll brilliance that is “Alex Chilton,” which is Stones-worthy if they had ever played that fast. Absolutely immortal, worthily immortalizing its legendary subject matter. His shadow extends over the second and third-best tracks as well – the lovely, emotionally powerful “Skyway,” which reminds of Big Star’s classic Third album, and “Can’t Hardly Wait,” which was already a great track and here channels Chilton’s other band, The Box Tops, by virtue of the wonderful strings and horns which Jim Dickinson added and which Westerberg detested so much (he’s absolutely and quixotically wrong, of course – if he knew his hind end from a hole in the ground, he’d be a household name by now). So many rock bangers as well – the rampaging opener of “I.O.U.,” the stomping groove of “I Don’t Know,” with its great sax work, the barn-burning “Red Red Wine,” and the vengeful hell-raiser “Shooting Dirty Pool.” “Valentine” is probably my fourth-favorite here – such an unstoppably catchy up-tempo pop rocker. “Never Mind” features fine arpeggiated guitar work from Westerberg and is another great pop-rocker. I dig “Nightclub Jitters,” with its faux lounge lizard flavor, standup bass (I believe) from Tommy and a wonderful sax solo. The ironies are, of course, that Westerberg was never in good enough condition or full of enough BS to be a real lounge lizard – the jitters are likely DTs. “The Ledge” features dramatic guitar work to frame the tragic tale of a young man committing suicide. It’s a good song, but just too grim next to the other tracks, as well as probably the only track that’s too polished. But when such a good track is the worst song on the album, you know you’re listening to a great collection of songs. Unstoppable rock and roll, punctuated by some excellent change-ups. [First added to this chart: 11/09/2024]
Lots of wonderful tracks here. Best of all is the burst of catchy rock ‘n’ roll brilliance that is “Alex Chilton,” which is Stones-worthy if they had ever played that fast. Absolutely immortal, worthily immortalizing its legendary subject matter. His shadow extends over the second and third-best tracks as well – the lovely, emotionally powerful “Skyway,” which reminds of Big Star’s classic Third album, and “Can’t Hardly Wait,” which was already a great track and here channels Chilton’s other band, The Box Tops, by virtue of the wonderful strings and horns which Jim Dickinson added and which Westerberg detested so much (he’s absolutely and quixotically wrong, of course – if he knew his hind end from a hole in the ground, he’d be a household name by now). So many rock bangers as well – the rampaging opener of “I.O.U.,” the stomping groove of “I Don’t Know,” with its great sax work, the barn-burning “Red Red Wine,” and the vengeful hell-raiser “Shooting Dirty Pool.” “Valentine” is probably my fourth-favorite here – such an unstoppably catchy up-tempo pop rocker. “Never Mind” features fine arpeggiated guitar work from Westerberg and is another great pop-rocker. I dig “Nightclub Jitters,” with its faux lounge lizard flavor, standup bass (I believe) from Tommy and a wonderful sax solo. The ironies are, of course, that Westerberg was never in good enough condition or full of enough BS to be a real lounge lizard – the jitters are likely DTs. “The Ledge” features dramatic guitar work to frame the tragic tale of a young man committing suicide. It’s a good song, but just too grim next to the other tracks, as well as probably the only track that’s too polished. But when such a good track is the worst song on the album, you know you’re listening to a great collection of songs. Unstoppable rock and roll, punctuated by some excellent change-ups. [First added to this chart: 11/09/2024]
Year of Release:
1987
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Rank Score:
1,445
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This album is so gargantuanly underrated in Cocteau Twins’ catalog, perhaps because Simon wasn’t there or because it was “acoustic.” Sure, it was acoustic – yeah right. Listen to all of those effects on Robin’s guitars. To me, there’s zero question whatsoever that this is their greatest album, because it was the only album they made during what is to me their acme as a band – the post-gothic, pre-pop era of 1985-86, with the Tiny Dynamine and Echoes on a Shallow Bay ep’s, this album, The Moon and the Melodies with Harold Budd, and the Love’s Easy Tears ep. Gorgeously artful and mesmerizing.
[First added to this chart: 11/16/2024]
Year of Release:
1986
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Rank Score:
1,046
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Overrated, especially by virtue of ludicrously being rated above Closer by most, but still a phenomenally great listening experience. Byrne and Eno (in his final collaboration with the band) were transfixed by the Afrobeat records of Fela Kuti and those he influenced, and determined to make a record which blended that music with Talking Heads’ quirky new wave. The result was the fullest, richest, catchiest music the band ever made. It’s all about groove, and it’s very difficult to talk about this album without saying that over and over again. The centerpiece is of course the brilliant “Once in a Lifetime,” with its spoken word verses, futuristic sonics, and relentless in-the-pocket groove, but the other highlight is the unstoppably infectious, celebratory, bass-driven “The Great Curve.” The two other songs on side one, “Born Under Punches” and “Crosseyed and Painless” also present that brilliant Afrobeat influence. Side two stretches out a little, with “Houses in Motion” slowing the groove down a bit, “Seen and Not Seen”’s more reflective, atmospheric tempo, “Listening Wind” even achieving a sort of solemnity in its view of the indigenous experience, and “The Overload” closing things out in doomy fashion with a deliberate imitation of Joy Division based solely on critical descriptions of their sound. A brilliant album. It’s still not Closer, damn it.
[First added to this chart: 11/16/2024]
Year of Release:
1980
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Rank Score:
28,369
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I honestly find it gravely offensive that this album gets so little credit from Gen Y, Gen Z, and this website. What Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell were to every female singer/songwriter of any artistic worth to come after them, so too Suzanne Vega for every one of them from ’85 onward. Every track on this album is a gem of observant songwriting and performance. Much as Sumner and, to a lesser extent, Hook, quixotically complain to this day about Martin Hannett’s production on Joy Division’s records (stupid as hell, to be honest), Suzanne grouses about the “Windham Hill” arrangement and production here, which is artistically blind. The most Windham Hill thing here is “Some Journey,” with its luminous contributions from Mark Isham and Darol Anger, and it’s by far the best recording Suzanne has ever been involved with. But the other nine tracks are fantastic as well.
[First added to this chart: 11/16/2024]
Year of Release:
1985
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Rank Score:
991
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Total albums: 17. Page 1 of 2
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 1 | 1% | |
| 1960s | 40 | 40% | |
| 1970s | 36 | 36% | |
| 1980s | 17 | 17% | |
| 1990s | 5 | 5% | |
| 2000s | 1 | 1% | |
| 2010s | 0 | 0% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| The Beatles | 8 | 8% | |
| The Rolling Stones | 4 | 4% | |
| Stevie Wonder | 4 | 4% | |
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 4% | |
| David Bowie | 3 | 3% | |
| Bruce Springsteen | 3 | 3% | |
| The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
There have been no changes to this chart.Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mojo Readers: The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made | Mojo | Overall chart | 1996 |  |
| AllMusic's Greatest Albums | musicologist97 | Custom chart | 2019 |  |
| Ya joking? Should've been higher! All Time edition |  Purplepash | Custom chart | 2025 |  |
| BEA Top 100 Reorganized According To My Taste | bonnequestion | Custom chart | 2025 | |
| 200 Greatest albums of all time (1 - 100) - Uncut 2016 | Johnnyo | Custom chart | 2020 | |
| 200 Greatest Albums of All Time | Uncut | Overall chart | 2016 | |
| My Personal Ranking of Best Ever Albums' Top 100 |  Xxnu99etxX | Custom chart | 2022 | |
| Going With My Gut: The Overall Chart Top 100 Re-ranked |  CharlieBarley | Custom chart | 2024 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | album guru joe | Overall chart | 2013 | |
| BEA+RYM Overall Rank | Imaybeparanoid | Custom chart | 2017 |  |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
89/100 (from 5 votes)
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| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
100/100  | 08/18/2025 04:18 |  LadyGodiva | | 97/100 |
 90/100 | 04/02/2025 10:14 |  pedro1976 | | 85/100 |
| 90/100 | 04/01/2025 00:42 |  Arthurknight | | 89/100 |
| 90/100 | 01/29/2025 12:20 |  SomethingSpecial | | 85/100 |
| 100/100 | 12/14/2024 22:44 |  Rhyner | | 99/100 |
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100/100
From LadyGodiva 08/18/2025 04:16
LadyGodiva 08/18/2025 04:16
Nice list - lost of albums that I love here :) A little Beatles heavy but hey… you love what you
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90/100
From Arthurknight 04/01/2025 00:34
Arthurknight 04/01/2025 00:34
Thanks for pointing out the Overall Chart and how it can be distorted. It's true, technically, but this would be a much more valid critique of me making custom charts for certain genres instead of placing their best in the greatest. Right now, they're hardly counting for the Overall Chart, when they could be counting a lot more. I've thought about that a little bit over the years since the website as a whole has a massive rock bias as it stands, but it doesn't outweigh how annoying it is for me to try and compare them in good faith (I, like you, have my genre preferences).
You've made me think a little bit about that line in my description. It's been there for over a decade now and had you strolled in at the start and said what you've said it'd ring a lot more true. Back then, I enforced it on myself to get away from a list that had double ups on double ups. It was also part of an impetus to go and listen to new things. Today, all the albums in the list are -- I think -- 5/5 records, and consequently there's actually a very small cross section of possible records I could consider that this rule presently excludes, here they are:
The Beatles - The Beatles [White Album]
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
David Bowie - Station to Station
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat
The Wrens - Album 4.5 (bootleg wouldn't qualify)
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
Would I add any of them to my list though? Maybe like 1 or 2 at any random given day, or certainly I'd be more likely right after listening to one of them, but I think they fight against my no. 100 on pretty equal footing and there's at least as many more left out that are from artists not in the list at all. This is a result of 10+ years of such a rule. I just have a very wide tastes now and I kind of like it that way. It doesn't mean anything really because I'd still defend the rule as it stands but food for thought. Interested in hearing more from you mate keep in touch.
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90/100
From Arthurknight 03/26/2025 08:27
Arthurknight 03/26/2025 08:27
Thanks for your comment. I wouldn't describe our tastes as majorly divergent, at least not from where I'm sitting. There's only a handful of records in your list I don't rate at least an 8, and many more I utterly adore.
Regarding the one artist limit, I can see why you might take issue with it considering the effect it would have on your list, but I'll hazard a minor challenge to your reasoning. You -- correctly -- dismiss the premise of objectivity in the construction of your list, and instead defer to your heart. I do so too, but isn't there a tension here with how you rationalise what a list should be?
I don't have a problem with your rules per se; do your thing. However, you argue that a list with restriction is in some way a lie. You then go on to volubly articulate all the ways your own list is limited in favour of how you personally imagine and derive joy from music. My point being, we are both using the list to document and convey us and how we see our own tastes, far more so than making a claim to what is good. It seems you're aware of that but it's lost on me you'd consider my version of how to demonstrate mine somehow me lying to myself.
Simply put, I kind of figure that when someone sees I like Neil Young's On The Beach that they can also figure I like the rest of catalogue; and if they're so curious as to what extent that information is readily available on my profile. Moreover, it's compelling for me to make that commitment to a favourite by an artist that I could otherwise proliferate my list with indiscriminately, and it frees me up to self-express a modicum more and to make recommendations.
A list can do more than one thing at a time.
In any case, I enjoyed reading through your list. I appreciated picks like New York Tendaberry and the wild self-reporting of being a Gen-Xer (with that Joe Jackson live album, I promise you we can tell), however I am also left without anything new to go discover which leaves me wanting.
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