Compiled by Oleg based on individual top 100's submitted by many Babblers.

Important Note: This is by no means a formal top 100 list and there is no guarantee we will discuss all of these bands or albums ad nauseum (except Radiohead and Genesis).

100. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers) I'd be willing to bet money that at least five of the other album summaries in this thing will begin with a similar sentiment, but...what the hell do you say about this album that hasn't been repeated ad nauseum??? Even RZA (the producer) himself devoted the better part of an entire book to it. At any rate, this is a common first hip-hop album for a lot of rock fans, maybe like some of the people on this board, and fans of low-tech, dirty, shouty rock can find a lot to like here. The choruses are unforgettable, and each one of these nine guys establishes a personality and stylistic template to be expounded on for his solo career. At this point, RZA's mix of thumping beats, spooky piano loops and threatening kung-fu guys on this album seems almost like it was fated into existence, so seminal is it FRED. Yes, Fred. This is a good album. Good night. – Nick Leu

99. Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique The Beastie Boy's second album is one of the most important works of musical production since "Sgt. Pepper". It's nigh impossible to discuss the work without referencing its extreme historical importance to the world of hip-hop. This is before DJ Shadow made his dramatic soundscapes and RZA dropped his terrifying minimalistic crawls. What the Beasties devised here, in the nubile prime of rap's Golden Age, is a head-swirling collage of funk beats, clever and juvenile rhymes, and the nasally pre-pubescent voices of Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock. And the allusions, oh god! It takes the brain of the Comic Book Guy to recognize every music sample and lyrical reference the trio make. It's post-modernism gone amok. In the end, what truly makes the album great is its density. The construction of the beats and the samples is unparalleled and monumental. An important and fully realized cornerstone in the development of hip-hop. – Norville Barnes

98. Wire – Pink Flag On their first album, Wire sound like they have been playing together for years. The songs are mostly short, mostly unpredictable, but uniformly great. Just when you are starting to get into a song, it will stop; but before you get a chance to be disappointed, another equally engaging tune kicks in. The album lasts roughly 37 minutes, and during that time you get 22 songs bursting with great ideas and even greater guitar parts. It's pretty much a punk album, although it has what most punk albums don't: diversity! – Ben P.

97. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

96. The Police – Regatta Da Blanc Although the Police are one of the major New Wave bands, it is really here, on their sophomore outing, where they define their influential sound - and they do so with virtually no modern devices like keyboards and synthesizers, which were so trendy among New Wave bands. Yes, the band would go onto dabble in those devices later, and quite successfully. But at the core of their sound, the Police are really just a great power trio. And it is on 'Reggatta De Blanc' where the band really masters this formula - as they jam together, they are clearly all virtuosos at their instruments. But they meld seamlessly, as evident in the dark, somber, night-time-like atmosphere this album creates. Whether breezing through gorgeous, reggae-influenced ballads ("Walking on the Moon," "Bed's Too Big Without You") or just rocking out ("Message in a Bottle," "No Time This Time"), the Police are on top of their game. The instrumental title track is brilliantly effective in its minimalism. – John Schlegel

95. The Replacements – Tim The Replacements are either a particularly eloquent and vulnerable rock band, or a sensitive singer-songwriter with musical muscle to back him up; either way they’re far more intriguing than the rock and roll band that they are on the surface. Tim, produced by Tommy Ramone, is their major label debut and second in their critically revered mid-eighties trilogy. The Replacements’ most obvious parallel is with Big Star, America’s underground cult band from the decade before; both groups simmering beneath the mainstream, despite commercial potential, due to perversity from their respective leaders. The underground American music scene of the 1980s is one of the most fertile periods of musical creativity in rock music, and this record is one of its key moments, although I’d argue that its followup Pleased To Meet Me is even better. – Graham

94. Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left One of the most underrated 60’s singers-songwriters was Nick Drake, and in my opinion, that album is his best. The best thing is how he combines melancholy and gloomy atmosphere with nice melodies. The lyrics are as significant; he shows that he was a great lyricist especially in songs like “Time Has Told Me” and “Fruit Tree”. As for the music, the saddest songs here like “River Man” or “Way To Blue” are slow and have loads of strings, while there are a couple of jazzy numbers (“Saturday Sun” and “Man In A Shed” whose the intro may make you think it’s a jazz song). There isn’t any song here which I’d call mediocre, although “Three Hours” is maybe a little long compared to the others. Another good thing is that album is very original-sounding, there are some influences but the whole thing sounds fresh and original, without reminding of Bob Dylan or other songwriters too much. Also, don’t overlook his guitar playing – maybe not the most significant thing on the album but some parts are amazing, especially the intro of “Fruit Tree” and the whole “Day Is Done” song. In my opinion, this album, while not flawless, is still one of the best of all time. – Akis Katsman

93. Minutemen – Double Nickels On A Dime The Minutemen play short, funk-influenced punk songs. But they are beyond tuneful and catchy (Viet Nam), and the lyrics are consistently interesting. What really makes the album for me is the bass! The bass-playing creates the drive, and it is what pushes the album from merely great to... something better than great. In short: Best Double Album Ever – Ben P.

92. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin Even if “II” is still my favorite Zeppelin release, their debut remains something special. I didn’t like it too much at first: coming from the tight helter-skelter that were “II” and “IV”, this one seemed a bit unfocused, irregular, half-assed, more like a treading-water efford. Maybe because two of the songs were just generic blues covers, or because other two were extended, messy psychedelic jams, or because one was too punky and other one was too poppy. I don’t know, I suppose it was a bit different from what I expected (crunchy riffs one after the other). However, time healed that unfair first impression and now I can safely say it’s one of my favorite albums ever. Led Zeppelin define a new age with this baby. They take the blues (not new), they take psychedelia (not new), they even take some folky stuff (not new either) and add it to the cocktail; then, they apply some never-experimented, heavy-as-shit plastic surgery (beware!), and what do we have? A soul-crushing, bombastic and dark brand of electric blues that make Hendrix and Cream sound like cheerful hippies whistling among birds and melting under the warm spring sunshine. Need proof? Take the mastodontic and scary acid riffage in “Dazed And Confused”; now there’s some serious ass-kicking routine for you my darling. Not enough impressed? Try the “Oh Rosie!” rant at the end of “How Many More Times”, with that terrific military rhythm from Bonham, those evil organ wounds by Jones and that head-banging riff by Page. So you’re not satisfied? Check out some of that “Communication Breakdown” unstoppable hammering in your head and see if your heart remains calm. It does? Then feel the SMOKE arise from “You Shook Me” organ solo. And so on. Even with its weaknesses, this album has lots of these incredible powerhouse moments that simply redefined the limits of what rock and roll could and, to be perfectly honest, SHOULD be. Hard-rock and heavy-metal music recorded since then rarely captured such passion, feeling, blues and edge in one tight package. This is essential music, like it or not. – Federico Fernandez

91. King Crimson – In The Court Of Crimson King Every once in a while a band comes along that changes the course of human history. Well....King Crimson changed the course of my personal history, and I'm human, aren't I? (Don't answer that.) It's hard to define exactly what the innovation of this album is, aside from being an order of magnitude more pompous than any previous album. There were prog albums before this one, and there were better ones after it...but it's hard to imagine a world in which there was no "21st Century Schizoid Man" (and all too easy to imagine a world in which there was no "Moonchild".) For better or for whores, this thing pretty much established where British rock was going to go for the first half of the seventies. It's tempting to dismiss In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation by King Crimson (sigh) as a bloated, dated apocalyptic hippie relic, but the fact is, it's an AWESOME bloated, dated apocalyptic hippie relic. And remember that the smarmy critics who mock it today are all pissing themselves with praise for their own generation's bloated 80-minute hip hop and indie rock masterpieces that have all the subtlety and self-control of, well, King Crimson. – Sylvan Migdal

90. Tom Waits – Rain Dogs “We’re all as mad as hatters here.” The greatest, musical testament to the afterthought that there ever was. Waits takes on sea shanties, ragtime piano ballads, spoken-word diatribes, cop-show-mimicking instrumentals, the first movement of jazz, heartbreaking love songs, should-be-show-tunes, polka, straight-ahead rockers, pop anthems and unhinged soul music, and does quite a lot of it backed by junkyard percussion. Makes me want to stay at the carnival. Lyrically, the album invites comparisons to nobody, the definitive example of perfectly translated lunacy (“And when she’s on a roll she pulls a razor from her boot, and a thousand pigeons fall around her feet”). Makes me want to fall asleep on the shore. My favorite album of the ‘80s, but it sure doesn’t sound like it. “Hang Down Your Head” and “Downtown Train” show Waits at his most vulnerable, spilling out over the side to anyone who’ll listen. The rest of the album shows Waits at merely his most prophetic. Makes me want to go to heaven in a little rowboat. “Admire the view from up on top of the mast.” – Ryan Muligan

89. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico The ultimate digression. The rebirth of the cool. With Lou Reed’s guttural intimations tracing the downfall of urban cultivation over a propulsive backdrop of timeless immediacy, the resultant sonic assault thrives in its sterility. The screeching wails of John Cale’s viola contributions, the mercilessly droning, guitar insertions and the mechanical, percussive backdrop are surpassed in their combined hypnotism perhaps only by Nico’s inability to emote. “Venus in Furs” is a stagnant triumph, an absurdly mesmerizing glimpse into escapist notions of idealism. “I could sleep for a thousand years.” “Heroin” is simultaneously draining and invigorating, paradise lost and found. Even the pop-centric love songs emit a sense of eternal relevancy; “Sunday Morning” is one of the great lullabies of our time. Amid flourishes of dissonant feedback, garage rock aesthetics and urban poetry gone perverse naturally rises the beginning of alternative rock. I don’t think Jesus had any children, though. – Ryan Mulligan

88. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II Led Zeppelin’s second album will be forever stuck in my head as one of the most mind-blowing and ass-kicking examples of what it means “to rock”. I got it in 1998 as a birthday present or something, with the name of the band as the one and only reference. Back then I only knew The Beatles, Queen, Pink Floyd and not much more… the usual basic stuff for the kid I was. When I came back home from the store, my mum and dad claimed they wanted to listen too, so they put the CD in the living room, don’t knowing what to expect, at full volume. I shall never forget what I felt when the riff from “Whole Lotta Love” blasted through the speakears as a massive, chilling, unmerciful wave of hellish power. That gross, distorted tone, that bloody pounding bass. God. My parents were shocked, but for me it was like losing my virginity; that night I found what rock and roll meant. Nowadays, I’ve really got to be in the mood to put this album back to back. Still, that first impression never faded, and even now I’d say it’s the one Zeppelin record with no real weak link. I even like “Moby Dick”; the riff is amazing beyond words, and the infamous drum solo is too short to cause any trouble. From there, it’s all gold. “Heartbreaker” has probably the best guitar riff ever; “Ramble On” showcases all kinds of gorgeous guitar textures; “What Is And What Should Never Be” is a true delicate gem… Ah, what can I say? They’re all great. And that sound! Very heavy AND very bluesy (though somewhat poorly produced). Never again I’ve heard that double extreme combination again, and the fact I’ve blindly fell in love with it may explain my animosity towards heavy-metal. To sum it up: this is the best hard-rock album ever made. Capisci? – Federico Fernandez

87. Faith No More – Angel Dust

86. Alice In Chains – Dirt Not only is 'Dirt' one of the greatest albums of the 1990s (certainly of the hard rock variety, anyway), but it's also one of the most quintessential, defining ones. It's dark, dirty, angry, despairing, and all-in-all pessimistic. It's both exhilarating, and tragic, the way you can hear - and feel - the late, great Layne Staley relay these lyrics about self-hatred and drug addiction. Only a significant minority of rock music is this emotionally resonant and sincere. In fact, if the album has but only one flaw, it's that it's almost too relentless (and, perhaps, a little monotonous). You may want to steer clear if you're feeling frail or depressed. But, on a lighter note, most of these songs are top-notch riff rockers (in other words, the music works to enhance the lyrics). Combine these with a few power ballads (of varying quality) and it is no surprise that many of your familiar, '90s FM rock gems can be found here. Standouts include "Them Bones," "Damn That River," "Angry Chair," and "Would?" The Brooding "Hate to Feel" is underrated; "Junkhead" is perhaps the most satisfying ballad. 'Dirt' is pretty intense, but it's a keeper. – John Schlegel

85. Nick Drake – Bryter Layter

84. Love – Forever Changes

83. The Flaming Lips – Soft Bulletin After their brilliant Clouds Taste Metallic (which took their “punk rockers taking acid” style to the end of the line by finally incorporating scads of Brian Wilson-inspired pop elements) and the sensory overload experimentation of Zaireeka, the Flaming Lips reinvented themselves as a party band for opera houses on The Soft Bulletin. With Wayne Coyne’s lovably strained voice and Steven Drozd’s crushing, distorted drums grounding the songs, the band builds uplifting skyscrapers of music with so many elements it makes Pet Sounds sound like... an even bigger waste of time than it is already! This being The Flaming Lips, you still get plenty of weirdness, like the vocal multitracking on “Buggin’” which takes the harmonies so far overboard it’s positively transcendent, but you also get lots of pure, clear-eyed beauty like the soaring orchestral flourishes that push the triumphant “Race for the Prize” forth. Putting a new spin on his usual obsession with religion, Coyne now spends a lot of his time encouraging everyone to face their own collective mortality and to be realistic about that, letting it motivate you to spread love and do good in the time we’re here, rather than letting the pitfalls paralyze you with anxiety. On The Soft Bulletin, even the failure of Superman is alright because at least he tried to make it all better. Didn’t immediately give up like you, Guy from “The Gash.” – Chris Willie Williams

82. Nirvana – Nevermind As famous as it is, "Nevermind" still carries a little mystique. The song cycle on its first side was the most iconic slab of music in early 90s rock, which naturally became the most overplayed slab of music since the singles off "Thriller." But the second side is never played at all. Not coincidentally, it sounds like the hundreds of bands in the scenes that inspired Kurt Cobain and Krist Novocelic, and it's as just as exciting as any Big Black and Meatmen records. They breathe a little extra life into the MTV-saturated hits, reminding us why hearing these songs on the radio was so exciting in the first place. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Breed" are first-rate riff rock; "In Bloom" and "Lithium" are slow-burning anthems; "Polly" is as good as a three-chord creepy ballad can be. Even divorced from its immense cultural importance, this is a fun and addictive record. - Dave Weigel

81. Pavement – Crooked Rain Crooked Rain From the opening track, it seems clear that these guys are unsure of what they want to do; the beginning of Silent Kit sounds like a false start, and then the 'real' song comes in. And just when you're comfortable with that, you get another tempo change. The overall feel of the album is very warm, and it sounds very well produced to my ears. The the half-sung/half-spoken lyrics of Stephen Malkmus are a perfect fit for a batch of songs that, at first, seem like a bunch of tossed-off demos, but with repeated listens reveal themselves to be melodically fantastic. My personal favorites include Stop Breathing, which is a slow number that has a great closing, as well as Range Life, which has a countryish feel, and sports great lyrics (Out on my skateboard the night is just hummin’And the gum smacks are the pulse I’ll follow if my walkman fades, But I've got absolutely no one, no one but myself to blame). OK, the lyrics might not mean much to anyone but the other, but part of the appeal is the ambiguity. – Ben P.

80. King Crimson – Lark’s Tongues In Aspic Despite Robert Fripp's reputation as an autocratic ringleader, he seems to have realized some time in 1972 that King Crimson works best as a collective. After running the group into the ground for two years, Fripp got together an all-new gang. This time, he chose talented collaborators rather than monkeys strapped to their instruments and controlled via electrical shocks, hoods, sleep deprivation, and being piled into naked monkey pyramids. It's hard to define this album's precise stylistic break with the past, but somehow the aimless fusion Hell of 1971 became an entire freakish abstract inner world that still sounds unique. – Sylvan Migdal

79. Nick Drake – Pink Moon While many people prefer first two Nick’s albums to this one, I still stand by absolute superiority of Pink Moon. See, it’s the album Nick was bound to do eventually – just him and his guitar, nothing else. Combining the large number of his influences (Johnson, old British folk music, Fahey, Donovan), he delivered a completely special, 20th Century folk album. Yes, it lasts only for 28 minutes, but it never gets boring – it only gets more emotional and affecting as you listen to it. If you can’t feel bittersweet Nick’s pain in songs like “Road” or the title track, there’s no hope for you to understand this artist fully. “Know” has inhumanly leveled resonant a-cappella vocals layed over an old blues progression, which is a pretty damn effective by itself, while “From The Morning” closes the album on an optimistic, incredibly humble way. Of course, two best songs on here (and probably in Nick’s career) are folk monoliths “Things Behind The Sun” and ‘Parasite”, two perfect tales of life-coming-to-a-wrong-end. Pretty perfect. - Oleg

78. The Stooges – Fun House Fun House is basically a sick, depraved, vicious & delightfully evil perversion of every black form of music ever popularized. Jazz, soul, funk, the blues, r'nb, & of course good time rocknroll....it's all here, & it's all completely screwed. I've listened to lots of vocalists whose schtick revolves around screaming like they're about to kill someone, but I still haven't heard anyone do it as convincingly as the Ig does on this album. I can't imagine a world in which this album didn't exist. Everything I've listened to & loved throughout my life owes a debt to it. This may be the single most groundbreaking & influential chunk of songs I've ever owned. That tells you something, right? Go buy it today. – Jacob McM

77. The Who – The Who Sell Out One of the earliest and most successful rock concept albums, The Who Sell Out is a quirky and light-hearted tribute to sixties underground radio. Psychedelic songs like the hit single "I Can See For Miles" sit alongside fuzzy pop songs like "Our Love Was". The whole album is connected by fake advertisements which give it a spontaneous and fresh feeling. The last two tracks end the album by anticipating the band's move towards both rock opera and plaintive ballads. The CD rerelease which contains an album's length of unreleased tracks on par with the original album reveals how productive and on top of their game The Who were at this point: Sell Out is a brilliant condensation of their abilities into a single album. – Nick Einhorn

76. The Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady

75. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless People still talk about "Loveless" because no other record sounds like it, and nothing could sound like it without becoming an obvious rip-off. That's funny, because the sound is actually quite simple. Kevin Shields writes strong melodies that are brought into the studio to be grafted with many, many guitars. At least one guitar will play a straight melody, but one will be hammering out an obscene noise. And this is the guitar that gets turned way up in the mix. This simple trick works again and again, giving a song like "Only Shallow" immense gravity and menance while giving "While You Sleep" or "Soon" a beguiling melody line. The sound ties together the record's songs - all fantastic - with hypnotizing instrumental fragments that creep up between them. And when there are vocals, they're softer than the music apparantly demands. Sometimes Shields sings quietly; sometimes the higher voice of Bilinda Butcher takes over. Sometimes, most effectively, the two voices are twinned, giving us a ghostly sound whirling alongside the guitars' cyclones. The indivudual songs are titantic, but even more so than most albums, this one works best in one uniterrupted sitting. - Dave Weigel

74. The Clash – The Clash

73. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses If there was one album that perfectly captures happiness of living in this world, it’s’ The Stone Roses’ debut. With its’ in your face sunshine atmosphere, energetic life-alarming instrumentation and bright almost dream-pop production, it’s a great, purely POP (with all three capitals) album. Two main songwriters, guitarist extraordinaire John Squire and kinda lame, but charismatic vocalist Ian Brown mixed mid-80’s British jangle and with classic power pop learning and got a collection of fantastic songs: “I Wanna Be Adored”, “She Bangs The Drums”, “Waterfall”, “Made Of Stone”, “Shoot You Down”, “This Is The One” and “I Am The Resurrection” are all A+ classics. The former is especially great, combining mega-catchy song with powerful funky jam. Speaking of groovin’ and jammin’, these guys surely got it. The rhythm section of Mani and Reni is perhaps the tightest white-boy funk rhythm section ever and that says a lot. Surely, The Stone Roses never matched their first album, but, for 1989, they were the best band in the world. - Oleg

72. Belle & Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister An instant classic, this album is all about the melodies. The instrumentation is very basic: acoustic guitar, light drums, bass, and the occasional horn. Stuart Murdoch's soothing voice hints at sadness and vulnerability, and sometimes crosses the line into self pity. But if you can just forget the fact that you're basically listening to a huge wuss, and just let yourself get lost in the wonder of the lyrics, you will find one of the most beautiful and affecting albums of the 90's. Plus, it ends with Judy And The Dream Of Horses, which builds to a wonderful and singable climax. – Ben P.

71. Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti

70. R.E.M. – Automatic For The People Unwittingly perfecting the mature brand of pop that the band wouldn’t consciously start making until 1998’s Up, Automatic For the People is one of the great albums ever made. In the spring of 1991, REM returned from a three-year absence to release Out of Time, which was universally fawned over (then) as a baroque-pop masterpiece. Although the follow-up (Automatic) was released a mere 16 months later, the popular music landscape had been transformed. Grunge was in, delicate alterna-pop was out and although anticipation for the album ran high, Automatic was initially slow to gain much support – in particular, I remember the album being bitterly panned in my college newspaper by a self-described life-long REM fan; other reviews were generally positive, but hedging their bets. Releasing the brooding “Drive” as the first single probably didn’t help matters with the public. But as is often the case of albums with wholes greater than the sums of their parts, this one was a grower. Then “Everybody Hurts” became a surprise MTV hit, “Man on the Moon” practically became the anthem of 1993 and suddenly everybody was talking about Automatic, first in terms of it being another great REM album and then as simply a great album, period. The music is slower and employs textures previously unfamiliar to REM. The mood is generally somber and wistful; sometimes tragic, sometimes darkly humorous. Almost all of the songs have gleaming melodic hooks, but few of them reach out and strike you – you have to allow them to dig into your subconscious. Almost thirteen years hence, I find that only ‘Everybody Hurts’ suffered from over-exposure; everything else sounds as impassioned, genuine and perfect as I remember it back in 1992. A great one, by one of the greats. - Matt

69. Bob Dylan – Brining It All Back Home For some reason, I believe the line “I’ve got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane.” This is the album where Dylan proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the messiah reincarnated. The album begins by inventing rap music and ends by destroying folk music. The album in which Dylan went electric (but not entirely) redefined what music was and hinted at what it could be. The track listing is one of the most intimidating of all time. “Mr. Tambourine Man” reduces everyone else to a state of obligatory envy. “Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it.” A startling showcase of undiluted genius, merging antiquated, folk ideals with surrealistic, philosophical deliberations and a virtually ceaseless derailment of contentment. Quite possibly worthy of interpretation. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” might be Dylan’s most lyrically impressive song ever, which means it might be the most lyrically impressive song ever. It’s terrifying to note that his next two albums were even better. Made me want to write poetry. “Take what you have gathered from coincidence.” – Ryan Mulligann

68. Ramones – Ramones No. You don’t understand. The songs don’t all sound the same. Every single song on the first Ramones album has its own unique and distinct personality. Just because they didn’t feel like coming up with a brand new arrangement for every single song doesn’t mean that any single one of them doesn’t need to exist. Yes, they’re all just big speedy blurs, and the subject matter doesn’t extend too far beyond girls, horror movies, Nazis, and glue, but I love each and every song on here and you should too. This is pop music dancing around shamelessly in its underwear, and there’s nothing wrong with that. – Mike D

67. Brian Eno – Before And After Science The reputation of an album rests on the story that album spins. LPs insinuate themselves into the history books by spearheading a movement, or starting a trend, or summing up all that has come before, or simply by being freakishly perfect. This album was none of these things. It's got one or two obvious filler tracks, it doesn't really break any new ground, it's goofy and unassuming, and it feels like a quick project slapped together between cutting edge collaborations. It seems like almost an afterthought, then, to note that the album contains some of the very best songs of everyone's favorite porn collector's career. The album comes in two parts, with side 1 consisting of mildly retarded but impossibly fun new wave singalongs like "Backwater" and "King's Lead Hat". Side 2 is inhabited by gorgeous pop ballads like "Julie with..." and "By this River" which capture the feel of living environments as much as any of Eno's ambient work. But the constant thread that runs through both sides is the man's relentless fondling of the studio. Eno always retains the integrity of his pop songs as songs: their basic catchiness, clarity, listenability, and momentum. But within those parameters, there is no perversion Eno won't visit upon the structure or recording of the song—and this album is the Japanese tentacle rape video of art-pop. How's that for critical narrative? – Sylvan Migdal

66. The Who - Tommy

65. The Smiths – The Queen is Dead ‘The Queen Is Dead’ is the third album from The Smiths and it’s sure their best and most mature effort. The most significant thing here is the emotion and melodrama, undoubtedly Morrissey’s forte. There is not to say that the album is not catchy or that’s hookless – quite the opposite. Most of the songs here are very catchy, especially the three singles and the bouncy “Frankly Mr. Shankly”. The singles are gloomy, especially lyrically, but never get boring musically, in fact “Bigmouth Strikes Again” is very powerful, Johnny Marr’s guitar riff there is amazing. If you ask me, the best songs there are “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” which is the quintessential dance-pop song (with some of the most paranoid lyrics ever in pop music) and the sorrowful heart-breaking song “I Know It’s Over”. Sometimes Morrissey gets too over-the-top with his lyrics like the already mentioned “There Is A Light…” and “Cemetry Gates” but I don’t care much, he is Morrissey after all! The title track should not be overlooked as well, with its lyrics about England and the repeating phrase “Life is very long when you’re lonely…” at the end. This album is classic Smiths and one of the best 80’s albums, if not of all-time. – Akis Katsman

64. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours With Rumours, Fleetwood Mac combined the aesthetics of pop and the singer-songwriter movement to create a unique album. The polished sound of the album manages to enhance and not smother the emotional content of songs like "Second Hand News" and "Go Your Own Way". The band's playing is focused and laid-back for the most part, creating a weary yet still upbeat tone throughout. The writing talents of three accomplished songwriters allow this album to transcend its overtly commerical nature. The central point is the brilliant "The Chain", a moment of unbridled bitterness contrasting sharply with the rest of the album to great effect. – Nick Einhorn

63. Pink Floyd – The Wall If you’re going to write a huge, overblown concept album that consists mainly of you whining about how hard your life is, make sure it’s as awesome as this one. This could have been an absolute disaster and one of the most embarrassing albums ever recorded, but somehow it managed to avoid becoming an unlistenable Roger Waters self-pity party by doing everything perfectly. There must be a million different layers of sound on here, and it’s all so well recorded you can hear all the way to the bottom, and the result is the most atmospheric album the Floyd ever recorded—you can taste the despair around your face. – Mike D

62. Big Star – Radio City

61. The Kinks – Something Else By The Kinks I don’t know if this is the best Kinks opus, but it’s certainly the most charming, catchy and ethereal. I personally chose only one album per band and artist in my list, and could have selected any other Kinks album instead, because Ray Davies style makes it on every sixties album, and even probably after. I see this one is the third Kinks LP praised by the Babble Community, behind Village Green and Arthur, fine with me. Something Else is less focused than these other ones, but does still sound more fresh to my ears today. On the first spin I remember I found it too mellow. Upon several listens, I ended endlessly charmed. The songs have really fine vocal harmonies (dominated by Ray’s girlfriend of the time), especially on the delightful « Waterloo Sunset » (one of the Kinks very best songs) that closes the album. The recording adds a taste of light sophistication, using echoes and slight stereo effects, to melodies that can be super catchy (« David Watts », « Death Of A Clown »), strange (« Situation Vacant », « Lazy Old Sun »), subtle and refined (« No Return », « Afternoon Tea », « Waterloo Sunset »). I consider the first three tracks as the best openers the band ever did : « David Watts » is very up tempo, bass and piano, flickering drumming ; « Death Of A Clown » (brother Dave’s best song) is as miraculous as the forgotten sun of your childhood ; and « Two Sisters » may well be my fave Kinks tune ever. 1967 was magic : they also did « Mister Pleasant » and « Autumn Almanac » that same year. They were at their most spontaneous and charming phase, they had the sound, the style and the melodies. Something Else is the album that illustrates that time. - Hugues

60. Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade 1984’s double album Zen Arcade, Hüsker Dü’s artistic breakthrough and most challenging and significant album, was recorded and mixed in an astounding 85 hours straight, all but two of the songs recorded first-take. It’s very much focused on adolescent and young adult themes, but unlike the somewhat romanticised version of adolescence on Quadrophenia or Born To Run the world of Zen Arcade is gritty and realistic. The romantic breakup of ‘Never Talking To You Again’, the family disintegration of ‘Broken Home, Broken Heart’, the sense of political impotence of ‘Turn on the News’ and ‘Newest Industry’, the drug tragedy of ‘Pink Turns To Blue’; the album portrays a disillusionment at events beyond the control of its young narrators. Zen Arcade might not be as consistent as this high rating would belie, but you could count on one hand the number of recordings which are more emotionally charged than this statement of urban alienation. – Graham

59. Joy Division – Closer

58. Ween – The Mollusk

57. Radiohead – The Bends At the start of 1995, most of America knew Radiohead merely as the one-hit wonders responsible for unleashing upon us the annoying “Creep,” a formulaic dirge of self-flagellation built from whatever they could wring out of the zeitgeist created by the since-departed Nirvana. Grunge was receding and Radiohead, their 15 minutes of fame apparently extinguished, seemed destined to amount to little more than the answer to a trivia question. Radiohead released their second album, The Bends, in the spring of 1995 and it didn’t cause much of a splash in America. But that summer the first single, the soaring “Fake Plastic Trees” found its way onto the soundtrack for the hit film Clueless and sparked some interest. MTV started playing the video and the album began to quietly generate momentum. I didn’t pick the CD up myself until the anticipation of the release of OK Computer started to build in 1997. “What am I missing about these guys?” I wondered. What I had been missing out on was one of the great rock albums of the decade. Heavy, yet atmospheric; anthemic but never pandering; intelligent, but not posturing; a seemingly bottomless pit of interesting riffs and melodies – for an entire album, Radiohead were everything that U2 wanted to be but had only achieved sporadically on even their best albums. There are some among us who will argue that OK Computer is the superior album, but I still think that The Bends is the band’s most impressive collection of songs. Layers of guitars never sounded so good. – Matt

56. R.E.M. – Life’s Rich Pageant One of R.E.M.'s many masterpieces of the '80s, 'Life's Rich Pageant' retains the band's great early sound, but also manages to sport a better production, louder guitars, and brighter hooks than anything they had done before. It's still minimalistic, introspective, and uniquely Southern - but it's also versatile, melodic, hard-rocking, and flat-out catchy as hell. The new and old elements are mixed just right. None of the ballads are too much alike, and they all work in their own separate ways. "Fall on Me" is soaring; "Cuyahoga" has a tremendous sense of build-up and climax; and "Swan Swan H" is authentic in its folksy Civil War flavor. And then there are the rockers! "Begin the Begin" might just be the best song the band ever recorded, and "These Days" and "Hyena" will simply blast you into oblivion. This is one of those truly rare albums that is enjoyable to the infinite degree, as a youth and as an adult. One of the best rock n' roll albums of the decade. – John Schlegel

55. Brian Wilson – Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE! SMiLE is the quintessential pop symphony that was bound to be released someday (too sad it was thirty-seven years late, though). It's hard to describe an album that sounds older than it actually is, but SMiLE manages to be a perfect bridge between the disillusioned but still wonderful and joyful psychedelic movement of the 60's and the possibilities of musical production and arranging of the 00's. As a result, this album turns out to be one masterful and really evocative experience from the very first minute to the last. There's not one single low point to be found anywhere, actually, and I couldn't care less if the album actually should have been released earlier but was held back. SMiLE still sounds like nothing else, and for those wanting to experience the powerful songwriting of an old geezer only wanting to create a musical flashback to the days long gone and succeeds in almost every possible way, I'm sure those people won't be disappointed the least. - Rollo

54. Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway To me, this is a journey that reaches far beyond one's usual stream of consciousness (and since the man behind this album was Peter Gabriel, it's not such a big surprise). I didn't like it much at first, but somehow I managed to dive straight into the heart of the concept whereas I earlier just listened to the music; the giant waves of its encompassed sounds and the downright amazing lyrics ended up only contributing to my feeling of the meaning of what the heck the album was made for, and somehow that feeling succeeded in dissolving in order to become even bigger. I regard The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway as the peak of music because it simply has everything, shows everything and has Peter Gabriel standing in front putting the bricks together in every single second of this colossal jigsaw puzzle. Every possible human and important feeling is shown genuinely here: confusion, love, disappointment, joy, fear, uprising, support, there isn't one thing it misses and all this is because of Gabriel, letting the rest of the band joint the background environment together in a such a majestic and supernatural, yet humble and understanding way that I can't help but praise this monster to death. – Rollo

53. The Who – Live At Leeds Raw combination of power, instrumental skill, and good songwriting. The middle section of Heaven and Hell is like going up to Heaven. Keith Moon sets up a brickwall and punches through it with every measure. The magnificent multi-part jam of My Generation gets the blood boiling. And there's a whole bunch of cool stuff in between. – Andrew R

52. Sparks – Kimono My House

51. The Who - Quadrophenia

50. U2 – The Joshua Tree From the opening synth strains building into the forward motion of “Where the Streets Have No Name” to the mournful final strains of “Mothers of the Disappeared,” this is spine tingling, sing-from-the-rooftops rock and roll. It may sound bloated and pompous to some, but this is the last moment in U2’s career where there’s no reason to doubt their sincerity. The Joshua Tree is a breath of fresh air, a completely unironic record of genuinely timeless rock anthems that sound like they were just waiting to be written. “Running to Stand Still” is beautiful, “Bullet the Blue Sky” is apocalyptic, and “Trip Through Your Wires” is insanely fun. Everything about this record is BIG. The reverb-laden guitars, metronomic bass and everything else in U2's limited bag of tricks are used to the greatest possible effect. Of particular note is The Edge’s icy, echoey guitar landscapes; the simple but suggestive sonic architecture he'd been crafting up to this point reaches its apex here. – Michael D

49. Bob Dylan – Blood On the Tracks Dylan is the master, but it took this album for me to realize it. He covered old blues and folk, proved songs could be catchy while destroying the establishment, invented a new age of rock and roll, a new style of country rock, and became the voice of a lost generation throughout the Sixties and early Seventies, but “Blood on the Tracks” finally made him human. Each song is the sound of a relationship ending—the sound of a man on the brink of petering out—but each track is packed full of charm, sentiment, and honesty. There aren’t anymore coded messages in his lyrics, or gimmicks in his approach…the album is just Bob, with his guitar and harmonica, singing songs with words off the pages of his diary. It took Dylan’s marriage ending for him to pour his heart out, but through that pain came “Blood on the Tracks:” the breakup album for the ages and his emotional masterpiece. - Motell

48. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd struggled to construct a follow-up to the iconic Dark Side of the Moon; their original plan was to record an album using household paraphernalia as instruments, while their tapes were destroyed in a studio fire. Inspiration came from former frontman Syd Barrett, who inspired both the title track and the multi-part suite ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, while Roger Waters launches his bile at the music industry with the Roy Harper fronted 'Have A Cigar' and the ominous 'Welcome To The Machine'. The sum total is my favourite Pink Floyd record, with plenty of their tasteful textures and some of their best material. – Graham

47. The Rolling Stones – Beggar’s Banquet The first album of the Stones’ “main” period, way too many people are quick to slap the “roots rock” tab on this and just leave it at that. I bought into that description at first, and that was a large part of why I basically hated this album for about a year. When I realized, though, that this album was roots rock that happened to have diverse instrumentation, inventive instrumental techniques, inventive production techniques, and a fascinating mix of styles, my attitude changed in a hurry. I mean, Sympathy for the Devil spends most of its time as a piano and bongo-driven rocker, Street Fighting Man starts with an awesome acoustic guitar sound (played through an old tape recorder!) and proceeds to rock like mad with almost every instrument an acoustic one, Jigsaw Puzzle has neat Dylanish lyrics and a total abuse of slide guitar, Stray Cat Blues underpins the guitars with piano as well as any rock song I’ve ever heard … sheesh, that’s just most of the “rockers.” And that doesn’t even take into account the softer numbers, a lovely mix of country ballads and amusing country ditties and a gospelish populist ode parody. – John Mc

46. Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key Of Life Just what sort of person do you have to be to not like Stevie Wonder? You’d have to be an extraordinarily bitter, hateful person, I think. How can you listen to this, two hours of pure, undiluted love in convenient audio form, and not be happier afterwards? If this music can’t clear all the negative gunk out of your mind, then there’s no sound in the world that can, and you probably enjoy harming small animals, you sick, twisted freak who doesn’t like Stevie Wonder. – Mike D

45. XTC – Skylarking This is where the cold neurotic sounds of the new wave blossom into a new era of kaleidoscopic sunshine pop. XTC uses the lessons they learned in the punk scene to reinvigorate the abused sounds of The Beatles and The Hollies. Partridge and Moulding use their toys to crank out melodies like the rest of us drop deuces, but there ain't no clunkers here. Each song is as effortlessly catchy as the last - from the spastic synths of "That's Really Super, Supergirl" to the ornate chamber-pop of "1000 Umbrellas". But it's deeper than it immediately appears to be. It's a reflection on how the whimsy of youth slowly turns into anxiety and bitterness. "Dying" builds the album to it's inevitable conclusion, then "Sacrificial Bonfire" redeems the narrator and the process begins anew. "Skylarking" is Tc's treatise on maturity and mortality. A beautiful and sprawling examination on the cycle of life. – Norville Barnes

44. Radiohead – Kid A I never honestly thought it would go down in my lifetime…never thought a band would create a “Dark Side of the Moon” or a “Sergeant Pepper” for my generation…but it happened. “Kid A” is Radiohead’s most impressive and unique work. “OK Computer” made them big, but ironically “Kid A” proved they belong. Ironic because “Kid A” is all about isolation and loneliness and everything else a good little concept album should be about. The three-guitar attack that brought Radiohead’s fame is ditched on most every song in favor of studio farts and noises, electronic beeps and whistles, manic horns and catcalls, all with a driving beat. There are haunting ballads, ridiculous jazz wanderings, and potent rockers, with only Thom Yorke’s unintelligible, but stunning voice to guide you through. The album has the ability to weird you out, break you down, question your surroundings, cross you over…but most importantly, it makes you feel like part of the music…it makes you feel that you are essential to the album as a whole. There are a hundred albums on this list, but few can match the experience that is this record. – Motell

43. Peter Gabriel – III First side has Peter singing about creepy psychological stuff. Second side he sings about social issues. Probably the only rock star to go through several distinct creative personaes, Gabriel's music always had the common link of being guided by a literate mind relatively uninfluenced by drugs. On III he comes across as a mad scientist sending nanobots to wreak havoc on your skull, just listen to the drum machines in Intruder, the xylophones in No Self Control, or the wailing guitar in Lead a Normal Life. And of course the voice... – Andrew R

42. Led Zeppelin – Untitled Don't you want this album to be your life.? Don't you want to run into the streets, late at night, to see a woman who's shaking that thing and whose honey is dripping from her as you watch her walk.? Don't you want to feel like a "Black Dog".? When you wake up in the morning, don't you want it to be to the hi-hat intro of "Rock "n Roll" instead of that electronic buzzer you have.? Don't you want to do the stroll.? Don't you want to be the knight to whom Sandy Denny sings? Don't you want to go to battle and hear the horses' thunder down in the valley below instead of keeping up your dayjob.? Don't you want to hear the forests echo with laughter instead of having to listen to your parents, wife, friends.? Don't you want to leave it all behind and head straight to California? Don't you want to stand near the levee listening to that harmonica howling while knowing the levee can break anytime soon now.? Don't you want to go to the mystic mountains.? Don't you feel banal.? – Herman

41. Guided By Voices – Bee Thousand From the opening feedback of "Hardcore UFOs" to the quietly empty "You're Not An Airplane", Bee Thousand is a record that is all over the map. A pastiche of song fragments, unfinished melodies, and off-kilter arrangements, it is nevertheless a remarkably cohesive album which maintains a constant forward momentum. The full length songs sit somewhere between strident power pop and alternative tributes to the British Invasion in sound, while shorter songs range from folky murmurs to the miniaturely epic "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory". The transitions are seemless and the short song lengths keep the listener guessing and wanting to hear more. – Nick Einhorn

40. Pink Floyd – Animals

39. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced?

38. Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun Sigur Ros may have started as one of those Radiohead copycat bands that I warned you about in the OK Computer review up there in the top ten, but it didn’t take them long to find their own identity, by pushing the singing of Jon Thor Birgisson to the forefront and thus pushing themselves from the ranks of generic, blah post-rockers into the realm of indescribable beauty. Reports vary as to whether Birgisson is actually singing words or just launching dramatically into an expressive whalesong on Agaetis Byrjun, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is the sheer, angelic power behind his falsetto acrobatics, and his ability to sound like he’s channeling the sound of love incarnate (as on the blissful, ten-minute “Svefn-G-Englar”) as well as the sound of that love being cruelly torn limb from limb (check out his inconsolable wails in the middle of “Hjarto Hamast,” when the music collapses into a wash of E-Bow feedback). The band constructs great, solid musical structures with droning organs, tasteful feedback, and the occasional honest-to-goodness hook (“Flugufrelsarinn”), and while it’s all as gorgeous as a Discovery Channel tour of the undersea world, That Voice is the secret to Agaetis Byrjun’s sweeping, soul-wrenching feats of ecstasy and sadness. – Chris Willie Williams

37. Elvis Costello And The Attractions – This Year’s Model Elvis Costello wasn’t a punk rocker – in fact, the man’s output since 1980 reveals an artiness and a – sometimes distractingly overdone – attention to craft that would strongly suggest otherwise. But it was 1978, Costello apparently had some things to be angry about, and he didn’t have a lot of cash in his wallet, anyway. So he went out and recorded one hell of a garage-rock/pub-rock album; an album that I think stands as one of the greatest pop records of all time. A stripped-down steamer, This Year’s Model’s is probably the best example of Costello’s acerbic wit, which he uses to skewer anything and everything that has recently been pissing him off. There’s women (Oh, the thrill is here / but it won't last long / You better have your fun / before it moves along”), radio (“I want to bite the hand that feeds me / I want to bite that hand so badly), and… women again (“She's been a bad girl / She's like a chemical / Though you try to stop it / she's like a narcotic /You wanna torture her / You wanna talk to her”). All of the songs are irresistibly catchy and the slow ones are cleverly set to bouncy melodic exteriors that belie the soured centers. Vitriol never went down so easy. - Matt

36. David Bowie – The Rise And The Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars I don't want to talk about this album, I don't even like David Bowie, he must be the luckiest bastard in the whole world. Can you even begin to imagine how many glamorous love affairs this guy must have had.? In China. Berlin. Switzerland. Bangkok. Tokio. South-America.? And he had so many great songs in the seventies, that afterwards he could suck for 25 years And still be praised as one of the greatest artists of our times. You've just got to hate this guy! Now take "Ziggy Stardust", since we are supposed to talk about this piece of shit,. it's a classic album, yes, it is AND IT DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A DECENT SINGLE ON IT.!!! Yeah, go ahead, take a look. there is no "Space Oddity" or "Life on Mars" on here, you won't find no "The Man Who Sold The World" or "Rebel Rebel" either. For God's sake, a classic without a decent single. throw this man in jail right now.! And that cover ("It ain't easy"), well it sure as hell ain't no "Wild is the Wind" or "Fill your Heart". And anyway, isn't this album just a copy of "Electric Warrior" released by T. Rex the year before and isn't it true that Bowie never Could come up with anything as heartbreakingly sad as "Cosmic Dancer", let alone sing it.? Well, I can tell you, and I'm not bragging, if this Ziggy-album of his didn't have "Five Years", "Starman", "Moonage Daydream", "Suffragette City", "Lady & Ziggy Stardust", "Star", "Hang on to yourself" and "Rock & Roll Suicide" on it, it would've never made my top 5.! I can tell you that.! The lucky bastard. – Herman

35. Talking Heads – Fear Of Music The more I think about it, the more I come to think of New York City circa 1978-1982 as one of the most fertile scenes for music of the past century. The post-punk kids, in particular, produced some of greatest bands in rock music history. The greatest work to come from this epoch, along with Lizzy Mercier Descloux's "Mambo Nassau", is Talking Head's "Fear of Music". Like the hip-hop the blacks were making across town, it's a music marked by contradiction. The joyous and open dance beats of Africa collide with David Byrne's fractured white paranoid rants. The contradiction between the party rhythms and oblique world analysis makes the album more powerful. It's the festive dance of the urban industrial jungle. The dance is one of sheer desperation, fueled by fear and a struggle for survival. The bass and drums frequently reach a level of frightening intensity. "Drugs", the finest song on the album, pushes an extreme anxiety that verges on sexual. Byrne sounds lost, alone, and constipated. The sexual energy eventually becomes one of violence, and the line between dance and pain become blurred once again. Never has dangerous paranoia been so entertaining. – Norville Barnes

34. Stevie Wonder – Innervisions Never before has soul been so organic. From the very start, this album is bubbling with anger, hope, criticism, praise, disillusionment, love and joy; it's like one big stew with all possible ingredients to pour into it. Stevie gets anywhere he's capable of getting, and he manages to comment on every possible important subject to mankind. Heck, the whole album is like one big statement, one big fourty-four-minute commentary on how the times were, and perhaps still are. Soul never got deeper than this; with Stevie's own double album three years later, he would perhaps get as much around among the subjects in the key of life as any man ever could, but with this album, there's no doubt that Stevie Wonder, one blind man amongst heaps of people standing up for their rights in a divided society, wants to tell us what he thinks, and he surely does in a way that's so relieving and frightening, and most of all always resonant, that this album is undoubtedly for black music what Abbey Road was for white. Drugs, apartheid, love affairs, spiritual uprising, prayer, dreams, visions; Stevie gets so personal that one is able to identify with one of his characters and feelings right away. And he plays almost everything himself; if that ain't impressive, I don't know what is. - Rollo

33. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks There are albums that in which the basic elements of a given genre are honed to absolute perfection. Such albums get acknowledged as masterpieces because they stand well above the rest of the genre. But there are a few oddball "rare birds" among all the music created by mankind, albums that refuse to fit themselves in the boundaries of genre, existing "in another place, in another time". One of such albums is Astral Weeks, a child of a bizzare union of the tormented mind of the reclusive songwriter Van Morrison & a cast of top - tier jazz musicians. Spiralling, repetitive music manages to capture the out - of - this world meditative atmosphere of indian ragas while being colourful & diverse enough to help Van conjure up images of so - very - familiar places like Cyprus Avenue, where unordinary people fall in love for ordinary reasons. You're never forced to enter the world of Astral Weeks, but as soon as you put the album on, a fresh, intoxicating whirlwind of sound will carry you away somewhere where it's always spring, when Van calls out for you to "dry your eyes for Madame George", chances are you'll have to do this whoever you are, because feelings of Madame George, an odd drag queen character that seemingly can't have anything in common with you, the listener, will suddenly seem so familiar. But if anybody asks you, what Astral Weeks sounds like, you'll probably have problems describing it, because even if Astral Weeks may not be the best musical creation in the world, it sure sounds completely unlike anything else. – Alex Zaitsev

32. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass I wanted to use some sort of catchy headline phrase to start this summary…something like “Shy Beatle Breaks Out,“ but I couldn’t think of anything clever enough, and you know what…this album isn’t like that. It is beyond any kind of gimmick because it is just so honest. Harrison poured out all of his frustrations towards his former band mates, all his life altering religious awakenings, all his whole self, and created this spiritual seance. “All Things Must Pass” is so essential, and so amazing, because it sums up George Harrison. Everything about his personality can be felt on these tunes. And he doesn’t let up…there are songs of death, songs of rebirth, songs of love, songs of loss, of annoyance, of hope, and even humor. Harrison needed rock’s first-ever triple album to vent…to release all of these wonderful songs to prove his individuality, and each track, whether it be smothered in Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” production, or just George on his guitar, is a charming, emotional success. Simply put, there isn’t any record out there that can rival this album’s overwhelming celebration of life. – Motell

31. The Clash – London Calling

30. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St. Exile is one of those great albums that is its own self-contained world. It has a mood, a sound, and an attitude that binds it all together into a single living entity. It’s pretty amazing that the Rolling Stones were capable of making this kind of album as seasoned veterans in 1972, and nobody would have blamed them if the attempt had failed. The Stones had just released a string of great records and were poised to cruise for the rest of the ‘70s in the kind of hazy decadence that can’t be questioned because they earned every gram of it. But the Stones had it in them to make this oddball – an oddball that many people, including myself, believe is greatest Rolling Stones album of them all. The most striking feature of this album is its authenticity. Sure, the Stones had shown that they were more than capable of credibly playing the blues, R&B, country and other popular music forms indigenous to the USA on previous albums. But the total assimilation in evidence on Exile is unprecedented –for them or for any English band. I think every single track on this once-double LP is indispensable. Others find fault with a song or two here and there; personally, though, I think this is like criticizing a model on a bad hair day. From the irresistible boogie of “Rock’s Off” to the hillbilly getaway music of “Turd on the Run” to the transcendent gospel of “Shine a Light,” the Stones downright owned their influences for this legendary, 67-minute sprawl. Unfortunately, they were never the same afterwards. Fortunately, though, we weren’t either.

29. The Zombies – Odyssey & Oracle The last hurrah from the short lived 60s British band The Zombies is brimming with lovely, starry-eyed pop songs delivered with confidence and sincerity. The harmonies aren’t effortless, but the way the band is singing their hearts out on songs like “Maybe After He’s Gone” make the music even more exuberant. The pianos and Mellotrons create a nice, sunshiny give-yourself-a-hug feeling throughout most of the record, but it’s not all a picnic in the park; the somber, lilting counterpoint of “A Rose for Emily” and the melancholy of “Beachwood Park” balance out the mood, and the harrowing “Butcher’s Tale” adds a contrasting bit of darkness. – Michael D

28. Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea Writing about this album for me is like saying about someone I dearly love – so close it’s to me and so much has it done for me on a personal level. Put it simple: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is the album that summaries all love and satisfaction I can get from music. It’s pretty hard to describe what it actually is: baroque-punk songs mixed with non-linear acoustic folk? Pop songs that are not pop at all? Or what? Let me say it; if you haven’t listened to it, you’ll never understand what this album is. Songwriter Jeff Mangum, arranger Scott Spillane and producer Robert Schneider managed to make something absolutely perfect, in every way. I mean, I wouldn’t want to change anything here: nor heavy lo-fi buzz popping up and there sometimes, nor Jeff Mangum’s screaming whine – not anything. Oh, and, of course, lyrics are beyond brilliant. “And someday we will die/ And our ashes will fly/ From the aeroplane over the sea/ But for know we are young/ Let us lay in the sun/ And count every beautiful thing that we see” – this little verse summarizes the meaning of life for me. It’s just, you know, a big huge sentimental personal favourite. If you don’t own this, consider you life is going by without a sense. - Oleg

27. Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick To the uninitiated, it looks like one 45-minute song, but Thick as a Brick covers more ground than any rock record should have a right to. There are enough musical ideas for about fifteen hit singles here, but instead of divvying them up into little bite-sized tenders, we get the whole goose at one. This album fits together as a whole like no other record in popular music; a timeless, seamless, flawless, fillerless epic where childhood mischief meets pagan rite in sweeping, majestic melodies and stately instrumental passages. What could be a lot of pomp and no circumstance is saved from men-in-tights self-importance by never resorting to the masturbatory technical demonstrations one might expect from a progressive rock album. Not only is nearly every second of this album engaging and memorable, but it’s perhaps the most assured record Jethro Tull ever released. Ian Anderson’s vocals are animated and the playing is energetic. These guys know they’re making a good record, and it shows. This music is grandiose but never bloated, complex but never overdone, diverse but unified; this blend of jazz, rock, and folk is the perfect record. – Michael D

26. Brian Eno – Another Green World ‘Another Green World’ is one of the most original sounding albums of the seventies. It was the first Brian Eno album to have such an ambient sound in contrast to the art-glam rock of his previous two albums and the Roxy Music stuff. There are 14 pieces here and only five of them have vocals. The album doesn’t get boring at all; the ambient pieces are different from each other and none of them is overlong. There is ultra-calm stuff like “Becalmed” or “Little Fishes” that helps you relax, while there is some more ‘dark’ ambient stuff like “In Dark Trees” and “Somber Reptiles”. As for the vocal parts, they’re well-written and come close to poppiness without losing any atmosphere. I think “Golden Hours” is the best song there, having a creepy ‘riff’ and a melancholic but really catchy vocal melody. In my opinion, it’s the best Eno album because while most of it is dreamy ambient (Eno’s forte), there are poppy moments as well, so not only hardcore ambient fans would enjoy it. As strong as some Eno albums would be later, nothing comes close to this brilliant mixture of ambience and poppiness. A final note: this album should always be listened from the beginning to the end to get the full effect. – Akis Katsman

25. Genesis – Foxtrot Sometimes I just can’t imagine that there might be better music in the world than Foxtrot. When you look at that with the proper perspective, it sounds like a really dumb thing to say, but I’m not a rational person when I’m listening to Foxtrot. How can you think logically listening to this music? When Tony Banks’ Mellotron beams out at you, it might as well be the sun. Steve Hackett’s guitar swooshes might as well be living, breathing organisms. And the completely insane, barely comprehensible ravings of Peter Gabriel might as well be the only truth in the world. Crawl inside of this album and walk around in it. You’ll never want to come back out. – Mike D

24. Yes – Fragile Here in one place is everything good about progressive rock and 70s rock, two misshapen beasts that deserved their moments in the sun. The eight-and-half minute "Roundabout," when chopped down for radio consumption, turned Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe's crunchy riffs into a hit single. But in the full version, the band piles on riff after riff, solo after solo, almost all of them catchy, before pivoting into - a hippy-dippy chant. Hooks followed by experimentation: That sums up the rest of this record, which continues with three more structured rock songs and - how's this for prog? - five short tracks showcasing each member's instrumental panache. The grab-bag of sounds and styles makes for exciting listening. Just look at the 11:30 epic that closes the record, "Heart of the Sunrise" - speedy, then ominous, then spacey, then speedy again, then speedy AND spacey, before collapsing into a very Sixties-sounding pop song, then exploding into a reprise of vocalist's Jon Anderson's solo song from earlier on the record. All that craft, which could have been dull, becomes incredibly exciting. - Dave Weigel

23. King Crimson – Red Few bands have made a monumentally influential album; fewer still can lay claim to releasing two of them, and there really aren’t many bands at all who did so since 1969. King Crimson, though, is one of those bands. 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King established Progressive rock as a genre instead of just a loosely-associated set of ideas. But in 1974 they did it all again with Red, and history has proven the scope of Red’s influence to be the farther-reaching of the pair: its heavy, angular, dissonant sounds touched not only progressive rock, but influenced a variety post-punk genres as well. The roots of the sound were laid down by King Crimson on their excellent two previous albums – difficult, experimental records that tried to bend Progressive rock in a new, harmonically challenging direction and which earned their gravitas from the ground up instead of resorting to the growing repertoire of prog-rock clichés. With Red, though, they stripped the sound down even further, stopped bending and started smashing. Red has its share of dynamic contrasts and a few well-deployed touches of mellotron, but it’s easily the loudest, fastest and most aggressive King Crimson album of the 1970s. It is a menacing display of virtuosity and power; it exhibits a scary-good band of extraordinary creativity in complete control of their considerable strengths. Of course, Robert Fripp promptly broke them up after the tour. – Matt

22. The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers Definitely one of the Stones' more varied albums, 'Sticky Fingers' is arguably their best, as well. The diversity works, because the overall sound is still very dirty, sleazy, and altogether Stones-like. But that's not to say the record lacks a beautiful, affecting ballad on occasion. There is a weak track or two, but the album is a masterpiece nonetheless, mainly because most of the songs are flat-out stellar. 'Sticky Fingers' plays more like a regular album than a greatest hits package; yet, at the same time, you can find "Brown Sugar," "Wild Horses," "Bitch," and the fabulous country song "Dead Flowers" all in one place! The Stones entered the '70s with a true production milestone, and it's one of their most elaborate, artistically satisfying works. – John Schlegel

21. Talking Heads – Remain in Light If this was the first Talking Heads album you ever picked up, you’d have to wonder, “These guys toured with the Ramones?” In the three years since they’d introduced themselves as whimsical new-wave minimalists on Talking Heads 77, the Heads (with lots of help from adjunct band member Brian Eno) had expanded their sound into a dense, polyrhythmic creature that sounded like no one else. Sure, they borrowed quite a bit from the worlds of funk and African music, but rather than imbuing those styles with the celebratory glee we’re used to, Talking Heads turned it all stiff, jerky, and nerdy in the most wonderful way, in the service of a bunch of personality portraits of third-world renegades, self-loathing urban dwellers, and loonball preachers. “Born Under Punches” dislocates its interlocking grooves with bloopy keyboard/guitar noise and David Byrne’s natterings like “Don’t you miss it! Don’t you miss it! Some of you people just about missed it!” while “The Great Curve” is a crisp, robotic funk powerhouse, and “The Overload” is a haunting slice of atmosphere about “a terrible signal too weak to even recognize.” Remain in Light is essential; can’t overemphasize that. It’s funny, dark, addictive, and it’ll make you get off your ass and jam... in your lonely apartment bedroom. – Chris Willie Williams

20. The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour You want proof God exists.? I'll tell you why God exists. Once upon a time, in the history of human music, a man stoop up and -nobody knew how come – for a period of three or four years, he was able to write songs more beautiful than anything ever heard before. But. in that same history of human music, at the exact same time, another man stood up and. listen closely. he was able to do just the same thing.! Ok, that's pretty unbelievable but wait, that's not all.. those two men not only lived in the same age, they also lived in the same city and. okay, you're not going to believe this. They joined the same band.! Now, what more proof do you want.? Okay, listen to the album and beware: when you get to tracks 3 and 4 ("Flying" and "Blue Jay Way"), you will think. ha, another beautiful album conceived by a few talented guys. but wait. wait, wait till you have heard the next seven tracks. THEN you will know that all of this could only have been conceived and planned somewhere up above. For God's sake, what was Lennon (that's the second man I was talking about) on when he wrote "I am the Walrus", "Strawberry Fields", "How does it feel to be" (part of "Baby you're a rich man") and "All You Need is Love".? How could he have known that "I am the Walrus" needed those strings, that "How does it feel to be" needed that flute sound, and so on . I'll tell you what he was one.: "divine intervention". He had taken one biiiiiiiiiiiig shot of 'divine intervention'.! And Paul McCartney (that's the first man I was talking about) clearly was on the same thing: "Fool on the Hill", "Penny Lane" and "Hello Goodbye" (especially "Hello Goodbye") give one a pretty good idea of how wonderful the afterlife will be. There you have your proof. – Herman

19. The Kinks – Arthur (Or The Decline And The Fall Of British Empire) The Kinks combined the pop melodicism of their previous album, Village Green Preservation Society, with the energy of their early work to produce Arthur, a concept album loosely tracing one family through the first half of the twentieth century. The one album that shows the band's diversity the best, Arthur ranges from upbeat rockers to mournful ballads to silly music-hall sendups to the epic "Shangri-La". Influences like the Stones and the Beach Boys are swept into a cohesive whole that ends up sounding entirely like the Kinks. Enhanced with a horn section and featuring some of Dave Davies' best guitarwork, the album nevertheless shows a great intimacy which matches the focused themes of the lyrics. The result is a ragged yet triumphant rock album by a band lamenting the past but optimistic about the future; the final singalong of "Oh, we love you and want to help you" perfectly sums up the album as a universal story told by a great rock'n'roll band. – Nick Einhorn

18. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band The renown of Sergeant Pepper’s has proven both a blessing and a curse for it through the years, bringing it both immense popularity and immense scorn from many eager to knock it off of a seemingly excessive pedestal. No, it’s not the “most experimental” album of all time (though there’s a whole lot of neat production effects that help things out, and the effort that went into these effects gives them an edge that I find very entertaining), it’s not really “the first concept album” and it’s almost certainly not “the greatest album of all time.” That said, I really think that stripping away all of these expectations and listening without a thought of what the album is “supposed” to be reveals it as what it is: a collection of really awesome pop songs. They’re relatively simple at times, yes, but they also have all sorts of little surprising twists and turns and well-done arrangements and shifts in moods and surprisingly ambiguous and clever lyrics. Oh, and it also has A Day in the Life, one of the most amazing pop songs ever written. – John Mc

17. R.E.M. – Murmur I think these guys only kind of knew what they were doing. Some of what makes this album so compelling was probably accidental. I mean, a bunch of guys recording their first album shouldn't know anything about creating an atmosphere. The effect is hard to explain, but this record kind of gets in your bones. The name R.E.M. is appropriate because their early sound seemed to somehow tap into your subconscious. Maybe it was those amazing vocals emoting over mumbled half-lyrics, or those fantastic couldn't-be-anything-but jangly guitars, or the charmed production. I have no idea. Maybe the fact that I can't figure this album out is the reason it's my #1. – Jason Adams

16. Television – Marquee Moon

15. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon

14. The Who – Who’s Next I want to be Roger Daltrey, I want to leave my wife and kids, quit my job, lose some length, have blue eyes, curly blond hair and a golden throat . Not good enough. I want to erase my past, I want to be born again and be Roger Daltrey. I want to be the guy singing "I'm in tune. and I'm gonna tune. right in on you" or "No one knows what it's like...". I want to be Roger Daltrey for the rest of my life. I don't mind if I have to sing the damned songs that make up "It's hard", for God's sake, if only I get to sing "Baba O'Riley" and "Bargain". I don't even mind having to be around jerks like Townshend and Moon, as long as Pete doesn't want to sing all of the best songs himself. Who cares if my solo-career sucks, as long as The Who does reunion-concerts where I get to sing four or five songs of "Who's Next". What's the point of being Herman, if someone in this world gets to be Roger Daltrey and sing "Won't get fooled again".? - Herman

13. Genesis – Selling England By The Pound Hands down my favorite prog rock album ever, this album finds early Genesis finally showing the ability to match the brilliance of their songs with brilliant arrangements (whereas in the albums previous, the awkwardness of their arrangements is the one aspect that often irritates me). Tony Banks brings in synthesizers for the first time (which might bug some who loved the never-ending Hammond and Mellotron of previous albums), but he uses them well (whereas some later albums would find him abusing them); he also plays more piano here than on any other Genesis album, and that creates some of the album’s richest moments (see: Firth of Fifth, parts of Dancing with the Moonlit Knight). At the same time, Steve Hackett gets to actually seem a ‘featured’ member of the band for the first time (as opposed to too often being buried in the background previously), and his parts are regularly brilliant (see: Firth of Fifth, parts of Dancing with the Moonlit Knight). Peter Gabriel gets in some of his very best vocal performances and writes some of his very best lyrics, and the band pulls out all sorts of clever little tricks to augment them. It balances prog seriousness with lighthearted poppy fun (both weird and normal), thus inflating the balloon of pomp and seriousness aspects that make the album so fascinating, and also deflating it as necessary to keep it the balloon from popping. Throw in one of the greatest extended album codas I can possibly imagine (the end of The Cinema Show), wrapping things up with a nod to the first track, and you have pure magic.

12. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds A testament to how great things can happen if you're willing to risk insanity, Brian Wilson's magnificent flip of the bird to Paul McCartney still conveys all the emotion and grandeur it was given in 1966. Wilson's skill at melody is at its absolute height - not one of these songs falls flat, and "Caroline, No," "Wouldn't it Be Nice," and "God Only Knows" are universally recognized classics. More than that, there's a beauty of harmonizing and arranging here that Wilson and his imitators have been unable to hit on since. Listen to how many of the songs begin with or linger on dense instrumental sections - hell, listen to the two instrumentals that punctuate sides A and B. The fairly simple pop of "You Still Believe in Me" starts with a sound like an altar boy tuning up an organ. Wilson's cry in "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" - "Listen to my heart beat/ Listen, listen, listen" - glides over a thumping bass that sounds a lot like a thumping heart. This is baroque pop that gets better as it dates. - Dave Weigel

11. Yes – Close To The Edge Tragically, Close To The Edge was the second and last album recorded by the classic Yes lineup bursting with virtuosity; Chris Squire's huge bass tone, Rick Wakeman's majestic keyboards, Bill Bruford's supple drumming, and Steve Howe's genre hopping guitar combined to create one of the most enduring albums from the progressive rock movement. With only three tracks and Jon Anderson’s incomprehensible quasi-religious lyrics, its pretension might be too much for some to handle, but if you can get past this, Close To The Edge is a veritable feast of bold and vibrant musical ideas. – Graham

10. Pixies - Doolittle

9. The Kinks – The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society Funny, warm, surreal, catchy beyond belief, but above all else…English. This is Ray Davies’s hook filled masterpiece: a virtually perfect pop record, and a concept album on top of everything of else. No one can agree on the best track, but no one can resist its effervescence. There is absolutely no filler on this album; each tune is a whimsical ride through the British countryside, forming unforgettable stories of all the various characters in the Village Green. From the Big Sky and Wicked Annabella, to Walter and that Phenomenal Cat, the lyrics are the some of the best Davies penned, the background voices make the album, the orchestration is ideal, and most bands don’t show as much diversity in their entire catalog as this album does in its fifteen tracks. One of the first one-of-a-kind albums, one of the most unique listening experiences, this is, quite simply, the most charming album ever recorded. The Kinks might have had better individual songs, but they never made a better album. – Motell

8. Bob Dylan – Blonde On Blonde The best album ever. It captures Dylan at his most divergently lucid and abstract, embracing the blues and folk-rock, singing epic masterpieces of sprawling virtuosity, as well as short, pop-infested, love songs and riff-rockers, while containing Dylan’s most engaging set of melodies. It features a unique, “thin, wild mercury” sound that has yet to duplicated, underlying a set of Dylan’s most remarkable and ornately arranged songs. “Visions of Johanna” is astoundingly compelling, a virtual juggernaut of ingenious metaphors and camouflaged profundity. “Inside the museum, infinity goes up on trial/Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while.” “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” is the world’s greatest love song and it’s not even entirely complimentary. “With your silhouette when the sunlight dims/Into your eyes where the moonlight swims.” Worthy of getting lost in. Furthers the possibilities of musical expression to the point of appearing more like a conjured entity than anything existent. Makes me want to be a better man. Plus, I really like the harmonica solo on “Absolutely Sweet Marie.” – Ryan Mulligan

7. The Beatles – Rubber Soul The first in a string of amazing albums, “Rubber Soul” is perhaps the one that ultimately reminds me what the Beatles were really about. Amidst tales that keep telling they were totally groundbreaking and visionary guys, this album proves that the greatness of this band relied mainly in their unparalleled ability to write excelent pop songs. They could strike with some bizarre stuff every now and then, of course, but most of their great songs are just that: great songs. Hooky, catchy, less than three minutes long, likeable, energy filled, beautiful, perfectly arranged. No big mystery. Most people rave about “Rubber Soul” claiming it’s a revolutionary and influential move. I say “perhaps”, but just because it’s the best pure pop album ever recorded. If we’re talking about great songs, “Rubber Soul” has them in aces. Some filler gets on the way here and there (“What Goes On”), but overall this is a rosary of classics. “Norwegian Wood” is probably the best song; two minutes of absolute perfection in which Harrison’s chiming sitar, Lennon’s ambiguous storytelling and Paul’s ethereal harmonies create some of the most haunting beauty to be found in pop music. In Paul’s excelent “Drive My Car”, the guys plunge into soul territory, and they rock: check out that massive bass and groovy piano! Paul also contributes some great songwriting in “You Won’t See Me”, one of the most impressive vocal melodies I’ve ever came across, and some solid ear-candy balladery in “Michelle”. To state he’s not a sissy, he bites in the great, pissed-off anthem “I’m Looking Through You”. On the other hand, John shows his growth as a lyricist in the wonderful “Nowhere Man”, which I always feel is being sung directly to me (“move your ass you lazy douchebag!”, in a gentle way), the touching “In My Life” and the melodic bliss of “Girl”. George charges with the byrdsy “If I Needed Someone”, with a killer riff and some great I-am-not-in-love lyrics, and the fuzz infested “Think For Yourself”. Even at its most irrelevant, this album cooks, as the insane chorus of “Run For Your Life” and the great vocal harmonies in “Wait” witness. The logic conclusion to their early age, and the beginning of an exciting period of unmatchable songwriting, “Rubber Soul” sounds today as fresh and delectable as it surely did 40 years ago, when it stood galaxies apart from most music being made by other artists. That’s what they call “timeless”, I guess. – Federico Fernandez

6. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited To fully appreciate the strength of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, consider this: in 1997 Dylan released an excellent album called Time Out of Mind, which topped many of the major critics’ polls that year (the year of OK Computer, I might add); it was the kind of introspective, dark record that any other major singer-songwriter would kill to have made. The tone of the album was frequently compared to Dylan’s earlier dark masterpiece, Highway 61, but no critic that I’m aware of has even hinted that Time Out of Mind is as good. Highway 61 represents such a significant turn in Dylan’s career and is such an important artifact of American rock music’s formative development that it is one of the few albums ever made that is generally considered critically inviolable. Every once in awhile some whippersnapper will take a shot at Sgt. Pepper’s or Exile on Main Street. Or even Dylan’s own Blonde on Blonde. Not Highway 61, though. Dylan recorded Highway 61 after his infamous appearance at Newport, where it has become legend that the “plugged in” portion of his set enraged the audience and turned them against him. Dylan had already released the great Bringing it All Back Home a few months previous, the album that debuted Dylan’s electric rock sound. With Highway 61, though, Dylan showed that there was no turning back – even the acoustic material no longer sounded like “folk,” but something else entirely. The album pulls no punches, sonically or otherwise. The gloriously rocking opener, “Like A Rolling Stone” has to be one of the most overtly bitter songs to enjoy consistent radio play: “You used to be so amused / At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used / Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse / When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose,” sneers Dylan. From there, the album surges on – caustic, haunting, volatile – providing a soundtrack to the turbulent times into which it was released. It all culminates with solemn strumming and pithy imagery of “Desolation Row,” Dylan’s most “literary” song to date and a foreshadowing of the tack he’d take with the following year’s Blonde on Blonde. In a recent interview, Dylan stated that he really didn’t know how he had written some his classic ‘60s albums, and he doubted that he’d ever be capable of writing like that again. After 40 years, Highway 61 still sounds like the product of divine inspiration. - Matt

5. The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed Greatest set of songs ever by one of rock's most original bands. Gimme Shelter is a 4-min epic that condenses a spine-chilling lead guitar, operatic chorus, and *zzzzzt* percussion into one neat package. Instead of just slugging from verse to chorus, not that there's anything wrong with that, these songs develop through all kinds of melodic and mood shifts in a single track in addition to the regular rock 'n roll excitement. – Andrew R

4. The Beatles – The Beatles

3. Radiohead – OK Computer Plenty of bands have made albums that attempted to be complete indictments of Western civilization (many more since this album spawned a thousand Radiohead copycat bands), but none of them succeeds this handily at depicting a society completely apathetic to its own decay. Thom Yorke delivers blackly funny rants, issues threats, retracts them, fantasizes about aliens getting him out of this mess, and dissociates himself from the world entirely on “No Surprises.” Insects malfunction, every imaginable mode of transportation leaves whiplashed corpses in its wake, families lock themselves away and destroy themselves in the process, and above it all, corporate politicians masterfully manipulate everything by successfully finding a bottomless common denominator. The music careens from proggy epics (“Paranoid Android”) to stark, whispered hopelessness (“Exit Music”), from ingratiating pop beauty (“Let Down”) to tuneless weirdness (the hilarious computer interlude “Fitter Happier”), and that drained feeling you get at the end is the exhaustion that comes from seeing into the future and discovering that there’s just nothing there. – Chris Willie Williams

2. The Beatles – Abbey Road

1. The Beatles – Revolver Lists of this kind almost always tend to have Revolver in the top 5 or so, and seeing as I rate this as my undisputed #1, this pleases me greatly. It may indeed be the case that each of the individual band members would peak later, but this is their peak as a band. The album is sequenced impeccably, the band members give a good mix of milking their ‘traditional’ roles (McCartney: bouncy guitar-less pop ballads; Lennon: solid guitar rock and LSD-driven experimentation; Harrison: Eastern music guru) with a clever interchanging of roles (McCartney: Depressing as hell pop ballads; Lennon: a happy pop song about the joys of sleep; Harrison: Biting social critique, for the first time), and the songs just fookin’ rule. Maybe the album isn’t quite perfect (Dr. Robert has always seemed a little subpar to me for mid-period Beatles), but the highs are so high that moderate imperfections are easily glossed over. Perfect children’s songs (Yellow Submarine), guitar pop with two guitars intertwining 16th notes (And Your Bird Can Sing), the most intense use of sitar and tabla I’ve ever heard (Love You To), a perfect look inside the just-off-kilter mindset of a person on acid without actually mentioning the stuff (She Said, She Said) … the list just goes on. The experience I had the first times I listened to this album can not be adequately expressed with words like “enjoyment;” it was as if I was filling a hunger that I had unknowingly had for my entire life up to that point. Absolutely essential. – John Mc

200. Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
199. Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
198. Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
197. King Crimson - Absent Lovers
196. Nirvana - In Utero
195. Paul Simon - Graceland
194. Michael Jackson - Thriller
193. Can - Future Days
192. The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka
191. The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic
190. Lou Reed - Transformer
189. The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
188. Roxy Music - Stranded
187. The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
186. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
185. Gentle Giant - Octopus
184. Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box/Second Edition
183. The Rolling Stones - Aftermath
182. Roxy Music - Country life
181. Frank Zappa - Burnt Weeny Sandwich
180. Rush - Moving Pictures
179. R.E.M. - Reckoning
178. Randy Newman - Sail Away
177. U2 - Boy
176. Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale
175. Joni mitchell - Count And Spark
174. R.E.M. - Fables Of The Reconstruction
173. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
172. My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
171. Paul and Linda McCartney - RAM
170. Elvis Costello - My Aim is True
169. Metallica - Ride The Lightning
168. Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
167. XTC - English Settlement
166. Stevie Wonder - Talking Book
165. Guided By Voices - Under The Bushes Under The Stars
164. T. Rex - Electric Warrior
163. The New Pornographers - Electric Version
162. The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
161. Roy Harper - Stormcock
160. The Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out!
159. The Band - The Band
158. Big Star - #1 Record
157. The Beatles - Let It Be
156. Bob Dylan - The Freewhelin' Bob Dylan
155. The Rolling Stones - Between The Buttons
154. Steely Dan - Countdown To Ecstasy
153. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu
152. Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy
151. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For rotten Vegetables
150. Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted
149. XTC - Black Sea
148. DJ Shadow - ...Endtorducing
147. Mr. Bungle - California
146. U2 - Achtung Baby
145. John lennon - Plastic Ono Band
144. Pink Floyd - Meddle
143. Van Morrison - Moondance
142. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
141. They might Be Giants - Lincoln
140. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
139. Talking heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food
138. The Doors - Strange Days
137. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
136. The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
135. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
134. The Mothers Of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
133. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
132. Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
131. Prince - Sign O' The Times
130. The Beatles - Past Masters, Vol. 2
129. Blondie - Parallel Lines
128. Ween - Chocolate And Cheese
127. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
126. The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Today!
125. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
124. Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets
123. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
122. The Kinks - Muswell Hillbilies
121. The Cure - Disintegration
120. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags & Codes
119. The Doors - The Doors
118. Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
117. Wilco - Summerteeth
116. Jethro Tull - Stand Up
115. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
114. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
113. Sly & the Family Stone - Stand!
112. Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
111. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
110. Electric Light orchestra - Eldorado
109. Joni Mitchell - Blue
108. The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
107. Derek And The Dominoes - Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
106. Ramones - Leave Home
105. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
104. Cream - Disraeli Gears
103. Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
102. Can - Tago Mago
101. Prince - Purple Rain

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