I know this has been done ad nauseum in some iteration, but thought I’d revive it since IMO it’s so much fun, not to mention interesting what people would choose as a tough, limited, ‘stranded on a deserted island’ kind of rotation.
Anyway, here’s mine in no particular order as of this date:
Led Zeppelin—Led Zeppelin III
Sigur Ros— Ágætis Byrjun
Pink Floyd—The Wall
David Bowie—The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Wilco—Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Gorillaz—Demon Days
Rush—Moving Pictures
The Beatles—Abbey Road
Talking Heads—Remain in Light
Glenn Gould—Bach: Partitas, Preludes and Fugues
Bill Evans Trio—Portrait in Jazz
Radiohead—The Bends
The Flaming Lips—Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Beck—Sea Change
Modest Mouse—Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Sufjan Stevens—Illinois
Nirvana—Nevermind
LCD Soundsystem—LCD Soundsystem
Gary Numan—Telekon
The Police—Synchronicity
The Avett Brothers—Emotionalism
Steely Dan—Can’t Buy a Thrill
Pearl Jam—Vitalogy
Neil Young—After the Gold Rush
Sex Pistols—Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
Currently I choose this. To keep it exciting it limited my choice to one per artist. If I did not it would have been more padded with the same artists.
Great list!
I know. I had to choose an artist then just one as well, even though it may not technically be their ‘best’ (but my consistently favorite to listen to when I do). It at least had some breadth that way.
Biosphere - Substrata
Global Communication - 76:14
LTJ Bukem - Logical Progression
Max Richter - Memoryhouse
The Beatles - Revolver
Faith no More - Angel Dust
Carcass - Heartwork
Ulrich Schnauss - Far Away Trains Passing By
Nevermore - Dead Heart in a Dead World
Orbital - In Sides
The Prodigy - Experience
Hallucinogen - Twisted
Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina - Elis & Tom
Metalheadz Records - Platinum Breakz
Radiohead - OK Computer
Propagandhi - How To Clean Everything
Ishq - Orchid
Galaxy 2 Galaxy - A Hi-Tech Jazz compilation
The Flashbulb - Arboreal
Babymetal - Metal Resistance
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Autechre - Incunabula
Yasume - Where We’re From The Birds Sing A Pretty Song
Warp Records - Artificial Intelligence II
Rush Moving Pictures
Marilllion, clutching at straws
Shawn Mullins, Souls Core
Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes
Nerina Pallot, Fires
Joan Osborn, Relish
Del Amitri, Hat Full of rain
Black Sabbath, Heaven and hell
Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak
Dire Straits, Love over gold
Rush, Signals
Dire Straits, Brothers in arms
Robbie Williams, life through a lens
Carol King, Tapestry
Black Sabbath, Mob Rules
Def Leopard, Hystrria
Led Zeppelin, led Zeppelin II
Frank Zappa, Apostrophe
The Cranberries, No need to argue
Guns n roses, appetite for destruction
Queen, queen II
Paolo Nutini, these streets
Rush, Power Windows
Tears for fears, songs from the big chair
Kate Bush, the whole story
Peter Gabriel, So
Pink Floyd - DSOTM
Derek and The Dominos - Layla
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Cream - Cream Reunion
The Beatles - Revolver
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
BB King - Live at Cook County Jail
Jaco Pastorius - Holiday for Pans
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Steely Dan - Aja
Jaco Pastorius - Word of Mouth
Little Walter - Hate to see you go
Freddie King - Getting Ready…
George harrison - All things must pass
Albert King - The definitive albert king
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love
John Coltrane - Blue Train
Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil
The Band - The Last Waltz
Allan Holdsworth - I.O.U
Joni Mitchell - Hejira
Jeff Beck - Live at Ronnie Scott’s
The Allman Bros - Eat a Peach
Queen - A night at the opera
Herbie Hancock: Man Child , Secrets.
Miles Davis: Get up with it, Decoy.
Joe Henderson: Black Miracle, Canyon Lady
Grover Washington: live at the Bijou
Led Zeppelin II
Al Jarreau: live in Europe
Ahmad Jamal: The Essence
Eryk Truffaz: Bending new corners
Isaac Hayes: Live at Sahara Tahoe
Bill Frisell: East West
Jeff Beck: Blow by Blow, Wired
Billy Cobham: Spectrum
Medeski Martin Wood: Uninvisible
Sonar: Live at Bazilius
Dire Straits: Communiqué
Gil Scott Heron: Pieces of a man
Tony Joe White: Homemade Icecream
Jimmy Smith: Sit on it
Georges Benson: White rabbit
Aretha Franklin: Hey How Hey
Larry Carlton Robben Ford: live in Tokyo
Definitely a list that would change depending on day of the week, day of the month, day of the year, weather, mood, …fill in the blank_______.
Artist — Album
Charles Lloyd and the Marvels — Vanished Gardens
Jakob Bro — Ballardeering
Andrew Cyrille — Lebroba
Anouar Brahem — Souvenance
Avishai Cohen — Big Vicious
Stefano Bollani — Joy In Spite Of Everything
Bill Frisell — Guitar in the Space Age
Boz Scaggs — Fade Into Light
Cowboy Junkies — The Caution Horses
Eberhard Weber — Colours
Michele Rabbia — Lost River
Food — Mercurial Balm
Fred Simon — Remember The River
Jan Garbarek — Officium
Jon Balke — Siwan
Mathias Eick — The Door
K. D. Lang —Ingeniue
Ketil Bjornstad — A Passion For John Donne
Lizz Wright — Salt
Lucinda Williams — This Sweet Old World
Mary Chapin Carpenter — Stones In The Road
Mark Knopfler — Shangri-La
Natalie Merchant — Paradise Is There: The New TIgerlily Recordings
Patricia Barber — Cafe Blue (Unmastered)
Sean Rowe — The Shark and the Salesman
My list today:
Elis Regina & Tom Jobim - Elis & Tom
Gerry Mulligan & Jane Duboc – Paraiso
Leila Pinheiro - A Bossa de Leila Pinheiro
J J Cale - Naturally
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Boz Scaggs - Fade Into Light
Lucinda Williams - Sweet Old World
Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball
Danger Mouse - Rome
Ennio Morricone - The Complete Edition
Grey DeLisle - Home Wrecker
King Creosote - Diamond Mine
The War On Drugs - Lost In the Dream
Mary Coughlan - Tired and Emotional
Paul Simon - Graceland
Sara Isaksson & Rebecka Tornqvist - Fire In The Hole
Toots Thielemans - The Brasil Project, Vol. 2
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life
Serge Gainsbourg - Historie De Melody Nelson
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
Linda Ronstadt - Heart Like A Wheel
John Hiatt - Bring The Family
Dawes - Stories Don’t End
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session
Bliss - Quiet Letters
I cheated with Morriocne. Simply impossible to select one - so I included the 16CD Complete Edition
Queen - Queen II
Led Zeppelin - IV
Pink Floyd - DSOTM
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief
Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights
Dire Straits - DS
Genesis - Lamb Lies Down
Afro Celt Sound System - Anatomic
Auri - Auri
Nightwish - Human Nature
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Rick Wakeman - Six Wives
Suzanne Vega - SV
King Crimson - In The Court Of
King Crimson - Red
Peter Gabriel - 3
Peter Gabriel - 4
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Derek & The Dominos - Layla
Cream - Disraeli Gears
Crowded House - CH
Love Forever Changes
Love 1st Album
Love Da Capo
Buffalo Springfield Again
Spirit 12 dreams of Dr Sardonicus
Nick Drake Five leaves left
Nick Drake Bryter Layter
Nick Drake Pink Moon
JJ Cale Naturally
JJ Cale Okie Okie
Stephen Stills Manassas
Duane Eddy Have twangy guitar will travel
CSN 1st Album
Poco Deliverin’
Dire Straits 1st Album
Flying Burrito Bros Gilded palace of sin
Gene Clark White light
Byrds Younger than yesterday
Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland
Steely Dan Can’t buy a thrill
Miles Davis Kinda Blue
Quicksilver messenger service Happy trails
Terry Reid The river
Dan Hicks and his hot licks original recordings 1969
Joni Mitchell Blue
This was really difficult. I limited to two albums per artist (a few I could have picked an easy 5 each). I have intentionally left off Jazz and Classical. I could easily pick fav 100 but fav 25 was a bear. I’m sure I will want to change the list as soon as I post it. In no particular order:
How about people starring one album in their list, if possible choosing one that others are less likely to have heard than any that may be considered to be fairly widely known, as a recommendation for a new listener. Perhaps also suggesting one track from that album as a taster. In fact, it may then be fun for some people to construct playlists from the taster tracks. For those who have already posted their list, perhaps they could add this info as a reply to their list? (If you feel that this may compromise the simplicity of what was originally intended, please say so and I will then delete this suggestion).
