My Favorite Albums
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about which albums I return to again and again as full albums. Since streaming has made it trivially easy to only listen to songs you like, I think many of us listen to playlists rather than albums. I do listen to albums I’ve bought on Bandcamp as full albums, but otherwise, I mostly listen to Sirius radio or playlists.
But there are some albums I like to listen to in their complete form. So I thought I’d share them with you not to show how cool I am (I mean, sure, that too) , but also because I’m always interested in music recommendations from real people, so maybe you will be too.
Caveat: I’m not representing this as the “best albums of all time” or anything like that because that’s entirely subjective, and also my affection for some of these albums is definitely colored by the associations I have with them. So your mileage may vary, but I’m confident there are no clunkers here.
I’m presenting them in chronological order by release date, and I’m stopping in 2012, mostly because I’m lazy and also I’m not sure which albums from the last 15 years I’ll still be listening to in 15 years.
1965- The Beatles, Rubber Soul
1966- The Beatles, Revolver
1967- The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground and Nico
1969-Creedence Clearwater Revival, Willy and the Poor Boys
1970- MC5, Back in the USA
1972- Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway Live
1975- Parliament, One Nation Under a Groove
1977- Ramones, Rocket to Russia
1978- Ramones, Road to Ruin
1978- Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove
1978- The Dictators, Bloodbrothers
1979- Graham Parker and the Rumour, Squeezing Out Sparks
1979- The Clash, The Clash (US Version. Yeah, I said it)
1979- Roky Erickson and the Aliens, The Evil One
1980- The Clash, London Calling
1980- Prince, Dirty Mind
1980- The Damned, The Black Album
1982- Utopia, Utopia
1982- X, Under the Big Black Sun
1984- Hüsker Dü, Zen Arcade
1984- Minutemen, Double Nickels on the Dime
1984- Ramones, Too Tough To Die
1984- The Go-Gos Talk Show
1985- The Velvet Underground, VU
1986- The Edge, From the Middle of Nowhere (Original Title: Johnny Cuba & The Edge)
1986- Human Zoo, Human Zoo
1986- Midnight Oil, Diesel and Dust
1986- Paul Simon, Graceland
1987- Prince, Sign O’ The Times
1987- John Mellencamp, The Lonesome Jubilee
1988- Billy Bragg, Workers Playtime
1994- Johny Cash, American Recordings
1995- Prince, The Gold Experience
1996- Belle and Sebastian, Tigermilk
1996- Belle and Sebastian If You’re Feeling Sinister
1997- Afro-Cuban All Stars, A Todo Cuba La Gusta
1998- Belle and Sebastian, The Boy With the Arab Strap
2002- Caesars, Love For the Streets
2002- Zombina and the Skeletones, Taste the Blood Of
2002- The Donnas, Spend the Night
2003- John Mellencamp, Trouble No More
2004- Hawaii Mud Bombers, Mondo Primo
2004- Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose
2004- Sahara Hotnights, Kiss & Tell
2007- Shonen Knife, Fun! Fun! Fun!
2008- Nada Surf, Lucky
2010- Harley Poe, Wretched, Filthy, Ugly.
2012- The Hives, Lex Hives