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What are your guys' 25 favorite albums of all time? Here's my list:
I know I missed a few, but there are just too many that some had to be left off. Depending on the day/mood the list might change a little. Obviously I have a wide variety of taste, and I had a very hard time leaving off Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and Johnny Cash among others but they didn't have a stand out album to me so they didn't make it. My favorite music is metal, but I get into alt rock, punk, some rap, and even some poppier stuff (note Alanis high on the list.) I have an eclectic taste, but am also very picky.

And to make it difficult on you, no honorable mentions or anything. Just 25 albums in order. No compilations either; maybe a live album would be fine but that is cutting it close.

This is mine. And this is favorite albums, not favorite bands, and many of the latter have been left off because the emphasis is on strong, cohesive albums.

1. Blonde on Blonde- Bob Dylan
2. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness- Smashing Pumpkins
3. Dark Side of the Moon- Pink Floyd
4. Blood on the Tracks- Bob Dylan
5. American Beauty- Grateful Dead
6. Abbey Road- The Beatles
7. Funeral- Arcade Fire
8. Aquemini- Outkast
9. Midnite Vultures- Beck
10. Highway 61 Revisited- Bob Dylan
11. 40 Oz. to Freedom- Sublime
12. Paul's Boutique- Beastie Boys
13. Reachin' (Refutation of Time and Space)- Digable Planets
14. Let's Get Free- Dead Prez
15. The Sunlandic Twins- Of Montreal
16. Neon Bible- Arcade Fire
17. One Size Fits All- Mothers of Invention
18. Nothing Lasts...but Nothing is Lost- Shpongle
19. Live at Red Rocks- Dave Matthews Band
20. Transistor- 311
21. Old Skin for the New Ceremony- Leonard Cohen
22. The Pretty Toney Album- Ghostface
23. Smoke- White Williams
24. TI vs. TIP- TI
25. Late Registration- Kanye West

EDIT: This also isn't incredibly thought-out, and I'm sure I'll think of more and could fiddle with it forever.

As for wang_chi's list, Weezer's Blue Album and more importantly Jimi's Axis: Bold as Love would be in my top 50, and a couple more Beatles albums would be too, including Revolver. Maybe Purple Rain, oh, and definitely BIG's Ready 2 Die. Conceivably both could make it into my top 50, but Houses of the Holy definitely edges out IV in my book.

listing 25 would be incredibly hard. here are some of mine:

LA Guns - Cocked and Loaded
Suicidal Tendencies - Lights Camera Revolution
Metallica - And justice for All
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Metallica - Kill em All
Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood
Prince - Purple Rain
Tesla - Mechanical Resonance
Ozzy - No Rest for the Wicked

Colinito wrote:This is mine. And this is favorite albums, not favorite bands, and many of the latter have been left off because the emphasis is on strong, cohesive albums.
EDIT: This also isn't incredibly thought-out, and I'm sure I'll think of more and could fiddle with it forever.

As for wang_chi's list, Weezer's Blue Album and more importantly Jimi's Axis: Bold as Love would be in my top 50, and a couple more Beatles albums would be too, including Revolver. Maybe Purple Rain, oh, and definitely BIG's Ready 2 Die. Conceivably both could make it into my top 50, but Houses of the Holy definitely edges out IV in my book.

Nice list, many of those would be in my top 50-100. The Blue Album and Pinkerton were a close call, I ended up going with the more mainstream one. I'm really only into I thru IV by Zeppelin; Houses is pretty good, but I don't care for their later stuff.

Man, I don't have time for this one right now, but that's a GREAT idea for a thread.

I'll give you by far my all time favorite -- Sticky Fingers. And if anyone has to ask the name of the band, I doubt they'd want to hear the other 24.

Anyway, maybe I'll do the 25 when my schedule is more sane.

Since the idea was to list favorites, I really listed favorites, which means some of my favorite bands and musicians are represented by several albums. I made little effort to diversify. There are a lot of bands/artists that were left off but when I looked through my collection today, these were the albums that jumped out at me.

It's almost impossible to narrow my favorites down to 25 and depending on my mood, the list could change. I imagine that's true for everybody.

I couldn't figure out how to rank them so it's just a list of 25 favorites. However, the first album is listed is my all-time favorite. I know that much...

Brian Eno— Before and After Science
Brian Eno— Another Green World
Brian Eno — Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
Talking Heads— Remain in Light
Talking Heads— More Songs About Buildings and Food
The Clash— London Calling
Blue Öyster Cult— Agents of Fortune
The Who- Quadrophenia
Ramones— Rocket to Russia
Laurie Anderson—Mister Heartbreak
The Pogues— If I Should Fall from Grace With God
XTC— Black Sea
XTC— Skylarking
Stan Ridgway— Mosquitos
Bill Nelson—Whistling While the World Turns
Ultravox— Systems of Romance
Kid Creole and the Coconuts— Doppleganger
The Soft Boys— Underwater Moonlight
Split Enz—Time and Tide
Dead Can Dance— Aion
Towa Tei— Future Listening
James Brown– In the Jungle Groove
Robyn Hitchcock — I Often Dream of Trains
Charlatans UK—Between 10h and 11th
The Who— Who's Next


Jim

DanAS1 wrote:Man, I don't have time for this one right now, but that's a GREAT idea for a thread.

I'll give you by far my all time favorite -- Sticky Fingers. And if anyone has to ask the name of the band, I doubt they'd want to hear the other 24.

LOL! When I saw this thread, I thought of you and that album, Dan. I know how much you like that particular band.

Jim

Colinito wrote:13. Reachin' (Refutation of Time and Space)- Digable Planets

Great choice! I love that album (and Blowout Comb).

As for wang_chi's list, Weezer's Blue Album and more importantly Jimi's Axis: Bold as Love would be in my top 50, and a couple more Beatles albums would be too, including Revolver. Maybe Purple Rain, oh, and definitely BIG's Ready 2 Die. Conceivably both could make it into my top 50, but Houses of the Holy definitely edges out IV in my book.

Mine too. They're both great albums but I prefer Houses of the Holy.

Jim

Mothman wrote: LOL! When I saw this thread, I thought of you and that album, Dan. I know how much you like that particular band.

Jim

"Wild Horses couldn't drive me away" from listening to it.

By the way, you put London Calling twice. It might be good enough to list twice. I saw the Sex Pistols' last concert ever, and never the Clash, but I have to admit the Clash's music was ten times better.

I assume this means no compilations.

Here are 25 that I listen too often enough to have at the top of my head:

Def Leppard - High N Dry
Def Leppard - Hysteria
Van Halen - Van Halen
Van Halen - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Queen - Live at Wembley Stadium
Ratt - Out of the Cellar
Dokken - Tooth and Nail
Scorpions - Blackout
Beatles - Help
Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
Rush - Moving Pictures
GNR - Appetite For Destruction
Foreigner - Double Vision
Asia - Asia
Velvet Revolver - Velvet Revolver
Collective Soul - Collective Soul
Savage Garden - Savage Garden
George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice
Ace of Base - Ace of Base
ELO - Time
Depeche Mode - Violator
U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Police - Regatta De Blanc
Sting - The Soul Cages
INXS - Kick

Yes, it is an eclectic list.

The strange thing is that one of my favorite bands, Cheap Trick, is not on there because I make my own compilations of their songs. The same goes for Journey and Iron Maiden. I don't have any Dave Clark 5 or Raspberries originals, so I can't add them either.

Minniman:

The strange thing is that one of my favorite bands, Cheap Trick, is not on there because I make my own compilations of their songs. The same goes for Journey and Iron Maiden. I don't have any Dave Clark 5 or Raspberries originals, so I can't add them either.

I almost exclusively listen to my own mixes, which I spend some amount of time on. I have 3 categories: themed mix, all hip-hop, and single artist. Kanye is an artist that I assume is like Cheap Trick for Minniman in that he has lots of good songs but some inconsistency in each album. There isn't an album that's "Dark Side" great but he's one of my favorites so l listed him, but I prefer him mixed.

Mothman:

Talking Heads— Remain in Light
Talking Heads— More Songs About Buildings and Food
The Clash— London Calling
The Who- Quadrophenia

Ah ####, I forgot Remain in Light. I need to cram that in the middle somewhere and push everything down. Nice list Jim. I noticed you listed a lot of Eno. I suppose I should go investigate. I had an Eno/Byrne album as filler on a tape in college that I thought was pretty good, but I've since lost it and never sought out more from him.

One good thing about music, your collection keeps growing as you get older. I didn't even start listening to the Smashing Pumpkins until 3 or 4 years ago, and they're one of my favorite bands (not the new stuff ). Meanwhile, the Grateful Dead, Phish, and the Disco Biscuits, which have consumed vast hours of my life, got a measly combined 1 album! It's good, though, it's growth..

Here is my list. That was hard to pick out!

1. Rush - 2112
2. Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
3. Ken Tamplin - An Axe To Grind
4. Shout - It Won't Be Long
5. Balance Of Power - Book Of Secrets
6. Death - Human
7. Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes
8. Bonham - Mad Hatter
9. David Zaffiro - The Other Side
10. Deliverance - Wepons Of Our Warfare
11. Dismember - Like A Everflowing Stream
12. Holy Solider- S/T
13. Rush - Moving Pictures
14. Rush - Power Windows
15. Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
16. Vengeance Rising - Once Dead
17. Yngwie Malmsteen - Marching Out
18. DeGarmo & Key - The Pledge
19. White Heart - Freedom
20. Barren Cross - State Of Control
21. Liaison - Hard Hitter
22. Queensryche - Rage For Order
23. Dogs Of Peace - {speak}
24. Athiest - Unquestionable Presence
25. Petra - On Fire!

DanAS1 wrote:"Wild Horses couldn't drive me away" from listening to it.

LOL!

Dan, have you heard Time and Tide by Split Enz? It's a great album. IIRC, know you're a fan of Tim Finn so I thought you might be familiar with it.

By the way, you put London Calling twice. It might be good enough to list twice. I saw the Sex Pistols' last concert ever, and never the Clash, but I have to admit the Clash's music was ten times better.

I agree. I didn't list the albums in order but if i had, London Calling have been in the top 5. I think it's an all-time great.

Since I accidentally listed London Calling twice, I switched out the second one and added "Who's Next" to the list.

I was going to include some Beatles albums but I realized that, as much as I love them, none of them rank among my 25 favorites. If I was making a 25 greatest list, they'd definitely be represented.

Jim

Minniman wrote:I assume this means no compilations.

I wondered about that too but I went ahead and included two (the Dead can Dance album and the James Brown "Star Time" stuff). If compilations are off limits, I can switch them out.

Ace of Base - Ace of Base

I didn't expect to see that on a list. I almost included ABC's The Lexicon of Love on mine.

Colinito wrote:Ah ####, I forgot Remain in Light. I need to cram that in the middle somewhere and push everything down. Nice list Jim.

Thanks! I definitely have to check out some of the stuff on yours that I haven't heard before.

I'm glad you like Remain in Light. Awesome album...

I noticed you listed a lot of Eno. I suppose I should go investigate. I had an Eno/Byrne album as filler on a tape in college that I thought was pretty good, but I've since lost it and never sought out more from him.

That would have been "MY LIfe in the Bush of Ghosts". That's a very cool album, although pretty different from most of Eno's other recordings. The 3 albums I listed are all from his brief "rock" period in the '70s and they're all pretty different (and very unique, especially for the time). "Another Green World" is usually considered the classic but I actually prefer the other two I listed. All 3 are good and decades later, I still haven't heard anything quite like them. Check them out!

One good thing about music, your collection keeps growing as you get older.

Yes, although that makes compiling a list like this even harder. between CDs, vinyl and MP3s, I must own well over 1000 albums at this point!

I didn't even start listening to the Smashing Pumpkins until 3 or 4 years ago, and they're one of my favorite bands (not the new stuff ). Meanwhile, the Grateful Dead, Phish, and the Disco Biscuits, which have consumed vast hours of my life, got a measly combined 1 album! It's good, though, it's growth..

Exactly. That' a great attitude to have about it too. I almost included a Stan Getz jazz album on my list. I discovered it a couple years ago and I love it. However, there was a time in my life when I wouldn't have even considered listening to a jazz album.

Man, there are so many albums I didn't include that I could have... it's bugging me!

Jim

Mothman wrote: I wondered about that too but I went ahead and included two (the Dead can Dance album and the James Brown "Star Time" stuff). If compilations are off limits, I can switch them out.

Yep, off limits or I would have Stevie Wonder on there very close to the top. I put "no compilations" at the end of the first post