Every so often I run into one of those "100 greatest albums of all time" lists and become very angry and yell at the computer screen about how Radiohead can possibly be ranked higher than King Crimson. So in that same spirit, I decided to make my own top 100 list, and I invite you all to do the same. I have avoided compilations (which unfortunately weeds out a lot of great blues and early rock and roll artists) as well as classical and jazz, keeping this a primarily rock based list.
Before you lambaste me too viciously, please note that the list contains only albums I own and have thus had a chance to fully absorb and appreciate. Hence, no Beatles or Rolling Stones since I only own compilations of them. (Also, partially in backlash against Rolling Stone Magazine for included an absurd four Beatles albums in its own top ten list.)
Here we go:
1. Jethro Tull A Passion Play
2. King Crimson In The Court of the Crimson King
3. Rush Hemispheres
4. Brian Eno Before and After Science
5. Queen Queen II
6. Jethro Tull Heavy Horses
7. Pink Floyd Animals
8. The Kinks Face to Face
9. Bruce Springsteen The Wild, The Innocent and the E
Street Shuffle
10. Be Bop Deluxe Sunburst Finish
11. Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell
12. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico
13. Brian Eno Another Green World
14. Elvis Costello This Years Model
15. Sparks Kimono My House
16. Jethro Tull Minstrel In The Gallery
17. King Crimson Lizard
18. The Beach Boys Today
19. Be Bop Deluxe Drastic Plastic
20. Bob Dylan Bringing it all Back Home
21. Mike Oldfield Ommadawn
22. Dire Straits Love Over Gold
23. Electric Light Orchestra Out of the Blue
24. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Of Natural History
25. Arthur Brown The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
26. Alice Cooper Welcome to My Nightmare
27. Captain Beefheart Mirror Man
28. Kraftwerk The Man Machine
29. Bill Nelsons Red Noise Sound on Sound
30. Tangerine Dream Rubycon
31. The Kinks Muswell Hillbillies
32. Kraftwerk Radioactivity
33. Be Bop Deluxe Futurama
34. Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited
35. Brian Eno & David Byrne My Life in the Bush of
Ghosts
36. David Bowie Low
37. Rush A Farewell to Kings
38. Camel Mirage
39. Oingo Boingo Boingo
40. Penguin Cafι Orchestra Penguin Cafι Orchestra
41. Tangerine Dream Phaedra
42. Brian Eno Here Come The Warm Jets
43. David Bowie Heroes
44. The Clash London Calling
45. Jethro Tull Benefit
46. Queen Sheer Heart Attack
47. Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here
48. The Zombies Odessey and Oracle
49. Rick Wakeman The Six Wives of Henry VIII
50. Yma Sumac Voice of the Xtabay
51, Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica
52. Queen A Night At The Opera
53. The Kinks Lola Vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround Part
1
54. David Bowie Station to Station
55. Tiny Tim God Bless Tiny Tim
56. Alice Cooper Love It To Death
57. Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
58. The Beach Boys Pet Sounds
59. Nico The Marble Index
60. Yma Sumac Mambo
61. The Beach Boys Smiley Smile
62. The Kinks Something Else by the Kinks
63. Black Sabbath Paranoid
64. King Crimson Islands
65. Brian Eno Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
66. Can Ege Bamyasi
67. David Bowie Hunky Dory
68. Electric Light Orchestra Eldorado
69. Roxy Music For Your Pleasure
70. Bruce Springsteen Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ
71. Patti Smith Horses
72, Fields of the Nephilim Elizium
73. Neu! Neu!
74. Rush Moving Pictures
75. Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick
76. Yes Tales From Topographic Oceans
77. Alice Cooper Killer
78. Captain Beefheart Safe as Milk
79. Elvis Presley Elvis
80. King Crimson Red
81. Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel Hole
82. Yes Close to the Edge
83. Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells
84. Gentle Giant In A Glass House
85. The Residents Meet The Residents
86. The Kinks Arthur or The Decline and Fall of the
British Empire
87. Van Der Graaf Generator H to He Who Am the Only One
88. Gryphon Red Queen to Gryphon Three
89. Megadeth Rust in Peace
90. Blue Oyster Cult Blue Oyster Cult
91. Faust Faust
92. The Residents Not Available
93. Steeleye Span Below The Salt
94. Van Dyke Parks Discover America
95. The Velvet Underground White Light / White Heat
96. Deep Purple Machine Head
97. Dio Holy Diver
98. Martin Denny Exotica
99. Throbbing Gristle The Second Annual Report of
Throbbing Gristle
100. William Shatner The Transformed Man