Every now and then, over the past few years, I would venture to update the "Personal Top 100 Favorite Albums" I put together in 2011, complete with write-ups, following a challenge issued by brothers Isaiah and Josh Hoffman, old friends of mine.
The task got harder as the number of albums I loved grew. No point ranking them all, for one thing. With the Dylan project there was a point, since I was eager to demonstrate how a true lover of Dylan's work could regard 1979-80 as his peak. With a whole life's collection of treasured records, not so much. What matters is that the music has kept me company, comforted me, or shook me up when that was what I needed, pained and painted and altered the hours... I want to celebrate that these albums found their way to me at all, and to refract a bit of their light. I don't want to waste time wondering how they stack up against each other. Music is (obviously!) not some kind of tournament or competition, never mind what modern media's year-end lists would have us believe.
Anyway, the other month, I figured out the way to present such a list: in tiers! Three of them!
Within each tier there will be no further ranking, the albums will appear in order of release/recording date.
This list is updated often, as things get shuffled around and new albums are introduced — and especially "as I overreact to new stuff," to quote Nic from Critter Jams. It'll also serve as a "table of contents" for the Assorted Gems series. It would be fun to write an AG piece about each of these.
FIRST TIER
The best albums I know.
McCartney (1970)
Ram (1971)風街ろまん (1971)
Happy End (1972)
Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Obscured by Clouds (1972)
A Passion Play (1973)
Approximately Infinite Universe (1973)
Hosono House (1973)
On the Beach (1974)
On the Beach (1974)
Homegrown (1975)
Pour Down Like Silver (1975)
Tropical Dandy (1975)
Tropical Dandy (1975)
細野晴臣提供楽曲集 LP 1 [1-01 to 1-11] (1971-1977)
Street-Legal (1978)
Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Solid State Survivor (1979)
Tusk (1979)
Saved (1980)
Naughty Boys (1983)
Watering a Flower (1984)
Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo (1985)
Landing on Water (1986)
Amused to Death (1992)
Oh Me Oh My (2002)
Pyramid & Magnolia Electric Co. (2002)
Blemish (2003)
Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo (2004)
Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (2007)
We Are Him (2007)
I am Alive and You are Dead (2009)
Oh Me Oh My (2002)
Pyramid & Magnolia Electric Co. (2002)
Blemish (2003)
Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo (2004)
Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (2007)
We Are Him (2007)
I am Alive and You are Dead (2009)
Already Gone I (2009)
Dead Songs (2010)
Dead Songs (2010)
Big Blood & The Wicked Hex (2010)
The King of Limbs (2011)
The King of Limbs (2011)
The Glass Trunk (2012)
The Seer (2012)
The Ring of the Rise (2013)
Nothing Important (2014)
Popular Problems (2014)
Storytone (2014)
Universe Thin as Skin (2014)
Unlikely Mothers (2014)
The Ring of the Rise (2013)
Nothing Important (2014)
Popular Problems (2014)
Storytone (2014)
Universe Thin as Skin (2014)
Unlikely Mothers (2014)
Double Days II (2015)
Ape in Pink Marble (2016)
Peace Trail (2016)
Ape in Pink Marble (2016)
Peace Trail (2016)
Big Blood & Thunder Crutch (2017)
Finally Free (2018)
Operate Spaceship Earth Properly (2018)
Out of the Blue (2018)
Out of the Blue (2018)
Deep Maine (2019)
Dandelion (2020)
Anomalous Events (2020)
Free Humans (2020)
White Flag (2020)
McCartney III (2020)
Henki (2021)
The Ruby Cord (2022)
The Ruby Cord (2022)
Skeletons at the Feast (2023)
SECOND TIER
THIRD TIER
Radio Valkyrie 1905 - 1917 (2011)
Road Salt (2011)
Seriously excellent albums with hardly anything I don't love about about them; maybe there's a brief weaker stretch somewhere in amongst the glory, or there is an element or two that isn't altogether to my taste, and/or the albums don't have as much personal resonance; what it all means is that I can listen at an awed distance rather than melting into a puddle on the floor.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
The White Album (1968)
Abbey Road (1969)Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
Common One (1980)
Double Fantasy (1980)
Moondance (1970)
Stage Fright (1970)
Meddle (1971)
Relics (1971)
Wild Life (1971)
Red Rose Speedway (1973)
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974)
Another Green World (1975)
Minstrel in the Gallery (1975)
Bon Voyage Co (1976)
Desire (1975)
Animals (1977)
Before and After Science (1977)
細野晴臣提供楽曲集 LP 2 [1-12 to 1-22] (1977-1979)
Back to the Egg (1979)Stormwatch (1979)
A (1980)Common One (1980)
Double Fantasy (1980)
Hawks & Doves (1980)
Law and Order (1981)
Pipes of Peace (1983)
Milk and Honey (1984)
Across a Crowded Room (1985)Кино (Чёрный альбом) (1991)
Mirror Ball (1995)
What Comes After the Blues (2003)
Cripple Crow (2005)The Angels of Light Sing "Other People" (2005)
Stadium Arcadium (2006)
Memory Almost Full (2007)
Sew Your Wild Days Tour I (2007)
Sew Your Wild Days Tour II (2007)Space Gallery 1.27.07 Sahara Club 1.28.07 (2007)
Big Blood & The Bleedin' Hearts (2008)
The Red River (2008)
The Waiting Grave (2009)
Come On Board (2010)
Troubadour (2009)
What Will We Be (2009)
The Magic Bridge (2011)
2 (2012)
Carolina Moonrise (2012)
Country, God or the Girl (personalized edit) (2012)
A Splendour of Heart (2020)
Better Woman (2020)
Carolina Moonrise (2012)
Country, God or the Girl (personalized edit) (2012)
Old Ideas (2012)
Old Time Primitives (2012)
English Electric - Full Power (2013)Networking in Purgatory (2013)
Push the Sky Away (2013)
Lost on the River (2014)
To Be Kind (2014)
Holiday for Strings (2016)
America, Location 12 (2017)
Both Ways (2017)In the Passing Light of Day (2017)
Taking the Long Way Home (2017)
Old Chestnut (2018)
Sonr Ravns (2018)
Ghosteen (2019)Jesus is King (2019)
Visions of the Higher Dream (2020)
Forever Love's Fool (2020)
Better Woman (2020)
Do You Wanna Have a Skeleton Dream? (2020)
Still Life (2022)Panther (2020)
ROG II (2020)
Kissing the Foe (2021)
Barn (2021)
The Zealot Gene (2022)
THIRD TIER
Of which I could, were the album to come up in conversation, and despite either a number of reservations or a relative (as compared to the first two tiers) absence of personal resonance, say with sincerity, "Oh, [X] ? Yeah, that's one seriously wonderful album."
John Wesley Harding (1967)
A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
Astral Weeks (1968)
Let It Be [...Naked] (1969)
All Things Must Pass (1970)
Aqualung (1971)
High Winds White Sky (1971)
Virgo's Fool (1971)
Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)Thick as a Brick (1972)
Hokey Pokey (1974)
Planet Waves (1974)Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) (1974)
War Child (1974)
Horo (1975)
Caramel Mama (1975)
Have Moicy! (1975)
Zuma (1975)
Long Journey (1976)
No Reason to Cry (1976)Warren Zevon (1976)
Paraiso (1978)
Cochin Moon (1978)
Mirage (1982)
Hand of Kindness (1983)
Infidels (1983)
The Final Cut (1983)The Trouble with Normal (1983)
Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)
Blue Navigator (1984)
Various Positions (1984)
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)
Under the Red Sky (1990)
White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991)
Love of Life (1992)
No Knowledge of Music Required (1994)
The Division Bell (1994)
New Mother (1999)
Silver & Gold (1999)Flag of the Shiners (2002)
Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home (2003)
Greendale (2003)
Silver Lake (2003)Hither & Thither (2005)
Snow Borne Sorrow (2005)
Jokes & Trials (2005)
Mezmerize/Hypnotize (2005)
Prairie Wind (2005)Snow Borne Sorrow (2005)
Antonia's 11 (2006)
Strange Maine 11.04.06 (2006)The Orchard (2006)
Future Suture (2007)
The Grove (2007)
Already Gone II (2009)
At the Cut (2009)
Josephine (2009)
Over the Stones, Under the Stars (2009)Radio Valkyrie 1905 - 1917 (2011)
Road Salt (2011)
Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? (2012)
Hey Hey It's... (2013)
Homo Erraticus (2014)
The Hermit (2014)
Double Days I (2015)
Dzieciom (2015)
The Monsanto Years (2015)
A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
The Glowing Man (2016)
Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie (2017)
The Daughters Union (2017)
Tomorrow's Modern Boxes (2017)
Egypt Station (2018)
2020 (2019)
Ma (2019)
#IDEOLOGIAMOZILA (2021)
Fight for Your Dinner II (2021)
Forest Lovesongs (2022)And okay, I know I said there will be no further ranking within tiers, but I want to contradict myself and list what (at most recent reckoning, in early 2024) I decided are my current ten "favorite albums of all time" (ha!)... Al Joshua's Out of the Blue was on here for ages, but Skeletons at the Feast is so different and so great in its own right that now I'm convinced like Al's best album is still up ahead somewhere. It makes Out of the Blue feel less like a fulfillment and more like a promise.
1. Saved (1980)
2. Unlikely Mothers (2014)
3. Happy End (1972)
4. Nothing Important (2014)
5. Slow Train Coming (1979)
6. Universe Thin as Skin (2014)
7. We Are Him (2008)
8. The Ruby Cord (2022)
9. A Passion Play (1973)
10. Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo (2004)
