Over the past few years, I sometimes tried to update a "Personal Top 100 Favorite Albums" list I put together in 2011, complete with write-ups, as the answer to a challenge issued by my old friend Isaiah and his older brother Josh, who made equivalent lists of their own.
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.
A little while back, 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)
A Passion Play (1973)
Approximately Infinite Universe (1973)
Hosono House (1973)
On the Beach (1974)
Homegrown (1975)
Pour Down Like Silver (1975)
Tropical Dandy (1975)
Lato Muminków (1978)
Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Solid State Survivor (1979)
Tusk (1979)
Common One (1980)
Saved (1980)
BGM (1981)
Technodelic (1981)
Philharmony (1982)
Naughty Boys (1983)
Watering a Flower (1983)
Coincidental Music (1985)
Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo (1985)
Paradise View (1985)
Landing on Water (1986)
Aile de Honneamise (1987)
Omni Sight Seeing (1989)
Amused to Death (1992)
Oh Me Oh My (2002)
Pyramid & Magnolia Electric Co. (2002)
Blemish (2003)
Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo (2004)
Stadium Arcadium (2006)
Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (2007)
We Are Him (2007)
The Japanese Pops of Haruomi Hosono (2009)
I am Alive and You are Dead (2009)
Dead Songs (2010)
Big Blood & The Wicked Hex (2010)
The King of Limbs (2011)
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)
Ape in Pink Marble (2016)
Peace Trail (2016)
Operate Spaceship Earth Properly (2018)
Out of the Blue (2018)
Deep Maine (2019)
Dandelion (2020)
Henki (2021)
The Ruby Cord (2022)
Song Shards (2024)
SECOND TIER
I can usually get through a listen without melting into a puddle on the floor.
The White Album (1968)
Abbey Road (1969) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
Moondance (1970)
Stage Fright (1970)
Meddle (1971)
Relics (1971)
Wild Life (1971)
海賊キッドの冒険 (1972)
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)
Street-Legal (1978)
Back to the Egg (1979)
Stormwatch (1979)
A (1980)
Hawks & Doves (1980)
Law and Order (1981)
Left Handed Dream (1981)
What, Me Worry? (1982)
Pipes of Peace (1983)
The Final Cut (1983)
音楽図鑑 (1984)
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)
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)
Already Gone I (2009)
Already Gone II (2009)
Troubadour (2009)
Come On Board (2010)The Magic Bridge (2011)
2 (2012)
Carolina Moonrise (2012)
Country, God or the Girl (personalized edit) (2012)
Old Ideas (2012)
Old Time Primitives (2012)
The Glass Trunk (2012)
English Electric - Full Power (2013)
Networking in Purgatory (2013)
Push the Sky Away (2013)
Lost on the River (2014)
To Be Kind (2014)
Double Days I (2015)
Double Days II (2015)
Holiday for Strings (2016)
The Glowing Man (2016)
America, Location 12 (2017)
Big Blood & Thunder Crutch (2017)
Both Ways (2017)
In the Passing Light of Day (2017)
Finally Free (2018)
Old Chestnut (2018)
Ghosteen (2019)
Jesus is King (2019)
Free Humans (2020)
Forever Love's Fool (2020)
Better Woman (2020) Do You Wanna Have a Skeleton Dream? (2020)Panther (2020)
ROG II (2020)
White Flag (2020)
Kissing the Foe (2021)
Barn (2021)
Still Life (2022) (Interview)
The Zealot Gene (2022)
THIRD TIER
Awesome albums.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (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)
Country Pumpkin (1972)
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)
Caution! (1977)
Our Connection (1977)
Double Fantasy (1980)
Mirage (1982)
Hand of Kindness (1983)
Infidels (1983)
The Trouble with Normal (1983)
Blue Navigator (1984)
Various Positions (1984)
Futurista (1986)
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
Neo Geo (1987) Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)
Under the Red Sky (1990)
White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991)
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)
Silver Lake (2003) Hither & Thither (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)
At the Cut (2009)
Josephine (2009)
Over the Stones, Under the Stars (2009)The Waiting Grave (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)
Dzieciom (2015)
The Monsanto Years (2015)
A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie (2017)
Taking the Long Way Home (2017)
The Daughters Union (2017)
Tomorrow's Modern Boxes (2017)
Egypt Station (2018)
Sonr Ravns (2018)
Ma (2019)
#IDEOLOGIAMOZILA (2021)
Fight for Your Dinner II (2021)
Forest Lovesongs (2022) (Interview) First Aid Kit (2023)
I said there'll be no further ranking within tiers, but now I'll contradict myself and list what (at most recent reckoning, in July 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 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 (1973)
4. Nothing Important (2014)
5. We Are Him (2008)
6. Slow Train Coming (1979)
7. Universe Thin as Skin (2014)
8. The Ruby Cord (2022)
9. Hosono House (1973)
10. Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo (2004)
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