1) One album per band.
(Removing all of the Queen and Blue Oyster Cult records made this much easier)
2) Always choose "favorite" over "best".
(Sorry, Meat Puppets II!)
3) No Metallica.
(They may belong here, but they don't need the help)
This isn't "The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time", and there are tons of great artists and albums that aren't here. But every album here comes with a ringing recommendation from me, and I hope that counts for something.
I'm going to make it my personal project to write a review of every album here, then if that goes well, maybe I'll start fleshing out the list with more. Any of these picks strike a nerve? Give a shout in the comments and I'll try to write about the albums you care about first!
Here we go, in alphabetical order... Enjoy!
| Artist | Title |
| Bad Religion | Generator |
| The Beatles | The Beatles (White Album) |
| Jello Biafra and D.O.A. | Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors |
| Black Sabbath | Black Sabbath |
| Blue Oyster Cult | Mirrors |
| The Buggles | The Age of Plastic |
| Captain Beyond | Captain Beyond |
| The Cars | The Cars |
| Cryptopsy | None So Vile |
| Daft Punk | Discovery |
| DEVO | Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO! |
| Dire Straits | Brothers in Arms |
| Eiffel 65 | Europop |
| Elastica | Elastica |
| Electric Light Orchestra | Time |
| Fleetwood Mac | Rumours |
| Flotsam & Jetsam | High |
| Peter Gabriel | So |
| Goldfinger | Goldfinger |
| Green Day | Dookie |
| Incubus | S. C. I. E. N. C. E. |
| Jethro Tull | Thick as a Brick |
| Juluka | African Litany |
| Kraftwerk | Radio-Activity |
| Lost Horizon | A Flame to the Ground Beneath |
| Meat Puppets | Too High to Die |
| Megadeth | Killing is My Business… and Business is Good! |
| Mr Bungle | Mr Bungle |
| NEU! | NEU! 2 |
| Only Living Witness | Innocents |
| The Orb | The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld |
| Owl City | Ocean Eyes |
| Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | Greatest Hits |
| The Police | Synchronicity |
| Queen | Queen II |
| R.E.M. | Monster |
| Rage Against the Machine | Rage Against the Machine |
| Silverchair | Diorama |
| Slayer | Reign in Blood |
| Spacehog | The Chinese Album |
| Alexander “Skip” Spence | Oar |
| Spin Doctors | Turn It Upside Down |
| Cat Stevens | Tea for the Tillerman |
| The Streets | A Grand Don't Come for Free |
| They Might Be Giants | Flood |
| Tool | Ænima |
| Type O Negative | Bloody Kisses |
| Kanye West | Yeezus |
| X Japan | Jealousy |
| “Weird Al” Yankovic | Off the Deep End |
