Top 100 Albums
Last updated: August 16, 2019
This list is by no means "complete" or "finished". It is merely a snapshot of my most admired albums at the present moment. If you are a casual music listener, you will have only heard of a handful of these. If you are a more serious music listener, many of these will seem like "classics" or "essentials". These albums are in order by how personally significant they are to me.
| # | Artist | Album | Year |
| 1. | Neutral Milk Hotel | In the Aeroplane over the Sea | 1998 |
| 2. | Swans | Soundtracks for the Blind | 1996 |
| 3. | Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band | Trout Mask Replica | 1969 |
| 4. | Cerberus Shoal | The Land We All Believe In | 2005 |
| 5. | The Olivia Tremor Control | Black Foliage: Animation Music, Volume 1 | 1999 |
| 6. | Faust | Faust | 1971 |
| 7. | The Residents | Not Available | 1978 |
| 8. | Carla Bley & Paul Haines | Escalator over the Hill | 1971 |
| 9. | Akron/Family | Akron/Family | 2005 |
| 10. | Xiu Xiu | A Promise | 2003 |
| 11. | The Microphones | Mount Eerie | 2003 |
| 12. | The Velvet Underground | The Velvet Underground & Nico | 1967 |
| 13. | Charles Mingus | The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady | 1963 |
| 14. | Boredoms | Vision Creation Newsun | 1999 |
| 15. | Sun City Girls | 330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Veda | 1996 |
| 16. | Flotation Toy Warning | Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck | 2004 |
| 17. | Royal Trux | Twin Infinitives | 1990 |
| 18. | Red House Painters | Down Colorful Hill | 1992 |
| 19. | Jackie-O Motherfucker | Flags of the Sacred Harp | 2005 |
| 20. | Animal Collective | Here Comes the Indian | 2003 |
| 21. | Joanna Newsom | Ys | 2006 |
| 22. | Godspeed You! Black Emperor | Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 2000 |
| 23. | The Mothers of Invention | We're Only in It for the Money | 1968 |
| 24. | Slint | Spiderland | 1991 |
| 25. | Talk Talk | Laughing Stock | 1991 |
| 26. | Aphrodite's Child | 666 | 1972 |
| 27. | The Red Crayola | The Parable of Arable Land | 1967 |
| 28. | The Jazz Composer's Orchestra | The Jazz Composer's Orchestra | 1968 |
| 29. | Avey Tare & Panda Bear | Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished | 2001 |
| 30. | The Microphones | The Glow, Pt. 2 | 2001 |
| 31. | The Angelic Process | Weighing Souls with Sand | 2007 |
| 32. | Current 93 | All the Pretty Little Horses | 1996 |
| 33. | Have a Nice Life | Deathconsciousness | 2008 |
| 34. | Spiritualized | Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space | 1997 |
| 35. | Flying Saucer Attack | Flying Saucer Attack | 1993 |
| 36. | Mercury Rev | Boces | 1993 |
| 37. | Public Enemy | Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black | 1990 |
| 38. | Don Cherry | Organic Music Society | 1972 |
| 39. | Tim Buckley | Lorca | 1970 |
| 40. | Astrobrite | Pinkshinyultrablast | 2005 |
| 41. | Coil | The Ape of Naples | 2005 |
| 42. | Pink Floyd | The Piper at the Gates of Dawn | 1967 |
| 43. | Swans | Swans Are Dead | 1998 |
| 44. | Albert Ayler | Live in Greenwich Village | 1967 |
| 45. | Robert Wyatt | Rock Bottom | 1973 |
| 46. | Lisa Germano | Geek the Girl | 1993 |
| 47. | Agalloch | The Mantle | 2002 |
| 48. | The Black Heart Procession | 2 | 1999 |
| 49. | Nurse with Wound | The Sylvie and Babs Hi-Fi Companion | 1985 |
| 50. | My Bloody Valentine | Loveless | 1991 |
| 51. | Fishmans | 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare | 1999 |
| 52. | The December Sound | The Silver Album | 2008 |
| 53. | Black Tape for a Blue Girl | Remnants of a Deeper Purity | 1996 |
| 54. | Flotation Toy Warning | The Machine that Made Us | 2017 |
| 55. | cLOUDDEAD | cLOUDDEAD | 2001 |
| 56. | Burzum | Filosofem | 1996 |
| 57. | John Coltrane & Duke Ellington | John Coltrane & Duke Ellington | 1963 |
| 58. | Pink Floyd | A Saucerful of Secrets | 1968 |
| 59. | Big Blood | Big Blood & the Bleedin' Hearts | 2009 |
| 60. | Foetus Interruptus | Thaw | 1988 |
| 61. | Sunn O))) & Boris | Altar | 2006 |
| 62. | Tindersticks | Tindersticks | 1993 |
| 63. | Codeine | Frigid Stars | 1990 |
| 64. | Don Cherry | Brown Rice | 1975 |
| 65. | Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel | Nail | 1985 |
| 66. | Xiu Xiu | Knife Play | 2002 |
| 67. | Soft Machine | Third | 1970 |
| 68. | Bob Dylan | Highway 61 Revisited | 1965 |
| 69. | The Angels of Light | How I Loved You | 2001 |
| 70. | Scott Walker | The Drift | 2006 |
| 71. | Sun Ra | Lanquidity | 1978 |
| 72. | Pärson Sound | Pärson Sound | 2001 |
| 73. | Les Rallizes Dénudés | '77 Live | 1991 |
| 74. | The Mothers of Invention | Uncle Meat | 1969 |
| 75. | Pharoah Sanders | Karma | 1969 |
| 76. | Low | I Could Live in Hope | 1994 |
| 77. | Tim Buckley | Happy Sad | 1969 |
| 78. | Henry Knollenberg | Neptune IV | 2019 |
| 79. | Mount Eerie | Ocean Roar | 2012 |
| 80. | Major Organ and the Adding Machine | Major Organ and the Adding Machine | 2001 |
| 81. | King Crimson | In the Court of the Crimson King | 1969 |
| 82. | Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum | Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head | 2009 |
| 83. | Glenn Branca | The Ascension | 1981 |
| 84. | Miles Davis | Bitches Brew | 1970 |
| 85. | Duster | Stratosphere | 1998 |
| 86. | The Spoils of War | The Spoils of War | 1969 |
| 87. | Earth | Earth 2: Special Low-Frequency Version | 1993 |
| 88. | Pelt | Ayahuasca | 2001 |
| 89. | Ween | The Mollusk | 1997 |
| 90. | Mercury Rev | Yerself Is Steam | 1991 |
| 91. | Godspeed You! Black Emperor | F# A# ∞ | 1997 |
| 92. | Built to Spill | Perfect from Now On | 1997 |
| 93. | The Peter Brötzmann Octet | Machine Gun | 1968 |
| 94. | Nine Inch Nails | The Downward Spiral | 1994 |
| 95. | Scott Walker | Tilt | 1995 |
| 96. | Bark Psychosis | Hex | 1994 |
| 97. | John Coltrane | Ascension | 1965 |
| 98. | Giles Corey | Giles Corey | 2011 |
| 99. | Ornette Coleman | The Shape of Jazz to Come | 1959 |
| 100. | The Knife | Shaking the Habitual | 2013 |
Honorable mentions:
| ... | This Heat | Deceit | 1981 |
| ... | Macha | Macha | 1998 |
| ... | Moonshake | Eva Luna | 1992 |
| ... | ROVO | Tonic 2001 | 2002 |
| ... | Nico | Desertshore | 1970 |
| ... | Field Rotation | Acoustic Tales | 2011 |
| ... | Suicide | Suicide | 1977 |
| ... | The Music Tapes | Mary's Voice | 2012 |
| ... | The Mars Volta | Frances the Mute | 2005 |