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Top 80 Albums

Updated Tue May 18 2021

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 "classic" or "essentials". These albums are in order by how personally significant they are to me. See also my Top Films List.

# 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. Sun City Girls 330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Veda 1996
15. Flotation Toy Warning Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck 2004
16. Royal Trux Twin Infinitives 1990
17. Red House Painters Down Colorful Hill 1992
18. Kendrick Lamar good kid, m.A.A.d City 2012
19. Aphrodite's Child 666 1972
20. Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun 1999
21. Talk Talk Laughing Stock 1991
22. Joanna Newsom Ys 2006
23. Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven 2000
24. Slint Spiderland 1991
25. Cannibal Ox The Cold Vein 2001
26. The Mothers of Invention We're Only in It for the Money 1968
27. The Red Crayola The Parable of Arable Land 1967
28. Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head 2009
29. The Microphones The Glow, Pt. 2 2001
30. Divine Styler Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light 1992
31. The Jazz Composer's Orchestra The Jazz Composer's Orchestra 1968
32. Avey Tare & Panda Bear Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished 2000
33. Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness 2008
34. Janelle Monáe The ArchAndroid 2010
35. Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space 1997
36. Primal Scream Screamadelica 1991
37. The Angelic Process Weighing Souls with Sand 2007
38. Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 1967
39. dälek From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots 2002
40. Tim Buckley Lorca 1970
41. Albert Ayler Live in Greenwich Village 1967
42. Coil The Ape of Naples 2005
43. Jackie-O Motherfucker Flags of the Sacred Harp 2005
44. Current 93 All the Pretty Little Horses 1996
45. Astrobrite Pinkshinyultrablast 2005
46. The Avalanches Since I Left You 2000
47. My Bloody Valentine Loveless 1991
48. Mercury Rev Boces 1993
49. Animal Collective Here Comes the Indian 2003
50. Swans Swans Are Dead 1998
51. Black Tape for a Blue Girl Remnants of a Deeper Purity 1996
52. Fishmans 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare 1999
53. cLOUDDEAD cLOUDDEAD 2001
54. Flying Saucer Attack Flying Saucer Attack 1993
55. Nurse with Wound The Sylvie and Babs Hi-Fi Companion 1985
56. Soft Machine Third 1970
57. Scott Walker The Drift 2006
58. Xiu Xiu Knife Play 2002
59. Sunn O))) & Boris Altar 2006
60. Digable Planets Blowout Comb 1994
61. The Angels of Light How I Loved You 2001
62. Agitation Free Malesch 1972
63. Sun Ra Lanquidity 1978
64. Foetus Interruptus Thaw 1988
65. The Residents Eskimo 1979
66. Burzum Filosofem 1996
67. Robert Wyatt Rock Bottom 1974
68. Lil Ugly Mane Oblivion Access 2015
69. Fugazi Repeater 1990
70. Mobb Deep The Infamous 1996
71. The Roots Things Fall Apart 1999
72. Tindersticks Tindersticks 1993
73. The Knife Shaking the Habitual 2013
74. Newt Grundy Frankengrundy 2019
75. Dogbowl Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain 1991
76. Don Cherry Eternal Rhythm 1969
77. Big Blood Big Blood & the Bleedin' Hearts 2009
78. Flotation Toy Warning The Machine that Made Us 2017
79. King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King 1969
80. Henry Knollenberg Neptune IV 2019