Top 80 Albums
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. | Aphrodite's Child | 666 | 1972 |
| 19. | Kendrick Lamar | good kid, m.A.A.d City | 2012 |
| 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. | Cannibal Ox | The Cold Vein | 2001 |
| 25. | The Mothers of Invention | We're Only in It for the Money | 1968 |
| 26. | Slint | Spiderland | 1991 |
| 27. | The Red Crayola | The Parable of Arable Land | 1967 |
| 28. | The Microphones | The Glow, Pt. 2 | 2001 |
| 29. | The Jazz Composer's Orchestra | The Jazz Composer's Orchestra | 1968 |
| 30. | Avey Tare & Panda Bear | Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished | 2000 |
| 31. | Coil | The Ape of Naples | 2005 |
| 32. | Jackie-O Motherfucker | Flags of the Sacred Harp | 2005 |
| 33. | Current 93 | All the Pretty Little Horses | 1996 |
| 34. | Have a Nice Life | Deathconsciousness | 2008 |
| 35. | dälek | From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots | 2002 |
| 36. | Albert Ayler | Live in Greenwich Village | 1967 |
| 37. | Animal Collective | Here Comes the Indian | 2003 |
| 38. | Spiritualized | Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space | 1997 |
| 39. | The Angelic Process | Weighing Souls with Sand | 2007 |
| 40. | Pink Floyd | The Piper at the Gates of Dawn | 1967 |
| 41. | Tim Buckley | Lorca | 1970 |
| 42. | Astrobrite | Pinkshinyultrablast | 2005 |
| 43. | My Bloody Valentine | Loveless | 1991 |
| 44. | Dogbowl | Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain | 1991 |
| 45. | Don Cherry | Eternal Rhythm | 1969 |
| 46. | Mercury Rev | Boces | 1993 |
| 47. | Swans | Swans Are Dead | 1998 |
| 48. | Venetian Snares | Rossz Csillag Alatt Született | 2005 |
| 49. | The Avalanches | Since I Left You | 2000 |
| 50. | Black Tape for a Blue Girl | Remnants of a Deeper Purity | 1996 |
| 51. | Fishmans | 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare | 1999 |
| 52. | cLOUDDEAD | cLOUDDEAD | 2001 |
| 53. | Divine Styler | Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light | 1992 |
| 54. | The Black Heart Procession | 2 | 1999 |
| 55. | Flying Saucer Attack | Flying Saucer Attack (Rural Psychedelia) | 1993 |
| 56. | Nurse with Wound | The Sylvie and Babs Hi-Fi Companion | 1985 |
| 57. | Foetus Interruptus | Thaw | 1988 |
| 58. | Burzum | Filosofem | 1996 |
| 59. | Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum | Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head | 2009 |
| 60. | Bob Dylan | Highway 61 Revisited | 1965 |
| 61. | Soft Machine | Third | 1970 |
| 62. | Scott Walker | The Drift | 2006 |
| 63. | Xiu Xiu | Knife Play | 2002 |
| 64. | Sunn O))) & Boris | Altar | 2006 |
| 65. | Arthur Russell | World of Echo | 1986 |
| 66. | Lisa Germano | Geek the Girl | 1993 |
| 67. | The Angels of Light | How I Loved You | 2001 |
| 68. | Agitation Free | Malesch | 1972 |
| 69. | Sun Ra | Lanquidity | 1978 |
| 70. | Robert Wyatt | Rock Bottom | 1974 |
| 71. | Deltron 3030 | Deltron 3030 | 2000 |
| 72. | Tindersticks | Tindersticks | 1993 |
| 73. | The Knife | Shaking the Habitual | 2013 |
| 74. | The Music Tapes | Mary's Voice | 2012 |
| 75. | Big Blood | Big Blood & the Bleedin' Hearts | 2009 |
| 76. | Frank Ocean | Blonde | 2016 |
| 77. | Flotation Toy Warning | The Machine that Made Us | 2017 |
| 78. | King Crimson | In the Court of the Crimson King | 1969 |
| 79. | Henry Knollenberg | Neptune IV | 2019 |
| 80. | Duster | Stratosphere | 1998 |