Top Albums

I've been known, in the past, to ask hypothetical questions, of which one of the most common ones was "If you were stranded on a desert island for a year and you could only bring 5 CDs, what would they be?" Of course, often I would be asked what my answer was, and I gave it. Usually it varied only a little bit between times I was asking - there would usually be a couple of staples on it.

From time to time, magazines like Rolling Stone and Blender, TV networks like VH1, and random blogs put out various countdowns of greatest albums, greatest artists, etc... and usually it's interesting to see their picks... however, it is ultimately silly to try to state which is "greater" between, say, the Beatles or Michael Jackson or Elvis or Beethoven. Obviously, it's a matter of taste to some degree, and how can music or art be inherently "greater" than other music or art? Most people, though, will agree that the Beatles is somehow "greater" music than, say, Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl", based on whatever criteria. And thus, more discussions ensue.

I'm a big fan of music. I play it, and listen to music just about whenever I can. (The Ipod is worn, for instance, at places like the supermarket.) And I found myself thinking of my "go-to" albums. That is, listening to a variety of different styles of music means that I often am into a certain artist or style of music for a span of time, then eventually, I'm into something else for a while. And people's go-to albums are probably more inherently interesting than what they consider to be "great" music.

(I think my wife and I coined the phrase "go-to" albums, which is essentially the same usage of "go-to" as in "Jeremy Shockey is our go-to guy on 3rd downs" or whatever.)

Then, I realized, my go-to albums aren't necessarily what I think of as great music, nor do I think they'll be go-to albums for the long haul. For instance, I've listed to a lot of Maroon 5's two most recent albums recently, but I certainly don't know if they'll be lifetime go-to albums, nor would I consider Maroon 5 great music.

But, I'm not always into music that I recognize as being of high quality. For instance, Jimi Hendrix "Are You Experienced?" and Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" are albums which most people think are fantastic and I've heard but do not play often.

So, I wanted to compile a list of albums that meet two important criteria for myself:

1) They are "good", quality, well-constructed music, and
2) Are albums that have proven to stay on my "go-to" list. (I realized later that certain albums on my go-to list I haven't listened to in a while, but that's only because I've heard them a trillion times and need a break.)

And after I thought long and hard about it, here are my albums, in no particular order:

The Top Two:
- Abbey Road (Beatles)
- Highway 61 Revisited (Dylan)

The Rest:
- White Album (Beatles)
- Quadrophenia (The Who)
- OK Computer (Radiohead)
- Fulfillingness' First Finale (Stevie Wonder)
- Blonde on Blonde (Dylan)
- Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
- My Aim Is True (Elvis Costello)
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
- Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys)
- Physical Graffiti (Led Zeppelin)

And then there are about 20 more albums that are a notch below these 12 that aren't quite on the same tier. And now I'm feeling like I most have left some albums off that should be up there. Anyway, share opinions, or if you want to know the other albums...