Favorite Albums 1-100

Not sure anyone cares/remembers, but back when this blog hit its 100th post, I celebrated by making a list of my 100 favorite movies at the time (which the morbidly curious can read here). Well, now this blog has reached its 200th post (fanfare! fireworks! you get a car! and you get a car!), so I thought I'd celebrate with another 100 list—this time my favorite albums.

As with the movie list, I just want to stress that this is not a list of the best albums; nor is it a list of the albums I have listened to most or have always loved the most. This is simply a catalog of the albums that, at this particular moment in time, I would count as my favorites. This was very difficult to whittle down to an even 100—ask me tomorrow, and you'd get a much different list, the day after and you'd get an even more different list still. Also as with the movie list, this list is alphabetized, not ranked (and even lazily alphabetized at that—if I were being rigorous here, I'd have organized the artists by last name, but instead, I just listed them in the order that they are on my iTunes: Kanye West right before Kendrick Lamar, etc.).

Another organizational note: In order that this list didn't consist entirely of R.E.M., David Bowie, and Miles Davis, I limited any one artist to no more than three albums. Otherwise, this list would have definitely been just R.E.M., David Bowie, and Miles Davis.

Anyway, I hope this inspires people to share their own favorite albums here. I'm a white male music nerd who has counted rock as his musical genre home base for most of his life, and this list definitely reflects that hardcore, so I'd love suggestions that push against my demo. As I've mentioned frequently, the point of lists (as I see it) is to share new or neglected works of art with others, so please view this list as an opportunity to do so! Or maybe you love all the same albums as I do, in which case we can just revel together in the awesomeness of Carly Rae Jepsen or Funkadelic. Or maybe you hate Carly Rae Jepsen and Funkadelic—that's cool, you can call out my taste for being bad, too. Really, when you think about it, all music is bad.

Some stats before we begin:

• The oldest album on this list is Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (1959).
• The youngest album on this list is Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith's A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke (2016)—list is bookended by jazz, woo, I'm a cool cat.
• The most represented decade is the 1970s, with 24 albums.
• The least represented decade is the 1950s (just Kind of Blue).
• The most represented artists are Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Miles Davis, R.E.M., and Radiohead, all of whom hit the three-album ceiling.

The List

Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues (2014)

Alice in Chains – Jar of Flies (1994)

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (2010)

The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

Belle and Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996)

Big Star – #1 Record (1972)

Björk – Homogenic (1997)

Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Bob Dylan – Modern Times (2006)

Brad Mehldau – Elegiac Cycle (1999)

Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A. (1985)

Bruce Springsteen – The River (1980)

Can – Tago Mago (1971)

Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion (2015)

Carol King – Tapestry (1971)

Chance the Rapper – Acid Rap (2013)

The Clash – The Clash (1977)

Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)

David Bowie – Hunky Dory (1971)

David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)

David Bowie – Young Americans (1975)

David Crowder Band – A Collision or (3+4=7) (2005)

Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)

Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (2010)

Echo & the Bunnymen – Crocodiles (1980)

Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear (2015)

Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (2012)

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic (2009)

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (2011)

Florence + The Machine – Lungs (2009)

Funkadelic – Maggot Brain (1971)

Genesis – Selling England by the Pound (1973)

Grimes – Art Angels (2015)

Iggy & the Stooges – Raw Power (1973)

Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid (2010)

Joanna Newsom – Divers (2015)

John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (1965)

Joni Mitchell – Court and Spark (1974)

Kanye West – Late Registration (2005)

Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)

King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

King Crimson – Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973)

The Knife – Shaking the Habitual (2013)

The La’s – The La’s (1990)

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)

LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2006)

Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy (1973)

The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute (2005)

maudlin of the Well – Part the Second (2009)

Miles Davis – In a Silent Way (1969)

Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)

Miles Davis – On the Corner (1972)

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)

The National – Boxer (2007)

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)

Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York (1993)

Oasis – Definitely Maybe (1994)

Patti Smith – Horses (1975)

Pavement – Wowee Zowee (1995)

Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (2011)

PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love (1995)

Queen – A Night at the Opera (1975)

R.E.M. – Automatic for the People (1992)

R.E.M. – Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)

R.E.M. – New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)

Radiohead – Amnesiac (2001)

Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)

Radiohead – OK Computer (1997)

Regina Spektor – Soviet Kitsch (2003)

Robert Glasper – Black Radio (2012)

The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers (1971)

The Roots – Things Fall Apart (1999)

The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow (2003)

Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (1988)

Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space (1997)

St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (2011)

Sun Kil Moon – Benji (2014)

Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions (2009)

Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (1991)

Talking Heads – Remain in Light (1980)

Television – Marquee Moon (1977)

Tindersticks – Tindersticks (1995)

TV on the Radio – Dear Science (2008)

U2 – Achtung Baby (1992)

U2 – Pop (1997)

The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

The Verve – A Northern Soul (1995)

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith – A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke (2016)

Vince Guaraldi Trio – Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (1962)

The White Stripes – White Blood Cells (2001)

The Who – Who’s Next (1971)

Wilco – A Ghost Is Born (2004)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell (2003)

Yes – Fragile (1972)