It's June 24, 2006. What's your favorite top ten albums/releases of all time?

1. Butthole Surfers - Double Live Bootleg

2. 13th Floor Elevators - 8 Track Mixes

3. Chrome Box

4. Grateful Dead - From The Mars Hotel

5. Grateful Dead - What A Long Strange Trip 1+2

6. Phish - Live #9

7. Beatles - Sgt. Pepper

8. Black Sabbath s/t

9. Pink Floyd - The Wall

10. Acid Mothers Temple - Absolutely Freakout

1. Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
2. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
3. Ramones - Ramones
4. Run-DMC - Raising Hell
5. X - Los Angeles
6. Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonycologist
7. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
8. Naked City - Torture Garden
9. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegatables
10. De La Soul - Three Feet High And Rising

How weird and, I guess, sad it is that this will probably identify me until the day I die. I can still put this thing in whenever and feel like it's a hot summer night and many beers are in order.

Judee Sill - Judee Sill
Broadcast - Haha sound
Funkadelic - One nation under a groove
Scott Walker - 3
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
Haco - Ash in the Rainbow
..I want to say the Wicker Man soundtrack because it's really stuck with me, but I don't know. Some of these will change probably.

REM - Automatic for the People
Eno - On Land
David Sylvian - Gone to Earth
Ramones - Leave Home
Springsteen - Nebraska
Zoviet France - Garista
Biosphere - Substrata
Alice Cooper - School's Out
Elvis Costello - Get Happy
Talking Heads - 77

Miles Davis: Bitches Bres
John Zorn: Filmworks 10-In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Art Ensemble of Chicago-Phase One
Captain Beefheart-Strictly Personal
Rahsaan Roland Kirk-Prepare Thyself to Deal with a Miracle
David Liebman-Lookout Farm
John Coltrane-A Love Supreme
Alice Coltrane-Ptah the El Daoud
Pentangle-Pentangle
Leo Kottke-Six and Twelve String Guitar

Pixies-Surfer Rosa
Pixies-Doolittle
Stooges-Funhouse
Dirtbombs-Ultraglide in Black
Afghan Whigs-Gentlemen
Radiohead-Hail to the Thief
Cure-Disintegration
Radio Birdman-Radios Appear
Violent Femmes-s/t
Talking Heads-Best of

Don't know if any other than Surfer Rosa or Disintegration would be there in 10 years, but for now...

1. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
2. Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens - The Best of Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens
3. Marisa Monte - Rose and Charcoal
4. Ride - Leave Them All Behind
5. Split Enz - True Colours
6. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
7. Sly and the Family Stone - Greatest Hits
8. Mnaga a Zdorp - Made in Valmez
9. Franco & Rochereau - Omona Wapi
10. U2 - Achtung Baby

(Not making the cut... today: Suede - Coming Up, Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide, Saint Etienne, Luna - Penthouse, Nick Drake, Pulp - Different Class, Scruffy the Cat - s/t, Beatles, ABBA - Gold, MBV - Loveless, Husker Du - Warehouse, Moody Blues - A Question of Balance, Supergrass - In It for the Money, XTC, Pete Townshend - White City, Roxy Music - Siren, Rolling Stones - Exile)

seems so boring to see them all together like that, and i rarely listen to any of them because i have them playing in my head all the time. i listen to dance music probably 75% of the time, and arvo part the rest of the time.

... a bunch of other stuff, most of it manufactured to exeedingly high quality standards and sanitized for your protection.

Oooh! Are those pigs-in-a-blanket?

1. New Order, Technique.
2. Prince, Sign 'O' The Times
3. DJ Shadow, Endtroducing...
4. Roxy Music, Stranded
5. Rosanne Cash, King's Record Shop
6. Pretenders, Pretenders
7. Alexander O'Neal, Hearsay
8. The Go-Betweens, Tallulah
9. Fleetwood Mac, Tusk
10. Tricky, Maxinquaye

What are you, 16? You're a big O.C. fan, aren't you honey?

I LOVE Raised On Radio! Randy Jackson on bass! That guitar coda on "I'll Be Alright With You"!

This is what I hate about ILM.

Well, Thomas, post an honest top 10, and I'll try your approach.

Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Prince - Sign "O" the Times
Alexander O'Neal - Hearsay
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Masters at Work - The 10th Anniversary Collection, Parts 1 & 2
Steely Dan - Aja
Meshell Ndegéocello - Peace Beyond Passion

I like Alf's list better than mine. Clearly, I am an 50-year-old codger who believes no good music has been made in the past decade.

the albums in my car at the moment. my favourites.

Whitehouse -- Erector
Hair -- Original Cast Recording
Mantronix -- The Album
Sting - Dream of the Blue Turtles
Paul Simon - Graceland
808 State - State Ritual
Redd Foxx - You Gotta Wash Your Ass
Stockhausen -- Kontakte
Cheap Trick -- In Color
Hamilton Bohannon -- Dance Your Ass Off

Slay me for the last two if you want, haters, but I'd bet most of our true favorites spring from our childhood and adolescence. Think hard: What was your favorite album when you were 16 years old? That's your favorite record of all time. If you say it's not, you're full of shit.

there is more than a kernel of truth here, for the vast majority of us...

Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food
Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
Wolfmother, S/T
Bruce Springsteen, Seeger Sessions
James Brown, The Big Payback: 1971-1975 (best of comp)
Fleetwood Mac, Tusk
Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have it So Much Better
Talking Heads, Remain in Light
Ghostface, Fishscale
BTS, Keep it Like a Secret

Arvo Part - Tabula Rasa
Shirley & Dolly Collins - For as Many as Will
Exuma - Do Wah Nanny (or the first... it's very close and I'm very indecisive)
Sparks - Propaganda
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Leonard Cohen - The Songs of..
The Modern Lovers - (first album)
The Incredible String Band - Wee Tam & The Big Huge (the double lp)
Various - One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found
The Pretty Things - SF Sorrow

Hmm, nothing from the past 20 years... how sad...

I'm old.

Saying something in this tough love tone of voice does nothing to make it true. Very idiotic generalization.

As far as favourites, I find that kind of hard to quantify but I can name 10 albums that I seem to revisit. And like everyone else, I'll preface the list by calling it boring.

1. The Byrds "Sweethart of the Rodeo"
2. Massive Attack "Mezzanine"
3. De La Soul "Three Feet High and Rising"
4. Wire "Chairs Missing"
5. Spoon "Girls Can Tell"
6. Pixies "Surfer Rosa"
7. Wilco "Summerteeth"
8. The Kinks "Village Green Preservation Society"
9. New Order "Power, Corruption and Lies"
10. Tom Waits "Closing Time"

It's not idiotic to say that what we hold true from our formative years continues to affect us today. As a general statement, that's not off base. Because, unless you really were listening to snotty-ass lo-fi indie rock or IDM rock as a kid, you're totally full of shit if you cite those as your all-time favorites. It's possible to embrace those as strongly as an adult, yes, but you'll always have a point of reference, as Alex's list above will attest to. BTW -- I haven;t listened to Ten in nearly 10 years. But I am being honest by putting it on my list.

Now fuck off ... please. :-)

Troll ...

There is a germ of truth there. What we love when young we love wholeheartedly and honestly, without the equivocation and intellectualization of more adult enthusiasms. But why draw the line at 16? Why not say that what you loved when you were SIX you will always love best of all?

At six I absolutely ADORED "Sgt. Pepper's". My mom played it a lot, and I thought it was impossibly great and fascinating. I also loved "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and "Car, Car" by Peter, Paul & Mary. And some Kingston Trio album or another. And Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water". And that tune about, "the daring young man on the flying trapeze."

Now, I still love a lot of that stuff dearly. And I still love a lot of what I loved at 16. But I don't love ALL of it. At 16, I was into Johnny Cash's "Greatest Hits", AC/DC's "Back In Black", Dire Strait's "Love Over Gold", The Buggles' "Age of Plastic, Cat Steven's "Harold and Maude" soundtrack, Cheap Trick's "One On One" and ZZ Top's "El Loco". Oh, and the "Rocky Horror" soundtrack.

Now, some of my childhood enthusiasms I still embrace. Other stuff that I used to dig now bores me to tears. The nostalgic affection is still there for the IDEA of the music, and I'm still fond of it in short bursts, but I can't force myself to sit through an entire Abba album no matter how hard I try. And I'm not too big on the "Star Wars" soundtrack, or EBN-OZN.

Some of the things we love best, we pick up in our youth. And some of the things we love best, we pick up later on. I'll take Spacemen 3's "Perfect Prescription" over anything Dire Straits ever did. And I'll stack the first few Belle and Sebastian albums kick Cat Stevens' ass all over the place.

Haikunym -- a littl verbal jabbing never hurt no one. I know Rockist is a regular. I also believe that, in general, most of our favorites spring from adolescence, and I do believe if we really dig down deep, the most deeply affecting work comes from that period of time. I undserstand what Rockist is saying, that tastes change and modify as one grows older. I just don't appreciate having a statement I make called idiotic for no good reason.

I owned, like, three albums when I was 16. If that. (Now I'm having trouble narrowing down my list from several thousand. I may need some time.)

O'Connor, you say anyone who denies your false generalization is full of shit, and then you call me the troll? I've done the list thing before, at the moment I'm not very interested in making lists of all time favorites. The most interesting thing on this thread was your ridiculous outburst about the records one loved at 16 (which is not to say it's actually very interesting), so I responded to that.

If anything, my 16 year old list would be closer to that than my current list. (Well, it wouldn't be lo-fi indie and IDM, but it include a lot more stuff like Einstein on the Beach and Let the Power Fall.)

-- Marmot 4-Tay: forth-coming, my child. forth-coming most righteous champion (marmotwolo...) (webmail), June 26th, 2006 3:12 PM. (later)

the more i think about this, the more otm it is

I understand why someone might like Phil Collins or Shakira or maybe even Dire Straits and Sting even though I'd personally rather eat cold sick with a plastic spoon than listen to any of them, but the Pearl Jam thing, I just don't get it.

xpost - true for both categories

I swear I recognize your breath
Memories like fingerprints are slowly raising
Me you wouldnt recall, for
Im not my former
Its hard when youre stuck upon the shelf
I changed by not changing at all, small town predicts my fate
Perhaps thats what no one wants to see
I just want to scream...hello...
My God its been so long, never dreamed youd return
But now here you are, and here I am
Hearts and thoughts they fade...away...

Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away... (2x)
Hearts and thoughts they fade...away...
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away... (3x)
Hearts and thoughts they fade...

this is the part that always got me.

Absurdly boring, yes, but fairly honest. I could probably fill half the list with Will Oldham releases, but that would be boring. Joy Division's Substance really deserves a spot too.

The Stooges - Funhouse
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Allman Brothers - Fillmore East
The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Led Zeppelin - II
Jesus Lizard - Liar
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Gang of Four - Entertainment

PREDICTABLE. I ONLY LIKED TWO (2) OF THESE RECORDS WHEN I WAS SIXTEEN. GUESS WHICH.

Ya know, I always think about this. The albums I'd want with me on a desert island aren't necessarily going to be my "favorite" in the cold, calculated sense, culled from a list generated in the comfy confines of civilization. I would include albums that remind me of my childhood and my family, for sure. Something I don't really need to include (or listen to) here, today, surrounded by friends and family. The reason for listening to music becomes much different with only 10 choices, alone, forever. Perhaps I'd only want 10 CDR's of my loved ones voices and screw the pop music.

Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
Pavement - Slanted & Enchangted
Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Modest Mouse - Buidling Nothing Out Of Something (technically not an album...)
Fugazi - The Arguement
Prince - Purple Rain
Ween - The Mollusk

Tenth is probably Master of Puppets, Endtoducing, Being There, Cosmic Slop, Innervisions, Keep It Like A Secret, or maybe Loveless.

while the obvious exclusion? this thread is as pale as ILM's background color.

Gilberto Gil - Espresso 2222
Pizzicato Five - I forget which one
Cafe Tacuba - an album by them

whoa, i did about 15 google searches and found zilch. what label was this on? thought i had everything, holla at me on e-mail if you're down with a CD-R trade or something.

I have no way of knowing what the racial mix on ilm is, I suspect it's predominantly white, but wtf? You excoriate and then are ecstatic for a Ben Folds? Where's the love for a black artist?

okay wrinklepaws was asking for it but WTF does this mean?

On a more positive note, there are some terrific, interesting lists here.

the ink is black, the page is white, together we...what was it again?

Probably had it coming to me ...

Computer Love
A Mark, A Mission, a Brand, a Scar
Life is...Too Short
Green Onions
Persepolis
The Mary Jane Girls
From the Roots to the Toota
Whipped Cream and Other Delights
Homotopy to Marie
Brown Sugar

... yeah, man, Dream of the Blue Turtles was dope when I was 16! :-)

Are compilations/bestofs allowed? I don't see people listing them, but the instructions don't seem clear to me on that point.

silver jews – American water
pixies - doolittle
magnetic fields – 69 loves songs
velvet underground – loaded
the clean - anthology
talking heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
beatles – abbey road
built to spill – there’s nothing wrong with love
modest mouse – lonesome crowded west
pavement- Slanted & Enchanted

regrettably out of room for… the smiths, the cure, m.ward and the first stone roses

revive WOW