Best Album produced by Rick Rubin

It's one of these:
Reign in Blood
Raising Hell
Wildflowers
BloodSugarSexMagik

Three of those are seminal to their respective genres, the other is just amazing.

Radio - LL Cool J (1985)
Licensed to Ill - Beastie Boys (1986)
Raising Hell - Run-D.M.C. (1986)
Reign in Blood - Slayer (1986)
Electric - The Cult (1987)
Danzig - Danzig (1988)
Tougher Than Leather - Run-D.M.C. (1988)
South of Heaven - Slayer (1988)
Masters of Reality - Masters of Reality (1988)
Andrew Dice Clay - Andrew Dice Clay (1989)
Trouble - Trouble (1990)
Danzig II: Lucifuge - Danzig (1990)
Seasons in the Abyss - Slayer (1990)
Nobody Said It Was Easy - The Four Horsemen (1991)
Manic Frustration - Trouble (1991)
Decade of Aggression - Slayer (1991)
Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers (1991)
Danzig III: How the Gods Kill - Danzig (1992)
Thrall: Demonsweatlive - Danzig (1993)
21st Century Jesus - Messiah (1993)
Danzig 4 - Danzig (1994)
American Recordings - Johnny Cash (1994)
Divine Intervention - Slayer (1994)
Wildflowers - Tom Petty (1994)
One Hot Minute - Red Hot Chili Peppers (1995)
Ballbreaker - AC/DC (1995)
God Lives Underwater - God Lives Underwater (1995)
Empty - God Lives Underwater (1995)
Unchained - Johnny Cash (1996)
Undisputed Attitude - Slayer (1996)
VH1 Storytellers - Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson (1998)
Diabolus in Musica - Slayer (1998)
System of a Down - System of a Down (1998)
Chef Aid - South Park (1998)
Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers (1999)
Loud Rocks - V/A (tracks: 1. System of a Down & Wu-Tang Clan - Shame, 6. Tom Morello & Chad Smith & Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit) (1999)
American III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash (2000)
Paloalto - Paloalto (2000)
Renegades - Rage Against The Machine (2000)
Amethyst Rock Star - Saul Williams (2001)
The War of Art-American Head Charge (2001)
Breath of the Heart -Krishna Das (2001)
Toxicity - System of a Down (2001)
American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash (2002)
By The Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers (2002)
Audioslave - Audioslave (2002)
Steal This Album! - System of a Down (2002)
Results May Vary - Limp Bizkit (with Terry Date and Jordan Schur)
Unearthed - Johnny Cash (2003)
Door of Faith - Krishna Das (2003)
De-Loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta (2003) (with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez)
The Black Album - Jay-Z (2003) ("99 Problems")
Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium - Rage Against the Machine (2003)
Heroes and Villains - Paloalto (2003)
Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) - Slipknot (2004)
Armed Love - The (International) Noise Conspiracy (2004)
Crunk Juice - Lil' Jon and the East Side Boyz (2004) ("Stop Fuckin' Wit Me")
Make Believe - Weezer (2005)
Out of Exile - Audioslave (2005)
Mezmerize - System of a Down (2005)
Hypnotize - System of a Down (2005)
12 Songs - Neil Diamond (2005)
Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers (2006)
Untitled - Justin Timberlake (2006)
Untitled - Linkin Park (2006)
Untitled - Slayer (ending 2006)
Untitled - Metallica (2006/2007)
Untitled - Kid Rock (2006/2007)
Untitled - The Faint (2006/2007)
Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks (2006)
American V: A Hundred Highways - Johnny Cash (2006)
Untitled - System of a Down (possibly 2007)
American VI - Johnny Cash (possibly 2007)

the only albums I've listened to all the way through from that list are Blood Sugar Sex Magik and some of the SOAD albums. oh, and I think I listened to the Saul Williams album a couple times too. so I don't really have much of an opinion.

yeah. followed by reign in blood.

"Best production job, or best album?"

i was going by the former.

This could be very very good, but almost certainly won't be.

thing about the Danzig record is I don't think that it would have worked with any other producer; as a way of "introducing" Danzig's new sound, Rubin was perfect. and he gave the whole thing this great slightly-echoey room sound that lent the whole record this kinda creepy vibe. favorite production touch: the bells on "End of Time"

If he'd stopped right there, he'd be a justified legend.
Unfortunately, he kept going. And going. And going...

REIGN IN BLOOD. Next!
-- Terrible Cold

Yep, yep, yep, but Manic Frustration is a close second. The epitome of "pure hard rock crunch", for what that cliché's worth.

my pic is Raising Hell, runnerup: Licensed to Ill. glad to see the unfairly maligned Tougher Than Leatherhere

couldn't find Mick Jagger's Wandering Spirit on the list. It's actually not that bad, better than any post-1981 Stones LP.

radio, licensed to ill, raising hell, reign in blood, south of heaven, and masters of reality. they all sound great. south of heaven and masters of reality probably mean the most to me as albums. and radio was the first rap full-length to blow my little mind. what an album.

i lol'd

LISTEN TO THE SUMMER DEMOS. RUBIN REALLY DIDNT DO ANYTHING.GREAT ALBUM THOUGH!

If so, maybe that was a good thing. Some people in the recording field are appalled by the sound of his albums but they can't seem to agree where the process goes bad. Some put the blame on Rubin's mastering engineer of choice, Vlado Meller, but others defend that guy and say he is just delivering the type of mastering Rick wants or that the damage was done during mixing. The most common complaints are that the music is overly compressed with extreme clipping and pumping. Californication gets bagged on the most it seems and it's interesting that Deloused is mentioned on this thread because it is talked about as well.

Here are a couple threads from recording forums if anybody wants to check out some of the discussions:

http://audioforums.com/forums/printthread.php?s=980771a1df4f218ca279cb173d2e48e6&threadid=7646&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/28612/5434/?SQ=0716d3afaae2ede8bf9140d181444f15#msg_28612

This article is explains the compession terminology in more layman's terms:

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/Issues/2005/0818/cover.htm

Generally, Rick Rubin is an excellent producer who has just worked with genres that cannot be good no matter how good the producer.

Even though the first song has one of the most cringe-worthy examples of autotune I've ever heard.