Key Track: All
This album is front to back alternative rock masterpiece. From the intricate melodies to the lyrics (that have never been bettered), this is a lost classic.
2. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Key Track: "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"
Before Pet Sounds, there wasn't anything like this in music, save Beethoven and Mozart. After it, there wouldn't be anything else to compare again. This invented modern pop.
3. The Replacements - Let It Be
Key Tracks: ALL
This band showed me that music was fun, and loose, and full of attitude and passion, and that even if it doesn't sound perfect, it can Be perfect.
4. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Key Track: "Pink Moon"
This album is desolate, but it illustrates the strength in exposing vulnerability, and the power of the soul. Just a man and a guitar for a half hour of perfection.
5. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Key Track: "To Here Knows When"
This is a rare album in that absolutely nothing has come close to touching the level of chaos and beauty contained within. A truly claustrophobic experience; grab a pair of headphones and close your eyes. Makes "Dark Side of the Moon" look like "Oops I Did It Again".
6. MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
Key Track: "Rocket Reducer No. 62"
This is revolution. Four white guys with afros, affiliated with the Black Panthers, screaming about "rock and roll, dope, and fucking in the streets". This is the most rebellious rock music ever made.
7. Crowded House - Woodface
Key Track: "Fall At Your Feet"
This band was supposed to be the next Beatles. But they came from Australia, and the US largely ignored them. Forget about "Don't Dream, It's Over" - this is their masterpiece.
8. Big Star - #1 Record
Key Track: "Thirteen"
This is the band that made me want to pick up a guitar. Not to be a rock star... but to do something timeless.
9. Bright Eyes - Lifted, etc.
Key Track: "Method Acting"
This album showed that you don't need a major label or money to make a large symphony of sound. You just needed a few creative friends and the piss and vinegar.
10. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
Key Track: "Southern Man"
People claim Hendrix is the greatest guitar player ever. I tend to disagree. Something about a nearly destroyed Les Paul, an amp on the verge of explosion, old rusty strings, and Neil's voicings send me into guitar heaven.
11. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Key Track: "Gold Soundz"
This band played incredibly melodic music with almost nonsensical lyrics... and that was the point. You follow the muse where it takes you, and have fun with it. Pavement was great at that, and we're a better world to have them back.
12. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
Key Track: "Almost Crimes"
This is ten people, playing completely different parts, yet finding a harmonious and joyous sound together. This album is front-to-back thrilling and the entire argument for music's evolution and future.
13. U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
Key Track: "A Sort of Homecoming"
If there's a heaven, then The Edge will provide the glorious soundtrack.
14. David Gray - White Ladder
Key Track: "Please Forgive Me"
Recorded entirely on his own with a drum machine, some acoustic guitars and a sampler. Without a record deal, he made this album for his own pleasure. Luckily, we all got to hear it.
15. Deftones - White Pony
Key Track: "Feiticeira"
This album proves that hard rock/metal does not need to follow any formula whatsoever. This is the ONLY metal album I will listen to. The guitars play more like a string section than riffage, and Chino Moreno's voice is still the most enigmatic sound in rock and roll.
16. DJ Shadow - ...Endtroducing
Key Track: "Midnight in a Perfect World"
This album revealed to me, like a puzzle, the patchwork nature of music. You can identify all the parts that come together in this sampled masterpiece, but alone they mean almost nothing. Shadow is a genius if only for this album. An album that will one day be compared to classical symphonies.
17. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
Key Track: "Dreams"
An unabashedly pop band, they could write songs that you don't even know you know by heart. Take "Dreams" - the song is pure magic and is entirely comprised of two notes.
18. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Key Track: "For Me, This is Heaven"
This band showed that guitar rock can have a heart and touch yours as well. The intertwined guitar parts on this album are truly moving.
19. Wilco - Summerteeth
Key Track: "She's a Jar"
Jeff Tweedy shows us that sometimes its okay to embrace the darkest thoughts of the human soul and to bring them to the surface, so long as its in the interests of music. When Jeff sang about how "she begged me not to hit her", we all too sharp notice. And then examined ourselves.
20. Burial - Untrue
Key Tracks: ALL
This album is at the bottom because its the least known and newest record. That said, this album is amongst the most influential on my own music. This is the sound of walking through a city at 3am in the rain, looking down dark alleyways and jaywalking through abandoned streets. This is not easy listening, but its breathtaking.
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