Top 10 Albums

Anytime anyone makes a list of the "Top 10 Best," they really mean "My Top 10 Favorite." So here are my top 10 favorite albums, in no particular order:

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Monkees - Headquarters
Sawyer Brown - The Boys Are Back
Charlie Daniels Band - Live From Iraq
Sawyer Brown - The Hits Live
The Monkees - Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd.
Third Day - Revelation
Garth Brooks - Garth Brooks
Sawyer Brown - Mission Temple Fireworks Stand

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Family DVD Collection | My Top 100 | My Movie Thoughts | Frank Capra

I think I’ll do something different within the general relevance of the thread but with a little more depth; a top 10 list of albums that shaped me as a writer and musician, as well as being records I feel are relevant in the progression of music. Order is extraneous. The interesting thing about this list is I don’t even rate most of these as 5/5, nor are they necessarily my favorite release by the bands.


Bat For Lashes – Two Suns


It’s amazing how a simple alteration of instrumentation for every song can make an album sound fresh after 100 listens. This album seems to have been written by the duality of one person, and the musical dynamics hint at this, let alone the (very original) lyrics. The people that ignored this album as well as a bunch of the people that praise this album still haven’t really accessed the spiritual honesty and musical integrity such a young artist was able to produce. Utterly enchanting.


David Sylvian – Secrets Of The Beehive


A true poet, David Sylvian is never a stagnant artist, but always enigmatic. This is the album that taught me about textures, as well as finding a happy medium between pretentiousness and stinging brilliance in lyrics. Mixing upbeat jazz into a string-based dirge of a record still doesn’t make sense unless you hear it, let alone the softest brass section I’ve ever heard on tape.


Antonio Vivaldi – Four Seasons


Motifs, motifs, motifs. While the Four Seasons can be seen as a generic choice, there has never been a concept record before or after this dealing with an intangible theme that pulls it off at all. How Vivaldi managed to do so is beyond me but while introducing me to that in of itself, the concept of motifs and the way he managed to recreate them later on in the piece was stunning.


The Cure – The Head On The Door


I do find it strange that I picked this over Disintegration. However, The Cure seemed to do a best of both worlds with this album, mixing upbeat material with some serious downers, and the dynamic between them makes both emotions stand out all the more. While it’s something so simple, I found it to be one of the most important things I ever learned.


Clint Mansell – The Fountain OST


Besides Clint Mansell and Zbigniew Preisner, I rarely another composer in film match music with the visual, but I have to pass this credit to Mansell for I only recently discovered Preisner. The Fountain’s score, even if you’re gay and didn’t like the film, was undeniably powerful. Plus, the subtle addition of the post-rock band Mogwai made it stand even farther apart from other scores.


Koji Kondo – Ocarina Of Time OST


This Zelda game got me into music, period. The music in this game changed the medium from that point on, and it just so happened to be really good music as well. It was very interesting as a little tyke to hear all sorts of different styles within one game that all made sense in the context of the story, so I consider that a strong characteristic.


Diabolical Masquerade – Death’s Design


A metal-based score for a horror film that was never made. Again, the motifs are well-implemented, use of samples and sound effects is balanced, and the range of styles is just bizarre (very unique solos, tribal drums, jazz breaks, Egyptian scales, etc), but also covers a lot of ground as far as the history and use of horror scores. Ugh, and the leads Nystrom comes up with are scary infectious. One of my favorite albums ever made by far.


Moonspell – The Antidote


This commendable band from Portugal is strangely consistent. They tend to change style and mood with each album but retain their thread of consciousness in a way only a truly honest band can, whether they do very light gothic rock or a supremely heavy and dark metal track. With The Antidote, they were basically in-between rock and metal, but did something distinctive. The album was written as prose by the author José Luís Peixoto, the lyrics, music, and novel having all the same concept. It’s possibly one of the earliest forms of a bi-medium product, at least to my knowledge.


Ulver – Svidd Neger OST


Electronic classical music. What does that even mean? Ulver is easily the most eclectic band to ever exist (not even trying to exaggerate) and took yet another step in a different direction with their second OST, but this time utilizing classical instrumentation rather than purely electronic as they did with Lyckantropen Themes. Very beautiful work, and the combination of the electronic style with the score is strangely fluid, and actually helps to accentuate the bow work somehow.


Katatonia – Brave Murder Day


Another band that doesn't repeat themselves. The concept of drone, repetition, and decay within music is a very hard task to execute. The importance of those elements is the implementation of them must be subtle enough to completely envelope the listener, almost as a form of control, and in this sense, combined with poetically dead lyrics, it’s one of the most depressing albums I’ve ever heard. Depression is underrated.

Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads



Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols - The Sex Pistols



Back In Black - AC/DC



The Wall - Pink Floyd



American Idiot - Green Day



OK Computer - Radiohead



Highway To Hell - AC/DC



... And Justice For All - Metallica



Appetite For Destruction - Gun's N Roses



Nevermind - Nirvana

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"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

A more current list:

Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads)
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
Stranded (Roxy Music)
Back In Black (AC/DC)
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols (The Sex Pistols)
Warren Zevon (Warren Zevon)
Icehouse (Flowers)
Brothers In Arms (Dire Straits)
...And Justice For All (Metallica)
Bat Out Of Hell (Meat Loaf)

^ Love Angel Dust, featuring my favourite Faith No More song "Midlife Crisis".

The Slim Shady LP - Eminem
The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem
Recovery - Eminem
The Cool - Lupe Fiasco
Parachutes - Coldplay
What's the story, Morning Glory - Oasis
Catch Bull at Four - Cat Stevens/Yousuf Islam
Black and White - Wretch 32
Troubadour - K'naan

Some of my fave albums off the top of my head

I don't really know how I feel about these kinds of things, I absolutely hate doing lists because I know that I am going to neglect something significantly prominent and find my own boot striking my ass for it later, but here it goes.

1. The Used (Self-Titled Album)
2. Tri-Polar (Sick Puppies)
3. The Eminem Show (Eminem)
4. Vulnerable (The Used)
5. The Wall (Pink Floyd)
6. Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces (Seether)
7. Recovery (Eminem)
8. Break the Cycle (Staind)
9. Nevermind (Nirvana)
10. Artwork (The Used)

An update, sort of reflecting my taste in music nowadays...

Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
The Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
The Doors - The Doors
Aerosmith - Pump
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Cars - The Cars
Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

And six more...

The Cure - Disintergration
Black Flag - Damaged
Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Need Guitars
David Bowie - Heroes
AC/DC - Highway To Hell
Rosy Music - Stranded (it was hard to choose between this and Siren)

In alphabetical order, one album per artist, hardly permanent:

Children of God - Swans
Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers - Wu-Tang Clan
In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
Moving Pictures - Rush
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Remain in Light - Talking Heads
Ride the Lightning - Metallica
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie
Tonight's the Night - Neil Young
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

In no particular order:
1:My Bloody Valentine-Loveless
2:Nas- Illmatic
3Daft Punk --Live 2007
4:The Beatles-Revolver
5:Nirvana-Nevermind
6:Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique
7:J.Dilla-Donuts
8:Metallica- And Justice For All
9: John Coltrane-A Love Supreme
10:Minutemen-Double Nickels On The Dime

Been a while since I've done this (at least in this thread), here's a mix of more-or-less permanent fixtures and current obsessions:







10. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
9. Yello - Stella
8. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2
7. De La Soul Is Dead
6. Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira
5. The Fall - Room to Live
4. De La Soul - Buhloone Mindstate
3. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
2. Michael Nyman - The Draughtsman's Contract
1. Foetus - Hole

Ran out of room for Kate Bush (The Kick Inside), Eunsturzende Neubauten (1/2 Mensch), Tom Waits (Frank's Wild Years and/or Blood Money, Severed Heads (Come Visit the Big Bigot) and some others.

* No soundtracks
* No classical music
* No EPs

1. Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness
2. Slowdive - Souvlaki
3. Agalloch - The Mantle
4. Alcest - Écailles de lune
5. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
6. Mr. Bungle - California
7. Mass of the Fermenting Dregs - Mass of the Fermenting Dregs
8. Opeth - Damnation
9. Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
10. Heroin and Your Veins - Dead People's Trails

No space for Sunset Mission nor Loveless. 10 is too few.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

This list isn't gonna be very accurate, because I tend not to listen to full albums, and when I do, it's usually because it's the band's newest album, and not because it's the most consistent.
I'm only including one album from each band, in no particular order:

21st Century Breakdown - Green Day
Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins
Revolver - The Beatles
Audioslave - Audioslave
In Your Honor - Foo Fighters
Get Born - Jet
A Night at the Opera - Queen
The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Purple - Stone Temple Pilots
Tommy - The Who

1. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
2. Louis Armstrong - Greatest Hits
3. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
4. OutKast - ATLiens
5. GZA - Liqiud Swords
6. Madvillain - Madvillainy
7. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
8. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
9. Death Grips - The Money Store
10. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Only studio albums from popular music artists:

1. Helloween - Walls of Jericho

2. Judas Priest - Painkiller

3. Iron Maiden - Powerslave

4. Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny

5. Virgin Steele - The House of Atreus part 1

6. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

7. Metallica - Ride the Lighting

8. Iron Savior - Unification

9. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill

10. Accept - Russian Roulette


I could add dozens of other albums I love as well but these are among those that I listen the most often. I posted the covers because I love the artwork done in heavy metal albums.

Country of origin of these albums:

Germany: 4
UK: 4
USA: 2

Genres: Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal and Proto-Death Metal (Pleasure to Kill)

To get to non-metal albums I would have to expand my favorites to a top 100 albums, there some Led Zeppelin, Yes, Beatles and Deep Purple would sneak in.

Interestingly, no Portuguese language albums are among my favorites. Also, notice the lack of Black Metal and Death Metal albums. That's because I liked some death metal and black metal but I don't love it as much as I love the classic bands such as Iron Maiden. While the extreme aggressiveness they attain is interesting overall nobody in these genres that I know has reached the level of artistic genius of bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Helloween and Metallica. I know, I am a man of conservative taste.

All these albums combine a certain sense of greatness and originality with thick instrumental-driven melodies and a certain dose of raw aggressiveness (what fundamentally differentiates heavy metal from classical music). Compositions tend to be complex in most of these albums (exceptions being Russian Roulette and Ride the Lightning).

My Top Ten Albums, In alphabetical order.

I have chosen 1 album per band which is quite difficult for some bands.

1, Coal Chamber - Dark Days



2, DevilDriver - The Fury of Our Makers Hand



3, Disturbed - Believe



4, Five Finger Death Punch - War is the Answer



5, Korn - Follow the Leader



6, Limpbizkit - Significant Other



7, Metallica - Ride the Lightning



8, Rammstein - Mutter



9, Slipknot - Slipknot



10, System of a Down - Toxicity

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~In the event of a Zombie Uprising, remember to sever the head or destroy the brain!~

1. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Southern Accents



Favorite Song: I can't decide, so here's the big single instead.



2. Lindsey Buckingham: Gift of Screws



Favorite Song: Time Precious Time



3. Traveling Wilburys: Volume 1



Favorite Song: Tweeter and the Monkeyman



4. Fleetwood Mac: The Dance



Favorite Song: Go Insane



5. Warren Zevon: The Wind



Favorite Song: Keep Me In Your Heart



6. Live: Throwing Copper



Favorite Song: Lightning Crashes



7. Mumford and Sons: Sigh No More



Favorite Song: Winter Winds



8. Jonny Lang: Wander This World



Favorite Song: Still Rainin'



9. Nirvana: Unplugged in New York



Favorite Song: Where Did You Sleep Last Night



10. Stabbing Westward: Wither Blister Burn + Peel



Favorite Song: toss up between Shame and Sleep, so here's Shame

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