I’m not saying that Skylarking is the best album in the history of the universe, but I’m not not saying it either. Certainly it’s the finest album XTC have produced. I know […]
“Skylarking” by XTC (No. 1)
“Abbey Road” by The Beatles (No. 2)
Abbey Road is more or less The Beatles‘ final album1, and it contains some of the group’s strongest work – especially George Harrison, who finally gets his day in the sun. I’m […]
“Help!” by The Beatles (No. 3)
Here’s where it all began, my lifelong obsession with music. Technically, it was the movie Help! that helped turn me into a music junkie, but we’ll go with the album here. Here’s […]
“Disintegration” by The Cure (No. 4)
Disintegration is the album that really sold me on The Cure. Yes, I know, I was a bit late to the party. Some of the singles off Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss […]
“A Night at the Opera” by Queen (No. 5)
A Night at the Opera has some of Queen‘s best-known songs, including “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But what if I told you that “Bohemian Rhapsody” isn’t even the best song on A Night at […]
“Lost in Space” by Aimee Mann (No. 6)
Fun fact, Aimee Mann is the only musical guest on Buffy to get a speaking part. That has not a lot to do with Lost in Space, except that two songs from […]
“Element of Light” by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians (No. 7)
If Robyn Hitchcock hadn’t gone into music, perhaps he’d have become a novelist like his father. His penchant for storytelling shows through heavily in Element of Light. Hitchcock has a pretty solid […]
“Rubber Soul” by The Beatles (No. 8)
Famed Rock critic Robert Christgau called Rubber Soul “when The Beatles began to go arty.” Reductive, perhaps, but also true. Rubber Soul is not as adventurous as Sgt. Pepper or The Beatles, […]
“New Adventures in Hi-Fi” by R.E.M. (No. 9)
I had low expectations for New Adventures in Hi-Fi after Monster, but R.E.M. blew it out of the water with this one. From 1983 to 1992, R.E.M. had an unbroken string of […]
“Strangeways, Here We Come” by The Smiths (No. 10)
The final album by The Smiths, Strangeways Here We Come is a fitting close to a brief but brilliant career. The Smiths’ star shone brightly and burned out quickly, but they were […]