A while ago, I started writing about my favourite albums, but that project ran out of steam for a number of reason, not least among them being that, in the time that it took me to get through all the mini-writeups, I changed my mind about two or three of them in ways that made the existing list annoyingly incomplete (case in point: as of right now, what would most likely have been number two on that list isn't even my favourite album by that artist, let alone my second favourite amongst all comers); being a purist, I naturally took that as my cue to stop altogether. In the interests of finishing what I started, though, here, briefly, are what would have been the top 3:
# 3: Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
... an album that for me stands alone as the finest exercise in sheer, bloody-minded brilliance ever committed to record. With its impeccably-produced, layered, hallucinogenic swathes of sound, blissed-out melodies and dreamily mumbled vocals, Loveless not only defined shoegazer and dream-pop, but also established a new standard for all guitar music which came after it. This really is the one, listened to loud or soft (but preferably loud), happy or sad, by day or by night, in company or, of course, alone. It is sheerest genius ... - 5/8/03
# 2: OK Computer - Radiohead
... the single album that most captured the spirit of the pre-millennial Zeitgeist – self-aware, cynical, almost resigned, and yet spine-chillingly grandiose and oh-so-faintly hopeful (ifeelmyluckcouldchange); spacey, melodic, progressive, and undeniably great, it struck a chord with depressed, tired_nhappy indie kids everywhere and remains popular guitar music’s closest approach to perfection yet ... - 5/8/03
# 1: Bachelor No 2, or The Last Remains of the Dodo - Aimee Mann
Wreathed in the forms and moves of classic singer-songwriter pop but with a distinctly modern voice, this album speaks directly to me, engaging my intellect, emotions and imagination all at once. It's simply the sharpest, clearest, truest record I've ever heard.
Anyway, that means that the full list (subject to the above qualifications) would have gone like this:
1. Bachelor No 2, or The Last Remains of the Dodo - Aimee Mann
2. OK Computer - Radiohead
3. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
4. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico
5. New Adventures In Hi-Fi - R.E.M.
6. Homogenic - Bjork
7. Moon Pix - Cat Power
8. Summerteeth - Wilco
9. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
10. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian
11. Blacklisted - Neko Case
12. Low - David Bowie
13. Isn't Anything - My Bloody Valentine
14. The Bends - Radiohead
15. Closer - Joy Division
16. Boxer - The National
17. Blue Bell Knoll - Cocteau Twins
18. Treasure - Cocteau Twins
19. On The Beach - Neil Young
20. The Boy With The Arab Strap - Belle and Sebastian
21. Reading, Writing & Arithmetic - The Sundays
22. Kid A - Radiohead
23. Tigermilk - Belle and Sebastian
24. Psychocandy - The Jesus and Mary Chain
25. On Fire - Galaxie 500
26. Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division
27. Doolittle - Pixies
28. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
29. Post - Bjork
30. Marquee Moon - Television
31. Funeral - Arcade Fire
32. Essence - Lucinda Williams
33. The Execution Of All Things - Rilo Kiley
34. Hail To The Thief - Radiohead
35. So Tonight That I Might See - Mazzy Star
36. Radio City - Big Star
37. Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk - Jeff Buckley
38. The Real Ramona - Throwing Muses
39. Reckoning - R.E.M.
40. GP - Gram Parsons
41. Pearl - Janis Joplin
42. The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
43. Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol
44. Deserter's Songs - Mercury Rev
45. Time (The Revelator) - Gillian Welch
46. 69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
47. Humming By The Flowered Vine - Laura Cantrell
48. Endtroducing...... - DJ Shadow
49. A Ghost Is Born - Wilco
50. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood - Neko Case
51. The Forgotten Arm - Aimee Mann [*]
52. Born Sandy Devotional - The Triffids
53. So Tough - Saint Etienne
54. f#a#∞ - Godspeed You Black Emperor!
55. Murmur - R.E.M.
56. Not The Tremblin' Kind - Laura Cantrell
57. Children Running Through - Patty Griffin
58. to venus and back - Tori Amos [studio disc only]
59. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea - PJ Harvey
60. After The Gold Rush - Neil Young
61. Soul Journey - Gillian Welch
62. Five Leaves Left - Nick Drake
63. The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
64. Troubled By The Fire - Laura Veirs
65. King - Belly
66. Star - Belly
67. The Meadowlands - The Wrens
68. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
69. I'm With Stupid - Aimee Mann
70. Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
71. Third - Portishead
72. You Are Free - Cat Power
73. Amnesiac - Radiohead
74. Pretty Little Head - Nellie McKay [*]
75. Automatic For The People - R.E.M.
76. The New Romance - Pretty Girls Make Graves
77. Good Humor - Saint Etienne [*] [**]
78. Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
79. Heaven Or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
80. Kill The Moonlight - Spoon
81. Transformer - Lou Reed
82. Miss America - Mary Margaret O'Hara
83. Central Reservation - Beth Orton
84. She Hangs Brightly - Mazzy Star
85. Dummy - Portishead
86. Being There - Wilco
87. The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
88. Remain In Light - Talking Heads
89. Vespertine - Bjork
90. Our Time In Eden - 10,000 Maniacs
91. #1 Record - Big Star
92. Tiger Bay - Saint Etienne
93. Everything Must Go - Manic Street Preachers
94. Disintegration - The Cure
95. The Last Beautiful Day - New Buffalo
96. In Rainbows - Radiohead
97. Alligator - The National
98. Mezzanine - Massive Attack
99. Pod - The Breeders
100. Make Me Hard - Tujiko Noriko
# 3: Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
... an album that for me stands alone as the finest exercise in sheer, bloody-minded brilliance ever committed to record. With its impeccably-produced, layered, hallucinogenic swathes of sound, blissed-out melodies and dreamily mumbled vocals, Loveless not only defined shoegazer and dream-pop, but also established a new standard for all guitar music which came after it. This really is the one, listened to loud or soft (but preferably loud), happy or sad, by day or by night, in company or, of course, alone. It is sheerest genius ... - 5/8/03
# 2: OK Computer - Radiohead
... the single album that most captured the spirit of the pre-millennial Zeitgeist – self-aware, cynical, almost resigned, and yet spine-chillingly grandiose and oh-so-faintly hopeful (ifeelmyluckcouldchange); spacey, melodic, progressive, and undeniably great, it struck a chord with depressed, tired_nhappy indie kids everywhere and remains popular guitar music’s closest approach to perfection yet ... - 5/8/03
# 1: Bachelor No 2, or The Last Remains of the Dodo - Aimee Mann
Wreathed in the forms and moves of classic singer-songwriter pop but with a distinctly modern voice, this album speaks directly to me, engaging my intellect, emotions and imagination all at once. It's simply the sharpest, clearest, truest record I've ever heard.
Anyway, that means that the full list (subject to the above qualifications) would have gone like this:
1. Bachelor No 2, or The Last Remains of the Dodo - Aimee Mann
2. OK Computer - Radiohead
3. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
4. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico
5. New Adventures In Hi-Fi - R.E.M.
6. Homogenic - Bjork
7. Moon Pix - Cat Power
8. Summerteeth - Wilco
9. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
10. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian
11. Blacklisted - Neko Case
12. Low - David Bowie
13. Isn't Anything - My Bloody Valentine
14. The Bends - Radiohead
15. Closer - Joy Division
16. Boxer - The National
17. Blue Bell Knoll - Cocteau Twins
18. Treasure - Cocteau Twins
19. On The Beach - Neil Young
20. The Boy With The Arab Strap - Belle and Sebastian
21. Reading, Writing & Arithmetic - The Sundays
22. Kid A - Radiohead
23. Tigermilk - Belle and Sebastian
24. Psychocandy - The Jesus and Mary Chain
25. On Fire - Galaxie 500
26. Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division
27. Doolittle - Pixies
28. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
29. Post - Bjork
30. Marquee Moon - Television
31. Funeral - Arcade Fire
32. Essence - Lucinda Williams
33. The Execution Of All Things - Rilo Kiley
34. Hail To The Thief - Radiohead
35. So Tonight That I Might See - Mazzy Star
36. Radio City - Big Star
37. Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk - Jeff Buckley
38. The Real Ramona - Throwing Muses
39. Reckoning - R.E.M.
40. GP - Gram Parsons
41. Pearl - Janis Joplin
42. The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
43. Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol
44. Deserter's Songs - Mercury Rev
45. Time (The Revelator) - Gillian Welch
46. 69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
47. Humming By The Flowered Vine - Laura Cantrell
48. Endtroducing...... - DJ Shadow
49. A Ghost Is Born - Wilco
50. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood - Neko Case
51. The Forgotten Arm - Aimee Mann [*]
52. Born Sandy Devotional - The Triffids
53. So Tough - Saint Etienne
54. f#a#∞ - Godspeed You Black Emperor!
55. Murmur - R.E.M.
56. Not The Tremblin' Kind - Laura Cantrell
57. Children Running Through - Patty Griffin
58. to venus and back - Tori Amos [studio disc only]
59. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea - PJ Harvey
60. After The Gold Rush - Neil Young
61. Soul Journey - Gillian Welch
62. Five Leaves Left - Nick Drake
63. The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
64. Troubled By The Fire - Laura Veirs
65. King - Belly
66. Star - Belly
67. The Meadowlands - The Wrens
68. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
69. I'm With Stupid - Aimee Mann
70. Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
71. Third - Portishead
72. You Are Free - Cat Power
73. Amnesiac - Radiohead
74. Pretty Little Head - Nellie McKay [*]
75. Automatic For The People - R.E.M.
76. The New Romance - Pretty Girls Make Graves
77. Good Humor - Saint Etienne [*] [**]
78. Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
79. Heaven Or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
80. Kill The Moonlight - Spoon
81. Transformer - Lou Reed
82. Miss America - Mary Margaret O'Hara
83. Central Reservation - Beth Orton
84. She Hangs Brightly - Mazzy Star
85. Dummy - Portishead
86. Being There - Wilco
87. The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
88. Remain In Light - Talking Heads
89. Vespertine - Bjork
90. Our Time In Eden - 10,000 Maniacs
91. #1 Record - Big Star
92. Tiger Bay - Saint Etienne
93. Everything Must Go - Manic Street Preachers
94. Disintegration - The Cure
95. The Last Beautiful Day - New Buffalo
96. In Rainbows - Radiohead
97. Alligator - The National
98. Mezzanine - Massive Attack
99. Pod - The Breeders
100. Make Me Hard - Tujiko Noriko
