this is a very controversial topic for a lot of people, so i thought i'd try my hand at it. these are all records i violently love and listen to obsessively. of course, this list changes essentially every two weeks, but this should give you an idea of my musical tastes up to this point. please remember: this is not my list of the best albums of all time, this is my list of my favorite albums of all time (yes, that is a HUGE distinction). also, i didn't put any of these albums on here to look intelligent or seem like i'm better than you or anything like that. these are all on here because i absolutely love them. finally, since 20 isn't that large of a number, i'm also going to add commentary as to why i like each album, and add my favorite track.
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20. Kid A/Radiohead
i've had some special memories with this record. the first time i listened to it, i absolutely hated it. i had just devoured OK Computer (#6) and The Bends, and i was looking for another Radiohead album. but this completely defied my expectations, and i was furious. so i swore i'd never listen to it again. and then, three days later, i thought i'd give it another go, and it wasn't so bad this time, but i still didn't necessarily like it. and then, out of nowhere, on the third listen, i fell in love. i don't think it's the best album of the 2000s (like a lot of people have talked it up to be), or even the most important, but it's a damn good one nonetheless.
(favorite track: "Idioteque")
19. Discovery/Daft Punk
my dance-party record of choice. it's packed to the brims with good songs for dancing, driving, and just chilling.
(favorite track: "Crescendolls")
18. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy/Kanye West
this is the album that got me into hip-hop (took me long enough haha). it was a weird-ass entry point, i'll grant you that. i didn't know much about mainstream rap, or hip-hop in general for that matter. but the tales of excess, the overblown production, and the raw emotion drew me right in. in retrospect, it doesn't at all cater to hip-hop genre lines, but that's part of its charm. and you have to admit, "POWER" is the new sport chant of the past ten years ("Seven Nation Army," it was fun, but it's time to move on).
(favorite track: "Monster")
17. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends/Coldplay
this is about as poppy as i like to go, but i unashamedly love it. it's a lot of fun, and the lesser-known tracks on this one ("Yes," "Strawberry Swing," "Cemeteries of London") are among Coldplay's best. plus, my mom really likes this one, so that's fun.
(favorite track: "Strawberry Swing")
16. good kid, m.A.A.d city/Kendrick Lamar
my favorite thing about this album is how it's a really intricate story, but you can enjoy all the songs on their own as well. (that's not true of a lot of "rock opera" or "story" albums.) and it's a fantastically told story as well. from a technical standpoint, Kendrick is an incredible rapper, and he picked some great beats this time around. this one's still pretty new, but it's a future classic.
(favorite track: "Money Trees (feat. Jay Rock)"
15. Music Has the Right to Children/Boards of Canada
Geogaddi, The Campfire Headphase, and Tomorrow's Harvest easily could've taken this same spot, but i picked this one because of its ambiguity. instead of highlighting a specific mood or undertone like those other three, BOC went through them all, putting nostalgia and contentment alongside restlessness and unease. it's a great introduction to their sound, and it's perfect for listening at 3 AM.
(favorite track: "Turquoise Hexagon Sun")
14. Untrue/Burial
one of the darkest and deepest records in my catalog. by turns deeply ambient, crushingly depressing, and quietly triumphant, it's a great record for rainy days.
(favorite track: "Ghost Hardware")
13. The Ecstatic/Mos Def
a lot of my hip-hop-head friends get pissed whenever i mention this album. and they're right about one thing: it certainly isn't the traditionalist hip-hop Mos perfected on Black on Both Sides. but, once you look past that, it's a damn fine record. the beats are like a journey through music from all around the world, and Mos Def is at his most astral and weird here. this was another highly influential record for my entrance into hip-hop, and its unconventional songwriting and varied sound drew me in.
(favorite track: "Casa Bey")
12. channel ORANGE/Frank Ocean
another new record that should certainly earn classic status. i knew of Frank Ocean through his mixtape nostalgia, ultra, but his album blew me away. every song flirts with conventional R&B while pointing to the future. he's got a fantastic voice, as well.
(favorite track: "Lost")
11. Blue Chips/Action Bronson (prod. Party Supplies)
all of Action Bronson's work is very good, but this mixtape is my favorite of his. the tape is this crazy, messy, overblown, fucking awesome piece of work. it's a weed-and-prosciutto-fueled hip-hop adventure with dynamite guest appearances, Bronson's illest verses, and banger after banger after banger. it's like dim sum or tapas, but with badass underground hip-hop. so damn cool.
(favorite track: "Pouches of Tuna (feat. Roc Marciano)"
10. Illmatic/Nas
very likely the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and one of my favorites. it's a textbook example of the best that hip-hop has to offer. the beats are classics (an instrumental version of this album alone would still be fantastic), the verses are dynamite (and there's only one guest verse!), and it's a quick-and-easy listen (take note, modern rappers). this deserves every bit of the critical acclaim it's received.
(favorite track: "One Love")
9. Donuts/J Dilla
this album is an odyssey through soul-based hip-hop. there's a whole mythos behind it (dilla made it as he was dying), but it remains just as fresh as it was when i first heard it, and in a lot of ways i'm still trying to wrap my head around it. it's an amazing journey when you listen to it all the way through, but the individual pieces are just as excellent and meticulously crafted. this thing is almost like the instrumental bible for me. other rappers can attempt to remix it, that's their call. but for me, Donuts is perhaps the only instrumental hip-hop album that i can just put on and listen to all the way through without uttering a word. somehow, it feels right just to shut up and listen to the master work.
(favorite track: "Two Can Win" - but, really, the whole thing straight through)
8. Madvillainy/Madvillain
both members of Madvillain are in their absolute prime here: Madlib's comic-book-soul beats have never sounded better, and MF DOOM's dextrous, winding rhymes are at their most confusing and satisfying. i STILL can't figure out what some of it means sometimes. i'm almost scared for the sequel to this album, simply because this first one is so good. there are a lot of instrumental interludes that break up the record, but they're all good too. this is killer, inventive, goosebump-inducing underground hip-hop from front to back.
(favorite track: "ALL CAPS")
7. Past is Prologue/Tycho
Tycho's debut record. it's beautifully mellow and intricately arranged, and it exudes life from every pore. it reminds me of driving at night with my best friends (this and Dive (#2) often soundtracked our night drives). in addition, it's a very unassuming album that works just as well in the background as it does under close scrutiny. this is an album i recommend for people who claim that electronic music is devoid of life or soul. it's essentially perfect, especially for late-night walks and introspective meditation.
(favorite track: "The Disconnect")
6. OK Computer/Radiohead
a modern-rock classic. this was my first step into truly alternative music. i'd taken steps into alternative rock with Pink Floyd albums like The Wall and The Dark Side of the Moon, but this sounded like nothing i'd ever heard before. just like Kid A (#20), this album bothered me to no end on the first listen. after the third listen or so, however, it was bliss. i'll never forget the first time i listened to the record all the way through. i hit the play button, walked back to the couch as "Airbag" started, and didn't get up until the final triangle of "The Tourist" rang through my cold, cramped basement. it was absolutely perfect. it used to be my favorite album of all time, and even though i've discovered 5 more albums that i love even more, this one will always be my first true love.
(favorite track: "Subterranean Homesick Alien")
5. Cosmogramma/Flying Lotus
when i describe the genre of this album to my friends, the best i can come up with is chillelectrojazzhop. granted, it's a crazy word, but that's exactly what this one is. somewhere between the Dilla-infused trip-hop of Los Angeles and the meditative electronica of Until the Quiet Comes (both of which are great records), FlyLo made a challenging, slightly insane, and absolutely gorgeous record. just like many of my favorite albums, it can be listened to both in parts and as a whole. the progression between each genre (astral electronica to mellow jazz to barely-recognizable hip-hop) is fluid and natural, and even putting the intro as the fourth track seems to make sense. it's very tough to wrap your head around, but it's well worth the wait.
(favorite track: "Satelllliiiiiteee")
4. Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star/Black Star
my favorite (traditional) hip-hop album of all time. Mos and Kweli are the perfect duo, and (in my opinion) they're at their absolute best here. many of the lyrics are very positive and uplifting, and contain vivid imagery and delightful wordplay. the two masters of dropping knowledge dispense a great deal of wisdom on these fantastic tracks. this one's influence is often overlooked, but it's a masterful work of hip-hop that shouldn't be slept on.
(favorite track: "Astronomy (8th Light)"
3. The College Dropout/Kanye West
one day, after listening to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (#18), i wondered what else Kanye West had to offer. i figured i'd start at the beginning and go from there. so i clicked on the first official track of The College Dropout, "We Don't Care." five seconds later, i was out of my seat dancing along. Kanye sounded different in all the right ways: less jaded, (slightly) humbler, more soulful and cheeky. and the BEATS! every beat was infectiously soulful and head-nodding, and the lyrics were simple but impeccably delivered. true, the album is completely overblown, and some aspects of it (Jay-Z's great but ill-fitting guest verses on "Never Let Me Down," all the skits, the final eight-odd minutes of "Last Call") border on ridiculous. but Kanye never put a more representative, all-encompassing portrait of himself on record than he did here. it's goofy, it's too much, it's fucking awesome.
(favorite track: "We Don't Care")
2. Dive/Tycho
this album holds so many memories for me. it reminds me of staying out past 4 AM with my best friends in the summer, driving way too fast with the windows down, feeling incredibly alive. it's wistful, nostalgic, meditative, triumphant, and achingly beautiful. the whole record is warm and expansive, echoing nature and wildlife throughout. the blend of acoustic and electronic instruments is seamless. it makes me feel incredibly happy.
(favorite track: "Hours")
1. In Rainbows/Radiohead
i honestly don't know where to start. this also holds a lot of memories for me, but different kinds: i learned to play all of this album on both guitar and piano. i formed a band with my best friend, and we played the album all the way through. this album is my favorite for so many reasons. it speaks to my rock roots while looking to the future. the album is immaculately recorded and arranged, sounding spacious and warm beyond belief. it's a prime example of the Gestalt principle: every song is nearly flawless on its own, but somehow the album as a whole is even better. it's an epic album like OK Computer (#6) or Kid A (#20), but it doesn't try to be as life-changing or ambitious as those albums, and somehow ends up reaching even greater heights. i've listened to it at least a hundred times all the way through (seriously), and i'm STILL discovering new sounds buried in the mix like hidden treasures. the bonus edition of the album is a great edition that actually complements the album; instead of feeling tacked-on, it throws the ten main tracks into sharper relief. simply put, In Rainbows is absolutely, immaculately perfect. and it is far and away my favorite album of all time.
(favorite track: all of them. i legitimately cannot pick a favorite)
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well, that's my list. disagree? fuck you. but tell me what your favorites are and we can bicker (or geek out about music, whichever you like). but these are my all-time favorite albums right now. if you haven't listened to some (or, God help you, any) of these, i strongly encourage you to check them out. you won't regret it.
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