“Ray, Robbie, and John did Doors stuff post-Jim?” Yep, and this one’s really good!
Category: Best 1,000 Albums Ever
Southern Culture on the Skids – Dirt Track Date: #834 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Loose, fun, and fresh sounds from SCotS… down at the dirt track.
Britney Spears – Blackout: #835 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Britney at her darkest, sleekest, pulsing synth-est best. Best-est?
Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure: #836 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Shmaltzy, glammy, proto-punk? Yeah, this is one unique album.
Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis: #838 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A sweet talkin’ – not to mention singin’ – pop-soul gem.
The Mike Flowers Pops – A Groovy Place: #839 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Groovy and swinging (and clever and funny).
The Streets – Everything Is Borrowed: #840 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Mike Skinner lets the sun in.
Arctic Monkeys – AM: #841 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I’ll call it up when I’m… in any number of states.
Mitski – Be the Cowboy: #842 of best 1,000 albums ever!
What’s difficult to define and describe becomes essential to why I’m drawn to it.
The Meters – Look-Ka Py Py: #843 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Get down with the funky miracle.
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Catch A Fire: #844 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Whether it’s high tide or low ebb, this is classic reggae.
Ween – 12 Golden Country Greats: #845 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Plays as great comedic alt country or country rock material or simply flat out great alt country or country rock music, period. Well, except for…
Nina Simone – Wild is the Wind: #846 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Striking, powerful, and evocative vocals mapped against a wild variety of musical styles.
Gang of Four – Entertainment!: #847 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Are you not entertained? Well, you will be by this classic post-punk album, yes, thanks for asking.
Cracker – Kerosene Hat: #848 of best 1,000 albums ever!
They keep it low, they keep it hot, they keep heads covered.
Led Zeppelin – Coda: #849 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Just because it’s the end, there’s still plenty of reasons to get the led out.
U2 – Boy: #850 of best 1,000 albums ever!
The first U2 album sounds as fresh and energetic and urgent as ever.
Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan: #852 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Take a freewheelin’ classic folk rock ride with a young artist named Bob Dylan, early ‘60s style.
Audioslave – Out of Exile: #853 of best 1,000 albums ever!
The supergroup comprised of Rage Against the Machine (minus Zach de la Rocha) and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell finds their cohesive sound.
The Saints – (I’m) Stranded: #854 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Legit punk rock circa 1977 from Down Under.
Reel Big Fish – Cheer Up!: #855 of best 1,000 albums ever!
RBF can rock you with their specialty of snarked up ska punk, but it’s the more mature power pop material that really stands out here.
Television – Marquee Moon: #856 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Post-punk, new wave, intellectual guitar rock? Any which way, it’s all good.
Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle: #857 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Wherein I find my appetite for this slice of space blues.
The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ryde II The Pharcyde: #858 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Chill, quirky hip hop that is absolutely unique (and uniquely good).
Scorpions – Love At First Sting: #859 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Well-crafted hair metal. You might say it’ll rock you like… a powerful force of nature.
Liam Lynch – Fake Songs: #860 of best 1,000 albums ever!
More than a one-hit wonder album? Whatever.
Lenny Kravitz – 5: #861 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Kravitz doing funk rock and hippie rock for the ‘90s pushes 5 into my top 1,000.
Kirsty MacColl – Kite: #862 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Pop gems from a UK-based singer-songwriter with a flat-out gorgeous voice.
Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution – A Call to Arms: #863 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A short and incredible acoustic ska punk album.
Various Artists – Luaka Bop 10th Anniversary: Zero Accidents on the Job: #864 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Legit excellent world music, alt rock, funk, and pop from an eclectic group of bands and musicians.
The Chemical Brothers – Surrender: #865 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Accessible electronic music with great hooks and the dance vibe to match.
Various Artists – Thunderbirds Are Go – TV Themes for Grown Up Kids: #866 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Bombastic, retro futuristic theme songs of glory. And fun!
Chuck D – Autobiography of Mistachuck: #867 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Incredible underground hip hop with laid back jazz, funk, and r&b influences, fronted by one of the best MCs in hip hop history.
The Lemonheads – It’s A Shame About Ray: #868 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Do you want this album to seduce you? That’d be a yes.
Grateful Dead – Workingman’s Dead: #869 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Don’t call this a jam band… album.
Survivor – Eye of the Tiger: #870 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Curl up your smile and take your time, take your chances.
The Pogues: If I Should Fall from Grace with God – #871 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Meshes traditional Irish sounds with a propulsive punk sensibility. In short, a bottle of smoke.
Mad Season – Above: #872 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A supergroup with real chemistry. An album that’s deeply affecting and melancholy and cool.
Strawberry Alarm Clock – Incense and Peppermints: #873 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A kaleidoscopic spectacle of psychedelic hippie rock.
Bitter:Sweet – The Mating Game: #874 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Orchestral strings, hip hop beats, and gorgeous lounge vocals that always keeps it moving while keeping it chill.
NOFX – Ribbed: #875 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Insanely energetic punk rock with surprisingly agile music dynamics. But also, you know, fun.
Icona Pop – This Is… Icona Pop: #876 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Loud, brash, insanely catchy, and fun as hell. What’s not to like?
Blink-182 – Enema of the State: #877 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A great balance of pop and punky alt rock.
Ben L’Oncle Soul – Ben L’Oncle Soul: #878 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A seven nation army shouldn’t hold you back from checking out this retro soul gem.
Neil Young – On the Beach: #879 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Contemplative and quiet at times, bluesy and rocked up at others, and through and through a great Neil Young album.
Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt: #880 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Jay-Z’s debut album has a great blend of rawness and tremendous vitality and energy.
Laura Nyro – Eli and the Thirteenth Confession: #881 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A bombshell of a singer songwriter album from 1968.
Zero 7 – Simple Things: #883 of best 1,000 albums ever
An enveloping, elegant vibe that quite simply brings true musical pleasures.
Kanye West – 808s and Heartbreak: #884 of best 1,000 albums ever!
It’s complicated… but with this Kanye album, something broke through for me.
The Beta Band – Hot Shots II: #885 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Conjures hyper specific sound collages and creates songs that immediately feel essential.
The Flying Burrito Brothers – The Gilded Palace of Sin: #886 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A crucial late ‘60s rock and country album that would influence much of what was coming in the ‘70s. And, bonus: a great listen all the way through.
The Power Station – The Power Station: #887 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Robert Palmer and members of Duran Duran and Chic combo for some super group action, 1980s style.
Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen: #888 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Melancholy and hauntingly beautiful, with lyrics that are strikingly original and poetic.
Thunderball – Scorpio Rising: #889 of best 1,000 albums ever!
An incredible soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist.
Pulp – His ‘n’ Hers: #890 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Britpop that’s deeply soaked in 1970s and 1980s influences spanning post-punk to glam rock to synth pop to dance music.
Lucinda Williams – Lucinda Williams: #891 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Whether this is country or rock or blues or whatever, it’ll make you say, “Hell yeah.”
Roy Orbison – The Essential Roy Orbison: #892 of best 1,000 albums ever!
An iconic voice and tremendous career packaged into a massive double album.
Berlin – Pleasure Victim: #893 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Slinky, mysterious, and sexy synth pop that’s very early ‘80s in the best way.
Mudhoney – Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles: #894 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A freight train of pioneering grungy punk rock energy.
The Beach Boys – The Beach Boys Today! #895 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Brian Wilson and the Boys get into more mature, interesting, and nuanced territory versus the early hits.
The Offspring – Americana: #896 of best 1,000 albums ever!
I can think of, say, uno dos tres quatro cinco cinco seis reasons…
Four Tops – Reach Out: #897 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Reach out for some fantastic old school Motown soul.
Judas Priest – British Steel: #898 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Not including it would be akin to, say… breaking the law, for example?
Crosby, Stills & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash: #899 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Master craftsmen at the art of the harmony and a soft rock-meets-folk rock vibe that would dominate the 1970s.
Sinéad O’Connor – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got: #900 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Sure, it’s the “Nothing Compares 2 You” album, but there’s a range of Celtic-influenced rock and gorgeous pure pop to enjoy besides.
Little Simz – GREY Area: #901 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Fresh and compelling and original and, above all, good hip hop out of England.
Q-Tip – The Renaissance: #902 of best 1,000 albums ever!
The best solo album by the great Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest (and many collaborations) fame.
The O.C. Supertones – Supertones Strikes Back: #903 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A powerhouse of a ska punk album that just happens to layer in… well, you’ll see.
The Murder City Devils – In Name and Blood: #904 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Spooky cool carnivalesque organ against Misfits-ish dirty, fast-paced hardcore punk? Uh, yes please.
Mott the Hoople – All the Young Dudes: #905 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Rock ‘n roll meets proto-punk meets David Bowie-inspired early ‘70s glam rock. And chocolate and peanut butter (somehow?).
DJ Shadow – The Mountain Will Fall: #906 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Come for the collabs, stay for the DJ mastery.
Cake – Comfort Eagle: #907 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Equal parts fun, good, and ironic.
Roc Marciano – RR2: The Bitter Dose: #908 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Slow-paced, almost hypnotic hip hop prowess.
Louis Armstrong and King Oliver – Louis Armstrong and King Oliver: #909 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Old timey New Orleans jazz performed by true masters including a then young Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, and Jelly Roll Morton.
The Human League – Dare!: #910 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Don’t you want me to tell you? Read on.
Indigo Girls – Indigo Girls: #911 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Folk rock that bridges the gap from the 1960s for the Lilith Fair generation.
Ursula 1000 – The Now Sound of Ursula 1000: #912 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Hip length and hip swinging breakbeats and super stylish swinging samples.
The J. Geils Band – Freeze Frame: #913 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A delicious hamburger of fun early ‘80s rock ‘n roll.
Main Source – Breaking Atoms: #914 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Old school, east coast hip hop flavor with horn riffs and soul music samples for days.
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver: #915 of best 1,000 albums ever!
It’s rangy and genre bend-y. It’s electronic and lounge-y and rock and dance-y and then it’s an ethereal kind of something else.
White Zombie – La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume 1: #916 of best 1,000 albums ever!
An undeniable hurricane of thrashy, trashy, dirty, funky metal that gets under your skin like very few albums can.
Bitter:Sweet – Drama: #917 of best 1,000 albums ever!
For when you’re ready to feel relaxed and swanky at the same time.
The Scofflaws – Live!, Vol. 1: #918 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A fun ska band with real musical chops that’s at its most fun-est best live.
Enya – Watermark: #919 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Celtic and new age-y, at turns gentle and pleasant or moving and beautiful.
The Jam – Sound Affects: #920 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Driving energy and pop hooks that helps to carry the initial British punk music wave forward.
Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine: #921 of best 1,000 albums ever!
You’d have to have a head like a hole not to.
Ratatat – Classics: #922 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Electronic lounge journeys, dark and synth-y at times, with great energy, pulse, and beats.
King Changó – The Return of El Santo: #923 of best 1,000 albums ever!
“Latin ska” is only the beginning: it’s an exuberant and energy-packed record that also incorporates hip hop, punk, hard rock, dub, and trip hop.
The Chocolate Watchband – Inner Mystique: #924 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Any band with a name that has a food word in front of a time telling device-related word has a huge shot of making this list.
The Suicide Machines – Revolution Spring: #925 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Upbeat ska and punk, expertly mixed with great hooks and strong musicianship overall.
Infectious Grooves – Mas Borracho: #926 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Shot out of a canon, hard funked up metal and other party-influenced sounds. And that’s for starters.
Dick Dale and His Del-Tones – Greatest Hits 1961-1976: #927 of best 1,000 albums ever!
The energy of punk music, the feeling of up tempo ska, but its very much its own thing that really does evoke the breakneck freedom, surfing waves, conquering some uncharted territory.
Europe – The Final Countdown: #928 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Do I need to finally say it? Do I need to count it down?
Method Man – 4:21… The Day After: #929 of best 1,000 albums ever!
High highs, consistently stellar production work, and A Game from our man. That being the M-E-T-H-O-D man.
The Dead Weather – Dodge and Burn: #930 of best 1,000 albums ever!
It gets under your skin, holding a dark, rocking, and compelling power.
Death – …For the Whole World to See: #931 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A great big blast of proto-punk angst and passion and loud crashing guitars.
Redman – Muddy Waters: #932 of best 1,000 albums ever!
Rap music for getting one’s head up.
Living Colour – Collideoscope: #933 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A lesser work of one of great hard rock bands still easily makes this here list.
Count Basie – The Atomic Mr. Basie: #934 of best 1,000 albums ever!
When I think about what I want out of lively, jumping jazz from the 1950s, this album answers the call.
Various Artists – Wanna Buy A Bridge? #935 of best 1,000 albums ever!
A stunning collection of post-punk (but mostly leaning into the punk side, and thankfully so) artists out of the UK.