Best Albums

This is a list of the best albums I have encountered (so far) with links to their respective reviews. Full length studio albums only, no live performances unless recorded as an album or released as new compositions, EPs, compilations, mixes or soundtracks, etc.

Albums are sorted by a combination of track averages, album flow and personal preference. These rankings are purely reflective of my personal listening experience, enjoyment and intellectual response with no claim of objectivity, considering art as subject.

  1. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)
  2. The Stooges - Fun House (1970)
  3. FLUX Quartet - Feldman Edition 6: String Quartet No. 2 (2002), 9/10
  4. Tim Buckley - Starsailor (1970)
  5. Anthony Braxton - Five Pieces 1975 (1975)
  6. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica (2011)
  7. John Coltrane - Sun Ship (1971)
  8. Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (1984)
  9. Death - Human (1991)
  10. Eddie Palmieri - Unfinished Masterpiece (1975)
  11. Albert Ayler Trio - Spiritual Unity (1965)
  12. Wipers - Youth of America (1981)
  13. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)
  14. Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970)
  15. Anthony Braxton - New York, Fall 1974 (1975)
  16. The Peter Brötzmann Octet - Machine Gun (1968)
  17. The Residents - Meet the Residents (1974)
  18. The Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (1990)
  19. The Smiths - The Smiths (1984)
  20. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (1973)
  21. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby (1970)
  22. Elliott Smith - Roman Candle (1994)
  23. People Under the Stairs - O.S.T. (2002)
  24. Pere Ubu - Dub Housing (1978)
  25. Sun-Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Atlantis (1969)
  26. Tim Buckley - Lorca (1970)
  27. Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
  28. The Stooges - Raw Power (1973)
  29. Groundhogs - Split (1971)
  30. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (1969)
  31. Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age (1998)
  32. Iannis Xenakis - Persepolis (1972), 8/10
  33. Charles Gayle - Repent (1992), 8/10
  34. Frank Sinatra - Where Are You? (1957)
  35. Roland Kayn - Tektra (1984)
  36. R.E.M. - Murmur (1983)
  37. John Coltrane - Ascension (1965)
  38. SPK - Leichenschrei (1982)
  39. Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)
  40. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)
  41. Eric Dolphy - Iron Man (1968)
  42. Red House Painters - Down Colorful Hill (1992)
  43. The Fall - Grotesque: After the Gramme (1980)
  44. Anthony Braxton - Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989 (1990)
  45. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (1968)
  46. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
  47. David Holland Quartet - Conference of the Birds (1973)
  48. Morton Feldman - Routine Investigations etc. (1994)
  49. Richard Abrams - Levels and Degrees of Light (1968)
  50. Two Inch Astronaut - Bad Brother (2013)
  51. Tom Prehn Kvartet - Tom Prehns Kvartet (1967)
  52. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)
  53. Wipers - Over the Edge (1983)
  54. John Coltrane - Giant Steps (1960)
  55. Nirvana - In utero (1993)
  56. Nick Drake - Pink Moon (1972)
  57. The Frank Wright Quartet - Your Prayer (1967)
  58. Bob James Trio - Explosions (1965)
  59. The Zbigniew Namysłowski Quintet - Winobranie (1973)
  60. Andrew Hill - Compulsion (1965)
  61. Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra - When Sun Comes Out (1963)
  62. Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band - Doc at the Radar Station (1980)
  63. The Beatles - The Beatles (1968)
  64. Butthole Surfers - Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac (1984)
  65. Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (1964)
  66. The Keith Tippett Group - Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening (1971)
  67. Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982)
  68. Two Inch Astronaut - Foulbrood (2014)
  69. Tim Berne - Fractured Fairy Tales (1989)
  70. B12 - Electro-Soma (1993)
  71. Joy Division - Closer (1980)
  72. Yes - Close to the Edge (1972)
  73. The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus (1977)
  74. Radiohead - Amnesiac (2001)
  75. Nico - The Marble Index (1968)
  76. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)
  77. Giuseppi Logan - The Giuseppi Logan Quartet (1965)
  78. Gang of Four - Entertainment! (1979)
  79. Thelonious Monk - Solo Monk (1965)
  80. A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders (1993)
  81. Suicide - Suicide (1977)
  82. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1970)
  83. Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (1996)
  84. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats (1969)
  85. Henry Grimes Trio - The Call (1966)
  86. Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance (1978)
  87. The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet - Free Jazz (1961)
  88. Ernest Bloch / Kocian Quartet / Ivan Klánský - The Two Piano Quintets (2003)
  89. Wipers - Is This Real? (1980)
  90. Black Country, New Road - For the First Time (2021)
  91. Failure - Fantastic Planet (1996)
  92. Sambrasa Trio - Em som maior (1965)
  93. Besombes-Rizet - Pôle (1975)
  94. Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (1957)
  95. YMO - BGM (1981)
  96. Manfred Schoof Sextett - Manfred Schoof Sextett (1967)
  97. Arditti String Quartet - Sreichquartett Op. 3; Lyrische Suite (1994)
  98. Michio Miyagi - 宮城道雄名曲選集 (Masterpieces of Koto) (1956)
  99. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (1973)
  100. Joe Jackson - Look Sharp! (1979)