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[20] Low - Things We Lost in the Fire
This will probably switch around by the end of the week, but right now this is 1b so to speak. "Things We Lost in the Fire" is a ridiculous display of patience and talent from Low. "Sunflower" is such a beautiful, yet dark song, and it sets the mood well.
[19] Low - Drums and Guns
Last year's Album of the year, this has continued to grow on me. It's just a huge broodfest that I can't hep but adore. "Take your Tme" is a spine tingling affair. Even the track I once considered weak, 'Hatchet" has grown on me.
[18] Brian Eno - Apollo
Best ambient album ever, bar none. Brian Eno shows why he's the best as what he does right here.
[17] Radiohead - OK Computer
The first Radiohead album mentioned! It was an incredible transitional album for the band, and from start to finish, it's a classic. Sure, it has the worst closing track of all Radiohead albums but Pablo Honey, but that's hardly a negative. I mean, consider the other closing tracks and "The Tourist" was in a truly unfair and unenviable position. It would have been cliche to put "Exit music" at the end, but holy crap it would have been rocking. Probably wouldn't have fit the album's theme as well thoughand the tracking would have been a little more off the map. So I can't argue where the chips fell. Whatever. Incredible album.
[16] Matthew Good Band - The Audio of Being
The album that I once considered their weakest, is head and shoulders better than the album I once believed to be their best. Where "beautiful Midnight" had tracks that stood out and had abrupt mixing, this album is much more streamlined and intelligently mixed. Everything is in its right place so to speak.
[15] Tom Waits - Closing Time
Widely overlooked in favour of his grittier stuff, this album of classics should never be ignored, ever. It has a folk-y, country-ish feel to a bunch of it, but the album is incredibly sentimental and personal. The stories told are so....i can't even explain this. Go listen to "Martha", "Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)", "Lonely", and the unforgettable soothing jazz closer of "Closing Time". If Martha doesn't stir something in your heart, you're not human.
[14] Brian Eno - Another Green World
Is there a more cheesy pop song than "I'll Come Running"? I don't really think so...at least ones that are good, that is. What an album. From "St. Elmo's Fire" to the impeccable "Golden Hours", to the eerie "The Big Ship", to the psychadelic "Sombre Reptiles" it's a journey that you'll want to take over and over and over and....
[13] The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Is anyone shocked at how high this went? Thought not. It's one of those special albums that comes around once or twice a decade. "Wake Up" is probably the theme song of the last 10 years in North America.
[12] Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Jeff Mangum and the boys really made something special with this. If by some odd chance you've never heard it, you really should. Some of the most interesting songwriting and lyrics to be had. Some of the best, honest music you'll find anywhere.
[11] Brian Wilson - "Smile"
Better than Pet Sounds. Word on the street is that Brian Wilson, upset with the label and a specific member of the band, broke the master tape of the completed original "Smile" and tossed it into the garbage. I was so glad to hear he was making the album, but I braced myself to hear an aged, patchwork album I felt was coming. I was braced foolishly, this is a pop masterpiece. The production is probably the best I've heard, ever. Ever. The songs are gorgeous. It may still not be as good as the original probably was, but if this was released a few weeks prior to Sgt. pepper as was planned, and as could have happened, it would have blown that out of the water. Imagine if Brian Wilson had the supporting cast of the Beatles. The legendary producer on his team. The cast of talented musicians and writers in the Beatles.......as much as I love the Beach Boys, it was the Brian Wilson show with help of the vocal harmonics from the other guys.
[10] David Bowie - Low
The best of Bowie's "Berlin saga". Dark, dreary stuff. Yet at the same time it's downplayed to sound absolutely normal beside the poppy Bowie. Sure, it starts off well enough, with an absolutely fantastic instrumental bit that's really quite fun, but then it gets into the twitchy-twisted "Breaking Glass". "Sound and Vision" is pretty heavenly, and I once had an absolutely disturbing dream with this playing in the background where Bowie and the Snuffaluf-agus went dancing and prancing through one of the local parks where I live. It was incredibly trippy. But that's beside the point......
I know a lot of people whosay 'Weeping Wall" and "Crashing in the Same Car" make this album a c|assic. Personally, "Warszawa" and "Subterraneans" do it for me. They perfectly balance this album out, and where "Sound and Vision" sounded like a good day inside the wall, "Warszawa" is a terrible day, and "Subterraneans" is an all-encompassing outlook of life in the future for those inside. it's a reality check, and it's a lasting impression. We'll never see another album like this in our lifetime.
[09] Radiohead - The Bends
The Bends used to be my favourite Radiohead album. It had a lot of gusto, yet a lot of patient melodies throughout. I swear, I still pull out the old trusty air-guitar during "Planet Telex". 
Honestly, this album is one of the best alt.rock albums ever, if not THE best. From the angsty "Just" to the slowly building "My iron Lung", to the wistful "(Nice Dream)", to the morose(I think that's the word I want) "Fake Plastic Trees", to the heavy "Black Star", to straight rock 'Sulk", it's all like taking a platinum sh!t. One would assume it comes out smooth, and it rewards you with infinite value. Ok, maybe not the best example of thought(who'd put a platinum sh!t on a mantle, or go to sell a sh!t shaped platinum nugget? Honestly...).
Oh, and it has the best closing track ever. 
Ever. They'd better play it in August when I go see them.
[08] Explosions in the Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
It isn't. Don't believe me? Listen to the most beautiful instrumental composition I've ever heard, "Your Hand in Mine" and come back to me, if you're not already in pieces afterwards. Then, by all means, put yourself together by listening to "First Breath After a Coma". That'll get your heart-beat going again. Then, when it's just you and the stereo, you can listen to the joyful bliss of "The Only Moment We Were Alone". Then, take a night drive listening to "Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean".
Or hell, just listen to the album front to back so you can truly get a hold on how "Memorial" fits into the equation. You'll understand. When I heard EitS play live, it was like music had been reborn. Everything I thought music meant to me was so petty in comparison to what I was experiencing. They opened with "memorial" and throughout the entire concert, they played "First Breath..." and 'Your Hand in Mine". I swear, my heart stopped, and all the air left my lungs at appx the 4:40 mark of YHIM and I stayed that way until the note at 5:03. I thought these guys would be merely decent live. They're incredible. Just be close to the stage and the speakers, and just be. Just how you should be with this album.
[07] David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Hunky Dory is pop-rock perfection. Is there a better TOP SIX on any pop-rock album? I very much doubt it. I certainly haven't heard such a sequence that could oust this in that genre. "Changes" at 1, "Oh You Pretty Things" at 2, and "Life on mars?" at 4 is as potent a group of songs as you can get in such a saturated timeframe. "Fill Your heart" should by all means put a smile on your face. "Queen B!tch" is such a rocktacular masterpiece. This entire album is too good for its own good. Bowie outdid himself here.
[06] Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#oo
I know I could spell out infinity, or enter the infinity character using ASCII, but having oo looks totally rad. .......There, fine. F#A#∞. Happy?
One of the bleakest albums ever, and also a compositional masterpiece. There isn't much to say here. If you've heard it, you know it, and you know the scole of it. It's ridiculous, but it slaps me in the face with its blood filled wallet for thinking as much. I put it on the stereo, thinking these are truly the last days. And I fell into it, like a daydream, or a fever.
[05] Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Now for something completely different! Bet you didn't expect THIS! Seriously, it was the second prog album I got(the first being DSotM) and I fell in love with it. It's delightfully fun, and cinematic. Gabriel, Gilmour and the boys stretch their talents to the max with this album and it SHOWS. 'The Battle of Epping Forest' is probably what inspired the gang-fight in Anchorman, which was easily one of the only entertaining moments of the film(although it was GOLD...it along with the bear scene and the dog-punt to glass case of emotion...and sex panther). Even if it isn't, I'll swear it is because I was right with the Jethro Tull shout out.
Anyways, enough about a movie that pales in comparison to this fine specimen of an album. It's so...creatively encompasssing. It's so complete in sound. It's epic when it needs to be and intimate when it has to be. It's the perfect prog album.
[04] Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
The Boss' (and the E-Street boys) masterpiece. "Badlands" sings of hard working people with hard lives, with a slightly jubilant sound to it, even with the c|assist examining lyrics that shine a light on real life. So far so good. "Adam Raised a Cain" is about Springsteen's troubled childhood with probably the most intimate lyrics I've heard about that subject. Bruce is no rhodes scholar, but he's got life experience and this album spills all the dirt and empties the skeletons out of his closet. The third song, "Something in the Night" has one of the best build-ups in music history. It's one of the best songs I've ever heard. Top ten stuff. This album peaks here quality wise, for me, but because of the theme of the album, it really doesn't cast a shadow on the rest of the songs. That, is an excellent touch of production and mixing folks. "Candy's Room" is a rockier song with some interesting words tossed around. Good trashy love song. Then, the downbeat, nostalgic 'Racing in the Street', chronicling growing froma teen to an adult. That's half of the album. WHAT!?! Seriously, I could go on and on. "Streets of Fire", the 8th song is also one of the best songs ever, and builds into an absolute monster of downtrodden angst, honesty, regret and loss. With so few words too. It's like magic. Finally, the title track rolls in at the end, and it's another masterpiece that concludes the theme of maturation, loss, angst, hatred, love and hurt, and confronts it. It's like a look 10 years into the future after all that hell passed and Bruce has paid the price for "wanting what can oly be found in the darkness on the edge of town". It's so sincere and up front, and is a legendary closer.
So when people tell me Bruce is a loudmouthed, drunk, blind patriot...I have to force myself to not set them straight with a verbal rundown(beatdown) about how good Springsteen truly was. The scary thing is I haven't even made it through his discography yet. I haven't even heard 'Tunnel of Love' or any album released after that. I doubt he'll surpass this gem, but I don't expect him to. I understand this album was a personal burden taken off his chest/shoulders, and its a one time deal. It's heart and soul poured out here.
[03] Radiohead - Kid A
I don't know how to musically c|assify this. It's certainly not rock. I can say that much. It's so much more. This album is a personal favourite of mine, but it's also incredible musically. I'd hazard a guess that even if it wasn't nostalgic, I'd still enjoy it as much because it's just so good. It doesn't hurt it has the second best closing song of all time(by a shred, behind 'Street Spirit'). This album always seemed like a concept album, or at least it sounded like one. It's incredibly confused and panic stricken at times, and others simply brooding in its own self hatred. While "Amnesiac" helped give this album some contrast in how to approach it and understand it, it wasn't altogether necessary. This album is beautifully bleak and existential, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
[02] Explosions in the Sky - Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever
This was a tough decision. My thoughts about this album mirror those with 'The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place" so I won't type as much about this one, except to say that this is a separate view on the idea. It's a life and death look at things. "Greet Death" is a ridiculous opener. The sum, though is greater than the parts. I picked this album up in Toronto when I was in grade 10. It had awesome artwork, and I remember having a 30 second clip of Yasmin the Light on my PC which I enjoyed(for what its worth). I bought it for the $35 price tag, and thought I might have bought some bootleg because there was a piece of blue paper inside that seemed really amateurish and basically held the band's name on it. Luckily, once i got it open, I knew it was the real deal. I popped it into my CD player, leaned to my left in the bus, riding home from the art museum/school trip, and rested my head on the glass to wacth the sunset. Then BAM Greet Death hit me like a sack of skulls. Suddenly the world was dying outside. The darkness was encroaching on the light and by the time "Have You Passed Through This Night" was over, I was crippled in that bus. of course, the military-ish march after it was intimidatingly majestic. This album on this day was the strongest musical experience I've gotten from a CD, and it's still fresh in my memory after 6 years. Magical stuff.
[01] Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
As potent as the last 22 albums have been, this tops the list. I can't deny that this is the best group of songs I've heard on an album. I first heard it in my Grade 11 commtech c|ass the day after my teacher's husband accidentally left it on the table the night before when he came to visit(it was a late-night to get the first semester prep work done for the year-end video). Wow. When Singapore was over, my interest was 100% on the speakers jutting out of the wall. When "Clap hands" hit I was immediately moved to begin writing a freaking PLAY about this album. About Moldovan spice traders in the Baltic sea, and an amputee orphan's adventures with them. It was absolutely trip-tastic and gritty, and I'd like to think for the time it was pretty awesome, but I never got around to finishing it. Anyways, now that you know how awesome it immediately was, you can imagine that as the album went on, I had multiple revelations. Suddenly, I knew why iI didn't mind that ONE SINGLE "Rod Stewart song". I knew that my musical boundaries had once again been stretched to new lengths.
You have to hear this album to believe it. "Anywhere I Lay My Head" is gutwrenching. If ever you've had a wildly drunken friend confess to you about his relationship issues in such a way, this song will make much sense to you. if YOU'VE been the drunk love-sick, loveless dude, you'll definitely get hit by this. It's the most powerful song on the album, easy, and one of the most powerful ever. This album i, in my opinion, the greatest one ever made.
Hope you enjoyed the list
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