Top 15 Albums

These are albums that I would recommend to anyone. I will give them to you if you don't already have them. Please listen to them.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- In 1967, the greatest band in the history of rock released their greatest album. The rest is history. Since then the album Revolver has been pushed as usurper to that throne, but the cohesion and charm of Sgt. Pepper assures its placement on top. "You're such a lovely audience we'd like to take you home with us." This album makes me happy every time I put it on, but it's hardly fluff. Saturated in empathy, Sgt Pepper deals with life problems from all walks of life.

In Utero- The most harrowing forty minutes of your life, Nirvana's In Utero is the crystallization of alternative rock's abrasive experimentation and philosophy. Noise rock, grunge and early emotional hardcore had been developing methods for expressing alienation, pain and catharsis. The tools were there, it just took a band with the songwriting and technical talent of Nirvana to articulate them into a perfect statement. Cobain gave voice to directionlessness, paralysis and self-loathing, writing as he descended into depression and heroin addiction. It was written with the intention of shaking off the eager masses who had made Cobain into an icon and he largely succeeded. Nevertheless, four songs from the album hit the radio in force, and they happen to be Kurt Cobain's best four songs after Teen Spirit.

White Light/White Heat- This album sizzles with the intensity of the Velvet Underground's loudest, feedback-washed musicianship at their prime. The results are in turn raucous, haunting, epic and positively electric. Though not as breathlessly prophetic as the debut that preceded it, White Light/White Heat is another brilliant synthesis of the avant-garde with rock. The album concludes with one of the most legendary single-takes of all time, the seventeen minute Sister Ray.

Loveless- My Bloody Valentine, the band that had invented shoegaze with its previous album, returned to write the genre's defining document. You needn't listen to another shoegaze album. The staggering production costs required for the meticulous production nearly bankrupted Creation Records. The results justified every penny. Chuck Klosterman wrote, "Whenever anyone uses the phrase swirling guitars, this record is why. A testament to studio production and single-minded perfectionism, Loveless has a layered, inverted thickness that makes harsh sounds soft and fragile moments vast." Bathe in the beautiful trance-out melodies and you'll feel your worries being methodically pummeled out of existence.

#1 Record/Radio City- A CD rerelease of Big Star's first two albums, the work set down here is legendary in alternative music and the reputation is matched by the brilliance of the sound. Big Star was among the first bands to combine pop with guitar crunch, making them a founding band of the style known as power pop. Lead man Alex Chilton once said that his talent was not in songwriting but in production. This confused me for a while, because the songs are excellent and the trebly production took some getting used to. After a few more spins I not only understood this, but lived by it. Listening to Alex Chilton's wavering voice amidst the effervescent production is only comparable to sex for pure caught-in-the-moment pleasure.

The Velvet Underground and Nico- The most influential album of all time according to Rolling Stone, the Velvet Underground's 1967 debut wrote the rulebook for punk, indie, experimental and alternative rock by successfully fusing the avant-garde with rock and roll song structure. Nearly all of the songs can be thought of as templates for a different subsequent genre and they represent the peak of songwriter Lou Reed.

Rubber Soul- Another contender for the Beatles' greatest album, the US version's sequencing and song selection made it cohesive in a way the world had never before witnessed. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was inspired by it to create his magnum opus Pet Sounds. The album marks the turning point in the Beatles' career when their youthful sparkle met with the emotional depth of their later work.

Surfer Rosa- While not as song-oriented as followup Doolittle, the Pixie's first outing is the catchiest, prettiest, most abrasive thing they ever did. Noise pop like the Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy, this is going to take some time to sink in, but once it does you will be singing these songs till kingdom come.

Psychocandy- In 1981 an obscure Scottish post-punk band called the Jesus and Mary Chain made this document of one of rock's greatest innovations: the union of sweet pop melodies with crushing white noise known as noise pop. If that sounds crazy, it just goes to show how crazy genius these people were to think it up. The album is undeniably fun, melodic, and catchy, and on this it will win over just about anyone. Once you realize that the noise enhances and accentuates all of these qualities, you will recognize this for the paradigm-shattering album that it is.

Raw Power- When this was recorded, the Stooges were on the verge of collapse. Lead man Iggy Pop screamed threats like a madman and the entire band generally sounded like a nuclear explosion. David Bowie's production is one of very few to capture the saturated sound of live rock amped well beyond the human capacity to hear. After listening to this, it's no surprise leader Iggy Pop is referred to as the godfather of Punk.

Nevermind- Smells Like Teen Spirit. Alternative Rock Explosion. This album single-handedly put 1991 on the map.

OK Computer- Radiohead's OK Computer is sometimes interpreted as an ode to postindustrial alienation. The sound is alternately terrifyingly dense and sweepingly open. This is great music for driving alone at night.

Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound- While this is actually a compilation of various artists rather than a legitimate album, it would be criminal not to include this. Tropicalia was a mindblowingly creative fusion of Brazilian music with psychedelic rock, and this is its definitive document. Originally written with political motivations, what comes through is the radical invention. It sounds like they didn't have enough time to streamline the synthesis, but the players involved were so creative that it just meant the fusion maintained all of its energy without sacrificing true synergy.

Pet Sounds- Normally the Beach Boys are thought of in the context of fluffy summer music, but following the release of Good Vibrations, Brian Wilson wrote an album of amazing depth and sonic magnificence. The lyrics and lush vocal harmonies are full of tenderness, wisdom, and youthful optimism.

Forever Changes- Completely overlooked in the whirl of great music that was 1967, this album by Los Angeles psychedelic band Love is as melodic and artistic as late-period Beatles. I've decided this album is reverse-Impressionist; the closer you put your face to the painting, the more sense the lyrics and aching melodies make.