Top 30 Albums of My Life

So here it is...

The very best albums I heard, in order.

These of course are subjective. There is no such thing as an objective list. What could that be measured by? Certainly not sales. Not even Sales/Marketing Budget. Not even Sales to 'People Like Me' - that gets you further away. So no, it's just that I have spent my life enveloped in music, and always thought my list would be different. Yet here I am at the end of the line and I see things very differently all of a sudden, and I wanted to share this with people I love and any passer-by really.

I welcome discussion, rabid debate, wild unreason, swindling, snorkeling and bargaining. Even just a bit would be welcome.


The Top 30 Albums of All Time
1. Mel - East River Pipe
2. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
3. Oh, Inverted World - The Shins
4. Myrrh - Robin Williamson
5. Horses - Patti Smith
6. 76:14 - Global Communication
7. Third - Soft Machine
8. Tago Mago - Can
9. Staircase - Keith Jarrett
10. Selected Ambient Works - Aphex Twin
11. Anarchy - Chumbawumba
12. Natural Elements - Shakti
13. White Room - KLF
14. Another Green World - Eno
15. Brown Album - Orbital
16. Goodbye California - East River Pipe
17. Reading, Writing & Arithmetic - The Sundays
18. Best of The Go Betweens
19. Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - Incredible String Band
20. Silent Feet - Eberhard Weber
21. Songs of Leonard Cohen
22. E Llangonned - Alan Stivell
23. Chutes Too Narrow - Shins
24. Stereotype-A Cibo Matto
25. Lilies - Arovane
26. Rumour - REM
27. Roxy Music First Album
28. Land of Grey & Pink - Caravan
29. Can't Buy A Thrill - Steely Dan
30. After The Goldrush - Neil Young


Somehow, I know they are in the wrong order....

But please...

Fifty Guilty Pleasures - Albums I shouldn't like but nevertheless do

Next up, the albums I love in secret.
Some of these are by bands or artists I'd prefer not to mention due to their widespread agreement they are just "pants"  Best example might be Genesis, but Elton John gets a look in...
Some are artists so obscure I don't know I've met a soul who ever heard of them but me! - Examples abound here but Xela, Madder Rose, Mr Fox... surely other people have heard of them?
Lastly, bands who it's okay to like, but just not okay to like THAT album... And at number one, !Thick As a Brick! has that prize covered...


One thing they all have in common though...  I love them all these even if admission of that fact would question my good taste.  These are albums I adore, don't just like...


1. Thick as a brick - Jethro Tull (Guiltiest pleasure of all? - Many think their worst offence)
2. Sympathy - Rare Bird
3. Mercator Projected - East of Eden
4. Edgar Broughton Band - (brown album'? (their third)
5. Guided by Voices - Best of
6, Foxtrot/Lamb Lies Down - Genesis (I know every word... and love the beat on Supper's Ready)
7. HMS Donovan (surely for children only?)
8. Thanks Christ for the Bomb - Groundhogs (It's side 2 I like)
9. Ballet Statique - Conrad Schnitzler (This is just amazing)
10. Liege & Lief - Fairport Convention (I should hate them for smugness but...)
11. Second Album - Martin Carthy (I have no friends who can bare him!)
12. Live at Greasy Truckrs - Nrinzley Schwarz ("I'll be Ahead if I can quit while I'm Behind")
13. In Search Of Space - Hawkwind (I Itruly felt this was Space Rock coming to save us)
14. Watercolour Days - Clouds (Seems twee now, and did then)
15. Panic On - Madder Rose
16. Cease To Begin - Band of Horses
17 New Rock - Buffalo Daughter
18. Deja Vu (I know...) - CSN&Y
19. Old Songs, New Songs - Family (But this was a great compilation)
20. Awoo - Hidden Cameras
21. Computer World - Kraftwerk (Honestly, I love every track they ever made)
22. Amrita - Loop Guru (esp. "Often Again")
23. i - Magnetic Fields
24. In Search Of The Lost Chord - The Moody Blues (Oh, this is real guilt!!!)
25. Z - My Morning Jacket
26. Viva Hate - Morrissey (How can I write that name in 2018)
27. Liquid Cool - Nite Jewel
28. Hatfield & The North (I know it's twiddly...)
29. Nu Yorkian Soul ("You can do it baby")
30. Piper At The Gates Of Dawn - Pink Floyd (Of it's time)
31. Dive deep - Quintessence (I still adore every track - truly)
32. Clinging To A Scheme - Radio Dept.
33. Atlas - Real Estate
34. Two-headed Freep - Ronnie Foster
35. Meody A.M. - Royksopp (Great Grooves)
36. Tired Sounds Of - Stars Of The Lid
37. Peng! - Stereolab
38. River - Terry Reid
39. Persian Surgery Dervishes - Terry Riley
40. Third Ear Band
41. Millions Now Living... - Tortoise
42. For Frosty Mornings - Xela
43. Hatfield and The North - Eponymous Debut
44. Yellowjackets - Yellowjackets
45. Wings Over Water - Stephan Micas
46. Car Alarm - Sea & Cake
47. Early - Scritti Politti
48. Mr Fox - Mr Fox
49. Mossebo - Johann Agebjorn
50. 17.11.70 - Elton John (He was a god on that night)

Top hundred-or-so songs from along the wayside

This list is a non-random list of the 100 'or so' best songs I've heard.
Some are pieces of music, others are rants, but have sliced in through the filters to the core of my being and, like all input, partly become a part of what I am.

Forgive my disrespect for a decimal system too, but I have included well over 100 in my Top 100. And why not?

There are no duds here, but taste makes clowns of us all and they vary from EDM to Ska hits to Ambient, Indie, Prog, Punk, New Wave, Opera, Medieval, Folk, Jazz and more, so just leave the genres you don't like.

Here goes:

A Visit to Newport Hospital - Egg (ignore the couple-of-minutes intro)
I'm ahead if I can quit while I'm behind (live) - Brinzley Schwarz (from Greasy Truckers Party)
Oh Yeah - Can
Slightly All the time - Soft Machine
Too Girly Girly - Sophie George
Days - Television
Birdland - Patti Smith
I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha
Then - Diana Ross, the Supremes & the Temptations
Passionate Friend - Teardrop Explodes
Telegraph - OMD
Stanlow - OMD
Monkey Pilot - Comsat Angels
Journey Through athe Past - Neil Young
Pocahontas - Neil Young
Ohio - Buffalo Springfield/CSN&Y
I'm not like everybody Else - Kinks
It's too late baby - Carole King
Linden Arden Stole the highlights - Van Morrison
Country Fair - Van
Astral Weeks - Van
Madam George - Van
Purple Heather - Van
The club isn't open - East River Pipe (ERP)
Take Back the Days - ERP
Life is born today - ERP
Waltz of the new moon - Incredible String Band (ISB)
Nightfall (ISB)
Invocation - ISB
October Song - ISB / Clare
The Way They Murdered Me - Piskie
Cold Harbour - Robin Williamson
Woodstock - Matthews Southern Comfort
Something in the Air - Thunderclap Newman
Sounds of the Suburbs - Members
Violence Grows - Fatal Microbes
Enough is Enough - Chumbawumba
Bad Dog - Chumbawumba
40 Mark Strasse - Shins
When i Goose-Step - Shins
Pink Bullets - Shins
Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs
Love of the Common People - Nicky Thomas
Young, Gifted and Black - Bob & Marcia
Past and The Pending - Shins
Supper's Ready - Genesis
Witches Promise - Jethro Tull
Waterloo Sunset - Kinks
Everything Merges With The Night - Eno
Radioactivity - Kraftwerk
Spoon - Can
Ballet Statique - Conrad Schnitzler
Rock n Roll Friend - Go Betweens
Bewley Brothers - Bowie/Piskie
Your Song - Elton John
Hibou, Anenomie & Bear - Soft Machine
Winter Wine - Caravan
Long piece number 3 part 2 - Egg
Knot Comes Loose - MMJ
Evening Over Rooftops - Edgar Broughton Band
Doctor Wu - Steely Dan
Any World That I'm Welcome To - Steely Dan
Transient - Orbital
Remember A Day - Pink Floyd
At last I'm Free - Robert Wyatt
Set the controls for the heart of the sun - Pink Floyd (Ummagumma)
Milk and Honey - Sandy Denny
Ain't got no body to depend on - Santana
Two Sisters - Shakti (about Isis & Nepthys)
Face to Face - Shakti
Wendell Gee - REM
Find The River - REM
Rockville - REM
French Disko - Stereolab
Codex: Cantigas des Amigo #2 - Mandad ei Amigo - Stevie Wishart
De moi doleros vos chant -
On the beach - Neil Young
Get Another Plan - Abstract Truth
You can do it baby - Nuyorcian Soul
Working for Vacation - Cibo Matto
SciFi Wasabi - Cibo Matto
Onion Song - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Abraham, Martin & John - Marvin Gaye
Foreign Accents - Robert Wyatt
Detlef Schrempf - Band of Horses
Mushroom - Can
Sloop John B - Beach Boys
Back to the old house - Smiths/Morrissey
Everyday is like Sunday - morrissey
Everybody wants to rule the world - Tears for Fears
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Eberhard Weber - Seriously Deep
Lammas - Robin Williamson (accoustic version)
The Fair - Robin Williamson
Crazy Man Michael - Fairport
Dulciter Somni - Johann Agebjorn
Ten days of blue - John Beltran
Hello, It's Me - John Cale & Lou Reed
Walk on the wild side - Lou Reed
Cloudbusting - Kate Bush
Nervous System - Killing Joke
What time is love? - KLF
3am eternal - KLF
Church of the KLF - KLF
Forgiven - Kurt Ralske
Requiem For Dying Mothers part 1 - Stars of The Lid
Panic On - Madder Rose (amazing song)
Marig ar pollantan - Alan Stivell
Jenovefa - Alan Stivell
La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin - Debussy's first book of preludes,
Arturo benedetti michaelaneli
Homage a Rameau - Debussy Images, also played by Michaelangeli
Bon iver - RE: Stacks
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy
Burning Spear - Columbus
Father & Son - Cat Stevens
Hold Your Head Up - long version (6.20) - Argent
Our World Is Their Heaven - Avrocar
Someday Never Comes - Creedence
The Winner Takes It All - Abba
According to no Plan - Broadcast
Can't Be Sure - Sundays
Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
Last year's man - Leonard Cohen
Golden Days - Mario Lanza (My Mum's favourite song)


Some of these have sentimental value, it's true, but I am happy to attest they are all worthy of a person's precious time.
It occurred to me on the bus one day, when an Aretha song came on the radio, that music brings people together, and touches some part of us that no other art form achieves. It did on that bus. A couple of girls reacted and one was moving her arms in rhythm. Suddenly, people of all ages in that carriage started smiling and talking to their friends : do you remember this one?
For this reason, I think  the pursuit of musical beauty is a high calling, and one worthy of a lifetime's striving. Somehow, I wish I could thank the people who made the records above. They added layers of meaning to my inner world I am still unable to express, but that enrich me every day.


DU 4.5.18

100 best albums of my life 1957-now in no particular order:

These are the ones that inspired me the most...

Egg - Polite Force
Can - Tago Mago
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Soft Machine - Third
East River Pipe - Mel
Piskieface - 1st album
Avrocar - Against The Dying Of The Light
Arovane - Atol Scrap
Arovane - Waves
Shins - Oh Inverted World
Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain
Eno - Another Green World
Roxy Music - 1st album
Caravan - In The Land of Grey and Pink
My Morning Jacket - Z
Kraftwerk - Computer World
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
Van Morrison - Street Choir
Van Morrison - Too Late to Stop Now
Chumbawumba - Anarchy
Family - Old Songs New Songs
Jethro Tull - Stand Up
Orbital - Brown album
Orbital - 1st
Patti Smith - Horses
Quintessence - Dive Deep
Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan - Katy Lied
Steely Dan - Aja
Steely Dan - the Royal Scam
Television - Marquee Moon
Blondie - Plastic Letters
Velvet Underground - 1st
Neil Young - After the Goldrush
Neil Young - On The Beach
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Incredible String Band - Wee Tam & The Big Huge
Robin Williamson - Myrrh
Sandy Denny - North Star Grassman
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 1
Global Communication 76:14
Eberhard Weber - Silent Feet
Keith Jarrett - Staircase
Keith Jarrett - Koln
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Martin Best & Medieval Ensemble - Last of the Troubadors
Bizet - Carmen, with Maria Callas
Debussy - Preludes, Michelangeli
KLF - The White Room
Stivell - e llangonned
Shakti - Natural Elements
REM - Murmur
REM - Fables of the Reconstruction
REM - Automatic for the People
Mahavishnu - Visions of the Emerald Beyond
Santana - Borboletta
Santana - 3
Santana - Abraxas
Cibo Matto - Stereotype A
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
East of Eden - Mercator Projected
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
Pink Floyd - Piper At the Gates
Pink Floyd - Saucerful of Secrets
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
OMD - Dazzle Ships
The Fall - Infotainment Scam
Third Ear Band - 1st album
Cat Stevens - Teaser & the Firecat
The Sundays - Reading, Writing & Arithmatic
Tsabropoulos - Akraosis
Khan - Space Shanty