Category: Uncategorized

This summer has been so busy, but it is coming to an end. Maybe not according to the calendar nor the earth’s position around the Sun, but when the calendar hits August in an educator’s life, the summer is done. Around here, school starts next week. I hate it for all of the educator’s in my life, but as a retired educator I will only recognize the beginning of the school year with a light bout of depression. Remember, retirement was NOT really my decision, but my back put me in this situation, with so many professional goals left unfulfilled.

While I will have more time in which to write this crazy blog, I will be doing so with a heavy feeling on my heart. By this point in my career, I had hoped to have reached my goal of coaching teams in two different sports to State championships, becoming a good enough coach to have turned it into a color commentary job for broadcasts of my sports, all the while maintaining high standards as a chemistry teacher so my students will have a head start on their peers in college science classes. I know the goals were grand, but who ever said to temper your goals just because they were difficult? Plus, how can you go wrong when you felt as though you were fulfilling a calling?

Anyway, just bear with me as I get myself to Labor Day. Now, without a good segue, let’s turn back to my overwhelming album countdown. Today, we will get a little bit closer to the Top 100. Until then, let’s begin at #150.

150. Kanye West – Late Registration (2005). Ye may just be the artist of the Aughts, and I feel as though this LP solidified his position. The leap forward in his vision was light years beyond his terrific debut a brief two years earlier. Kanye the artist lost his grounding after his mother tragically passed a young age.

149. The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues (1988). When The Waterboys first hit the scene, they were being touted as Scotland’s answer to U2 with the soaring anthems of their debut album. Yet, when Mike Scott went to record his band’s third album, he came under the spell of Celtic folk music in much the same way Kevin Rowland of Dexys had seven years earlier. Once again, this turn paid off artistically for a UK artist.

148. Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973). Back when this was a new album, my uncle asked his history classes at his high school which three albums he and my aunt should purchase to give me for my 10th birthday. According to the man himself, the only unanimous choice was this album, along with Goat’s Head Soup by the Stones and Alice Cooper’s immortal School’s Out. Of course, this is the one I wore out several times over. I might just be on my third or fourth copy of the album in three different formats. You just can’t say that about every album.

147. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (1976). This album was one helluva debut. Too bad it didn’t enter my collection until AFTER I had heard “Breakdown” on the excellent late-70s soundtrack FM. The song was given a primo position of being on the Side One of the first record, but the song didn’t catch on with Indiana radio due to the title track by the hot Steely Dan and a terrific song by Joe Walsh called “Life’s Been Good.” Regardless, “Breakdown” captured my heart, leading me to become a lifelong Petty fan. This album is an absolute delight.

146. Tom Petty – Wildflowers (1994). Every time doubt has crept into my mind about a Petty album, he generally comes back with guns blazing. Into the Great Wide Open was good but not great. Then, Petty quietly dropped this solo bomb on us and suddenly everyone seemed to be singing his praises. Solo or with The Heartbreakers, there are few songwriters who can match Petty’s catalog depth (others matching him are for me Prince, Weller and Springsteen).

145. Paul Weller – Wild Wood (1993). Paul Weller released an excellent debut that saw him tackling and accepting his musical influences into his mod-ish sound. Still, in true Weller fashion, it’s always the next couple of albums that constantly improve upon the initial vision. And that’s the case with this album. Paul is now pushing into his thirties and forging a whole new direction that will end up opening the British floodgates for a new sound known as Britpop.

144. Gin Blossoms – New Miserable Experience (1992). I’m not gonna lie, but I am a sucker for great music that uses a jangling guitar. And the Gin Blossoms filled this album with hit after hit based upon that wonderful power pop sound. I bet I play this album a couple times a month.

143. Bruce Springsteen – The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973). I believe it was Dave Marsh who described the three songs on Side Two of this album sounding like the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of a weekend in the life of a twenty-something. What a romantic thought! And not just because “Rosalita” remains my favorite Saturday party song!

142. Elvis Costello & the Attractions – This Year’s Model (1978). Elvis debuted on the 1977 SNL Christmas episode. He was a last minute replacement for the Sex Pistols who were having trouble get visas to tour America. Elvis was told not to play “Radio, Radio,” a terrific cut from this soon-to-be-released album. After playing another song for about a minute, Elvis stops the band and kicks full blasted into a venom-influenced version of his rant about radio censorship. And this album if stuffed full of the type of angry songs for which Elvis became a household name.

141. Grateful Dead – American Beauty (1970). It’s crazy to think that a band would release their best two albums in a single year, but artists did it all the time in the 60s and 70s. Therefore, it was little surprise that the Dead would find their musical sweet spot by following The Band down the Americana path for a bit. These guys were so talented that it may have been difficult to get them to focus on a three-to-five minute song with little deviations or instrumentation noodling. But they did first on Workingman’s Dead and again on American Beauty.

140. Roxy Music – Avalon (1982). Arguably, Roxy Music created the most beautiful and sexiest album of the 80s with Avalon. Gone were all of the squawks and squeaks of their past sonic experimentation with a musical refinement never expected for these Glam Rock survivors. Roxy showed all the early-80s New Romantics how to update the Roxy sound.

139. Beastie Boys – Ill Communication (1994). The Beasties changed the direction of popular hip hop three times on their first three albums. So what if the boys decided to rest a bit in order to amalgamate those albums into a punk-influenced sound. All I need to say is “Intergalactic.”

138. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989). Although The Stone Roses’ place in the Sun only really lasted for this album, it is noteworthy because they played something of a John the Baptist presaging the whole Britpop movement of the 90s. To this day, their swirling brand of psychedelia-meets-the-80s dance rock was some of the most exciting music of the late Eighties, especially when they are juxtaposition with the sound-alike quality of the hair metal bands.

137. New Order – Power, Lies & Corruption (1983). When Ian Curtis died, Joy Division went with him. So, the other three in the band added another keyboardist and some dance rhythms to the synthpop/rock sound that brought the darkness to the dancefloors all over the world. While the band’s subsequent releases were more commercially appealing, this album remains the most intriguing and sexy.

136. Taylor Swift – Red (2012/2021). Personally, I prefer the roughed up sound of Taylor’s version of this album, but I get why purists will stick with the original. Regardless, Red is noteworthy for Taylor’s growth into songwriting womanhood, upon which her reputation as a singer/songwriter is based. I cannot say enough good things about Red, except if you date Ms. Swift, don’t dump her and piss her off because she will have the final word on the relationship in song.

135. A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory (1991). By the early-90s, hip hop was in a constantly evolving stage. Trends were coming and going, but the true visionaries were focused on their rhymes and the beats, no matter the source. Case in point, the great and legendary A Tribe Called Quest. At the time, no one could match their verbal dexterity, jazz-based samples and the exquisite low end. These guys were hip hop prophets who are worthy of the term genius.

134. Madonna – Like a Virgin (1984). This album sent shockwaves around my college campus back in the day. It’s as if there was a history of pre-Like a Virgin and post-. Suddenly, girls on campus and at the mall were dressing like mini-versions of Madge. The album represents the selling of the total package of Madonna: fashion, visual and musical. We were on the dancefloor for Prince, Michael, “You Dropped a Bomb on Me,” but stayed when Madonna followed.

133. The Knack – Get The Knack (1979). The Summer of 1979 was all about two albums, this one and Cheap Trick’s At Budokan. What a summer! I have nothing but great memories of the music at the time. And, honestly, this one led the way. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about The Beatles trappings that the Boomers were bitching about. No, I thought the power pop was outstanding! This album was hot from beginning to end and signified the beginning of the MTV generation two years BEFORE MTV went on the air. Just give this wonderful band it’s due. I’m sorry their management made the band look like dicks. Yes, they should have been on all the TV shows of the day: the Grammys, American Music Awards, American Bandstand, hell, even Soul Train if they would’ve had them. But, that was not the guys. And I never understood the backlash. It wasn’t like they were on the radio 24/7. It was only a sixth of that around these neck of the woods.

132. Steve Wonder – Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974). What an album! This is Stevie at his near-peak. Every song is a classic. So, how did he top it? He recorded a double album AND an EP’s worth of music at this level, that’s how. Stevie was rarely as funky or in command of his muse as he was here.

131. Phil Spector (And Various Artists) – A Christmas Gift for You (1962). This wonderful album has the dubious distinction of having a release date that ended up being the day President John F. Kennedy died, so Americans were in no mood for some of the best Christmas music ever put to vinyl. However, the album has been discovered and enjoyed by people in the Yuletide season. Of course, Darlene Love was the undisputed MVP of the album, but don’t forget The Shirelles’ contributions when making your annual Christmas playlist.

130. Dexys Midnight Runners – Too-Rye-Aye (1981). I find it rather ironic that I would be singing the praises of this album at the same time as I did for Fisherman’s Blues by The Waterboys, as they are cousins. Both are steeped in Celtic folk music, though Dexys filters it through Van Morrison, while The Waterboys went through U2 for their sound. Funny also that both are highly influenced by Irish artists as well. But, I absolutely love Dexys take on Van Morrison’s soulful sound, giving it an update for a new wave. This is a highly underappreciated album that needs re-evaluation.

129. Bob Dylan – Bringing It Back Home (1965). If you could distill Bob Dylan into three albums without relying upon any compilations, then you HAVE to choose this one. This is a simple tour de force as Dylan dips his toes into going electric. Oh the blasphemy!

128. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Voices (1980). At the dawn of the 80s, the duo left Philly for the Big Apple to be closer to all that was happening in the rock and dance clubs in addition to what was happening in the streets. There was an artistic renaissance of sorts happening and Hall & Oates knew they had to be there. They soaked in the environment and quit relying on producers to ruin their sound and vision (Damn you David Foster for ruining what should have been a wonderful X-Static LP! I will NEVER forgive that man for that and ruining Chicago in the mid-80s. I think he just might be Satan. NOTE: I’m joking about Satan, but he does over-power the artists he is producing). In the meantime, they hit their stride as songwriters and this was the just the beginning of the Hall & Oates monster of the Eighties.

127. Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer (2018). What’s an artist to do when you want to have a sound influenced by Prince without relying on him to produce your album. Well, you hang and jam with the man. Monáe did just that and created her best album to date. If Prince had only lived to hear this album it might have given him the kick in the butt to battle her in a friendly game of artistic vision.

126. Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York (1994). Remember the whole MTV Unplugged series of concerts that breathed some new life into the acoustic guitar? It was all the rage in the 90s. There were some pretty average performances (most of them), some that were overrated (Sorry Mark Kline, we will have to agree to disagree on this one my friend!) and some that were transcendent (Stone Temple Pilots, R.E.M., LL Cool J all come to mind). But the granddaddy of them all is Nirvana. What we didn’t realize at the time but see in hindsight how this show was in essence a wake for Kurt Cobain who would commit suicide before the airing of the show. The performance is eerie, haunting and reaffirming all at once. I love that Kurt dug up songs by The Vaselines, Leadbelly, The Meat Puppets AND Bowie and interspersed them with his own tales. This is simply a magnificent and poignant album.

And that brings us to the end of this section. FYI: I got my Springsteen tickets today. And, unless Pearl Jam, Paul Weller, The Cure, The Bangles or Depeche Mode come through, I may be retiring from my concert life. Outside of Billy Joel’s appearance at the Notre Dame football stadium, the other concerts I attended were all just okay. Maybe it’s me. I guess we’ll next year.

Why don’t we get right to the countdown? Okay? Let’s go!

175. Lady Gaga – The Fame (2008). Perhaps the best commentary about Gaga was made in that recent Netflix film starring Rebel Wilson in which Wilson has been in a coma since her senior year only to wake up in her mid-30s. When she saw Gaga’s pic on a hospital copy of People magazine, she said, “Oh great! Madonna’s changed her name to Lady Gaga.” The difference? Gaga is one helluva vocalist. All you need to do is compare the two women’s Super Bowl Halftime Shows. Gaga was compelling throughout her performance. Of course, she was still at the top of her game while Madge was trending downward. Still, Gaga’s debut is stellar, showing how she was mixing Madonna with a little Bowie and a little Queen in order to create her patented sound.

174. Hole – Celebrity Skin (1998). Upon the death of her husband Kurt Cobain, lead Hole Courtney Love needed to follow up her excellent Live Through This album. People were awaiting failure since many believed that Cobain had written the songs on that aforementioned LP. Imagine the number of critics who were forced to eat crow when this album was dropped in 1998. On Celebrity Skin, Ms. Love tackles what it takes to be in the public eye and all over the tabloids.

173. John Lennon – Imagine (1971). The title song is the closest that Lennon ever got to writing a hymn. Of course, “Imagine” made Lennon a magnet for controversial comments. Seriously, no religion means we are living in harmony. Need he spell it all out? Geez! Oh, the rest of the album is terrific as well!

172. Sly & the Family Stone – Stand! (1969). After a good 50+ years, I have decided that Sly & the Family Stone gave the best performance at Woodstock, which, contrary to popular opinion, was full of an abundance of lackluster sets. Still, Sly Stone brought a combination of gospel, rock, R&B and funk to a fairly vanilla line-up. Plus, the cuts from this LP just came alive in the live setting, which only reinforces the brilliance of this album. This is Sly’s 1999, or was Prince’s 1999 his Stand! Regardless, you get the point, I think.

171. John Cougar Mellencamp – Uh-Huh (1983). Uh-Huh came at a point in Mellencamp’s career when he could have continued down the pop/rock path or he could reach for rock immortality by injecting Dylanesque lyrics into his Midwestern tales. Fortunately, he chose the latter as heard in “Pink Houses.” Still, he could still blow a wall down in a club with “Play Guitar” and “The Authority Song,” an ode to his younger days.

170. Rush – Moving Pictures (1981). Few, if anyone at all, tapped into the collective angst of the suburban male as Rush did in their trilogy of albums: Permanent Waves (1980), Moving Pictures and Signals (1982). And this happened to be Rush at their commercial and artistical peak. Everything about the album reached into our collective troubled male souls at the time and gave voice to everything we felt.

169. Elton John – Elton John (1970). Technically, this album is NOT the former Reginald Dwight’s debut album. Yet, it is credited with introducing the world to the man who would quickly become the most flamboyantly famous rocker of the first half of the 70s. If Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin had only written “Your Song,” their place in history would be secure. But, as we know, this was just their next step. 

168. The B-52’s – Cosmic Thing (1989). The Eighties were a decade for some of rock’s most dramatic career resurrections. We all remember the comeback of Tina Turner, along with some lesser ones like Tom Jones with the Art of Noise or Dusty Springfield with the Pet Shop Boys. But, when guitarist/songwriter/group visionary Ricky Wilson quietly succumbed to complications due to AIDS in 1986, many thought The B-52’s died with him. However, to honor their fallen comrade, drummer Keith Strickland taught himself Ricky’s unique guitar sound and led the band to greater heights on Cosmic Thing.

167. OutKast – Stankonia (2000). Arguably hip hop’s greatest band gave us one of rock’s greatest albums in 2000. Stankonia may be the sound of Atlanta coming alive, but it also stands as a legacy to the Parliament/Funkadelic sound. It is likewise the sound of hip hop growing up in its most diverse era, not unlike the sound of rock in the early Seventies.

166. Sleater-Kinney – Dig Me Out (1997). When grunge hit, you expected an all-female band to rise to the top from that scene. Unfortunately, bands L7 never gained the traction to transcend the genre. That hole was eventually filled by this all-female punk trio Sleater-Kinney on their mid-Nineties tour de force Dig Me Out which has been namedropped as a huge influence by punk bands in their wake. I cannot praise the band’s musicianship enough.

165. J. Geils Band – Freeze-Frame (1981). In the late-70s and early-80s, I was a huge fan of Geils. They played that danceable 60s frat rock sound that I loved. by the late-70s, they began to incorporate new wave stylings into their party sound. And it all came together perfectly on Freeze-Frame, the last studio album recorded with frontman extraordinaire Peter Wolf. If you can’t hear “Flamethrower,” then you must have lost your hearing blasting that song at frat parties in college in the early-80s.

164. Bill Withers – Just as I Am (1971). It’s hard to describe Bill Withers’ importance in this day and age. The man was a folkie at heart, while maintaining the soulful nature of his upbringing. And this clashing of worlds made for interesting and moving music while Withers was at the top of his game. Bill is best known for “Ain’t No Sunshine,” which is found on this very underrated album.

163. Aretha Franklin – Lady Soul (1968). When Aretha got to Atlantic Records, she finally found the sympathetic ears she needed to bring to life the sounds she heard in her head. Her mix of gospel, soul and Southern rock has been so influential on rock music that much of that influence has been lost over time. There is nothing like listening to these white good old boys steeped in the Southern blues backing and pushing Aretha into her Queen’s throne.

162. Bruce Springsteen – The River (1980). The Boss burst onto the scene back in ’75 behind his stupendous Born to Run album. In 1978, he released a stark album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, that was influenced by the punk sounds bubbling up from the underground. By 1980, Bruce was on quite a creative roll that he and his band had recorded enough high quality songs to fill a double album. The album is a celebration of every stage of his short career, with enough burners to fuel a frat party in addition to the dark songs of reality he was just beginning to write. It’s a shame that all double albums are not as consistent as The River.

161. Adele – 21. (2011). Every generation has the female singer that represents the best of it. The 60s had Aretha, the 70s had Donna Summer, the 80s belonged to Whitney Houston, the 90s was Mariah Carey and the Aughts was Amy Winehouse and Beyoncé. And the 20Teens were Adele’s moment. Her debut album showed some promise but in no way prepared us for the jump in talent her songwriting would take. My goodness, it was as if the young lady had amalgamated all the divas before her, learnt their lessons and spewed out beautiful songs of loss and pain that transcended her young age of 21. This is one of the best albums of the 21st century, if not all of history.

160. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007). Radiohead had blown apart rock music on Kid A, so they were finally rearranging the pieces into a whole new sound on this album. The album, at the time, was thought to be blowing up the whole industry by offering the album for download on the website at a “name your own price.” The experiment worked for them, but the new idea ran its course when U2 gave away an album to every iTunes user, only to piss off Millennials all around the world because they got something free that they didn’t want. Now, vinyl reigns, and I want this album on vinyl. Go figure.

159. Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine (1992). I remember critics bitching that RATM had signed with one of the biggest labels in the world by asking how could they be anti-capitalist while working for The Man? I called the move brave and extremely insidious. Unfortunately, my Gen X brethren loved the music but didn’t read the lyrics sheet. I just think the band’s impact has been diluted over the years of cynicism. They were telling us 30 years ago that society was moving in the direction where we are today if we didn’t do something fast. We need this band more than ever!

158. Talking Heads – Fear of Music (1979). My initiation in the world of Talking Heads had begun with their appearance on SNL the previous year. With this album, I was quickly immersing myself in a much more rewarding listening experience with the Heads than say REO Speedwagon. “Life During Wartime” has unfortunately aged quite well, as the sentiments ring true today. And “Heaven” will NEVER age! It is eternal.

157. The Doors – The Doors (1967). So, during the Summer of Love in 1967, was kicked off by the release of Sgt. Pepper, Are You Experience and a bunch of groovy pop tunes. But, the dark underbelly of American life was being unleashed on the east coast by The Velvet Underground and on the west coast by The Doors. This was no “Peace & Love” and “Flower Power” message. No, The Doors sang of the darkness of drugs, love and Oedipal complexes. The music was foreboding, with a spaciousness that a missing bass would make it so very compelling. Darkness was never so sexy as Jim Morrison before his ego and alcohol abuse destroyed his impact.

156. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks (1968). This is not your tradition pop/rock album. It sounds like pop, rock and soul, but its music lacks the pop song structure of verse/chorus/verse. No, it’s more like jazz with ventures into some new musical form not unlike the New Age stuff of the late-80s, only without the domination of synthesizers. But, if you want some terrific music just to listen to and be, well, this is just the tonic for you.

155. Queen – A Day at the Races (1976). You can’t blame Queen for going down the same street again after the breakthrough success of A Night at the Opera the previous year. Sure, the album structure mirrored their previous album, yet this batch of songs were awfully good. “Somebody to Love” is the gospel-influenced cousin to the operatic “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This album was stuck on my turntable throughout the last half of my eighth grade year in school.

154. Neil Young – Harvest (1972). There always seems to be a point in an artist’s career when they create the right album at the right time. And when you are Neil Young, those can happen at any moment because he is so artistically restless. According to all of his subsequent labels, this is the album they want from him every year. But ever the contrarian, Young will not be pigeonholed. But, he did the whole singer/songwriter persona better than anyone else on this immensely personal album.

153. N.W.A – Straight Outta Compton (1988). By 1988, Gun N’ Roses seemed like the only artist who was popular and dangerous. Shoot, to the general population, rap music was simply party music. But, there was a “reality rap” underground burgeoning at the time, and out of that loose scene was a west coast crew dubbed N.W.A who took the danger to a whole new level. Now, hip hop had their metal/heavy rock artist not afraid to point out society’s ills and stick it in the face of the authorities. N.W.A gave us Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy-E, three of hip hop’s biggest visionaries of the 90s. This album, Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Rage Against the Machine’s self-title debut are my all-time “I’m pissed at the world music” and used on my high pain days to shout it out.

152. Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues (1983). So, where does a band go after a revelation of an experiment album (Remain in Light) and the super-success of an off-shoot band (Tom Tom Club)? In the middle, they shall meet. So, the Afrobeats and funk were spiced up with a little pop and disco sheen, and, viola, Remain in Light was born. It remains the Heads’ biggest seller.

151. Beyoncé – Lemonade (2016). I don’t know how one of the biggest pop icons of the day could secretly write and record not just one but TWO classic albums of deeply personal music and lyrics to be so quietly dropped on the public like Queen Bey did. I find this album to be the more compelling of the two, as we get a glimpse into the marriage of Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

I survived another grandchild’s birthday weekend! Of course, that action of the celebration was followed by the Newtonian reaction of the next 36 hours of being down and in excessive pain. I know Newton was describing a mass in motion, but his laws of motion seem to poetically work in other aspects of our lives. Yes, I AM a science nerd. But, at one time, this nerd was a pretty decent athlete…at least, a legend in his own mind.

So, what albums does the nerd have for the public? Check it out.

200. Daryl Hall & John Oates – H2O (1982). Was the album title the formula for the duo’s success: one Oates song for every two Hall songs? If you look at the songwriting credits, the formula works on this album. This album should get much more love since it contained so many hits: “Maneater,” “One on One” and “Family Man,” plus some stellar deep cuts such as “Italian Girls” and “Open All Night.” The boys and their band were at their creative peak here.

199. Prince – Emancipation (1996). By the mid-Nineties, Prince was in such a groove, that he was recording albums of new material nearly each month. Due to that recording rate, Prince felt constrained by his record company, who would not release everything he recorded. Thus began his fight to be released from his Warner Brothers contract symbolized by his writing SLAVE on the side of his face and changing his name to that unpronounceable symbol. This triple-CD (and just a couple of years ago, six-LP) set was released and Prince aficionados all over were struggling to keep up with the man. Still, this is a prime example at the breadth of Prince’s talent and his ability to assimilate any and all musical influences seamlessly.

198. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular (2008). What happens where a couple of Millennial punks purchase an old Eighties Casio keyboard and write some tunes with it? They create one of the most fun and loosest albums of the Aughts. What a delightful debut album.

197. Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. (2017). Until this album, only classical and jazz artists had won a Pulitzer Prize in music. And, the award went to the finest young voice in hip hop at this point in time. The Pulitzer Board put it best when they described the album as “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” Finally, the snobbish public was discovering that hip hop was becoming the folk music of the new millennium.

196. Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison (1968). By 1968, Johnny Cash was at a crossroads in his career. Was he going to give into his demons and either burn out or die early, or was he going to go clean and revitalize his career? With the help of his wife, June Carter Cash, The Man in Black got clean and went to the prison he made famous in one of his first hit songs to perform a no-holds-barred performance that had him connecting to the country’s most downtrodden, to prove that he was the man of the people.

195. Radiohead – Kid A (2000). I remember the hype behind this album being deafening. Then it dropped, and my son and his buddies went apeshit over it. This was the commercialization of the anti-music stuff that I had listened to during the post punk era. The difference is that Radiohead added electronica to the mix to give their songs of alienation some musical alienation, even though the general public seemed to eat this release up.

194. Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion II (1991)

1993. Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion I (1991). These two albums were released simultaneously. Personally, you cannot have one without the other. As you see, I give I a slightly higher ranking of the two, mainly because that album contains the more mainstream hits: “Don’t Cry,” a cover of Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” and the classically overblown power ballad “November Rain.” Both albums taken as a whole shows that the band were trying to reach for the stars. While they didn’t always meet their goal, you can’t fault them for trying.

192. Van Morrison – Moondance (1970). This is peak Van Morrison at the beginning of his run of fantastic Celtic soul records. This album is where Dexys Midnight Runners (or, today, just Dexys) copped their Irish soul brothers sound. I’m biased, but this is a terrific place to start for all white soul boys.

191. Ray Charles – Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962). The only thing that matters as far as music is concerned is where you were born. Skin color, socioeconomic status and the rest of that crap really doesn’t matter. Case in point, Brother Ray Charles, who grew up in rural Georgia. The man was influenced equally by the country and western music as he ever was by the gospel from his church or the blues of his townsfolk. And, in 1962, he crossed the racial lines of the music industry to create this masterpiece of rock amalgamation. So, the next time your redneck neighbor says “Old Town Road” is not country, remind that person of this album.

190. Paul & Linda McCartney – Ram (1971). For all of us who were just kids still in their single digits in age, all I need to say is “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.” Sure, it’s not Side Two of Abbey Road, but I’d argue that this album has a happy and relaxed Paul running the show with Linda riding his coattails a bit. Who cares? Theirs was a fantastic love story.

189. Paul Simon – Graceland (1986). To me, this is Simon’s classic album. Who knew that the Sweto music of South Africa would push a Jewish NYC man to greater heights as an artist? I know it seems like a bit of a reach to record a song with Los Lobos, but it does work within the context of this album.

188. Daryl Hall – Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine (1986). By the mid-80s, Hall & Oates were burning out as a duo. So, Daryl took his latest batch of songs into the studio with suddenly hot musician/producer Dave Stewart of Eurythmics to create this little pop trip into the psychedelic world of synthpop.

187. Nirvana – In Utero (1993). This seemed to happen often: an underground releases an album at the correct time in history to completely capture the zeitgeist of the music-listening world. At the end of 1991, that’s exactly what happened with Nirvana and their now-mythical Nevermind album. In response, when the band was called upon to release a follow-up, Nirvana turned up the abrasiveness and aggression on their Beatlesque set and created yet another masterpiece, which further confused their troubled lead singer/guitarist/songwriter. Just as they were knocking Guns N’ Roses off the throne for the biggest band in the world, Kurt Cobain killed himself. And the public was left wondering just where the band would have headed.

186. Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1991). In the small amount of time between the fall of hair metal and the rise of grunge/alternative music in the USA and Britpop in the UK, Britain has a handful of interesting bands on indie labels releasing a fun mix of Stones-ish rock and ecstacy-influenced dance music, of which Primal Scream was one of the best, along with Stone Roses. This stuff was so much fun that I wished the trend had spread over here.

185. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass (1970). The Beatles formula was to give a song to Ringo for him to sing, allow George to have a song or two per album and let Lennon and McCartney have the rest. As Harrison grew in stature as a songwriter, he had less and less of an outlet for his burgeoning skills. Therefore, he took a large stack of tracks, recorded them with his bandmates and other famous musicians, hired Phil Spector to produce the album and created this beautiful TRIPLE album of his outstanding music. This was and continues to be a feat to behold. Suddenly, the quiet one was quiet no longer.

184. Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On (1973). Prince was NOT the first artist to record and release an album that explicitly discussed sex. No. Arguably, that crown belongs to Marvin Gaye with this album. Never has a sexier batch of songs was ever put to vinyl.

183. The Monkees – The Monkees (1966). Say what you want about the Prefab Four Boomers. These guys brought rock music to Generation X when their reruns began to appear on Saturday mornings. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, MTV brought the series back for a whole other generation, The Millennials, to gain influence in 1986. The Monkees’ debut, along with their sophomore release, are lessons in pop/rock songwriting with some of the era’s finest songwriters contributing tracks to the band.

182. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu (1970). After CSN’s successful Woodstock debut and their big-selling debut album, the trio added the mercurial Neil Young to the mix to create the legendary band’s finest album. This disc is loaded with timeless classics for which the legendary quartet are known. This is the group at the absolute finest.

181. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street (1972). Critics pretty much have anointed this album a classic. Personally, I prefer my Stones’ music a little more tighter than this laidback drug-addled release. Regardless, this is one helluva album.

180. The Cure – Disintegration (1989). It took The Cure a decade to reap the commercial benefits that much of the prior music deserved, but better late than never. Maybe it was due to the fact that there is absolutely no filler on this album. Or, maybe the public finally caught up to the sound of The Cure. Either way, it was a win-win situation of The Cure and for us.

179. Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation (2010). There was a time in the States when the public rewarded an artist for standing up to the man during a crisis. This album is Paul Weller’s treatise against the corporate raiders that caused the financial collapse of the late-Aughts. While Weller was busy calling out the criminals and spewing enough outrage for the English-speaking world, the album stiffed here while being lauded and purchased throughout the UK. Wake up America! You are missing an artist for the ages.

178. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d. city (2012). Here is the album which made Lamar a household name and introduced him as the finest MC of the 20Teens. His rhymes and insight are beyond his age.

177. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Private Eyes (1981). The album which proved Voices was NOT a fluke. Hall & Oates were back in a much bigger fashion than during their mid-70s reign. Gone were the yacht rock trappings, replaced by a new wave urgency and NYC club freshness that allow the duo to dominate during the first half of the 80s.

176. John Mayer – Continuum (2006). After winning a big Grammy for his song “Heavy,” Mayer returned to action with his Millennial version of Gaye’s What’s Going On. Although Continuum is neither as accomplished or anguished as Gaye’s masterpiece, Mayer did put to record some Millennial angst over the economy, the Iraq War, and a whole slew of anxieties experienced by the generation of my children. Mayer’s grooves are smooth and sexy while tackling these topics.

Welcome, friends, to the sixth day of this insane countdown with a little commentary included. I did not realize just how much of an undertaking I was planning, but I anticipate the whole series to be a little better as the numbers get lower.

For some reason, I have been on an AOR kick. It began with me finding a couple of Dennis DeYoung autographed Styx albums at Half-Price Books last week, which led me to burning through that catalog, followed by Journey, and, now, today, Foreigner. And, yes, I’m going in chronological order since I am probably more left-brained than right, though all of those tests continue to say I have no brain. So, what’s a guy to do?

Except to just jump back into the list.

250. Stevie Wonder – Innervisions (1973). Once Motown gave Marvin Gaye his creative freedom, Stevie demanded and received the same in the early-70s. And that opened up the musical world for Stevie, who subsequently went on a five year creative run that is matched by few. Innervisions, an excellent album on its own, may be one of the weaker collections, though I’d think that most artists would love to have created this one. I am truly splitting hairs now.

249. Rush – Permanent Waves (1980). On Rush’s previous release, Hemispheres (1978), they took the whole prog rock-meets-metal thing as far as they could. Suddenly, the Canadian super trio found themselves surrounded by the new sounds of The Police, Talking Heads and the rest of the art school new wavers with their concise songs and polyrhythms. So, Rush challenged themselves to change with the times and thusly created a whole new Rush language. This album is the transition of their career to becoming rock gods.

248. Neil Young – Harvest Moon (1992). For the better part of two decades, record companies and Young’s fans had been clamoring for more music along the lines of Young’s most commercially successful album Harvest (1972). Along the way, the man re-invented himself as a proto-grunge artist and a proto-Americana artist, while also dabbling in electronica, rockabilly, AOR rock and straight on country. Young had recorded a formal follow-up to Harvest during the mid-70s called Homegrown but waited 45 years to release it (in 2021). Then, suddenly, the man plopped this brilliant gem down in the midst of a mini-career revival in 1992. And, the public rejoiced that he rediscovered his CSNY wheelhouse. And, then, just as quickly, the man went on to other sounds.

247. The Black Keys – El Camino (2011). Arguably the best and definitely the most commercially successful rock band of the 21st century, The Black Keys took a similar guitar-and-drums sound that White Stripes popularized in the early-Aughts, and made some terrific stripped-down blues rock. This is arguably their finest moment to date.

246. Michael Jackson – Dangerous (1991). At the very moment Jackson was defining the Eighties dance/pop sound with Thriller and Bad, along came some younguns with something called New Jack Swing, which was the first marriage between hip hop beats with R&B. Michael wasn’t the King of Pop for nothing, so he began to incorporate this new sound into his patented sound to create a Michael for the early-90s. Unfortunately, Michael began to lose to his muse at this time as his life devolved into tabloid fodder with exotic pets, a stunted maturity level, chronic pain and a pain-killer addiction and a purported penchant for young boys. But, before all of that, he was THE SHIT, as a college friend used to say.

245. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (1988). Sometimes, public tastes and band development finally collide that leads to an album becoming successful. Such is the case with alternative music stalwarts Sonic Youth. They finally got their experimental guitar sounds married to some concise pop strictures and created a wonderfully left-field album that would go on to influence the whole 90s Lollapalooza nation. “Teen Age Riot” is a fantastic slice of alternative rock heaven.

244. Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold as Love (1967). The Experience did not suffer a sophomore slump on this album, their second. It was only a slight step down from the debut. It’s hard to believe that Hendrix only got three studio albums of material recorded before his untimely death. And 50 years on, no one has ever caught up with him.

243. Kiss – Alive! (1975). In 1975, Kiss was NOT a punchline to a joke. They were the underground darlings for teenagers all over. For some reason, their first three studio albums did not catch on with the public, but concert-goers were in love with the band’s extravagant live shows. So, it made sense to record a few concerts and create a sonically-enhanced “concert” with mistakes covered and crowd enthusiasm cranked up to 11 in the studio, all to give the fans the ultimate tribute to the band’s live prowess. And, it worked, as everyone in my middle school must have been given a copy of the album over Christmas 1975, except for my German Baptist friends whose religion prohibited them from enjoying the sinful life of their secular friends. Somehow, those kids heard, right Lowell?

242. Cat Stevens – Tea for Tillerman (1970). Back in the day, few singer/songwriters were as good a Cat Stevens. Seriously, this dude was super-talented. Then, fame and success freaked him out, so he discovered solace in practiced Islam. At the height of his career, Cat converted to Islam, became Yusef Islam and, unfortunately for us, withdrew from his music. Fortunately, a small revival of his music in the past two decades in film soundtracks and an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drew him back to the public eye, without much of the intensity of his early years. This is his finest and most consistent album in a very fine catalog of music. His greatest hits package is a must-own album for anyone rock fan.

241. Tom Petty – Highway Companion (2006). Tom spent the late-90s getting a divorce from his first wife Jane; fighting a heroin addiction; losing his bassist to heroin; releasing a soundtrack, a box set of hits, B-sides, demos and shelved songs and a double-CD anthology, a veiled divorce album that was very good but could have been great; and, finally, in the early-2000s, released his “pissed off uncle” album ranting about the current state of radio when compared to the good old days that simply left fans scratching their collective heads. Then, quietly, he came back with his best album since Wildflowers. I cannot emphasize just how good this album is, even though it is without the Heartbreakers as a complete band.

240. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004). Back in 2004, I thought Arcade Fire was going to bring back the glory days of the anthemic bands blasting stadium crowds away, as if they were catching the torch being passed to them by Springsteen and U2. This album is glorious in that manner. Turns out they were more a Bowie-wannabe chameleon act. But, that’s cool in its own way. Yet, this album remains their most consistent mission statement.

239. Leon Bridges – Come Home (2015). Ever find yourself craving an Otis Redding-inspired vocalist? Look no further than Leon Bridges on Coming Home because it will completely satisfy your hankering. This album is fantastic at both looking back and forward through Southern-fried soul of the Stax era.

238. Bruce Springsteen – The Rising (2002). When confronting a death or a tragedy, healing is the last step in which to get back to a normal functioning life. So, why shouldn’t the one of the voices of the rock world who could speak across generational lines be the one to initiate the healing process of a major tragedy like 9/11 was. In steps New Jersey’s favorite son Bruce Springsteen to help a nation to begin to heal with this album that full of stories of redemption, the redemption of the families who lost loved ones, the redemption of a nation in mourning, and the redemption of a man reuniting with the greatest backup band in rock history, the E Street Band.

237. Norah Jones – Come Away with Me (2002). Every so often a new artist comes along and taps into the zeitgeist of the music-loving community. In 2002, that new artist was Norah Jones with her tales of love and love lost set to music that reminded older listeners of Carole King and Joni Mitchell, all the while the youngsters were connecting their lines back to Jewell. No matter which way you went, Norah Jones provided us solace during a time of turmoil.

236. Peter Gabriel – So (1986). I had become a Peter Gabriel disciple when I discovered his solo albums back during high school. So, imagine my delight when he released such a soulful song full of double entendres in the form of “Sledgehammer.” Plus, the album was NOT a one-hit and a bunch of filler album. Au contraire, So was full of music that never once compromised Gabriel’s integrity yet captured the ears of the rock aficionados everywhere. This was the album that both the artist and the public deserved.

235. Joy Division – Closer (1980). Joy Division never really got to cash in on the potential success of this, their last album. That’s because lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide on the eve of the album’s release and their debut tour of the USA. Over time, the album sold as the band’s reputation grew. Unfortunately, they were never a band of their time.

234. Stevie Wonder – Talking Book (1972). We are back in those magical years when Stevie Wonder could do nothing wrong. This album represents just the beginning of those wonder years.

233. R.E.M. – Reckoning (1984). With little fanfare, R.E.M. dropped their sophomore album on an unsuspecting crowd. Once again, word-of-mouth praise began to spread about Reckoning and the band that created it that the boys from Athens, Georgia, found themselves performing on David Letterman’s Late Night show, albeit behind white screens. This album was no Murmur part 2, but an album in which the vocals were up in the mix a little more and the lyrics slightly more intelligible. Yet, these guys were proving they were becoming a force with which to be reckoned.

232. Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill (1986). Back in the 80s, it made perfect sense that punk rockers would love hip hop, because members of the two tribes had a mutual admiration club going. When Rick Rubin discovered three Jewish white boys who could rap with the best, he made the brilliant decision to take the Run-DMC sound to its fruition by totally marrying hip hop with not just hard rock and metal beats but the instrumentation as well. And, arguably, the greatest hip hop/punk/metal album was born. Unfortunately, the album also spawned the yucky sounds of the late-90s Nu Metal scene which totally forgot to bring the roll along with the rock of the sound.

231. The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta (1980). This was the album that broke The Police in the States. And, no, my old college and high school friends, The Police were not punk. They took the speed of punk’s playing, married it to a modified reggae beat, some prog-rock/post punk guitar and funky jazz basslines for their sound which was way different than the status quo at the time. Additionally, Sting’s lyrics were nearly poetic yet definitely literary. The Police were so much more than rock music.

230. David Bowie – Blackstar (2016). Bowie never told us that he was dying. He was too busy making this album his farewell statement. And, oh my God, what a statement of strength during a time of total weakness was simply breathtaking. Of course, Bowie died just as the album was being released, but he left us with something that will take future musicians 20 years to decipher completely and integrate into their sounds. Was it jazz? No. Rock? No. It was simply David Bowie in the 21st century. Then, rock’s most creative voice was silenced.

229. Beyoncé – Beyoncé (2013). These days it is so difficult for any major artist to quietly drop a joint on an unsuspecting audience. Yet, somehow, Queen Bey did it with an album chronicling her famous husband Jay-Z’s extramarital affair. This album proved once and for all who the toughest female on the planet was, Beyoncé. Moral of the story? You don’t cross Taylor Swift, abuse Tina Turner, and you sure as hell don’t cheat on Beyoncé!

228. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory (2000). Does Linkin Park qualify as Nu Metal? I never really thought so because while they lyrics contained touches of Nu Metal nihilism, their music actually had some groove to it. Regardless of the outcome of that debate, Linkin Park’s debut album is a keeper.

227. Paul Weller – Stanley Road (1994). Perhaps rock’s most consistently great artist, all the while remaining its most underappreciated artist, Paul Weller assumed the mantle of the Modfather with this album showing the world just who had the most direct influence on some new UK sound called Britpop. No Weller, and his former bands The Jam and The Style Council, we would have never experienced The Smiths, Stone Roses and, of course, Britpop.

226. Prince & the New Power Generation – (The Love Symbol Album) (1992). While this album stands as his last big impact on the commercial charts, he was still evolving faster than his audience could possibly keep up. This album is pure funk (“Sexy MF”) interspersed with some fine pure pop (“7”) that showed that Prince still had his finger on the pulse of 90s music.

225. Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty (1998). Just when we think we have the Beasties all figured out, they drop an album that is completely out of left field. Once again, they drop the instruments again and pump up the forgotten turntable scratches. This album actually peaked with the hit “Intergalactic.”

224. Various Artists – Singles [The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (1992). How did Cameron Crowe do it? He noticed that Seattle, the home of his then-wife and Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson, was going to have such a cultural impact through its music scene. He wrote a coming-of-age love story screenplay, cast some up-and-coming Gen X actors and got music from nearly all of the great grunge bands of the era. The whole package is a time capsule, especially the fantastic alternative rock soundtrack with the likes of future hitmakers like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Smashing Pumpkins.

223. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin (1969). To the public, this album is a touchstone, as if music totally changed to serious musicianship and heavier music with fantasy lyrics all based in the blues. To critics, they were all crying that Jimmy Page simply ripped off the Jeff Beck Group. When you compare this album with the JBG’s first two which came out first, the similarities are undeniable. But, for my money, Zep swings a bit more. Plus, its a little disorienting hearing Rod Stewart singing over heavy blues sounds.

222. Chic – C’est Chic (1978). I think the whole idea of Roxy Music being the source of influence on Chic got lost simply because people hated disco. But Chic was so much more than disco as displayed on this album. They are funk, jazz, rock and more all decorated in a disco setting. They were African-Americans who were aspiring to bigger things in a white world. They were simply ahead of their time while being of their time. Sophisticated, witty and just plain excellent is the way to describe this album.

221. Madonna – Madonna (1983). To people my age, there was before Madonna and after Madonna. Before Madonna, disco sucked in the public’s imagination. After Madonna, disco was still a dirty word for another decade or so, but her version was dressed up with rock, Motown, and the ever-80s sound of synthesizers. Suddenly, punks and rockers were being found on the dancefloor because of this album and its hits. “Borderline” will always have a special place in my heart.

220. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Daryl Hall & John Oates (1975). After three albums with Atlantic, that label did not know what to do with this duo that was equal parts folk, rock and soul. But, when “The Silver Album,” as this album is known to Hall & Oates fans, arrived, it was obvious that RCA turned them loose and allowed the duo to follow their impeccable instincts. Of course, the highlight is “Sara Smile,” written for Daryl’s then-longtime love interest Sara Allen.

219. Chicago – Chicago Transit Authority (1969). So what do you do when you are enrolled in DePaul University’s School of Music but want to make a mark in rock music? Well, find the best musicians in the school and form a band. Oh, and you hire an unschooled musical prodigy on guitar who just happened to have a voice similar to Ray Charles and begin to finish the jazz/rock fusion began by Blood, Sweat and Tears. And, the legend of Chicago, the band, was born. In the early days, before drugs and the death of guitarist Terry Kath started the band down the ballad road, they were one of the hottest bands in the American rock underground. They were so good that supposedly none other than Jimi Hendrix said they were his favorite band and Kath was the best guitarist on the planet. This double album shows the band’s vision was nearly fully developed.

218. Van Morrison – It’s Too Late to Stop Now (1974). From what I understand, seeing Van Morrison perform live was a shaky proposition as you never knew which personality of the mercurial singer you would see. Either he was transcendent or he was horrible, with the middle rarely visited. But, if you take what you hear on this album as his normal, you would think that Morrison was a nightly god onstage. He does the hits with a passion matched only by Springsteen.

217. The Zombies – Odessey & Oracle (1968). Sometimes, record companies need to get out of their own way. Initially, this soon-to-become Zombie classic was held up because of some corporate idiot. Then, when it was finally released, the band had dissolved. Now, alternative pop artists view this album as a modern pop classic, often citing it next to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. It’s THAT good.

216. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Big Bam Boom (1984). Rock’s most successful duo proved their 80s revival was still no fluke with Big Bam Boom. Sure, cracks were beginning to show a bit in the rushed songwriting for this album, but they continued to absorb their NYC surroundings, absorbing sounds and implementing them into their music. In this case, the duo and crack touring band led by the incomparable bassist Tom “T-Bone” Wolk and guitarist G.E. Smith (later of SNL Band fame), added hip hop textures and beats of the day to their patented rock ‘n’ soul sound to great effect. Unfortunately, the toll of success caused the whole band of brothers to retreat and go in their separate ways.

215. Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends (1968). As I have stated earlier, it took me a long time to begin to fully appreciate Paul Simon’s solo output as well as the stuff he did with Art Garfunkel. But, I now get it. And, this album to me is the beginning of Simon’s impeccable string of terrific albums.

214. Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dreams (1993). To many, this album represents peak Pumpkins since the band was still in BAND-mode and not a vehicle for leader Billy Corgan’s ego. The sound fluctuates between dreamy and grungy, showing a love for the guitar work of Styx and Boston while taking it all down a post punk highway. There is just some terrific material on this album and makes one helluva mission statement for the band.

213. Run-DMC – Raising Hell (1986). This is THE album that broke hip hop into white suburbia, all the while reviving Aerosmith’s drug-riddled career for a second shot at stardom on the highly influential cover of “Walk This Way.” But, c’mon, we all loved “My Adidas” and “It’s Tricky” even more. I cannot stress the importance of this album on rock history and the trajectory that music has taken ever since.

212. Eric B. & Rakim – Paid in Full (1987). While this hip hop duo did not reach the commercial crossover appeal experienced by Run-DMC, they proved to be more artistically influential in the long run. I believe history will show that if Rakim is not the genre’s greatest MC, then he is definitely its finest lyricist. His influence has been felt through the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Jay-Z and Eminem. In other words, pretty much all of post-Rakim rap royalty.

211. Steely Dan – Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972). If this band were new today, the industry would not know what to do with them. And this was the band’s debut album! All I need to say is the guitar in “Reelin’ in the Years.” Case closed. Next!

210. Cyndi Lauper – She’s So Unusual (1983). Back in college in 1983 and 1984, if this album wasn’t played at a party, someone would have demanded it to be played. We honestly had real arguments while listening to albums as to who would have the bigger career, Madonna or Cyndi? Ponder that one for a moment. We didn’t know how the future played out, but the consensus was the Lauper was going to become HUGE. She had the better voice, better songwriting and better backing band. Plus, she truly seemed like a genuinely good person beneath the skirts made of shredded newspapers and Goodwill clothing. Still, I love her and the influence of the strong woman portrayed on this album will live on.

209. Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967). Columbia had no idea what to do with a vocal prodigy named Aretha Franklin. So, she signed with Atlantic who teamed her with a group of Southern white boys who were musical geniuses that brought out the Queen of Soul. Here is the beginning of Aretha and Muscle Shoals studio band inventing the southern-fried soul sound that has become synonymous with Franklin, Otis Redding and other stars of the era.

208. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970). I was six or seven when the debut album of these purveyors of heavy music was released. My first encounter with the album was at the babysitter’s house. Her middle school-aged smart ass boys locked me in a dark closet and played the intro to “Black Sabbath.” It scared the living shit out of me, while at the same timing thrilling me. Those a-holes laughed. I can just imagine some high peaceniks playing this for the first time and reacting as I did. That vision of the dark closet makes me laugh now. I’d like to thank my long-time friend Walter Ring for getting me into Sabbath fully back in middle school.

207. The Time – What Time Is It? (1982). By 1982, Prince was ready to record music of all kinds. So, besides recording his classic 1999, he wrote, played and arranged albums by two groups under the pseudonym Jamie Starr. One group was his attempt at a 80s version of The Supremes dubbed Vanity 6, with his then-flame Vanity as the front of this all-female singing trio. The other was his Frankenstein monster in which he did his work as Jamie Starr again but put his boyhood friend Morris Day in front as the lead vocalist. After recording two albums, Day put together one of the hottest funk/pop/rock bands ever. This was The Time, and they got so good that they were on the verge of upstaging their creator on tour. So, Prince went out of his way to get in the way of this band from developing into the commercial force they seemed destined to become. This album was peak Time.

206. Tears for Fears – Songs from the Big Chair (1985). Talk about a out of left field hit! Tears for Fears became stars with this album, their second. It is stuffed full of hits and should have been hits that you’d think you were listening to a greatest hits album. I was never so happy that a band got back together as I was this year when these guys released new material. But, they were at the top of their game on this album behind the singles of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Shout” and “Head Over Heels.”

205. Sheryl Crow – Sheryl Crow (1996). On Sheryl’s second album, she got a little more grungy in her terrific songs. But anything that contains a song that Prince would cover on an album, “Every Day Is a Winding Road,” in addition to “If It Makes You Happy,” you must have one hell of an album.

204. John Cougar Mellencamp – Scarecrow (1985). Hoosiers tend to back their own. If you lived in the state from any amount of time, we tend to back your career. So, when Mellencamp (he HATES “Cougar”) first began making inroads on the rock scene and charts, we were there in droves to back him up and buy his records. Then his songs began to reflect our lives, we fell further in love with the “Little Bastard.” Finally, he became an American treasure with this album and his subsequent work for farmers via Farm Aid. After Uh-Huh, he upped the ante on this one behind the abundance of hits like “Lonely Old Night,” “Small Town,” “Rumble Seat” and “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” Man, those were the days.

203. Boston – Boston (1976). Hands down, one of the greatest debut albums ever. It’s right up there with The Cars and Appetite for Destruction in my book. This album, along with Queen’s A Day at the Races, was the soundtrack for my 8th grade year. “More Than a Feeling” was the hit, but “Foreplay/Long Time” was our party anthem.

202. Raspberries – Raspberries (1972). Here is the beginning of the American power pop formula. The album would be a classic if it only contained “Go All the Way.”

201. Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska (1982). The story goes that Springsteen was listening to Woody Guthrie quiet a bit and that began to influence his own songwriting. Initially, he put these songs on tape acoustically, called his band and began the recording process. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, The Boss and his manager/producer Jon Landau both felt the band was diluting the power of the demo versions of this collection of songs. So, they bagged the recording sessions, and put out the demos, after a little cleaning, for the public. They made the right decision because the stark instrumentation only enhanced the power of the lyrics. And, this whole project flew in the face of music being over-produced in the 80s. The album was still a hit! It just so happens that Nebraska only set the stage for what was to be dropped on us in a couple of years.

Greetings and salutations! I am back for Day #5 of the countdown. Today’s music will run the gamut of my musical tastes, with the mid-70s through the 80s dominating the countdown.

For me, the past couple of weeks has been jam packed with concerts and another grandchild’s birthday. And those relatively brief moments of fun are followed with the usual two or three days of recuperation. But, when you are married to a teacher, the summers are always busy.

Outside of the craziness and chaos caused by a surprise January 6th committee hearing, the actions of a highly politicized and activist Supreme Court and continued trend toward more mass shootings, I have found the summer to be unusually quiet. My sinking suspicion is that artists are currently focused on touring as opposed to releasing new music. Since touring is the biggest way for many of these people to make quick money, I cannot say that I don’t blame them.

So far, I find just ten albums that have been released in 2022 that I enjoy. Those artists are, in alphabetical order, Arcade Fire, Charli XCX, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Harry Styles, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, John Mellencamp, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tears for Fears, The Black Keys and The Regrettes. Of course, there’s the brilliant box set of Prince & the Revolution’s 1985 concert in Syracuse, New York, along with his Record Store Day re-release of 1995’s The Gold Experience, but those really do not count as new releases, although I am count the live Prince album by the year’s end. Here’s to hoping that the second half of the year picks up!

Let’s do the countdown thing!

300. Raspberries – Fresh (1972). After Badfinger married the early Beatles pop side with the rock of the early Who, more purveyors of this power pop sound began to spring to life. Cleveland’s Raspberries were one of the more successful of those bands. Their second album continued to build upon the muscular pop of their debut.

299. Sly & the Family Stone – There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971). Forty years down the road now, 1971 appears to be a seminal year in music. It seemed as though the culture was reflected in the music of the day. So, it should not be too surprising that Woodstock sensation Sly & the Family Stone would hit their commercial and creative peak that year with the very political There’s a Riot Goin’ On. Unfortunately, the horrors of black America described here in 1971 have changed little in the intervening decades.

298. Marshall Crenshaw – Field Day (1983). Between 1978 and 1983, a second wave of power pop was threatening to take over radio. But, we know how the Boomers viewed this music as bubblegum music, so they put an end to it. Still, Crenshaw’s sophomore album made a major impact behind his fantastic single “Whenever You’re on My Mind.”

297. Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It (2008). Ever since the Nineties, there has been something of a neo-soul scene building. The sound finally came to a head with the release of the former creative mind behind Tony! Toni! Tone! and Prince bassist this Raphael Saadiq album that embraced the sweet sounds of the 70s Philly sound mixed in with a little Detroit-based Motown. It was a wonderful update of the sounds that was welcomed by old Gen X-ers and Millennials alike.

296. En Vogue – Funky Divas (1992). It seems like the area does not matter, because the formula has been successful throughout the rock era. Take three to five beautiful women with wonderful voices that compliment each other and give them a hip group name and access to some of the best writers in the industry. Then you crank out the hits until everyone gets a big ego and puts an end to the gravy train. In the early 90s, it was En Vogue who capture record buyers with their brilliant records and model-esque looks.

295. My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves (2003). Prior to MMJ finding their trademark amalgamation of rock, country, R&B, blues, Prince, and Phish-like jamband, this Louisville band was just another new Southern rock-influenced band. When the boys hit upon their sound, I hoped they just might develop into a 21st century version of The Band. Instead, they became themselves.

294. Michael Jackson – Bad (1987). After Thriller, I think Michael could have released an album of his coughs, sneezes, belches and farts, and it would have gone platinum over ten times. Instead, thankfully, he gave us for all purposes a greatest hits album of unreleased gems. This was Michael at his peak, though it sounded just a little bit too close to Thriller for me.

293. Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (1985). Ironically, Kate Bush has been experiencing a revival of this album and its single “Running Up That Hill” lately because of the latter’s inclusion in the current season of Netflix’ big hit show Stranger Things. Once again, this only proves that great music is great music, no matter the era. Could this lead to Ms. Bush finally being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Time will tell.

292. Van Halen – 1984 (1984). Unfortunately, this album may have lost a little luster over the years for its use of synthesizers. But, seriously, who cares?!?! People still dig ZZ Top’s Eliminator, and they followed the same game plan. “Jump,” “I’ll Wait,” Panama” and “Hot for Teacher” was a brilliant run of singles.

291. Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes (1983). At the time, no one realized that punk would sound fantastic played on acoustic instruments. Then Milwaukee’s Violent Femmes proved it. This is a perfect album for the whole teenage boy experience and their hormone-driven confused thinking.

290. Joe Jackson – Night and Day (1982). When Joe Jackson burst onto the scene in the late-70s, he was another angry-voiced punk-inspired power poppish British singer/songwriter in the vein of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. Then, around the same time Elvis took a left turn into sophisticated pop, Jackson moved to NYC and allowed the jazz scene there to influence his songwriting. That resulted in his most commercially successful album, Night and Day, behind the excellent hit song “Steppin’ Out.”

289. The Who – Quadrophenia (1973). Whether Pete Townshend knew it at the time or not, his second foray, and for my money his best, into the rock opera world paved the way for The Jam. It may have been Pete’s look back at his lost youth as a mod, but Paul Weller picked up the ball and ran. Truthfully, this is my go-to Who record.

288. Joni Mitchell – Blue (1971). This is THE Joni Mitchell album to own. She may go down in history as a fantastic lyricist, but her guitar playing is utterly tasteful and complex. I love the album, but I still give the female singer/songwriter award to Carole King.

287. Tom Petty – Full Moon Fever (1989). Since the dawn of the Eighties, it seems as if Tom has been the soundtrack of major events in my life. In 1989, I bought this album on the very day my younger son was born. Yes, the hits are all excellent, yet a little overplayed. But, the album is made by the greatness of its deep cuts. My favorites are “Love Is a Long Road,” “The Apartment Song,” and my lullaby for my younger son “Alright for Now.”

286. The Velvet Crush – Teenage Symphonies to God (1994). I remember flipping through the new CD section at a Best Buy and stumbling across this album. Immediately, I recognized the Brian Wilson quote and noticed it was being stocked in the Christian Rock section there. I knew this wasn’t correct. And my intuition paid off as I discovered one of the finest albums of the third wave of power pop. This is a terrific album throughout.

285. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (2008). It took long enough for a band to be influenced so much by Paul Simon’s Graceland. Thank God someone was! Vampire Weekend has enough of that album mixed with touches of debut album-era Talking Heads to make this one delicious album. One of the best debuts in the new millennium.

284. The Lemonheads – It’s a Shame About Ray (1992). By 1992, the third wave of power pop was in full swing, and The Lemonheads lead singer Evan Dando was being pimped as a grungey skater boy pinup for girls, while his band was updating the Raspberries for Generation X. Any time you have an ode to your pot dealer, you know you are in for an interesting musical ride.

283. New Order – Low-Life (1985). Maybe it was the stress of being a newlywed, or a new parent, or a student in a difficult medical technology program. Or, was it all of the above? But, in 1985, music just wasn’t all that exciting to me. Now, 1985 has some real highlights, with this New Order release being one of the stronger ones of the year.

282. Ramones – Ramones (1976). Sure, the world had all this proto-punk stuff lying around like The Stooges, MC5 and New York Dolls. But ground zero for the original punk era began right here. Gone were the long, boring solos of virtuosity, and in were short, concise songs steeped in bubblegum and the pop/rock songs of the 60s complied on the Nuggets compilation from 1972. And, Ramones were the first to put it all on wax.

281. The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night (1964). Wanna know where power pop based its sound? Look no further than the title song of this album. Still, this soundtrack album showed that the Fab Four’s lyrics were beginning to grow from the simplicity of boy-meets-girl love songs as adult themes begin to seep in.

280. Todd Rundgren – Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971). Todd’s second solo album is once again hinting at the power of his prodigious talent. Hit songs and songs that should have been hits are littered throughout the album, as will become a common theme in Todd’s career. Yes, he made a name as a record producer, but the man is as talented an artist there is.

279. David Bowie – Let’s Dance (1983). I agree with album producer Nile Rodgers that Let’s Dance is a classic Bowie album. And, I might lean toward the reason being a little bit based upon race. Regardless, Bowie and Rodgers teamed to create one helluva of a dance record that transcended race and charted all over the Billboard charts. To me, this album best shows just how brilliant Bowie was since he needed a big selling album to get himself out of debt, and he delivered it seemingly effortlessly. I think this is the album Duran Duran has always wanted to make.

278. The Jam – Sound Affects (1980). By 1980, The Jam were the UK’s biggest band, yet the States weren’t taking to their odes to English life. So, Paul Weller took his two bandmates toward a more R&B-influenced sound and this was their outcome, a new exciting sound that updated the early Who sound for a new generation. Now, if the album just had their greatest single “Going Underground,” it would have been perfection.

277. Fitz & the Tantrums – Pickin’ Up the Pieces (2010). Both my wife and I were constantly on the search for a new band that was updating the tried and true rock ‘n’ soul sound of Hall & Oates. Then, we watch Daryl’s House on the web one night and discovered the band’s singers Fitz and Noelle. We’ve been big fans ever since. But, their debut long player remains their most consistent release to date.

276. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995). This album is everything that Britpop aspired to be. Solid songwriting, a British take on power pop, the influences of The Kinks, Paul Weller, The Smiths AND The Beatles everywhere you turned. Along with Pulp and Blur, Oasis was THE Britpop band of the 90s.

275. Rick James – Street Songs (1981). Before Prince got his act together, the man you went to for a funk/rock mix was Rick James. He owned that sound in the late-70s and early-80s. And this album was James’ tour de force. What can you possibly say about one album that has background vocals by The Temptations, a duet with Tina Marie AND both “Superfreak” and “Give It to Me Baby”? You say it’s a classic, that’s what!

274. INXS – Kick (1987). Next to AC/DC, INXS was the biggest Australian musical export. Yet, they have just stumbled upon their brand of Stones rock and funk mix on 1986’s single “What You Need.” Upon the consolidation of their sound of that single as the band’s starting point, the quintet dove headfirst into the recording of Kick and created a masterpiece that transcended genres.

273. Otis Redding – Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965). Otis Redding was on his way to becoming a legend when he released this album with a title that must have been rewritten by Mr. Obvious. No crap! Otis Redding IS soul! This album put the exclamation on that sentence.

272. Blondie – Parallel Lines (1978). It’s funny now, but back when CBGBs was becoming a punk rock icon, Blondie was considered to be the weakest of all the bands that called the place home. Yet, when the dust settled, it was Blondie who became pop stars, had the big hits, maintained their integrity AND had the sex symbol of NYC cool in Debbie Harry. This album is the band’s masterpiece as they flex their muscles across NYC chic girl group cool, power pop, punk and even out-discoed all of the disco artists of the day on their eternal “Heart of Glass.”

271. Prince & the Revolution – Around the World in a Day (1985). In June 2022, the Prince Estate released a lost Prince classic live album that was supposed to come out in 1985. But, as we now know but were learning at the time was that the man was moving faster musically than the industry could keep up. So Live was shelved until last month and this psychedelic pop experiment was released instead. Basically, he showed that he could take The Beatles to Minneapolis, dip them in Easter egg paints and create a whole new aural sound. In all honesty, this album was Prince at his most laser-focused.

270. Eurythmics – Touch (1983). On the duo’s second release of 1983, Eurythmics topped Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by relying less and less on the synthesizers that made them superstars and began their movement toward a more traditional use of instruments to create their patented moody sound. Plus, Touch was the album in which we learned that Annie Lennox possessed one of the most soulful and powerful voices of the Eighties, bar none.

269. Sheryl Crow – Tuesday Night Music Club (1993). When Sheryl Crow burst onto the radio, she was elbowing her way through a crowd of grunge rockers, New Jack singers, alternative nerds, gangsta rappers and Garth Brooks. But, she did so because she had well-written Americana-influenced pop/rock gems that were played by a group of some of the best musicians the world had to offer. And, the whole project came together organically.

268. Bob Dylan – Modern Times (2006). Just when I was ready to send Dylan out to pasture to stud, he releases this album to prove that he may be pushing 80, but he is still a creative force of nature. In retrospect, if you couple this album with 1997’s Time Out of Mind and 2001’s unfortunately timed Love & Theft (released on 9/11) started a new creative streak for the bard of Minnesota.

267. Jenny Lewis – The Voyager (2014). Back in the day, some critic online wrote an article about artists who released better Tom Petty-sounding albums than Tom’s Hypnotic Eye. While I didn’t agree with the author, I understood why he was pimping these albums, one of which was this album by Jenny Lewis. No, Lewis is NOT a new Tom Petty. Nope. She’s a new Jenny Lewis. Ms. Lewis gave up acting to pursue her music career, and The Voyager is the pay-off. Welcome to the big leagues, Jenny, because you made a classic.

266. Grateful Dead – Workingman’s Dead (1970). Basically, The Dead have lived off their two classic 1970 albums, this one and American Beauty. Somehow, the boys streamlined their sound and the jamming tendencies on this album and stuck to the plan of concise countrified rock songs. These Dead albums, along with the Flying Burrito Brothers, opened the door for the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt to fly through.

265. U2 – Zooropa (1993). At the time, U2 was riding high on the successful experiments of Achtung Baby and the success of their pop trash Zoo TV Tour, all of which solidified them as the newest stadium rockers. The band, in typical fashion, dove further down the irony-laced rabbit hole and created this legendary album. Back in the day, U2 were shellacked for this album. But, in retrospect, this album was taking the experiments of Achtung to its logical completion. Plus, we can thank U2 for reviving Johnny Cash’s career and reputation, because he went on a creative tear during his last decade of life.

264. Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981). If you ever wonder just who invented the idea of sampling, look no further than this collaboration between two masters of sound manipulations, Brian Eno and David Byrne. However, instead of sampling snippets of famous recordings, the duo traveled the world recording indigenous music, sermons and prayers and set the whole thing to similar African beat sounds found on Talking Heads’ Remain in Light. Today, we might consider this a little like cultural appropriation, but I still am mesmerized by what the pair did. Good luck in finding a version of the album that originally contained a Quran reading; THAT was questionable back then. But when faced with a potential backlash, the duo quickly removed the offending song and replaced it with another. So, I guess kudos to them?

263. Sting – The Dream of the Blue Turtle (1985). Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers were all part of a little band called The Police. But, the three, despite the creative output, were a volatile lot. So, Sting hired a band of young jazz hotshots and recorded some of his best songs to date with them. While the creative tension of the trio was gone, and a slick professionalism was in its place. A great album for late at night relaxation.

262. Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies (1973). Here is the first album I ever bought. Boy, did I ever have an ear for music. This was Marilyn Manson for the young Gen X generation. “No More Mister Nice Guy” got me in, but “Elected,” etc. kept me listening.

261. King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King (1969). If I may speak honestly, back in my teen years, I did not have the patience for much progressive rock music. Whether it was the Celtic folk/rock marriage of Jethro Tull, rock/English folk of original Genesis, classical music/rock combo of ELP or Yes, it all just meandered too much for me. I’ve always been a “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” (thanks Mike Campbell!) kind of guy. But, when the prog rock was foreboding and dark, I liked it. So, King Crimson was right up my alley.

260. Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77 (1977). Here we go! Talking Heads officially rear their, uh, heads! Yep! I was hooked in 1979 by “Life During Wartime” and Fear of Music. Immediately, I went back in their catalog and discovered this nervous and disjointed take on bubblegum gem, realizing I had found my people.

259. Madonna – Like a Prayer (1989). When the Eighties were ending, Madonna was the biggest female star on the planet, even rivaling Michael and Prince for the throne of the kingdom. So, as she always did, Madonna was going to challenge the status quo while taking money from Pepsi. With that came the controversial commercial which aired once and set off a firestorm with its burning crosses and portrayal of a black Jesus, just like in her video for the song. Oh, controversy aside, Madonna created arguably her most musically accomplished album of her career. She sure knew how to piss off the establishment back then. I just wish she’d leave those shenanigans to the younger artists. When we old farts do it, we look sad and desperate.

258. Kiss – Destroyer (1976). When I think of the bicentennial year of 1976, I musically think of this All-American album. I played the hell out of it. Destroyer became the first album that I had to replace after playing it so much. Is that a big enough compliment?

257. Queen – Sheer Heart Attack (1974). “Killer Queen” was the hit off this album, but I discovered rather quickly that this album was a solid affair. “Now I’m Here” has become my favorite song on the album. You can definitely hear the early rumblings of A Night at the Opera/A Day at the Races on this album.

256. The Smiths – The Smiths (1984). In my mind, R.E.M. landed the first blow for alternative music with Murmur in 1983. Then, The Smiths followed it with their left-hook of punch with their debut album the following year. And the alternative rock/college rock/modern rock onslaught was on for the next six years.

255. Pulp – Different Class (1995). When I think of Britpop, I think of Oasis. When I think of the heirs to the Stone Roses’ kingdom of British-oriented pop/rock, that crown goes to Pulp. This album describes the class divide so well in Great Britain. Unfortunately, I think this album might now hit Gen Z hard between the eyes with the direction the USA is moving now.

254. Material Issue – International Pop Overthrow (1991). This Chicago trio threw the whole third wave of power pop into high gear as they ascended to the region’s royalty status alongside Cheap Trick and Off Broadway. They breathed new life in the genre, making sit nicely between the grunge and alternative rock of the day. Do not underestimate just how good this band was.

253. Billy Squier – Don’t Say No (1981). Mr. Squier was a member of a great lost power pop band called Piper. When the band broke up, Squier toughened up his sound but did not lose the pop melodies and concocted an AOR album for the ages. Screw Loverboy, REO, and the rest of the AOR artists of the era, THIS is the album to own.

252. Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley (1957). What can I say? Elvis’ debut is the beginning of modern rock & roll. My apologies to Chuck Berry and Little Richard. You guys may have invented it, but Elvis took it to the masses (sorry once again, uh, white people).

251. Etta James – At Last (1960). There is no denying just how magnificent this album is. It is always on the best-selling blues albums chart. It is simply impeccable.

Due to my back issues, I’ve become an unfortunate expert at navigating the insurance worlds of medical, long-term disability and waivers. The greatest weakness we have in the healthcare system of the USA is insurance. Their bottom line is to make money, but the question is should we be profiting from people’s health in a legalized betting and Ponzi scheme?

Everytime my wife’s employer changes medical insurance providers, I will always get hassled for having a pain pump, though one of those companies approved its implantation back in 2012. Whenever we become “new” insured, I have my pain doc’s payments slowed until they realize I have a pre-existing condition. So, we go through this about every three years when the school corporation decides its time to save money.

Perhaps my favorite battle is not with Social Security, it is with the company with whom I have long-term disability insurance. I took out this insurance when I was still healthy and changed school corporations to the one from whom I retired. Every four to five years they want documentation to prove that my condition warrants the insurance payments since I had turned down their scrawny bid at taking a lump sum payment when I first applied for the benefit. It seems now that they believe I could work at a sedentary job where I sit for six straight hours. Hell, I can’t even sit for 15 minutes without having to change positions to another chair, the bed, couch, etc.

Plus, if I were to “work,” I would need to take more pain medicine and more muscle relaxers. More of them would lead to more drowsiness and incidences of passing out during work. I’m sure the insurance company would love a lawsuit if I were to get into an automobile accident that included bodily injury or worse to an outside party when attorneys discover that I was forced to go back to some job because the insurance company did not want to pay out on an insurance that will only last five more years. Additionally, I do not believe a prospective employer would love having an employee who was stoned on the job from pain medicines that I would need to survive.

Yes, I would LOVE to be able to work and contribute to society. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be my lot in life any longer. Now, I am just a guy who takes an inordinate amount of time to write a blog about music a couple times per week (FYI: I began writing this entry at 9:45 am. I will put the publishing time at the end of this blog to give you an idea as to how long this will take).

Okay, I do look somewhat normal, albeit with much added weight to my frame. I do attempt to live a normal life but that “normal” life pays a toll on my body. If I go to a concert, I will be down (sleeping) for the next 24-36 hours. Same thing if I do something with my grandchildren. If those little rascals come over, I will play for 15 minutes then lay down for an hour. Lord help me if we travel for a family weekend or a weekend with friends. Did that last weekend, and I have been down ever since we got home Sunday, sans the two spent trading in books and albums at Half-Price books.

I go to bed exhausted and in pain, and I get up, at my very best, in the same amount of pain and just a little less exhausted. But, that is rare, as it only occurs a couple times a year. My usual morning is waking up as if I had run a marathon and played six hours of basketball than beaten with a baseball bat. And, it’s worse in the evening. The days of waking up refreshed and ready to tackle another day are at least 15 years in my rearview mirror, if not longer.

So, instead of sliding further down this dark rabbit hole, how about I get to the stuff you came for, the countdown. After the last entry, we stopped at number 351, so we will pick up there. Thanks for letting me vent a little. Peace and love to you all!

350. Isaac Hayes – Hot Buttered Soul (1969). Nothing like a psychedelic soul experience filtered through a jam band mentality.

349. Elvis Costello & the Attractions – Armed Forces (1979). In the late-70s, you had the E Street Band, the Heartbreakers and the Silver Bullet Band as a few of the great backup bands. This record proves that the Attractions deserve to be mentioned in the same breath.

348. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975). This album just might be the Floyd’s most personal artistic statement, which is all summed up in the transcendent “Wish You Were Here.”

347. Kanye West – The College Dropout (2004). In 2004, I had trouble going anywhere without hearing a cut from Ye’s debut. Whether I was at home, at track practice or in school, “Jesus Walks” was everywhere.

346. Counting Crows – August & Everything After (1993). I love Counting Crows small homage to Van Morrison commercial output in the early-70s.

345. Rage Against the Machine – Evil Empire (1996). When Rage was on in the 90s, they just might have been the best hard rock band in the world. Not as strong of an album in their cannon, but it’s better than most of their competitor’s best.

344. John Hiatt – Bring the Family (1987). This beautifully quiet and subdued album represents one of the first “adult”-themed albums in my collection. The subtleties of family life are brought to life in rock for one of the first times.

343. Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees (1976). What an album! Did Boz invent Yacht Rock on this one or simply bring the first coherent musical offering of the genre? Either way, thank God that Scaggs got the blueprint correct.

342. Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell (1977). In the world of dramatic pop rock statements, there but two artists at the top: Queen and Meat Loaf. The latter earns his status on this little rock opera about a modern day Peter Pan-type of character. And few artists had the voice to bring songwriter Jim Steinman’s vision to life as Meat did. This album may be underrated in this countdown.

341. Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac (1975). The Mac was the UK’s ultimate journeymen blues rock band who had the uncanny luck of surviving a revolving door at the lead guitar position. When the latest lead guitarist Bob Welch left, the namesake rhythm section of the band picked a couple of SoCal folkies in Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Then, the band became the biggest in the world.

340. The Kinks – Something Else (1967). During 1967, rock & roll completed its transition to rock as musicians across the genres all began to tackle complex topics in their lyrics and made music to listen to rather to dance to. The Kinks decided to become the voice of the British commoner, which contributed to the band having reduced success in the States. Still, this album is excellent and just might be ground zero for Paul Weller’s career AND all of Britpop. Now, that’s a legacy!

339. Funkadelic – Maggot Brain (1971). Back in the late-60s, George Clinton had some trouble marketing his version of funk under the moniker The Parliaments. Plus, the man was taking acid, so he downplayed the horn section of Parliament and cranked up the guitars to become Funkadelic. Therefore, Funkadelic was initially the rock side of Clinton’s personality and Parliament the funk side. Just listen to the fantastic guitar work of the late Eddie Hazel to grasp that maybe the greatest guitarist was in funk and rock bands.

338. Sade – Diamond Life (1984). Model-turned-singer Sade burst onto the scene at the end of new wave. But, her brand of Euro-influenced sophistipop and soul became the sound across the decades. And it all started humbly enough on this album.

337. Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995). So, The Boss began the 90s by giving The E Street Band their walking papers. He recorded two simultaneously released lackluster albums with session players. Next up was a return to his Nebraska solo days and regained his superstar status in the process.

336. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (2012). Springsteen had a solid creative period in The Aughts, so he carried that momentum into the Twenty-Teens and released his finest, most urgent album of the 21st century. The album title simply states his mission statement.

335. The Black Keys – Brothers (2010). This guitar and drum duo picks up where The White Stripes left off. The Keys, though, shoot for the blues rock comfort zone, while the Stripes were almost aping Zeppelin. But, when The Keys are on, as they are on this LP, they are one of the better bands on the planet.

334. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002). What is it about bands who are facing trouble from their labels, simply continue to follow their muse and release a killer set on another label? It happens all of the time. And Wilco did it just at a time when the band was about to blow up, artistically, internally and commercially. This album is a band against the world statement.

333. Jane’s Addiction – Ritual De Lo Habitual (1990). Jane’s Addiction hit their peak on the band’s second and last studio album during their first go-around.

332. Robbie Robertson – Robbie Robertson (1987). After 11 or so years since The Band broke up after performing their farewell concert dubbed The Last Waltz, lead songwriter Robbie Robertson suddenly reappears to begin a solo career that seemed a little out of step with the times in the Eighties. Still, the album was hauntingly great and seemed to foretell the coming of Tracy Chapman and Cowboy Junkies.

331. Parliament – Mothership Connection (1975). Clinton brought the funk AND the horns on this funky freak out. Just a brilliant mix of sci-fi, funk, rock and craziness.

330. MC5 – Kick Out the Jams (1969). In the late-60s, Detroit brought not only Motown, Parliament/Funkadelic and Bob Seger, it was the actual birthplace of a rock sound that would come to be called punk in another half a decade. The Stooges were the heart and soul of the sound, but MC5 brought the militant stance.

329. The Who – Tommy (1969). Arguably the first and perhaps the greatest rock opera, The Who took their mod-influenced rock to a whole new level on this set.

328. Crosby, Stills & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969). Take a member from each of the following bands and what do you get? The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies. Well, it wasn’t rock. It was barbershop quartet-type harmonies filtered through folk and rock that jumpstarted the whole singer/songwriter movement of the 70s.

327. The B-52’s – The B-52’s (1979). This kitschy debut by the FIRST band out of Athens, Georgia, is a party album delight. With a deadpan lead vocalist and two otherworldly female backup vocalists bring the humor and sarcasm to some danceable garage rock. They were the right band at just the right time to have an impact.

326. Ramones – Road to Ruin (1978). Would still be a classic album if it only had “I Wanna Be Sedated.” But, the track list is so much deeper with some influential first wave American punk rock.

325. Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years (1975). Simon’s music only grows in stature as I get older and understand its complexity and insightful lyrics.

324. U2 – War (1983). Arguably, Generation X’s first mega-popular band rose to fame on the grand statement of this album. And, at the time, many thought War would become the band’s ultimate artistic statement. Now, we all know how that turned out.

323. TLC – CrazySexyCool (1994). TLC’s sophomore album announced to the world that TLC was no longer three teenaged girls but three women ready to tackle adult themes in the music and their lives. Can you imagine how revered this trio would be had Left Eye had lived? By the way, “Waterfalls” may be the best Prince single of the 90s, since that’s who I initially thought it was upon its release.

322. Beastie Boys – Check Your Head (1992). Just when everyone was about to count out Beastie Boys as a one-trick pony, the Boys rediscover their punk roots and instruments, purchase a damaged analog microphone and proceed to make their indelible mark on hip hop history. It’s the Beasties ability to look back and ahead simultaneously that made their output in the 90s so exciting and vital.

321. Paul Weller – 22 Dreams (2008). In the 70s, Weller was busy marrying R&B and other mod sounds with early Who and the punk of the day while in The Jam. Then, in the 80s, he took an abruptly detour into jazzy 70s soul and current hip hop Europop with The Style Council. When he arrived in the 90s as the Modfather, the father of all things Britpop, Weller was ready to grow up and honor ALL of his influences, which included the prog rock of Traffic. As Weller entered his third decade of recording, he finally produced a double album of some of the best British rock since Ray Davies’ heyday in the late-60s.

320. The White Stripes – Elephant (2003). This album is something of a Led Zeppelin IV for the Millennials. If you haven’t heard the “Black Dog” of the new century in “Seven Nation Army,” then you have been prepping for Armageddon.

319. St. Vincent – MASSEDUCATION (2017). So, if you miss Talking Heads as I do, and LCD Soundsystem is not your cup of tea, then let me offer St. Vincent as your next alternative. As a matter of fact, Annie Clark is so good as a TH disciple that she recorded an album with former lead-Head David Byrne. Still, this may just be her finest moment.

318. Mayer Hawthorne – A Strange Arrangement (2009). Hawthorne was a hip hop DJ who wanted to create some early-70s soul music to use in a hip hop setting because he couldn’t afford samples. When some record executives got wind of how good these songs were with his vocals, Hawthorne was convinced to release the material. John Mayer tweeted that this album was the “album of the year” after he listened to it.

317. Soundgarden – Superunknown (1994). Part of Seattle’s grunge scene’s Big Four (with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains being the other three), Soundgarden was the first to be signed and the last to hit big with the public. The band’s sound was massive but wouldn’t have worked without Chris Cornell’s untouchable vocals.

316. LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out (1990). So, we’re not supposed to call this a comeback, but LL was coming off a pretty weak album and with hip hip’s notoriously short shelf-life, why wouldn’t believe this to be a comeback. And what a comeback! LL predicted the turn in rap music toward a harder, more street sound. Brilliant, just simply brilliant.

315. George Clinton – Computer Games (1982). “Atomic Dog” is all I need to say!

314. Alice Cooper – School’s Out (1972). This album was my entry into the world of rock music. And, it’s the perfect album for a tweener to enter rock with as it contains the ultimate holiday song in “School’s Out.” It’s no wonder that kids my age were so quick to jump on the KISS bandwagon after this album.

313. Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado (1974). ELO has been so underrated with the Boomers constantly bitching about Jeff Lynne’s Beatles fixation. But even John Lennon himself was a fan of the band. This just happens to be one of their better releases.

312. The Who – The Who Sell Out (1967). The Who honored the pirate radio movement in British radio by recording an album that sounded like a pirate radio show, complete with advertisements. What a brilliant concept album!

311. The Kinks – Face to Face (1966). This album gave us just an inkling as to what direction leader Ray Davies was moving. He was becoming the voice of the UK version of the common man.

310. Heart – Dreamboat Annie (1976). File this under “Could Only Happen in the USA During the 70s.” Two young women are infatuated with Led Zeppelin. One is a guitar genius while the other is a better Robert Plant-type singer than the man himself. They travel to Canada to find musicians to help them. The band creates a female version of Led Zeppelin, and the rest is history. Oh, and the album gave us “Magic Man” too.

309. De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising (1989). By the late-80s, hip hop was moving from the party anthems of Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC to gangsta rap of N.W.A. But, a few knuckleheads in NYC began to thumb through albums of what we now call Yacht Rock artists to sample. The outcome is this off-beat hip hop album that puts the funk back into the samples of Steely Dan and Hall & Oates. This album was so different from anything else at the time.

308. Pearl Jam – Vs. (1993). Pearl Jam struck platinum right away with their grunge classic Ten. So, in order to attempt to temper fan’s anticipation, the band followed lead singer Eddie Vedder’s vision to go back to their punk roots in order to create their sophomore album. Lord knowns the boys thought the public would reject the album, but it only loved the band more fervently.

307. Paul Weller – True Meaning (2018). Once again, the Modfather follows up a challenging album with one whose songs come right from his R&B wheelhouse. This is Paul Weller at his best.

306. Taylor Swift – 1989 (2014). This is the moment when country star Taylor Swift shed her skin to reveal a true rock visionary tunesmith. After 1989, Swift was no longer trapped in a corner as a country artist and could follow her muse in which ever direction she desired.

305. Mika – Life in Cartoon Motion (2007). When Mika burst onto the scene, the hype machine was claiming he was stepping into Freddie Mercury’s shoes as the heir to the whole over-the-top rock star. At least, for an album, that was true. “Lollipop” is an excellent pop song.

304. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Change of Season (1990). After a lackluster 1988 Arista Records debut landed like a balloon losing its air, the duo quietly made an album that hearkened back to their Abandoned Luncheonette days. It was nice to hear the boys pushing off all the 80s production trappings and making an album like they did in the 70s.

303. Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run (1973). This is Paul at his rocking best.

302. The Stooges – Fun House (1970). If the Sex Pistols didn’t learn everything they did from this album, then the boys must have been listening to the other two Stooges albums.

301. James Brown – Live at the Apollo (1963). One of the greatest live albums ever recorded only because they caught the Godfather of Soul at his very best.

(End time: 4:40 PM)

Here is something new for my writing madness. This week, my wife and I are watching Grandchild 4 for a transition week before she begins her daycare life. Under the circumstances, I am attempting to write this while she sits in a little vibrating chair. Still, I don’t think this situation will last very long.

Of course, I was correct. Apparently, the little munchkin needed to be rocked to see for her morning nap. Maybe her Pop Pop needs one as well? Not really, so I will press on with this entry.

And, then this entry was delayed for the rest of the week because one of my long time friends scored some tickets for Jackson Browne in the middle of the week. We followed that terrific concert with an unbelievable Billy Joel show in the Notre Dame Stadium up in South Bend, Indiana. Even though we were an American football field away from the stage and near the top row in the stadium, my wife, two of her college friends and I all really thought Joel and his band were outstanding. Originally, we were all going to see Billy Joel at Notre Dame back in June of 2020, but the pandemic delayed the concert for three years before we got it in. And, it was worth the wait!

Lately, I have been wondering why, when I was in middle school, did I ever transition from collecting baseball and basketball cards (many of which I still own), to collecting albums? Probably the foremost reason is that I really did not set out to create a collection. Innocuously, I started by buying an 8-track tape here, an album there, here a 7-inch, there a cassette, here an album, there an album, until I began to gather three things from an album purchase.

The first thing I got from albums was the most obvious: the music. The music, and especially the lyrics, helped me survive an especially awkward time in my life. Not only were my hormones were beginning to blast full tilt through my veins and clouded my brain until it only seemed to be receiving signals from one place, the nether region in my pants. The music spoke to the hormone-rave that was in extreme mode, while the lyrics attempted to make sense of these changes.

The second part was the fact that each album had a cover whose artwork made the album collectable, much like a sports trading card. Now, you were able to teach yourself a little modern art appreciation class every so often as you accumulated albums.

Next, I discovered this thing that resided inside most album covers, and even at times ON the cover itself, a wealth of information collectively known as the liner notes. This information included song lyrics and songwriter information, release date, musician list with their instruments, some possible historical facts about the artist AND possibly an essay written by a rock journalist or publicist detailing the creative process and lyrical meanings of the album in my hands.

So far, I had some music, an art collectable and a brief batch of album information usually found in a fanzine. But, the thing that cemented the album in my life is how the whole package helped me deal with what was to me the completely out of leftfield separation and eventual divorce of my parents. If I did not have access to these albums, I probably would have needed much more psychotherapy. These albums became a way to help me overcome the shock and depression I felt about that shakeup in my family. Along with my participation in sports, rock music helped survive that crazy moment in my life. I will never to fully thank the artists who helped me survive over the years, except by maintaining my collection while living long enough to describe the love I have for their music in this blog.

So, without any further adieu, let’s dive further into my countdown of my 500 favorite albums. Peace!

400. Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’ (2011). Saadiq got his big break by playing in Prince’s band on the Purple One’s 1986 European Tour, followed by a stint in 90s New Jack Swingers Tony! Toni! Tone! On this solo set, Saadiq masters all of influences and combines on this album that shows its influences as well as feeling both timeless and of its time.

399. M.I.A. – Kala (2007). Sri Lanka’s biggest musical export, M.I.A.’s career peaked on her terrific sophomore album that made her sound as street as any American ghetto resident. Plus, anytime you combine a Clash sample with cash register and gunshot sound effects, you’ve piqued my interest.

398. U2 – Rattle and Hum (1988). It seemed to me that U2 were on an every other album is a classic run in the 80s. The terrific Boy was followed by the sluggish October. Then we got the stellar War followed by the push the boundaries The Unforgettable Fire. So, how did the boys follow up their first classic album, The Joshua Tree? With the sprawling and somewhat pretentious Rattle and Rum experience. Still, there are enough winners on the album for it to remain on my chart for 30+ years.

397. The Jam – All Mods Con (1978). Over the course of The Jam’s first two albums, the band was attempting to amalgamate all of their influences (The Who, The Kinks, Motown, 70s soul and punk rock) into one locked in sound. This is the album on which Paul Weller and the boys did just that, inadvertently created the blueprint for The Smiths, Stone Roses and the Britpop movement of the Nineties.

396. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night (2008). When this band debuted during my older son’s high school years, he and I both thought Kings of Leon would become a pretty solid rock band. Well, in reality, it took the boys another couple of albums before they hit paydirt on this one. With singles like “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody,” Only by the Night became a big seller. Unfortunately, the boys really couldn’t write a batch of songs as strong as those found on this LP.

395. The Replacements – Don’t Tell a Soul (1989). When 1989 rolled around, everyone who listened to college rock radio at the time were waiting patiently for The Replacements to get their drinking under control and produce a clean-sounding brand of their Stones-meets- Ramones-via-Springsteen sound to become the world’ biggest band. Fortunately, for us, the band delivered the album wanted by fans, packed with loads of great songs. Sadly, the public decided they’d rather pluck down their hard earned money on a third-rate hair metal band’s album or concert. The Replacements remain in college rock circles as something on the level of The Kinks during their British Invasion heyday.

394. The Style Council – Internationalists (1985). “You don’t have to take this crap!” just may be the greatest opening line of any rock song of the Eighties (“Walls Come Tumbling Down”). And, yet, it was written by the voice of UK Generation X Paul Weller and formed by his band The Style Council. This is Weller at his fiercest in his lyrics while sticking to the Europop-influence modern rock/jazz/Motown/soul mix that made the band more popular back in Europe and reaching cult status here in the states.

393. R.E.M. – Fables of the Reconstruction (1985). On the band’s third album, the boys were tired from five straight years of touring, recording alternating back and forth between the two choices to aide their career. Therefore, the decision to record this album in England, caused the band to become depressed and collectively wrote dark music with dark lyrics to reflect the band’s darkness concerning the recording circumstances. Despite the darkness, this album has a few bright tunes and a consistency that only will grow stronger of the next decade.

392. Billy Joel – An Innocent Man (1983). This one’s Joel’s biggest selling LP, while containing the most hit songs on an album in his illustrious career. It’s as if Billy captured the zeitgeist of the moment when pop music was equally influenced by the sophisticated pop of early Beatles and Motown on An Innocent Man. This album is best known for the huge hit “Uptown Girl,” but don’t overlook the excellent “I Go to Extremes.”

391. Talking Heads – The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads (1982). Forget the excellent live soundtrack recording of the band’s fantastic concert film Stop Making Sense (1984). That’s because 1982’s double-LP The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is the band’s finest live document as it song list takes the listener chronologically through the band’s live performances during their career.

390. Hootie & the Blowfish – Cracked Rearview Mirror (1994). For the years 1994 and 1995, Hootie was the biggest band on MTV and in the States. They were riding a huge crest of a sound that is part R.E.M., part Wallflowers and part Gin Blossoms to create a tasty jangly guitar sound which made an Americana sound more palatable than most bands of the era.

389. Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo (1978). What a perfect album to satirize everything about Western culture that continues to resonate, perhaps even more so now. Devo was so far ahead of their competitors that subsequent artists are trying to catch up to these Akron, Ohio visionaries. Side one remains one of the greatest sides of all time.

388. Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures (1979). Release during a year stuffed with great albums, Joy Division debuted a sound that had a long-lasting influence to this very day, post punk. Tragically, lead singer Ian Curtis would commit suicide on the eve of the band’s first American tour and the release of their sophomore album in 1980. The remaining formed New Order.

387. The Clash – Combat Rock (1982). By 1982, The Clash were ready to officially become rock royalty. Unfortunately, co-leaders Joe Strummer and Mick Jones had vastly different music visions for the seminal band. Jones was ready to have the band dive headfirst into hip hop music, while Strummer, being slightly more of a rocker, wanted the band to get back to its roots in punk. And drummer extraordinaire Topper Headon was losing his battle with heroin at the time, so the band enlisted their competent but less broadly talented original drummer Terry Chimes (or Tory Crimes). So, essentially, The Clash were dead we they were out on tour the summer of 1982 and 1983.

386. Prince – Controversy (1981). In retrospect, Controversy appears to be a dress rehearsal for his second masterpiece, which would be released in 1982 and known as 1999. 1981 will be the last year in which Prince will be anonymous.

385. The J. Geils Band – Love Stinks (1980). Can you believe that it took the Geils Band the better part of a decade to finally match their commercial popularity to their critical acclaim. Songs from this album just seemed to have been played everywhere all of the time.

384. Fountains of Wayne – Utopia Parkway (1999). Long before “Stacey’s Mom” dominated the airways, Fountains of Wayne were critical darlings of the fourth wave of power pop music. FoW are the finest power poppers of the late Twentieth Century.

383. Metallica – Master of Puppets (1986). In all honesty, I am not much of a metal fan. However, when it comes to Metallica, you simply have to admire the members’ individual musical and songwriting talents. Metallica is my favorite metal band of any era.

382. Midnight Oil – Diesel and Dust (1988). The Eighties were a time for bands with grand visions, big lyrics about societal issues and rock anthem music. And few put it all together like Aussies Midnight Oil. These guys were speaking about the environment and anti-capitalist views set to some of the more muscular non-metal rock music of the time. Many were expecting this album to explode like U2’s The Joshua Tree, but, unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards.

381. Bee Gees – Main Course (1975). The Brothers Gibb got the a new lease on their career with this album as they embraced the dance music (disco) and other Miami urban sounds. This was one of the more miraculous comebacks before Tina Turner announced that her retirement was over.

380. Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick (1977). There were actually some excellent albums released in 1977, Cheap Trick’s self-titled debut. This album is so eclectic that you can hear guitar parts that influence grunge here, new wave there, punk, hair metal and power pop, sometimes within the same cut.

379. Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove (1978). Back in 1978, when I competed in a national track meet out in Colorado, the disco that was set up each night played this album’s title song. Nowadays, kids will probably recognize various popular songs with this one being sampled.

378. Janet Jackson – Control (1986). By 1986, Janet Jackson was ready to come out of the long shadows of her brothers, the members and former members of the Jackson 5/The Jacksons, including her brother Michael. Instead of following her father’s commands as her manager, she fired him, got a new manager who put her in touch with two of music hottest producers former members of The Time, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The collaboration between Janet and Jam & Lewis went on to become very creative and lucrative. This album was the trio’s opening salvo.

377. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (1986). England’s biggest alternative jangle band released arguably their best albumin 1986 that became both a creative and commercial peak.

376. Daft Punk – Home Work (1997). Electronic dance music was beginning to exert its muscles, enter a French duo who dressed as two rockin’ robots. What made Daft Punk’s sound so unique was their commitment to the time constraints of pop singles.

375. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007). Just when I was truly missing new music from Talking Heads, along comes this New York conglomeration of musicians who could mix EDM with polyrhythms from the continent of Africa with rock and pop traditions. For a brief moment, LCD helped me get a Heads fix.

374. Adele – 25 (2015). A decade or so ago, Adele dropped her sophomore album, the now classic 21. Then, she went on a brief hiatus, only to reappear in 2015 with her second biggest album of all time. Adele just may be the Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston of her generation.

373. Jenny Lewis – On the Line (2019). The former child actress, Jenny Lewis dove head first into the music industry a couple of decades ago. Ms. Lewis found a niche in the Americana sound until she began to write in a female Tom Petty realm which only endeared her music more to my ears.

372. Halsey – Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017). What I love about the music of Halsey is how she continues to push the boundaries and influences of basic teen female pop/dance music by incorporating darker, Goth-like tones and lyrics.

371. Nas – Illmatic (1994). When Nas released this album, he was being hailed as a new messiah for East Coast and, specifically, New York hip hop scene. This album remains a classic, no matter the genre placement.

370. A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders (1993). A Tribe Called Quest followed up their brilliant The Low End Theory with this classic album that is steeped in the early-90s jazz-influenced hip hop grooves. ATCQ has got to be considered one of the ten greatest rap artists ever.

369. Michael Jackson – Off the Wall (1979). Listen up youngins! This album was released in a year in which new wave, power pop, punk, metal, hard rock and other genres were battling for supremacy. In the midst of all this confusion, Jackson releases his first ADULT album which provided Jackson with the blueprint to follow on all of his Eighties albums.

368. Pink Floyd – Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). This was not an album like the Floyd made in the 70s. No songs concerning mental breakdowns or treatises on human psychoses. No, these songs are actually about drug trips and everything else you thought Pink would actually experience. After that album, their former lead singer, Syd Barrett, developed mental health issues and left the band only to be replaced by the great David Gilmore.

367. Rush – 2112 (1967). What happens when a great underground prog-rock band from Canada drops an album whose concept and lyrics were influenced by the works of Ayn Rand, specifically her book Anthem? We get a society of libertarians who don’t fully understand the truth behind the Constitution and government. All of which is unfortunate, because Rush created one helluva album that should help the listener to discern between the strengths and failures of such a philosophy taking over a society. We may actually fully understand 2112 over the next decade if he refuse to learn anything new and keep history in perspective.

366. Cream – Disraeli Guns (1967). Does this album signal the beginning of hard rock? If it does, that one great album to be considered gone zero. This album is exhibit one for Eric Clapton’s god-like comparisons.

365. Roxy Music – Siren (1975). Here is my personal gateway into the world of Roxy Music. What can I say? I dig my rock dressed up glammy.

364. Prince & the Revolution – Parade (1986). In the post-Purple Rain world of Prince, you can tell which album you are listening to because of the music influences in which Prince was obviously indulging himself. For Parade, the whole project reeks of the influence of France, where the accompanying film Under a Cherry Moon was being produced.

363. The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die (1994). Let the arguments begin! Which was the greatest MC? Was it Rakim? Kurtis Blow? Tupac, Biggie, Em, Jay-Z? Nas? Biz Markie? Hell, I don’t know. But, I do know that Ready to Die rocks!

362. The Black Crowes – Shake Your Moneymaker (1990). At the moment in time when The Black Crowes burst upon the scene, rock was in trouble. Guns N’ Roses were terrorizing the world. AC/DC was stalled creatively. Iron Maiden and Metallica were bringing consistently, but they were just a tad too metal, so the Crowes filled a void rather nicely. “Hard to Tell” is an excellent cover song!

361. Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Let’s Face It (1997). This just might be the best Clash album of the Nineties. Another shame that a band who bottled lightning once could never deliver again. This is such a fun, energetic album that is worth revisiting every year.

360. Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls (2013). Just as I was wishing for some good old Muscle Shoals-based R&B rock & roll, I discovered Alabama Shakes. Lead singer Brittney Howard is the band’s focal point, but the rhythm section is the secret weapon.

359. Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere (2006). When a rap artist (Ceelo Green) and a renegade producer (Danger Mouse) come together, you expect a hip hop project. Instead, we were blessed with this alternative take on R&B and pop that continues to resonate today.

358. Coldplay – Viva la Vida, Or Death and All of His Friends (2009). This just might be my favorite Coldplay album since it doesn’t completely rely on Chris Martin’s piano.

357. The Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987). By 1987, The Cure had been stars in the UK and Europe for nearly a decade, while big sales and fame had alluded them. That is until this album, behind the single “Just like Heaven.” Many people thought lead singer/songwriter Robert Smith was gay, until you read his lyrics. Then it was obvious.

356. D’Angelo – Brown Sugar (1995). D’Angelo’s debut let the listeners know that he loved and was immersed in the music of Marvin Gaye and Prince. But, you could also pick up sounds that were his own. You just knew this guy had the goods to become one of the all-timers.

355. R.E.M. – Monster (1995). After messing around with textures in their music for years, R.E.M. finally decided to make music that actually fits into their raucous live shows. Plus, the boys wanted to answer the call put out by the bands from the Seattle grunge scene. So, Monster is the proof that R.E.M. IS a rock band.

354. Ice Cube – AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990). Ice Cube got tired of the games being played by N.W.A’s management, so the man packed up his written rhymes to go solo. And, he was the first to strike both on his own. AND, he was successful.

353. Tina Turner – Private Dancer (1984). The comeback story of Tina Turner surrounding this album is simply the icing on the cake. That’s because the album is THAT good. Tina was singing for her life, literally. And, fortunately, she was handed some excellent material.

352. David Bowie – Station to Station (1976). In the mid-70s, Bowie spent his time in NYC and Philly soaking up the music of the local R&B scenes. Then he took what he heard in those clubs and filtered it through his art rock and glam layers to create some new pop that would influence some of the New Romantics and other new wave subsets.

351. The Flying Burrito Brothers – The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969). Gram Parsons had been partying with the members of the Stones when he wrote “Wild Horses.” The Stones made a classic out of this slice of Americana music, as it is called today. Parsons gathered up a band of country and rock hotshots to create The Flying Burrito Brothers. They created the blueprint that Linda Ronstadt and Eagles initially used to kickstart their successful careers.

I know. The momentum was broken. I get it! I wrote an entry followed by several days off. What can I say? Family duties called. Babysitting here, a family wedding there, a weekend in Southern Indiana with the extended family, a broken down body right now. That’s how it goes with chronic pain and life. You attempt to live a regular life, though in a greatly compromised manner (i.e. no drinking so you don’t have drug interactions; go to bed while everyone else is partying, etc.). Then you wake up on Monday morning, feeling as if you ran a marathon, played basketball all day the following day, then allowed a baseball team to beat you relentlessly with their bats. It’s an awesome life. I may appear to look somewhat normal, but it’s much worse than I try to let on.

So, enough of the sniveling. Let’s talk about one of the things outside of my family that brings me joy and that’s music. In this list, I purposely left off any and all albums from the current decade mainly because I now prefer to let an album simmer for a couple of years before I begin to honestly rank it. You see, some albums are designed to sound great in the context of the now, while others are constructed with legs. When you are younger, you can immediately and instinctively know which category to place an album. Nowadays, what sounded good one day, now sounds crappy the next. It’s because of that reason, I was not ready to include albums from the 2020s in on my list, even though I am nearly ready to crown Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour album for a fairly high ranking in this list. I seem to keep popping the album on my turntable. What can I say? I dig great pop music.

An interesting side note is that I actually own most of these albums on vinyl. At one time or another, I probably had many of the unowned albums on CD but decided to get rid of them during my massive purge. Now, I am slowly adding vinyl versions of these albums to my collection, though the number of those I don’t own is less than 175 of the titles on this list.

With that said, let’s delve into the next fifty albums on my list.

450. Stevie Wonder – Hotter Than July (1980). Back in the day, Stevie was the man, just on the downside of his creative peak. This album was praised in the day and kind of forgotten now.

449. The Smiths – Meat Is Murder (1985). The Smiths were the darlings of college radio back in the mid-80s. The US release of this one includes their seminal “How Soon Is Now.”

448. Earth, Wind & Fire – That’s the Way of the World (1975). Some bands become despite a wealth of talent, while others have so much ability oozing out of their bodies that it’s absolutely ridiculous. Earth, Wind & Fire is the latter, and they are hot on this album.

447. Genesis – Genesis (1983). Many people prefer the early prog-rock version of Genesis with Peter Gabriel in the lead singer spot, and there is a strong case to be made for that lineup. But, many of us lean toward the tightness and pop influence of the songs of the Phil Collins-led trio version, with this self-titled album arguably being their best.

446. Faith No More – The Real Thing (1989). I will yell this from the mountain tops, “Why wasn’t FNM the biggest band in the world?” They mixed together EVERYTHING that was great about music in the late-80s, alternative, metal, rap, into a compelling and unique sound.

445. Squeeze – East Side Story (1981). Behind Elvis Costello, the duo of Chris Difford and Glenn Tillbrook were the greatest songwriters of the new wave era. This album stands along The Beatles’ late-60s output, Elvis’ first five albums, and Paul Weller’s career as the best examples of excellent British pop.

444. Iggy & the Stooges – Raw Power (1973). This is a great glammed up version of the sound punk. You just cannot oversell how important The Stooges were to modern music.

443. Roxy Music – Stranded (1973). The Glam gods of the UK released a bunch of classics all by 1975, and Stranded was one of the first of their more outstanding releases.

442. Donna Summer – Bad Girls (1979). Disco was all about the 12″ dance single, but Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco, made one of the genres more enduring and well-paced artistic statements of the era.

441. R.E.M. – Green (1988). When college rock darlings R.E.M. abandoned the indie world and signed with Warner Brothers, fans all over worried about the band selling out. No way! The boys from Athens, Georgia, fought to keep their artistic integrity and vision intact even as they moved into U2-sized popularity.

440. David Bowie – “Heroes” (1977). So, by the mid-70s, Bowie was a big critical star without much of the financial footing but the trappings of a cocaine addiction. So, he retreated to Berlin with former Roxy Music “tape manipulator” Brian Eno to take in the influences of Kraftwerk to create his long-standing classic trilogy of which this album is the best.

439. The Clash – The Clash (1977). When the dust finally settled on the London punk scene of 1977 and 1978, The Jam ended up the big stars in the UK, the Pistols were the best singles band and The Clash were on their way to becoming a new version of The Who. The Clash remains the best album of the punk era – UK division.

438. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (1981). For second quarter of college in 1981-82, this album was ubiquitous. It caught the zeitgeist of the new MTV generation.

437. Hüsker Dü – Zen Arcade (1984). Arguably the greatest hardcore band of the 80s, these Minnesotans brought punk together with a song cycle about how much teen life in the Reagan-era suck in the form of a rock opera of sorts. Green Day couldn’t have made their rock operas without this album, and Nirvana would have not had a HUGE influence on their wound with this band.

436. Taylor Dayne – Can’t Fight Fate (1989). Dayne popped onto the scene as this tiny woman with hair as big as her and a voice of a powerhouse. Her sophomore album represents the moment when the songs, the voice and the look all came together. Unfortunately, Ms. Dayne seems to have played something of a John the Baptist to Mariah Carey’s JC. Personally, I prefer Dayne’s voice since she has a Tina Turner vibe.

435. Def Leppard – Hysteria (1987). This album was highly anticipated by the public, and despite the circumstances, Def Leppard delivered. While their 80s albums are all great works, they may have been more of a studio band than a live one.

434. Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape (1997). The Foos did not have a sophomore slump as this great album proves. How could it fail when it contained “My Hero.”

433. Crowded House – Crowded House (1986). When 1986 rolled around, MTV was huge, new wave was on passé and Beatles-influenced pop rock songs were not in vogue. But, when those songs are as good as what Crowded House created, then all bets are off. I feel like the success that Crowded House experienced got Squeeze off their collective asses and back into the game.

432. The Pretenders – Learning to Crawl (1984). When the mid-80s hit, many artists were moving into the 30s and 40s and having families. Their hedonistic days were waning. Chrissie Hynde rose to the occasion to bring a timeless voice to the concerns of growing up as a rock star on this album.

431. Stevie Nicks – Bella Donna (1981). Stevie Nicks was the breakout solo star of supergroup Fleetwood Mac. Plus, she showed the world how to have it all ways by maintaining a stellar solo career while remaining a contributing member of one of the greatest bands of all time.

430. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Rust Never Sleeps (1979). Neil Young has a habit of going into auto-drive for a few albums, then, out of the blue, dropping a classic album that reminds people the greatness of his muse. Rust Never Sleeps was such an example and became my entry drug into the Neil catalog.

429. Fugees – The Score (1996). Rap supergroup Fugees furthered the language of hip hop to include the sounds of Seventies soul. The three members of the group all had hit solo albums in the aftermath of this album, none as big as the multi-talented Lauryn Hill.

428. Prince – Prince (1979). No matter how hard Warner Brothers tried, Prince was NOT going to be pigeonholed as a black artist. And, this sophomore disc shows the man beginning to spread his wings as an artist. “I Wanna Be Your Lover” is excellent on the dancefloor to this day, but “Why You Want to Treat Me So Bad” is the song that shows the breadth of his musical ambitions.

427. Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977). Joel is the quintessential tale of the struggling artist who finally hits it big then freaks out by the ramifications of stardom. This album is when the man became the star. I still love to listen to the tales on this album because the characters in his songs are so vivid.

426. AC/DC – Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976). What can you say about a band who was so big at the time that they could re-release an album from earlier in their career that never sold much then it becomes one of the biggest-selling albums of 1981 in the States? It was a classic before its time, that’s what you say.

425. Santana – Supernatural (1999). Sometimes an album is released at the perfect time to become a cultural phenomenon. But, it rarely happens to a deserving artist making something of a dramatic comeback. Santana followed Tina Turner with this album.

424. The Flamin’ Groovies – Shake Some Action (1976). In 1983, a friend came up to me holding a cassette while telling me this was the greatest rock album of all time. I took a look at the artist and did not recognize The Flamin’ Groovies. But, I respected this guy’s opinion, so I popped the cassette in my tape player and was blown away. How could this band have escaped me? It showed me that both Creem and Rolling Stone overlooked many bands.

423. Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007). This the album in which all of the Foos’ visions came together into one terrific statement.

422. Cheap Trick – In Color (1977). This is the album that started my Cheap Trick obsession. No wonder. It’s brilliant! The songs all truly come alive in concerts.

421. Paramore – Paramore (2013). Man, I truly love power pop! Especially when the band has a voice like Hayley Williams’.

420. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand (2004). One day back when my older son was in college, I was complaining by the lack of Eighties-influences on artists. That’s when he came home with a bundle of burnt CDs by the likes of Jimmy Eat World, The Killers, Interpol, Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand. That single gesture prolonged my cutting edge musical tastes.

419. The Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death (1997). I’m not sure if Biggie is the GOAT rapper, I do know he made two fantastic albums during his tragically short life. All I need to say is “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems.”

418. Steely Dan – Aja (1977). Let’s be honest. Steely Dan could have only happened in the Seventies. And, thank God they did! This album is just pure West Coast studio perfection. It was on my turntable when I was 14 and continues to find its way back to it now that I’m 59.

417. Chic – Chic (1977). C’mon people! Chic was WAY much more than disco. This was a band who influenced so much of the Eighties its no longer funny. Their first three bands are flat-out classics.

416. Cheap Trick – Dream Police (1979). This album was in the can and ready to go when At Budokan began life as the biggest selling import of all time on its way to becoming one of the greatest live albums of all time and a cultural phenomenon at the time. When the band finally unleashed this monster on the public, Cheap Trick cemented themselves as one of the greatest American bands of all time.

415. Cheap Trick – Heaven Tonight (1978). In 1978, Cheap Trick’s brand of The Beatles-meets-The Who was fresh and welcomed by punks, new wavers and rockers alike. So, why did this album take so long to take off? Anything that has the song “Surrender” should go platinum immediately.

414. Foreigner – 4 (1981). Many of the big AOR bands felt punk and new wave artists breathing down their necks. So, Foreigner, in response, tentatively made an album heavily influenced by these new sounds in 1979 called Head Games. The band quickly learned from their mistakes on that album, streamlined the band’s lineup, tightened their songs and played to their strengths of Lou Gramm’s vocals and Mick Jones’ guitars and let loose a monster album on us. 4 was the album of the last six months of the year.

413. Duran Duran – Rio (1981). It seemed as though everything was happening at once. Foreigner, Queen and Billy Squier were all taking AOR into the future, while new wavers like Duran Duran began flexing their mighty muscles by combining the fury of the Sex Pistols with the sophisticated funk of Chic and the cool of Roxy Music to position themselves as The Beatles of the Eighties. Rio is their classic album for the ages.

412. The Psychedelic Furs – Forever Now (1982). What is about Todd Rundgren that helps bands find their sounds and pushes them to greater heights? He did it with Grand Funk, Patty Smith, Shaun Cassidy and The Tubes before and XTC and The Pursuit of Happiness afterwards. Thank God he helped The Furs because they never sounded tighter.

411. Bobby Brown – Don’t Be Cruel (1988). Just when you began to wonder what the kids would do to soul and dance music once rap influenced, Bobby Brown gave us the answer on this LP. The former member of New Edition came out with a sound called New Jack Swing that dominated the charts into the Nineties. And this was Ground Zero for it all.

410. AC/DC – Highway to Hell (1979). This is when AC/DC ascended to the throne as Kings of Hard Rock. Arguably, the band has maintained their rule unabated to this day. Unfortunately, this album was first lead singer Bon Scott’s last as he died early in 1980.

409. R.E.M. – New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996). Here is the biggest alternative band ever coming to their first crossroads as this album marks drummer Bill Berry’s swansong with the band. Even though this album was predominantly recorded during soundchecks on their Monster Tour, it still shows a band at the sonic top of their game. But, the cracks were beginning to show.

408. Echo & the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (1984). Don’t let Eighties radio weekends fool you. Not every new wave song was about shiny, happy people and situations. Some of the best songs, were dark odes to the underbelly of love and society. And, Echo were the best at it. Plus, they were the perfect gateway, along with The Cure, into the goth world of Bauhaus and others.

407. Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera (2001). How do southern musicians ever square there region of the country in which they grew up with the perceptions of educated Americans. This album deals with the whole question in a fresh unique lyrics set to some fine Southern-fried rock right out of the Lynyrd Skynyrd playbook.

406. Adele – 19 (2008). After Amy Winehouse’s out-of-left-field success, record companies were scouring the world in search of the next Amy. Out of the influx of signings of big voices with unique sounds came a young lady with a beautiful face and a more beautiful voice named Adele. Little did we anticipate that this woman would quickly blossom as a vocalist and songwriter. This is her above-average debut.

405. Harry Styles – Fine Line (2019). Who knew that one of those guys in One Direction was a Seventies singer-songwriter at heart? Harry has become the breakaway solo star from the boy band based upon his songwriting skills that blend Seventies west coast rock with current sounds. Is Harry the next Justin Timberlake? Time will tell.

404. Paul Weller – Sonik Kicks (2012). I cannot emphasize enough that you should listen to Paul Weller. Just go chronologically. By the time you reach this classic Weller LP, you will be hooked. This is Weller just busting his guitar strings with his trademark passion and energy still intact as he enters his 50s.

403. The Bangles – Different Light (1986). Yes, the band sounds polished with compared with their debut All Over the Place. But, the songs are tighter, the harmonies are still there and the production is shinier. Plus, when Prince gives you a song like “Maniac Monday,” all you have to do is to get out of the way of yourself and create. And, that’s what The Bangles did.

402. Terrence Trent D’Arby – Introducing the Hardline According to Terrence Trent D’Arby (1987). Back in the late-Eighties, music was all shined up with digital recordings and synthesizers everywhere. Then, D’Arby came along as if he were Otis Redding and reminded us about the freshness of Seventies southern-fried soul.

401. Metallica – …And Justice for All (1988). The metal band of the Eighties made one of the most overblown thrash albums ever that has some of the craziest guitars ever recorded. This album is just big in all the right ways and for all the right reasons.

When I finished my last series of blog entries, I was at a lost as to what to cover this summer. But, then it hit me. I had made lists of my 100 favorite albums from the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, Nineties, Aughts and Twenty-Teens respectively. Why don’t I use those charts to create a new list of my 500 Favorite Albums?

Initially, I went dark to spend a week compiling this list. First, I needed to get Grandchild-3’s birthday party out of the way. We followed that with a family weekend vacation with our two sons and their families. What I should have anticipated was the fact that if one of those little rascals has a cough, then we will ALL end up with that cough from one degree or another. Which means that everyone of us, all ten men, women and children ended up with a cough and/or sinus infection. Unfortunately, I was the last to come down with this virus. Fortunately (and knock on wood), I suffered the least amount of time with this stupid infection. Currently, I seem to be on the mend after a couple days of this, while the malaise continues for the fourth day, the cough appears to be diminishing.

If you have been a semi-regular reader of this blog, you probably have noticed that my musical tastes tend to rest in the late-Seventies through the Eighties, with some Nineties artists sprinkled into the mix. And, of course, that observation bears out with some data that I gathered from my list.

The two things I narrowed my focus toward were the number of albums from each decade as well as which artist(s) had the greatest number of albums on that list. The former category gave me little to surprise, as you can see below (I have ranked the decades by the larger number of albums on the final chart to fewer albums.

1. Eighties – 151 albums out of 500
2. Seventies – 131 albums out of 500
3. Nineties – 91 albums out of 500
4. Sixties – 49 albums out of 500
5. Aughts – 43 albums out of 500
6. Twenty-Teens – 34 albums out of 500
7. Fifties – 1 album out of 500

No surprise there, right? Not at all. But, what I discovered next was something a little more shocking to me. I have maintained for the better part of three or four decades that my favorite artists are, in order, Prince, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Cheap Trick, Queen, Daryl Hall & John Oates and Paul Weller. Those eight have jockeyed from time to time but this has been pretty much settled for the last 15 to 20 years. Yet, when I did my analysis upon finalizing my list, I discovered something quite unexpected. Here are my Top 10 artists in my 500 favorite albums list.

1. Paul Weller – 14 LPs (8 solo, 3 with The Jam and 3 with The Style Council
2. Prince – 11 LPs
3. R.E.M. – 10 LPs
4. Bruce Springsteen – 9 LPs
5. Daryl Hall – 8 LPs (1 solo, 7 with Daryl Hall & John Oates)
6. Paul McCartney – 8 LPs (2 solo, 6 with The Beatles)
7. Bob Mould – 7 LPs (2 solo, 4 with Hüsker Dü, 1 with Sugar)
8. Daryl Hall & John Oates – 7 LPs
9. David Bowie – 7 LPs
10. George Harrison – 7 LPs (1 solo, 6 with The Beatles)
11. John Lennon – 7 LPs (1 solo, 6 with The Beatles)
12. Tom Petty – 7 LPs (3 solo, 4 with The Heartbreakers)

I knew that I had held Paul Weller in high regard, but, now, it seems as though he might actually be my favorite artist of all since I continue to have albums from various eras of his little-known career here in the States on my turntable. The results of the rest did not really surprise me until I got to Bob Mould. Once again, this man’s work has been criminally under appreciated, especially the band with which he started Hüsker Dü. Maybe I simply need to recognize those two gentlemen as two of my favorite artists of all time.

With that said, let’s kick off this countdown with the lowest ranked 50 albums on my list. Once again, this ranking is for fun, is solely MY opinion, not a ranking of which albums are the best (though I AM arrogant enough to actually believe in my list more than Rolling Stone‘s lists they have created over the past 35 years or so). I know that I have left off historically significant albums which I love for those innovations and their cohesive statements. However, I did not love them enough to bump these albums out of the way for their inclusions. Finally, I did not consider greatest hits or other compilation albums. While many of those albums are fantastic (like Earth, Wind & Fire, KC & the Sunshine Band or Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoff’s, which are ALL essential), they are not the traditional album as a statement as define in the mid- to late-Sixties as a set of songs written and/or recorded by an artist as a cohesive artistic statement to be digested whole.

With that all said, let’s get a-rocking!

500. Styx – The Grand Illusion (1977). I believe this album was handed out to incoming high school students in the fall of 1977.

499. Jackson Browne – The Pretender (1976). If you want to know how one suicide devastates a family, this album will teach you all about it in a beautifully sensitive manner.

498. The Cars – Candy-O (1979). Many of the people with whom I went to high school thought this band was punk at the time. Oh, to grow up sheltered in rural Indiana…

497. Echo & the Bunnymen – Crocodiles (1980). Think of this as the post-punk world finally meets up with The Doors, which just might make this band the Reece’s Cup of the rock world.

496. Phish – A Live One (1995). The best of the second generation jam bands release this live album at the height of their concert powers.

495. Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters (1995). Rock’s nicest star and poster child of the ADHD generation, flies on his own upon the death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Is Grohl the LAST rock star on earth?

494. Hüsker Dü – Candy Apple Grey (1986). If you love Nirvana, there are two Eighties bands who invented their sound, and Bob Mould’s Hüsker Dü was the first one.

493. New Order – Brotherhood (1985). From the ashes of post-punk gods Joy Division came synthpop wünderkinds New Order to push the punks and post-punks on the dance floors.

492. The Verve – Urban Hymns (1997). The Verve rode a transcendent song to success with an album full of terrific Britpop sounds.

491. The Kinks – Low Budget (1979). This forgotten gem paints a grim picture of the world economically speaking in 1979. Yet, songwriter and singer Ray Davies never loses his sense of humor while making his wry observations of middle class life.

490. Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983). A synthpop album that played like a guitar rock album. Brilliant!

489. The Jam – In the City (1978). If you love the fire and fury of the Sex Pistols or The Clash combined with the energy of early Who songs live and the English working and middle class observations of The Kinks, then The Jam were for you. This album HAS got to be where Green Day cut their teeth.

488. The Cure – Pornography (1982). When you go back to compare the sinister sounds of this album with the day-glow pop rock of the New Wave crowd, you could see where the Pink Floyd comparisons of the day came from.

487. Parliament – Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977). Who knew you could mix LSD, cocaine, dark forces, science, rock and funk into one delightfully weird dancefloor concoction?

486. Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door (1979). If you listen to this album within the context of Zep’s catalog, you’d think they were slipping. But, if you went to it as your first Zep album, then you have a Seventies band actually feeling threatened by punk and post-punk to begin to nudge their sound into the Eighties.

485. Earth, Wind & Fire – I Am (1979). Really? Did one of the world’s greatest funk bands really need David Foster to produce them? They did get one hell of a sexy ballad in the process, but Foster nearly made the band a bland vehicle for his schmaltz. Fortunately, Maurice White still packed a punch as a songwriter too.

484. 10,000 Maniacs – In My Tribe (1987). Natalie Merchant’s original band is a forgotten band that took the jangly sound of R.E.M. to a poetry reading and came out with some brilliant post-punk folk rock.

483. Tom Tom Club – Tom Tom Club (1981). In 1980, Talking Heads created a brilliant album called Remain in Light, arguably their masterpiece. Then, the following year, the band took a break and did some solo work. The husband/wife rhythm section of drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weynouth put together an ace band of funkateers and other nuts to play a loosened version of the Heads’ Afrocentric beats onto the dance charts.

482. Squeeze – Argybargy (1980). Hello Squeeze! I hear you guys have the newest Lennon/McCartney songwriting heirs. This is a delicious set of Beatles-esque music that sounds timeless.

481. Elvis Costello & the Attractions – Imperial Bedroom (1982). After a brilliant run of terrific angry young man power pop rock based music, Elvis was beginning to feel artistically constrained by the first three years of music recorded in his career, so he finally responded with this gorgeously dark set of orchestrated songs full of heartache and angst.

480. The Runaways – The Runaways (1976). In the year the Bicentennial, no one had seen a group of teenaged girls as a self-contained band of songwriting musicians playing glam- and metal-infused punk rock. Then The Runaways changed everything…forever.

479. The Human League – Dare (1981). The album arguably represents a high point in the world of synthpop.

478. Steve Miller Band – Fly like an Eagle (1976). By 1976, Sixties blues rockers were attempting to update their sound. But no one was as successful at this than the Steve Miller Band as they incorporated the synthesizer to make the first foray into space blues arms race that ZZ Top will perfect seven years later.

477. Roadmaster – Sweet Music (1977). Indianapolis’ most successful rock act in the pre-John Mellencamp years indeed make some sweet music on this album. Unfortunately, they were just a step behind the Journeys, REOs and Styxes of the world as far as timing was concerned. Yet, they left behind this fantastic slab of 70s AOR.

476. Billy Idol – Rebel Yell (1983). Just when rock music needed a touch of dance rhythms mixed with a metal guitar and a metal look, along come the former lead singer of the pop punk band Generation X to provide the sound, the look and the snarl.

475. Talking Heads – Little Creatures (1985). After creating one of the more influential albums of the Eighties (Remain in Light), followed by a funk-inspired new wave album (Speaking in Tongues), the Heads reached back to their stripped down beginnings of their CBGBs days to find a sound to accompany their adult-theme lyrics. The whole juxtaposition was compelling.

474. The Style Council – The Cost of Loving (1987). Released during a stellar year of music, TSC sounded as if they were beginning to run out of creative steam. Yet, they still took their brand of sophisti-pop to new heights over the course of this Eurocentric album.

473. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (1994). A terrific song-cycle of the perils of rock stardom and the star’s descent into depression and addiction. This is the REAL version of Alice Cooper Goes to Hell schlock-fest from the 70s.

472. Depeche Mode – Music for the Masses (1987). This is the beginning of Depeche Mode’s ascent to rock’s commercial throne. The band never sold out; the audience simply caught up.

471. Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine (1989). I remember hearing  cuts from this album on a local alternative radio station in Southwest Ohio and thinking that Trent Reznor was the first person of my generation to question all forms of authority in rock music. And, that’s what briefly made him a voice of a generation, a title he walked away from.

470. Blink-182 – Enema of the State (1999). While the original punk scene in Seventies NYC was art-based and the original London punk scene was economically-based, by the Nineties, punk bands were becoming caricatures. Blink-182 is the best example of the latter, only they were talented enough to pull off the images of being the jesters of pop punk.

469. The Church – Starfish (1988). This album contains all of the sounds of Eighties alternative rock: jangly guitars, poetic lyrics, melancholy vocals, dark textures all with a hopeful undercurrent. That’s why this album continues to resonate to this day.

468. Neneh Cherry – Raw like Sushi (1989). It HAD to happen, but it was not expected to happen so quickly. What is that? A terrific dance pop record that is based on the current hip hop sounds, beats and scratches. This is the sound of the future right then.

467. Madonna – Ray of Light (1998). By 1998, Madonna had transitioned from a twenty-something sexpot to thirty-something provocateur to earth goddess MILF. And, this album helps make the transition complete.

466. Various Artists – A Very Special Christmas (1987). In the early days of rock & roll, popular artists recorded Christmas songs in order to annually cash in on the holiday season. By the end of the Seventies, the process had become passé. But, then uber-producer Jimmy Iovine, in an effort to raise funds for the Special Olympics, brought the idea by allowing many of the biggest stars of the day to breath some new life into old Christmas standards, and even allow Run-DMC to create a new one for Generation X. And, the rest is history.

465. Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw & the Cooked (1989). When the English Beat were put on ice for the end of the Eighties, the band’s two guitarists grabbed a modern day Sam Cooke and released a modern soul album in 1986. The band then followed that one up with a classic mix of soul, hip hop, dance and pop for a timeless hit that has unfairly been forgotten over the years.

464. The Police – Outlandos d’Amour (1978). The trio took a softened reggae beat, a flexible jazzy bass and some prog rock guitar textures and mixed them all together with some trendy punk rage and playing speed to create a new sound known as The Police. All I need to say is “Roxanne.”

463. Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988). You know, things for the inner city black person still has not changed. This album, from the rhymes to the beats to the samples all scream anger. While Ice-T and N.W.A both brought the West Coast ghetto to life, NYC was not represented until PE came along to knock the doors down with their brand of a wall of sound (or was it a wall of samples?).

462. David Bowie – Young Americans (1975). On this album, Bowie toned down the artistic pretentions and went for the hits by doing, of all things, a soul album.

461. Paul Simon – There Goes Rhymin’ Paul Simon (1973). Simon’s sophomore solo album since jettisoning Art Garfunkel three years earlier has the beginning of Simon’s explorations into the music of other countries that will come to fruition a baker’s dozen of years later. Simon establishes himself as a creative force on this album.

460. Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Sessions (1988). At the time of this album’s release, Cowboy Junkies were being hailed as some sort of folkish/countryish/Americana-ish Velvet Underground. That notion was only reinforced by their cover the Underground’s “Sweet Jane.” A beautifully haunting album.

459. Roxy Music – Country Life (1974). The whole New Romantic movement of the early-Eighties in the UK was based upon this era of Roxy. Perhaps, Roxy was the biggest influence on the post punk era this side of David Bowie.

458. Aerosmith – Toys in the Attic (1975). You couldn’t go through my neighborhood in the mid-Seventies without some teenager blaring this album out of their window as the sunbathed, worked on their cars or, in my case, taking 500 shots in various spots on my driveway basketball court.

457. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Southern Accents (1985). At the time, Tom was battling some inner demons as well as a new found stardom, so there was immense pressure on him to produce a successful album. But when drugs become involved, the second-guessing begins. So, we got an album full of a hodgepodge of sounds that Petty intended to go in wholeheartedly. Instead we got a quilt look of the work he was doing at the time. If he had only stuck with his original vision of a look at the life of a modern Southern man, we might have gotten a true American classic. But, we might not have ever heard “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”

456. Hüsker Dü – Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987). By 1987, the band was imploding. So the trio’s two songwriters, Bob Mould and Grant Hart went on individual creative benders to create their second double album in three years. It was quite a statement in diversity and a nice way to put an end to the band.

455. The Bangles – Everything (1989). Here we go again. A band experiencing inner turmoil, brushes off the pressure and creates a scattershot album of songs that show the individual personalities but lack the cohesiveness that made these women so endearing. What a great band!

454. The Replacements – Pleased to Meet Me (1987). The Replacements were one of the great American bands of the Eighties. But they were constantly shooting themselves in their feet, usually by drinking themselves into oblivion during performances (Exhibit A: their 1986 SNL performance). For this album, they fired their original guitarist (due to his alcoholism) and replaced him with a more professional gunslinger who aided the band in making the most rock-oriented and professional sounding album up to this point. The song “Alex Chilton” is an ode to Big Star’s enigmatic leader.

453. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born Soundtrack (2018). Lady Gaga was perfect in this role. And, this soundtrack is awfully good.

452. Hole – Live Through This (1994). Rumor is that Courtney Love got help writing the songs on this album from hubby Kurt Cobain. Who cares because this is a classic rock album.

451. Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach – Painted from Memory (1998). What’s a musical genius like Elvis do for an encore? Write an album’s worth of songs with another musical genius in the form of Burt Bacharach. Elvis roughed up Bacharach’s sound while Burt gave Costello a burst of sophistication. This album is so much better than I expected. Beautiful, simply beautiful.

The previous decade was an interesting one. While streaming remained the most popular method for consuming music, the vinyl version of albums slowly started to be fancied by hipster millennials and older folks like me to eventually regain its status as the physical means by which people listened to music. Through the efforts of Record Store Day, which began in April of 2008 and gained momentum throughout the 2010s, independent records stores slowly regained a foothold in the music consumer’s mind.

Honestly, I had always preferred the vinyl record, but as the Eighties wore on and turned into the Nineties, I boxed up my albums and began a CD collection which eventually numbered in the 1200-range. But, I knew loved the CD in which I loved its vinyl counterpart. First, the CD was too small to read the liner notes even with my old person glasses. Second, the artwork was reduced down to small squares in which needed less detail and bolder artist names and album titles. Suddenly, the album artwork was reduced to a small consumer advertisement.. Finally, even when I had an extraordinary high fidelity stereo system, my CDs sounded flat and as if it were in a box when compared to the warm, full sound emanating from my vinyl records.

By 2018, I made the huge decision to reduce my music collection without touching my vinyl. I began a purge of my CDs, knowing full well that I may never own some of these pieces on vinyl. Not surprising, I did keep around 50 CDs, mostly my R.E.M. special 25th anniversary editions, as well as all of my Prince and Paul Weller/The Style Council/The Jam compilations and Weller solo discs that I do not have on vinyl…yet! Additionally, I kept my Christmas compilation CDs, only because I have all of the A Very Special Christmas releases, as well as some rare compilations that are not found intact on streaming services. But, the rest were traded for vinyl at the local independent record stores.

So, now that I have focused my collection back onto vinyl, I find my listening habits to be so much more satisfying. With that said, let’s take a look at my 100 favorite albums of the previous decade.

100. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)

99. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (2010)

98. Katy Perry – Teenage Dream (2010)

97. Mark Ronson – Uptown Special (2015)

96. Cee-Lo Green – The Lady Killer (2010)

95. Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (2014)

94. Sade – Soldier of Love (2010)

93. Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What (2011)

92. Vampire Weekend – Contra (2010)

91. The Black Keys – Turn Blue (2014)

90. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch the Throne (2011)

89. Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride (2019)

88. Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part II (2011)

87. Taylor Swift – Lover (2019)

86. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to Earth (2016)

85. The Regrettes – Feel Your Feelings Fool (2017)

84. Tame Impala – Lonerism (2012)

83. Carly Rae Jepson – Emotion (2015)

82. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening (2010)

81. Kesha – Rainbow (2017)

80. The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships (2018)

79. Harry Styles – Harry Styles (2017)

78. Weezer – Weezer (a.k.a. The Teal Album) (2019)

77. Drive-By Truckers – The Big To-Do (2010)

76. Frank Ocean – Channel Orange (2012)

75. Solange – A Seat at the Table (2016)

74. Bruce Springsteen – High Hopes (2014)

73. The 1975 – The 1975 (2013)

72. David Byrne & St. Vincent – Love This Giant (2012)

71. Bob Mould – Silver Age (2012)

70. Kendrick Lamar & Various Artists – Black Panther soundtrack (2018)

69. Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone (2010)

68. St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (2011)

67. Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels III (2016)

66. Weezer – Weezer (a.k.a. The White Album) (2016)

65. Lana Del Rey – Born to Die (2012)

64. SZA – CTRL (2017)

63. A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It from Here…Thank You 4 Your Service (2016)

62. St. Vincent – St. Vincent (2014)

61. Leon Bridges – Good Thing (2018)

60. Lin-Manuel Miranda & Cast – Hamilton: The Original Broadway Cast Recording (2015)

59. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings – I Learned the Hard Way (2010)

58. The Regrettes – How Do You Love? (2019)

57. Gotye – Making Mirrors (2011)

56. Lorde – Melodrama (2017)

55. Ariana Grande – Sweetener (2018)

54. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires in the City (2013)

53. Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid (2010)

52. The Monkees – Good Times! (2016)

51. Alabama Shakes – Sound and Color (2015)

50. Mayer Hawthorne – How Do You Do (2011)

49. Fitz & the Tantrums – Fitz & the Tantrums (2016)

48. Ariana Grande – thank u, next (2019)

47. Cheap Trick – Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello (2016)

46. Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels II (2014)

45. Lady Gaga – Joanne (2016)

44. Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa (2017)

43. Paramore – After Laughter (2017)

42. Janelle Monáe – The Electric Lady (2013)

41. Fitz & the Tantrums – More Than Just a Dream (2013)

40. Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)

39. Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour (2018)

38. Chris Stapleton – Traveller (2015)

37. fun. – Some Nights (2012)

36. Lizzo – Cuz I Love You (2019)

35. The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream (2014)

34. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born Soundtrack (2018)

33. Paramore – Paramore (2013)

32. Harry Styles – Fine Line (2019)

31. Paul Weller – Sonik Kicks (2012)

30. Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’ (2011)

29. Adele – 25 (2015)

28. Jenny Lewis – On the Line (2019)

27. Halsey – Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (2017)

26. Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls (2012)

25. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (2012)

24. The Black Keys – Brothers (2010)

23. St. Vincent – MASSEDUCATION (2017)

22. Paul Weller – True Meanings (2018)

21. Taylor Swift – 1989 (2014)

20. Fitz & the Tantrums – Pickin’ Up the Pieces (2010)

19. Jenny Lewis – The Voyager (2014)

18. The Black Keys – El Camino (2011)

17. Leon Bridges – Coming Home (2015)

16. David Bowie – Blackstar (2016)

15. Beyoncé – Beyoncé (2013)

14. Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. (2017)

13. Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation (2010)

12. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, M.A.A.D. city (2012)

11. Adele – 21 (2011)

10. Beyoncé – Lemonade (2016)

9. Taylor Swift – Red (2012)

8. Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer (2018)

7. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (2013)

6. Kanye West – My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy (2010)

5. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019)

4. Bob Mould – Sunshine Rock (2019)

3. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)

2. Lady Gaga – Born This Way (2011)

1. D’Angelo & the Vanguard – Black Messiah (2014)