Owen Gwilliam's Top 100 Albums Of All Time (10th Anniversary Rethink)

THE CONCEPT

Back in December of 2014, I created a top 100 album list. There've been 10 years of new albums since then, not to mention older albums that I either missed, didn't fully appreciate, or just changed my mind about. My lovely wife Noreen suggested that I should re-do the list, and a 10th anniversary seemed like a good reason to do it. The list below is my favorite 100 albums of all time as of this writing (June 2024). My tastes haven't changed radically since then. Most of the albums below would normally be considered "classic rock", "progressive rock", "alternative", "indie", "power pop", or some variation on one of those genres. As I did last time, I'm pulling this list out of a general list of 3,000 or so albums. Twelve new entries are here, but only two of them were released since the last list.

This remains a highly biased list. It's my personal favorites, not an attempt at an impartial list of the best albums of all time. As with my year-end Top Ten Lists, I'm generally focused on albums of original material as opposed to live albums, greatest hits albums, or box sets. I'd rate an album of all "4-star" songs over one that mixes "5-star" and "2-star" songs. These are albums that, for me, have no skippable songs.

For each entry in the list, there's a track listing with my favorite song highlighted (thanks for the idea, sweetie), links to YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music so you can sample the albums, and links to my original Top Ten List reviews. I've also added a few comments to some of the entries, mostly the new additions and the top ten. If you find a lot of your favorites on the list, then consider the other entries recommendations for albums you might want to check out.

Hope you enjoy the list.

2014 ENTRIES REMOVED FROM THE LIST

What made this iteration tricky was that for every album I wanted to add, a corresponding album had to get cut. Some of the cuts were obvious, some involved some heartbreak. As mentioned above, twelve replacements were made.

These are the albums that were in the 2014 list that were removed to make room for the new additions. Found a few albums that I realized were on here because of their "hits". The best songs on each are so good that the album seems obvious. However, on re-listen, there were some weaker spots and I'd still rather have consistently great albums on here. Still, it was hard to cut these - they're definitely favorites, but you've got to cut somewhere, right? And yeah, I'll probably look back in a while and think "You cut that? Why?!" It's how it goes.

#40: XTC - Skylarking (1986)
#69: Genesis - Abacab (1981)
#80: Randy Newman - Good Old Boys (1974)
#84: U2 - Boy (1980)
#85: The Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy (2004)
#86: Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygiene (1987)
#87: Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door (1979)
#88: Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová - Once [Music From The Motion Picture] (2007)
#90: Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (1985)
#93: Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic (1974)
#97: The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)
#98: Franz Nicolay - Major General (2009)

TOO NEW TO BE CONSIDERED

I worked on a list like this many years ago with a coworker. Back then, we decided that any album released in the last five years was automatically ineligible because we felt it would be too hard to judge impartially. For this list, I figured I'd bring that concept back and note some of the recent albums I might consider for a future list, once these have a little time to age.

Fish - Weltschmerz (2020)
The Hold Steady - Open Door Policy (2021)
Church Of The Cosmic Skull - There Is No Time (2022)
Crown Lands - Fearless (2023)
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Council Skies (2023)

THE TOP 100

#100 ^{down 22}
Manic Street Preachers
Know Your Enemy

Released: 2001

Tracks: "Found That Soul", "Ocean Spray", "Intravenous Agnostic", "So Why So Sad", "Let Robeson Sing", "The Year Of Purification", "Wattsville Blues", "Miss Europa Disco Dancer", "Dead Martyrs", "His Last Painting", "My Guernica", "The Convalescent", "Royal Correspondent", "Epicentre", "Baby Elián", "Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children", "We Are All Bourgeois Now"

YouTube: "The Convalescent", "Let Robeson Sing"

Streaming: Not streaming on Spotify or Apple Music

Reviews: 2001 (Album Of The Year), 2022 (Deluxe Edition)

#99 ^{down 26}
Lou Reed
New York

Released: 1989

Tracks: "Romeo Had Juliette", "Halloween Parade", "Dirty Blvd.", "Endless Cycle", "There Is No Time", "Last Great American Whale", "Beginning Of A Great Adventure", "Busload Of Faith", "Sick Of You", "Hold On", "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim", "Xmas In February", "Strawman", "Dime Store Mystery"

THE CONCEPT

2014 ENTRIES REMOVED FROM THE LIST

TOO NEW TO BE CONSIDERED

THE TOP 100

STATS

FINAL THOUGHTS