CroutonBoy's Top 100 Albums of All Time - #100-91

I asked.  You answered.  While the rest of New York City suffers from hyperpyrexia, I'll be blowing a steady breeze of cool from this blog for the next few weeks as I countdown my top 100 albums of all-time.

First some ground rules for this have been set:

• One album per artist.  That rule doesn't work for me.  Disregard.
• No greatest hits packages, compilations, or boxed sets.
• No artists that would make me look hip or cool.  Interestingly, my liking these albums makes the artists look hip and cool, so that shouldn't be a problem.
• I must own the LP, CD, or cassette tape of every one of these entries. No mp3 (unless I also have the album)
• I have the right to disregard any of the above if it suits my purpose.

You'll see almost immediately that my favorite rule is the last one.  Hey, it's my list...if you don't like it you can go listen to your Air Supply LPs for all I care...

Here we go....

#100 - The Kinks - Kink Kronikles

I hate greatest hits packages.  It's cheating.  I admit it.  And right off the bat I'm cheating (and I'll cheat again later, although not much).  I considered using Paige's workaround by putting together multiple albums as a single entry as if they were one album, and this would been a great place to do it.  Between Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, and Lola vs. the Powerman the Kinks put together four remarkable albums back to back.  Ray Davies perfectly encapsulates so many little moments in suburban life through effortlessly tuneful pop songs on all of them that I couldn't pick just one.  This collection brings together the best of that period (including some awesome b-sides, like "She's Got Everything").  This was my starting point--I dare you not to want more after listening to it.  Favorite Song = "Apeman"

#99 - Led Zeppelin - Zeppelin III

Dung-da-da-dadung dadung-da-da-dadung AAAAA AAA AAAAAAAAAH AH!  More so than any of their other albums, this one gets better to me as I get older.  There's no over-mythologized songs like "Stairway to Heaven," just some chest-thumping rockers and blues dripping with a dirty grunge that just makes you want to chew on leather while you're listening to it.  Favorite Song = "Immigrant Song"

#98 - Seal - Seal

When I had my first real job after college, I worked in an office run by a guy who looked and sounded just like Garth Brooks.  He had stacks of country CDs and a portable stereo in his office, and we'd be subjected to all the Brooks & Dunn and Travis Tritt we could handle.  One day he asked an intern for music recommendations, and she told him to get this album.  For the next month it was all he played.  We used to congregate in his office to listen to it, just nodding our heads at the richly textured rhythms.  And "Crazy" is still an awesome, awesome song, even 15 years later.  Favorite Song = "Crazy"

#97 - Soul Asylum - Let Your Dim Light Shine

This album gets a bad rap because the lyrics are so overwrought and silly.  That's why I DIG this disk, man.  A two-headed president?  Why not?  "She spins and pulls her pants down?"  Nice image, that.  "My time has neither come nor gone / it just slips out when I yawn."  I would have written those lyrics when I was 17.   It's the sound of a great band that dipped their fingers in the cheese and liked the taste too much; it's their Dream Police, their Blondes Have More Fun.  But the melodies are catchy and energetic, and it reminds me of summers in Minneapolis, going to street festivals and eating deep-fried cheese-curds.  See, it all comes back to cheese....  Favorite Song = "Just Like Anyone"

#96 - The Replacements - Tim

I missed most of the great college radio bands of the late 80s like REM and Husker Du when they were at their peak.  "College Radio" in Spokane usually included three-fers from Lynyrd Skynyrd.  But when I moved to Minneapolis in 1992 I got sucked into the music scene almost immediately, and was force-fed a steady dose of Gear Daddies, Trip Shakespeare, and these guys.  Some of their albums sound like they're two seconds away from falling head first into the drum kit, but this one has all that energy with more focus.  And I start humming "Waitress in the Sky" every. single. time. I fly.  Favorite Song = "Waitress in the Sky"

#95 - Santana - Abraxus

It plays like a woozy samba through the streets of Tijuana or Caracas.  Everyone knows the two big hits, "Black Magic Woman" and "Oyo Como Va", but the rest of the album is all conga and timbale grooves overlayed with that distinctive guitar that seems to echo from some dark Latin alleyway, and just as solid.  If I close my eyes and imagine myself staggering down moonlit streets with tequila-soaked friends (which I do more often than I should) this is the soundtrack that goes with it.  Favorite Song = "Mother's Daughter"

#94 - Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy Soundtrack

The movie was good, but the soundtrack, written and performed completely by Badly Drawn Boy, has a rackish, jaunty feel that evokes a lot of the innocence of growing up.  At least to me.  It's got a few instrumental interludes which I could do without, but the rest of the peppy tunes will stick in your mind and have you humming them as you bounce down the street.  Favorite Song = "A Peak You Reach"

#93 - ZZ Top - Eliminator

The Bearded Ones were my bread and butter during the heyday of MTV, far more so than that dancing freak with the sequined glove.  I wanted that double-Z key-chain sooooo bad when I was in junior high.  The rest of the album doesn't have the glistening, synthesized sheen of the MTV hits, leaving a muscular crunch that begs you turn it up to 11 and boogie.  Favorite Song = "Got Me Under Pressure"

#92 - Wilco - Summer Teeth

There's little I could add to the discussion of Wilco and the rest of Uncle Tupelo's progeny that hasn't been said already.  It doesn't have the alt-country trappings of their earlier albums, and hints at the conscious experimentation of their later albums, resulting in a bouncy, patio-lounging disk for those who need something more intelligent and sophisticated than Jimmy Buffett.  Favorite Song = "Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)"

#91 - Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

Stevie Wonder shows up on a lot of "best of" lists, and rightfully so.  Usually people throw out Talking Book and Innervisions as the go to albums, but I love how sprawling and personal this album is.  So  much emotion is infused into every song, both in the lyrics and the singing, and I find something for almost any mood on it.  "Isn't She Lovely" is easily the most joyful expression of parenthood I've ever heard, and "Sir Duke", with it's opening horn salvo, is as fun a song as you'll hear in your lifetime.  Favorite Song = "Sir Duke"

We're just getting started....they get much better from here on in (I feel like Rick Deez).  Stay tuned for 90-81 in the days ahead...

Comments

[Mr. Big Dubya]

I will be joining you, Chag and Paige in this pursuit and I, too, will set some rules that I will disregard with reckless abandon. I have to respect your openness for including Seal - I think "Kiss From a Rose" gave him a bad rep.

[Kara]

I like your rules so much better... and now that you've added a soundtrack, so can I!!

I'm actually having a tough time kicking albums OFF my top 100... I'm thinking my list will be good to go on Monday.

And Stevie Wonder in the 90's. the 90's?!?!?! for. shame.

[Chris]

Another STRONG list. Excellent!!

[Arwen]

I can't believe Tim is so high on your list, that was the first replacements album I loaded on my iPOD. I am with Kara about SW in the 90's.

[Sarah]

Hmmmmm. Now that I know other people couldn't possibly live with the one album per band rule, I may go through with this.

[Tony]

Very interesting...I have my doubts, but now that I see "the list" I might have to go on over to iTunes to listen.

[Kemp]

Nice list... though Summerteeth should be much, much higher in my opinion.

[Melissa]

I actually didn't think any of those were so bad. In fact most of them I liked.

Is a soundtrack cheating?

Can I do my own list?

[Mrs T]

Ok, a soundtrack is not cheating- Garden State is right up there for me, and so is The Royal Tennenbaums. I just flew last week and sang "Waitress in the Sky"- I sing it every time, as well.
Love me some Wilco.

[p-man]

Summerteeth? You must really like Wilco.

[p-man]

Summerteeth? You must really like Wilco.

[p-man]

Summerteeth? You must really like Wilco.

[p-man]

Summerteeth? You must really like Wilco.

[Chag]

String of Pearls is my favorite Soul Asylum song ever! I'm really enjoying the list and can't wait to see the rest.

[Lisa]

Ditto the congrats on your openmindedness on including Seal. And I agree SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE IN THE 90s?? That's blasphemy.

[Mrs. Chicky]

True story... Growing up, I was about 5 or 6, I was horribly afraid of the Immigrant Song. I used to bury my head in the vinyl seats of our old Pontiac while my dad blared III from the 8 track. The screaming, it got to me. Funny how its now one of my favorite songs.

(btw, I was also afraid of Zappa's 'Don't you eat that yellow snow'. Too much information?)

[misfithausfrau]

So far, I am liking your list--good calls on Seal and Badly Drawn Boy. I can't wait to read the next lists as I am SURE that there will be several more Wilco/Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt entries... Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, anyone?

Sorry--maybe I should do my own list.

[Joel]

I'm so excited about your list. Like most men (my wife says usually only men do this) I love classifying things by best or worst (top ten hockey checks, top ten TKOs, top auto racing crashes, NBA dunks, etc. etc...). Yours is shaping up to be a more 'everyman's' list unlike the ones at pitchforkmedia.com's where I have like two of the albums from their list of 100!) Nice work..