KEXP's Top 903 Albums of All Time

Sure, its a pretty biased list and as much as I love Pela, there's just no way their debut album is #112 after just a year of being released (and in ahead of Springsteen, Michael Jackson, and Jimi?!), but in terms of who to check out, this list is pretty much...complete. (by the way guys, no pressure...)

So its pretty simple. My music list is being tossed into the garbage and from now on I'm just going to refer to this list as the holy grail for new music suggestions...'cause if you hadn't heard it before, its new to you.

Here's the top 40:

			1 Radiohead OK Computer 2 Clash London Calling 3 Arcade Fire Funeral 4 Nirvana Nevermind 5 Pixies Doolittle 6 Neutral Milk Hotel In The Aeroplane Over The Sea 7 Beatles White Album 8 U2 The Joshua Tree 9 Radiohead The Bends 10 Pixies Surfer Rosa 11 Radiohead Kid A 12 Beatles Abbey Road 13 Jeff Buckley Grace 14 Beatles Revolver 15 Sufjan Stevens Illinois 16 The Smiths The Queen is Dead 17 Pearl Jam Ten 18 David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust 19 Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band 20 Radiohead In Rainbows 21 The Cure Disintegration 22 Elliott Smith Either/Or 23 Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon 24 Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 25 Beastie Boys Pauls Boutique 26 Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks 27 Pavement Slanted and Enchanted 28 Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. 29 My Bloody Valentine Loveless 30 Postal Service Give Up 31 Modest Mouse The Moon And Antarctica 32 Built To Spill Perfect From Now On 33 Death Cab For Cutie Transatlanticism 34 Weezer Weezer 35 Beach Boys Pet Sounds 36 Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin 37 Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde 38 Replacements Let it Be 39 Velvet Undergound & Nico Velvet Underground & Nico 40 Belle & Sebastian If Youre Feeling Sinister

Comments

[Sara]

I'm disappointed by the lack of The Futureheads, We Are Scientists, Athlete, The Blakes, and a few others who did not make this list - all bands I first heard on KEXP and have a following here (The Blakes, OK, maybe more a local niche than anything). On the plus side, happy to see old favorites like Blur, Catherine Wheel, The Pixies and Jesus & Mary Chain make it. AND not to mention the only Snow Patrol listed on here being Final Straw, because really, it's their best.

I would love to see a list sometime where Nirvana's Nevermind is not in the top 5 (thankfully it's not #1 - too predictable!). I know in some circles it's blasphemy to say this, but although the album was good, I'll give it that, they weren't the best Seattle band from that time period by a long shot, just the first ones to make it.

[Jacob]

You have an excellent point (though you are going to have a hard time getting Hole on any list put out by a Seattle base). While women are represented (with Pixies, Nico, Built to Spill, Arcade Fire, Bel & Sebastian), the top 40 does lack a female led band. Also, there is no reason for artists such as Ani Defranco, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin to be excluded - POINT TAKEN.

To be fair though, the list in its entirety is more inclusive - Beth Orton has 2 albums listed, Sleater-Kinney 4, Breeders 2, Liz Phair has 4 , PJ Harvey 4, Neko Case 3, Bjork 4, Massive Attack 4...

The list isn't perfect (my #2 favorite band of all time didn't even make it), but as a guideline for music people don't hear much, its good. The bottom half definitely more interesting than the top, but still flawed, yes.

[arija]

Okay, I vehemently disagreed after #3 (Arcade Fire???? SERIOUSLY?? I mean, they're good, they're fine, but number 3 of all time???) but even more disturbing and short-sighted is that there are no female musicians or bands with prominent female members (with the possible exception of the Postal Service, which is a great album but not a real band, and it's that Death Cab guy mostly) in the entire TOP FORTY. This is pretty obviously, like, two guys' lists combined. Guys who really love Radiohead (I also love Radiohead, but 4 of their albums in the top 20??). I understand this is an alternative-heavy list, but where is GARBAGE? Hole? Veruca Salt? EARLY LIZ PHAIR, YOU GUYS. And that's not even touching early rockers like Joplin and Bonnie Tyler, or a real show-stopper like Bjork's "Homogenic". Sorry, Jacob, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree on this being an authoritative list. To me it's a list with little to no thought or variety put into it -- it's reflective of one or two people's personal preferences without much regard for the extraordinary variety of music that has emerged over the past 50 years.