Silly List Slogs: Top 5 Albums, pt. 1

Anthony Cougar Miccio -

Earlier this month, I noted my frustration that I don't currently have 5 Lou Reed albums I would want to call my Top 5. But how many pop-rock acts do achieve that feat? By my last reckoning, more than 50. So here's the first 25, in descending order of how favoritey I find my 5 favorite albums of theirs. If you compare this list to the 20 Top 5s I posted last year, you'll find some artists and albums shuffled around. Cuz I put in the work! But I sure hope you don't have to gaze that deep into my navel to find this stuff entertaining.

Some caveats from last time that still hold today.

  1. My collection is rife with the sound of a sardonic yet earnest singing white male guitarist. I'm ever working on expanding my awareness, while also accepting it's an area where I've got a lot.
  2. Just because an album isn't here doesn't mean I don't like it, or that I've even heard it.
  3. Yeah, I'm including some compilations. They're albums, aren't they? Little circles you can spin around when you want to hear a ditty? I count them when they count to me.

Despite point number 1, if you do find a choice or exclusion startling, don't be afraid to let me know, either via anthonymiccio at twitter, or anthonyisright at gmail dot com. The more I know my tastes intrigue, the more likely I'll explicate them further.

Neil Young

  1. Rust Never Sleeps
  2. Greendale
  3. Ragged Glory
  4. Comes A Time
  5. On The Beach

The Velvet Underground

  1. White Light/White Heat
  2. The Velvet Underground
  3. Loaded
  4. V.U.
  5. The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Rolling Stones

  1. Let It Bleed
  2. Rolling Stones, Now!
  3. Beggars Banquet
  4. Exile On Mainstreet
  5. Tattoo You

The Beatles

  1. Please Please Me
  2. A Hard Day’s Night
  3. Rubber Soul
  4. Revolver
  5. With The Beatles

Randy Newman

  1. Bad Love
  2. Good Old Boys
  3. Sail Away
  4. Born Again
  5. Little Criminals
R.E.M.: I still love 'em!

R.E.M.

  1. Green
  2. Reckoning
  3. Document
  4. Out Of Time
  5. Dead Letter Office/Chronic Town [CD]

Low

  1. Ones And Sixes
  2. HEY WHAT
  3. The Great Destroyer
  4. I Could Live In Hope
  5. Double Negative

Electric Six

  1. Fire
  2. I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me The Restricts Me From Being The Master
  3. Heartbeats And Brainwaves
  4. Senor Smoke
  5. Zodiac

Yo La Tengo

  1. Electr-O-Pura
  2. We Have Amensia Sometimes
  3. Fakebook
  4. Painful
  5. There’s A Riot Going On

Ramones

  1. The Ramones
  2. Rocket To Russia
  3. Leave Home
  4. Brain Drain
  5. Subterranean Jungle
If it's possible for a Spoon fan to have a hot take about Spoon albums, I like to think I do.

Spoon

  1. A Series Of Sneaks
  2. Transference
  3. Gimme Fiction
  4. Girls Can Tell
  5. Telephono

John Prine

  1. John Prine
  2. Diamonds In The Rough
  3. In Spite Of Ourselves
  4. Aimless Love
  5. Common Sense

Rocket From The Crypt

  1. Hot Charity/Cut Carefully & Play Loud [CD]
  2. Live From Camp X-Ray
  3. Group Sounds
  4. R.I.P.
  5. RFTC

Sonic Youth

  1. Sonic Nurse
  2. Sister
  3. Bad Moon Rising
  4. Daydream Nation
  5. EVOL

Aretha Franklin

  1. I Never Loved A Man (The Way That I Loved You)
  2. Lady Soul
  3. Aretha Now
  4. Spirit In The Dark
  5. Aretha Arrives
There's a new number 5 on the Mountain Goats Top 5. I know, right?! Holy shit!

The Mountain Goats

  1. We Shall All Be Healed
  2. The Sunset Tree
  3. The Coroner’s Gambit
  4. Full Force Galesbourg
  5. Goths

Fugazi

  1. The Argument
  2. 13 Songs
  3. Repeater
  4. In On The Killtaker
  5. End Hits

Al Green

  1. Gets Next To You
  2. Al Green Is Love
  3. The Belle Album
  4. Livin’ For You
  5. Call Me

Joni Mitchell

  1. Hejira
  2. Blue
  3. Court & Spark
  4. For The Roses
  5. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Bob Dylan

  1. Blood On The Tracks
  2. Before The Flood
  3. Bringing It All Back Home
  4. Blonde On Blonde
  5. The Basement Tapes
Note to self: explain the love for Bill Withers' +Justments some day.

Bill Withers

  1. +Justments
  2. Live At Carnegie Hall
  3. Menagerie
  4. Just As I Am
  5. Still Bill

Led Zeppelin

  1. Led Zeppelin III
  2. Led Zeppelin IV
  3. Houses Of The Holy
  4. Physical Graffiti
  5. Led Zeppelin II

Loudon Wainwright III

  1. Attempted Mustache
  2. Haven’t Got The Blues (Yet)
  3. Unrequited
  4. Fame & Wealth
  5. Album II

Amy Rigby

  1. Diary Of A Mod Housewife
  2. The Sugar Tree
  3. Little Fugitive
  4. Middlescence
  5. One Way Ticket To My Life

The Fall

  1. Early Fall 77-79
  2. Hex Enduction Hour
  3. Live At The Witch Trials
  4. Slates/ A Part Of America Therein, 1981
  5. This Nation’s Saving Grace

25 more a'-comin'!