100 Essential Albums
I’m just gonna shoot this list all over you guys, it’s not in any particular order except for the first one (gee I wonder what it’ll be) but they’re just a sh
itload of fantastic albums you might want to listen to. It’s not going to have every quintessential album but this list is a good starting place. I’ll likely be reviewing some of these at one point so I’ll update this list with links to those reviews. You ready? I am.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica
Peter Brötzmann Octet - Machine Gun
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
John Zorn - Madness, Love and Mysticism
Zu - Carboniferous
The Thing - Bag It!
Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, and Han Bennink - The Topography of the Lungs
Billy Woods - History Will Absolve Me
John Coltrane - Ascension
Armand Hammer - Race Music
Madvillain - Madvillainy
Jim Black - Endangered Blood
Silver Apples - Contact
Fifty Foot Hose - Cauldron
United States of America - United States of America
This Heat - This Heat
Tom Waits - Real Gone
Taku Sugimoto - Opposite
Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music (fu
ck the haters)
Wolves in Sheepskin - Indecent Vibrations
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Anthony Braxton - For Alto
Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation
Jandek - Threw You Away
Colin Stetson - Those Who Didn’t Run
Peter Brötzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love - The Fat Is Gone
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love
Derek Bailey - Ballads
Boom Bip & Doseone - Circle
miRthkon - Vehicle
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Fantômas - Fantômas
Primus - Pork Soda
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch!
Gorguts - Obscura
Naked City - Torture Garden
DNA - DNA on DNA
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
Kreng - Grimoire
John Coltrane - Meditations
Can - Tago Mago
Faust - Rien
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
Huun-Huur-Tu - Fly, Fly My Sadness
John Fahey - Womblife
The Red Krayola - Parable of Arable Land
The Pop Group - Y
This Heat - Deceit
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Ice Cream for Crow
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Doc at the Radar Station
Swans - To Be Kind
Sunn O))) - Black One
Marc Ribot - Asmodeus: Book of Angels, Vol. 7
Sun Ra - Space is the Place
Throbbing Gristle - The Second Annual Report
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
John Cale - Stainless Steel Gamelan
Ween - GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
Zs - Arms
Fush
itsusha - Withdraw, This Sable Disclosure Ere Devot’d
El-P - Cancer 4 Cure
Keiji Haino - Koko
Keiji Haino - I Said, This Is the Son of Nihilism
Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
Praxis - Sacrifist
Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de colour libres
Thrangh - Erzefilisch
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Les Stances a Sophie
Charles Mingus - The Clown
Dälek - Absence
The Residents - Meet the Residents
Aesop Rock - Float
Pere Ubu - Dub Housing
Sonny Sharrock - Ask the Ages
Masada - Alef
The Residents - Eskimo
Charles Gayle - Repent
Albert Ayler - Love Cry
Wild Man Fischer - An Evening With Wild Man Fischer
Brian Eno - Ambient One: Music for Airports
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam
Gil Scott-Heron - Small Talk at 125th and Lenox
Masayuki Takayanaki & Kaoru Abe - Gradually Projection
Wolves In Sheepskin - Lizard of Ox (ja it’s self promotion but I really do love this album)
Ken Vandermark - Mark in the Water
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
John Cage - Imaginary Landscapes
Ornette Coleman - This Is Our Music
Moondog - Moondog
Arnold Schoenberg - any album with a performance of Verklarte Nacht Op. 4. I like Schoenberg: Orchestral Works
Cromagnon - Orgasm (aka by the reissue name, Cave Rock)
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Morton Feldman - Three Voices for Joan La Barbara
Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle
Oidupaa Vladimir Ouin - Divine Music from a Jail