I would say this wasn’t too hard to piece together, I did one of these Topsters lists a good few years ago. A cleared cache wiped it all but I could remember the bones of at least 50 or so albums that I would still consider all-timers and soon enough I had a full list put together again. Then the agonising tinkering and re-ordering came into play and one album even snuck its way in here this morning. As it stands these are my 100 favourite records of all time.
Please feel free to engage in posts. My music taste has been heavily influenced and sculped by what I’ve found on these boards so I’m not sure there’s anything on here that most of you won’t have heard before, but it’s always nice to think someone could find a new favourite in amongst this lot.
As good a place as any to start because this was my gateway into Hip Hop.
My band had opened for Anathallo when they played Glasgow’s greatest music venue The Captain’s Rest, now sadly RIP (both the band and the venue). Their touring support was a guy called Sam Amidon and his performance mid set banter were both top notch. At one point randomly stating “It’s like that Gang Starr song, you know? it’s lonely at the top and whatever you do, you always gotta watch motherfuckers around you.” I didn’t hear who he was talking about but I caught the line and quizzed him on it at the bar afterwards (also congratulated him on a genuinely great set and I should really go back to his discography at some point). He told me, I went home and downloaded it in a non-legal manner and that was that. I now liked Hip-Hop.
An old band of mine once did a wee live session for Stirling Uni’s student radio station Air 3. While we were waiting for the host to show up we sat in the van and our singer decided at random to play and sing Priests and Paramedics. Sounds a bit cheesy, like the guy at the house party who plays either Good Riddance by Green Day or you know that song about the dog by Blink 182 to try and impress people. This wasn’t cheesy, it was brilliant, the three of us sat and listened as he played the whole thing. Had to ask him what it was when he was finished in the hope it was a song he’d written. It wasn’t, I was told, it was Pedro the Lion.
This album is great start to finish, no skips. It’s the only one of the Bazan discography that I repeatedly go back to.
Rocket From The Crypt – Scream, Dracula, Scream! (1995, Innerscope)
Wish I’d gotten to this when I was a lot younger. I reckon if I’d come across this album in my teens it would have cemented itself as an all-timer. Packed full of hooks. John Reis is a legend. I shouldn’t like a record with this amount of horn /ska punk on it, but I do.
This is one of my favourite album covers of all time. I like the artwork more than the album and I LOVE the album. The cover drew me in, and the album slowly seeped into me.
I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a Gang Starr album. I’m sure I’ve heard some tracks here and there over the last 3 decades, but never a a full album to my knowledge. Last.fm shows I’ve actually played 19 unique tracks from 5 different albums since 2006. Not really sure how those came about, maybe I’ve got their albums in the respective yearly backlog playlists I have in Spotify and I’ve shuffled them on occasion.
Prodigy & The Alchemist – Return of the Mac (2007, Koch Records)
Another newish one to me after discovering on these very forums. I have to say I’m completely ignorant of Mobb Deep and Prodigy’s other solo work with The Alchemist. I really need to rectify that. But until then I just love playing this to death and I never tire of hearing the NYPD referred to as “New York Pricks & Dicks”
Oh yeah, big fan of Jazzmatazz 1. I’ve got vol.2 as well but not really listened to it as much. Step Into The Arena is absolutely the classic one but Moment of Truth was the entry point for me so it’s always been the favourite.
This is by no means a classic album, but it’s one that found itself on constant repeat ever since I got into it the year after release. It’s all the elements of post rock, slowcore and chunky doomy riffs that I love. It is a bit samey; I’ll give you that, but I care not a jot. A major step up from it’s predecessor Dixieland, better songs, more classic rock licks. You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done is the centrepiece of the record and I never tire of the 3 guitar solos in that skull crushing heavy end section of the song.
Very, very late to the game with Title Fight but I’m making up for lost time now. This album straddles the hardcore predecessor Shed and the shoegaze/dreampop inspired follow up Hyperview with a foot in both plus a smattering of other influences thrown in and all the better for it. Secret Society, Head In The Ceiling Fan are personal highlights and I’m a big fan of the riff in Calloused too. Reunite cowards!
I could copy and paste exactly what I said previously about the Greet Death record. This isn’t a classic album but my word do I love it and it’s never been far from the repeated listen pile since it was released. I’d be lying if I said I could personally relate to a lot of the lyrics here but it’s just such a fun, aggressive, hooky album. God is indifferent and nobody cares!
Aphex Twin – Select Ambient Works Vol II (1994, Warp)
I bought this by accident, I think? I’d read a lot about SAW85-92 and seen it on many music press greatest albums lists, but I couldn’t find it anywhere, it must have been out of print for a while? I could see SAW vol II everywhere though. Every indie record shop had a copy. I could see it said Volume II on the packaging, this wasn’t the fabled album was it? Maybe it was the original album with some extra tracks and different packaging or something? So I bought it, realised it wasn’t the album I thought it was and it lived on a shelf for a long old time, I wasn’t ready for it.
While I had given it some time between buying in the mid-2000’s and 2020, it was the Pandemic that proved the perfect time to let it properly sink in. I was listening to a lot of ambient music anyway, trying to familiarise myself with the classics, listening to the excellent Monday Graveyard and trying to make second rate ambient music of my own whenever I was locked down and it wasn’t glorious sunshine outside. I’d listen to it start to finish, or maybe take a break between discs but I always found a way back to it and thank the Lords of Kobol I did.
I’m not an extrovert, I’m not the type of person that brags about being in a band or drags people to see my band play gigs (not anymore anyway), but I absolutely love that I made this record with my mates! It fucking rules! I’ve recorded music for the best part of 20 years, and this is the only one I’m really, really proud of (I actually like our EP too) and I had an absolute blast making it. I think the litmus test is whether I’d listen to this and like it as much if I wasn’t playing on it and the answer is a resounding yes which I can’t say for any of the other bands I’ve been a part of.
This is the only time one of my own records will appear on this list. That’s it, it’s done now, let’s move on.
Metal I can only take in small doses and when I’m in the mood. While I’ve always been a fan of heavy music there’s not much “Metal” on this list, but I couldn’t leave this off. Fans of the band will know this was the second of a Quadrilogy based on the four elements, this one being water and all lyrics based on Melville’s Moby Dick. There’s more riffs in this thing that there are names in the phone book and has a heft and thickness to it that matches the images of heavy wooden ships or an enormous sea beast.
