65. Simon and Garfunkel - Greatest Hits (1972)
A purely nostalgic entry here. As a youngster my parents’ house wasn’t exactly filled with music, my dad was only interested in classical and my mum didn’t really listen to anything. But this album was a bit of a family favourite and would get an airing on a Sunday now and again. Music being the incredibly evocative thing that it can be, when I listen to this now I can almost smell the Sunday roast cooking!
I also heard There’s Nothing Wrong with Love around the same time — a friend had struggled to find the CD for years and I found it for her on CDnow.com I think it was, eventually purchased by Amazon, and it was my first online music purchase. Fell in love with the album myself after that.
Have to agree that even though Keep It Like a Secret is also stellar, Perfect From Now On is unmatched in their catalog. I also love how well those three titles work together.
64. Radiohead - The Bends (1995)
After the success of the single Creep off their otherwise lacklustre debut the band’s next album was eagerly awaited and holy moly did they not disappoint! Every single song on The Bends is vastly superior to anything on Pablo Honey, even Creep tbh, tighter, more ambitious and just, well, better. Playing this now for the first time in I don’t know how long and my god it’s good, Planet Telex (what a way to open an album), Fake Plastic Trees, Just, Street Spirit (Fade Out), incredible stuff!
At the time you couldn’t help but think, but where can they go from here? Of course we now know, and, no spoilers, but that’s for another post!
63. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Henry’s Dream (1992)
My introduction to Nick Cave, and it remains my favourite. An album of twisted stories and torch songs. By turns dark and violent “Well it’s into the shame, and it’s into the guilt, and it’s into the fucking fray, and the walls ran red around me, a warm arterial spray” (Papa Won’t Leave You Henry) to tender romance “Straight to you, For I am captured, One more time” (Straight To You).
After this one I kept up with his Bad Seeds (and Grinderman) output until Dig, Lazarus, Dig. Unfortunately I’ve found his last three just boring and uninteresting. 
Papa Won’t Leave You Henry and Up Jumped the Devil are two of the best songs of all time.
probably my favourite Cave record as well (for the record, the competition would be Let Love In or The Good Son).
also I need to get on with my list, there’s already a bit of overlap here!
I’m at 85 records, but I’ve set myself a one album per artist rule, which I am beginning to think was a stupid decision.
62. Kvelertak - Kvelertak (2010)
“KVELERTAAAKK!!”
Norway’s Kvelertak (Norwegian for stranglehold) unleashed their self titled debut in June 2010, produced by Kurt Ballou of Converge fame and with stunning artwork by John Dyer Baizley of Baroness, it’s a furious album of blistering, grin inducing black ‘n’ roll anthems. Raging, incendiary, like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart, yes mate!! One note piano solo, come on, BLODTØRST!!!
More Senser love in here - loved Stacked Up, hit all the right notes at that time in my life. Does sound a bit dated but some killer songs on it. Got into the Beastie Boys because of their cover of Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun.
16/17 year old me was at that Preston Poly gig - my mum and dad took me and a mate down and then went to watch Cool Runnings while we were at that gig. Also got a lot of time for New Kingdom who supported - now that is a bad that have aged well, both albums still sounds amazing - don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Loved Senser back in the day and was down the front for that Reading show too. They wouldn’t make my top 100 albums though - that first New Kingdom album, however, definitely WOULD.
One of my favourite albums of all time. Perfect.
this is also awesome
61. Ride - Going Blank Again (1992)
If I were listening to this alongside the debut Nowhere right now I would probably have to place Nowhere above this in terms of overall greatness but in 1992 this one just resonated far more with me (this list is a personal 100 Greatest don’t forget, so I have to incorporate how it made me feel at the time and its lasting impact rather than whether it’s objectively better or worse than its predecessor). It’s a much “stronger” record than Nowhere which always seemed a bit weak in its production and Mark Gardener’s vocals on this come across a lot more strident and confident sounding. Plus it’s lost some of the wooziness of the debut which at the time is why it appealed more to me I think, I was still pretty mainstream in my tastes and GBA just hit more of the right notes. It’s just an album full of cracking straightforward shoegaze tunes. The eight minute opener Leave Them All Behind sounds huge and the album is bookended by the similarly huge OX4. I pretty much had this album on repeat for days.
Also any album that includes not one but two samples from Withnail & I gives it extra cred points! 
60. The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (2007)
One of the best debut albums ever? Very possibly.
The Scottish band’s early live shows were notorious for their hugely loud walls of noise with James Graham’s heavily accented lyrics spat over the top. This was obviously reined in a fair bit for the record but it’s still a wonderful, at times noisy yet beautiful album of shoegaze/post punk. Album art obviously doesn’t make a good album, but as well as this being one of the best debuts ever musically it also has (imo) some of the best artwork ever. Another classic and one I was more than willing to queue up and spend a chunk of cash on to get the 2014 Record Store Day version.
59. Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over (1992)
This album is in the list almost entirely down to just two tracks on it, Taillights Fade and Mineral. If I was going to do a 100 songs thread (I’m not!) then they would both be extremely high up the ranking. Mineral is one of those songs that no matter how often I hear it it can still trigger shivers down the spine. I don’t want to make it sound like the rest of the album’s not worth bothering with however, it really is and if you’re not aware of them but are a fan of Dinosaur Jr or other bands of that ilk then you really owe it to yourself to give this album a listen.
58. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (1980)
The California punks’ debut album. I can’t remember exactly when I actually bought this but I know it was a good few years after it came out, early nineties probably. I know I bought it in Our Price though along with a birthday gift of Phil Collin’s No Jacket Required for my sister. It sticks in the memory for the bemused look on the face of the guy behind the desk when I handed both over to pay for them!
Jello Biafra’s smart needle sharp lyrics, his unique vocal delivery and East Bay Ray’s iconic punked up surf guitar. Add to that its often political subject matter that is sprinkled with dark humour placed it way above other run of the mill contemporary punk albums and it still bites forty three years later.
Enjoying reading this thread.
Properly exciting seeing this album included, looking forward to what follows.
57. Blanck Mass - Blanck Mass (2011)
One half of electronic noise mongers Fuck Buttons, Benjamin John Powers released his first solo album in June 2011 under the moniker Blanck Mass. In stark contrast to FB’s output it is beatless, ambient and just gorgeous. Put this on and cinematic synth drones fill the room, washing over you like an aural tidal wave. On headphones it’s even better, transportive, meditative, almost soporific.
My favourite track is Chernobyl and I was delighted to hear it used to perfection in Ben Wheatley’s out there film A Field In England when Reece Shearsmith’s character emerges from the tent in slow motion, his face contorted in ecstasy. It works so well.
On his subsequent releases he brought in more beats and aggression more in keeping with his other band, but personally this is his finest moment so far. Beautiful.
56. Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring (1986)
Acting as a bridge between the synth pop of their first two albums and the later more proto-post rock of their last two albums. For me it is the sweet spot. Top twenty single Life’s What You Make It harked back to their earlier material and tracks such as Chameleon Day signal the sort of thing to come on Spirit of Eden in 1988. Another evocative album that transports me back nearly forty years!
I’m getting massive Afghan Whigs vibes from this. I think @TAFH33 would be all over this
