Toby Petzold on NEOGNOSTIKOS.NET
My Fifty Most Favorite Albums
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I'm not going to try to justify my choices here since preference is not especially amenable to rational deconstruction. But, the following albums are the ones I'd pick if I could never hear any other music again (the old desert island hypothetical). Note that I have made no attempt to list any classical music or any other genre, nor any soundtracks or compilations (e.g., "greatest hits"). I tend to regard albums of popular rock music as single moments and works in time (much as a novel or film might be) or as representative of a particular period in the life of the artists.

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My 50 Most Favorite Albums
 
1.   The Beatles ("The White Album") (Nov 1968) -- The Beatles
2.   Exile on Main Street (May 1972) -- The Rolling Stones
3.   Sticky Fingers (Apr 1971) -- The Rolling Stones
4.   The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Aug 1967) -- The Pink Floyd
5.   Are You Experienced? (1967) -- The Jimi Hendrix Experience
6.   Moods (Jun? 1972) -- Neil Diamond
7.   Lizard (Autumn 1970) -- King Crimson
8.   Physical Graffiti (Feb 1975) -- Led Zeppelin
9.   Revolver (Aug 1966) -- The Beatles  
10.   Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus (Winter? 1970) -- Spirit
11.   Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) -- The Beatles
12.   Beggar's Banquet (1968) -- The Rolling Stones
13.   Black Sabbath (Feb 1970) -- Black Sabbath
14.   Led Zeppelin (1968) -- Led Zeppelin
15.   Can't Buy a Thrill (Oct 1972) -- Steely Dan
16.   Electric Ladyland (1968?) -- Jimi Hendrix
17.   Rubber Soul (Dec 1965) -- The Beatles
18.   Led Zeppelin IV (1972?) -- Led Zeppelin
19.   Paul's Boutique (Jul 1989)  --  The Beastie Boys
20.   Who's Next (Jul 1971) -- The Who
21.   Tea for the Tillerman (Nov 1970) -- Cat Stevens
22.   The Doors (1967) -- The Doors
23.   Lifes Rich Pageant (Jul 1986) -- R.E.M. 
24.   Let It Bleed (1969) -- The Rolling Stones
25.   Deja Vu (1972?) -- Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
26.   After the Gold Rush (1975?)  -- Neil Young
27.   Abbey Road (Oct 1969) -- The Beatles
28.   The Madcap Laughs (1969?) -- Syd Barrett
29.   Paranoid (Sep 1970)  -- Black Sabbath
30.   Rumours (1977) -- Fleetwood Mac
31.   Wish You Were Here (Sep 1975) -- Pink Floyd
32.   Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim  (Spring 1988; the EP Come On Pilgrim had been released in 1987, but is always included with Surfer Rosa) -- The Pixies
33.   Disraeli Gears (1967) -- Cream
34.   Loaded (Sep? 1970) -- The Velvet Underground
35.   The Dark Side of the Moon (Mar 1973) -- Pink Floyd
36.   2112 (Mar 1976) -- Rush
37.   Pink Flag (Dec 1977)  -- Wire
38.   Kill 'Em All (Jul 1983) -- Metallica
39.   Astral Weeks (1966?) -- Van Morrison 
40.   Aja (Sep 1977) -- Steely Dan
41.   Nevermind (Sep 1991) -- Nirvana
42.   Murmur (May 1983)  -- R.E.M.
43.   Throb Throb (1988?) -- Naked Raygun
44.   The Wall (Dec 1979) -- Pink Floyd
45.   Jagged Little Pill (Jun 1995) -- Alanis Morissette
46.   L.A. Woman (Apr 1971) -- The Doors
47.   Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Oct 1977) -- The Sex Pistols
48.   London Calling (Dec 1979) -- The Clash
49.   Closer (c1980) -- Joy Division
50.   Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959)  -- Marty Robbins

I'm also very big on Mozart's piano concertos, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Beethoven's major symphonies, Pachelbel's Canon in D minor, the music from Fantasia, a few show tunes here and there, Gregorian chants, and Eastern European vocal harmonies. I usually don't care much for jazz (unless a jazz lover can explain to me why I should), but I almost always like the blues. Don't much care for newer country music, but the older stuff is great (the cheesier the better). Zydeco's cool in small doses, but conjunto and most Latin music obnoxes me. Opera doesn't interest me at all, unless it's a famous aria that raises the blood. I'd no sooner listen to Wagner than a stadium full of fingernails dragged along chalkboards.