My Top 5 Albums From Each Decade

I recently took part in an interesting exercise over at a music-centric forum I’ve been known to frequent. The assignment, if you will, was to come up with a list of the five albums from each decade which best define your musical taste. I accepted the challenge (only including the decades I’ve been alive), and after extensive thought, here are the albums on my list (plus, as a bonus, the one album from each decade it was most difficult for me to exclude) – with links to listen on Spotify (if available):

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• The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed
• The Beatles – Abbey Road
• The Band – Music from Big Pink
• Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II
• Neil Young – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
• [Toughest Omission: The Doors – The Doors]

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• The Who – Who’s Next
• Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick
• Steely Dan – The Royal Scam
• Willie Nelson – Shotgun Willie
• Nilsson – Nilsson Schmilsson
• [Toughest Omission: Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!]

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• The Replacements – Pleased to Meet Me
• Treat Her Right – Treat Her Right
• Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking
• Alice Cooper – Flush the Fashion
• The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta
• [Toughest Omission: Michael Penn – March]

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• Spoon – A Series of Sneaks
• Southern Culture on the Skids – Dirt Track Date
• R.E.M. – New Adventures in Hi-Fi
• Morphine – Cure for Pain
• Pearl Jam – No Code
• [Toughest Omission: Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters]

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• Pedro The Lion – Control
• Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway
• My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves
• Jim White – Drill a Hole in that Substrate and Tell Me What You See
• Ass Ponys – Lohio
• [Toughest Omission: Ted Leo/Pharmacists – The Tyranny of Distance]

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• The Black Keys – El Camino
• Girl Talk – All Day
• The Soft Pack – The Soft Pack
• J. Roddy Walston and The Business – J. Roddy Walston and The Business
• Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks – Mirror Traffic
• [Toughest Omission: Gentleman Jesse – Leaving Atlanta]