Gee this is sad, I'm looking at these, is Elastica basically the only one of these that is much later than the early 90s (and most of that album was pretty much swiped right from old Wire albums.) So, am I totally trapped in the mid 80s? You know sonny, they just don't make those albums like they used to. Well, they don't really make all that many albums anymore.
Not that I think more recent stuff is uniformly awful, yeah, don't get me started on how Clear Channel has destroyed radio as we know it (thank you so much for BBC 6 Music, totally worth my tv license right there alone), but there is probably something about albums you listen to over and over during high school and college. They are the ones that change your lfe and get you through the crap of growing up. There are probably a few albums from the last five years that I might think of later that are worthy of being on this list, but I can't really think of them right now.
And I guess a lot of these are the American versions or best of albums. I'm not such a stickler on that sort of thing. Yeah most of that album by The Church was released on other things first, but that was the album that I had and loved. And if I had to break down Happily Ever After into two albums, I guess I would pick Faith then. Sure I should have picked the actual album that most of the songs by the Buzzcocks were from, but I loved that singles one and it was the one I had that got played the most often.
So, let the listing begin. (Ok, probably a couple of these on this list are jokes. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine which ones.)
Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside
Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album) (or maybe Revolver)
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica
Big Black - Atomizer
Big Star - #1 Record
Birthday Party - Birthday Party
Black Flag - My War
Billy Bragg - Brewing Up With Billy Bragg
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Cars - Cars
Celibate Rifles - Les Fusiles Celibataires
Chocolate Watchband - The Best of The Chocolate Watchband
The Church - The Church
Circle Jerks - Group Sex
Clash - London Calling
Cocteau Twins - Treasure
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us
Cure - ... Happily Ever After
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Dream Syndicate - Days of Wine and Roses
Echo and the Bunnymen - Crocodiles
Elastica - Elastica
Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions
English Beat - I Just Can't Stop It
Shelley Fabares - Shelley! (although Best Of has Johnny Get Angry on it)
The Fall - The Wonderful Frightening World of The Fall (or perhaps Perverted by Language)
Fear - The Record
Feelies - The Good Earth
Flipper - Generic Flipper
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
Germs - (GI)
Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat
Gun Club - Fire of Love
Happy Flowers - Making the Bunny Pay
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Frenzy
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Smash Hits
Hoodoo Gurus - Stonage Romeos
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power
Jam - All Mod Cons (or perhaps Snap!)
Josef K - Only Fun In Town
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (maybe Closer on other days)
Killing Joke - Killing Joke
Meat Puppets - II
Metal Urbain - L' Age d'or
Midnight Oil - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Minor Threat - Minor Threat
Minutemen - Double Nickles on the Dime
Naked Raygun - Throb Throb
New Order - Movement
Nirvana - Nevermind
Pretenders - Pretenders
R.E.M. - Murmur
Replacements - Let It Be
Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks
Section 25 - From The Hip
Siouxie and the Banshees - The Scream (or maybe Once Upon A Time)
Smiths - Smiths
Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight
Sonic Youth - Sister (maybe Daydream Nation on other days)
Specials - Specials
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Squirrel Bait - Squirrel Bait
Steel Pole Bathtub - Butterfly Love
Swans - Greed
Thor - Unchained
U2 - Boy
Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground and Nico
Who - Quadrophenia
Wire - Pink Flag
X - Los Angeles
XTC - Black Sea (or maybe English Settlement)
