Andrew Careaga's blog about branding, marketing and PR in higher education
Off topic: best albums ever
A sample of album covers from my collection, using Picasa. I got the idea from Ron BronsonEvery so often I go through and try to catalogue my favorite things — favorite books, quotes, short stories, songs, albums, etc. Recently I reorganized my list of favorite albums and posted them on this blog, under my music section. If you love music — especially pop and rock music, with just a dash of country tossed into the mix for seasoning — maybe you’ll be interested in seeing what I’ve cooked up. If so, please go there and share your thoughts.
Higher ed PR and marketing guy. Communications director for Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) in Rolla, Missouri, USA. Slow runner, mediocre guitarist, lover of music and puns, and an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan. I blog and Tweet about #highered, #music, #gocards and #random stuff.
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7 thoughts on “Off topic: best albums ever”
This is a FANTASTIC list (with the exception of the new Green Day :). Given the presence of The Cars, Clash, Devo and Velvet Underground, I was surprised not to see The Strokes, Is this it? or The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers in the top 100. What a list! I’m going to have some explaining to do when my next iTunes invoice arrives!
My weak spot is 70s music. I’ve just never been able to get into it en masse, though I’ve forced myself to at least listen to the “classics” in recent years. That said, I love the list. It starts to be uber relevant to me around Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True and below. It’s a really diverse list and I can’t even quibble with your rankings, though I think some of the surprises were what ranked as highly as they did (Lauryn Hill’s LP alternates between brilliant and not every time I revisit it these days) but I love it.
Now I have to do one too. If nothing else, it’ll generate traffic for your list, since yours is way more inclusive than mine is likely to be. :)
Sam – One of these days I’m going to post my list of best albums by decade. There, you’ll find “Is This It” prominently listed in the best of the 2000s and “Sticky Fingers” likewise in the ’70s. As for the new Green Day — maybe I’m a bit overzealous on this one but I think it will hold up as a classic. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, however.
Ron – We all have our weak spots and blind spots. I’m a child of the ’70s, and that was also the decade of the concept album and the explosion of LPs onto the market. My weak spot is mid-80s to mid-90s. I look forward to seeing your list.
The new Green Day is really good and I think you’re right. I mean, I like it better than American Idiot (not that I was a partisan of that.) It’s just mature, polished pop-punk. Like it took them a decade to perfect the practice and they just did it in concept album format and yet, it’s so digestible. I think it’ll hold up extremely well even if it’s not an album where you point to a single and go “that’s my favorite song ever.”
Higher Ed Marketing 
This is a FANTASTIC list (with the exception of the new Green Day :). Given the presence of The Cars, Clash, Devo and Velvet Underground, I was surprised not to see The Strokes, Is this it? or The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers in the top 100. What a list! I’m going to have some explaining to do when my next iTunes invoice arrives!
My weak spot is 70s music. I’ve just never been able to get into it en masse, though I’ve forced myself to at least listen to the “classics” in recent years. That said, I love the list. It starts to be uber relevant to me around Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True and below. It’s a really diverse list and I can’t even quibble with your rankings, though I think some of the surprises were what ranked as highly as they did (Lauryn Hill’s LP alternates between brilliant and not every time I revisit it these days) but I love it.
Now I have to do one too. If nothing else, it’ll generate traffic for your list, since yours is way more inclusive than mine is likely to be. :)
Sam – One of these days I’m going to post my list of best albums by decade. There, you’ll find “Is This It” prominently listed in the best of the 2000s and “Sticky Fingers” likewise in the ’70s. As for the new Green Day — maybe I’m a bit overzealous on this one but I think it will hold up as a classic. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, however.
Ron – We all have our weak spots and blind spots. I’m a child of the ’70s, and that was also the decade of the concept album and the explosion of LPs onto the market. My weak spot is mid-80s to mid-90s. I look forward to seeing your list.
What about anything new ( Like after 1980).Freak.
The new Green Day is really good and I think you’re right. I mean, I like it better than American Idiot (not that I was a partisan of that.) It’s just mature, polished pop-punk. Like it took them a decade to perfect the practice and they just did it in concept album format and yet, it’s so digestible. I think it’ll hold up extremely well even if it’s not an album where you point to a single and go “that’s my favorite song ever.”
JKLRock – There’s plenty on the list after 1980, sir. Radiohead, REM, Lauryn Hill, Franz Ferdinand, THREE Green Day albums, one White Stripes.