Next installment!  Sorry for the delay… it’s been a lovely week of a cold followed by stomach flu.  (Can you say “lowered resistance”?  I really should get back in the habit of taking vitamin C.) 

I just realized that I was ordering these backwards from everyone else (see my last list – as compared to other people’s lists).  Which would make sense – the way everyone else is doing it – because then the top albums are a surprise as you scroll down the page.  I think the latent rebel in me just has to be different… or ding-y… one of those.   Of course, I still don’t have any pictures… but I did manage to write a little bit this time. 

Again here are the rules.

  • One album per artist.  – Keen has already nixed this rule, as how can anyone not have at least two Led Zeppelin albums in their top ten?
  • No greatest hits packages, compilations, or boxed sets. – This one might get stretched a little.
  • No artists that would make me look hip or cool.  – I seriously don’t even know what this means. Can someone give me an example?
  • I must own the LP, CD, or cassette tape of every one of these entries. No mp3s. 

45. Dada – Puzzle

44. Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense

43. The Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

I realize much of my list (if not all) is like the reading list for “How To Be Alternative 101”.  But you must understand, this town o’ mine was a supporter of Top 40 and Spanish stations and that was about it. I had been picking up bits and pieces here and there of other music but was really too young to have the resources (i.e. money and allowed to go to clubs) to explore lots of alternatives beyond the radio.  And then… then one station started playing “Modern Rock” (I actually remember the day they switched from a Top 40 format) and it was like the heavens opened up and sang down joyous choruses of angry punks, moody synthesizers, and ironic, political pop.  My. Whole. World. Changed.  (Stop laughing.)

42. The Clash – Combat Rock

41. Devo – Now It Can Be Told (Devo at the Palace 12/9/88)

This is one of those albums that I bought for one or two songs as a teenager and then just fell in love with all the songs.  I suppose a concert recording doesn’t count as an “album” but tough titties.  Their version of “Satisfaction” would just ring in my head for days.

40. Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam

Favorite song, “Elderly woman behind the counter in a small town.”  I always have trouble getting open that dumb double notch CD cover, though.

39. No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom

38. Glen Phillips – Abulum

This is a great album. Glen Phillips was previously from Toad the Wet Sprocket but this is a different sound. I highly recommend it if you occasionally like some folksy rock.  “Fred Meyers” and “Drive By” are great songs.  How do you beat lyrics like this?

“And I prayed Dear God, if you save this dog / I will never get high, I will never jack off / I will be all the things that I should but have not / I’ll be a good boy from now on.”

37. Sarah McLaughlin – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

36. Local H – As Good As Dead

35. Gin Blossoms – New Miserable Experience

34. English Beat – What is Beat?

I think I bought this around the same period as Devo.  Some favorite songs: “Tears of a Clown”, “Mirror in the Bathroom”.  I’m pretty sure my mother hated anything ska, reggae, or music with influences of either.  She probably heard me play this over and over again in my room.  Yet she only complained if I took it to the big stereo downstairs. (And why would I do that?  I was a teenager; if I wasn’t hiding in my room I was “out”.)

33. Green Day – Dookie

Yes, I know it’s their breakout album that everyone bought, but it’s still my favorite.  I saw them right before this album hit, opening for a million other bands at one of those giant concerts.  They had a great attitude and kept playing past their allotted time until they were threatened with getting kicked off the stage.  (And even though they have just as big a following and a similar sound Blink 182 will NOT be appearing on this list. It’s not that they don’t have songs that I like; but they’re attitude just irks me.)

32. Jane’s Addiction – Nothing Shocking

31. Depeche Mode – Music for the Masses 

I briefly thought I was losing my mind when I tried finding this album.  It was, yet again, one of the albums I had on cassette and had somehow neglected to yet transfer over to CD.  (Yeah, I don’t know how I managed that either.)  Anyway, I must have listened to this and Violator ten million times (oh, and Some Great Reward and all the other Depeche Mode albums… wasn’t it required for mod teens?)  I was starting to think that I must have had a bootleg copy with both sets of songs and that probably wouldn’t qualify as an “album”.  Then, finally, I found it. Thus validating my post-partum memory in some small measure.