My Top 100 Albums

1. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
2. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
3. The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
4. The Clash - London Calling
5. Weezer - Weezer [Blue Album]
6. The Beatles - Revolver
7. Silent Majority - Life Of A Spectator
8. The Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About
9. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
10. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
11. Arcade Fire - Funeral
12. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
13. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
14. Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground
15. Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
16. Green Day - Dookie
17. Brand New - Deja Entendu
18. Coldplay - Parachutes
19. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
20. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
21. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
22. The Get Up Kids - Four Minute Mile
23. Pearl Jam - Ten
24. Glassjaw - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence
25. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
26. The Clash - The Clash [US Version]
27. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
28. Weezer - Pinkerton
29. Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
30. Radiohead - OK Computer
31. Saves The Day - Through Being Cool
32. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
33. The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow
34. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
35. Radiohead - The Bends
36. Pavement - Wowee Zowee
37. Nirvana - Nevermind
38. Morrissey - Vauxhall And I
39. The Beatles - Let It Be… Naked
40. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
41. John Lennon - Imagine
42. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
43. The Cure - Bloodflowers
44. Rancid - And Out Come The Wolves
45. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
46. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
47. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
48. Pavement - Brighten The Corners
49. The Cure - Disintegration
50. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
51. Saves The Day - Stay What You Are
52. The Movielife - This Time Next Year
53. The Smiths - Meat is Murder
54. Straylight Run - Straylight Run
55. The Postal Service - Give Up
56. Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
57. Sublime - Sublime
58. Yo La Tengo - Prisoners Of Love
59. The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
60. Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience
61. Interpol - Antics
62. Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break
63. The Promise Ring - Very Emergency
64. Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance
65. The Beatles - Abbey Road
66. Alkaline Trio - From Here to the Infirmary
67. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
68. Brand New - Your Favorite Weapon
69. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
70. Radiohead - Kid A
71. Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire
72. The Killers - Hot Fuss
73. Hot Rod Circuit - If It's Cool With You, It's Cool With Me
74. Minus The Bear - Highly Refined Pirates
75. Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute
76. Nada Surf - Let Go
77. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
78. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
79. Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
80. Taking Back Sunday - Where You Want To Be
81. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
82. Morrissey - Bona Drag
83. The Anniversary - Designing A Nervous Breakdown
84. Against Me! - New Wave
85. Pearl Jam - Vs.
86. The Pixies - Doolittle
87. Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antartica
88. Fountains Of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
89. Radiohead - Pablo Honey
90. Alkaline Trio - Good Mourning
91. Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
92. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry
93. Inside - Seven Inches To Wall Drug
94. At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command
95. The Replacements - Let It Be
96. The Beatles - Magical Mistery Tour
97. The White Stripes - Elephant
98. Eminem - The Eminem Show
99. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
100. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico

This list represents my all-time favorite albums. These aren’t the albums I consider to be the most influential or the most popular. This list isn’t meant to be universal. These are albums that I have a personal relationship with. Each album holds a special place in my heart, and can conjure special memories just thinking of the cover art.

In order to come up with this list I spent 1 year and 4 months listening to every album I own. It was a labor of love. I listened to over 16,000 songs on more than 1,100 albums. That’s over 65 gigs of music totaling approximately 42 straight days of run time. I listened to most of it in my car while driving to and from work, but got a decent amount of listening done while in the office, at the gym, or around the house doing chores. While listening to each song I would assign it a “Star Rating” on-the-go, and when I would sync my iPod to my computer it would transfer my ratings to iTunes. Once all of my songs had been assigned stars, I made an Excel sheet that listed the total tracks per album, and the overall star count per album. I divided the total star count by total tracks, multiplied it by 2 (to spread out the results), and added a “1” to bring the final number closer to a “10” rating. Once all of the data was inserted to Excel, I sorted my albums in a descending order according to their rankings. This gave me an objective list to work with (although, this list can still be considered somewhat subjective as the star ratings were based on personal taste). From there I shuffled my list around, trying my best not to play to favorites, and not to make my list as “hip” as possible. I purposely didn’t spend an exorbitant amount of time finalizing the list; I didn’t want to over-think it. Instead, I went with my gut and came up with the final rankings within 24 hours.

I like how I can look at this list and see the trajectory of my musical journey. Just looking at it takes me from elementary school (Green Day, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine), to discovering local music in middle school (Silent Majority, Glassjaw, Inside), to being turned on to the larger “emo” scene (The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring, Sunny Day Real Estate). I can see my college “gym bands” (Brand New, Taking Back Sunday), and my college “dorm room” bands (the Beatles, the Smiths). I can see the albums that will define my twenties (the Arcade Fire, the Shins) and albums I can’t believe I love as much as I do (Eminem). I see my running shoes, free weights, and the interior of my various cars. I can see my allowance being spent at Looney Tunes, and my tip money being spent at Tower Records. I can see music I have jewel cases for, and music I didn’t pay a cent for. I can I see Long Island, Poughkeepsie, Sydney, Hawaii, Philly, and my friends. Most importantly, not to sound cheesy, I see a musical portrait of who I am. I’m a fucking nerd.