Consensus Top 300 Albums of All-Time: Taking lists of your 70 favorite albums until 7/1 (2 Viewers)

[Rand al Thor]

This is turning out to be a lot harder than I expected. I'm really trying to be as accurate as I can this time because as the top 70 TV show list was revealed, I realized some of my rankings were all over the place. Like, how did Knight Rider end up ahead of Hill Street Blues?

What’s surprising me most is how many bands I’ve always thought of as favorites don’t actually have a single album that is going to make the cut. Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Echo & the Bunnymen are all bands I played constantly, but they were always the greatest hits cassettes that never left my Walkman or car stereo. But looking back through their discography, I don’t see any individual albums that make the "desert island" criteria.

So yeah, it’s weird realizing how many big-name bands I’m leaving off. It feels a little betraying someone you always assumed you'd grow old with, except it turns out you were only in it for the mixtape.

Wow. I have four Aerosmith albums on my list at the moment.

You need 4 Aerosmith albums to equal that first greatest hits album with the red logo. I went through three of those cassettes (all from Columbia House...). Speaking of, did anyone else ever suspect that the Columbia House cassettes (and 8 tracks if you're that old) were of inferior quality and wore out quicker? The cassettes started to get squeeky or skreetchy, if you know what I'm sayin.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

You need 4 Aerosmith albums to equal that first greatest hits album with the red logo.

Nope. I like pretty much all the tracks on those albums. A greatest hits just won't do.

 

[zamboni]

This is turning out to be a lot harder than I expected. I'm really trying to be as accurate as I can this time because as the top 70 TV show list was revealed, I realized some of my rankings were all over the place. Like, how did Knight Rider end up ahead of Hill Street Blues?

What’s surprising me most is how many bands I’ve always thought of as favorites don’t actually have a single album that is going to make the cut. Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Echo & the Bunnymen are all bands I played constantly, but they were always the greatest hits cassettes that never left my Walkman or car stereo. But looking back through their discography, I don’t see any individual albums that make the "desert island" criteria.

So yeah, it’s weird realizing how many big-name bands I’m leaving off. It feels a little betraying someone you always assumed you'd grow old with, except it turns out you were only in it for the mixtape.

Wow. I have four Aerosmith albums on my list at the moment.

You need 4 Aerosmith albums to equal that first greatest hits album with the red logo. I went through three of those cassettes (all from Columbia House...). Speaking of, did anyone else ever suspect that the Columbia House cassettes (and 8 tracks if you're that old) were of inferior quality and wore out quicker? The cassettes started to get squeeky or skreetchy, if you know what I'm sayin.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were inferior given how much they were mass produced. Based on that, I'm glad I (and many of my faux-named household pets) still owe Columbia House and BMG money.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

This is turning out to be a lot harder than I expected. I'm really trying to be as accurate as I can this time because as the top 70 TV show list was revealed, I realized some of my rankings were all over the place. Like, how did Knight Rider end up ahead of Hill Street Blues?

What’s surprising me most is how many bands I’ve always thought of as favorites don’t actually have a single album that is going to make the cut. Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Echo & the Bunnymen are all bands I played constantly, but they were always the greatest hits cassettes that never left my Walkman or car stereo. But looking back through their discography, I don’t see any individual albums that make the "desert island" criteria.

So yeah, it’s weird realizing how many big-name bands I’m leaving off. It feels a little betraying someone you always assumed you'd grow old with, except it turns out you were only in it for the mixtape.

Wow. I have four Aerosmith albums on my list at the moment.

You need 4 Aerosmith albums to equal that first greatest hits album with the red logo. I went through three of those cassettes (all from Columbia House...). Speaking of, did anyone else ever suspect that the Columbia House cassettes (and 8 tracks if you're that old) were of inferior quality and wore out quicker? The cassettes started to get squeeky or skreetchy, if you know what I'm sayin.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were inferior given how much they were mass produced. Based on that, I'm glad I (and many of my faux-named household pets) still owe Columbia House and BMG money.

There was a country store near me where you could buy cassettes and 8 tracks. You could tell they were bootlegged because they didn't have the original album art on them (usually a woman in a bikini). Those were even junkier than the CH & BMG products. You had to fold up matchbook covers for shims to get them to sound right in the players (especially the 8 tracks - the cassettes usually just disintegrated). I bought the hell out of them, though, because they were about half the price of the "real" albums.

 

[zamboni]

This is turning out to be a lot harder than I expected. I'm really trying to be as accurate as I can this time because as the top 70 TV show list was revealed, I realized some of my rankings were all over the place. Like, how did Knight Rider end up ahead of Hill Street Blues?

What’s surprising me most is how many bands I’ve always thought of as favorites don’t actually have a single album that is going to make the cut. Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Echo & the Bunnymen are all bands I played constantly, but they were always the greatest hits cassettes that never left my Walkman or car stereo. But looking back through their discography, I don’t see any individual albums that make the "desert island" criteria.

So yeah, it’s weird realizing how many big-name bands I’m leaving off. It feels a little betraying someone you always assumed you'd grow old with, except it turns out you were only in it for the mixtape.

Wow. I have four Aerosmith albums on my list at the moment.

You need 4 Aerosmith albums to equal that first greatest hits album with the red logo. I went through three of those cassettes (all from Columbia House...). Speaking of, did anyone else ever suspect that the Columbia House cassettes (and 8 tracks if you're that old) were of inferior quality and wore out quicker? The cassettes started to get squeeky or skreetchy, if you know what I'm sayin.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were inferior given how much they were mass produced. Based on that, I'm glad I (and many of my faux-named household pets) still owe Columbia House and BMG money.

There was a country store near me where you could buy cassettes and 8 tracks. You could tell they were bootlegged because they didn't have the original album art on them (usually a woman in a bikini). Those were even junkier than the CH & BMG products. You had to fold up matchbook covers for shims to get them to sound right in the players (especially the 8 tracks - the cassettes usually just disintegrated). I bought the hell out of them, though, because they were about half the price of the "real" albums.

So basically any given random Scorpions album.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

12 lists are in

While the Top 25 albums are not exactly shocking - I'm not sure I would call it "chalk". It's not close to the typical Top albums you would see on a Greatest Albums of All-time lists.

The two lone entries that have unique #1 albums are still sticking around in the Top 100 - I'm not sure that either one will receive a second "vote" so it will be interesting to see if they hold on and make the Top 300 at the end.

580 different albums have been selected.

 

[KarmaPolice]

12 lists are in

While the Top 25 albums are not exactly shocking - I'm not sure I would call it "chalk". It's not close to the typical Top albums you would see on a Greatest Albums of All-time lists.

The two lone entries that have unique #1 albums are still sticking around in the Top 100 - I'm not sure that either one will received a second "vote" so it will be interesting to see if they hold on and make the Top 300 at the end.

580 different albums have been selected.

I guarantee 1 will not.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I guarantee 1 will not.

Do you have any aliases?

 

[Scoresman]

I think I’m done but might give it a day or two just in case

Barring changes

1960s	2​
1970s	6​
1980s	7​
1990s	35​
2000s	17​
2010s	2​
2020s	1​

Like This

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin

70

How are you guys getting tables to post properly?

 

[Dan Lambskin]

I think I’m done but might give it a day or two just in case

Barring changes

1960s	2​
1970s	6​
1980s	7​
1990s	35​
2000s	17​
2010s	2​
2020s	1​

Like This

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin

70

How are you guys getting tables to post properly?

I copy pasted from Google sheets app on mobile. Using chrome mobile for FBG

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I think I’m done but might give it a day or two just in case

Barring changes

1960s	2​
1970s	6​
1980s	7​
1990s	35​
2000s	17​
2010s	2​
2020s	1​

Like This

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin

70

How are you guys getting tables to post properly?

If you can send a link to your google sheet that works,

If not cut and paste seems to work well enough.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I guarantee 1 will not.

Do you have any aliases?

Lol. I did, 0 clue what passwords were or if they work. I think Uncle Rico and Gunnery Sgt Hartman were a couple.

 

[Nick Vermeil]

First pass on a list I came up with 104. It's going to be tough!

 

[kupcho1]

First pass on a list I came up with 104. It's going to be tough!

We believe in you!

Please post frequent updates on your progress.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

13 lists in - 630 different albums

 

[Yo Mama]

13 lists in - 630 different albums

Were you able to get my gobbledygook to work?

 

[Dr. Octopus]

13 lists in - 630 different albums

Were you able to get my gobbledygook to work?

Yes

 

[ConstruxBoy]

Were you able to get my gobbledygook to work?

Is that an Iron Butterfly track?

 

[Yo Mama]

Were you able to get my gobbledygook to work?

Is that an Iron Butterfly track?

I was afraid I was being racist

 

[Chaos34]

This is slow going and I didn't think about it at all yesterday, but some PMs got me spending a little time on it atm.

There's a little over 100 albums on my word doc. I'm not going to count them, but it seems like a workable list.

16 have been promoted to the top of the spreadsheet.

50s - 1
60s - 2
70s - 10
80s - 1
90s - 1
00s - 1

I expect 6 of these 16 will be unique to my list.
4 are kind of chalky.
6 others won't be popular but someone or 'nuther might join me.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I think all of mine but two (& one of those is questionable) are from 1964-1984.

 

[Atomic Punk]

How are you all doing this so fast?! I just whittled my list down to 145. Getting down to 70 will be near impossible, nevermind ranking them.

 

[KarmaPolice]

How are you all doing this so fast?! I just whittled my list down to 145. Getting down to 70 will be near impossible, nevermind ranking them.

One way I did it was not let myself get to 100+ albums for an initial list. You are always going to have those "oh yeah!" moments.

 

[kupcho1]

How are you all doing this so fast?! I just whittled my list down to 145. Getting down to 70 will be near impossible, nevermind ranking them.

There's an initial burst of lists, then a lull, and then a mad rush to get a list submitted in time.

Unless you're @KarmaPolice in which case you draft a list, misplace it, and then stumble upon it 8 or 9 weeks later when the countdown is almost over.

 

[KarmaPolice]

How are you all doing this so fast?! I just whittled my list down to 145. Getting down to 70 will be near impossible, nevermind ranking them.

There's an initial burst of lists, then a lull, and then a mad rush to get a list submitted in time.

Unless you're @KarmaPolice in which case you draft a list, misplace it, and then stumble upon it 8 or 9 weeks later when the countdown is almost over.

Probably not the first time that happened either.

Since I hate using tech for stuff like spreadsheets and such, I just have random notebooks and scraps of paper floating around around the house with lists and ideas. Another part of the drive to get it done quick was so I didn't lose my lists.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

How are you all doing this so fast?! I just whittled my list down to 145. Getting down to 70 will be near impossible, nevermind ranking them.

There's an initial burst of lists, then a lull, and then a mad rush to get a list submitted in time.

Unless you're @KarmaPolice in which case you draft a list, misplace it, and then stumble upon it 8 or 9 weeks later when the countdown is almost over.

Yeah I'm missing getting lists.

 

[Barry2]

is R.E.M. the way you want it?

 

[Dr. Octopus]

is R.E.M. the way you want it?

Yes

 

[Don Quixote]

How are you all doing this so fast?! I just whittled my list down to 145. Getting down to 70 will be near impossible, nevermind ranking them.

I mostly submitted to prevent me from getting a list that high to start with. I re-listened to some stuff, but mostly went by gut. I’m still going back and re-listening to some of them waiting for the countdown, but I knew it was just something that needed to get off my plate as I know my faults, and, otherwise, I’d be obsessively compulsively thinking about my rankings and distracting me from other stuff.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

14 lists in

We have a new #1 album!

We have our third #1 ranked album that does not appear on any other lists - those three albums are in a 5 way tie for 110th place. There is an album with one mention and one with three mentions in the five way tie.

There are 662 albums chosen and 510 albums that have only appears on one list.

 

[Scoresman]

14 lists in

We have a new #1 album!

We have our third #1 ranked album that does not appear on any other lists - those three albums are in a 5 way tie for 110th place. There is an album with one mention and one with three mentions in the five way tie.

There are 662 albums chosen and 510 albums that have only appears on one list.

Hmmm seeing how I just submitted mine, I feel like this is giving me some hints.

I figured my number one is unique. I did my best to share it in one of the MAD threads.

 

[Scoresman]

Will we get individual counts of how many unique albums are in each of our lists?

 

[kupcho1]

Will we get individual counts of how many unique albums are in each of our lists?

Yes

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Will we get individual counts of how many unique albums are in each of our lists?

I can do that.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Well @kupcho1 can do it so now I can.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

15 lists in

The former consensus #1 album has now fallen to #3 and the #4 album is closing on it quickly.

As of now my entries lead the way with 53 albums in the Top 300 and @ConstruxBoy leads the way with 16 albums in the Top 25.

There is some chalk developing but it's not the typical chalk necessarily (if that makes sense).

The three unique #1 albums are still hanging in close to the Top 100 - in a four way tie for 116th place.

705 alums have been submitted with 545 of them only being chose one time - this should give a pretty good idea of how diverse the submissions have been. With that said, classic rock, indie rock, metal and hip hop dominate the list.

 

[Juxtatarot]

What does chalk mean?

 

[Leroy Hoard]

What does chalk mean?

Favorite, as in common with others.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

What does chalk mean?

Things you would expect. The albums that are generally ranked very highly when lists like this are made.

i.e for the TV shows: Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones....

 

[turnjose7]

Just submitted my list. It was a fun exercise. I went through the top 300 artists on my artist countdown and reviewed their discographies plus several other all-time albums lists to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything. My initial shortlist ended up being 175 albums but it was easier to cut down to 70 than I expected.

Unlike some, I did not limit the number of albums by an artist. My top artist had 8 on the list. I don't think anyone would be surprised to know which artist. What I did do to make it a little more interesting was give studio albums a little extra bump. If I were truly rating my top 70 favorite albums it would probably be at least 65 live albums. It actually amazes me that people choose to listen to studio music when there is similar live music available. But I thought there were important studio albums that should get representation so I gave them a boost and finished with a 35 live album/35 studio album split.

Decade breakdown:
1930s: 1
1940s: 0
1950s: 2
1960s: 17
1970s: 24
1980s: 5
1990s: 11
2000s: 5
2010s: 5
2020s: 0
For these numbers, if there was a significant discrepancy between when it was recorded and when it was released, I went with when it was recorded.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Definitely a few I forgot about that would have made my list , oh well. Not sure anyone else would have had To the Extreme anyway

 

[Dr. Octopus]

With the 16th list in we now have a different new #1 album - while the early leader drops to #4.

There's two bands that each have two Top 10 albums now. One of them have three in the Top 12.

750 different albums submitted - 583 appear on only one list

 

[Eephus]

Decade breakdown:
1930s: 1

A stack of 78 rpm shellacs

 

[Dr. Octopus]

This is turning out to be a lot harder than I expected. I'm really trying to be as accurate as I can this time because as the top 70 TV show list was revealed, I realized some of my rankings were all over the place. Like, how did Knight Rider end up ahead of Hill Street Blues?

What’s surprising me most is how many bands I’ve always thought of as favorites don’t actually have a single album that is going to make the cut. Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Echo & the Bunnymen are all bands I played constantly, but they were always the greatest hits cassettes that never left my Walkman or car stereo. But looking back through their discography, I don’t see any individual albums that make the "desert island" criteria.

So yeah, it’s weird realizing how many big-name bands I’m leaving off. It feels a little betraying someone you always assumed you'd grow old with, except it turns out you were only in it for the mixtape.

Wow. I have four Aerosmith albums on my list at the moment.

You need 4 Aerosmith albums to equal that first greatest hits album with the red logo. I went through three of those cassettes (all from Columbia House...). Speaking of, did anyone else ever suspect that the Columbia House cassettes (and 8 tracks if you're that old) were of inferior quality and wore out quicker? The cassettes started to get squeeky or skreetchy, if you know what I'm sayin.

Some of my favorite songs on Rocks and Toys in the Attics were the non-hits.

I tried to make room for Rocks on my list but just couldn’t boot any of the albums I had at the end.