1 stop making sense talking heads
2 brutal youth elvis costello
3 revolver beatles
4 oh, inverted world shins
5 ok computer radiohead
6 figure 8 elliott smith
7 kiko los lobos
8 my aim is true elvis costello
9 think tank blur
10 rings around the world super furry animals
11 all this useless beauty elvis costello
12 if you're feeling sinister belle and sebastian
13 things fall apart the roots
14 midnite vultures beck
15 abbey road the beatles
16 kojak variety elvis costello
17 y los cubanos postizos marc ribot
18 into the purple valley ry cooder
19 yankee hotel foxtrot wilco
20 paul simon paul simon
21 worker's playtime billy bragg
22 i'm with stupid aimee mann
23 and then nothing turned itself inside-out yo la tengo
24 69 love songs the magnetic fields
25 tnt tortoise
26 still crazy after all these years paul simon
27 girls can tell spoon
28 stereo*type a cibo matto
29 social dancing bis
30 homogenic björk
31 author unknown jason falkner
32 either/or elliott smith
33 countdown to ecstasy steely dan
34 endtroducing… dj shadow
35 having a party with jonathan richman
36 in the aeroplane over the sea neutral milk hotel
37 the great escape blur
38 john henry they might be giants
39 blue joni mitchell
40 xo elliott smith
41 look into the eyeball david byrne
42 when I was born for the 7th time cornershop
43 the bends radiohead
44 oranges and lemons xtc
45 faithless street whiskeytown
46 help! the beatles
47 debut björk
48 girlfriend matthew sweet
49 no such place jim white
50 the ultimate collection the supremes
51 point cornelius
52 odelay beck
53 whitechocolatespaceegg liz phair
54 english settlement xtc
55 deadringer rjd2
56 king of america elvis costello
57 stankonia outkast
58 13 tales from urban bohemia the dandy warhols
59 the carnival wyclef jean
60 poses rufus wainwright
61 look sharp joe jackson
62 under the pink tori amos
63 bug music don byron
64 black on both sides mos def
65 isolation drills guided by voices
66 pet sounds the beach boys
67 a night at the playboy mansion dimitri from paris
68 kill the moonlight spoon
69 this is hardcore pulp
70 richard d. james album aphex twin
71 getz/gilberto stan getz and joão gilberto
72 mighty like a rose elvis costello
73 trace son volt
74 on the floor at the boutique lo fidelity all stars
75 satellite rides old 97s
76 emergency & i the dismemberment plan
77 quality talib kweli
78 muswell hillbillies the kinks
79 rei momo david byrne
80 car wheels on a gravel road lucinda williams
81 walking wounded everything but the girl
82 will the wolf survive? los lobos
83 do you want more?!!!?!! the roots
84 discovery of a world inside the moone the apples in stereo
85 tall dark and handcuffed cex
86 remedy basement jaxx
87 the soft bulletin the flaming lips
88 the dynamic duo jimmy smith and wes montgomery
89 playthroughs keith fullerton whitman
90 give up the postal service
91 music from big pink the band
92 all in arling and cameron
93 mingus ah um charles mingus
94 you think it's like this but really it's like this mirah
95 emperor tomato ketchup stereolab
96 iBmEpDeRrOiOaMl elvis costello
97 electric version the new pornographers
98 lifes rich pageant rem
99 you've come a long way baby fatboy slim
100 tie:terror twilight pavement
and slanted and enchanted pavement

i hadn't posted this because i kept thinking i'd do a real post and i like to have them a little spaced out. but there you go. subject to revision of course, but it's pretty good for now. i put a lot of weight on stuff that works well as a whole album rather than just a collection of songs. quite slanted to stuff that came out in the years since i started buying records, but i guess that's to be expected. also (because) i never know what to do with recognized classic albums that i agree are top-notch, but i don't necessarily feel so strong a personal connection with. so even though i genuinely think london calling is better than a lot of these records (unlike, say, astral weeks), and i enjoy it a lot, it ended up at no. 139 partly because i don't like how much of my relationship with it is tempered by its widely-perceived aura. and also because it's a boring choice. i mostly avoided compilations for obvious reasons. this isn't quite representative of my favorite music, because some of that (50's and 60's pop; 60's and 70's funk and soul; much hip-hop and dancier electronica) is more about individual songs than albums, to me.

so… what do you think?

hi…i've got a tape i want to play you