What albums do you consider to be ESSENTIAL?

[Tom]

[Josh]

Albums that I think are completely timeless, essential works of art, not really in any particular order:

U2-- The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and Pop
REM-- Reveal, New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Over the Rhine-- Good Dog Bad Dog, Ohio
Bob Dylan-- Love and Theft, Time Out of Mind
Tom Waits-- Rain Dogs
Radiohead-- Kid A, OK Computer
The Cure-- Disintegration
The Innocence Mission-- Birds of My Neighborhood
Ron Sexsmith-- Retriever
Nick Cave-- Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus
Peter Gabriel-- So
Joe Henry-- Tiny Voices
Elvis Costello-- All This Useless Beauty
Wilco-- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Sam Phillips-- A Boot and a Shoe, Fan Dance, Martinis and Bikinis
Emmylou Harris-- Wrecking Ball
Beck-- Sea Change

[DvChWi]

Here's my attempt, after going through my iPod in alphabetical order by artist:
....And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Source, Tags, and Code
A Tribe Called Quest, Low End Theory
The Arcade Fire, Funeral
Glen Gould, Goldberg Variations(Bach)
The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
The Beatles, Revolver
The Beatles, Rubber Soul
The Beatles, The Beatles(White Album)
Beck, Odelay
Ben Folds, Rockin The Suburbs
Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five, Whatever and Ever, Amen
Blacklicious, Nia
Blur, Parklife
Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Broken Social Scene, You Forgot it in People
Caedmon's Call, Caedmon's Call
The Clash, London Calling
The Cure, Disintegration
Dave Brubeck, Time Out
Dave Matthew's Band, Crash
Elvis Costello, My Aim is True
Elvis Costello, This Year's Model
Emmylou Harris, Wrecking Ball
Eric Clapton, Unplugged
The Fiery Furnaces, Blueberry Boat
The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin
The Flaming Lips, Transmissions From the Sattelite Heart
The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
Fugazi, 13 Songs
Incubus, Morning View
Incubus, S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Interpol, Turn On the Bright Lights
Iona, Journey Into The Morn
Iron and Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days
Jars of Clay, Jars of Clay
Jars of Clay, Much Afraid
Jars of Clay, Who We Are Instead
Jeff Buckley, Grace
Joe Henry, Tiny Voices
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
Led Zeppelin, untitled(IV)
Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy
Loretta Lynn, Vann Lear Rose
Metallica, Master of Puppets
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
Modest Moust, The Moon and Antartica
Neil Young, Harvest
The New Pornographers, Mass Romantic
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Abbatoir Blues
Nickel Creek, Nickel Creek
Nirvana, Nevermind
Oasis, What's the Story Morning Glory?
Over the Rhine, Good Dog Bad Dog
Over the Rhine, Ohio
Over the Rhine, Changes Come
Over the Rhine, Eve
Patty Griffin, Impossible Dream
Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted
Pearl Jam, Ten
Pearl Jam, Yield
Peter Gabriel, So
Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd, The Wall
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
Pixies, Doolittle
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
R.E.M., Murmur
R.E.M., Reckoning
R.E.M., Document
R.E.M., Automatic for the People
R.E.M., New Adventures in HiFi
Radiohead, The Bends
Radiohead, OK Computer
Radiohead, Kid A
Sam Phillips, Martinis and Bikinis
Sam Phillips, Fan Dance
The Shins, Oh, Inverted World
The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow
Sigur Ros, ()
Sixpence None the Richer, Sixpence None the Richer
The Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream
The Smashing Pumpkins, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth, Murray Street
Steven Delopoulos, Me Died Blue
Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life
Sufjan Stevens, Greetings From Michigan
Talking Heads, Remain in Light
Tom Waits, Real Gone
Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
Tool, Lateralus
U2, Achtung Baby
U2, The Joshua Tree
U2, War
Weezer, Weezer(blue)
The White Stripes, Elephant
The White Stripes, White Blood Cells
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

There you go.  Some people might say my definition of "essential" is too broad, but those people are wrong and not to be trusted.

[Josh]

I obviously tried to narrow my list down a bit more than Dv did, but, for what its worth, I agree that most of his selections are indeed great albums.

[Guest]

yeah, i knew i was being totally unfair to limit it to just the essential albums. i almost put Sam Phillips - Martinis & Bikinis in my list, but i didn't because i felt like i may be biased toward it for more reasons that pure artistic merit. sometimes when you love an artist's work you have to really ask yourself: is this something universally artistic, or am i playing favorites out of personal taste.

but really should have added The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow to my list, as well as:

Starflyer 59 - Leave Here A Stranger / Old

interesting that we mostly agree on OK Computer & Kid A as being the best of Radiohead.


 

[Tom]

whoops! the above post is mine, sorry forgot to log in!

[bloop]

File under "M"

Loveless, My Bloody Valentine
and maybe
The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers . . . maybe, but definitely the MBV album.

[Tom]

i hear you Bloop. "Loveless" is a fantastic album. i've actually bought this album for people i hardly knew; just because i wanted to share the experience. timeless...where oh where did you go Kevin Shields?

[bloop]

Indeed.  Loveless is unique.  When it hits you, it hits hard.

Oh, and I would replace Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by the same band.  It's their strongest album.

Also missing thus far is Neutral Milk Hotel's lo-fi classic In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

[murlough23]

I'm not even going to bother making a list, because for every album that seems to me to be "essential", I know someone else who is a veritable music guru and has not heard the album. I could list the ones that are "essential" to me, but they'd be so closely tied to personal experiences and preferences that someone else could easily knock them off the list.

NP: "Angel", Sarah McLachlan

[danny316]

Yeesh, I can't say i really know of many that I know that are essential.

I could argue that those Jars of Clay albums are on Essential, but that's not really that funny.

I'm not going to waste time listing artists, we all know these by now:

Achtung Baby!
Good Dog Bad Dog
Much Afraid
OK Computer
Sixpence None the Richer
The Joshua Tree
The Violet Burning
Who We Are Instead

....and I think that's all I'd consider absolutely essential. I'm not even entirely sure that both of those Jars albums belong here.

[StaceyG]

These are MY Essential CD's...meaning you'd have to pry them from my cold lifeless body...ok, maybe not that extreme:(I only allowed myself to count the ones I actually own...there are a ton, I think I should have on this list)

America's Greatest Hits
Ben Folds Whatever and Ever Amen
Counting Crows August and Everything After, Recovering the Satellites,
The Cure Wish, Disentegration
The Sundays Blind
U2 The Joshua Tree, War, How to Dismantle, Achtung
The Choir Circle Slide
Sting Fields of Gold
Pearl Jam Ten
Peter Gabriel Secret World Live
GEorge Winston December
Denison Witmer Safe Away
Everything But the Girl Amplified Heart
Indigo Girls Rites of Passage
Garden State Soundtrack
Jars Jars of Clay, 11th Hour
John Mayer Heavier Things
Justin McRoberts Father
Keane Hopes and Fears
Switchfoot Learning to Breathe
Violet Burning Strength
Seventy Sevens Sticks and Stones
March Cohn Self titled
Oasis What's the Story Morning Glory
OTR Good Dog Bad Dog, Drunkards Prayer, Til We have faces patience,
Out of the Grey self titled
Very best of Otis Redding
Phish Rift
sade love deluxe
sarah mclaughlin fumbling toward esctasy
Stryper to hell with the devil
michael jackson thriller
Ron sexsmith retriever
Queen Live KIllers
Rushmore soundtrack
10,000 maniacs Our Time in Eden
They Might be giants flood
Rich Mullins A Liturgy a legacy and a ragamuffin band
Simon and Garfunkel greatest hits
rainchildren somewhere middle
Vigilantes of Love self titled,  

[Tom]

great list StaceyG! you reminded me of a couple i forgot to mention in my list:
The Sundays - Static & Silence (Harriet Wheeler has a fantastic voice, and David Garuvin's guitar work is superb on this one)
Out of the Grey - The Shape of Grace
Phil Keaggy - The Wind & the Wheat
Dear Ephesus - The Absent Sounds of Me

and i think this one deserves it to:

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans