New to the List
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Jan. 1—When I came up with my Top 100 Albums list for this newspaper 20 years ago, a lot of albums on the 2022 list were not present. A lot of them, of course, weren't around then (i.e. Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly," Tom Petty's "Wildflowers," Kanye West's "My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy," The White Stripes' "Elephant, "Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.")
But most of the omissions were just oversights on my part, which, by the way, is not unusual when you do this kind of list in a medium that you love with a passion.
(TRUE STORY: Also several years ago — I don't remember the date — I undertook the Hurculean task of coming up with my Top 500 songs of all time for the Herald. (That's right, 500 songs!) I love music so much, I'd spend literally hours going over a group of songs, trying to decide which should be ranked ahead of others. When I finished the exhausting list and it ran in the paper, I started getting calls from people saying, "What about ...? How can you have a top songs list without ...?" And they were right, so what I did was come up with a second Top 500 list of songs that weren't in the first 500. For the math-challenged, that's 1,000 songs. I don't think I'll have the mental faculty to do something like that again.)
Anyway, as I started putting together my album list 20 years down the road, I was amazed at some of the ones I'd left off the first go-around. No "Running on Empty" by Jackson Browne (No. 5 here)? Are you kidding? No "Machine Head" by Deep Purple (No. 26)? No "461 Ocean Boulevard" by Clapton? "Kick" by INXS? "Hotel California" by the Eagles?
Hell, no "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, which is only the top-selling album ever?
Yeah, I was surprised at the albums I left off that initial list as well. But adding a few albums released in the past two decades and going back over my album collection — plus adding 50 albums to the list — should be a better representation of what a top album list should look like.
Until, of course, people start asking me: "But what about ..."
New to the List
1. Running on Empty — Jackson Browne
2. Machine Head — Deep Purple
3. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — Kanye West
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water — Simon & Garfunkel
5. Abbey Road — The Beatles
6. 461 Ocean Boulevard — Eric Clapton
7. Pronounced — Lynyrd Skynyrd
8. Brothers in Arms — Dire Straits
9. Save the Dancer — Gene Cotton
10. Yes — The Yes Album
11. Kick — INXS
12. Streetlife Serenade — Billy Joel
13. Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygo'round — The Kinks
14. Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus — Spirit
15. Just a Boy — Leo Sayer
16. Hotel California — The Eagles
17. Steppenwolf
18. Some Girls — The Rolling Stones
19. Aerie — John Denver
20. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below — Outkast
21. Wildflowers — Tom Petty
22. Let It Be — The Beatles
23. Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic — Red Hot Chili Peppers
24. Escape — Journey
25. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy — Elton John
26. War Child — Jethro Tull
27. Pet Sounds — The Beach Boys
28. Talking Book — Stevie Wonder
29. Willie and the Poor Boys — Creedence Clearwater Revival
30. Ram — Paul and Linda McCartney
31. Elephant — The White Stripes
32. Against the Wind — Bob Seger
33. The Grand Illusion — Styx
34. Piano Man — Billy Joel
35. Caribou — Elton John
36. Disraeli Gears — Cream
37. Building the Perfect Beast — Don Henley
38. Aja — Steely Dan
39. Diamonds and Rust — Joan Baez
40. To Pimp a Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar
41. Plug Me Into Something — Henry Gross
42. Hair (Soundtrack)
43. At Fillmore East — The Allman Brothers Band (Live)
44. Thriller — Michael Jackson
45. The Doors
46. After the Gold Rush — Neil Young
47. Watch the Throne — Kanye West/Jay Z
48. Honky Chateau — Elton John
49. Wheels of Fire — Cream
50. There Goes Rhymin' Simon — Paul Simon
51. We're an American Band — Grand Funk Railroad
52. Pieces of Eight — Styx
53. Paul Simon
54. In Through the Out Door — Led Zeppelin
55. Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player — Elton John
56. Flag — James Taylor
57. Arc of a Diver — Steve Winwood
58. At Folsom Prison — Johnny Cash
59. Madman Across the Water — Elton John
60. McCartney — Paul McCartney
61. Cosmos Factory — Creedence Clearwater Revival
62. Tumbleweed Connection — Elton John
63. The Magician's Birthday — Uriah Heep