Top 25 Albums of All Time: Part One "Those that didn't make the cut..."

I return to this blog that a man challenged, a man burdened. “By what?” you may find yourself asking. Is it schoolwork? No. Is it a serious problem? Absolutely not. The other day while on Twitter, I noticed my brother had started making mentions of a list of Top 25 albums of all time. This is something I’ve thought about a lot over the past 5 or 6 years, but never any more than just 9 or 10 albums that defined me. Within the confines of this blog you’ll see best of years lists as well as an assortment of other entries sorting music by some random concept. But a definitive list of albums that define me, David Henry Patrick Winchell, at the ripe age of twenty-two and nearly four months, that became a list that was harder to put together than I thought it would be.

I went about compiling this list during my now frequent insomnia bouts, sitting at my computer thinking and thinking until it dawned on me to simply scroll down my iTunes library and pick out albums that have affected me. Now, this is how my sorting process worked. After rattling off the essential albums that I knew would appear on the list, I started at letter A and went down to Z with the question “Has this album ever been the best album in the world to me?” Whether it be for a week, a few months or a year I pulled every single album that has transcended the two or three listen mark and lined them up. What I will be presenting you all with today is the list of albums that were knocked off the list. Some within moments (you can pretty easily guess which ones) and some that I had to battle with axing.

Before you read this I would like you all to take a few things into the equation. Some of your favorite, as well as my favorite, artists that I grew up with or learned to love were done solely by greatest hits albums. Bands like The Rolling Stones, They Might Be Giants, Simon and Garfunkel, David Bowie...all of these groups I love but don’t consider myself a fan enough of diving down the rabbit hole to learn more than the super expansive 40+ track greatest hits albums I have accumulated. So without further adieu, here are the albums that did not make my top 25. Don’t hate.

1. Peeping Tom-Peeping Tom
2. Andrew W.K.-I Get Wet
3. Aesop Rock-None Shall Pass
4. Beck-Guero
5. Cake-Fashion Nugget
6. The Clash-London Calling
7. Common-Be
8. The Cool Kids-The Bake Sale
9. Eagles of Death Metal-Death By Sexy
10. The Good, The Bad and The Queen-The Good, The Bad and The Queen
11. GZA-Liquid Swords
12. Gorillaz-Demon Days
13. Johnny Cash-Live At San Quentin
14. k-Os-Joyful Rebellion
15. Kanye West-Graduation
16. Led Zeppelin-Led Zeppelin II
17. Limp Bizkit-Significant Other
18. Mos Def-Black On Both Sides
19. N.W.A-Straight Outta Compton
20. NaS-Illmatic
21. Pitchshiter- www.pitchshifter.com
22. The Postal Service Service-Give Up
23. The Presidents of the United States of America
24. Rob Zombie-Hellbilly Deluxe
25. The Stooges-Raw Power
26. A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
27. Jackson 5-Diana Ross Presents: The Jackson 5
28. Brother Ali-Us

Look at that list! Now if you thought that this preliminary thing packed a lot of punches, JUST WAIT TO SEE HOW UNPREDICTABLE MY TOP 25 IS!