Music

Sufjan Stevens' Illinois is a masterpiece.

• Sunken Condos - Donald Fagen
• Letter from home - Pat Metheny
• Industrial Silence - Madrugada

Jeff Rosenstock's WORRY. is a 10/10 masterpiece that hits just as hard every time I put it on

David Bowie's Low and Talking Heads' Remain In Light are the platonic ideal of what an album should be

"Tales of Mystery and Imagination," by the Alan Parsons Project, is a near-perfect concept album in my mind. It's cross-genre while still feeling being interconnected.

I also love John Mellencamp's "Mr. Happy Go Lucky." To my frustration, though, the version of it on the streaming services I know of is missing the interstitial tracks on the CD. I think that actually takes a lot away from it as they had provided transitions that made it feel more like a complete work.

"Glaciers," Blue Sky Black Death, follows the annoying trend of titling tracks with roman numerals but feels like an hour-long DJ set that flows very naturally. A very different album with a similar trait in my mind is F#A#Infinity, Godspeed(!) You(!) Black Emperor(!).

A more ambient choice, Jon Hopkins "Immunity." "Psychic" from Darkside (Nicolaas Jaar with Dave Harrington) also comes to mind.

I'm having trouble thinking of really new examples right now... I kind of feel like the album has faded out as an art form and a lot more releases today seem more like just grab-bags of tracks, probably because of the streaming delivery model. There's definitely some counterexamples out there, though.

I have loads of albums, and it depends on my mood as to what I think is perfect at a certain time. Some of mine are, and in no particular order;

Sparks - Kimono In My House
Bowie - Blackstar
Bowie - Earthling
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Pet Shop Boys - Actually
Blur - Modern Life is Rubbish
Pixies - Doolittle
De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
Divine Comedy - Casanova
The Rezillos - I Can't Stand The Rezillos
Madness - Keep Moving
The Beloved - X
Adam and The Ants - Prince Charming
The Who - Who Are You
Lush - Lovelife
Sleeper - Smart
Echobelly - Everyone's Got One
Pulp - His n' Hers

Oh, I will stop, I could go on for ages.

Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie - Jazz At Massey Hall

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue, In A Silent Way

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Lady Land

Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection

Talking Heads - Remain In Light, Speaking In Tongues

Aretha Franklin - Live At Fillmore West

Deodato - Prelude

Antonio Carlos Jobim - Wave

Earth Wind & Fire - Head To The Sky

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Fishbone - Truth And Soul, The Reality Of My Surroundings

Esperanza Spalding - Emily's D-Evolution

Nina Simone - Black Gold

The Roots - Things Fall Apart

Sons Of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile

A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory

Paul Simon - Graceland

Funkadelic - Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On

Chick Corea - Light As A Feather

Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters

Wu Tang Clan - Enter The Wu Tang

That's probably enough for now...

A few of my favorite classics:

• Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
• Opeth - Blackwater Park
• Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
• Yes - Close To The Edge
• Supertramp - Crime of the Century
• Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky
• Genesis - Duke
• Nektar - Remember The Future
• Camel - Moonmadness

And for newer stuff, I'd go with Anno Domini High Definition by Riverside and English Electric by Big Big Train

Makoto Matsushita - First Light

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong - Psychology, Presto

Dogs in a Pile - Bloom, Not Your Average Beagle

Nautilus - Refrain

Teako Onuki - Mignonne, Sunshower

Grateful Dead - Cornell 5/8/77, American Beauty

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease

Bad Religion - No Control, The Empire Strikes First

Led Zeppelin - II, IV

Joe Satriani - Surfing With the Alien

War Bringer - Woe to the Vanquished

Havok - Conformicide

Loudness - Thunder in the East

Thank You Scientist - Maps of Non-Existent Places

Rainbow - Difficult to Cure, Straight Between the Eyes

Casiopea - CASIOPEA, Asian Dreamer, Material

Phish - Farmhouse, Hoist

Gloryhammer - Tales from the Kingdom of Fife

Might've went a bit overboard lol

Mew - Frengers Architecure in Helsinki - In Case We Die of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Tally Hall - Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum The Strokes - Is This It? The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Nightmare of You - Nightmare of You The Fiery Furnaces - EP The Apples In Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder Memory Tapes - See Magic

EPs Voxtrot - Raised by Wolves Locale A.M. - The Characters Miami Horror - Bravado

• The Foo Fighters - The Foo Fighters
• The Foo Fighters - The Color & The Shape
• 65daysofstatic - Wild Light
• Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
• The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving

There isn't a note I'd change on any of those albums.

The Great War by Sabaton. Every song is a banger.

Some I've been listening to lately:

• Talk Talk - spirit of Eden
• Prefab sprout - Steve Mcqueen
• The dismemberment plan - Emergency and I

Glass Animals ZABA. Willing to die on this hill.

Ott - Mir The Oh Hellos - Through the Deep Dark Valley Electric Light Orchestra - Time Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

To pimp a butterfly

A New World Record by ELO.

Weird suggestion, but I really like Montero by Lil Nas X

Rumours, Ziggy Stardust

One record I will regularly play from start to finish is Alt-J - An Awesome Wave.

This will probably get buried in the comments, but Lohio by Ass Ponys is a really solid album. Just banger after banger.