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Inspired by https://patrickcollison.com/bookshelf, this is a list of music and books.
I’m an album listener, not a playlist listener—the music here are some of my favorite albums, or especially interesting things I’ve listened to.
The bookshelf (coming soon) fits Patrick Collison’s setup of his bookshelf page—it’s a list of books worth reading but I haven’t read all of them myself yet.
While it’s hard to recommend music or books generally (I don’t know who’s reading this), the starred items are particularly great. Order is random, but stars are first.
| album | artist | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ★ | In Rainbows | Radiohead | Always controversial to declare a “best” Radiohead album, but I’ll at least call this one my favorite |
| ★ | Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You | Big Thief | Some albums are really good. Some albums are the best work of a great artist. And sometimes, just sometimes, you can tell that an album is a perfect entry by an all-time great and we’re lucky to hear it. |
| ★ | I Love You, Honeybear | Father John Misty | An underrated masterpiece and an all-time favorite. |
| ★ | I Had a Dream That You Were Mine | Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam | Idk why this album tugs at me the way it does, but it really, really does. |
| ★ | Sometimes I Might Be Introvert | Little Simz | UK’s Kendrick Lamar, imo |
| ★ | Sour | Olivia Rodrigo | Like some other albums on this list, Sour is proof that teenage girls can have just as good taste in music as any other demo. |
| ★ | Channel Orange | Frank Ocean | Hard to understate this album and its impact. I’ve called a few things all-timers, but I genuinely think they’ll be listening to this one in 100 years. |
| ★ | Modern Vampires of the City | Vampire Weekend | I won’t be embarrassed by this pick. Vampire Weekend just does it right. |
| ★ | U.F.O. | Jim Sullivan | No better album has a better story. It’s unbelievable where this album deserves to land on a ranked list of albums released in 1969 (of all years) when close to nobody even heard it at the time. |
| ★ | Body Talk, Pt. 1 | Robyn | Icon. |
| ★ | “Awaken, My Love!” | Childish Gambino | Of all of the albums on this list I’d call “weird”, this is maybe the only one that is actually popular. Donald really threads the needle. |
| ★ | Night Falls Over Kortedala | Jens Lekman | It has cheesy moments, sure, but only because Lekman is exceptionally honest, earnest, and full of love. |
| ★ | Emotion | Carly Rae Jepsen | The world’s single perfect pop album. |
| ★ | Veckatimest | Grizzly Bear | I wonder if I’d have been as drawn to move to the east coast if this gem had never been made. |
| ★ | Ants From Up Here | Black Country, New Road | It has everything—layered lyrics and symbolism, raw emotion, extraordinary musical talent, bold choices. I can’t believe they’re 21-22 years old. |
| ★ | This is Happening | LCD Soundsystem | Legends to me and my peers. One of the best of all time. They sell out MSG whenever they want and they’re still underrated. |
| ★ | Flower Boy | Tyler, The Creator | Nominate this for best pop album, Grammys. |
| ★ | Fleet Foxes | Fleet Foxes | A permanent spot on my road trip tunes rotation—if the scenery is evergreens/water and the weather is 52-64 degrees, this is on the stereo. |
| ★ | To Pimp A Butterfly | Kendrick Lamar | I can’t say anything about this album that hasn’t been said better by someone else. A real masterpiece. |
| ★ | Bright Green Field | Squid | One of those albums where going into it knowing nothing about it was the best possible situation. |
| ★ | Microshift | Hookworms | Put this on somewhere quiet, one notch too loud, and listen without stopping. |
| ★ | Remain In Light | Talking Heads | Best first 5 seconds of any album of all time. |
| ★ | Since I Left You | The Avalanches | If you’re going to take 16 years between album releases, make an album that has 16 years worth of intricacies to uncover. |
| ★ | James Blake | James Blake | If I ever made music, I’d wish it sounded like this. |
| ★ | Next Jack Swing | French Horn Rebellion | Look, I have a lot of different genres of music here, but one extreme is this goofy, dorky pop that no one does better than FHR. I have to unabashedly say they’re one of my favorites, period. |
| Crystal Castles | Crystal Castles | ||
| Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming | M83 | ||
| Merriweather Post Pavilion | Animal Collective | ||
| Teens of Denial | Car Seat Headrest | ||
| This Old Dog | Mac Demarco | ||
| Wakin On a Pretty Daze | Kurt Vile | ||
| You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into | Does It Offend You, Yeah? | This album shouldn’t still have a hold on me, but it does. It really does. | |
| Exuma, the Obeah Man | Exuma | Give it a listen to learn whether or not Exuma came down on a lightning bolt, can raise the dead, or has the teeth of a frog and the tail of a goat (hint: yes, because he is the Obeah Man) | |
| Songs from the Big Chair | Tears for Fears | ||
| Forgiveness Rock Record | Broken Social Scene | ||
| Norman F*****g Rockwell | Lana Del Rey | This album made me “get” LDR after years of dismissing her. | |
| Melodrama | Lorde | Like some other albums on this list, Melodrama is proof that teenage girls can have just as good taste in music as any other demo. | |
| You Can’t Take It with You | As Tall As Lions | ||
| Ram | Paul and Linda McCartney | If the Beatles breakup had been kept fully secret, and this same album with no changes was released under “The Beatles”, it’s beloved. Wake up, people. | |
| Because of the Times | Kings of Leon | Kings of Leon put out 3 incredible southern rock albums before transitioning to the arena rock sound that made them big | |
| 99.9% | Kaytranada | ||
| Nikki Nack | The Tune-Yards | ||
| Saint Cloud | Waxahatchee | ||
| Shrines | Purity Ring | ||
| The Bones of What You Believe | Chvrches | ||
| Torches | Foster the People | ||
| Red (Taylor’s Version) | Taylor Swift | Icon. | |
| A Mad and Faithful Telling | DeVotchKa | For teenage wannabe hipsters in the Denver area in the late 00s, this was THE standard of music (sorry, Flobots) | |
| Passive Me, Aggressive You | The Naked and Famous | Maybe the single best entry in that 2008-2013 indie pop genre. | |
| Our Nature | Savoir Adore | I know this is a list of my favorites, but this is really one of my favorites. | |
| The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop | Stark Reality | The fact that this album exists is an accident in history, and the fact that it has any recognition today is a 2nd one. A real trip, and one of the most fun things on here. | |
| 2.0 | Big Data | ||
| A Crow Looked At Me | Mount Eeire | Probably the only thing on this list that I haven’t listened to at least twice the entire way through. I just can’t. | |
| Mordechai | Khruangbin | ||
| Signed, Sealed, Delivered | Stevie Wonder | Needs just the first three songs. | |
| London Calling | The Clash | ||
| Tourist History | Two Door Cinema Club | The most nostalgic thing on this list? Maybe. | |
| Swing Lo Magellan | Dirty Projectors | ||
| Two Saviors | Buck Meek | If I judged music by poetry alone, this would be a top ten. | |
| STRFKR | STRFKR | ||
| Illinois | Sufjan Stevens | ||
| Anti | Rihanna | Icon. | |
| LP | Discovery | ||
| Our Love | Caribou | ||
| Negro Swan | Blood Orange | ||
| xx | The xx | ||
| Heaven and Earth | Kamasi Washington | ||
| What’s Going On | Marvin Gaye | ||
| Cross | Justice | ||
| Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit | Courtney Barnett | ||
| Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 | Calvin Harris | An all-time nostalgia pick for a lot of 2017 college graduates | |
| Isolation | Kali Uchis | ||
| From Kinshasa | Mbongwana Star | ||
| Visions | Grimes | Hard to tell how much the whole Elon Musk situation tainted her rep with the Brooklyn hipster crowd, but before that Visions would have punched way above its weight in a “best album” poll with them. | |
| Titanic Rising | Weyes Blood | ||
| In Colour | Jamie xx | ||
| Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band | The Beatles | Did I even have to name this? Probably not. My one-album-per-artist rule here prevents 8 Beatles entries. | |
| Django Django | Django Django | ||
| Asleep at Heaven’s Gate | Rogue Wave | “Lake Michigan” gets stuck in my head maybe more than any other song I’ve ever heard. It’s in there deep. | |
| Dying is Fine | Ra Ra Riot | Man, 15-year old me thought this was a poetic little EP. Still love it though. | |
| Future Nostalgia | Dua Lipa | Icon | |
| Haerts | Haerts | ||
| Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum | Tally Hall | Put this right up there with Aim & Ignite as great albums that sound like musicals, for better or worse. | |
| Concert for George | Various Artists | ||
| Buoys | Panda Bear | ||
| Elwan | Tinariwen | ||
| Everything Under the Sun | Jukebox the Ghost | ||
| AM | Arctic Monkeys | ||
| All My Heroes Are Cornballs | JPEGMAFIA | ||
| Ágætis byrjun | Sigur Rós | ||
| El Mal Querer | Rosalía | The music video for Pienso en tu Mirá is incredible. The whole album nails a theme like not many can pull off. | |
| Age Of | Oneohtrix Point Never | ||
| Golden Hour | Kacey Musgraves | Icon. | |
| Would It Kill You? | Hellogoodbye | ||
| Little Dark Age | MGMT | MGMT hadn’t been able to capture a real audience in over a decade, and then two years after they put out this gem one of its singles went viral on TikTok. They deserved that. | |
| African Giant | Burna Boy | If this doesn’t make you wonder what other brilliant pop Nigeria/Africa are making, I don’t know what to tell you | |
| Friendly Fires | Friendly Fires | ||
| Light Upon the Lake | Whitney | ||
| San Fermin | San Fermin | ||
| Soon It Will Be Cold Enough | Emancipator | The most played album of Lakewood High School’s film production room years 2011-2013 | |
| All Things Must Pass | George Harrison | ||
| Glow On | Turnstile | ||
| Homegrown | Neil Young | How this thing sat on a shelf for 40 years I’ll never understand. | |
| If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears | The Mamas and the Papas | ||
| Blackstar | David Bowie | This would be on here for the first track alone, but fortunately the rest of it is nearly as good. | |
| Big Fish Theory | Vince Staples | ||
| Welcome Plastics | Plastics | ||
| Kaputt | Destroyer | Try not to listen to the words. Then, try to listen to the words. | |
| The Hives | The Hives | This album is way better than it should be. | |
| The Life of Pablo | Kanye West | Is this his best? Probably not. Does it have Ultralight Beam? Sure does. | |
| Currents | Tame Impala | ||
| Reflektor | Arcade Fire | James Murphy + Arcade Fire | |
| No Mythologies to Follow | MØ | ||
| Acidrap | Chance the Rapper | We miss you, unmarried Chance. | |
| Women In Music Pt. III | Haim | ||
| Alt-J | Alt-J | An all-time nostalgia pick for a lot of 2013 high school graduates | |
| Aim & Ignite | fun. | Before fun. made that one song that annoyed everyone, they made the album that would have annoyed everyone even more if it made it outside of theater kid circles. | |
| Sour Soul | BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah | ||
| Complete Greatest Hits | The Cars | Once I drove across the country in a car with no way to connect my phone to the stereo—it was radio and CDs only. The only thing left behind in the 6-disk changer was The Cars’ Greatest Hits. Let’s say it was just what I needed. | |
| Sweetener | Ariana Grande | Icon. | |
| Buena Vista Social Club | Buena Vista Social Club | ||
| Ctrl | SZA | ||
| Canto Aberto | Eve | ||
| No Shape | Perfume Genius |
(coming soon)