It's been two years since I did my last 100 Favorite Albums post, so it's time to do a new one.

But first, the geeky preliminaries!

The last time round, I made the list by picking 120 or so records and painstakingly ordered them by-hand - I probably spent a week, on and off, sorting them. I posted them in batches of ten over the course of a few weeks, and I continued to arrange them as I posted each batch. Even the last batch wasn't set until I posted it.

I did this one a little differently...

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And so it begins: the first ten of the 2008 My Favorite 100 Albums list. Something like 17 new entries, and nothing's in the same spot as it was two years ago. Very exciting.

I rather like a lot of the videos I found for these albums (all 100). So be sure to check them out, if you can.

(also, for those paying close attention, note that this is a different 100-91 than was posted on Friday afternoon. things changed.)

100

Polvo 1992 Cor-Crane Secret Polvo makes dissonant math rock as catchy as can be hoped for.

99

Stevie Ray Vaughan 1983 Texas Flood Ricocheting around the blues box.

98

The Flaming Lips 1995 Clouds Taste Metallic Playful and raucous psychedelic garage grunge with lyrics from outer space.

97

Black Sabbath 1971 Paranoid Ozzy is the laziest lyricist ever. But everything else is fun.

96

Rolling Stones 1969 Let It Bleed There will always be space in my in-dash CD-player, when you need a little coke and sympathy.

95

Peter Gabriel 1986 So Such pretty songs. Lift your boombox high and proud.

94

Belly 1993 Star Remember this, the next time you feed a tree.

93

Rogue Wave 2005 Out Of The Shadow Neo-folkish lo-fi psyechedelic pop. Sewn up, perfect.

92

Scud Mountain Boys 1996 Massachusets Country-flavored indie-pop melancholy.

91

REM 1982 Chronic Town 1,000,000; Stumble; Wolves, Lower; Gardening At Night; Carnival of Sorts

For extra geekiness, here's a little histogram that tracks the number of records on this list, so far, by the year they were released (in five-year intervals):

This is the second of installment (of ten) in the 2008 edition of my Top 100 All-time Favorite Records.

90

The Beatles 1965 Rubber Soul Remember "She Loves You"? We're not that band any more.

89

The Doors 1967 Strange Days When the still sea conspires an armor, and her sullen and aborted currents breed tiny monsters, the rest of the record is still OK.

88

Green Day 1995 Dookie Bite your lip and close your eyes.

87

Replacements 1984 Let It Be We could be great! But that sounds like work. Hey, look, Gary's Got A Boner!

86

Pink Floyd 1971 Meddle Such a nice little record.

85

Cowboy Junkies 1996 Lay It Down Fifty minutes of that beautiful lonely sinking feeling.

84

Sonic Youth 1987 Sister Would be SY's best record, if their next wasn't even better.

83

U2 1987 The Joshua Tree Still sounds great, though overplayed.

82

The Cure 1981 Happily Ever After Faith + Seventeen Seconds. It's a double-shot of mope.

81

The Cure 1989 Disintegration Oh, it's all so sad and monumental and bittersweet and, oh no, now I want to cry.

And the histogram now looks like this:

(release dates of records listed so far, grouped into five-year spans)

Installment #3 of the 2008 version of my Top 100 Favorite Records list:

80

Son Volt 1995 Trace Country-rock that doesn't suck! Take that, Molly Hatchet.

79

Megadeth 1986 Peace Sells .... But Who's Buying? A sentimental favorite.

78

Slint 1991 Spiderland Math is the coldest sound of all.

77

Sunny Day Real Estate 1994 Diary I don't know what he's singing about, but he sure means it! How... emo.

76

Van Halen 1979 Van Halen Atomic Punk! Eruption! Cheese!

75

Pixies 1989 Doolittle Are they "Here Comes Your Man" or are they "Crackity Jones" ? They are both. They are Pixies.

74

Blonde Redhead 1995 La Mia Vita Violenta Japanese girl yelps. Italian brothers cry. They drink distilled Sonic Youth.

73

The Police 1979 Regatta De Blanc Reggae, but from white people! Pretty clever, Stingo.

72

The Cure 1987 Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me Gloom, rage, hatred, kissing, dancing.

71

Andrew Bird 2007 Armchair Apocrypha A walkin, talkin, whistlin, pluckin, strummin genius.

And the histogram for #100-#71 looks like this:

Next exciting installment will be out on Friday!

And here's the next installment of my 2008 Top 100 Favorite Records list.

The Lilys entry down there has my feeble attempt at a music video. As a video, it sucks, I know; but I just wanted to make something to look at while the song was playing.

70

The Police 1980 Zenyatta Mondatta The studio solo from "Driven To Tears" is a thing of beauty.

69

Lilys 1994 A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns The Near-Perfect EP.

68

ZZ Top 1973 Tres Hombres "A haw haw haw!" Yes, exactly, haw haw.

67

Neil Young 1979 Live Rust Sugar Mountain sounds like a nice place. I wish I was 4 again.

66

Rolling Stones 1972 Exile On Main Street Keith sings "Happy" and that's all that matters.

65

Yo La Tengo 1995 Electr-O-Pura Twelve years past, and I still don't know what "Tom Courtenay" is about, even though it's my favorite YLT song.

64

Nirvana 1991 Nevermind Less dangerous than you might remember. But still entertaining!

63

Gillian Welch 1996 Revival Her first record. A star is born.

62

The Doors 1967 The Doors Does the day divide the night, or does the night divide the day? Which is to be master, is the question. To start off with your best record is both triumph and tragedy.

61

Pink Floyd 1977 Animals He converteth me to lamb cutlets!

And the histogram for #100-#61 looks like this:

(release dates of records listed so far, grouped into five-year spans)

Next exciting installment will be out on Monday!

Closing out the top half of my Top 100 All Time Favorites, 2008 version:

60

Beastie Boys 1992 Check Your Head Not just rappers, they're a band with actual instruments!

59

Robyn Hitchcock 2004 Spooked Gillian Welch and David Rawlings + Robyn = teh awesome

58

Sea And Cake 1994 Sea And Cake Sea and Cake!

57

Wilco 2007 Sky Blue Sky Wilco is better than your band. Just is. Sorry.

56

Yo La Tengo 1990 Fakebook Yo La Tengo turns obscure 60's singles into obscure Yo La Tengo songs.

55

Alison Krauss & Union Station 1992 Every Time You Say Goodbye Always reminds me of our first spring in North Carolina.

54

Beastie Boys 1989 Paul's Boutique Take their word for it: it's good!

53

The Beatles 1966 Revolver George gets three songs? Something is definitely going on here.

52

The Shins 2001 Oh, Inverted World Unlike Zack Braff, it did not change my life, but "New Slang" really is a terribly catchy tune.

51

Paul Simon 1972 Paul Simon Freed from the artistic shackles of Garfunkel, Simon bursts into song after wonderful song.

And the histogram for #100-#51 looks like this:

(release dates of records listed so far, grouped into five-year spans)

Next exciting installment will be out on Wednesday!

We've turned the corner! The end is in sight!

Continuing in my Top 100 All-time Favorites for 2008...

50

The Colorblind James Experience 1987 The Colorblind James Experience Have you ever been experienced? No, I mean a different Experience.

49

White Stripes 2001 White Blood Cells Remember when they seemed fun and innocent?

48

Big Star 1974 Radio City When Chris leaves, Alex gets squirrelly.

47

Fleetwood Mac 1975 Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac!

46

Robyn Hitchcock 1990 Eye Sprawling pretty acoustic clever.

45

Big Star 1972 #1 Record Chris Bell and Alex Chilton: a song writing team too good to last.

44

Nirvana 1994 Unplugged It's better than Nevermind because there are fewer layers of clear coat. "All Apologies" might be the best song ever.

43

Jimi Hendrix 1967 Are You Experienced Yes.

42

Gillian Welch 2001 Time, The Revelator Contains the best anti-music-pirating song I've ever heard.

41

Smashing Pumpkins 1991 Gish One of those records that works best start-to-finish, in the dark, alone.

And the histogram for #100-#41 looks like this:

(release dates of records listed so far, grouped into five-year spans)

Next exciting installment will be out on Wednesday Friday!

Here's the latest tenth of my Top 100 All-time Favorites list for 2008...

40

REM 1987 Dead Letter Office Chill bumps appear and I am frozen in the web they weave as they reveal their innermost selves with the outpouring of their hearts. Oddities records are often excellent.

39

Rolling Stones 1968 Beggars Banquet Tell me the voice of Mr Hankey isn't based on Mick's vocals on "Dear Doctor".

38

Rolling Stones 1978 Some Girls The last great Stones record. I bought this for my stepfather one Xmas.

37

Spoon 2002 Kill The Moonlight Spoon makes songwriting sound easy.

36

Joni Mitchell 1971 Blue So smart and funny. I wish nobody would ever sing "River" again.

35

Liz Phair 1993 Exile In Guyville Even when I was twenty-three. Even at thirty-seven.

34

Neutral Milk Hotel 1998 In The Aeroplane Over The Sea A throbbing, wheezing, spitting, whirling, carnal, calliope ride.

33

Led Zeppelin 1975 Physical Graffiti I could do without Kashmir.

32

The Beatles 1968 The Beatles (white album) And now we're all going to do our own thing. And luckily for you, we're all good at it. Except that last bit.

31

Bob Dylan 1965 Highway 61 Revisited Having proved that how you sing isn't important, he goes on to teach that what you sing might not be so important, either.

And the histogram for #100-#31 looks like this:

(release dates of records listed so far, grouped into five-year spans)

Next exciting installment will be out on Wednesday Monday!

Starting the final week!
The latest installment of my Top 100 All-time Favorites list for 2008 looks like this:

30

King Crimson 1981 Discipline Me and my uncle, playing Monopoly, eating crab legs. Me wondering if this was the Talking Heads. Go Belew! Go!

29

Gillian Welch 1998 Hell Among The Yearlings Death, whiskey, morphine, winter, murder. Beautiful.

28

Led Zeppelin 1973 Houses Of The Holy Where's that confounded title track?

27

Elliott Smith 1998 XO Elliott, Elliott, Elliott. Sigh.

26

The Beastie Boys 1994 Ill Communication B-Boys makin with the freak freak.

25

Pink Floyd 1975 Wish You Were Here Wish you weren't so overplayed.

24

Spoon 2007 Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Getting dangerously close to commercial appeal. But still fantastic.

23

Nick Drake 1972 Pink Moon I too gave up a career in music in order to become a computer programmer.

22

REM 1984 Reckoning "Time After Time" is my least favorite song, and "Little America" is my most favorite.

21

Andrew Bird 2005 Mysterious Production Of Eggs Did he just say he wanted to drill a tiny hole into her head? Should I laugh?

And the histogram for #100-#21 looks like this:

(release dates of records listed so far, grouped into five-year spans)

Next exciting installment will be out on Wednesday Wednesday!

We are nearing the end of the journey. So sad.

And here's the penultimate installment of my Top 100 All-time Favorites list for 2008 looks like this:

20

My Bloody Valentine 1991 Loveless Mmmm! What's in this soup?! Guitars, drum samples and disembodied voices!

19

The Cure 1986 Standing On A Beach The collection of B sides on the flip side of the cassette make a great, splintered, pink-eyed album.

18

The Shins 2003 Chutes Too Narrow Catchycatchycatchycatchycatchycatchy!

17

Sea And Cake 1995 The Biz It couldn't be better without being Nassau.

16

Robyn Hitchcock 1998 Storefront Hitchcock Proving that the best Robyn is live Robyn.

15

Fleetwood Mac 1977 Rumors Ridiculously good. Lindsey is god.

14

Sonic Youth 1988 Daydream Nation The Exile On Main Street of dissonant guitar skronk.

13

Pink Floyd 1973 Dark Side Of The Moon Don't be a hater. It really is amazing.

12

Pixies 1987 Surfer Rosa / Come On Pilgrim Did Kim Deal really only sing lead on one Pixies song? Gigantically, yes. But Joey Santiago wins the world.

11

Cowboy Junkies 1988 The Trinity Sessions So much lovely empty space between the brushes on that snare drum.

And the histogram for #100-#11 looks like this:

(release dates of records listed so far, grouped into five-year spans)

The top Ten will be posted this Friday! TiVo it, if you can't watch live!