So, my brother invited me to put together my own personal list of the 50,75 or 100 top albums of all time. Someone he knows is going to compile lists from a bunch of people and then the lists will be compiled, ranked, weighted and otherwise munged into a final definitive list, or something. Being a total sucker for rankings and lists and ranked lists of albums, I jumped at the chance.

So, here they are:

1. Sonic Youth : Daydream Nation
2. Pavement : Slanted and Enchanted
3. Joni Mitchell : Blue
4. Liz Phair : Exile In Guyville
5. My Bloody Valentine : Loveless
6. Miles Davis : Kind Of Blue
7. Talking Heads : Remain In Light
8. Neutral Milk Hotel : In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
9. Pixies : Surfer Rosa
10. Pink Floyd : Dark Side Of The Moon
11. Led Zeppelin : II
12. Beatles : Abbey Road
13. Fleetwood Mac : Rumors
14. The Beatles : Revolver
15. Rolling Stones : Let It Bleed
16. AC/DC : Back In Black
17. Pink Floyd : Wish You Were Here
18. The Cure : Disintegration
19. U2 : The Joshua Tree
20. The Beatles : The Beatles (white album)
21. Pavement : Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
22. Big Star : #1 Record
23. The Pretenders : The Pretenders
24. Cowboy Junkies : The Trinity Sessions
25. The Cure : Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
26. Led Zeppelin : Houses Of The Holy
27. Van Morrison : Moondance
28. REM : Reckoning
29. Nirvana : Nevermind
30. Sonic Youth : Sister
31. Sea And Cake : Nassau
32. Yo La Tengo : Electr-O-Pura
33. Violent Femmes : Violent Femmes
34. Elliot Smith : XO
35. A Tribe Called Quest : Midnight Marauders
36. Bauhaus : In The Flat Field
37. Jimi Hendrix : Axis: Bold As Love
38. Stereolab : Emperor Tomato Ketchup
39. Led Zeppelin : Physical Graffiti
40. Black Sabbath : Paranoid
41. The Beastie Boys : Ill Communication
42. Crosby Stills and Nash : Crosby Stills and Nash
43. Robyn Hitchcock : Eye
44. Dave Brubeck : Time Out
45. Pavement : Wowee Zowee
46. Pink Floyd : Animals
47. The Beatles : Rubber Soul
48. Rolling Stones : Exile On Main Street
49. The Doors : The Doors
50. Cream : Disraeli Gears
51. Peter Gabriel : So
52. Fleetwood Mac : Fleetwood Mac
53. The Doors : Strange Days
54. Big Star : Radio City
55. Bob Dylan : Highway 61 Revisited
56. Slint : Spiderland
57. Pixies : Doolittle
58. Jane's Addiction : Nothing's Shocking
59. Nick Drake : Pink Moon
60. King Crimson : Discipline
61. Yes : The Yes Album
62. Rush : Moving Pictures
63. ZZ Top : Tres Hombres
64. Stevie Ray Vaughan : Texas Flood
65. The Cars : The Cars
66. REM : Murmur
67. U2 : War
68. Pixies : Come on Pilgrim
69. Steely Dan : Aja
70. The Cure : Seventeen Seconds
71. The Feelies : Crazy Rhythms
72. Replacements : Let It Be
73. The Police : Zenyatta Mondatta
74. Yo La Tengo : Fakebook
75. Stereolab : Peng
76. Gillian Welch : Time, The Revelator
77. PJ Harvey : Rid Of Me
78. Lilys : A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns
79. Spoon : Girls Can Tell
80. Superchunk : No Pocky For Kitty
81. Dinosaur Jr. : You're Living All Over Me
82. Gillian Welch : Revival
83. Sunny Day Real Estate : Diary
84. The Shins : Chutes Too Narrow
85. Big Black : Songs About Fucking
86. Codeine : Frigid Stars
87. Tortoise : Millions Now Living Will Never Die
88. Wilco : Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
89. The Flaming Lips : The Soft Bulletin
90. Robyn Hitchcock : I Often Dream of Trains
91. Gastr Del Sol : Camofleur
92. A Tribe Called Quest : Low End Theory
93. Son Volt : Trace
94. Grandaddy : The Sophtware Slump
95. Death Cab For Cutie : Transatlanticism
96. Modest Mouse : The Lonesome Crowded West
97. Polvo : Cor-Crane Secret
98. Buena Vista Social Club : Buena Vista Social Club
99. Archers of Loaf : Icky Mettle
100. Beck : Mutations

I made this Friday and Saturday. And looking at it now, while everything's probably within 5 spots of where it oughtta be I can see a few things I'd change; like, I'd probably move Midnight Marauders down a few spots and Pink Moon up a few, and I'm a little ambivalent about some of the lower spots. But I'll just go with this, because I know that overall it's mostly right. I'd probably never be 100% happy with it - it's something I could fine-tune forever. Maybe I'll revisit it in a year.