Here’s a Spotify playlist featuring a hidden gem from each of the albums on the list so far:

*A note on the intentions of this list:

In creating this Top 100 Albums list, I hope to present a snapshot of the music that has impacted and/or influenced me in my years of listening to albums. In the interests of precision, I wanted to write a kind of disclaimer to highlight the thoughts behind the list. First, here are a few things that I am not claiming this list to be:

a) definitive;

b) objective;

c) a judgment on the artists included/excluded.

It should be clear that the opinions presented are purely my own and that, in presenting a subjective ranking, I am limited by the confines of the genres that I prefer and choose to listen to, and the artists that speak particularly to me and my experiences. It is also worth noting that the vast majority of this music was released before I was born, and I have as such been exposed to only small subsections of the music that has been released in the timeframe of this list. This is not the Rolling Stone Top 500, I am but one man and I have not even listened to many of the critically-acclaimed artists that appear towards the top of lists such as that. There are also artists and albums that I am a fan of that haven’t managed to make this list - just because someone doesn’t appear here doesn’t mean that I don’t value their work!

I would also like to express that this list has been conceived with a view to variegation; this list will represent over six decades of music, and will feature artists who have been pumping out critically-acclaimed records for decades alongside débutant(e)s who are in the infancy of their musical careers. Some of my favourite artists do appear on this list several times, such is the nature of music fandom, but I have made an attempt to avoid repetition and monotony by spreading out entries from repeated artists and even by omitting albums altogether that may have otherwise made this list. On that note, the rating and ranking of music is, in my view, always a flawed and futile concept - I love all of these albums and rank them only as a mere diversion and as a matter of conjecture. I make no objective claims. It is not a given, for example, that I consider the album in 57th place to be a better album than the one in 58th place, or even the one in 98th place. One of the important things for me was creating a list that featured all of my various influences and that showcased all sorts of music from all different eras, which naturally conjures some strange sequences of albums. Think of it as a tribute to the diverse craft that is songwriting.

On a technical note, I should point out that this list features only studio LP albums released as a single and distinct unit - I have chosen not to include, for example, live albums, compilation albums and EPs. Some of the records featured will have been recorded in a live setting (particularly in the case of jazz albums), but generally with the sole intention of a physical release. I highlight this distinction because I hope to concentrate on the long-playing album as a particular and unique art form. The experience of listening to an album as a whole in a single sitting is perhaps a declining one, but I feel that every entrant on this list merits that specific experience, and can be considered to be a consistent and singular unit of art and culture, even if created from an amalgamation of individual and separate tracks.

Finally, then, it merits saying that my principal motivation for creating this list is to be able to write about a series of albums that I enjoy listening to, so please check out the blog posts for each album and I encourage you to give these albums a listen if you haven’t heard them before.