10 Favourite Albums

Day 36: 10 – “Write about your top 10 favourite albums of all time.”

I thought I had escaped writing about music for a season. I just finished listening to 1080 over the past two years. Actually, I was complaining during the two years that some of my favourite albums were not even on the list. It is time for my revenge. I will write about 10 favourite albums of all time that were not listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I am not sure this can be done. I will have to go to my whole life and choose only ten albums.

As a young kid, I had the biggest crush on Olivia Newton-John. I had some of her albums and I had an older female friend who had some of her albums too. We used to listen to them all the time. One of my favourites was Totally Hot, but I liked many of her other albums. My other favourites are Don’t Stop Believin’, Physical, Olivia Newton-John’s Greatest Hits, Come On Over, Come On Over, and two soundtracks Xanadu and Grease. I think it is hard to choose which album I like the best.
Missing Persons was one of my favourite bands of the 80s. I was deeply sad when they broke up. They only released three album before they disbanded. I like all three albums, but I believe my favourite is Rhyme & Reason. This was a hard choice because the first album was epic too. They were far ahead of their time.
The Irish rock band U2 is definitely one of my top five bands ever. I liked all their albums until Pop. I might give it a listening again to see if time was kinder to it. My favourite album is probably The Unforgettable Fire, but Boy is a close second. I chose it because it takes me back to the first time I heard it. I always found it to be a dreamy album. I could drift away to a special place and everything was going to be okay.
My other top five favourite band was the Aussie boys INXS. They had everything going for them. I was excited every time they released an album, but eventually they became too American sounding and lost some of their uniqueness. I had all of their albums, but it was their third album Shabooh Shoobah that was my favourite until they released The Swing in 1984. It was super sexy music.
One band that I did not like or know much of until I went to a concert with my friends was Journey. I actually went to see the opening band Loverboy because they had a hit song “Turn Me Loose” that I liked a lot. Unfortunately for Loverboy, Steve Perry could sing live better than he sounded on the records. Perry’s voice gave me chills. I was hooked from that night on. It is really hard to choose one album from Journey, but I guess since it was my first one I will have to say that Escape. I do not usually like live albums, but Captured was excellent too. Perry’s note near the end of “The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love)” kills me.
The Cars was another of my all-time favourite bands. I think the book listed only their debut album, but I like all their earlier albums before they broke up in the 80s. Heartbeat City and Candy-O are two of my favourites, but Heartbeat City was too mainstream and Candy-O went into another world.
Tears for Fears made one of the most relatable albums ever: The Hurting. There is so much pain wrapped up in 41 minutes of vinyl that I imagines at least one person committed suicide while listening to it. This album spoke my lanuage.
Stevie Nicks. How did she not make the list of 1001 Albums…? It was a crap list. Stevie was my second crush after Olivia. She was and still is incredible. I am having a hard time choosing an album because I could easily put two of her albums on this list. Bella Donna or The Wild Heart? They are so different from each other. I suppose I will go for the latter since, I really love the song “If Anyone Falls” so much.
Talk Talk was one of the most creative bands. They changed the most over their short time together. It’s My Life was their album that I bought first, then I bought every album after it.
How could you do a list of the best albums ever and not include Donna Summer? She was the “Queen of Disco”. I think Bad Girls is probably her best studio album, but if I was going to own one of her albums, then it would have to be On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II. Every song on it is incredible and they bleed into each other for your dancing pleasure.