My Top 20 albums

With a six-word capsule summary for each. These are weighted both by how much I like them and their historical importance over the course of my life.

1. The Beatles, Abbey Road
Maybe my most listened to album

2. R.E.M., Reckoning
Soundtrack to my somewhat misguided youth

3. Loud Family, Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things
Scott Miller’s songwriting blows me away

4. The Wrens, Meadowlands
Like reading an especially painful diary

5. Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The fevered genius of Jeff Mangum

6. The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
Dictionary “R” for “rock and roll”

7. The Clash, London Calling
Still sounds immediate 30 years later

8. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Something new each time you listen

9. R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant
Back when R.E.M. still meant something

10. Beulah, Yoko
A slow-motion breakup in song

11. Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
The best of all Pavement worlds

12. Elliott Smith, XO
Heartbreaking, beautiful, hooky, near-perfect songs

13. The Replacements, Let It Be
Replacements at their shaggy, boozy best

14. The Trashcan Sinatras, Cake
Songwriting that will make you swoon

15. The Velvet Underground, s/t
The template for most indie rock

16. Game Theory, Real Nighttime
Shimmery 80’s college rock from Davis

17. The Weakerthans, Reconstruction Site
Great lyrics, great songs, no fair

18. The Libertines, s/t
Amazingly, better songs without Pete Doherty

19. Uncle Tupelo, Anodyne
Your basic alt-country starter kit

20. The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow
Deeply creative, inventive songs that soar