Patrick's Five Best Albums of All Time

Some of these were tough. I want to start out by saying there’s tons of R&B stuff from the 60s and 70s that deserve to somehow be on here, but because we’re dealing with best albums, and not the best songs, it’s pretty much impossible to fit them in. So most of this stuff consists of white rock bands, but if I could put in my 25-song Motown/Beach Music CD mix, it would easily make the top 3. Anyway, here we go...

1. Rubber Soul – The Beatles (1965)





No surprise here. I know I’ll get criticized for being really cliché because most VH1/Rolling Stone lists have this somewhere at the top as well. But I can’t help it -- I just really like this album. This is Lennon and McCartney collaboration at its finest. This album proves you can get really creative without getting weird. If you counted which CDs get played the most in my car, this one easily tops the list.

Best tracks: all of it, every single goddamn song, in order.


2. Help! – The Beatles (1965)




For the same reasons as Rubber Soul, this one comes in a close second.

Best tracks: “Help,” “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “Ticket to Ride,” “You’re Going to Lose That Girl”


3. Chronic Town – REM (1982)





Any early-to-mid 80s REM album would do here (Murmur, Reckoning, or Fables of the Reconstruction), but I settled on Chronic Town (which isn’t even a full-length album but a 5-song EP) as the best because it typifies everything that early REM was about: jangly guitar chords, driving bass lines, mumbled lyrics. Before this time it would have been unthinkable to make music that was a mix between, say, The Byrds and The Sex Pistols. REM did it and created an energetic sound that was much greater than the sum of its parts.

Best tracks: “Wolves, Lower,” “Gardening at Night,” “Carnival of Sorts”


4. Synchronicity – The Police (1983)





I’ve heard one rock critic put it best: what the Beatles were in the 60s, what Led Zepplin was in the 70s, The Police were in 1983. This band kicked ass, sold out the biggest arenas and stadiums, appealed to teenagers and thirty-somethings alike, and it’s a shame we don’t have anything remotely resembling them 23 years later.

Best tracks: “Synchronicity I,” “Synchronicity II”, “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” “Every Breath You Take,” “King of Pain”


5. Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (1966)





I know, another VH1 chart-topper. But this record, like Rubber Soul, does a great job of presenting creativity without any expense to accessibility, and that’s why it’s on here. It also has the best opening song of any album I can think of.

Best Tracks: “Wouldn’t it Be Nice, “Caroline, No,” “Sloop John B.,” “God Only Knows”


Honorable mentions: Revolver - The Beatles, The White Album - The Beatles, Green – REM, Zenyatta Mondata – The Police, What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye, Moondance – Van Morrison, Off the Wall – Michael Jackson, Remain in Light – Talking Heads