Good call on:

Moving Pictures
A Decade of Steely Dan

Though, and speaking as a recording engineer, every single one of Steely Dan's albums could feasibly be on the list. A lot of well schooled road engineers use SD's albums to tune venues. The only thing that might keep their albums off the list is due to whether you like the music. Strictly sonically, hell yeah.

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

Pretty much anything Trent Reznor. I'd say The Fragile is his best musically and lyrically by quite a bit. His other concept albums don't have as many recurring themes as this one, though The Downward Spiral and Year Zero are perfect albums in their own right. Everything he does is golden. I love his recent scores he's done for David Fincher, and his band with his wife (How To Destroy Angels) is stunning as well. One of the best artists of our generation imo.


The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute

It doesn't get much weirder than these guys. I think this album along with De-Loused In The Comatorium are masterpieces. I still listen to them frequently.


Tool - Lateralus

Really any album from Tool is amazing. Lateralus just sums them up as a band the best for me.


Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85–92

He's one of the most influential and inventive figures in electronic music. The dude is a musical genius. This ****er was making music in his early teens (in the mid 80's!!) on the worst computers you can imagine. His other albums and later work probably showcase his talents more, but this album blows my mind.


DJ Shadow - Endtroducing.....

He's a different kind of genius. I still can't believe how sick this album is.


Radiohead - Kid A

This and OK Computer are the only Radiohead albums I can really listen to all the way through and call them spectacular. Their other albums have quite a few weak spots that turn me off to them.

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Nothing could be removed without lessening the album overall

I'm a hip-hop guy... and for those of you picking The Chronic (either of them), well, Doggystyle is better than both of them as far as gangster rap is concerned.

Other (near) perfect rap albums:

Nas - Illmatic
Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
Jay-Z - Blueprint
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
Brother Ali - Shadows On The Sun
Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
Outkast - ATLiens
Outkast - Aquemini
Common - One Day It'll All Make Sense
Common - Be
Kanye West - The College Dropout
Cormega - Tha Realness
Kendrick Lamar - Good Kidd Madd City
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die
A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory

Doggystyle might be "better" in some senses, but The Chronic is right up there with 36-Chambers. Snoop wasn't a surprise with Doggystyle, but he was with Chronic.

And +100 for Tribe and Nas and +.5 Kendrick's. I'm actually kinda annoyed with myself for forgetting Tribe. I did pick De La in my original list though

Don't really care what they think or thought. I remember Axl Rose saying Appetite wasn't their best album. Faith No More thinks King for a Day is the best thing they put out (they barely play that many songs from Angel Dust or the Real Thing). Metallica hasn't made a good record in 20 years, closer to 30 for some people, and Lars is still playing that game. Every other artist says their most recent album is their best anymore.

I think I'd probably agree with Kurt Cobain regarding the production, but to me that wasn't the problem with any of their records. It was the songs on Nevermind that stood out as well as the energy, In Utero was just weaker in both regards. I mean it was alright but I don't see anything really exceptional about it and never did.

Whether an album is an authentic representation of the band is something for the band and the engineers to sort out. I don't really care so long as it works.

That has always cracked me up because no band/artist will ever say "Our latest isn't as good as the stuff before, but it's still good. Please buy it." You can't really blame them but it's still funny that they all keep saying it.

I've got this running rant where I complain about bands being best known for their most popular songs instead of their best or most defining songs. Like Yes being known for "Owner of a Lonely Heart" or Queen for "Another one bites the Dust" or The Clash for "Rock the Casbah" and so on...

Oh god, I don't even want to get into that discussion. I will probably smash-type on my keyboard and break it, hahaha.

Try being a Faith No More fan. I hate "Epic." On a scale of 1-10 compared to every song I've ever heard by any artist in any genre, I might have given it a 7 on it's best day. Of their material only on it's own scale, I'd call it a 3.

It makes me wonder how many awesome bands I've waved off because the songs they hit with are weak, or otherwise not representative of their talent. Jackyl might be really good for all I know.

Iron and Wine- The Creek Drank the Cradle

Such an awesome, mellow album. Love everything about it.

Lol, it's better in all senses IMO. I can see an argument for the production on Chronic being better but that album doesn't go as hard as Doggystyle front to back... Straight fire every track.

For heavier 80s music I'd narrow my choices to Appetite, Master of Puppets, and Among the Living. I don't know there's anything you could do differently without changing them for the worse. The worst song on any of them is probably Anything Goes, and I still wouldn't remove it.

Think About You is a weaker song than Anything Goes imo although the end of it is pretty cool. MoP could do without the aptly titled 'The Thing That Should Not Be'. Hybrid children watch the sea, Pray for father roaming free. Ok James

Think About You is a very solid song on Appetite, like all the other songs on that album.

I'm surprised with all the love for Rust In Peace. I would pick Peace Sells. Both are terrific albums, but Peace Sells just crushes 'em (yes, pun intended) the whole way through and is on a much more raw level -- like a mix between RIP and Killing Is My Business.

I think you could put a few Led Zeppelin albums on the list, too. II and IV for sure.

LTJ Bukem Journey Inwards would be on my list.

Portishead Dummy.

Soul Coughing Ruby Vroom.

I don't know if it's quite a perfect album, but At the Drive In -- Relationship of Command is just a killer album without all the BS noise on the Mars Volta albums.

Carole King Tapestry.

Miles Davis Kind of Blue.

Coheed and Cambria's Year of the Black Rainbow is just ridiculous.

I'm a big fan of Foo Fighters' The Color and The Shape.

Live Mental Jewelry.

Tori Amos Little Earthquakes.

I'd take Seasons In The Abyss, but wouldn't argue with someone choosing Reign In Blood or even South of Heaven.

I know most people probably say Vheishu, but I'd go with Artist In The Ambulance or Illusion of Safety by Thrice.

Couple times a year I'll throw in Tesla's Mechanical Resonance and not be able to skip a track.

I really want to put an Iron Maiden album on here, as so many of them are great, but it's hard to find one that I'd say didn't have an inferior song or two. I guess if I had to pick one, though, I'd go with Number of the Beast.

A couple other ones on this list have already been mentioned, especially Master of Puppets and Grace, as well as August And Everything After.

I just remembered Thursday's last album, No Devolucion, which was really a great culmination of all the things they'd been working on for their entire career. Only I have to skip the stupid Wedding Ring song. Such a shame they decided to call it quits.

Marty Friedman?

Alice in Chains: Jar of Flies

Though it's not a full length album, I think it's perfect. Layne's rant at the end of "Don't Follow" mixed with the harmonica is, imo, the most painfully pleasing perfection of melody and rhythm.

Layne had the perfect voice.

Hounds of love- Kate Bush. Can't think of anything else that is as solid as that. Deftones white pony/heartwork as mentioned may come close though.

Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert

The Clash - London Calling

Jar of Flies. One of my all-time favorites.

Appetite for Destruction is epic. Even before I became a huge fan of the band I remember listening to the album and thinking, "holy **** there's no filler here!"

Others have mentioned that "Think About You" or "Anything Goes" being the weakest link, which I agree with, but they're still pretty good songs; not "Paradise City" quality though.

Some that I haven't seen listed so far...

Rush-2112
Stevie Ray Vaughn-Texas Flood
ZZ Top-Tres Hombres
Ozzy Osbourne-Diary of a Madman

One that might seem odd in that it's a movie soundtrack is the Singles Sountrack from Cameron Crowe's movie. I've listened to that album a million times and I've never hit the fast forward button.

You know what, that's not at all odd. That's actually a great choice. It has some of my favorite songs by the bands on there, and the only song I ever liked by Mother Love Bone.