Category Archives: Music

My Year in Review 2025: Movies, Books, Music & Live Performances

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MOVIES

It was a slow year for moviegoing.  I watched fewer movies than usual, either in the theaters or streaming.  I’m not sure why, but family health issues and national politics may each have played a part. Early in the year we caught up on some of the acclaimed movies from 2024, and about halfway through the year, we were inspired by the New York Times’ ‘best movies of the 21st century so far’ list to see some of the films on that list. (I also added the NYT list to my own meta-list of 21st Century films.) One of my New Year’s resolutions is to watch more movies in 2026.  Here are the films I watched in 2025, with my 1-10 rating:

10/10
The Zone of Interest (UK/Poland, 2023) Dir: Jonathan Glazer

9/10
Margaret (US, 2011) Dir: Kenneth Lonergan
Toni Erdmann (Germany/Austria, 2016) Dir: Maren Ade
The Worst Person in the World (Norway, 2021) Dir: Joachim Trier
I Saw the TV Glow (US, 2024) Dir: Jane Schoenbrun
Anora (US, 2024) Dir: Sean Baker
One Battle After Another (US, 2025) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson

8/10
 Jazz on a Summer’s Day (US, 1959) Dir: Bert Stern
I Am Not Your Negro (US, 2016) Dir: Raoul Peck
His Three Daughters (US, 2023) Dir: Azazel Jacobs
The Outrun (Germany/UK, 2024) Dir: Nora Fingscheidt
A Complete Unknown (US, 2024) Dir: James Mangold
The Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan/US, 2025) Dir: Shih-Ching Tsou

7/10
The Snapper (Ireland, 1993) Dir: Stephen Frears
Hamilton (US, 2020) Dir: Thomas Kail
Hit Man (US, 2023) Dir: Richard Linklater
Challengers (US, 2024) Dir: Luca Guadagnino
Heretic (US, 2024) Dir: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods
The Substance (France/UK/US, 2024) Dir: Coralie Fargeat
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (UK, 2024) Dir: Nick Park

6/10
Ocean’s Eleven (US, 2001) Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Idiocracy (US, 2006) Dir: Mike Judge
Sicario (US, 2015) Dir: Denis Villeneuve

5/10
Hundreds of Beavers (US, 2022) Dir: Mike Cheslik
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (US, 2025) Dir: Christopher McQuarrie

BOOKS

In 2025, I continued to work my way through a large chronological ‘best literature’ reading list that is based on my meta-list of the greatest works of literature.  This year, I read a number of works published in the 1910s and 1920s.  I decided to take on Marcel Proust’s seven-volume novel In Search of Lost Time, which occupied most of my reading time this year (I hope to finish it in 2026).  I also read Miracles and Wonder, the newest book by Elaine Pagels about the history of Christianity (you can read my review here) as well as two of her earlier books. A trip to England inspired me to read two books on British history.  Here is a list of the books I read in 2025, with my 1-5 star rating.

5/5
In Search of Lost Time I: Swann’s Way (1913). By Marcel Proust. Translated by Lydia Davis.
The Rainbow (1915). By D.H. Lawrence.
The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography (1918). By Henry Adams.
In Search of Lost Time II: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (1919). By Marcel Proust. Translated by James Grieve.
In Search of Lost Time III: The Guermantes Way (1920). By Marcel Proust. Translated by Mark Treharne.

4/5
Kokoro (1914). By Natsume Sōseki. Translated by Meredith McKinney.
The Home and the World (1916). By Rabindranath Tagore. Translated by Surendranath Tagore.
Selected Stories (1918-1926). By Lu Xun. Translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang.
Main Street (1920). By Sinclair Lewis.
The Forsyte Saga (1921). By John Galsworthy.
Zeno’s Conscience (1923). By Italo Svevo. Translated by William Weaver.
Three Plays (1923-1926). By Sean O’Casey.
An American Tragedy (1925). By Theodore Dreiser.
Three Tragedies (1932-1936). By Federico García Lorca. Translated by James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O’Connell.
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity (1988). By Elaine Pagels.
The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans and Heretics (1995). By Elaine Pagels.
A History of Britain I: At the Edge of the World? 3500 BC-AD 1603 (2000). By Simon Schama.
These Truths: A History of the United States (2018). By Jill Lepore.
Life Between the Tides (2021). By Adam Nicolson.
Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures (2024). By Katherine Rundell.
Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus (2025). By Elaine Pagels.

3/5
A Short History of England: The Glorious Story of a Rowdy Nation (2011). By Simon Jenkins.
Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change (2025). By Olga Khazan.

MUSIC

My music listening in 2025 was dominated by my discovery of the rock band The Warning, a trio of sisters from Mexico who play hard rock with tinges of metal, pop, and punk. Many of their fans refer to them as ‘the future of rock’ and I don’t disagree. I also spent a lot of time listening to new albums from my best of 2024 meta-list. I also binged several favorite artists of years past: The Roches, The Who, and Steely Dan. Classical music listening was down this year. Here are the top 50 albums I listened to in 2025: 

  1. The Warning – Keep Me Fed (2024)
  2. Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (2024)
  3. The Warning – ERROR (2022)
  4. Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us (2024)
  5. The Roches – Speak (1989)
  6. Clairo – Charm (2024)
  7. Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (2024)
  8. The Roches -The Roches (1979)
  9. The Who – Live at Leeds (1970)
  10. The Roches – A Dove (1992)
  11. Yasmin Williams – Acadia (2024)
  12. Mabe Fratti – Sentir Que No Sabes (2024)
  13. The Who – Quadrophenia (1973)
  14. Steely Dan – A Decade of Steely Dan (1972-1980)
  15. The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy (2024)
  16. Hurray For The Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive (2024)
  17. The Roches – Keep On Doing (1982)
  18. Adam Steinberg – Angels + Angles (2022)
  19. The Roches – Another World (1985)
  20. Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972)
  21. Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live, 1966: The ‘Royal Albert Hall’ Concert (rec. 1966)
  22. Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (1974)
  23. The Roches – Can We Go Home Now (1995)
  24. Alvvays – Blue Rev (2022)
  25. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild God (2024)
  26. World Party – Arkeology (rec. 1984-2011)
  27. Michael Kiwanuka – Small Changes (2024)
  28. Charlie Parker – The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes (rec. 1944-1948)
  29. Steely Dan – Katy Lied (1975)
  30. Brittany Howard – What Now (2024)
  31. SZA – SOS (2022)
  32. Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy (1973)
  33. Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (2024)
  34. The Who – Tommy (1969)
  35. The Who – Who’s Next (1971)
  36. Waxahatchee – Out in the Storm (2017)
  37. Jessica Pratt – Here In The Pitch (2024)
  38. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud (2020)
  39. Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid (2010)
  40. Lucinda Williams – West (2007)
  41. The New Pornographers – Electric Version (2003)
  42. The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005)
  43. Andrew Sue Wing – Seventeen (2024)
  44. Björk – Vespertine (2001)
  45. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks (1975)
  46. Fontaines D.C. – Romance (2024)
  47. Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song (2010)
  48. Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (2024)
  49. Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (2023)
  50. Oscar Peterson – Night Train (1962)

LIVE PERFORMANCES

For the first time in several years, I didn’t attend concerts by any of my favorite indie or alternative pop & rock artists.  Instead, most of the concerts I attended in 2025 were for classical music, with two jazz concerts, and one singer-songwriter concert at a new (to me) venue: the Rec Room in Belmont.  I didn’t see any plays this year, but did enjoy a night of improv comedy for the first time in many years.  Here are the live performances I attended in 2025, in chronological order:

  • The Makanda Project with Charles Tolliver at Boston Public Library, Roxbury, MA 3/5/25
  • Jeremy Denk at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA 3/21/25
    Performing Partitas (BWV 825-830) by J.S. Bach
  • Cambridge Jazz Festival at Danehy Park, Cambridge, MA 7/26/25
    Ron Reid’s Precious Metals Project
    Namisa Mdalose & Lumanyano Bizana
  • Improv Asylum at Charles Playhouse, Boston, MA 8/16/25
    The Main Stage Show (Barker, Carty, Gillis, Sosebee, etc.)
  • Andrew Sue Wing at The Rec Room, Belmont, MA 9/9/25
  • A Tribute to Scott Nickrenz at Calderwood Hall, Gardner Museum. Boston, MA 9/10/25
    Performers included: Yo-Yo Ma, Jason Bell, Paavali Jumppanen, Lawrence Dutton, Borromeo Quartet, A Far Cry
  • Convivium Musicum at First Unitarian Church, Worcester, MA 11/23/25
    Performing works of Gregorio Allegri, Noel Bauldeweyn, Adrian Willaert, Jacob Handl, and Josquin des Prez
  • Paula Robison & Paavali Jumppanen at Williams Hall, NEC, Boston, MA 12/14/25
    Performing works of J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, and Mozart

The Best of 2025: Movies, TV, Music & Books

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It’s that time of year again, when various publications and individuals publish their “best of the year” lists. It seems like these lists come out earlier every year.  (I only hope that the listmakers go back to the prior December to find any gems they’ve missed in their eagerness to get their list out in late November or early December.)

I’ve compiled dozens of lists, as I do each year, to see which items reached a critical consensus as the best in their particular art form.  These are not my personal opinions.  I have not seen all these movies or TV shows, read all these books, or listened to all this music.  The links to the lists are below:

Best Films of 2025
Best TV Shows of 2025
Best Music of 2025
Best Books of 2025

To give you a sneak peek, here are the top items on each of the four lists:

BOOKS (3-way tie)
A Guardian and a Thief. By Megha Majumdar.
Audition. By Katie Kitamura.
Mother Mary Comes To Me. By Arundhati Roy.

MUSIC 
Geese – Getting Killed

TV SHOWS
Andor 

FILM
One Battle After Another

Please feel free to leave your comments about favorite movies, books, TV, and music of 2025 in the comments!

The Opera Lists Get a Makeover

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I’ve added 12 more lists to the opera meta-lists, bringing the total number of lists to over 30.  The three opera lists (by rank, chronological, and by composer) were in need of an update – I hadn’t done any serious work on the lists since 2017.  The only major change I made was I eliminated the operas that were only on two of the original source lists.  Since the last update, I have tried to adopt a consistent standard throughout the Make Lists, Not War website to include only items that are on at least three original source lists.

Here are links to the updated meta-lists:

Best Operas of All Time – By Rank
Best Operas of All Time – Chronological
Best Operas of All Time – By Composer

The addition of new lists has rearranged the top operas quite a bit.  Here are the new top 10 (including ties):
1. THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (Mozart)
1. CARMEN (Bizet)
2. LA TRAVIATA (Verdi)
2. LA BOHÈME (Puccini)
3. TOSCA (Puccini)
4. THE MAGIC FLUTE (Mozart)
4. THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (Rossini)
5. MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Puccini)
6. DON GIOVANNI (Mozart)
7. RIGOLETTO (Verdi)

The meta-list contains 141 operas by 74 composers with libretti in seven languages:
Italian: 44 operas
German: 27
French: 24
English: 13
Russian: 10
Czech: 6
Hungarian: 1

The oldest opera premiered in 1607 and the two most recent operas on the list are from 1987.

The composers with the most operas on the meta-list are:
Giuseppe Verdi: 13
Richard Wagner: 11
Giacomo Puccini: 8
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: 6
Richard Strauss: 6
Benjamin Britten: 6

The 12 new ‘best operas’  lists come from the following sources:

  • DavesMusicDatabase (another meta-list site)
  • iconik magazine
  • Classic.FM
  • English National Opera
  • Classical-Music.com
  • Radio Art
  • MSN
  • San Francisco Opera
  • udiscovermusic
  • Gramophone
  • Stage Door
  • Phamox Music

All 12 lists were published between 2018 and 2025.

My Year in Music – 2024

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I have so far continued to buck the trend of the music industry and still own my music instead of listening to a streaming platform like Spotify.  I no longer have a CD player, but I upload CDs onto my computer’s hard drive, and download a portion of the music collection onto my iPhone, which allows me to access music wherever I am.  I currently have 166 GB of music (almost 32,000 tracks).  I could explain in detail why I do this, but I’m afraid this would bore most readers.  The short answer is that I find streaming platforms unacceptably restrict the ways I can listen to music and also lack the full range of music I am looking for.  This may be changing, and I may give in to streaming eventually, but not this year.

I keep track of my listening habits through the last.fm website, which keeps track of every song I play on my computer or phone from my collection.  Unfortunately, last.fm doesn’t track the songs I listen to on YouTube, where I often go to listen to artists I’m not familiar with.

The results of my year in music, shown below, were influenced in large part by three factors:

  1. I love love love the Canadian band The New Pornographers, and sometimes they’re all I want to listen to. I truly believe that A.C. “Carl” Newman is one of the most gifted songwriters of the 21st century.
  2. I created an iTunes smart playlist called “Artists I’ve seen live” and listened to it quite a bit. On the list below, I’ve added an asterisk to any artist I’ve ever seen perform live.
  3. When I’m not listening to a specific playlist, I just put my entire music collection on random shuffle and listen to whatever pops up. I love the odd, often serendipitous juxtapositions of genre and mood that this creates, although this also means that artists with more (and shorter) tracks in the collection tend to rank higher in the end-of-the-year stats than artists with fewer and/or longer tracks.

NOTE 1: Even though I have listed “most listened-to album” by each artist below, that doesn’t mean I’m actually listening to the album start to finish (something I do very rarely), only that songs from that album were played more frequently than songs from other albums by the same artist.

NOTE 2: I normally only begin acquiring music from the current year in late December after the “best of the year” critics’ lists are released, so there are no 2024 releases on the list. Check in next year for those results.

Most Listened-to Artists (including the artist’s Most Listened-to Album)

  1. The New Pornographers* – Electric Version (2003)
  2. The Decemberists* – The Hazards of Love (2009)
  3. Aimee Mann* – Queens of the Summer Hotel (2021)
  4. PJ Harvey – Rid of Me (1993)
  5. Angel Olsen* – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (2014)
  6. The National* – Trouble Will Find Me (2013)
  7. Juliana Hatfield – Only Everything (1995)
  8. Alvvays* – Blue Rev (2022)
  9. Wolf Alice* – Blue Weekend (2021)
  10. Steely Dan – A Decade of Steely Dan (1972-1980)
  11. The Roches* – The Roches (1979)
  12. Sharon Van Etten* – Are We There (2014)
  13. Bob Dylan – No Direction Home: Bootleg Series, Vol. 7 (1959-1966)
  14. The Beatles – With the Beatles (1963)
  15. R.E.M.* – Around the Sun (2004)
  16. Frank Sinatra – Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years (1960-1979)
  17. The Hold Steady* – Stay Positive (2008)
  18. Paul Simon – Hearts and Bones (1983)
  19. Tom Waits – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (1984-2005)
  20. The War on Drugs* – I Don’t Live Here Anymore (2021)
  21. Buddy Holly – Memorial Collection (1954-1959)
  22. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (2013)
  23. Talking Heads* – Sand in the Vaseline (1976-1992)
  24. Yes* – The Yes Album (1971)
  25. Julien Baker* – Little Oblivions (2021)
  26. OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
  27. Duke Ellington – The Blanton-Webster Band (1940-1942)
  28. The Everly Brothers* – Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits (1957-1960)
  29. Alison Krauss & Union Station* – Lonely Runs Both Ways (2004)
  30. Beck – Morning Phase (2014)
  31. T-Bone Walker – The Complete Imperial Recordings (1950-1954)
  32. World Party* – Arkeology (1986-2011)
  33. Yo La Tengo – Summer Sun (2003)
  34. The Who – Quadrophenia (1973)
  35. Bill Frisell – Have a Little Faith (1992)
  36. Miles Davis – ‘Round About Midnight (1957)
  37. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)
  38. Jimi Hendrix – The Ultimate Experience (1966-1970)
  39. Muddy Waters* – The Best of Muddy Waters (1948-1954)
  40. Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension (2020)
  41. The Velvet Underground – Peel Slowly and See (1965-1970)
  42. Genesis* – Selling England by the Pound (1973)
  43. Little Walter – The Essential Little Walter (1952-1963)
  44. Soccer Mommy – Sometimes, Forever (2022)
  45. SZA – SOS (2022)
  46. Elvis Costello – Punch the Clock (1983)
  47. Lester Young – The Complete Aladdin Sessions (1942-1947)
  48. Bud Powell – The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 2 (1954)
  49. Dizzy Gillespie* – The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1937-1949)
  50. Spoon* – They Want My Soul (2014)

* = have seen this artist perform live

Most Listened-To Albums Released in 2023

  1. Lankum – False Lankum
  2. Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
  3. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want to Turn into You
  4. Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
  5. PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying

Most Listened-To Classical Albums

  1. Jacques Offenbach – The Tales of Hoffman (Andre Cluytens, Choeur et Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera-Comique)
  2. Isaac Albéniz – Piano Music (Esteban Sánchez)
  3. George Frideric Handel – Twelve Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra)
  4. Johann Sebastian Bach – St. Matthew Passion (Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus)
  5. Henry Purcell – Dido and Aeneas (Trevor Pinnock, The English Concert)
  6. Anonymous – Adorate Deum: Gregorian Chant from the Proper of the Mass (Alberto Turco, Nova Schola Gregoriana)
  7. William Bolcom – Songs of Innocence and Experience (Leonard Slatkin, University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra)
  8. Ludwig van Beethoven – Violin Sonatas 7-10 (Daniel Barenboim & Pinchas Zukerman)
  9. Modest Mussorgsky (arr. by Ravel) – Pictures at an Exhibition (Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra)
  10. Philip Glass – Einstein on the Beach (Michael Riesman/Philip Glass Ensemble)

Meta-List Updates

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I’ve updated a number of the website pages on Make Lists, Not War.

(1) Timeline of Human History, Part V: 2000-Present
I’ve been a little behind in doing the year-by-year summaries, but I am now up to date.  I’ve added important world events for the years 2021-2024.  The big additions include the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, various items regarding Donald Trump, and news about climate change.  I’m still delinquent about adding photos to the years since 2016. I’ll get to that eventually.
Here’s the link:
Timeline of Human History Part V: 2000-Present

(2) Best of the 21st Century (so far): Film, Music, and Books
As we approach the end of the 1st quarter of the 21st Century, a number of new lists have been published, and I’ve added these to the meta-list.  The new lists didn’t change the top items in music or film (The White Stripes – Elephant, and There Will Be Blood), but the top of the book list is now a three-way tie: The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, Atonement, by Ian McEwan, and The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.  As I mention elsewhere, one of the odd results of collecting “best of the 21st century” lists over time is that the meta-list tends to be biased toward the first part of the century.  The lists contain almost no items from 2020 or later.  I’m sure that will be remedied as new lists are produced and added to the meta list.
Here’s the link
Best of the 21st Century (so far)

(3) Best Athletes of All Time
It has been several years since I updated the Best Athletes lists. I found six new lists and added them to the meta-lists.  New additions include Simone Biles and Novak Djokovic.  Athletes who were already on the lists but moved up considerably included Serena Williams, Tom Brady, and LeBron James.  To the dismay of all, Lance Armstrong remains on the list, due to a glitch in the meta-list process. Even though none of the lists that were made after 2013 include Armstrong, I found 8 lists made before the revelations about his performance-enhancing drug use that did include him. I have left this artifact of time on the list with an asterisk to explain the oddity.  Not yet on enough lists to make the meta-list are swimmer Katie Ledecky and basketball phenom Caitlin Clark, although my guess is that they will reach the meta-list in the future.
Here are the lists:
Best Athletes of All Time – Ranked (with photos)
Best Athletes of All Time – By Sport (without photos)

The Best of 2024: Film, TV, Music, Books

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I’ve created meta-lists of the best of 2024 by collecting end-of-year lists from the critics.  Here are the meta-lists, organized with the items on the most lists at the top.

Every year since the 1990s, I’ve been creating these meta-lists to help me decide what to watch, listen to, and read.  I hope they can provide you with some guidance in making intelligent choices for the use of your precious time!

Best Films of 2024
Best TV Shows of 2024
Best Music of 2024 (Albums)
Best Books of 2024

The Best of 2023: Movies, TV, Music & Books

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Once again, I have compiled meta-lists of the best of the year in film, television, music, and literature.  I began undertaking this project over 20 years ago when I decided that, with limited time to read books, watch movies and TV shows, and listen to music, I wanted to reduce my chances of encountering dreck and increase the percentage of that I would encounter gems.  The solution I chose to this problem was to collect the opinions of multiple critics when they issue their end-of-year “best of” lists.  While the method is not foolproof (I do occasionally find critical faves that I don’t like, and I also sometimes run across items I rate highly that the critics didn’t like so much), it has been a success overall.  One of the best aspects of this method is that it gets me outside my comfort zone.  By collecting and collating these lists, creating the meta-lists that are linked below, I have expanded my horizons and encountered works of art that I might not have found if I had stayed within the recommendations of friends and family, or of just one favored critic.  Why go by the recommendations of one random person when you have at your fingertips the critical consensus of over a dozen experts?

Here are the links to this year’s lists:

Best Films of 2023
Best TV Shows of 2023
Best Music of 2023
Best Books of 2023

The Best of 2022: The End-of-Year Lists

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I have compiled meta-lists of the best movies, TV shows, music, and books of 2022 by combining multiple end-of-year lists published in magazines, newspapers, and websites.  These lists provide a critical consensus of the year’s best.

Here are links to the lists:

Best Films of 2022
Best TV Shows of 2022
Best Music of 2022
Best Books of 2022

As a sneak preview, here are the most-listed items in each category:

Film: Aftersun
TV: Better Call Saul
Music: (tie): Beyoncé – Renaissance and Rosalía – Motomami 
Book: The Candy House. By Jennifer Egan

My Top 150 Albums – The Last.Fm List

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In 2008, I joined last.fm, a music website (and app) that keeps track of the music I listen to on my computer and my smartphone (excluding Youtube videos), and also makes recommendations based on my listening habits.  Below are the top 150 albums I’ve listened to between 2008 and today (2/6/2022), based on last.fm‘s calculations.  I’ve listed the albums in order of frequency and have included a genre description (usually borrowed from Wikipedia).

After classical music (26 out of 150 albums), the genre I listen to the most is “indie rock” (20 albums). This term originated as a way to identify artists whose music was released by independent record labels, although it has now expanded to describe a brand of alternative rock music.  I’m not sure how alternative rock and indie rock differ.  If someone wants to explain in the comments, that would be great.  (For example, does an “indie rock” band stop being “indie rock” if it is signed to a major record label, even if the style of music they play remains basically the same?)

I also listen to music that is categorized as “indie pop” (eight albums) and “indie folk” (six albums) (including some overlap with “indie rock”).  Once again, I’m not sure I understand how the nature of the company distributing the music tells us anything about the music itself, other than to say that it differs (but how?) from mainstream rock, pop, and folk music.  Other big categories are jazz (18 albums), alternative rock (15 albums), blues (13 albums), and rhythm & blues (R&B) (13 albums).  The artists with the most albums on  the list are The New Pornographers and Aimee Mann, with five albums each.

Some caveats:
(1) These are not necessarily my favorite albums.  They are the albums I’ve listened to the most. Many of my favorite artists are not represented on this list.
(2) This is all music that I personally own – I don’t use Spotify, Pandora or other streaming services.
(3) I rarely listen to an entire album at once, so these ratings mean that I have listened to tracks from the album, not necessarily the entire album.
(4) I often listen to my music in “shuffle” mode. This means that albums with more tracks are more likely to be played, which biases the list in favor of the albums with the most tracks.  This also means that there is a bias in favor of albums with shorter tracks and against albums with longer ones.
(5) This list does not take into account CDs that I have played on my CD players at home and in my car.

  1. Antisocialites (2017) – Alvvays [indie pop]
  2. Challengers (2007) – The New Pornographers [indie rock]
  3. Memorial Collection (rec. 1955-1959) – Buddy Holly [rock & roll]
  4. Shostakovich: The String Quartets (2000) – Emerson String Quartet [classical]
  5. Debussy: Images, Etudes (2000) – Jean-Yves Thibaudet [classical]
  6. Complete Decca Recordings (rec. 1937-1939) – Count Basie [jazz]
  7. Bach: St. Matthew Passion (1962) – Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus/Otto Klemperer [classical]
  8. Together (2010) – The New Pornographers [indie rock]
  9. The Man and His Music (rec. 1956-1964) – Sam Cooke [soul/R&B]
  10. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006) – Tom Waits [experimental/rock/jazz/blues]
  11. Art Angels (2015) – Grimes [dream pop/electronic]
  12. Chopin: 24 Preludes, Piano Sonata #2 (2000) – Evgeny Kissin [classical]
  13. Whiteout Conditions (2017) – The New Pornographers [indie rock]
  14. The Singles (rec. 1969-1993) – David Bowie [art rock/pop]
  15. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2014) – Courtney Barnett [indie rock]
  16. Lost in Space (2002) – Aimee Mann [pop/rock]
  17. The Guitar Song (2009) – Jamey Johnson [country]
  18. Couperin: Les Nations (1965) – Quadro Amsterdam [classical]
  19. Alvvays (2013) – Alvvays [indie pop]
  20. No Direction Home: Bootleg Series Volume 7 (rec. 1959-1966) – Bob Dylan [folk/folk rock]
  21. New Moon (2007) – Elliott Smith [indie folk/lo-fi]
  22. Ligeti: Works for Piano (1997) – Pierre-Laurent Aimard [classical]
  23. The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson (rec. 1954-1964) – Sonny Boy Williamson [blues]
  24. Twin Cinema (2005) – The New Pornographers [indie rock]
  25. Bach: Mass in B minor (1977) – Bach-Collegium Stuttgart/Helmuth Rilling [classical]
  26. Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice (French version by Hector Berlioz) (1996) – San Francisco Opera/Donald Runnicles [classical]
  27. The Suburbs (2010) – Arcade Fire [indie rock]
  28. The Early Years (rec. 1940-1947) – Bill Monroe [country/bluegrass]
  29. Britten: Peter Grimes (1978) – Royal Opera House Covent Garden/Colin Davis [classical]
  30. The Blanton-Webster Band (rec. 1942-1944) – Duke Ellington [jazz]
  31. Visions (2012) – Grimes [dream pop/electronic]
  32. West Side Story (1957) – Original Broadway Cast [classical/show tunes]
  33. The Great Twenty-Eight (rec. 1955-1964) – Chuck Berry [rock & roll]
  34. Cross Country Tour (rec. 1958-1961) – Ahmad Jamal Trio [jazz]
  35. Imperial Bedroom (1982) – Elvis Costello & the Attractions [new wave/power pop]
  36. It’s Blitz! (2009) – Yeah Yeah Yeahs [synth-punk/alternative pop]
  37. The Ultimate Collection (rec. 1959-1970) – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles [soul/R&B]
  38. Mozart: The Ten Celebrated String Quartets (1997) – The Franz Schubert Quartet [classical]
  39. Rameau: Castor et Pollux (1994) – English Bach Festival Baroque Orchestra/Charles Farncombe [classical]
  40. Piano Solos: Turn On The Heat (rec. 1927-1941) – Fats Waller [jazz]
  41. The Complete Aladdin Sessions (rec. 1942-1948) – Lester Young [jazz]
  42. Bachelor No. 2 (1999) – Aimee Mann [pop/rock]
  43. 69 Love Songs (1999) – The Magnetic Fields [indie pop/chamber pop]
  44. Burn Your Fire for No Witness (2014) – Angel Olsen [indie rock/indie folk]
  45. Music of the Crusades (1971) – Early Music Consort of London/David Munrow [classical]
  46. Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress (1996) – Chorus and Orchestra de l’Opera Lyon/Kent Nagano [classical]
  47. Poet of the Blues (rec. 1950-1954) – Percy Mayfield [blues]
  48. Tommy (1969) – The Who [hard rock]
  49. Afrocubism (2010) – Afrocubism [world/Latin/mande]
  50. The ArchAndroid (2010) – Janelle Monáe [progressive soul/alternative R&B]
  51. Whatever (1993) – Aimee Mann [pop/rock]
  52. Have a Little Faith (1993) – Bill Frisell [jazz]
  53. The Genius of the Electric Guitar (rec. 1939-1941) – Charlie Christian [jazz]
  54. The Hazards of Love (2009) – The Decemberists [folk rock/progressive rock]
  55. Tippett: A Child of Our Time (1991) – City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Chorus/ Michael Tippett [classical]
  56. The Band (1969) – The Band [roots rock/Americana]
  57. I’m With Stupid (1995) – Aimee Mann [pop/rock]
  58. Girls Girls Girls (rec. 1977-1986) – Elvis Costello [new wave/power pop]
  59. Beautiful Creature (1999) – Juliana Hatfield [alternative rock]
  60. Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2004) – OutKast [hip hop]
  61. Singles Collection: The London Years (rec. 1963-1970) – The Rolling Stones [rock/blues/pop]
  62. Blind Lemon Jefferson (rec. 1925-1929) – Blind Lemon Jefferson [blues]
  63. Egyptology (1997) – World Party [alternative rock/indie pop]
  64. Schumann: Kreisleriana, Carnaval (1995) – Mistsuko Uchida [classical]
  65. MASSEDUCTION (2017) – St. Vincent [art rock]
  66. Hide Away: The Best of Freddie King (rec. 1956-1970) – Freddie King [blues]
  67. Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and Experience (2004) – University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra/ Leonard Slatkin [classical]
  68. Mucho Macho Machito and His Afro-Cuban Salseros (1948-1949) – Machito & His Afro-Cubans [jazz/Latin]
  69. Stockhausen: Stimmung (1984) – Singcircle/Gregory Rose [classical]
  70. The Very Best of (rec. 1967-1969) – Aretha Franklin [soul/R&B]
  71. Trout Mask Replica (1969) – Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band [avant-garde/experimental rock]
  72. Forever Changes (1967) – Love [psychedelic rock]
  73. MAYA (2010) – M.I.A. [hip hop]
  74. Volume One (2008) – She & Him [indie pop/alternative country]
  75. Embryonic (2009) – The Flaming Lips [neo-psychedelia/alternative rock]
  76. The Soft Bulletin (1999) – The Flaming Lips [neo-psychedelia/alternative rock]
  77. The Number One Hits (rec. 1956-1969) – Elvis Presley [rock & roll]
  78. Schubert: Die Winterreise (1983) Haken Hagegard & Thomas Schuback [classical]
  79. That Lonesome Song (2008) – Jamey Johnson [country]
  80. The Classic Cobra Recordings (rec. 1956-1958) – Otis Rush [blues]
  81. Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits (rec. 1957-1960) – The Everly Brothers [country rock]
  82. LIFTED or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002) – Bright Eyes [indie rock/indie folk]
  83. Beautiful Garbage (2001) – Garbage [alternative rock/trip hop]
  84. Who Is Jill Scott? (Words and Sounds Vol. 1) (2000) – Jill Scott [neo-soul/R&B]
  85. Uh Huh Her (2004) – PJ Harvey [alternative rock/art rock]
  86. Gold (2001) – Ryan Adams [alternative country/indie rock]
  87. Greatest Hits (rec. 1962-1967) – The Righteous Brothers [pop/soul]
  88. Closer (1980) – Joy Division [post-punk/gothic rock]
  89. Hot Fives & Sevens, Vol. 4 (Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines) (rec. 1928-1929) – Louis Armstrong [jazz]
  90. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (2007) – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds [alternative rock]
  91. I and Love and You (2009) – The Avett Brothers [indie folk]
  92. Complete Chess Recordings (rec. 1950-1959) – Jimmy Rogers [blues]
  93. Riley: Salome Dances for Peace (1989) – Kronos Quartet [classical]
  94. Middle Cyclone (2008) – Neko Case [indie rock/alternative country]
  95. Schoenberg: Gürrelieder (2001) – Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Simon Rattle [classical]
  96. Alice (2002) – Tom Waits [experimental/rock/jazz/blues]
  97. Body and Soul (rec. 1939-1956) – Coleman Hawkins [jazz]
  98. Blonde on Blonde (1966) – Bob Dylan [folk rock]
  99. SMiLE (2004) – Brian Wilson [orchestral pop]
  100. 25th Anniversary (rec. 1939-1964) – Judy Garland [pop standards/show tunes]
  101. No Boundaries (1996) – Natalie MacMaster [world/Celtic]
  102. Flood (1990) – They Might Be Giants [alternative rock/power pop]
  103. Freetown Sound (2016) – Blood Orange [alternative R&B/experimental jazz]
  104. Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann (1950) – Choeur et Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera-Comique/Andre Cluytens [classical]
  105. Bartók: Six String Quartets (1988) – Emerson String Quartet [classical]
  106. In Exile Deo (2004) – Juliana Hatfield [alternative rock]
  107. The College Dropout (2004) – Kanye West [hip hop]
  108. Cripple Crow (2005) – Devendra Banhart [psychedelic folk]
  109. Galore: The Singles (rec. 1987-1997) – The Cure [gothic rock/post-punk]
  110. Electric Version (2003) – The New Pornographers [indie rock]
  111. Malibu (2016) – Anderson .Paak [soul/R&B/hip hop]
  112. Pure Comedy (2017) – Father John Misty [indie rock/indie folk]
  113. This World Is Not My Home (rec. 1985-1987) – Lone Justice [cowpunk/country rock]
  114. Próxima Estación: Esperanza (2001) – Manu Chao [worldbeat/Latin alternative]
  115. Toxicity (2001) – System of a Down [alternative metal]
  116. 16 Greatest Hits (rec. 1965-1968) – The Mamas & the Papas [folk rock]
  117. Before Today (2010) – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti [lo-fi/hypnagogic pop]
  118. Midnite Vultures (1999) – Beck [funk rock/R&B]
  119. The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes (rec. 1945-1948) – Charlie Parker [jazz]
  120. A Town Called Addis (2008) – Dub Colossus [world/dub/reggae]
  121. Dusty In Memphis (1968) – Dusty Springfield [pop/soul/R&B]
  122. New Amerykah, Pt. 1 (4th World War) (2008) – Erykah Badu [neo-soul/funk/R&B]
  123. Adams: The Death of Klinghoffer (1992) – Lyon National Opera Orchestra & London Opera Chorus/Kent Nagano [classical]
  124. Segundo (2000) – Juana Molina [world/folktronica]
  125. Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out (2005) – Petra Haden [indie rock]
  126. Kid A (2000) – Radiohead [experimental rock/electronica]
  127. Verve Jazz Masters 34 (rec. 1944-1962) – Coleman Hawkins [jazz]
  128. With the Beatles (1963) – The Beatles [pop/R&B/rock & roll]
  129. Beethoven: The Late String Quartets (1992) – Tokyo String Quartet [classical]
  130. Summer Sun (2003) – Yo La Tengo [indie rock/dream pop]
  131. Mental Illness (2017) – Aimee Mann [pop/rock]
  132. Armchair Apocrypha (2007) – Andrew Bird [indie rock]
  133. For Emma, Forever Ago (2007) – Bon Iver [indie folk/indie pop/indie rock]
  134. Stravinsky: The Great Ballets (1963, 1973) – London Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard Haitink [classical]
  135. Let England Shake (2011) – PJ Harvey [folk rock]
  136. Anthology (rec. 1960-1972) – Ray Charles [soul/R&B]
  137. Dear Science (2008) – TV on the Radio [art rock/indie rock]
  138. The Buddy Holly Collection (rec. 1954-1959) – Buddy Holly [rock & roll]
  139. Le Quintette du Hot Club de France (rec. 1934-1940) – Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli [jazz]
  140. The Fat Man – 25 Classic Performances (rec. 1949-1961) – Fats Domino [rock & roll/R&B]
  141. Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004) – Modest Mouse [indie rock]
  142. Third (2008) – Portishead [trip hop/alternative rock]
  143. White Blood Cells (2001) – The White Stripes [garage rock/alternative rock]
  144. Goodbye Jumbo (1990) – World Party [alternative rock/indie pop]
  145. King of the Blues Guitar (rec. 1966-1969) – Albert King [blues]
  146. The Information (2006) – Beck [alternative rock]
  147. The Definitive Blind Willie McTell (rec. 1929-1933) – Blind Willie McTell [blues]
  148. My Maudlin Career (2009) – Camera Obscura [indie pop]
  149. The Crane Wife (2006) – The Decemberists [indie rock/progressive folk]
  150. Sleep Well Beast (2017) – The National [indie rock/art rock]

Permanent Records: The Updated Albums List

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I’ve added three more “best albums of all time” lists to the best albums meta-list.  Thanks to Make Lists, Not War reader Keith Nutter for the update suggestions.  As before, the meta-lists includes every album on at least three of the original source lists.

Here are the links to the updated lists:
Best Albums of All Time – Ranked
Best Albums of All Time – Chronological
Best Albums of All Time – By Artist

In addition to rearranging the meta-list somewhat, the new lists added 35 new albums and 14 new artists.  Here are the new-to-the-list artists:

  • The Avalanches
  • Beyoncé
  • Dave Brubeck
  • Daft Punk
  • Fleet Foxes
  • GZA
  • Lorde
  • Madvillain
  • M.I.A.
  • Mobb Deep
  • Slowdive
  • Solange
  • Talk Talk
  • Vampire Weekend

The latest update has increased the number of recent albums on the meta-list, which is heavily weighted towards music of the 1960s and 1970s.  Here are the 15 albums on the meta-list from 2010 on.

  • Kanye West  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
  • Arcade Fire  The Suburbs (2010)
  • Adele  21 (2011)
  • PJ Harvey  Let England Shake (2011)
  • Kendrick Lamar  good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)
  • Frank Ocean  Channel Orange (2012)
  • Kanye West  Yeezus (2013)
  • Vampire Weekend  Modern Vampires of the City (2013)
  • Kendrick Lamar  To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)
  • Sufjan Stevens  Carrie & Lowell (2015)
  • David Bowie  Blackstar (2016)
  • Frank Ocean  Blond (2016)
  • Beyoncé  Lemonade (2016)
  • Solange  A Seat at the Table (2016)
  • Lorde  Melodrama (2017)