My top 30 albums of all time

Scenario: you have to live on an island for the rest of your life. You only get to bring 30 albums with you. You are allowed to burn compilations if necessary, but no more than five.

Here's mine, in no particular order other than how they came to me.

1. Leo Kottke, "6- and 12-string Guitar." The greatest guitarist of all time at the height of his power. Awe-inspiring.

2. Steve Martin, compilation disc. This is a weird one, but Steve Martin is a fantastic banjo player, and I really enjoy his compositions. I also like noting how he's changed some of the songs over the last 30 years.

3. Nas, "Illmatic." The greatest rap album of all time. Yeah, Eminem came on strong this decade, but even that's starting to sound dated. "Illmatic" is timeless. It doesn't sound like any other rap album, because Nas raps over jazz beats.

4. Smashing Pumpkins, "Siamese Dream." Tender but powerful, emotional but strong. This is a perfectly balanced, mysterious album that feels like a dream.

5. Rage Against the Machine, "Rage Against the Machine." Just the height of hopeless anger and desperation. Yeah, a lot of teenagers from the suburbs latched on to this one, but the original art itself is powerful.

6. John Coltrane, "Coltrane Plays the Blues." Coltrane knew how to do the blues right, a skill he probably picked up from playing with Miles Davis on "Kind of Blue." More about that in a bit.

7. Nirvana, "Nevermind." The album that started a revolution. Sure, many people think it's over-rated, but there's just something incredible about the music on this album, if you just listen and forget all that external bullshit.

8. Metallica, "Master of Puppets." Screaming about the devil over music that sounds like the gates to hell opening? Where do I sign up? Metallica at their height, for sure.

9. Beck, "Mellow Gold." Probably my favorite album of all time by my favorite artist of all time.

10. Beck, "Odelay." This is a weird choice for me, because I didn't like this album when it came out. Now that I'm older, I love it. Maybe I just had to catch up to its brilliance.

11. Beck, "Sea Change." So emotional I can't bear to listen to it sometimes. Genius.

12. Robert Johnson, "The Complete Recordings." A blues master whose haunting voice and virtuoso guitar can never leave my mind. Almost ethereal.

13. Jimi Hendrix, "The Ultimate Experience." Yeah, I like the hits. Who doesn't? This greatest hits album goes a little deeper, though, and has all of Hendrix's stuff that made him a legend off the air, as well.

14. Metallica, "...And Justice for All." Metallica still at their height, this time without Cliff Burton, but still a force of nature.

15. Nirvana, "With The Lights Out Box Set." Three discs of grungy, unfiltered Nirvana. The Nirvana from concerts, before producers could clean them up.

16. REM, "Automatic for the People." I can't explain to you why this is a great album. You just have to listen to it and see where it takes you. Michael Stipe's lyrics were perfection on this one.

17. Elliott Smith, compilation disc. I don't know why, but I can't get into any one of his albums as a whole. I cherry pick, and songs like "Happiness," "Say Yes," "Sweet Adeline," "Tomorrow, Tomorrow," and "Coming Up Roses" always hit the spot. Sweetness and sorrow.

18. Miles Davis, "Kind of Blue." Another great blues album by a jazz genius. There's something about jazz musicians that is able to tap into the heart of the blues, filter it with their jazz, and come up with a wonderful hybrid. Set aside an afternoon and give this a spin.

19. Alice in Chains, "Dirt." I'm an asshole for this one, because I never paid much attention to Alice in Chains in the 90s. I had Nirvana, Beck and Pearl Jam to keep me busy, but Alice in Chains would've blown my little teen mind away, for sure. Maybe I'm glad I waited until I was an adult to check this one out, because I probably wouldn't've gotten a lot of the themes as a teen.

20. Gomez, "Bring it On." This is just genius. Perfectly textured and layered, this trippy album gives you truth, fear, loathing, psychedelia and escape in one epic album.

21. Stone Temple Pilots, "Purple." A perfect blend of musicianship and ambiguous lyrics has led to me staying engaged with this album for 15 years now. Just when I think I have it figured out, I think of another possible meaning.

22. The White Stripes, "De Stijl." I love the White Stripes, and this album (recorded before they'd hit it big) is a perfect crystallization of their band. My favorite part of it is every one of my friends has a different favorite song from this album. Diverse, weird and definitely the White Stripes.

23. Nine Inch Nails, "The Downward Spiral." A frightening view into hopelessness, despair, rage and suicide, this album was what all electronic music could've and should've been. Not even Trent Reznor was able to reach this plateau again, though.

24. Otis Redding, "The Complete Recordings Box Set." The master of soul and R&B, I find more joy in Redding's sadness than I can begin to describe. There was just something sublime about him and his work.

25. Radiohead, "OK Computer." The album that threw Radiohead off the beaten path. They decided they'd done everything with a guitar that they could after this one, and...maybe they were right. Another larger-than-life, epic album.

26. Liz Phair, compilation disc. If you don't know how awesome Liz Phair used to be before she became a sell-out, you're missing out. Go buy her first three albums and burn a compilation disc. It'll be with you for the rest of your life. "Whip Smart" is her best album, in my opinion, but you need some of the songs from the other albums to fill her library out.

27. Aesop Rock, "None Shall Pass." A virtuoso New York underground rapper, Aesop Rock has been hammering at lyrics and bars for over a decade now. I think he finally perfected it on this album.

28. Beck, "One Foot in the Grave." I once played this album for a friend of mine, and he fucking hated it. That made me love it even more. Beck explores folk, blues, and noise on this K Records-produced disc, and it just sounds like a bunch of friends hanging out and recording songs in their living room.

29. Blues compilation disc. I had to do this because artists like Skip James, Tommy Johnson and Blind Willie McTell have such small discographies (14 songs, in Tommy Johnson's case) that you almost have to do it like this to get your full 80 minutes worth.

30. Blind Melon, compilation disc. I'd probably do most of the first two albums, but then you need the performance of "Soup" from Woodstock and some other amazing singles to fill this out.

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So yeah, I think I got everything. This is a fascinating exercise, because you can make a list like this and save it somewhere for a few years. When you re-do your list after some time has passed, it's amazing to see how much you and your music has changed with the years.

I'll see you around.

-Butler

EDIT: Randy reminded me of a great album I forgot to put on here. Failure, "Fantastic Planet." Honestly, I might bump Beck, "One Foot in the Grave" to get it on here. Ugh. Such a tough list to make. Damnit. Either Beck or Blind Melon, and neither of those choices is easy.