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The Top 10 Albums of All Time - Singer Songwriter DivisionJun 05 '06 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line These singer songwriters are the cream of the crop. But there are so many other great ones.
I appreciate good music as well as the next person, but if really good lyrics aren't involved, I get bored quickly. To that end, here are my top ten albums of all time, all by singer songwriters. It's a tough world out there, so it's tough to get on this list. My rules, by the way, are that no one could be on the list more than once. Otherwise, this list would be dominated by Bob Dylan. To that end, here goes: 1. Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan, 1966 The greatest album of all time, period. From Visions of Johanna to Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, this album is a flat out masterpiece. It represents Dylan at his best, just before his motorcyle accident and is the final piece of a string of fantastic albums (Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing it all Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited) that cemented him as the greatest songwriter of the 20th century. He has 40 years more material since then, but while there's a lot of great stuff (Blood on the Tracks, Infidels, Time out of Mind to name a few), this was his best. 2. Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette, 1995. This album grabs you by the throat and demands that you listen. It's so good that Morissette has recreated it on several occassions. From the title track to the anger in You Oughta Know to other classics on this album (Perfect, Right Through You, Head Over Feet, Ironic), this album stands the test of time. Last year's acoustic version lacks the teeth of the original. 3. Songs From a Room by Leonard Cohen, 1969 Emerging from a career as a poet and author, Cohen burst onto the music scene in this 30s. This album was his second and is amazing. Classics include Bird on a Wire, Story of Isaac and You Know Who I Am. Laced with imagery and poetry, Cohen's music demands to be listened to. 4. Late for the Sky by Jackson Browne, 1974. This album came out when I was in high school. It spoke to me, and I'm sure many other late adolescents, with brilliant lyrics about growing up and finding love. Farther On remains my favorite song that Browne has written. It talks about loneliness and looking for love and how unrealistic most of us are when looking. Other great songs on this album include the title track, Fountain of Sorrow, For a Dancer and Before the Deluge. 5. John Prine by John Prine, 1971. For a debut album, this one rocked the music world. It was amazing that a 24 year old could write songs that were well beyond his years and it served as a launching pad for a great music career by an incredibly talented songwriter. Classics include Six O'CLock News, Hello in There, Donald and Lydia and Angel from Montgomery. 6. History by Loudon Wainwright III, 1992. Written just after his father died, this album cemented Wainwright as an incredible talent, and not just the writer of a novelty song (Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road). Featuring odes to his dad that don't ignore his faults (A Father and a Son, Sometimes I Forget, A Handful of Dust ), the album doesn't ignore Wainwright's own children and siblings (Hitting You, The Picture) and goes from poignant to funny from song to song. An amazing work. 7. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams, 1998. Lucinda Williams writes incredible songs and this is her pinnacle album, so far. From the title track to Right in Time, Still I Long for your Kiss, Joy and Concrete and Barbed Wire this album fuses anger and passion better than anything else I've heard. 8. The Captain by Kasey Chambers, 2000. The title song was played on an episode of the Sopranos, prompting a wild search on Amazon for this album. Chambers is from Australia, but sings like a girl from Kentucky. The title track is great, but so are Cry Like a Baby, You Got This Car and several others on this excellent debut album. 9. Mortal City by Dar Williams, 1996. It's really hard to pick a Dar Williams album that stands above the rest of her work, but this one, featuring February, The Christians and the Pagans, The Ocean and the title track stands slightly above the pack. 10. Swamp Ophelia by the Indigo Girls, 1994. Every song on this album is a masterpiece. with Touch Me Fall, Power of Two and Least Complicated as the classics. I could listen to this album continually. By the way, it was really hard to leave Bruce Springsteen, Steve Goodman, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Chuck Brodsky, Richard Shindell and Shawn Colvin off this list.  |
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