Lost: My 100 desert island albums

Forget John Locke.

If I'm ever stranded on a desert island, these are the 100 albums I want to have with me.

There are indisputable classics (the Velvet Underground and Nico!), guilty pleasures (Men Without Hats!), overrated (U2!), and underrated (the Clean!) alike.

There's "happy" (Shout Out Louds! Rentals!) and "sad" (Secret Machines! Pink Floyd!) and both (Ben Folds!), because you never know what might wash up on the real and figurative shore when you're on an island.

Some artists are represented twice. Sorry, but I need Billy Bragg's Taxman and Worker's Playtime, in case I want to start a commune and my girl breaks up with me, respectively; I need Midnight Oil's 10, 9, 8... for subtlety and Diesel and Dust for bombast.

I also need some greatest hits, which isn't a cop-out, but necessities for artists like the Lightning Seeds, Squeeze, and Kirsty MacColl. No one of their albums will do the trick - they're singles artists, and the sum of their singles is worth far more than the parts.

It is a cop-out, however, that I've included a number of "two albums on one CD," read: Big Star, They Might Be Giants, and Ramones.

This list also proves that I like the Who better than the Beatles and the Stones and that I like the music of the 70s, 80s, and 90s more than the 50s and 60s. Well, of course, I am a child of the 80s, so what are ya gonna do?

There are weird gaps - there really should be a comedy album here (Bill Hicks, probably), though I do include the Rutles, whose Beatles' parodies come close to expanding upon and even eclipsing some of the Beatles' songs of which they're supposedly satirizing. Heresy alert: I'd take the Rutles' "Another Day" over the Beatles' "Martha My Dear" any day.

And don't even think about mocking me for including Schoolhouse Rock.




The 100 Desert Island Albums:

1. ABC – The Lexicon of Love (1982)

2. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

3. The Beatles – Abbey Road (1969)

4. The Beatles – Revolver (1966)

5. Big Star – #1 Record/Radio City (1972, 1974)

6. Frank Black – Teenager of the Year (1994)

7. The Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art of Surfacing (1979)

8. David Bowie – Hunky Dory (1971)

9. Billy Bragg – Talking with the Taxman About Poetry (1986)

10. Billy Bragg – Worker’s Playtime (1988)

11. Kate Bush – The Sensual World (1989)

12. The Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady (1979)

13. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads (1996)

14. The Church – Heyday (1985)

15. The Clash – London Calling – 2-CD Anniversary Edition (1979; 2004)

16. The Clean – Anthology (2 CDs) (2003)

17. Leonard Cohen – The Future (1992)

18. Elvis Costello – Imperial Bedroom (2-Disk edition) (1982, 2002)

19. Elvis Costello – King of America (1986)

20. The Cure – Disintegration (1989)

21. Neil Diamond – Classics, the Early Years (1983)

22. The Divine Comedy – Casanova (1996)

23. Thomas Dolby – The Golden Age of Wireless (1981)

24. Thomas Dolby – The Flat Earth (1984)

25. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

26. The Flatlanders – More a Legend Than a Band (1990)

27. Ben Folds – Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001)

28. The Futureheads (2004)

29. Generation X (1978)

30. The Hidden Cameras – Mississauga Goddam (2004)

31. Husker Du – New Day Rising (1985)

32. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy (1985)

33. David Johansen – In Style (1979)

34. Daniel Johnston – Yip/Jump Music (1983)

35. The Kinks – Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

36. Kraftwerk – Autobahn (1974)

37. Lightning Seeds – Like You Do (Best Of) (1997)

38. Kirsty MacColl – Galore (1995)

39. Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs (3 CDs) (1999)

40. Paul McCartney – Band on the Run (1973)

41. K. McCarty – Dead Dog’s Eyeball (1994)

42. Men Without Hats – Rhythm of Youth/Folk of the 80s Part III (1997)

43. Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs (1998)

44. Midnight Oil – 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (1983)

45. Midnight Oil – Diesel and Dust (1988)

46. The Modern Lovers (1976)

47. Morphine – Cure for Pain (1993)

48. New York Dolls (1973)

49. Pet Shop Boys – Very (1993)

50. Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville (1993)

51. Pink Floyd – The Final Cut (1983, 2004)

52. Prince – Purple Rain (1984)

53. Proclaimers – Sunshine on Leith (1988)

54. Queen – A Night at the Opera (1975)

55. Radiohead – The Bends (1995)

56. Ramones – All the Stuff and More Vol. I (1990) (first two albums)

57. Ramones – All the Stuff and More Vol. II (1990) (albums three and four)

58. The Raveonettes – Chain Gang of Love (2003)

59. Lou Reed – Transformer (1972)

60. Rentals – Return of the Rentals (1995)

61. Replacements – Pleased to Meet Me (1987)

62. Roches (1979)

63. Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed (1969)

64. Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St. (1972)

65. The Rutles (1978)

66. Schoolhouse Rock (4 CDs) (1996)

67. Screaming Blue Messiahs – Bikini Red (1987)

68. Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops (2006)

69. Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (2005)

70. Sigur Ros – Agaetis byrjun (2000)

71. Frank Sinatra – Wee Small Hours (1955)

72. The Smiths – The Queen is Dead (1986)

73. The Smiths – Louder than Bombs (1987

74. Sparks – Angst in my Pants (1982)

75. Regina Spektor – Soviet Kitsch (2004)

76. Squeeze – Singles: 45’s and Under (1982)

77. The Streets – Original Pirate Material (2002)

78. The Strokes – Is This it (2001)

79. Sugar – Copper Blue (1992)

80. Tegan and Sara – The Con (2007)

81. 10,000 Maniacs – The Wishing Chair (1985)

82. They Might Be Giants – Then (first two albums) (1998)

83. Richard and Linda Thompson – I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974)

84. Pete Townshend – All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (1982)

85. The Undertones – The Very Best of the Undertones (1994)

86. U2 – Achtung Baby (1991)

87. Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)

88. The Who – Sell Out (1967)

89. The Who – Tommy (1969)

90. The Who – Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (1971)

91. The Who – Quadrophenia Vol. I and II (2 CDs) (1973)

92. Wire – Pink Flag (1978)

93. Andrew W.K. – I Get Wet (2001)

94. X – Los Angeles/Wild Gift (US Import) (1980, 1981)

95. X – More Fun in the New World (1983)

96. XTC – Skylarking (1986)

97. Yo La Tengo – Painful (1993)

98. Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night (1975)

99. Neil Young – Sleeps With Angels (1994)

100. Frank Zappa – We’re Only in it For the Money (1968)