Neal Parsons - Music picks

Pick my top ten of all time?! Alrighty then. Obviously this list should be timeless, but its amazing how quickly even the greatest albums suddenly sound dated (Radiohead's OK Computer, Metallica's Master of Puppets, and Cliff Richard's Sincerely Cliff all spring to mind) so this here be the list of the top ten albums ever according to me, as of now:

Albums

Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (2002)

Simply the greatest "Rock" record ever made. The riffs are huge, the lyrics are razor sharp, and the hooks are as infectious as the ebola virus. It doesn't get any better than this.
 
Tom Waits - Real Gone (2004)

It's not exactly easy listening, but as an album it is perfectly crafted, every song is in its right place. The scope of his lyrical vision seems endless, whilst his musical arrangements are more bizarre and more brilliant with each record he makes. Plus Marc Ribot's guitar solo on "Hoist That Rag" is possibly my favourite bit of music ever recorded.
 
Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum (2004)

Lanegan has the sort of voice for which the phrase "make a wolverine purr" was originally invented. This album is a massage for your ears. A smooth and deep, yet dark and serious massage. Like a massage from a Finnish war-widow. When I have this album on nothing can distract me from it. 
 
Muddy Waters - Hard Again (1977)

Quintessential blues album from the Quintessential blues artist. The production is like the man himself, fat and proud of it. The song selection is faultless and every detail is crafted in such a way that even a skinny white middle class pretender like myself feels compelled to recall my plantation days whenever it comes on. 
 
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic (1991)

Alright so they stole everything from Parliament and James Brown, and "Under the Bridge" is up there with "Creep" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the list of songs I least want to hear again before I die, but none the less this album has everything. Its funky, its rocking, its sombre, its sexy, its explicit ("She struck my butt with a big black stick/ I said what's up? now suck my dick") and the basslines make me want to crawl inside myself and dance around til it hurts.  
 
Metallica - And Justice For All (1988)

Sandwiched as it is between "Master of Puppets" and "The Black Album" it never stood a chance, and this is the most overlooked of their albums. But it's their best. The riffs are heavy and yet catchy to the extent that they are unforgettable. I can sing almost every solo on this album, all with my devil horns in the air and my head banging (Yes I am that sad). I read once that before they wrote "The Black Album" they contemplated just writing another "...And Justice" but wanted to test themselves. Fair enough, but if only...
 
TV On The Radio - Desperate Youths Blood Thirsty Babes (2004)

A close call between this and their second "Return To Cookie Mountain," but this one just pips it. Some of the most wonderful and bizarre music is right here. The vocals are extraordinary, and defy belief. Musically its more diverse and progressive (note the small p, this ain't prog rock) than anything I can think of, starting as it does with a Gabba like bassline driving itself between your eyeballs and festering on your brains whilst the vocals take off and float into the cavity made by said bassline.     
 
Faithless - Sunday 8pm (1998)

I bought this on a whim back before the millenium change over, I think I'd heard "Insomnia" (not on this album incidentally) and wanted to try my hand at some dance music. Thankfully, as it turned out, there isn't much on this. Instead there's much of Maxi Jazz's stripped down vocals, which never fail to make me happier and see the world clearer. Coupled with Sister Bliss's brilliant musical arrangements this album is sonic bliss.
 
The Clash - London Calling (1979)

Famously described as the "Best album of the EIGHTIES" by those wankers at NME this album proves conclusively that not all Punk music is shit. This is a veritable tour de force (yes! knew I could slip that in somewhere - as the actress said to the bishop) and meets my criteria for great albums by being really really really long. BONZA!
 
Randy Newman - Good Old Boys (1974)

An album that's been played in my house and in the car since I was a wee bairn, as they say in these parts. Always greeted with joy, if only as an opportunity to sing once more that delightful line "We're Rednecks, we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground/ We're rednecks, we're keeping the niggers down." for those of you not in the know the point of the album was to take the piss out of people from the Northern States by parodying the people from the Southern States, thereby highlighting the self righteous attitudes of the North. In all honesty the politics of it is probably beyond me, but its a great record.

Songs

1. QOTSA: No One Knows
2. Tom Waits: Hoist That Rag
3. Mark Lanegan: Metaphetamine Blues
4. Muddy Waters: I Can't Be Satisfied
5. RHCP: Sir Psycho Sexy
6. Metallica: Dyers Eve
7. TV On The Radio: Ambulance
8. Faithless: Killer's Lullaby
9. The Clash: Clampdown
10. Randy Newman: Louisiana 1927