Ryan’s All-Time Favourite Albums

Choosing my top 5 albums of all time was really difficult. Even after finishing it I’m still sweating thinking that I may have missed something! I pre-apologize to the albums that I may have forgotten. These are in no particular order…

Pearl Jam – Ten

Ten was released when I had just become old enough to develop to my own musical taste. It sounded unlike any other record I’d ever heard, with an attitude and an ideology that perfectly aligned with growing out of my childhood. It was honest and real, and that seemed to make sense to me at the time. I don’t know that I ever bought into the anthemic moniker that was given to many of the songs on the album, but it did speak and the rest didn’t matter. No other album shaped me to the same extent.


Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Once again, at such an impressionable age, this album was so beyond hip no choice but to love it. Great songs and a unabashed attitude made this album incredible. I never wanted to follow in RHCP’s footsteps but I respected how unique they were. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was also my first exposure to funk which lead to my love of old soul and R&B. That alone puts Blood Sugar Sex Magik on this list.


U2 – Achtung Baby

The songs and the production make this album are an anomaly that could never be recreated. Besides the incredible songwriting, there’s an atmosphere to this record that is unrivaled, and to this day the album doesn’t sound dated. This album is art.


Michael Jackson – Thriller

This doesn’t even require an explanation.


Stone Temple Pilots – Purple

I have always loved Stone Temple Pilots’ attitude which perfectly balanced swagger with hard rock. I remember this albums being so anticipated, especially after Big Empty was released on The Crow soundtrack prior to the actual album release. And just when you thought that you were prepared for the album, it came out of left field as the band showed us all how much they had evolved. STP seemed to balance the dark seriousness of the time, with a tongue-and-cheek playfulness that very few bands can pull off.


… I also had to include my honourable mentions…


Depeche Mode – 101 / Violator / Music For The Masses

The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s… / Help!

Alice In Chains – Dirt

Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison

Massive Attack – Mezzanine

Bob Marley – Exodus

Peter Gabriel – So

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

Tom Petty – Damn The Torpedoes

INXS – Kick

The Verve – Urban Hymns