In my College Teaching class, we studied the impact of student self-evaluation, which is exactly what it sounds like: an exercise that requires the student to reflect on what they’ve learned, and how that knowledge is now integrated into their identity and worldview.
Of course, as a teenager raised on rock criticism, I conducted self-evaluations again and again by sorting out my favorite rock albums. Even today, a top ten list prompts a reappraisal of my aesthetic agenda, reconnects me to significant moments of growth in my life, and reaffirms my emotional and intellectual identity.
So, with that on the table here are my favorite records, picked and sequenced by how much joy each brings to my life, either by forever changing the way I see and hear the world, or for just being so good that they offer a surprise every time.
1. Steely Dan, Can't Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy & Pretzel Logic
2. James Brown, Star Time
3. Sonny Rollins, Ken Burns Jazz & Silver City
4. DeBarge, In a Special Way
5. Billie Holiday, Ken Burns Jazz
6. Thelonious Monk, The Complete Prestige Recordings
7. Otis Redding, The Very Best of Otis Redding
8. X, Wild Gift
9. Billie Holiday & Lester Young, A Musical Romance
10. Ella Fitzgerald, Ken Burns Jazz
11. Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous
12. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
13. Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
14. Kanye West, Late Registration
15. Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A.
16. Franco, The Very Best of the Rumba Giant of Zaire
17. Chic, The Best of Chic, Vol. 2
18. Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers
A list of favorite albums is full of omissions: I love Miles Davis, John Lennon and The Rolling Stones as much as Otis Redding or Ella Fitzgerald, but I rarely go to one album over another. Conversely, I’m not an Eric Clapton fanatic, but I adore Layla. Top Ten lists are like that. Anyone else want to give it a shot?
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