Harp Magazine's 50 Most Essential CDs Since 2001

[Shady]

From #50 to #1:

Gillian Welch: Time the Revelator
Roots: Phrenology
Queens of the Stone Age: Songs For the Deaf
Silver Jews: Tanglewood Numbers
Guided By Voices: Isolation Drills
Neko Case: Blacklisted
Solomon Burke: Don't Give Up On Me
Kathleen Edwards: Failer
Mark Lanegan: Bubblegum
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros: Streetcore
Lucinda Williams: World Without Tears
Missy Elliott: Miss E...So Addictive
Sparklehorse: It's a Wonderful Life
Libertines: Up the Bracket
Black Keys: Rubber Factory
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand
Wolf Parade: Apologies to Queen Mary
Bob Dylan: Love & Theft
Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Drive-By Truckers: Decoration Day
Ryan Adams: Gold
Steve Earle: The Revolution Starts...Now
Elvis Costello: The Delivery Man
Strokes: Is This It?
White Stripes: White Blood Cells
Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
White Stripes: Elephant
Cat Power: You Are Free
Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
Devendra Banhart: Cripple Crow
My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves
Outcast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Steve Earle: Jerusalem
Iron & Wine: Endless Numbered Days
Wilco: A Ghost is Born
PJ Harvey: Uh Huh Her
Kanye West: Late Registration
New Pornographers: Electric Version
White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan
Sleater-Kinney: The Woods
Mars Volta: Frances the Mute
M.I.A.: Arular
Antony & the Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now
Tom Waits: Real Gone
My Morning Jacket: Z
Tom Waits: Alice
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Brian Wilson: Smile
New Pornograpers: Twin Cinema
Arcade Fire: Funeral
 
Number 3....Not bad 
 

[PMcC]

Tom Waits-Alice, sucks.......Smile is a much better choice........PMcC

[Sheriff John Stone]

That list has succeeded in making me feel sooooooo old. Not only haven't I heard about half of those CD's, I haven't even heard OF THEM....

[NimrodsSon]

Tom Waits-Alice, sucks.......Smile is a much better choice........PMcC

?!!!!! I LOVE that album! Perfect from start to finish, and "Barcarolle" gives me chills every time I hear it, especially followed by "Fawn"! Do yourself a favour and give it a second chance. Then you can come back and thank me.

But I do have to say, as much as I love The New Pornographers, to say that Twin Cinemas is more essential than SMiLE is just...laughable...to say the least.

[absinthe_boy]

That list has succeeded in making me feel sooooooo old. Not only haven't I heard about half of those CD's, I haven't even heard OF THEM....

Ditto. I've hardly heard of any of the artists....and where I have heard of them I cannot often name a single song by them!

 but kudos to Brian for making #3 on the list.

[aNonbeliever]

Lots of good stuff on this list ... Lucinda Williams, Kathleen Edwards, Tom Waits, Solomon Burke.

[skip]

What a perfect hipster shell of a list -- overrated pap at the top, substantial stuff in the middle, obscurities at the bottom.  Good placement of BWPS, though.

[Susan]

Whoever compiled it sure like the White Stripes...and Van Lear Rose is just NOT that good, regardless of what anybody says.

I, too, must be officially old, if age is a function of being familiar with the artists on that list...

[Magic Transistor Radio]

How is Radiohead's Kid A or Amnesiac not on that list?!!

[the captain]

Tom Waits-Alice, sucks.......Smile is a much better choice........PMcC

It is probably his best album, and that's a man with a long list of great albums. I love it.

[PMcC]

God, really? I can't get into it at all. I like one song, and that's about it. Oh, well. It's great that there are such diverse tastes, or music would be a very boring artform

[the captain]

I think Tom Waits is among the top half-dozen lyricists in pop history, and his melodies are beautiful, too. His singing voice...not so much. But it's got character. Still, songs like "Coney Island Baby" off of Blood Money, "Flower's Grave" off Alice, or a dozen other songs off of other albums are just beautiful.

[CosmicDancer]

The man is a great performer as well.  I saw him a couple of months ago when he did his very short and ultra rare tour of the states and he owned!  The crowd was eating out of the palm of his hand.  And to weigh in on the "Alice" debate, I think it is one of his best by far.  My favorite is either Small Change or Mule Variations.

[the captain]

I'd kill (well...maim) to see him live. I missed him in about '98 in Minneapolis, and he hasn't been back (to my knowledge) since! I heard about his little recent mini-tour after the fact, and thus didn't get to see him--I would've gone to Chicago for him.

[CosmicDancer]

It was tough to score tickets for the mini-tour.  All 8 shows sold out in 10 min.!!!  My brother in law in Ohio somehow managed to get a pair for the Akron Ohio date online.  A friend of mine tried to get tickets and as soon as he clicked on the site they were all gone!  The people that sat next to us bought their tickets off of ebay for $300!  I think that life just might be complete after seeing Brian perform Smile in Atlanta and hearing Tom do Tom Traubert's Blues live.  I cried like a baby at both!