My top ten best albums (in my opinion – NOT YOURS!)

The past couple years I’ve seen posts from friends on social media where they were asked to name their top ten albums over the course of ten days. Instead of wasting my time posting my favorite albums on my own social media account for others to read I’ve taken the liberty to turn mine into a blog for the whole world to access should they choose until “Cancel Culture” shuts me down.

All the albums I list here vie for the number one spot – meaning I never get tired of hearing them multiple times on occasion so I’m listing all ten in alphabetical order by the band/and or artist’s name.



"Voyage" (2021) – ABBA: True, Sweeden’s “Fab Four” - Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson are in their early to mid-70s now since they disbanded in 1983. What hasn’t changed listening to "Voyage" is the vocals and lyrics. Lead singers Agnetha and Anni-Frid still sound like they did back in their younger days. Voyage’s nine new songs along with the now finished, “Just A Notion”, from 1978, is a combination of the fast-moving songs (“Dancing Queen”, “Mamma Mia”, “Waterloo”) to haunting lyrics about deteriorating relationships (“Angel Eyes”, “Knowing Me Knowing You”, “SOS”). If the group’s decision to return to the studio in 2018 after four decades to cut a new album for ONLY the money, I wasn’t left with that impression here, and neither were the fans who’ve wondered and waited forty years if ABBA would ever reunite.

With "Voyage", ABBA does what they did best. Songs “I Can Be That Woman” and “Keep an Eye on Dan” echo troubled marriages ending in divorce while “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” bring out hope. “When You Danced with Me” could easily bring back memories of a more innocent time with the possible love of your life. “Just a Notion “and “No Doubt About It” are the fun equivalent of “Dancing Queen” while “Little Things” brings back memories of Christmas traditions. Then there is “Bumblebee” which is a sad moving tribute to the endangered honeybees. The album ends with “Ode to Freedom” explaining how one would define it if asked to write about the subject. The final song serves as a haunting reminder of the time this country is in right now as radical Democratic leaders in Washington push to turn the USA into a socialist/communist state where it seems every day, more of our personal “freedoms” get taken away. "Voyage" may be their swan song but after four decades to quote one of the album’s hits, ABBA is “like a dream within a dream that’s been decoded.” This band is still fired up and hot. I wouldn’t shut them down just yet.



"A Hard Day’s Night" (1964) – The Beatles: Even if the music from the Fab Four’s third album was not the basis for their 1964 classic film, "A Hard Day’s Night", it would still be a standalone rock album regardless. The joy in listening to "A Hard Day’s Night" which includes the title song along with “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “If I Fell”, “Tell Me Why”, “She Loves You”, and “I’ll Cry Instead” are tunes one friend of mine, Greg Hehn, called “feel good hits.” Songs you can dance to, he said, but they are lyrics with not much meaning. Hehn said he thought the rock group’s later works he heard on "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967), "Abbey Road" (1969) and "Let It Be" (1970) were some of their best and showed how much the group matured.

Those hit albums though came a few years later when the four were no longer the handsome, innocent looking, young, clean cut mop tops from Liverpool seen in the 64’ film which was the humorous equivalent of a day in the life of a classic rock band. As John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr got older and their hair grew longer, the outfits changed, and so did their attitudes. The definition of what one thinks is a great album in my opinion is hearing not a single bad song on the latest release. The Beatles were just like every other band. Not every album they did was a gem. I still find the "White Album" (1968) to be overhyped in its day and find "Abbey Road" (1969) to be the band’s official swan song over Let It Be (1970). "A Hard Day’s Night" was one of three albums they released I don’t tire of listening to on occasion.



"Rubber Soul" (1965) – The Beatles: I would not be surprised if Greg Hehn embraced The Beatles’ sixth album more so than "A Hard Day’s Night." All the songs convey a different personal message songwriters Lennon and McCartney had in mind when they wrote them. Now that I’m older I’ve found listening to some of the songs on "Rubber Soul" define me.

The lyrics of “Nowhere Man” is one such example.

He's a real nowhere man

Sitting in his nowhere land

Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

Nowhere man please listen

You don't know what you're missing 

Nowhere man, The world is at your command

Working a job I’m burned out on where the only reason I’ve been doing it for 25 years with two companies is the same reason actor Michael Caine did "Jaws: The Revenge" (1987). Caine said in an interview years ago that he did the movie for the money.

Some days, I actually do feel like I am a “Nowhere Man”. I have been told throughout the years how much my writing talent is wasted in my current job. 2022 may be time to stop being a “nowhere man.”

Then there is George Harrison’s “Think for Yourself” Being a film critic whose written close to 200 reviews since the late 80s and 90s the one thing I couldn’t stand when I worked at Dallas based Blockbuster Video (1988-1996) was when a customer asked me for recommendations. What the hell do I know what he/she likes? Nine times out of ten if I recommended a movie to someone (I never, ever did) chances are the customer would come back telling me how much they hated the movie and ask for a refund (Yes – some BBV customers actually asked that!) Hence the reason I find the lyrics from “Think for Yourself” ring true when people ask for my opinions and not just on movies.

Do what you want to do
And go where you're going to
Think for yourself
Cos I won't be there with you

Finally there is “In My Life” whose lyrics I thought about upon my learning the St. Louise de Marillac in La Grange Park, Ill, a Catholic private school I attended from first and eight grade (1976-1984) closed its doors in 2020 due to years of low enrollment.

There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I’ve loved them all

"Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967) – The Beatles: Released in May 1967 (the 50th anniversary was celebrated in 2017), the eighth studio album opens just like a concert would though the listener can’t see what’s going on. The waiting cheers of the audience can be heard seconds before the opening melody is heard introducing the band’s title song before smoothly flowing to the next tune, “With a Little Help from My Friends.” The first time I heard the album was in December 1980 following John Lennon’s assassination. Dad bought the original album when it was released in 1967 which I sadly don’t own anymore.

For decades I thought there actually was someone named Billy Shears who sang as a guest singer on “With a Little Help from My Friends.” I had no idea it was Ringo Starr. Everyone knows the supposed story that “Lucy in the Sky of Diamonds” (and still assumes) the song was an ode to the drug use the “Fab Four” engaged in the late 60s. John Lennon, however said in an interview the song was based on a drawing his son, Julian, did of a woman and when the elder Lennon asked him what the picture was, his son said it was “Lucy in the sky of diamonds.”

The album is a combination of rock and sad ballads (“She’s Leaving Home”) to more happier upbeat tunes (“Fixing a Hole,” “When I’m Sixty Four,” “Lovely Rita”) to tales of a circus (“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”). The final song on side 2 called “A Day in the Life” is both a hauntingly clever combination opening with Lennon’s slow moving ballad about someone who passed away unexpectedly, then building up to an instrumental mix before McCartney’s voice chimes in with a more upbeat side. Another instrumental mix builds up with horns as Lennon’s voice is heard howling before singing the original lyrics from the song’s beginning and ending with one note on a piano.

"Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" is the concert the Fab Four wanted to see done when they toured when they arrived in the states, which was to have their music heard instead of vice versa where their singing was drowned out by the screaming crowds, hence the reason they stopped touring in the mid-60s.



"Time" (1981) – ELO (Electric Light Orchestra): – An ex-friend and fan of ELO and founder Jeff Lynne told me years ago before our falling out that the band’s ninth studio album released in July 1981 was the group’s best and after hearing it over ten years ago, I agreed. Then again, I have always liked a majority of ELO’s music, even if I didn’t like everything in their library. While I may have between 500 and 1000 songs on my iPod not all of them are an artist’s or a band’s complete album. ELO’s "Time", however, is one of the few.

Without doing any research as to how the album was produced and where the inspiration came from (I don’t have “time” for that) I will say the way one can tell what they are listening to is an ELO song or album is if the release features either one or several instrumental solos. Time begins like you are in a “galaxy far, far away” with the sound of some alien voice before the fast moving, maybe haunting piece called “Twilight” begins. I say “haunting” because of the way the word “twilight” smoothly moves following the lyrics, “It’s either real, in between it’s nothing that is in between…twilight…I only meant to stay a while.”

Following “Twilight” instead of a brief stop for the next song to begin, the album just moves into song 3 where what sounds like a female robot on “Yours Truly, 2095” (again…the band’s use of various instruments to create the piece doesn’t go unnoticed).

The opening lyrics to “Ticket to the Moon” echo why the 80s were so much better than the times we live in now. “Remember the good old 1980's..When things were so uncomplicated…I wish I could go back there again …And everything could be the same. Can’t tell you how many times I want a “Ticket to the Moon,” or my own island surrounded by nothing but water.

The song “Rain Is Falling” could well apply to whenever it rains in Texas which isn’t enough. While the song “Here is the News” not only reminded me of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) calling the media “Fake News” during his years in office but found the lyrics similar to the version whose lyrics are similar to Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry.” Finally there is “21st Century Man”, a song Jeff Lynne did as a tribute to John Lennon. It’s a song I want played at my funeral service.

Things ain't how you thought they were

Nothing have you planned

So pick up your penny and your suitcase

You're not a 21st century man

"Cloud Nine" (1987) – George Harrison: When it comes to music, I don’t embrace an artist until they either have 1) passed away and didn’t start appreciating their works until they are gone or 2) if they are still around at the time of their latest album’s release chances are it’s only one song I heard and liked on the radio that makes me want to shell out the 15 bucks on their CD just to hear that one song. I’m not interested in the other songs.

Released in November 1987 following a five-year hiatus recording music and concentrating instead on his movie company, Handmade Films, and other interests, it wasn’t George Harrison’s hit at the time, “Got My Mind Set on You” I often heard on the radio that made me want to buy the release.

“When We Was Fab” was the one I heard and saw as a music video one day on MTV while channel surfing that got my attention. The video, which featured brief cameos from ELO founder and Cloud Nine producer, Jeff Lynne, and Elton John was about as close to a Beatles reunion a fan would get. Drummer Ringo Starr appeared throughout the video, and depending on who you believe, Paul McCartney dressed up as the walrus (though it could have been anyone). As the former Beatles played together for just a few seconds in front of a brick wall, a passerby walks in front of them carrying an album of John Lennon’s "Imagine" (1971). Harrison’s piece was a nostalgic tribute recalling the days when the “Fab Four” were together throughout the 60s.

Like Lennon, who returned to recording before 1980 after spending years as a house husband raising his son, along with wife, Yoko Ono, Harrison was too bitten by the “singing bug” again. Dubbed “the Quiet Beatle”, Harrison not only enjoyed successful recognition for his latest work but also joined Lynne and other music legends, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan forming the group, The Traveling Wilburys.

Harrison may have only churned out a handful of songs while with The Beatles, often taking a backseat while Lennon and McCartney were the “brains” you might say who wrote a majority of the band’s hits. “The Quiet Beatle”, like his other bandmates after their break-up in 1970, however, showed he was no longer the singer who took a back seat while with the “Fab Four.”



"Armchair Theater" (1990) – Jeff Lynne: Released in 1990, the ELO founder’s first solo album, much like George Harrison’s Cloud Nine, before it didn’t get my attention until I heard Lynne’s two hits, “Every Little Thing” and “Lift Me Up”, both of which were released as singles on the radio. As I said in the case of ELO’s Time where no ELO album would be complete without one or several instrumental solos throughout various songs, the same can be said for the music heard in Lynne’s Armchair Theater. One example is his “Now You’re Gone”, a ballad wrote the artist wrote as a tribute to his late mother.

“It all comes down to what you truly love doing, and what I love doing is overdubbing and making new sounds out of things that are sometimes quite ordinary on their own, but when you put them together, they make something new–or something that sounds new. Just discovering things like that musically is a pleasure,” Lynne once said.

Depending on how good your hearing is, you might be able to hear George Harrison and Tom Petty singing in the background on a few of the songs.

“At the end of the day I have to please myself. And I've made a record to please myself. To me, making records isn't work,” Lynne was quoted saying over the years. If one loves what they do, it’s never work.



"Mystery Girl" (1989) – Roy Orbison: Completed in November 1988, Orbison didn’t live to see his album’s release in 1989. The singer was making a comeback in 1988 with his first album in decades joining fellow musicians Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan as The Traveling Wilburys when he suffered a massive heart attack at 52. In the mid-1980s, Orbison not only provided the end music for the drug addiction film, "Less Than Zero" (1987), but director David Lynch used his oldies hit, “Candy Colored Clown”, for his dark twisted mystery thriller, "Blue Velvet" (1986). Other solo songs later released in a separate CD over the past thirty years since like “After the Love Has Gone”, a duet with K.D. Lang of his oldies hit, “Crying” provided a glimpse of what was to come had he lived to be 85 in 2021.



"The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1" (1988) – Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty: The project was only supposed to be for one song, “Handle with Care” which ex-Beatle George Harrison told fellow songwriting greats Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty he wanted recorded immediately as a single to his Cloud Nine album released in late 1987. The music legends apparently enjoyed doing that solo so much the group got together for nine days in May 1988 recording nine more songs that would become "The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1."

“We would arrive about twelve or one o'clock and have some coffee,” said ELO founder Jeff Lynne in the 1988 documentary, "The True History of The Traveling Wilburys." “Somebody would say, 'What about this?' and start on a riff. Then we'd all join in, and it'd turn into something. We'd finish around midnight and just sit for a bit while Roy (Orbison) would tell us fabulous stories about Sun Records or hanging out with Elvis. Then we'd come back the next day to work on another one. That's why the songs are so good and fresh—because they haven't been second-guessed and dissected and replaced. It's so tempting to add stuff to a song when you've got unlimited time.”

All five members not only had one or two songs each of them did, but Harrison had them go by aliases for the album with the former Beatle being known as Nelson, Lynne (Otis), Dylan (Lucky), Orbison (Lefty) and Petty as Charlie T. Jr Wilbury. While Orbison didn’t live to see his first solo album in decades, "Mystery Girl" in 1989 (Orbison died in December 1988), he did live to see the release of "The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1" and with that, a single he contributed called “Not Alone Any More.” The Wilburys returned with the release of Vol. 3 in 1990, but I could tell something was missing and it wasn’t just the fact Orbison was gone as some of the songs seemed to be preachy.



"Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" (2010) – Brian Wilson: The "Purple Rain" (1984) and "La La Land" (2016) movie soundtracks along with Lana Del Rey’s 2012 album, "Born to Die", where my buying the CDs were all the result of my hearing them played while browsing the aisles of Barnes & Noble. The same can be said for why I bought "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" from the former Beach Boys co-founder when released in 2010.

I don’t know if Wilson’s renditions of composer George Gershwin’s “The Like in I Love You” or “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” that again made do another impulse buy. Upon listening to the entire album in the car I was thrilled my “impulse buy” was not a complete waste of money unlike Lana Del Rey’s "Born to Die" where the only song of hers I embraced from her second release which is also on my iPod is “Million Dollar Man.”

I suspect what got my attention with Wilson’s Gershwin release were how “The Like in I Love You” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” sounded more like The Beach Boys songs than they did from Gershwin. All the songs played are Gershwin’s yet somehow, Wilson makes them his own. Is it possible in another life George Gershwin was actually Brian Wilson before the music world heard of Brian Wilson?

©11/24/21